Caslon

Caslon lives in Wellington NZ in an apartment above a strip club. This makes for an odd nocturnal cycle, as the joint gets hopping around 2AM and goes on until sunrise. So Caslon sometimes goes to bed early and gets up at 2, and sometimes goes to bed in the morning and sleeps until dinner time.

 

Perhaps as hilly as San Francisco, Wellington (or Welly as it is affectionately known) is still a city for walkers. The main "strip" of the town runs from Thorndon in the North through Newtown in the center to Island Bay in the South. On either side of this valley run a "mountain" range. Mt. Victoria (196 m.) and Mt. Albert form a ridge that separates the city from the airport to the Southeast.

On this particular day, Caslon had chosen the daytime as his "sleep period" and was just waking up around 5PM. He decided that pizza would be a good breakfast. There are several pizza places in CBD (Central Business District) and Te Aro near his apartment. But his favorite was the Neapolitan style pizza at the Mediterranean Food Warehouse in Newtown. Besides, it was Monday and MFW had a two for one special every Monday. He could box the uneaten portion and save it in his refrigerator for later. It was a windy day (almost every day is windy in Welly) but otherwise fine, so he decided to walk the 3 km (~2 miles) or so to Newtown. This was a fine walk, through the main parts of town, and if one kept off the main drag of Cambridge Terrace/Kent Terrace (a boulevard named differently on each side!) the traffic was minimal. He actually chose to walk the Cuba St. pedestrian mall even though it was perhaps a bit longer than either Taranaki St. or even Tory St. But it was much more colorful, especially at this time of day when workers would be going to and fro.

The walk was uneventful. The construction of the new plaza and tunnel for the War Memorial seemed to not be making much progress. It just made his choice of routes less numerous. It was basically a big impassable hole from Cuba St. to Taranaki from what had been Buckle St. By the time he arrived at MFW he had walked for forty-five minutes.

Having been waved to a table in the back by the head waiter, he sat down and ordered a Perroni. While waiting for his beer, he decided to get the Bocconcini Italia and Bolognese pizzas. He would eat a couple of slices of each and take the rest back to his apartment where he would have breakfasts for the rest of the week.

When he had finished he asked for boxes for the left-overs, paid the bill with his EFTPOS card and started to return home. What with the two pizza boxes to carry, he thought taking the bus back made the most sense, so he walked the two blocks to Adelade Rd. and along it to the bus stop, where the #1 bus would take him almost to his doorstep.

After the short bus ride to Manners and Cuba, he dropped the pizza off in the refrigerator of his apartment. He had recieved an email from the Tap Haus mentioning some new beers that they were putting on tap, so he decided that he would just go on over there. It was just a few blocks away on Victoria St.

At the Tap Haus he noticed a friend sitting with some other folks. His friend saw him as well and waved him over.

"Everyone, this is my friend Caslon, aka Casy," said John. "Casy this is Jim Sue and Sally. But everyone just calls Sally 'Red.'"

"Nice to meet you all," Casy said cheerfully as he sat down next to Red/Sally.

Casy found Sally quite attractive and continued to chat her up, which was not discouraged. A few hours and several pints later, he returned to his apartment with her email address written on a cocktail napkin. At his apartment he opened the napkin, it had smeared slightly from the beer, but he thought he could still make it out: [email protected] and he fired her off a short email.