so gay

did i mention wellington is officially gay. absolutely positively wellington signs are everywhere. it's kind of fitting on the ex navy frigate. as pictured. but it would only serve to make me angrier when the parking officer giving me a ticket had it emblazoned across his t-shirt, which they do.

zombies lurking

tonight I saw “my summer of love”, which I wholly recommend.

then I saw a zombie film with simon baker from e street as the earnest good guy and he was terrible, but it was great in a cheesy zombie gore I’d never usually go to this but why not? way. I was at the embassy which is the lush old school cinema (& I sat in frodo’s seat) and people kept leaving their seats and lurking into my frame of vision like the zombies on screen. I laughed a lot. anyway after that I caught the 3 am hataitai bus home through the tunnel. the bus tunnel gives me a bad feeling on a good day. its just big enough to fit a bus through, but it’s used for both directions. its long and dark and it goes through a hill, as tunnels do.

I walked out up Waipapa road, it’s not too far & it’s a lovely night. not spooked at all despite the big Samoan guy who’d asked me for coffee not following me halfway up the hill. til I get to our dark, dark steps which are treacherous at the best of times, have I mentioned there are hundreds of them, and they wind down a small dark, dark path on the side of a steep, steep hill and the garden hangs down in a gorgeous secret garden kind of way… I’ve often thought you would have to be keen, or lucky to find or burgle this house. but if you were on the run & wanted a place to hide out no one would know if you hid in our shed. and the thing about zombies is they just lurk, you know. then pop up and eat you... just grand.

so other films I’ve seen & loved, and why. A lot of music docos, “Hank Williams, Honky Tonk Blues”. I cried, the music. his voice & songs do that to me, being a heart-sore hillbilly. “Be here to love me” was a little like that too. Townes Van Sandt . didn’t cry this time but loved the music and the usual hopeless genius story. which brings me to “the devil & Daniel Johnson”. loved this too. nuts & great & so wrong only in america working in macdonalds fighting the devil. didn’t so much like ‘fallen angel’ gram parsons not enough of the music. didn’t have the heart to tell gandulf though.

forget what else i saw but you get the picture. i'm glad the film festival is over. i have beers to drink in a dark dark bar somewhere.

very bad taste

I think I trouble people here. fair enough too, cause I am wearing some VERY strange clothes. & it seems to be getting worse. I think I need an intervention. you should see what I bought today. poor amy is probably mortified. it comes from my theory that traveling, you know, can’t take much… but being me I NEED more clothes to wear or I get depressed. so I buy things. from op shops. it’s interesting, you know culturally. and well, socially too.

no animals were hurt, promise, see he's poking out his tongue just to compliment my jumper.

yes, picture me trying to make friends wearing my controversial acid wash jeans. which I seem to have embraced while being in New Zealand. doing my best to offend wellington's delicate sensibilities & prove them right in their thinking that Australians are their dumb trashy cousins with poor taste?

just thought I’d remind you the world is a scary place. I asked greg to shake me one day if he sees me wearing one of these. thankfully this is just for illustrative purposes.

careful though. we had that discussion too. about not looking ugly things in the eyes or you might just fall in love, develop a soft spot for them and well, then you’re gone. well aware that it’s wrong & ugly but you don’t care cause you have a personal attachment. oops. I do it all the time.

that’ll teach me for looking strays in the eyes.

wellywellywell

i'm wellish, a little of the cold. but it might be the chilling southerly thats blowing, NO. i'm not adopting the national obsession with the weather. i swear its everybodies favourite show.
rash generalisations aside. i'm enjoying this week. started well with a good awkward movie, look both ways, numerous good music films, 1 hot berlin film & beers with filmakers & beers with sarah & amy on the decomissioned navy frigate in the harbour which is my new home for saturday nights. they play footage over and over of big ships being blown up & sinking.

i didn't watch it enough so must go back again & again til it's sunk in november. it would be nice to see them blowup a big ship, but maybe by then it would be boring. after all that watching. my first experience of the famed honeywagon & parties and then work then more films. yes its the film festival & i have been granted a ticket & i'm loving seeing things as i haven't taken time out for film in years.

but now i'm tired.

how could i forget the arc

the first day we went to go there nobody could or would tell us where to go, they looked us like we were crazy when we asked for an arc, on a hill, lookin over the water, with animals, you know noah? "the animals went in two by two HURRAH HURRAH". yes someone crazy has built an arc here, can you tell us where?

but nope. no one knew. how could you not know?

we found it on the last day with help from anne.
would you have to be crazy to build an arc? surely.

but it is kind of cool. in a wrong way. or bits of it are. they have a great veiw, and an amazing grand piano, but the ballroom has ugly pictures and the band is called the arcestra.





then we walked through the gardens and i smiled at how good this mother & son look together. you can too.

CHRIST CHURCH

oooh I’m happy tonite, in front of the heater watching the teev, nz has a music channel all hours. if you know me, you know rage and video hits are my favourites. nothin pleases me more than heaps of cheesy hip hop, we just got missy’s new video & I’m still smiling.
we’ve been lounge room dancing.

missy makes me think of annie. so love to annie, and brookie, who doesn't read this so pass it on. love to brookie. pretty ladies.
I’m surely missing all the fine ladies.

anywise CHRIST CHURCH...

apologies if I can’t concentrate properly, who new roots manuva was so handsome? deep voiced gentlemen knock my socks off.

so I said I’d write about my time in Christchurch.

I was overcome by a sense of foreboding as the train pulled into town. maybe it’s the heathen in me, but that name gives me the shivers. and it was dark, and that shit happens sometimes. I really felt like I should hop strait back on the train and go north. it was all unwarranted, cause from the moment I saw Greg waitin at the station we were in good hands.

he took me to dinner, to galleries & openings, to his mums, to his dads. he drove me around town, took me op shopping took me drinking, took me home.

we hired a car and drove down to a house in Wanaka, through the amazing mountain country and glacial lakes and what I named jigsaw puzzle land, cause it all looks like some idyllic scene from the back of a box somewhere.

we got there, nice view, nice house, nice dinner, lots of beer, nice bottles of celebratory wine, and not such a nice idea to open the big bottle of whiskey. I felt ill the next day. unable to go more than an hour In the car through the mountains without needing some fresh air. and a little lie down on the road. and well, it got to the point I couldn’t hold down a mouthful of water. maybe it was the altitude? not pretty. sorry g.


things I liked. greg & his mum. this sculpture by neil dawson at the arts centre.

the olde English style. I liked L&P, world famous in new zealand, snifters & Belgian biccies, & greg telling me what refreshments I should try.



perky nana’s had been it so far & they are extreme. we spoke of how kiwi’s are extreme. extreme snacks, extreme sports, extreme weather. extremely fast talking. extremely hard to understand.

I didn’t really like thuck cut chips or the gothic sense of doom. you could easily get lost in the flatness of it all. and the quietness. I expected some wintery tumbleweed to roll on by, but maybe that’s just because I’ve been living in wello. which though smaller has some focus.

it’s nice to be back. or it was yesterday. the perfect warm sunny sailboats on the water, on the beach with gelato day I’ve had In a long time. hindered only by the prevalence of sporty active types cluttering up the paths jogging & biking, and the water, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing. like I said. extreme. or perhaps just wholesome.

must stop now. beavis and butthead is on and that makes me happy. did I say too much?

the man of the moment

grug (sic) drives a SICK girl through the mountains

i'll go into details later. i went to christchurch to visit greg. i stayed with his mum, anne is lovely, & greg, well he's the man of the moment...





prior to that i had a great weekend down in blenheim at amy's mum & dads olive farm, we helped them pick olives for olive oil, we ate them out of house and home too, and made a great attempt at drinking the cellar dry. so much sunshine, good company, food and talk. lots of dogs, lots of outside. feels good.

and i'm back after a day of taxis, trains, ferrys, buses and legs... ready to drop.