>I know that this is way off track and encroaching unashamedly on Lachezar‘s territory, but there’s a restaurant/sports bar type place called MKOP in Albany, north of Auckland.
Stands for My Kind Of Place. (It’s not – they microwave food to a limply comatose state and the service is frequently naff)

Hence the abbreviation NMKOP – NOT My Kind Of Place

This place is also NMKOP, although I can see that it appeals to a certain (predominantly female) segment of the market. And I like the people in there. And it’s a real success story.

This is the “Girlande” (“Garland”) in the Kartäuserstrasse, just off the Augustinerstrasse in the old part of town.

Christel Wolf opened the place in the early 1980s, selling classy greeting cards, little boxes, ribbons and the sort of stuff that women go breathless over and blokes don’t really understand.
Christel’s daughter, Marion Becker, took the place over a few years ago and it’s going from strength to strength..

Which is no surprise, because she’s got her finger right on the market’s pulse.
And her window displays are immaculate.

They don’t have anything really useful like chainsaws, log splitters or oil filters for the tractor, but they do have lots of things in pink.
Or yellow.
Or blue.

One hears the word “cute” quite a lot.
Also “sweet”

I got chatting to a flight attendant and copilot from a Qantas crew this morning. (They stay at the Hyatt in Mainz on their layovers.)

She was saying “Isn’t this cute. Can’t you just see me pouring my tea from this (pink teapot with white polka dots)?”

He was looking as bemused as I do in similar circumstances.

And he was being very non-committal, which – in my considerable experience – is the best tactic.

31 Mar This entry was published on 31 March, 2007 at 08:34. It’s filed under Uncategorized and tagged Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.