Nebraska

The long weekend meant that like the rest of the city, I fled Auckland, this time for the wilds of Omaha. Juliet and I left on Saturday morning, spending the day messing about in Silverdale, Leigh and Warkworth. At the Leigh Sawmill I was happy to spot Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy who was playing there that night. We arrived at Omaha and just after we had begun relaxing (okay, reading) on the beach the rest of the gang arrived.

We spent the night entertaining some of the local teens until one of them thought that we might be an ideal crowd to test out his decidedly rascist lyrics on. They had to go. But not before we took to the beach with the torch to play Teen Sex Patrol. Excellent fun.

Sunday was spent at the Sawmill and swimming at Omaha. Juliet and I drove back on Sunday night, and I caught up with Lucy who leaves next week for Wellington. She's been accepted into the Manhire course at Vic University, which is a huge achievement and very exciting.

Monday, I broke my boycott of the Public Holiday surcharge (look out for a Blacklist rant soon) and went to Bambina with Olly and Kate. It was worth it, but only just. I'm still not impressed with the policy. But I love breakfast salad A LOT.

Back to work and a million little writing jobs this week. Finally going to see The Constant Gardener tonight. I think it's about our landlord. And listening to a lot of The Arctic Monkeys. They are every bit as good as the press says. It's a rare and beautiful thing.

Okay...

So I would never usually do this. Actually, I would never admit to writing poetry. But I'm on a bit of a writing surge right now, and one of the things I need to do is get used to people looking at my work. Suck it up, basically. So I'm throwing a poem out to you guys.

Let me know what you think:

The Hemoglobin Two

On a warm day,
Phone call from a friend,
It’s great down here now.

We go out a lot
But you can only think of
what it was like for you.

I saw some girls you knew
and they drunken, loud, chatting-
Do you remember them?

They talked about how
we were like twins.
They called us the hemoglobin two.

But I thought about one night when
we were going to go out,
And sat inside eating olives.

So yeah. There's one. More to come potentially. I'd also like to know who else really feels that Hemoglobin looks like it should be spelt Haemoglobin, which was my instinct...

Satisfied.

Almost a week later, I feel sufficiently calm to write about the madness of BDO. Well, more overload than madness. There was just so much musical goodness, that the comedown to normality and the absence of hot musicians in bars has been hard to stomach. It really was amazingly good this year and I satisfied so many musical wants at one time that I feel quite spoilt.

My only gripe...okay. We all did it. Were a little young and got a bit too deep into the crowd and couldn't handle. But we sucked it up, got to the front and were okay. I never felt the need to push my way out thus upsetting thousands of people. If you're packed in, we're all packed in. Live with it. Nothing bad will happen. You'll get a bit warm and someone gross will touch you. Look at it as preparation for better things. Worst part is I actually saw parents that had taken their kids and charges into the 'mosh' area just to have to take them back out. Sit in the stands. Seriously.

But we had a great day, Tim, Hannah and I stuck together admirably and wound up the day dancing at 2manyDJs, which was just the icing on a very sticky cake.

The rest of the weekend didn't really compare after this, but was fun. And Monday heralded the return of Olly, which was very welcome.

Hope everyone is enjoying the new blog address. Broadband almost back on but am now sans laptop charger. Who knows how that happened.

Bless.

Well, thank God that I have retained my child-like enthusiasm for the Big Day Out, now a mere two sleeps away. Picks of the bunch for me are, Franz Ferdinand, Iggy, The White Stripes and The Kings of Leon, no surprises there. But am also looking forward to seeing The Greenhornes tomorrow night.

Updates to follow...apologies for infrequent entries, waiting for home broadband to be reconnected.

Yeah!

Second year of blog! Impressive huh. Luckily, no tsunami this year. Large hangover though. We spent three nights at the farm drinking a lot, eating a huge amount and generally lazing. Of course the highlight had to be finding the world's best vinyl stash in a Matakana op-shop. So good.

Back in the 09 now, and contemplating a return to work tomorrow. Came about a little too quickly. Still I am kind of looking forward to getting back into it. All signs are pointing to, this will be a great year...