Baldwin Street etc. Oct 22nd

Sign at bottom (and top) of Baldwin St.
It is a dead end street.

Must be a slow news day - even the weekend paper was missing its usual interesting items. Was watching TV news last night and it turns out that the hair product "Fatboy" used by Romney is made by a Kiwi http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/mitt-romney-s-hair-receives-some-kiwi-support-5144331 who insists that the product is "for the people" - seems to be happy with the PR, but somewhat embarassed about being seen as helping the Romney machine.

Snow down to 300 m forecast. It is Labor Day Wknd here. It is gusting hail as I write.

"My" house - it was really a workers cottage - had an
outside bathroom, and an excellent coal/wood range.

Yesterday I walked up the NE Valley - where I used to live when I was a grad student. I owned the house (and land) at the top of the steepest street in the world - before it got all the publicity it does now. Turns out that the person who bought the house/land from me subdivided the land, and there are now three (ugly) houses up behind "my" house, and "my" house has not been cared for - the bushes in front have grown out of control and one can't sit on the verandah and look out over the valley (the whole reason for living on a hill like that). It was strange walking up the hill (as I used to do, twice a day) with tourists that were discussing how someone would have to be mad to live on / up the hill !!

View down Baldwin Street from beside "my"
house. 

The view is still stupendous - even improved, now that the quarry across the valley is quite overgrown. A walk through the gardens afterwards with colourful azaleas to brighten the day.

"My" house is just uphill to the right. Together with the view
down the street, this is what you would see if you looked
slightly to the right from the verandah.

Taken from the Otago Museum grounds, looking somewhat
uphill. My room is in the yellowish house to the right of
the 50's school building. It takes about 15 minutes to walk
to or from the Geology Department.

My current "flat" - actually it is really just a room in a boarding house - is just up the hill above the city. It is all quite Dickensian - except that the landlady does not live in the building. The Dunedin Hospital is about 6 blocks from me, and I can hear the helicopter ambulance coming in - which is often 2 or 3 times a day. The noise doesn't bother me, it is just troublesome especially at night (11 pm - 5 am) because one knows that someone has probably been horribly injured or killed in a road accident.