Glory Days.

I had a very special present yesterday, one of my dearest friends gave me a copy of The Glory Days, from gumboots to platforms. written by Dr. Glam aka Ian Chapman. This book is an amazing record of the seventies here in New Zealand but more importantly there is lots of Dunedin focus, I knew we were hot but I never realised quite how many Dunedin people were influential in this amazing time. It tells the story of the fashions, the music and most importantly the people that created the art, music and fashion of the time. I sat here last night reading it and constantly found myself being blown away by the mention of people I'd regarded as icons of the time in my little world, but to see them written up in a book was fantastic. So many of these people are still creating history both in New Zealand and around the world. I know this book is not going to far from my hand for a very long time.
Yesterday the same friend and I went for coffee at the much talked about new edition to Dunedin's hospitality industry. Pier 24 in the St Clair Resort hotel. I have been wanting to go there since it opened because the kitchen is run by Michael Coughlin who of course owns Bell Pepper Blues where I worked for about 5yrs. I've heard varying reports about Pier 24 but as far as I'm concerned it was fantastic. We had coffee ( beautifully made I will add) and shared a piece of Chocolate French Press cake. The presentation was gorgeous, a large square white plate with the the cake, a generous dollop of Marscapone Cheese and a shot glass of delicious raspberry sauce. The cutlery was brought to the table on a napkin-ed plate (sigh) , no hot little hand was wrapped around the cutlery. The service was lovely, the young lady behind the bar who took our order went to great lengths to ensure we weren't left waiting to order, the Manager walked past our table and made a point of smiling and saying hello. So after hearing a fair bit of negative about the place I'd say it's fabulous and can't wait to go for a meal, I mean I know the food will be awesome because Michael's food always is but I'd heard bad stuff about the service but clearly that's sorted.
So today I have the day off, want to do something with the front hall, feel it needs a bit of "wow factor"... but what to do? I'm thinking fairy lights. MMMM!
Ltr.