The Book of Ashes

Robyns and Brads birthdays. 1:30AM

I've had a bloody good weekend, all in all. There was nothing in particular that made it special, just I think the fact that I was quite busy and that I've been in excellent company.

Saturday I brought my present for Robyn as it was her birthday, then went and saw Tomb Raider with Martin. Tomb Raider was ok, probably a guy thing though. After that I caught up with Robyn & Thomas who cooked me the biggest ever pancakes with bacon and maple syrup and bananas and kahlua cream, yumm... but I was sooo full afterwards. I was the master flipper of pancakes, a skill I learnt from my father at a young age. So that is the end of my free bottle of Kahlua from Liquor King. I've still got a week or two till their month of advertising runs out but am hoping for another bottle of something then.

That night was Brad's 24th birthday so I got a ride out there with Fi and one of her friends. The party was good. It was great to catch up with the guys (I lived round the corner from these guys in Dunedin and they are excellent value, I can tell you a few stories about them but some other time). Brad had this bottle of Absinthe which was 85% alc. Man it had a bit of kick to it, I don't think I'd be trying that again in a hurry. We headed off home just after twelve and I walked in and turned the lights on forgetting that Gerry had a friend staying in the lounge, doh! I wasn't too noisy though and quickly turned the lights off.

Sunday I got to sleep in a little and went for a blade just after lunch time. It was a beautiful day, but I was still a little worn. After the blade I went up to Nana & Poppa's and heaps of relies were there. I caught up with my Mum who's in town and played with my little cousins.

I don't feel like elaborating much more so I'll leave you with this little puzzler, you probably won't understand it but I put it here to tease...

Saturday night, around midnight, it was raining steadily and I jumped out of the car and into a large puddle at the water front. I ran out onto the beach and maddly shoveled sand into a plastic bag with my hands before running back into the car (again steping in the same puddle to get there). Can you think of a logical explanation why I would do this? Its pretty obsqure so don't waste too much of your valuable time thinking about it.

Also: We have raised the status of the girls next door to that of Seinfeld or Friends, eg they can now come over, open the fridge and help themselves to food, as if they lived here, just as they do in these shows.

Also Also: I don't understand girls. On Friday night Gerry got a sly grin on her face and whispered something to Fi. I knew they were up to something and started to worry as my idea of something would have been to over power me, take the camera off me, down trou me and take a photo. Of course I'm just paranoid and also they couldn't over power me, nor get the photos off the camera without my help but still I was worried. So next thing you know they run into my room, jump into my bed, pulling the duvet over their heads, wriggle about a bit then proceed to jump all over my bed. Ok this is all fine, but again I don't understand woman. I never would have predicted that was what they were going to do. If I had a guy mate round, theres no way I'd run into a chicks room with him, hop under the sheets of her bed with him, then jump all over her bed. I guess guys and girls think a little differently sometimes

Clyde stock, the legend lives on. 9:46AM

Today I slept in. Sleep was required. I didn't really do a lot. Mum gave me a call in the afternoon and I went up to my Nana & Poppa's for my cousin Wairiki's 4th birthday. She is so cute. They some cake left over from Robyn's party and two cakes for Wairiki. So I ended up pigging out on three different kinds of cake and pepples and chippies and biscuits as well. I was pretty full after all that. I met up with Damian towards the end of the day and we did a little work on the discussion groups. These are now 3 quarters done and let me tell you they will be quite cool. Eventually.

So its night time now, I've just been for a run to the end of the street. Its become cold outside. Not much is happening. Tomorrow I am going to Somes Island with Mum. Hopefully it is a nice day.

Well since my day has been boring I'd better give you a story... now let me think...

Clyde Stock

Flash back to Thursday the 5th of March 1998, it was a beautiful sunny day in Dunedin, the university year had just begun and our street had decided it was time for a street party. At this stage it was Me, Bev, Dan & Elle living together in the Speights flat in 85 Clyde street, straight across the road from the University College and the university grounds. We had the sweetest flat with a couch and deck out front, we'd sit in the sun drinking a beer or three, watching the freshers walk past and just hanging out. To our left was Narnia, a flat containing your typical smoking, drinking, hard core, not into working students. They had decided to have the street party and call it Clyde Stock. So we had found a picture of Woodstock on the internet and created our own posters to hand round to our friends. Mine still hangs on my wardrobe door to this day - it is very cool. So as the sun went down we began to drink. I was on the Scrumpy that night, that magical 8.5% alcohol cider that made me super confident and allowed me to act foolishly without a care in the world (ha! that reminds me of the underwear story, but another time). The guys had arranged a number of kegs outside various flats with stamps so those who had paid for them could get a stamp and drink as much as they liked. There was a strobe light outside one flat and a massive set of speakers pumping away. The night came on and I some how ended up talking to this fresher who had just moved to Otago that year and lived just up the street. After a while the scrumpy kicked in and I lost control of my serious side. Dan's brother Thomas came by and asked me who the chick was, so I said she's my new girlfriend (cringe). We talked for ages and were getting on real well and I was asking where she lived and she was saying just a couple of flats up the road but I couldn't picture it. She took this to mean I wanted to see it (eg to come back to her place) so she took me by the hand and dragged me through the crowd of people. By this stage there was at least a hundred people covering the road. The noise police had come round a couple of times to turn down the music but as per a typical student party, it kept going back up. I was dragged in and out through the crowd of people, through the stobe light zone and back to this girls house...

Clyde stock story continues... 9:54AM

Once there we went up to her room and started talking about stuff. I had realised that she was real pissed as she could hardly get her keys in the door. I think I quite liked her cause she had an Irish accent (she'd been for an exchange there the previous year) but in her room I realised that I was probably supposed to make a move here or some thing. I was pretty shy back then and didn't know what to do so we ended up going back downstairs. There she accidently smashed her glass on the chair and then was really sick spewing everywhere. I had to carry her round outside in the fresh air while her flatmates watched, quite amused. They put her to bed and I left but as I was going the flatmate asked if I wanted to leave my number or something. I didn't really want to but she insisted so I wrote something really sad like sorry you got sick along with my address then left. After that I walked my brother back to his hall then by the time I got home, everyone had left for town. The noise police had confiscated the speakers so everyone had disipated. There were bottles all over the street in the gutter, it had been a massive party. I was still on the big scrumpy buzz so went out alone to catch up with my flatmates. I got to KC's bar and there this chick came up to me and said Hi, I'm blah, Robyn's friend from school. I didn't think I'd ever met her before but she gave me a huge hug and started dancing with me. I thought this was pretty cool but left quickly as I was on a mission to find another girl that I had had a small crush on since school. She was no where to be found so I eventually ended up going home. So that was Clyde Stock. As I remember it, it was a pretty awesome street party. About 5 flats were involved and there were heaps of people. Only in Dunedin I think, you'd never do that here in Wellington

Clyde stock: Conclusion. 10:03AM

I don't think I ever told the guys exactly what happened that night as they saw me go off with the chick. The problem was the next morning I couldn't remember what she looked like. I would be walking around uni and I'd think, was it her, or was it her and cause I didn't know I'd put my head down as I walked past. It was really bad. Also we would always sit outside on the couch in the sun. This girl would have to walk past (up a grassy hill on the other side of the road) to get to her flat so would see me there all the time. Still I didn't know so any youngish girls that looked like they might have an Irish accent could have been her. Doh! At the time this was real embarrasing for me