Spotted on an afternoon beach walk on a warm sunny day in Aotearoa #newzealand

A man (50s?) chilling on the sand with his teen son. A kettle is bubbling on a portable gas stove before them. Son is opening some biscuits, dad is popping two teabags into mugs. They grin at passers by.

A woman (30s?) in shorts and a t-shirt getting out of her car, determinedly marching barefoot over prickly grass, boiling dune sand and down into the water without breaking her stride. Once she gets there she wades in waist deep, splashes her face and visibly relaxes. Mission accomplished.

A car full of teens veers (safely) off the road not far from the beach car park. A woman in a bikini gets out and carefully carries a stick insect who's hitched a ride to a safe place on a tree.

Two men (20s?) in board shorts sprinting across the sand into water that's still winter-cold, reaching plum height and shrieking. The profanity is hilariously creative.

Two shirtless men (80s?) in shorts walking side by side, chatting. They've both found driftwood walking sticks and they look like two dignified mages on their day off with grey beards, barrel tums, skinny legs and bare feet.

Any typos spotted in this post are on are trying to justify going to the beach as a way of clearing their brains so they can solve a knotty plot problem in their latest novel. If spotted please give an ice cream.

(Thread 1/3) I have just seen the most polite outright rejection of big business and hustle culture that I've ever encountered at a tiny ma and pa Japanese restaurant in rural Aotearoa #NewZealand and it was so satisfying and heartwarming to see.

The restaurant is based in a town an hour away from where I live. It's run by a Japanese couple in their 50s who make a small number of dishes, exceptionally well. Katsu chicken, karaage, and sushi and the best coffee I've had in this country so far. (And that's saying something.)

The walls are covered in steam punk art and artifacts. There are shelves by the doors full of sprouting avocado seeds in jars for sale to fund raise for a local charity. The customers are mostly local and the owners know almost all and their orders off by heart.

In the four times I've visited, the customers come in a steady stream. The place is incredibly gentle. Many soft spoken women wearing noise cancelling headphones. Rambunctious farming blokes seem to chill out when they drop in for their lunch sushi orders.

When we dropped in this time, the place was obviously busy, only two tables were full but customers were coming in steadily. The owner barely had time to share his usual coffee facts with us. His wife was quietly working in the kitchen at full tilt. (1 of 3)

Witness the AFFRONTERY shown by next door's cat Lady Oblong the Destroyer after she was EGREGIOUSLY attacked by an ivy leaf on our deck. The battle was long, loud and brutal but here she sits, her subdued victim vanquished... and leafy. Her disdain towards us for enabling this travesty is infinite.

(Honestly this cat and her surly face give us about two good belly laughs a day. She's the cranky, permanently disgruntled, continuously meowing-under-her-breath gift that keeps on giving.)

#catsofmastodon #cats

I've just witnessed a completely civil and righteous rage against the machine by an elderly man (80s+) at supermarket self-service checkout here in small city Aotearoa #NewZealand and it was a little bit wonderful.

He'd just finished paying for his groceries when the machine started saying "Please take your items" every 15 seconds or so. At first he just says "I'll do it in my own time thank you," while bagging things up.

The machine keeps telling him to take his items. After around the 5th time, he starts really arguing back:
"I don't have to do what you tell me to do."
"I'll take as long as I need thank you."
"I'll thank you to stop harassing me."

On around the seventh or eighth request that he take his items, he stands back, crosses his arms and says loudly snaps, "No! Not until you be quiet!"

The machine keeps going. The man just stands there, crossed arms, chin stuck out. A standoff is on. Staff come over and ask if they can help and he tells them that if they switch the voice off, he will continue bagging his things and go. If they don't, he's retired and can wait all day.

Machine is turned off/down with sympathy from supermarket staff. Moments later the man leaves the supermarket with the air of someone who's just won a war, expression completely stoic.

So in "What's Happening in Small City New Zealand" today, a guy in a BMW honked a person in a wheelchair getting into a car, outside a hospital. And a nearby construction worker calmly walked over and tipped his lunch of biryani and butter chicken all over the BMWs windscreen. And people clapped.

And the reason I know it was biryani and butter chicken, is because he then--in the chillest way possible--told the BMW driver that they owed him for another lot of biryani and butter chicken because he'd missed his breakfast and needed to keep up his energy.🤣

(Today just keeps giving. Have I said how much I love this place lately? I really love this place.)