A Majestic Life!!

We live in Majestic Lane, a small private lane of only 8 houses in suburban Christchurch at the foot of the Port Hills.
Go back 14 years - almost.
I'd already departed Saudi Arabia and wandered the world for ~16 months, and was settled back into life in NZ. Chris completed her 'tour of duty' in mid 2000 and she too returned to NZ. We were now ready to purchase another house. Initially Chris was not working and I was back running the department at Christchurch Hospital, so it fell to her to do the donkey work of searching according to our rigorous list of 'must haves'. I looked at two properties with her - one north city, the other south city. After the latter visit, on a whim, I told her of a little lane I'd seen previously on my own whilst walking. There in the lane was the 7th completed house with a small handwritten mobile number number on the fence.
"Shall we call it" said Chris, looking eagerly through the window - it's probably way out of our price range anyway.
"I can't  live in a lane called Majestic Lane - it's too pretentious" I replied.
"We can at least call" she prompted.
To keep the story short, I did call. The house (brand new) had been on the market, but had been taken off and the builder was about to move his family in.
"Why, are you interested?" said the builder (his first mistake).
"I could have been if it had still be on the market" I replied.
"Would you like to have a look inside" said he (his second mistake).
In a last ditch effort to complete this story, we did look inside, we learned the story of how the lane got its name, we negotiated privately and we bought a house!
So to the name.................
The land the 8 houses in the lane are built on used to belong to the Bible College. They outgrew their buildings on the site and they negotiated with the Christchurch City Council to swap the land here for the Majestic Theatre in the central city (possibly some $$ changed hands also - who knows).
"So what" I hear you say!
Well, as it happens, on our first date I took Chris to see a movie and it was at the Majestic Theatre. I booked seats in the back row of the lounge area upstairs (as you did when you were a young lad trying to impress your girl on first date), got dressed up in my best garb - tie and all (I won't embarrass Chris by describing her outfit - that's her domain), and off we went.
And, oh yes.......... what was the movie we saw?
"The Odd Couple"
The rest is history!!

Which brings me to end of this very long winded story. In the previous blog, I spoke of the demise of Millers. Yes, on the same day another crew were starting on the demolition of the Majestic Theatre - despite loud protestations from the heritage people. Apparently it stands in the way of future plans for this city.

Majestic Theatre - almost no more!