Saturday, March 7: Variably cloudy at first and then a storm blew up in mid afternoon and it rained quite heavily
Dan’s (airbnb, $50)
We were up around 9:00, and there was not much in the way of breakfast (coffee, toast) and Missy & Brian were on their way to the shops to get some breakfast for themselves, and at least some milk for home. I went onto the internet briefly and there was one over the top comment saying how Dell was so disrespectful to the speaker, etc. Hey, it was Skeptics in the Pub! At least no beer glasses flew through the air.
Had my stuff all sorted and gave my hosts a copy of Te Wai Pounamu – for them at least some information will be new. Then just after 10:00 I was on the road.
Driving was slow due to construction but fairly uneventful – quite possibly I had stopped for a second breakfast just south of Otaki in 2009; stopped in any case at a petrol station just south of Waikanae to clear the windscreen, and again in Levin to try to see where petrol would be cheaper and how to get back onto the SH 57, but the library was wanting $2 for fixed line internet and I couldn’t be bothered unpacking the laptop.
Driving through to Palmerston I reached the square at just after 12:00; had a walk to the i-site and collected a local map; discovered the library and after putting in another 50c into the parking meter, went there with the laptop, phoned Dan (voice mail), drove up Rangitikei and then towards Dan’s looking for a bakery for a pie (eventually found one – steak & pepper for $3.2) and then a park a little further on where I consumed it with some tomato sauce, a peach and some coke.
Then I made a line for Dan’s. He and his partner Amy were there alright, with a very friendly dog. The arrangement here is a sleepout, with bathroom and toilet in the main house. But a well-kept place.
After the last couple of late nights I needed to crash, and after feeling the 4.6 magnitude earthquake at 2:47:23 I got a good 2 hours’ sleep during the rain. Now a bit refreshed for the next Skeptics in the Pub.
Had a bit of a chat with Dan and he proudly showed me his sit-on-top fishing kayak which he kept in his garage. Was off rather early and well before anyone was at the pub at all (The African, 64 George St), so had to do some window shopping to kill the time. Eventually a woman, Karen, turned up and introduced herself, followed by a couple of others including Matthew on a bike, an Englishman. We went upstairs (outside was now a little cooler because of the storm, so this was still rather warm), had a few drinks with discussion, and then ordered and had the food – I went for the Moroccan lamb with couscous and flat bread, two small salads and sauces. This together with two beers I had over the course of the evening came to $44.5. Then I was ready to start my talk.
The crux is to introduce the two elements of thinking and interest after dismissing what doesn’t work in convincing people. There were a couple of longer diversions from the audience which I hope I was patient with, and then we moved downstairs for the finale. In the meantime it had started raining again so it was refreshingly cooler.
This was all over and done with by 10:00 (I was back here just a few minutes later so I might have some time to look into the panoramas tonight).
The Raglan pan was a bit tainted by ISO noise turning up in the dark images, and there was some movement. ISO should be fixed and care needs to be taken with the stability of the tripod. There was lightning later in the night.
