This week’s small pleasures #129

With the death toll in Christchurch having risen to 50 since my last post, and a country still in shock, it is at times like this that we have to remember the good things in life. We need to think about the small pleasures that bring smiles to our faces and joy to our hearts.

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a fund raising event for the Katherine Mansfield House and Garden, which took the form of a conversation with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about books. She told us she prefers non-fiction to fiction, enjoys books about history…and that she was a fan of the Nancy Drew mysteries as a child. It was a highly entertaining evening, and the PM came across as a likeable and warm person.

When I set off to Pilates on Saturday morning, this piece of graffiti had appeared. I think it quite aptly sums up the mood of the nation at this time. We had a minute silence at work today, as I believe many other workplaces did as well.

On Saturday afternoon I went to see the Ireland based contemporary dance group, Teaċ Daṁsa in a work-in-progress piece created as part of their residency here in Wellington. This is a new initiative, Made in Wellington, which is designed to see the city play host to an international artist and their company as they create a new work to be presented at a future New Zealand Festival. For the first 6-week residency, Michael Reagan-Dolan and a group of dancers worked together of a piece that will be performed in Dublin, London and then here in Wellington in 2020. The dancing was so lively, fresh and energetic (with a few unexpected moments, like when the poster on the back wall was set on fire!), that it made me want to get up and dance myself. I’ll definitely be buying tickets for the performance in 2020.

Finally, some of this week’s shopping basket pleasures: aubergine for a moussaka, organic red and white radishes, lemony lush goat cheese from The Drunken Nanny, courgettes, tomatoes, tender stemmed broccoli and a new vegetarian burger mix that I was told is really good. And…a biodegradable and compostable scrub pad for doing the dishes.

That’s all for this week – what were your small pleasures?

Thanks to Mani over at A New Life Wandering for the original idea.

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