On Sunday Sarah drove Camille and I around Auckland, visiting her old haunts and checking out places like Ponsonby and Devonport. (Well, checking out the cafes in places like Ponsonby and Devonport.) The harbour bridge was cool and big, and the City of Sails lived up to its name. Then we visited Dominion Road (sadly, no bending) and the Burger Fuel that resides upon it. Bring on Burger Fuel, better than Burger W. Another viewing of Amelie was the order of the evening... still cool, still funny.
Monday saw Sarah and I meeting up with some of her Auckland friends in Borders Bookshop. It is big, so big. And the thousands upon thousands of books reminds me how little money I have, and how much time I could spend just reading. On the plus side, I saw this book and it is very, very cool, and they have Mum's book stocked. Nice. In the end I bought a book on cooking tofu, and then proceeded to do so that evening.
But before the cooking there was much (much) wandering around the streets and suburbs of Auckland. The central city is pretty cool - wandered down Queen Street, up Vulcan Ave, down somewhere else, across some other street, and then to Britomart! Big (it is in Auckland, after all), shiny and new. And completely lacking in trains, as far as I could see. Then to St. Lukes to join the masses starved of shopping by having to wait one entire day before being allowed to enter the mall. Am pleased to report that is much like any other mall, and that due to Christchurch now being the "City of Malls", I was not to impressed by it's magnitude.
Walking from St. Lukes to Ellerslie takes some time.
After dinner, I left Sarah and Camille catching up on some valuable Angel time and went and had a coffee with Pete and Kat at Mission Bay. They are both looking great, and make an awesome navigating team around the crazy, crazy streets of Auckland. (Driving around Auckland seems kind of like rally driving, but without the gravel and with more, crazier, drivers. (On the note, ten out of ten to Sarah's u-turn to get the park on the other side of the main street of Devonport.)) Pete still only concedes Burger Fuel as the one thing that's better than what Christchurch has to offer, but is pleased to report he's virtually given up beer.
Am currently waiting to see how we're planning on making it to the airport on time for our flight. Might have to involve evil taxi fare o' doom.
Twelve hours? Bloody hell.
Driving out of Wellington, a cry of joy was heard from Sarah when we managed to reach 25 kms/hr... after about an hour and a half of driving up the Kapiti coastline. No trying to keep pace with a ROGERB this time round. Kudos (and some of our loose change) to the guy who had given up trying to shift his furniture in the traffic, pulled over to the side of the road, and started playing songs on his guitar to the cars which were crawling past while sitting on his car's bonnet in the sun. I suspect he made a bit of cash and received many a cheer.
Oh, and Wellington has a "Fragatorium". Which is cool. Sarah thought it had something to do with Fraggles. Cutey.
Palmerston North. Pants.
The one, the only... does this make her famous? (anyone got a nice photo?)
(Thanks to Tim) It would appear that someone has already done my PhD idea. There is nothing new under the sun...
(Trip is going well. Arrived in Auckland under the cover of darkness. Preparing to mount a proper recon mission early tomorrow morning. Possibly after easter eggs and coffee.)
I was going to write intersting and exciting stuff about Sarah and my current trip around the North Island. (You know, as I believe it's actually a proper noun, I probably shouldn't us "the", just simply "our trip around North Island." But I digress.) However, it would appear that the possibility of any such updates have been more than outdone by certain other individuals who sound like they're lining up much more interesting trips then a jaunt to Wellington and Auckland. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Bon voyage etc etc Si, hope the trip is as incredibly fantastic as it sounds like it's going to be!
Back to Wellington. Going north, one might have been mistaken in believing that one was going to a warmer place. Lies, all lies. The wind and the rain and the cold and the hurt me *glaben*... In actual fact the crappy weather has only resulted in a slightly damp shopping trip, as Tim and Melissa (who are kindly putting up with us) have an excellent gas heater making for warm nights, although it seems to be a hot topic of complaint for those who live up here. And now me.
Shopping was done. Eating nice food was done. Then more nice food. Then some wine, and then a move and some dancing in an Irish Pub. Where we bumped into Anna Santos, bringing the number of Burnsiders from our year in attendance to six! Was good to catch up with James T (sounds like he's having a blast) and David Borrie (haven't seen him since high school, but will endeavour to get him to parties when he's next down) again. All in all, sarah is very pretty and lovely and I am going to make her breakfast right now and then rub her feet and then buy her lots of presents.
Hmmm, would appear the keyboard has been hijacked some.
I see that our paintball experience has deeply scarred Dave so much that he cannot bring himself to admit that it occurred. As predicted, Pols once again ran roughshod over History, in an awesome display of more power paintball, 5 games to nill. Apparently, Dave falling down a hill while trying to catch me was a highlight, but I was too focussed on getting the flag back to out base to notice, so you'll have to ask Ben about that one.
And the title of the blog? My goatee has gone the way of the long hair, toga and sandals (and the healing of the lepers, just before I loot all the booty from their begging cups). Clean shaven (well, stubly shaven) am I. And it's bloody cold.
In other news, Sarah's laptop is very shiny and cool, more at six.
...it haunts me still.
So, turns out that the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resoruces for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) was ratified on the same day I handed my thesis in (31 March). Why is that interesting? Cos in said thesis there are two major case studies, and one of them is all about the ITPGRFA and how cool it is. I feel somewhat validated, and somewhat annoyed that the twelve European countries that signed on in the last week or so couldn't have done so a month or two earlier, as it would have made a great postscript to add to the thesis beast.
Either way, I reckon that this marks quite a step forward in the governance of global resources, and its success or failure will impact quite strongly on how issues of ownership are dealt with at the global level in the future. It is, after all, one of the first attempts to take nationalised property and place it back in a global common pool for all (who ratify) to draw from.
Bah. For all who care, go here.
Along thesis lines, I'm really quite surprised what an anticlimax handing it in is. I'm not suggesting that those of you still writing should just give up now and go work for McD's or something, but just that the feeling of elation and joy at getting it finished was much more present prior to the finishing. Afterwards is just a bit flah really. Which sucks, and contributes largely to my lack of desire to go out partying.
Of course, this lack of desire does not extend to going out shooting people with paintballs thought. My nemesis awaits...
Also, Sarah's buying a laptop. Yay! All nice and shiny and new. And we're heading up to Wellington and Auckland for a week come Wednesday evening, which I'm most definitely looking forward to - perhaps once there it'll finally sink in that everything's finished, and I'm free!
Speaking of which... such a beautiful day! I think I'll go out the window!
Hmm, maybe not. But I will go find a patch of sun and play some guitar and read a book.