It’s election time in Nu Zilland and I won’t have far to go to cast my vote this year – it’s in our garage!

The Duchess signed us up for renting the space out as the local estate’s voting site, one of a couple of dozen around the constituency. It’s taken a couple of weekends of getting rid of crap and sweeping away the cobwebs but we managed to get it into a reasonably clean state for them to set up.

They’ve put up some cardboard walls to (mostly) hide our rubbish, with cardboard desks and voting booths. Thankfully the voting signs are sturdy plastic as it’s blowing a gale and raining sideways today.

The Duchess is also working as meeter and greeter for people as they arrive, which is keeping her busy, though how she’s managing a full day’s work while suffering from vertigo is beyond me. I think FOMO is helping more than the tablets.

The first hour was manic, with a voter every minute and queuing out the door and the street turned into a car park, but it’s now calmed down so I think I’ll get out and do my democratic duty.

The brilliant company I work for gave a bunch of us VIP tickets for World of Wearable Arts (WoW) recently. We had a couple of tables right in front of the runway and treated to a three course meal before the show plus a ridiculous amount of alcohol (I stayed at a hotel round the corner to avoid driving).

I’ve never seen WoW before but had heard great things, but essentially it’s a fashion show for mad costumes people have made for it, a walking art show, so wasn’t sure whether I’d enjoy it that much.

It was fantastic!

The show was split into 7 themes, each with music, dancing and aerial acrobats going on while the models moved around the outskirts of the stage showing off the costumes. Very slick, high quality entertainment (it would be given the eye-watering prices of the tickets!) and the costumes were really impressively creative.

These pictures were just a few past entries they let us photograph before the show started and don’t show a fraction of how spectacular it was. The only downside was not having The Duchess with me to enjoy it, which hopefully next year she will.

My brain today.

It’s that three-yearly fun that is NZ elections. A time of dull politicians trying to look relatable on public outings – hairnets and sausage rolls seem to be popular this time, with even a pirate outfit and fencing photo op amusing the press.

The most intrusive the election gets is the temporary forest of billboards popping up beside the road, regularly defaced by those less enamoured by the smiling candidates.

The crackpot and minority parties mostly get left alone, perhaps out of pity, but more likely since they don’t attract the ire that the main parties attract.

Still, seeing David “Boss Baby” Seymour with a Hitler tache is funny, even if it is infantile.

Three more weeks and we can go back to normal, albeit most likely with a new bunch at the wheel. Just no Winston Peters, please!

We have decided to give Ey Up Fresh a go to give us some new recipe ideas and save some prep time during the week.

The first box arrived this morning and we have just tried out the first meal – pork meatballs in a soy-honey-ginger marinade with apple slaw.

Very easy to assemble and found it tasty. The Duchess enjoyed it too, with the added fun of thinking of what she’ll change next time to improve it.

Back home from an enjoyable UK trip and getting back to NZ normality.

The return leg went pretty well, the Heathrow Qantas lounge worth the expense being able to recharge, refuel and get a pre-flight shower.

The flight to Hong Kong went quickly thanks for an umpteenth viewing of the Avengers Infinity War & Endgame films plus a couple of naps.

Transfer in Hong Kong gave me the chance to enjoy the “sky garden” along with a hundred Asian smokers puffing away in work breaks or between flights. Cool to see a bunch of dragonflies having a passive smoke amongst the wilting flowers.

Bonus on the AirNZ flight to Auckland – last year’s Premium Economy trip secured me Silver Airpoints status which enabled me to put a request in for getting bumped up to Premium again on this flight, which I hadn’t realised until boarding I had been granted, so that flight came with extra legroom, wider seat and better food!

The only hassle on the journey was Auckland Airport’s inability to unload the cases from the flight (30 minute delay) with the clock ticking for bag drop for the domestic flight.

Also had to declare some food items in luggage including 3 tins of Heinz chicken soup (I know, pretty sad but you can’t get them over here). Apart from the Customs guy’s silent judgement they got cleared and I managed to get through biosecurity in time to make the Wellington flight.

Great to get home and enjoy some time with The Duchess and fluffy, to unpack and get back into my own bed.

After a crap night’s sleep I’ve left the luggage at the hotel and walked over to The British Museum to catch some culture before heading home.

There’s been an outcry recently about a curator helping himself to thousands of artifacts from their – seemingly undocumented – collection. Bit rich given we pilfered most of it from their sources.

The highlight for me was definitely the Rosetta Stone, along with some beautifully carved though damaged Egyptian, Greek and Roman statues.

Now sitting in a restaurant across the road called “Munchkins” waiting on a foutlr

There were no West End shows this evening, so after a nice steak (served up on a wooden board and eaten with a little cleaver cos it’s poncy London innit?) On a whim I took a dusk bus tour, and was treated to a gorgeous sunset to grab some pictures with, though once the sun went down the temperature dropped quickly.

Finished up the evening with a beer in Leicester Square watching the World go by before heading back to the linen cupboard of a hotel room.

Got to see some major art works at the National Gallery this afternoon, spread out across a massive site. Felt quite cultured but must confess I got art-ed out after an hour and skipped to the headliners.