The Book of Sifty

Voicing my democratic right, and brunch. 10:38AM

Sorry got side tracked before finishing the last entry. So a catch up from the week: Boarding on Sunday with Ash and Crispy. Good fun, although as I was expecting the whole thing was quite a different experience from Colorado. The snow was harder and not very groomed. There were no trees o worry about, but rocks instead. There was ice like I never saw in Winter Park and the t-bar lifts.. but it was a wicked fun day and there really is nothing like sliding around on frozen water on a piece of expensive wood and plastic for a day. All good.

On the way back down we stopped at farmgirls parents. She was heading back down to Wellington for some reason and wanted some company for the drive. So I ditched the lads and drove down to wellington with her. Now I hadn't seen farmgirl for like 18 months so it was very good to catch up. Things were a bit strange though, of all the people I've met up with since being back shes probably changed the most, and at the same time the least. If that makes any sense at all?

The first couple of days of the week did my head in totally. Being back home. Being back in the cubicle farm at work. Being back in the lifts at work of all the things. I really felt like the guy out the Phillip K Dick book that the movie Total Recall was based on. Like somebody had just plugged in my memory from 18 months ago, of all my previous life. That the last year and bit had been taken away from me, that it was all an implanted memory. Although some things haven't much here and I've been in contact heaps with everybody it was still a pretty weird couple of days. Probably didn't help that I was very tired and jet lagged still. Nor that it been raining pretty much constantly since I got back. Infact today is like the first day I've been able to see blue sky since I was in Auckland.

I was on a course all week. We had an exam on Friday for that, which I may be a bit marginal about passing. Went out to dinner with some old mountain biking friends on Thursday, ironically at the Indian restaurant that has replaced the bar Liquid where I had my farewell party. Rest of the week was a bit of a non-event. Went to bed very early basically every night.

Is that guy supposed to be on fire? 10:50AM

Friday night is probably the most interesting thing to talk about. It was Ashes leaving do from work. All a bit strange since he's already left and since the two developers most likely to make his leaving trouble were in a course all week, so we had no time to prepare a messy farewell.

Ash got a $250 voucher for ski gear at Gordons, and a bottle of Drambuie. There were some fairly relaxed drinks at work, at which I finally met Kramer, yet another one of the Savants I've read about but never seen in the flesh. We all left in a taxi and headed off to Ashes place. Most of the liquid part of Ashes leaving present was consumed before heading into town to meet up with some of his friends at the Fats. Yes the Fats! Not my choice at all! Infact the last time I went to the fats was probably to visit Farmgirl when she worked there.
Frankly the place hasn't changed nearly enough.

Leon eventually turned up, and then finally after a couple of games of pool, and a few more shots for Ash, Leon and I left. Leon insisted on buying a bottle of Vodka across the road, something I hardly needed. Then it was off to lower Cuba Street for Mads farewell party. Shes not going far, just moving out of her apartment and into another flat with her new bloke. We arrive at the door on the street where you need to be buzzed in. There's my friend Mark waiting to be let in. Is Wellington really that small? Seems he knew somebody else at the party. Matt and several other people I knew before I left were all there. Matts started DJ'ing since I left, and he isn't half bad now.

Most bizarre event of the party was probably about 2 minutes after arriving. After walking up the stairs and into the flat with Leon and Mark, we all wander into the main room. Matt comes over and welcomes us, to which I said 'is that guy over there supposed to be on fire?' There was a guy sitting by himself on stool in front of the bar (they have two bars complete with draft beer taps in this apartment). His back was to the bar and his jacket was quietly burning away after catching alight from the row of candles along the edge of the bar. Managed to give myself a small burn on my hand putting him out. He didn't seem that fussed and was more worried about his drink.

The New Regime 10:54AM

After leaving Leon and I tried to meet up with Ash, he'd messaged me, but I forgot where that particular bar was. Then we attempted to meet Psykx at the Blue Room. But there was a cover charge and a line. It was one of those annoying lines that seems invisible for people who know the bouncer, so we gave up, he came out to say hello then Leon and I wandered off up Cuba street to check out a couple of new bars that he thought might be good. Ended up catching a Taxi from the Vivian street rank, which again brought back some memories'.

Started writing this up yesterday, but got side-tracked by voting. Then headed into town with Em and D for some decent Asian food for brunch, followed by some preliminary shopping recon. I need to buy several things like a new pair of jeans, a new hoody, some shoes and a jacket. I'm having the jacket made by a tailor friend and the jeans are going to take a while to find. As most people know I'm kinda fussy. Saturday afternoon I helped my mum dig out some ferns at her friend's house, then helped Tama install his new CD player in his new car. Tama has just purchased an old hearse. It's had the back seat reinstalled, and it's not as creepy as you might think. I mean it is at the end of the day just a car. A very big car with tinted windows. (a 1992 Ford Falcon). All the same I'm not entirely sure if its the sort of car I'd own. Even though you have to remember that death is entirely natural side of life, thinking of the number of bodies it carted around is never a good thing. Although I suppose you could always put the park lights on and drive every where at 20kph !

After that we headed up to Heathers place for dinner, and a look at her photos from the rest of her trip. And today I helped Crispy and Tammy move into their new flat.

Well for anybody that knew me before I left Wellington they'd probably say things haven't changed much at all. Well I had a small bet with farmgirl before she left, I'm going to prove her wrong!