After Hours
Trip Start
Sep 09, 2004
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154
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Trip End
Ongoing
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Queenstown, New Zealand
Sunday, September 25, 2005
It seems ages since I've seen my new housemates. Of late, we've been passing like ships in the night as I've generally been coming and going nocturnally from work. When I have bumped in to them briefly, the exchange has been really great and bubbly and friendly, as if we've known each other for years. I'm really happy there and looking forward to some good times. The reason I've become a temporary 'full-time' nocturnal is that I've managed to score some extra hours all week this week (which is great after losing them last week due to my bloated bitching foot.) Plus, the extra hours have had nothing to do with my normal job so it's been a much welcomed bonus. A bunch of Air New Zealand staff have gone on strike and some of them have been getting into the airport during the night and meddling with some of the equipment so we've been assigned to secure the place - me and Ade that is. Spending the last few nights at the airport has been quite a unique experience, sitting in the dark like ninjas all stealth-like with bright blinking eyes. We've clocked up some nice thirteen and fourteen hour shifts though. My sleep's all over the place but the fund pot should start to swell again soon. Ade (''I like-a the berbs') has been teaching me a bit of Portuguese and I can now say his name really fast (JoseAdeilsonFerreraSantos.) In return I've helped him pronounce the letter 'y'. The extra shifts have given me a bit of time to catch up with other things too. I've finished another brief community article for Travelpod which has been long overdue and have managed to pick up another book which I'd forced myself to hold back from starting until I got the article finished. This time, I'm picking up where I left off with Dave Pelzer's child abuse story after suffering through the first part earlier in the year. I bought his three-in-one called 'My Story' in Queenstown back in April and have been itching to see it through to the end.
I've also gotten to know Ade Estrada a lot better. He's a dark horse and although there's the language barrier, it's got a lot easier now. He's a real good bloke and really deep too which has made me see him in a different light. He's been here for about eighteen months now and is one of the rare few that I've met who is travelling alone and in a similar way and for similar reasons to me. Over the last year, I've met very few like that. Most people are either whizzing round on a one-year 'round-the-world ticket', passing swiftly through New Zealand (and are gutted because they only allowed a couple of weeks or so in New Zealand, saving the majority of their Pacific time for Australia and now regret not having longer here now that they've seen how stunning it is) or are in New Zealand on a working holiday visa for their 'year-out' before flying 'home'. Most people I've met so far are either doing one or the other, never the 'other'. We've shared a lot about where we've come 'from' and the way of life and way of thinking that we've left behind, and although our cultures are different and we're from opposite ends of the world, the similarities are staggering. It's been an interesting few days. We've made our own entertainment where necessary too (belching and bellowing strange voices over the airport tannoy in the middle of the night, or taking it in turns to push each other around the departure lounge a-la Nigel Mansell in one of the wheelchairs - proving the theory that above all else, we're all still children.) I guess spending around thirteen hours a day with someone in the dark does wonders for your bonding and provokes certain childish behaviour.
I've decided that the hair's got to come off. I've been in two minds about it for a while now. I think I've been kidding myself that the long hair experiment was the way forward for me, or at least an 'option'. It's not. Like socks with sandals, long hair and my unusual head is a universal 'NO'. It's fundamentally wrong. I heard the words 'David' and 'Hasselhoff' flutter in my direction the other day and that was the final straw. I draw the line at being called 'Hoff'. Ah well, I lasted nine whole months.
I guess the entries on the ole 'logue' will start calming down a bit now that I've reached this little pit-stop. I'll keep 'checking in' from time to time or shout up if something significant, important, funny or deep and meaningful happens, or even if I get a bright idea (?) or breakout on another adventure (which is long overdue.) Come to think of it, Hidden Island is still winking and calling. It's definitely on the cards..
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