Hostel is still Home..

Danny and I had grand designs of moving to a city apartment...........................that was about two weeks ago now. Yes, Joe is still in the six bed dorm at the Auckland Central Backpackers. People coming and going, turning the light on at 4 in the morning after they stagger back from the karaoke, housekeeping changing the linen far too early when you're on your day off, and so on and so forth. Best of all is that I love the place.

But it may be time to move on. Danny has found a hostel for much much cheaper just down the road, and a girl from work is living with a few people who are looking for one more - so the options are growing.

My local night space, The Globe Bar, was the scene of unfortunate events during the daily pool competition. There I was in the final of the speedpool (pictures will be up showing what I mean) when I lost on the black. The $100 prize, so close to my back pocket, was won by some random punter - gutted. My poor fate was compounded when I reached into my pocket to notice I cracked the screen of my P900 - no phone for me! And just to make me feel better I was told it was going to cost $300 to fix it up. So I told them where to shove it and bought a cheap and nasty Nokia 2600. Well, it's not too bad, a far cry from my touch-screen, "Here Comes the Hotsteppa" mp3 ringtone, recognise-my-handwriting skills phone. Oh well, I'll fix it for way way less when I get back to the UK.

My luck and morale were both at a low, so, as d:ream said about twelve years ago: "Thiiiiiiiings, can only get betterrrrr..." - and they did. AK05 cheered me up immensely when I went down to the cultural overload that is Aotea Square to watch the Japanese Tao Drummers. They are an equivalent of the martial arts monestries, but instead of karate kicks for 18 hours a day, they play the drums. They were sensational, and their website is well worth a look - check them out at http://www.drum-tao.com - the Auckland Festival, finishing in a few days, really flares up the colour of the city, it's been pretty sweet. There's another show from Def Poetry Jam which looks hilarious - guys like Chris Rock getting up on stage doing some sort of rap-come-comedy-come-poetry sort of thing. And those guys are f u n n y. Might go see it if I can muster up the cash!

My 'council' boys from Adelaide, Paul and Neil, have been doing a runaround of the North Island, but have been basing themselves in Auckland for a while, so the 'Anal Grande playing cards have been coming out, as well have the timeless jokes that Team America: World Police have left us. Perhaps the best film in the world.

I also met a lovely girl called Marie, a little French-Canadian surfer. We had a lovely few days before she moved on from Auckland on her travels from New Zealand. And it wasn't all just walks in the park and tasty Chinese food; we ended up in the Globe Bar for a couple of nights involving some incredible female pool (something one comes across rarely), bouncers boogie'ing to Michael Jackson, and rabbit ears. More to follow in the way of photgraphic delights.

Looking forward to this weekend when a few of us from work are hopefully going down to the beach for a chiling out session, before a barbecue at Liam's, one of our very own TAs. He knows how to blow doors in with the equivalent of electrochemically unstable blu-tack. How McGuyver is that, man.