As some of you may know, I've gone back to full-time studying this year, and as a result I'm finding that I'm not able to dedicate as much time as I would like to Welly-moot. I have been looking for a way to alleviate this, and I think a solution has been staring me in the face for a while.
At the last meetup, the Welly-moot paid a visit to Kathy, who owns and runs Wellington's newest museum, The One Room LOTR Fan-museum. Her and I have been in talks about the direction of Welly-moot, and she's able to dedicate a lot more of her time than I currently can.
As a solution, Kathy is going to be doing some of the updates here for a while. We're hoping to organise a few more meetings as well, and there is one very cool event coming up - the Roxy is once again showing the LOTR trilogy, in less than a month from now, in fact. Yes, they're the Extended editions.
Kathy has been busy making costumes, and proposes that we all turn up as a group, and in costumes (she has spares, if anyone needs one). What do you all think? Sounds like something we can be part of? Of course it does!
Comment on this post, or reply via email if you got this from the mailing list, or leave a comment on the facebook page - however you're reading this, let us know your thoughts (except via Google+ - I don't think anyone's reading that). :)
- Jack
Welcome to Welly-moot - the official blog of the Wellington Tolkien Smial.
Monday, August 27, 2018
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Welly-moot #7.1 - a date at the museum (May 20th, 2pm)
It's high time for a meetup, people, and I've got just the occasion! If you've been following my Facebook page lately, you may have seen the rumours that Wellington has a new Museum - and no, I'm not talking about Peter Jackson's "may-happen-soon" film museum. This one is a dedicated LOTR Fan museum!
In Wellington's suburb of Newtown, a small privately run museum has opened its doors last year. Two huge fans of the LOTR movies, Kathy and Liz have dedicated a part of Kathy's house to showing the fans journey during the making of LOTR. They have props, they have costumes, and they certainly have enthusiasm to burn. A lot of my personal collection has made its way there, and on top of that, they've even turned their experiences into a professionally made 30 minute movie!
Now, they need our help. They need people to hear about it, online and offline. So here's the plan. Kathy has invited us all as a group to the museum, on Sunday May 20th, at 2pm. They'll provide coffee and tea, if we can provide any other refreshments. It's not a cafe, so if somebody wants to bake some cookies or a cake or something, that would be most appreciated.
It's not hard to find (although parking can be tight, so be prepared to walk a block or so. Trust me, it's worth it). Full instructions are here: http://www.theoneroomfanmuseum.nz/contact/ but in brief, the address is 4 Corunna Avenue in Newtown. It's close to the Wellington Central Hospital, and nestled against the hills (where LOTR was filmed, incidentally).
If anyone needs a ride, let me know, we have space for two (or three small) people, leaving from the Johnsonville area.
Now, I know we haven't had a meeting in quite a while, so I'd REALLY enjoy seeing lots of you this time. Lots has happened around the world on the subject of Tolkien as well - like the upcoming 5-season LOTR TV show - so let's get together.
It's business as usual!
- Jack & Alex
In Wellington's suburb of Newtown, a small privately run museum has opened its doors last year. Two huge fans of the LOTR movies, Kathy and Liz have dedicated a part of Kathy's house to showing the fans journey during the making of LOTR. They have props, they have costumes, and they certainly have enthusiasm to burn. A lot of my personal collection has made its way there, and on top of that, they've even turned their experiences into a professionally made 30 minute movie!
Now, they need our help. They need people to hear about it, online and offline. So here's the plan. Kathy has invited us all as a group to the museum, on Sunday May 20th, at 2pm. They'll provide coffee and tea, if we can provide any other refreshments. It's not a cafe, so if somebody wants to bake some cookies or a cake or something, that would be most appreciated.
It's not hard to find (although parking can be tight, so be prepared to walk a block or so. Trust me, it's worth it). Full instructions are here: http://www.theoneroomfanmuseum.nz/contact/ but in brief, the address is 4 Corunna Avenue in Newtown. It's close to the Wellington Central Hospital, and nestled against the hills (where LOTR was filmed, incidentally).
If anyone needs a ride, let me know, we have space for two (or three small) people, leaving from the Johnsonville area.
Now, I know we haven't had a meeting in quite a while, so I'd REALLY enjoy seeing lots of you this time. Lots has happened around the world on the subject of Tolkien as well - like the upcoming 5-season LOTR TV show - so let's get together.
It's business as usual!
- Jack & Alex
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Developments for Welly-moot, and myself
Hello everyone. It's been a while, but things are looking like they're settling down to some sort of normality again. A lot has happened since the last post.
For starters, I'm no longer a LOTR tourguide. After 13 years, and almost 2,500 LOTR tours (almost 1,500 were full day tours) and over 300,000 kms driven, I finally hung up my cloak and called it quits. To begin with, I'll be doing a year of study, hopefully gaining a Diploma in Business, and after that I'll see where that takes me.
So, where does that leave Welly-moot? Everything has been on hold for eight months, but doesn't mean I've sat still in that time. My collection of LOTR and Hobbit memorabilia has found a new home - more about that in the next post. Alex and I have been thinking about what we want to do with the Welly-moot group. It would be a shame to see it disappear, after the hard work we've poured into it. I would like to see what other people's opinions are.
Here are some options:
So what do you all think? I'd love to hear from everyone, even if it's just a "goodbye" email.
Drop me a line at jack@welly-moot.com, or leave me a message on facebook.
- Jack
For starters, I'm no longer a LOTR tourguide. After 13 years, and almost 2,500 LOTR tours (almost 1,500 were full day tours) and over 300,000 kms driven, I finally hung up my cloak and called it quits. To begin with, I'll be doing a year of study, hopefully gaining a Diploma in Business, and after that I'll see where that takes me.
So, where does that leave Welly-moot? Everything has been on hold for eight months, but doesn't mean I've sat still in that time. My collection of LOTR and Hobbit memorabilia has found a new home - more about that in the next post. Alex and I have been thinking about what we want to do with the Welly-moot group. It would be a shame to see it disappear, after the hard work we've poured into it. I would like to see what other people's opinions are.
Here are some options:
- Go back to normal - a regular meeting every two months, discussing Tolkien related topics (or perhaps every three months?)
- Have special meetings, but a little less often. For instance, we could hold an autumn party in Isengard, a spring picnic in Rivendell, a summer beach party in Scorching Bay on the beach, and a winter feast at someone's house. I'm sure we could convince the Roxy to host another repeat Hobbit/LOTR marathon, from time to time.
- Keep the blog going but stop the planned meetings altogether. That's pretty much where we are now. I would love help with writing some material, if we're going that way though.
- Something else. What do you think?
So what do you all think? I'd love to hear from everyone, even if it's just a "goodbye" email.
Drop me a line at jack@welly-moot.com, or leave me a message on facebook.
- Jack
Friday, September 15, 2017
Update: no update
Heya all,
You may have noticed that nothing has been updated for a while. There's a few things going on in my life that's taken a higher priority lately, and Welly-moot has taken a backseat for a bit.
I'm not sure when the next meeting will be but I'll announce it as soon as I know. Give me a couple of weeks at least.
In the meantime I have postponed/cancelled all the upcoming calendar dates.
Sorry about this, folks!
- Jack
You may have noticed that nothing has been updated for a while. There's a few things going on in my life that's taken a higher priority lately, and Welly-moot has taken a backseat for a bit.
I'm not sure when the next meeting will be but I'll announce it as soon as I know. Give me a couple of weeks at least.
In the meantime I have postponed/cancelled all the upcoming calendar dates.
Sorry about this, folks!
- Jack
Monday, July 24, 2017
Welly-moot #6.4 will be held on July 30
Another meeting coming up, back at the Embassy. We're repeating the theme of last meeting - this time we'll actually get to it.
Reality vs Metaphor
In The Hobbit, the Rock Giants are portrayed as real in the films, but many believe they are just metaphors - what are are thoughts on this? And are there any other instances of this in the stories?
So, if you're keen on a good fun afternoon with a bunch of fellow coffee drinkers and cake eaters, come join, and add your $0.02 worth to the discussion - or just come and sit back and enjoy the bun-slinging.
Usual time, usual place: 2:00pm, upstairs at the Embassy cafe. Entry is free and gives lifetime membership as a Welly-mooter, but bring money for coffee and cakes.
- Jack & Alex
Reality vs Metaphor
In The Hobbit, the Rock Giants are portrayed as real in the films, but many believe they are just metaphors - what are are thoughts on this? And are there any other instances of this in the stories?
 |
| Rock Giants - are they real or did Bilbo imagine them? |
So, if you're keen on a good fun afternoon with a bunch of fellow coffee drinkers and cake eaters, come join, and add your $0.02 worth to the discussion - or just come and sit back and enjoy the bun-slinging.
Usual time, usual place: 2:00pm, upstairs at the Embassy cafe. Entry is free and gives lifetime membership as a Welly-mooter, but bring money for coffee and cakes.
- Jack & Alex
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Technical details behind the scenes at Welly-moot
Nothing major to report right now. Our next meeting is coming up later this month, so expect an update for that soon.
Meanwhile I've been updating our website, mostly behind the scenes, and hopefully without anyone noticing. Really just future-proofing the automation behind the blog, to make sure all the robots still do the right thing. This post is a test of that, as much as anything. Twenty minutes after I post this, hopefully I'll have a big smile on my face - alternatively, I know I'll have more work to do.
In essence, it ensures that everyone can read this blog in whatever form they wish, and I just have to post it in one place. The available options can be found on our blog at http://www.welly-moot.com, and they take the form of those brown "wooden" buttons on the right. You can stay updated through the blog itself, facebook, twitter, the RSS feed, yes even Google+, and the mailing list.
The only one that has extra content is the facebook page where a few other people have posted things, or left comments.
PS - does anyone actually use Google+? I know I never check it without getting a notification first.
Meanwhile I've been updating our website, mostly behind the scenes, and hopefully without anyone noticing. Really just future-proofing the automation behind the blog, to make sure all the robots still do the right thing. This post is a test of that, as much as anything. Twenty minutes after I post this, hopefully I'll have a big smile on my face - alternatively, I know I'll have more work to do.
In essence, it ensures that everyone can read this blog in whatever form they wish, and I just have to post it in one place. The available options can be found on our blog at http://www.welly-moot.com, and they take the form of those brown "wooden" buttons on the right. You can stay updated through the blog itself, facebook, twitter, the RSS feed, yes even Google+, and the mailing list.
The only one that has extra content is the facebook page where a few other people have posted things, or left comments.
PS - does anyone actually use Google+? I know I never check it without getting a notification first.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Welly-moot #6.3 report - Forgot to discuss the theme. Oops.
The group met at the Embassy Cinema today, and although our intentions were to discuss the set theme of Reality vs Metaphor (were Bilbo's Rock Giants real or were they a metaphor for something entirely different?), in the end we kinda never got around to it. The discussion went a lot of different ways instead, everything from politics (VERY briefly), various educational models around the world, Bela Lugosi's role in early horror films, and yes, some Middle-earth.
The group was pretty relaxed about it all. Coffee was drunk, cake was demolished. Last week was Armageddon, so that was a nice catch-up since most people had been to it - Wellington's annual Sci-Fi and Fantasy convention at the Westpac Stadium. And speaking of Sci-Fi, the Wellington Sci-Fi group came and sat beside us in the cafe and started their monthly meeting as well. Looks like a good place to hold these things, I guess.
We'll be meeting again in a few months, perhaps we'll get around to the theme then! The silver lining of today's meeting - it's great to see that this is such a social event, and I hope it always stays that way.
Till next time!
The group was pretty relaxed about it all. Coffee was drunk, cake was demolished. Last week was Armageddon, so that was a nice catch-up since most people had been to it - Wellington's annual Sci-Fi and Fantasy convention at the Westpac Stadium. And speaking of Sci-Fi, the Wellington Sci-Fi group came and sat beside us in the cafe and started their monthly meeting as well. Looks like a good place to hold these things, I guess.
We'll be meeting again in a few months, perhaps we'll get around to the theme then! The silver lining of today's meeting - it's great to see that this is such a social event, and I hope it always stays that way.
Till next time!
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