Here are the 3 of us on the way to the party, me and Rob a little over excited (could possibly be vodka related)...
After the party we headed into town and to a place I hadn't been before...Car Park bar. That was ok, but a little quiet so from there we went on to Lenin. I'm starting to really like this place - I've had a good night every time I've been there. The music is housey, but in a good way and the crowd is good.
A decent late night place to go in Auckland? Surely not.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Making a spectre-cle of myself...
Me on the way to the party, scary eyes to try and look the part...
Fright night...
It's that spooky time of year again, and to celebrate a friend of Casey's was having a party. We contemplated taking the time and effort to make Ghostbusters outfits but decided against it and bought white sheets and a can of spray paint instead. Here is the outcome...
Monday, October 23, 2006
What's that in the distance?
That may, or may not be White Island which is New Zealand's only active volcano. It had a bit of white smoke coming off it...
Actually, I've just checked the map and I'm fairly certain it isn't White Island. Wow - I'm going to make a great tour guide when my Mum comes to visit.
Pity the weather wasn't brilliant. For the eagle-eyed out there you may be able to spot the plane flying lower than I was standing. Now that was a thrilling moment...
Actually, I've just checked the map and I'm fairly certain it isn't White Island. Wow - I'm going to make a great tour guide when my Mum comes to visit.
Pity the weather wasn't brilliant. For the eagle-eyed out there you may be able to spot the plane flying lower than I was standing. Now that was a thrilling moment...
A double century...
This is a big moment - my 200th post. I'd love to be able to put an exciting bit of news, or some insightful piece of social commentary but why break from tradition - I'm going to tell you about my weekend.
It is currently noon on Monday. I'm writing this from home as it's a bank holiday here, although you'd be forgiven for thinking I was just messing around on the internet in the office. The weather is pretty bad so there's not much to do other than watch a lot of sport and keep my faithful readers updated on my exciting life.
So, Friday night...went out, got drunk. Me and Si ended up in town till the early hours (first bus back at 6.30am) which wasn't quite how this weekend was supposed to start - after last weekend's excesses I had planned a quiet one.
I managed to turf myself out of bed at nearly 3pm and struggled over to Dressmart in Onehunga to do some clothes shopping. I haven't bought anything new for ages and this didn't change. Couldn't find anything there worth buying at all - except a bacon sandwich.
Saturday night was the quiet one I'd envisaged - I stayed in and watched England's bog standard one day performance in the cricket. More on that later if I can be bothered.
Sunday was action day for me. Rob was away for the weekend and kindly offered to me the use of his car. I took full advantage of this and went on a bit of a mission. I drove the 2 and a half hours down south to the Bay of Plenty, more specifically...Mt Maunganui (read the link for interesting folklore regarding the hill). I spent a while hiking up it, choosing the difficult route, and was sweating like an Englishman on the 12 yard spot by the time I made it to the top. But it was worth it for the views even if the day was pretty overcast...
This is the view down on to Mt Maunganui beach. Can you make out the volleyball tournament going on?
It is currently noon on Monday. I'm writing this from home as it's a bank holiday here, although you'd be forgiven for thinking I was just messing around on the internet in the office. The weather is pretty bad so there's not much to do other than watch a lot of sport and keep my faithful readers updated on my exciting life.
So, Friday night...went out, got drunk. Me and Si ended up in town till the early hours (first bus back at 6.30am) which wasn't quite how this weekend was supposed to start - after last weekend's excesses I had planned a quiet one.
I managed to turf myself out of bed at nearly 3pm and struggled over to Dressmart in Onehunga to do some clothes shopping. I haven't bought anything new for ages and this didn't change. Couldn't find anything there worth buying at all - except a bacon sandwich.
Saturday night was the quiet one I'd envisaged - I stayed in and watched England's bog standard one day performance in the cricket. More on that later if I can be bothered.
Sunday was action day for me. Rob was away for the weekend and kindly offered to me the use of his car. I took full advantage of this and went on a bit of a mission. I drove the 2 and a half hours down south to the Bay of Plenty, more specifically...Mt Maunganui (read the link for interesting folklore regarding the hill). I spent a while hiking up it, choosing the difficult route, and was sweating like an Englishman on the 12 yard spot by the time I made it to the top. But it was worth it for the views even if the day was pretty overcast...
This is the view down on to Mt Maunganui beach. Can you make out the volleyball tournament going on?
Monday, October 16, 2006
1st anniversary...
Millhouse pointed out to me this morning that it's exactly a year on from my leaving do. It was the first of many as my leaving date had to be put back, but it was the main one. Smaje wasn't so happy about being reminded of that night due to the horrific mental scarring he suffered as a result of finding Lunt asleep in the curry house toilet afterwards.
Just about everyone made it with the odd exception (thanks for nothing Acres) and we had a great night. Thanks to Millhouse for DJing and co-creating the best 6 hours of music playlists in history, thanks to Joe for bringing along his band who played 2 storming sets for a bargain price and thanks to Boz for his heckling of my hilarious speech.
In loving memory, here are a few of my favourite pictures from the night...
Just about everyone made it with the odd exception (thanks for nothing Acres) and we had a great night. Thanks to Millhouse for DJing and co-creating the best 6 hours of music playlists in history, thanks to Joe for bringing along his band who played 2 storming sets for a bargain price and thanks to Boz for his heckling of my hilarious speech.
In loving memory, here are a few of my favourite pictures from the night...
Sunday, October 15, 2006
The usual Sunday evening update...
Big event on Friday night - the semi finals of the Air New Zealand Cup...as I've said before is the NZ rugby equivalent of the Premier Leauge.
Auckland were playing Wellington at Eden Park - crowd...rubbish, atmosphere...rubbish, Auckland's performance...rubbish.
Anyway, enough of that, I've spent too long trying to figure out why they don't get behind their team and haven't come up with an answer yet.
So, on to the rest of the weekend. It's Rob's 25th birthday on Thursday and his girlfriend, Mia, and his family organised a bit of a surprise party. Echo's of my 25th. We went down to Clevedon early in the afternoon as Mia had organised a football match.
We were one t-shirt short, unfortunate for me.
T-shirts were printed, we all had a few pre-match beers and we were away. Rob's team, the Monkey Dogs were 4-3 ahead at the break but after a half time beer the team I was on, the Ball Bags, stormed to victory with our superior fitness showing.
After we all recovered from the run around we headed back to the house for a bbq and more beers. The party drew to a close with the remaining party goers around the tv for a triple bill of sports watching - NZ vs Australia (netball), NZ vs Australia (League tri-nations) and Waikato vs. Otago (Union semi-final).
Ended up out and about and met up with my old flatmates, Kat and Liz and their new flatmate Fiona. All in all, a very fun night all round.
I just about managed to get up and go for breakfast with Si, Leanne and Vicky (Leanne's friend visiting from Tauranga) but other than that Sunday has been a bit of a write-off. No change there then.
Auckland were playing Wellington at Eden Park - crowd...rubbish, atmosphere...rubbish, Auckland's performance...rubbish.
Anyway, enough of that, I've spent too long trying to figure out why they don't get behind their team and haven't come up with an answer yet.
So, on to the rest of the weekend. It's Rob's 25th birthday on Thursday and his girlfriend, Mia, and his family organised a bit of a surprise party. Echo's of my 25th. We went down to Clevedon early in the afternoon as Mia had organised a football match.
We were one t-shirt short, unfortunate for me.T-shirts were printed, we all had a few pre-match beers and we were away. Rob's team, the Monkey Dogs were 4-3 ahead at the break but after a half time beer the team I was on, the Ball Bags, stormed to victory with our superior fitness showing.
After we all recovered from the run around we headed back to the house for a bbq and more beers. The party drew to a close with the remaining party goers around the tv for a triple bill of sports watching - NZ vs Australia (netball), NZ vs Australia (League tri-nations) and Waikato vs. Otago (Union semi-final).
Ended up out and about and met up with my old flatmates, Kat and Liz and their new flatmate Fiona. All in all, a very fun night all round.
I just about managed to get up and go for breakfast with Si, Leanne and Vicky (Leanne's friend visiting from Tauranga) but other than that Sunday has been a bit of a write-off. No change there then.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Ah, that's racist. Which I hate...
The quiz last night wasn't a great success. There was no sport round for starters and we failed dismally in the guessing albums from their covers round. It was fun nonetheless, with the possible exception of the following question:
The derogatory terms greaseball, ginzo, wop and dago are all associated with people from which country?
Half of my blood was boiling.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Long weekend...again...
After the excitement of Thursday a quiet Friday was necessary. Rob and I headed out after I got back from work to a bar up the road called Cardrona where we met up with Si, Leanne and Jess. The idea was to have a quiet couple, then go to the Kingslander to watch the rugby and have another quiet one or two.
I woke up the next morning with little memory from about 10pm onwards. Quiet indeed.
On Saturday we went to Si and Leanne's for a bbq...
...then off to Eden Park to watch Auckland against Bay of Plenty (and my favourite player...Jamie Nutbrown) in the quarter finals of the major NZ rugby competition. The crowd this time was even less than before. I don't get it.
Then me and Rob headed off to the local bowls club. The new additions to our quiz team, Anya and her family are getting us involved in a social bowls competition so we went to check the place out. It's great - $3 beers, free pool, free bowls and all within walking distance of our place. All I need to do now is learn how to play bowls. Can't be that hard can it?
After a few cheap beers we headed in to town where we ended up in Lenin with Anya and her friend teaching them my trademark dance move. No pictures of that thankfully.
The night came to a close at about 5am with me and Rob sat in the garden having a chin wag and throwing oranges at the ridiculously noisy "disco bird" in a nearby tree.
I woke up the next morning with little memory from about 10pm onwards. Quiet indeed.
On Saturday we went to Si and Leanne's for a bbq...
...then off to Eden Park to watch Auckland against Bay of Plenty (and my favourite player...Jamie Nutbrown) in the quarter finals of the major NZ rugby competition. The crowd this time was even less than before. I don't get it.
Then me and Rob headed off to the local bowls club. The new additions to our quiz team, Anya and her family are getting us involved in a social bowls competition so we went to check the place out. It's great - $3 beers, free pool, free bowls and all within walking distance of our place. All I need to do now is learn how to play bowls. Can't be that hard can it?
After a few cheap beers we headed in to town where we ended up in Lenin with Anya and her friend teaching them my trademark dance move. No pictures of that thankfully.
The night came to a close at about 5am with me and Rob sat in the garden having a chin wag and throwing oranges at the ridiculously noisy "disco bird" in a nearby tree.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Fizog
After we met Shearer we headed off to Rob's parents house in Clevedon to enjoy the rest of the day. I was introduced to the sport of Fizog. You have a bowler and 2 fielders and the aim is to get an edge off the Fizog bin and take the catch - the featherier the better. And that's it.
Here's me, Rob and Dave in action. Look at that sunshine, summer is almost upon us...
Here's me, Rob and Dave in action. Look at that sunshine, summer is almost upon us...
The greatest day of my life...
I'm not married and I have no kids (that I know of) so I think it's ok for me to say that.
Millhouse, Smaje, Rowell, avert your eyes for a bit and restrain from your usual slagging off and let me enjoy my moment...
The one and only Alan Shearer has been in New Zealand for a couple of days, and today me and Rob got to meet him! His final stop in the country was to go to Rebel Sports for a signing session. Rob is on school holidays but I had to get the day off, but it was totally worth it. We got there about 30 minutes before he was due and were pretty horrified to see the HUGE queue.
It was made even more annoying by the amount of unworthies ahead of us and it was made clear by the staff that HE had a plane to catch and we may miss out. About an hour of queuing later we were right at the door when the manager of the shop came up and told us that Alan had to go soon and he would have to end the line right in front of us...NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
I actually almost started crying.
Then, seeing me nearly in tears, the two women (there with 7 very young kids) ahead of us told the staff that we'd let them go ahead of us so it would be unfair if we missed out. The staff took pity and we were in. One of the women said "we just couldn't have lived with ourselves, it's a big deal to you isn't it? I don't even know who he is."
So that was it, we were in - the last 2 people in the queue, with about another 300 people left outside. Phew.
My conversation with him went:
Alan: "How are yer?"
Me: (in falsetto) "Good thanks"
Then I went for the handshake and thanked him for all the England goals.
I'll be getting the Euro 2000 signed shirt framed and hung on the wall of our new place.
Millhouse, Smaje, Rowell, avert your eyes for a bit and restrain from your usual slagging off and let me enjoy my moment...
The one and only Alan Shearer has been in New Zealand for a couple of days, and today me and Rob got to meet him! His final stop in the country was to go to Rebel Sports for a signing session. Rob is on school holidays but I had to get the day off, but it was totally worth it. We got there about 30 minutes before he was due and were pretty horrified to see the HUGE queue.
It was made even more annoying by the amount of unworthies ahead of us and it was made clear by the staff that HE had a plane to catch and we may miss out. About an hour of queuing later we were right at the door when the manager of the shop came up and told us that Alan had to go soon and he would have to end the line right in front of us...NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
I actually almost started crying.
Then, seeing me nearly in tears, the two women (there with 7 very young kids) ahead of us told the staff that we'd let them go ahead of us so it would be unfair if we missed out. The staff took pity and we were in. One of the women said "we just couldn't have lived with ourselves, it's a big deal to you isn't it? I don't even know who he is."
So that was it, we were in - the last 2 people in the queue, with about another 300 people left outside. Phew.
My conversation with him went:
Alan: "How are yer?"
Me: (in falsetto) "Good thanks"
Then I went for the handshake and thanked him for all the England goals.
I'll be getting the Euro 2000 signed shirt framed and hung on the wall of our new place.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Exciting week...
Yesterday was an interesting one. First up was seeing someone in a gorilla suit pushing a trolley round the supermarket at lunch time. He had a camera crew with him, which is understandable really.
Then last night was the quiz of course...oh, the quiz...our Everest for so long. The place had been packed for the last few weeks so me and Rob did the honourable thing and got there 90 minutes before kick off. There was going to be quite a few on our team so we had to be there to secure a couple of tables and enough chairs. The added bonus being that we could sit there, watch the telly and have a couple of pints whilst we waited. Oh, and we got to choose the team name. This week....Magnet and Steel. No one got it unsurprisingly. Click here if you're struggling.
The team was me, Rob, Miller, Leanne and her workmate Jess, Casey, and Anya (works with Miller) and her Uncle, Peter (Vic and Bob reference anyone?). Kat also came along for an hour or so.
It was a battle of epic proportions and went right down to the wire with the final score being the top 3 teams all on 91 points (us included). The tie breaker was "how many years separated the last winner of the ancient olympics and the first winner of the modern olympics?"
I think we put 3000 years, but the actual answer was around 1500. Magnet and Steel finished a very creditable 2nd, our best to date.
It was all very controversial though. First of all, I had to go and contest a score we'd been given in an earlier round because they'd not given us enough points. Then, in the sport round, one of the questions was:
How many London based teams are there in the Premiership?
Me and Rob said 7 but the answer given was 6. The bone of contention was Watford. Technically they aren't in London, but as far as we were concerned they've always been considered a London team. Today Miller has done a bit of research and found this link.
Robbed I tells ya.
Watch this space for more exciting adventures coming up this week. I promise you won't be disappointed...
Then last night was the quiz of course...oh, the quiz...our Everest for so long. The place had been packed for the last few weeks so me and Rob did the honourable thing and got there 90 minutes before kick off. There was going to be quite a few on our team so we had to be there to secure a couple of tables and enough chairs. The added bonus being that we could sit there, watch the telly and have a couple of pints whilst we waited. Oh, and we got to choose the team name. This week....Magnet and Steel. No one got it unsurprisingly. Click here if you're struggling.
The team was me, Rob, Miller, Leanne and her workmate Jess, Casey, and Anya (works with Miller) and her Uncle, Peter (Vic and Bob reference anyone?). Kat also came along for an hour or so.
It was a battle of epic proportions and went right down to the wire with the final score being the top 3 teams all on 91 points (us included). The tie breaker was "how many years separated the last winner of the ancient olympics and the first winner of the modern olympics?"
I think we put 3000 years, but the actual answer was around 1500. Magnet and Steel finished a very creditable 2nd, our best to date.
It was all very controversial though. First of all, I had to go and contest a score we'd been given in an earlier round because they'd not given us enough points. Then, in the sport round, one of the questions was:
How many London based teams are there in the Premiership?
Me and Rob said 7 but the answer given was 6. The bone of contention was Watford. Technically they aren't in London, but as far as we were concerned they've always been considered a London team. Today Miller has done a bit of research and found this link.
Robbed I tells ya.
Watch this space for more exciting adventures coming up this week. I promise you won't be disappointed...
Monday, October 02, 2006
Likely lads...
Here is our living room looking rather worse for wear...
Just like Rob, me, Casey, Miller and Dave.
Just like Rob, me, Casey, Miller and Dave.
On to Sunday...
I had very little sleep, partly due to the clocks changing, mainly due to staying up too late. But a few of us had arranged to go to the park for a kick around in the park and enjoy the improving weather. This is Auckland weather however, and it changed quickly to monsoon. Bugger.
We managed to pass the time watching sport on the telly until the main event of the day - watching sport on the telly. It was the NRL Grand Final between Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos. Normally my reaction to this would be...BOTHERED. But since I got here I've started to enjoy rugby a bit. And to help matters Casey brought his work projector round, we stocked up on beers and we had several sweepstakes going. Here is the picture in all its glory projected up on our living room wall...
We managed to pass the time watching sport on the telly until the main event of the day - watching sport on the telly. It was the NRL Grand Final between Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos. Normally my reaction to this would be...BOTHERED. But since I got here I've started to enjoy rugby a bit. And to help matters Casey brought his work projector round, we stocked up on beers and we had several sweepstakes going. Here is the picture in all its glory projected up on our living room wall...
The long weekend...
Quite a big weekend really...On Thursday Miller, Casey and I went along to a fund raiser quiz for Casey's softball team. We won on a tie-breaker and took home the $30 bar tab.
Friday was fairly quiet, no one was around except for me and Casey so we went out for few. We started in the Paddington just on the outskirts of the city centre. Casey recommended it as a popular Friday hotspot however when we arrived there were about 20 people in there. There was a party bus outside which soon loaded up and sped off leaving about 2 people. From the ridiculous to the sublime, we moved on to the Northern Steamship which was absolutely packed. This is a pretty new bar in town and was full of flash city types. Meh, it was ok I guess. But the Castle it weren't.
Saturday night was a bit of a big one. It was Shane's birthday (Leanne's brother) so after a few drinks round at Si and Leanne's place we went to Euro, where Shane is head chef, to meet up with him. Several high alcohol/low cost cocktails later and the night was in full swing. I had my camera in my pocket the whole time but didn't take one picture. What is up with me these days??
Friday was fairly quiet, no one was around except for me and Casey so we went out for few. We started in the Paddington just on the outskirts of the city centre. Casey recommended it as a popular Friday hotspot however when we arrived there were about 20 people in there. There was a party bus outside which soon loaded up and sped off leaving about 2 people. From the ridiculous to the sublime, we moved on to the Northern Steamship which was absolutely packed. This is a pretty new bar in town and was full of flash city types. Meh, it was ok I guess. But the Castle it weren't.
Saturday night was a bit of a big one. It was Shane's birthday (Leanne's brother) so after a few drinks round at Si and Leanne's place we went to Euro, where Shane is head chef, to meet up with him. Several high alcohol/low cost cocktails later and the night was in full swing. I had my camera in my pocket the whole time but didn't take one picture. What is up with me these days??
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