Long time no update!
Nothing of any real excitement has happened in the past few weeks, life at work and the flat are going well, so that’s good at least. A few weeks ago there was the fireworks display for Guy Fawkes night down at the harbour and that was amazing, it lasted for about 15 minutes and just about the whole of Wellington turned out for it. It was all free too! There was this one firework which exploded into a big sphere but it looked like it was coming towards me, filling up the sky, the whole night was a brilliant experience. I got talking to a couple from County Durham/Sheffield who’ve been here for over 20 years and they said that I should call in for dinner the next time I’m in the Hutt (Lower or Upper, I can’t remember), they gave me their number and all that so that was really nice of them! I really like the way most of the British exiles are towards each other, or at least the ones I’ve met, it’s like a community within a community.
Everyone is going daft over the whole David Beckham thing, Phoenix are playing LA Galaxy some time in December and there’s posters everywhere, all the sport shops are selling Beckham shirts, they’re saying it’s a once in a lifetime experience. It’s so expensive though! I think tickets are selling for between $80 – $100, normal A-League games are only about $30! I’m not going to it, I’m not giving the Phoenix any more of my money after I had to sit through the Adelaide Utd game a month or two ago.
I must be a sucker for punishment, however, as I somehow convinced myself to see the true “once in a lifetime experience” game at the Cake Tin, oh yes, New Zealand vs Vanuatu in the OFC Nations Cup! Oh, it was so bad it was almost good. The stadium can hold about 25,000 or so but less than 10% of those seats were filled for this epic clash of the (South Pacific) titans. It was hardly worth them opening the doors. The game itself (if you can call it that) ended up in a 4-1 victory for the Thai Airways All Whites – that’s New Zealand to you and me. It took me a while to figure out whether most of the Vanuatu players had even played before but they at least seemed to grasp the general principle of football. I found it a bit sad that the New Zealand team have sold their own name to some corporate entity. That’s one thing I’ve noticed about our Antipodean cousins, they find it necessary to create and sell names of all their teams for no reason at all. Far from being content to be the New Zealand Women’s team, they call their ladies the ‘Football Ferns’, just like their netball team are the ‘Silver Ferns’. It’s almost like the England national team being rebranded as the Lufthansa Three Lions. Although the less said about English football the better.
I saw The Phoenix Foundation last weekend at the Opera House and they impressed again after seeing them in New York last year, they were supported by Grand Prix who described themselves as kind of like country/western/rock and they were also very good. I’m thinking about going to Big Day Out in Auckland in January, that’s a one day festival thing and the line-up’s starting to look fairly good, hopefully I can make it off work. The Killers headlined it last time but I doubt they’d make it again, which is a shame.
Other than all that, things are going well here. The weather is starting to get stupidly hot though, which isn’t too great if you happen to burn easier than an easily burning thing but I keep my factor 40 handy! Everyone is kind of living down at the beach and harbour at the weekends and it’s just so strange not only having this weather (as heat/sun is foreign to England) but having it in November/soon to be December. It’s just not quite right. I’ve seen posters in shops advertising clothing ranges for Summer 07/08, tis not normal. Having said all that, it’s still windy!
4 Comments
Hey Graham! Sorry for not posting lately, I’ve been crazy busy!……… Ok so nobody’s believing that, I’m a lazy forgetful bum sounds closer. But I finally have a job! I start a week today working for my dad’s company EDS. The way it happened just goes to prove that it’s not what you know it’s who you know, cos it was a mate of mine (who also works for EDS) who introduced me to a lass who works for recruitment, I sent in my CV, they rang me gave me an interview and offered me a job as an IT technician (sort of, it’s a little more complex but not exactly interesting!). So finally I’m gonna have a bit CASH WOOOO! I have to get up around 6 ish. Crap. In other news have you heard the new JEW album Chase this light? I’m listening to it right now abd it’s genuinely totally class, back to their best I’d say! BUY IT NOW!!!!
Just finished listening to it, and you HAVE to hear it, it’s class!!! If anyone tells you otherwise they’re wrong or deaf. BUY IT!!!
Have you bought it yet? No? DO IT NOW!!!!!
Hey, good to hear about the job! The early mornings don’t sound too healthy though! I’ve not had a chance to listen to that new album yet, although Sal sent me the demos a while back but I’ll get onto it at some point. Been listening to Kiwi music almost exclusively for the past couple of months. Plenty of bands to convert you to! Good luck with the job, Mr Technician.