Bright Lights, Big City...

Ah, Auckland.
I haven’t been out of my cosy little seaside community since I arrived in February and now I’m back in New Zealand’s largest city.
It’s a bit of a shock.
I have to resist saying ‘hello’ to strangers as they walk past, this is no place for random chats with shop assistants or waving at boys in cars.
I’m made suddenly aware of my mismatching clothes when I catch sight of giggling school kids pointing at my ‘all my clothes at once ‘cos it’s so bloomin’ chilly’ ensemble.
I try to rise above such childish behaviour but it’s difficult when my flip-flops are refusing to grip the rain soaked pavement and each step slides into groin-straining proportions.
I seek refuge in my favourite spot in Auckland, the ‘Tepid Water Baths’.
(It’s a misnomer; the water’s freezing...)
In an attempt to warm my blood after a pathetically short training session I enter the sauna.
I start chatting to a British ex-pat called Ian.
It turns out he knows my friend Mark from Raglan.
But of course!
On the way back to my lodgings I bump into the only person I vaguely know in Auckland, Laura’s Swedish mate, Jonas.
This place is surprisingly, and refreshingly, ‘small-town’ after all.
Well, until i'm kept awake all night by the squadron of noisy transvestite prostitutes outside my window, anyway.

Wild thing, you make my heart sing...

If you stare into the eyes of a friendly cow or dog, you can feel a connection without common language or body-shape and movement. The eyes are enough. One animal contemplating another. It is not submissive or aggressive, totally passive or active. Simply there.
Holding the gaze is easy, you slip into free-falling emotions and thoughts that are disconnected from the present moment. You are connecting as a natural animal, freeing yourself from human complications and the idea of motive.
Alas, we quickly forget how this feels and what it might mean. How quickly we fall into social behaviour that is based on human culture rather than what we have labeled as ‘nature’.
We know we are human but forget that we are also animal. We are part of the world and its webs of organism interaction, not above it or apart from it.

As Printed in The Raglan Chronicle...

The Raglan Black netball girls have made a flying start to the season, finishing top of their section with an unbeaten record of five wins and one draw. By winning the VegeKing grading round, they have earned promotion to the Prem Reserves section, where they will face stiff opposition in forthcoming weeks.
Raglan Black has managed to maintain winning form despite the mid-season departure of star shooting partners, Tracy Whiu and Tania Irwin, demonstrating great teamwork and adaptability.
A big thank-you must go to sponsor ‘Harold Crake Decorators’, for providing such stylish, and useful, waterproofs and training tops.
Special thanks also to new ‘super-coach’, Addy Topia and team organisers, Loren Lee and Julia Darlington.
I would personally like to thank everyone for being so welcoming and supportive towards your lanky English Goal Keep, I’ll miss you all.
You can see the girls in action every Saturday at the impressive Minogue Park facilities in Hamilton. Check out www.sportingpulse.com, for fixture details, your support would be most welcome.

Team List Winter 2005

Julia Darlington
Tracy Whiu
Carla Tapara
Loren Lee
Tania Irwin
Gina Marcum
Kyra Smith
Tania Eckhold
Cheryl Toka
Camellia ( no-one knew her surname, so now she looks like a mono-name pop singer)
Sheree Gibson
Sally King

Right on, sister...

Guess what we won for coming top of our section?
Matching hand-towels!
Woo hoo!
Apparently, the Premier league season winners are presented with a washing machine each… how lovely. I know that I just can’t wait to re-chain myself to the kitchen sink and get back to some proper woman’s work after a match.

Darlin’ you got to let me know…

Should I stay or should I go?
(Insert appropriate guitar riff here…)

If I go there will be trouble…
· I will miss all my lovely Raglan friends
· I will have to start all over again; making new friends, finding somewhere to live, run, hang out, find employment, join a netball team, get new postal address, find new audience to sing to and beach to gaze at.
· I will miss out on all the amazing stories that I have yet to be told, but that I know are here.
· I’ll have to start paying for transport.
· I won’t get to wave at familiar faces in passing cars.
· I won’t ever climb Karioi
· Or get to those darn Bridal Veil Falls.
· Or Ruapuke beach, or Mussel Rock, or Kawhia, or Waingaro.
· I won’t be as inspired/inclined to write.
· I’ll just keep on, moving on, forever and ever… rolling stone gathering no moss.

If I stay it will be double…
· I won’t have as much time in other places in New Zealand.
· I might not be able to get as good a job as I could in a larger place.
· Erm, having trouble thinking of any more points…
· Nope. Nothing.
· Pretty much answers my question then.
· Yay!

snippet #1

Gale Warning! Gale Warning!
Wow. You should see the waves…

Oh, fruity...

I was having a really bad day at work when I opened the fridge door and saw that someone had arranged their fruit in, what can only be tastefully described as, an ‘erotic’ manner…
comic genius.

Beard stroking moment #3...

Every three weeks or so, the driver of the bus that I arrived on passes through Raglan.
I tend to bump into him when I’m on a run or shopping at 4-square supermarket.
I’ve been introduced to his passengers a couple of times as ‘the girl who got stuck in Raglan’.
It always makes me feel glad.
Eventually, I suppose, I will leave this place on his bus and I’ll be just another passenger again.

No fear...

I’m not scared of much. I doubt if there’s a creepy-crawly or other nasty creature that would truly terrify me. I don’t really like jellyfish, exclamation marks (!) (aghh!) (did it again!) (aghh! Can’t stop!), emoticons, people who start sentences with the words, “I know it’s not your fault but…”, or “No offence but…”, Kilroy Silk, bigots in general, loud noises or pan-pipe music, but there’s nothing that really makes me quiver.

False economics...

Some people have just checked into Solscape. It is dark, freezing cold (it was almost snowing a minute ago), incredibly wet and we are in the middle of a gale. Rather than shell out an extra 2 quid each and stay in a bed for the night, they are currently flailing atop the hill trying to erect their crummy cheapo tent…
Backpackers, you’ve got to love them.