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Yo yo yo!
It is March and the sun is shining. I will be 28 in only a few weeks and am now a qualified Divemaster. Upon reflection I realise that I am having a great time in New Zealand and have made some really great friends over here.
I want to keep this postcard light and short as my last few have been huge and even I couldn’t be bothered to read them. The reason they are so long is I am using them as a kind of diary. This site can make a hard copy of my site as a memory travel diary thingie! So I thought I should keep all the details up to date and actually have some detail. When I am old and boring I can show my kids, and anyone else that will listen, that I was cool once. I know, I know! I will never be boring, maybe I just need to lighten up on some of the details…
I finished my Divemaster training the other weekend and celebrated it in an unusual way. Every time I pass something I usually get pissed as is the norm but this time myself and my flatmate went night swimming in Mission Bay. Actually I lie a little, we did drink two bottles of wine which I believe had something to do with us going skinny dipping! Just for the record, my flatmate is female and a good mate, no improprieties went on. Also, it was not the big pig of a flatmate that I have complained about in the past – it would take an entire vineyard and a crack over the head with a shovel for me to even consider going out of the apartment with her let along go skinny dipping with her. I love diving for all the things you see, it would be wrong of me to inflict her upon any sea creatures!
Before I had even finished my DM training the guys that I dive with had enlisted me to do my instructor training with them! I was going to do my Instructor training with SDI rather than PADI, but it looks like the dive shop may drop SDI courses. So it would be a waste of my time doing it with SDI. The reason for doing SDI rather than PADI is that I could do it for free as long as I taught three full courses afterwards for free. That suited me because I am working for free already so what was another 8 weekends. However, PADI costs over NZ$3,500 for the course and exam. The books cost another NZ$500!
So I think I will leave it for a while until I have built up my savings after my trip to Europe. Work is as boring as even but having great friends and a great past time makes it easy to forget about it once I walk out the door. This was something I could never do in the past – I used to worry far too much about work. When I lived in the UK my mates were all over the country and so seeing them usually required some orgaisation. Whereas now, all of us live within a couple of miles of each other. It has been a long time since it has been like that for me.
I do miss my mates in the UK and am really looking forward to seeing everyone when I go over in June. The only person I won’t be able to see is Si as he now lives in San Fran and I could not get a flight via the States as there was no availability. I am going to try and go off the booze again for a few months to get back into shape as I know June will be a big drinking month. Why is it every time I decide to give up the booze again something big is coming up – this month I have Paddy’s Day and my birthday. I suppose it will prove my dedication to the cause – I recon I won’t succeed, but lets just keep that between us.
Okay folks, this is where I start writing the possible boring stuff, for the sake of historical records you understand. It is your call to read on from here.
Okay, I did warm you. Well seen as you have continued I will just throw down the basics. Other cool stuff that I got up to in Feb was going to see Snow Patrol perform and going to the first Annual New Zealand Beer Festival. I will be putting pics on the site soon of both. When I saw U2 back in 2005 Snow Patrol were supporting them but we couldn’t be bothered to go and see them. Less than two years later I am paying $70 to go and see them. They were very good but only played for 90 minutes. Considering they have four albums and the cost of the ticket I expected more. All in all it was a fun night but not worth $70. Myself and Shaun did hook up with two girls outside waiting for a cab and went back into the city and carried on the night with them. A good time was had by all.
The beer festival was good fun albeit badly organised. Given it was the first one it went very well. Apart from most of the stalls running out of beer and trying one beer that tasted like licking an ashtray all the beer was great. The bands that were on were very good as well.
Myself and Trent had a 30th birthday party to go to afterwards so maybe going to a beer fest before hand was not the best idea. By the time we got there I was feeling quite tired and had foolishly promised to do some of the cooking (just my world famous salsa and guac). I had also come up with three special cocktails for the night as well. As I thought the one with chocolate and cream went down the best. The name given by the ladies at the party was “lick it please”. Not as classy as I would have hoped for a name but it did the trick. There was some very good looking ladies at the party, but as it happens at 30th birthdays, most were already hooked up.
There was one girl which I must get the number for but as she was one of the girls that helped with organising the party she was all over the place and I was too tired to turn on the charm and chase her all night long. Another time maybe? It didn’t help that her name is quite difficult to pronounce. By about 11.30 myself and Trent had had enough and headed home.
Well thanks for enduring my ramblings this long. So much for a short postcard. I consider myself a very lucky person to know so many people that I can call friends. Christ, that sounds like a chick thing to say. Wow, I must be such a sensitive guy – to all the ladies reading this I am free most evenings!!
Until next time, Em.
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