The Book of Sifty

A rock weekend and current politics. 9:55AM

Well the last entry was a dull as dish water. Sorry.

What is happening? Well scooter is going. (Well okay sort of. I'm riding around on Leons old scooter with my motor in it) Cool fun although the whole thing is kind of funny to ride. Feels a little insecure, the brakes suck and I'd forgotten how riding a scooter can feel like sitting on a barstool, (after a few too many). It's definatly not a user-friendly experience either. I had it stall a couple of time at the lights, which when it's a kick start is rather embarrassing. I talked to Leon about adjusting the idle.. he was like 'well that just the way Vespas are dude.. your lucky it started again'

Tried. Very Tired.

What else? Weekend before last was a bit different from the default regular weekend that seems to be going down currently. Friday I went home had dinner. That was like the first Friday dinner at home in a very long time, it was then back into town to Leons 'apartment' ( I use 'apartment' in the very broad definition ' it's a warehouse that will be demolished if the Motorway extension goes ahead. And shall we say is rather 'character filled' ' i.e. it's a dump). There we downed some Vodka, Redbull and Champagne cocktails (!) and headed out to the New Bodega to see Rhombus. Excellent phat beats and some pretty cool moochy house. When I finally left at 2:30am they were still playing too. The new Bodega is interesting. Its like 3 times the size of the old place, and its pretty cool. But its no longer really fits the name that I'm used to. The original Bodega is of course being demolished by the aforementioned proposed motorway extension. This is something I won't bore you with here in too much detail about my opinion. But it's a thing I protested about years ago, for no reason other than the fact I think it bad decision making. Okay the traffic is fucked around there. But there is a reason, everybody drives because it's the only option for getting around when theres no decent public transport, and building this extension is only going to move the problem of too many cars somewhere else. I'd rather they looked at other ways of moving people about than by building more roads.

Anyway it's sad since the whole thing is probably going ahead eventually, no matter how much protesting happens. Transit NZ own most of the property around there. The whole place is getting more run down and people and businesses are moving away since they can't live with or operate business with the uncertainty that there maybe a new motorway thumping past there door..

Saturday of that weekend was rock night. Saw Pacifier (ex Shihad) supported by some Australian outfit called Grindspoon (?) Who were quite good. But man it's a long time since I last remember to a big 'rock' concert. Was kind of reminded why I don't really like some of the crowd that Pacifier, and rock acts in general, attract when I was queuing up to hit the toilet and some guy finishes washing his hands and goes:

'Fuck this is wicked man..!'
(he looked and acted like he was on speed, which was quite likely)
'but you know what the best thing is mate?' (to some random guy in the queue)
'Not that I mean this in a racist way or anything.. but there are none of those Maori or Samoans here..'

What a fucking moron! I really can't tolerate stupid or ignorant people.

My arse hurts. 10:05AM

Right I'm sure I'm missing a weekend in there somewhere.. (But what the fuck nobody really cares I'm sure..) Spent Saturday and Sunday of last weekend riding my mountain bike along the Queen Charlotte Walkway. Two days of riding too fast down sketchy narrow single track, racing Anna and DJ Manson.. and breaking myself totally riding up big arse hills. A totally wicked weekend all in all, and a cool group of bikers (12 of us) who made it a pretty social weekend.

Had a very nice Saturday arvo at Furenuex lodge.. drinking beers in the sun and reading The Independant (imported from the UK).. then sifting around Picton last night for 5 hours since the useless ferry wanted to charge us $30 each to go on standby for the earlier ferry. $30 and then you not even guaranteed to get on!! Thieving bastards.

So we blew the $30 on beers and food instead, then onto the 9:30pm ferry.

Waking up at 12:15am under a table in the foodcourt was not really the highlight of the weekend.
At any rate I'm tired as.. and my butt hurts!