Brasenose Place

Held on Sunday 25th March, 2012

We were originally scheduled to have our street barbecue at 6pm on the Saturday. It wasn't until that morning that we made the call to postpone it till 5pm on Sunday, and we're certainly pleased that we did. The sun was still shining when we started, but once it disappeared the air temperature felt considerably cooler!

Around 35 residents took part in our barbecue, and another five who had other functions to attend joined us briefly. We got the chance to talk to neighbours we'd never met before (bearing in mind that more than 50 people live in the street) and a journalist from "The Wellingtonian" popped along to check out whether ours really is "the friendliest little street in Tawa". Who would make such an audacious claim?

The kids rode their bikes and roasted marshmallows once the meat was done cooking. We ascertained that one little girl would be starting school for the very first time the following day, whilst her English grandparents staying with her family would be returning to the West Midlands one week later. A couple of German exchange students were also part of our gathering.

We've pretty much completed our street list with 17 of the 19 residences having provided email addresses to enable us to communicate when we need to.

- Malcolm Sparrow