s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Some other things I forgot to note.

There is a local dog named Rocket that apparently comes to archery with fair regularity — just to say hi to everybody. Rocket is a husky, and he is also HUSKY. Or, rather, large. Huge, even. As in, a husky crossed with, say, a black bear. FREAKIN’ huge.

Random Archer: Oh, that’s Rocket. Don’t worry; he’s real friendly.

Stephen: Of COURSE he’s friendly. Everyone he’s ever met has been like (makes mollifying gestures with both hands) “Niiiiice Doggy…!”

Also, Stephen and I went to a local convention, “Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo”. It was cute and small. They billed it as a “family event” (indeed, it was right at the start of school holidays) and it was heavily geared around the 12-and-under kids’ anime/card-games — Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragonball Z. The big name guests were David Prowse (Darth Vader), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim), in addition to whom they had comic artists Alex Maleev and Mark Bagley, plus a bunch of voice actors from the aforementioned kiddie anime. They had a costume contest, two(!) anime rooms, a Dance Dance Revolution contest, an art contest, and a handful of people selling things, primarily comics or DVDs. No gaming to speak of, though, apart from a whole lot of Yu-Gi-Oh! and one dealer selling board games. There were dozen or so local comic artists, and I resolved to check out some of their stuff in honor of Karl. But the second one I picked up — a stark black and white cute-but-Gothy-looking thing — opened with “My life is an unceasing miasma of pain and ennui” (or something like that, but with shorter words), and I decided I really didn’t need to, after all.

Stephen and I were hoping to find local geeks to be geeky with, but not being into Yu-Gi-Oh!, we didn’t have much luck. The dealers selling the Medievaloid armor and weapons were down from Auckland, and suggested we check the web for local SCAdians and the like. I did get to check out the display Weta put on, though, which included many of the pretty swords from LotR — ten feet away behind velvet ropes, alas.

On a completely different note, the rhododendron I bought for the balcony has burst into bloom (it is very definitely lavender, not blue as advertised), and the mallards in the lagoon behind Te Papa are now trailing fluffy little ducklings. This morning, I watched a flock of what I think are shearwaters fishing in the harbor — so cute ! And Stephen and I had lunch in the sunshine on the City To Sea Bridge, and managed not to get mugged by the gulls and sparrows. Happy Spring !