It was the big Hero Festival in Auckland on Saturday night, the New Zealand Mardi Gras equivalent, principally for the gay and lesbian communities. Standing at the end of our road outside One Red Dog on Ponsonby Road we had the perfect view of a multitude of naked arses, dykes on bikes, fire-breathing transvestites and all sorts. Top entertainment. My personal favourite was the naked dancing woman on top of a big float, her modesty saved only by a coat of gold paint. But that’s because I’m a...
The new tenants for our house are a group of young Kiwi students, fresh out of school and moving out of their parental homes. We met four of them last night, all 18 years old, bright eyed, eager and full of life. Us haggard, creaking British twentysomethings suddenly looked and felt very old as we contemplated cooking dinner, watching Shortland Street and the ironing that needed doing. Oh to be young again! (he says with all of his 22 world-wise years…)
The weather’s unbearable at the moment in...
Damn that Anna Kournikova to Hell! Have now seen the back of her… well, not literally… that would actually be quite nice. And, while I’m linking, I knew it would only be a matter of time before there was a serious accident while someone was text messaging. The amount of times I’ve almost walked under a bus while walking down the street trying to compose a text message…
Can’t have escaped your attention that it was Valentine’s Day yesterday but is it my imagination or is it getting even more...
Why do I even bother? Had a massive email crisis at work today. Firstly I was great in diagnosing a new virus, disinfecting everyone’s computers within minutes and helping infectees over the country sort themselves out. Then it turns out that in fixing things, our email server’s buggered and no-one can receive external emails. Passing the buck to the engineer: can’t understand why the stoopid pooter doesn’t work! Think it’s about time I gave up on the blasted things anyway.
Advertised our...
Sue and I had an extremely pleasant and sophisticated Saturday at the Devonport Food and Wine Festival. We sipped Chardonnays, Rieslings and Sauvignon Blancs from around the country, basking in the sunshine and relaxing to the jazz. Pity 25,000 other Aucklanders had the same idea but it wasn’t too crowded and we had a fantastic ferry ride there and back.
Killed a mouse last night. I’d assumed that putting mouse traps out would mean a quick, sharp death for the poor little bastards. But, no, I...
It was Waitangi Day yesterday here in New Zealand and therefore a public holiday. The day is supposed to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of New Zealand, in 1840 between the native Maori chiefs and the British Crown. Shamefully (being British) some of the early settlers weren’t exactly honest, stealing land from tribes and to this day disputes still plague New Zealand society. The Pakeha (the whites) simply spend another day at the beach while Maoris...
Looking out of my window (on the 25th floor of the third largest builiding in New Zealand, I might add) I can see right into the penthouse suite of the Auckland Centra Hotel. Guests sometimes forget that, despite being so high up, they’re not completely invisible to the outside world and, apparantly, oblivious undressers often expose more than they’re aware.
On Friday, however, one group of people went a rather gruesome step further: a naked, fat, middle-aged woman (why are they never...
There’s now 13 more photos for you to enjoy, mostly from our trip to Great Barrier Island but there’s also some from Piha and Muriwai beaches. Just wish the scans could do justice to how blue the water was and how green the trees were - far cry from Essex!
Talking of back home, I’m missing a big Warwick Boar reunion in London. The Boar was the student newspaper at Warwick and I grew quite attached to the old thing and those who worked on it, so “hi” to any ex-Boar members reading this and have...
This sorry excuse for a travelblog has now reached over 1000 visits and it’s up to about 20-a-day. Hopefully some of you enjoy what I write and aren’t just searching for ladyboys and naked Shortland Street pictures, although looking at my referrals tells a different story. Thanks everyone for visiting and (hopefully) reading this rubbish!
What cheese are you? I’m a Danablu, unsurprisingly a Danish blue cheese. Mmm. (Link from dutchbint.org).
Going round Fringe Ben’s massive 12-bedroom house...
Fantastic weekend on Great Barrier Island, an island just off the coast of Auckland. Started off badly when, after an extremely choppy, two-hour ferry ride on Friday, we arrived at the unsheltered port to torrential rain with no sign of our backpacks. We were all herded behind barriers, hair plastered down the sides of our faces with the rain getting heavier, children crying and people shouting: it was like we were prisoners of war!
Anyway, we all awoke in the Stray Possum Lodge in the same...
Sadly no further mice sightings but I haven’t forgotten and will set about my task with renewed enthusiasm when we come back from the Great Barrier Island. We’re staying at the Stray Possum Lodge over the long weekend - Aucklanders get a “statutory” holiday to celebrate its anniversary - and are leaving straight after work! It’s been a while since the whole gang has had a holiday together and it’ll be good to get away from tired evenings in watching Grosse Pointe, Shortland Street and all the...
I saw a mouse! Where? There on the stair. Where on the stair? Right there… Looks like we’ve got a small family of mice/rats living behind our crusty cooker and under the cupboards. Joanna, me and now Helen have seen the little bastards scrambling over the cooker rings and behind the cupboards. This is excellent news because it means I can buy a mouse trap and kill them! More realistically, given that I live with two vegetarian/non-red meat animal lovers, they’ll have to be evicted in a caring...
Look it’s me! I’ve finally managed to make my own cartoon character representation using the StorTrooper generator. Send me yours and I’ll put it up here.
I’ve also put a photo up of Rich, Dan and Stu at Kelly Tarlton’s, an underwater observatory museum with penguins and sharks and things. As you can see, they’re quite literally being eaten by a giant orca whale and are now dead. Honest.
Haven’t posted in a while and am even starting to lag behind Stu in the weblog stakes. Must try harder. Suppose it’s a combination of working hard and not doing enough fun things. Not selling this post very well am I?!
Anyway, Sue and I went to Muriwai beach yesterday to see some beaches and cliffs where a huge gannet colony roosts. It’s only about half an hour away but Sue’s map-reading left much to be desired. Well, she’s only female. At least I got to see Auckland Harbour Bridge four times...
Seems like Auckland’s finally back at work now. Stu’s working for NZ Blood, Helen’s working in a fertility clinic (sadly, she’s not helping any young men to choke their chickens…), “Young Man” Rich is at the YMCA, Joanna occassionally works at an Irish pub in Parnell and Westaff Temp of November Sue’s the receptionist at the Kiwi Dairies HQ.
Sue’s now seems to have recovered from having half the mosquito population of New Zealand bite her last week. Rather stupidly (given her propensity to react...
A brief explanation of the photos:
This is the view from our hotel window in Bangkok. It was weird to see how the towers and skyscrapers were surrounded by shacks and huts with a freeway flying above it all to separate rich from poor.
This is our BUNAC group in front of one of the many temples in Bangkok. This was the day after we’d been to Pat Pong and it was ridiculously hot and sticky, hence our tired, miserable faces.
Bangkok has countless temples but this is one of the more sacred. Sadly...
First day back at work in the “real” new millennium. Very hard to get back into the routine this morning after a fantastic Christmas/New Year. Christmas Day itself wasn’t quite the anti-climax it threatened to be. It was in fact Sue who masterminded the whole lunch (eaten at five!) which included a Kumara mash (Maori vegetable, bit like a potato), an enormous turkey and no sprouts. Rather stupidly, Helen decided to buy me a super soaker with which I’ve annoyed everyone with with my hilarious...
