Auckland, where the Orcs come from

I have been having a difficult time responding when people ask me "So, how was the Big Day Out?"
Usually its been "Wow" followed by a look of complete disbelief and a shake of the head as if to say "I really can't compute let alone verbalise how truly awesome the Big Day Out was".
But the whole trip was just really cool.
We stayed with the lovely Katy in poncy Parnell the first night, and went out for dinner, as Nike and myself were both craving steak of some description. We had possibly the most annoying French waiter, who thought he was all that and a packet of crisps, but once we'd dealt to him it was cool to just catch up. And the steak was good. We also went shopping in Onehunga's huge DressSmart, and got some bargains. Bargains good.
Thursday was fairly cruisy, involving a late lunch in a cute wee cafe, although again with the good food and crap service. After a trip to the Swiss Butcher where Nike and Sina spent up large on German style sausage and assorted pork products, it was back to Greg's for some serious sofa time. There was beer, there was food, and there was "Super Size Me", which made for a very cool evening which could have probably stayed at just that, but we had the urge to head townwards and mingle with the beautiful people. And that we did, arriving home about 2.30am, putting an interesting spin on our breakfast with Sina's friend at 7.00 the next morning. After fruit salad and pastries in Remuera (living it up with the rich folk, yeah) we took off to Kelly Tarleton's and hung out with the sting rays and penguins and fishies.
Penguins are awesome. I want one.
Then back to Greg's for a huge protein-fix fry up to give us energy to make it through our Big Day, where we arrived at 1pm, just in time to catch the truly Cool The Donna's. Rock and roll.
I was also witness to the John Butler Trio, Powderfinger, System of a Down and The Hives. Scribe and P-Money bought several of their friends: Con-Psy, Savage, Four Corners and Blindspott of all bands, with whom they did an awesome mash up of "Lit Up" vs. "Stand Up". Cool, and very slick. You could tell he was chuffed to be playing the main stage.
Shihad, who thankfully are back to being Shihad again, enough of this Pacifier nonsense, were their usual fucking awesome, but they were plagued a little by technical problems. Not to the scale of 2003, when Queens of the Stone Age had to abandon their set after two songs, but it was noticeable. Jon Toogood is just the best rock star I think I've seen, hes a real pro. He got the audience psyched up before every song, and was striking the poses and playing the guitar like a mad demon. Which of course, he is. They played some stuff off their new record too, which sounds as if it may be vastly superior to the previous one. The whole Pacifier thing was a bad idea, it was a stupid name and the Pacifier album was their weakest yet. So way to be Shihad again, both in name and music. yeah.
And then, there were the Beastie Boys.
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
I still think I can't quite compute how utterly awesome that experience was. They were so professional and funky and exhilarating and energetic and loud and iconic and bouncy and shiny and familiar and polished and happy and including the audience and not like some acts that are performing on autopilot. Its fairly safe to say that hour and a half that they played was definately in my top three best gigs of all time. If not number one.
Words cannot do it justice. Its almost like those religious experiences the God-botherers go on about. OK maybe not, but seeing as how I am without religion, I'll have to get it where I can.
And to top it off, once they'd finished, and then came back to do "Intergalactic" and "Sabotage" (which they dedicated to the freshly re-inagurated monkey boy president of their home country. Nice.) I got to head to the Boiler Room and see the Chemical Brothers. And sweat out my own body weight for the third time that day.
It was one of the best days ever.
And then, the next morning Carlos (my sister's Chilean boyfriend) came and picked us up and took us to my sister's house in Leigh, about an hour north of Auckland, and we went snorkelling and saw loads of fish and cool stuff and a big scary sting ray that wanted to bite me, I could just tell. And then Emma cooked us a big feed, and we chilled out and talked about stuff and things, and I slept on a bed for the first time since Tuesday night, and then on Sunday we went back to Auckland and went up the Skytower, which I wanted to jump off, but was ridiculously expensive. $195 for a static line jump, at half the natural speed of falling, not even any decent bungy jump action. So we said bollocks to that, and went to the airport and came home, truly knackered.
As of today I have exactly five weeks before my thesis ABSOLUTELY MUST be handed in, so the next few weeks are going to be interesting. Especially as how I've got loads of project work to be done and will be working loads more at the restaurant because Pip's doctor has decided that he wants to change his holiday time, and he will be taking out the pins and bolts and things out of her broken leg two weeks early which is when Carlie will be in Australia so we'll be two supervisors down which is fairly significant when there's only three full time supervisors. And term starts in three weeks and I'll have to start taking some tutorials as well. Oh yeah, moulding the minds of youth!!
So thats put the kybosh on the triathalon and any decent sleep for the next month.
Speaking of work, thats where I'll be going to now.
Have a super day, and remember that the Beastie Boys do indeed rule.