What do you think about ratepayers paying $8350 for the Sheeran mural in Bath St?
It certainly does seem to set some kind of precedent. One wonders if there are artists out there preparing submissions to the Dunedin City Council asking for funding to immortalise Foster and Allen in granite next to the Robbie Burns' statute in the Octagon?
But we must remember that, in Sheeran, we are dealing with a huge international artist. This is not Bert Provis and his Ab-Fab Bonzo Beaut Goodtime Hot-Diggity Dog Band accordion octet from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, well known for hits such as Put That Eccles Cake Down, Chuck and I'm Chuffed to Little Mintballs with the New Cludgy.
My view is we shouldn't be miserly and resent an artwork marking one of the biggest weeks in Dunedin's history. With about 56,000 ratepayers, the cost of the mural comes to slightly less than 15c each. Anyone who says the $8000 should be put towards fixing up the roads instead clearly hasn't had a quote for a new driveway lately.
Talking of events, we biked into the Lantern Festival in Christchurch on Saturday night. We've loved this in the past - it was fantastic in Victoria Square before the earthquakes and even better in North Hagley Park along the Avon River since the quakes.
This year it was squeezed into Cathedral Square and the experience, squashed between 40,000 others, was just hideous. We saw two lanterns. People were tripping over cable guards in the dark, there were no signs that I could see pointing you in the right direction and it was really risky for cyclists and pedestrians trying to get into the Square safely around cars, road cones and barriers.
We even bumped into an ``events management lecturer'' who said it was poorly organised. I can understand the thinking behind holding it in the recovering central city as a way of drawing in the crowds, but it simply didn't work. Perhaps Hagley Park would be the better option.
Back to Dunedin, talk has blossomed about the history of what is now the Good Earth Cafe on the corner of Cumberland and St David Sts, following last week's piece on the timber in the Vanuatu museum signed by Dunedin man James Walcott.
Turns out he was a grocer, his daughter Jude Walcott says, and his first shop was in this building.
Murray Lawrence of Dunedin emailed with some memories of that area.
``I spent my first 21 formative years living at 699 Cumberland St, Dunedin North, from 1954 until 1975. The corner shop as I remember it was owned by the Fyfes for a number of years. My job was to collect the bread for my Mum each day.
``In the early days my bedroom window and balcony faced the university clocktower - that was my timepiece for many years which, of course, woke me up as required or not.
``Then, in 1969, the university expanded and built the biochem and chemistry buildings - no alarm clock! Gone were the terraces in Lambeth Rd, Cumberland St and our neighbours and the community we could relate to - the likes of Mrs Johnson, Jean Bolton, our adjacent neighbours Mr and Mrs Larkins, whose stables were next door, and, of course, his delivery cart is now in the Settlers museum.
``There were the Kilgours, the Keeches, the Bakers, the Millers, the Newalls in St David St and the Lefleys in Cumberland St opposite the North Ground, and many more folks too long to list. I know that Chris Laidlaw was a student and flatting only three doors down.''
Murray says he always remembers the large veranda, which he thinks the university removed when it bought the property.
When are you old?
Nola Harris is irked. She says she is fed up with young, whippersnapper reporters designating anyone reaching 60 years of age as ``elderly''.
``This first caught my attention 10 years ago with a headline `Elderly man rescued from Port Hills', which made me wonder if it was somebody I knew.
``His age was then stated as being 62, and my immediate thought was disgust at such an age being viewed as elderly when, as is now, I was tramping with people 10 years older than myself. Recently the oldest couple in our group out at Silver Peaks were 88 and 90.
``It appears we are stuck in the distant past, when our parents received the old-age pension at 60, and mothers sat at home knitting for their grandchildren.
``Perception is everything and I've been astounded at encountering ageism in all sectors of society, including those purporting to be representative of `the elderly'.''
Anyone else ``elderly'' or ``not-so-elderly'' feeling cross about this?