An Afternoon at the Movies

We met up with our SLG friends yesterday for lunch at the little village of Pauatahanui, on the edge of the Pauatahanui Inlet.  This is a shallow wet basin mainly covered in rushes and home to many water fowl and fish, and is the only large area of salt-marsh and sea-grass in the Wellington region.  But we weren’t there for a nature afternoon, but for an afternoon at the movies.

Pauatahanui Inlet – photo courtesy of DOC

In 1904 a Community Hall was erected on the site of the current cinema, with many vaudeville acts, plays and musical items performed.  During this time of WW11 the hall was used firstly by the Home Services and then the US Marines, with the result that the floor was wrecked.  Sounds like a whole lot of jiving was going on! After the war a new floor was put in and the hall reverted to hosting dances and balls, before falling into disrepair and it was finally demolished in 1966.  The site took on a new lease of life with the building of the Light House Cinema which opened in in 2006.

Light House Cinema

We went to see the film “Arbitrage”, which told of hedge-fund magnate Robert Miller whose world came tumbling down when the extent of his shady fraudulent dealings surface.  Added into the mix is his affair with, and the subsequent accidental death of his young French mistress.  Starring Richard Gere (all of us ladies still remember him dressed in that smart white uniform in “An Officer and a Gentleman”) and Susan Saradon as his long suffering wife.

 

Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere

Once back home, we went looking for the dictionary - just what does “Arbitrage” mean, or is it even a real word?  Yes, indeed it is.  The meaning is “the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same securities, commodities or foreign exchange in different markets to profit from unequal finance”.  So that’s something new we have learnt!