A happy-go-lucky English rambler dude goes to New Zealand for a year. Here he interfaces with some of those he left behind and details his nefarious activities. Or summat.
Recently clicked on MP3s - 7th June 2005 The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
Jens Lekman - When i said i wanted to be your dog
The Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Eels - Blinking Lights
Monday, July 15, 2002
Sorry for the usual lack of posts, but i've got a proper excuse this time, a bruised / cracked rib! A legacy of my snowboarding trip last weekend :o(
I thought it was just a mild bash - one of several i sustained. But as all my other injuries started to heal, my rib remained rather painful, especially when standing up, sitting down, laughing, sneezing, coughing and hiccupping. So a planned snowboarding trip to Mt. Cheeseman for my last weekend in NZ was sadly cancelled. Happily though it was replaced with a very enjoyable & chilled weekend instead, just what i need at the minute really, as my life is going to be going back on fast forward from Friday - when i hit the road once more.
I spent a large percentage of the weekend hanging out in Jo's rather flash new house (Bought for the NZ equivalent of a UK shed, in a bad area!), drinking, chatting, reminiscing about our NZ experiences and doing the odd bit of decorating. Saturday night was a quality knees up, starting, of course, by watching the All blacks playing Aussie in the sports bar. Happily they won, so there was much "dancing in the streets of Christchurch tonight!" action later on. We (Michael, Jo, Michelle and me) expressed our joy at the result by going for a slap up curry at Two Fat Indians instead. Followed by the traditional pool marathon till 4am in Cue Time. At the end of the night i finally experimented with a peculiar NZ obsession - the Poker Machine. They're like fruit machines at home, all pubs have lots of them, and Kiwi's seem happy to pour most of their earnings into them, for little or no return.
Perhaps it was due to our reduced mental state, but none of us had any idea how they worked, and so kept putting money in and pressing buttons till it made noises and money came out. Whether you won or not seemed to be down to the combination of animals that appeared on the cards popping up. Monkeys and peacocks seemed to work best for us, and luckily, they were plentiful, so for a $4 stake, we won a mighty $6!
Making me almost as happy as all the rugby fans still dancing in the streets as we ambled home.
9:46 am
