2001 / 03

  • Sue and I have now moved back to the hostel we stayed in when we first came to Auckland. We’re even back on the same floor and it all feels very much like home. Only here until Saturday but we can now stay out late in the City without worrying about catching ferries home and walking up the Steepest Hill In The World. Probably. Helen’s also staying there and, with Joanna just up the road, most of the old Ponsonby gang are back in town. Had a good last day at work: couple of drinks with everyone...
  • Not sure how regularly I’ll be able to update this beast in the future: finishing work tomorrow and so bang goes my 8-hours-a-day free Internet connection. Will of course endeavour to seek out Internet cafes wherever I am and keep updating but it won’t be quite so, erm, regular. Hopefully, though, this will mean I’ll get back to writing a “Travelblog” of things that happen as we actually travel, rather than what happens as we stay put in one place for five months… Sue’s sister, Amy, arrives in...
  • I’m being temped out tomorrow afternoon by my consultant to North Shore hospital to “fix a website that’s been written in JavaScript rather than HTML”(?) Didn’t think it was worth correcting Barbara (an English ex-pat who in typical northern fashion calls a spade a spade) and it means I get to save the day and be a Web Hero ™ for an afternoon! The parents have now left the country after their whirlwind ten-day visit. Sue and I took them for a bit of culture to Auckland Museum and to see Nurse...
  • Long time since I’ve written but it’s been a busy week. My parents flew in from home on a whirlwind holiday that includes Singapore and Australia. Sue and I have been full-time tour guides and trip planners since they arrived but it’s been fun showing them around “our” city. Had a couple of days off work and took them to Waiheke and Rangitoto by ferry and up the Sky Tower. They’ve hired a campervan and are staying on nearby Takapuna Beach (playground of the rich, apparantly) and have taken...
  • Sue and I have now packed up and moved just across the Hauraki Gulf to Devonport. We’re already missing our little “family” and it was really quite sad waving Helen off on her coach to Wellington on Saturday. Joanna’s living in a swanky appartment with a dishwasher and Dan’s somewhere in the North Island. Now I’ve only got Sue to torment! Had a fun last Friday night together watching the Auckland Blues beat the Christchurch Crusaders at Eden Park before going to the Rose and Crown and the...
  • Nearly had a nightmare hair-cut last night. I had a feeling something was wrong when I walked into the same barbers I’d been going to for months and none of the usual male barbers were there. An eastern-european woman motioned for me to sit down and then proceeded to take five minutes doing up the hairdressing gown thing, dropping her scissors and combs. Wasn’t sure if she was on something or just odd. She began to painfully slowly cut my hair, or rather picking at it, leaving huge clumps,...