2 glasses of red wine Friday night ; hangover Saturday morning.
Numerous glasses of wine, more than 2 Vodka Cruisers ; no hangover Sunday morning.
Tonight my experiments with alcohol and the human nervous system continue.
I am due to meet up with Bloo aka Stu, an old-school friend of Stan's. He is on the NZ leg of his world tour & I plan
to take him to the Clubhouse in Cambridge (by way of a change from the Albert) for food, beer & pool.
Check out his travels at www.bloo4u.blogspot.com
Last night was a slightly disappointing night, the way they often are when you hope they will be good.
We started off at a beer festival at The National Hotel in Cambridge. This is a biker's haunt & it was, indeed
full of interesting 'characters'. We had been tempted by the $10 entry which promised 'continuous food'
together with a band and a DJ.
The band, unsurprisingly perhaps at a biker's pub, favoured the GnR, AC/DC type stuff & when by 9.30pm
the promised food still hadn't materialised & the drizzle was starting to curl the newly-straightened hair,
yours truly was starting to feel a tad precious. It must be noted that my food intake on Saturday consisted of
a cheese sandwich at lunch to 'save room for the food in the evening' so I was hungry to say the least.
My polite enquiry at the bar was met with the reply 'The chef's closed the kitchen' accompanied by a smile & a shrug
of the shoulders. My policy of not complaining in NZ is mostly because there isn't much to complain about but also
because 'I'm on holiday' so I restricted myself to a look to convey my hunger & displeasure.
My ice-laden stare must have worked better than I realised. Some 10 minutes later, our party was approached
in the gardens, not once, but thrice by nervous-looking waitresses laden with sausages in bread.
I would like to say sausages in rolls but there is a bread shortage in NZ & every sausage comes inadequately
wrapped in one sad slice of bread. Splash out for the tourists guys, give us 2 slices. Please ?
The fact that these girls wound their way past other ravenous headbangers to get to us 1st spoke volumes.
Well done The National.
Once rain stopped play we headed off to ... where else ?
Unfortunately, there was also a band here too, who despite being a squigillion times better that the one at
The National, were playing stuff which just wasn't 'dancable to'. Think Ugly Kid Joe & my song for Millie.
So, we had a decent night, but it's never a classic for me unless I get to embarrass myself (& my party) on the floor.
Last night was memorable for the fact that we met our 1st belligerent drunk Kiwi.
Whilst waiting for the cab at the end of the night we were approached by an extremely tedious boor.
The usual tactics of politely asking him to go away, followed up with cutting him out of the group & then walking away
were all met with enthusiastic swearing as he assured us he was only trying to 'brighten our night up'.
Claire's observation that he had an extremely limited vocabulary just made him the more determined to impress
us with the f-word. Once the mini-van taxi arrived, who piled into the front seat ? By now, things were quite heated
with the man advising us that we were pig islanders & Brit bitches in 'his territory'.
Lyn's assertion that she was in fact, a Kiwi, was ignored.
I was on the verge of asking the taxi driver to stop & drop the bloke in the middle of nowhere when it turned out
he lived in the road we were in. We then explored every driveway in the dark at 0330 because Einstein was too
drunk to recognise his own house. We didn't get much mileage out of that, as you can imagine.
This incident won't sound unusual or isolated to anyone reading this in the UK, but he was the first real p-i-t-a
we have encountered whilst socialising. Shame it had to be on my last night out with the girls, but not bad
when you consider how many really lovely Kiwis we have met.
Right, enough being indoors, the house smells & I need a shower & some fresh air.
5 more days of work left, then a proper break for a few days.
Bill has offered the loan of a tent & I am planning some time away, walking, camping, relaxing & exploring
the top of the North Island. Sounds good doesn't it ?
Oh yes, I almost forgot. I haven't watched any of the 6 Nations but am reliably informed we came 3rd after
the French & the Irish. I want to explain something to forestall the enquiries I keep fielding from Kiwis
anxious to rub it in about the lacklustre performance of the team.
Imagine The All Blacks have just won the World Cup.
They played the final with style, verve & panache against worthy opponents.
They won in the last heartbeat of te game & accepted victory gracefully.
Now imagine your local team have lost a round of Super 12. You are an Aucklander for example
& The Blues have lost to The Chiefs (oh yes, they did didn't they ?)
Anyway, this is how relevant it is to ask a Pom how they feel about the losing the 6 Nations.
It would be nice to win it, of course, but in the grand scheme of rugby, when your team have
proved themselves on the international stage, it matters not a jot.
The End.
Not quite, cos England managed to beat someone at cricket. Now that's truly remarkable.
Wonder if Bloo will let me watch Kiwi Idol before we head out ?
Cx
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