Of Belt-Tightening and French Maids

Back in Queenstown i do be. Met up with yet another bum from Ireland when i did. A fello called Rob that i used work with in ISI is over for a week so we are just having a few drinky-poos and what not, none of the expensive stuff. I think he might have gotten the wrong impression of the place though cuz the first pub we went into was strangely enough filled with attractive women dressed in French Maid outfits, believe it or not this is not the usual scenario in Queenstown bars. So we hung around there for a while as the girls were now on the tables and bar dancing around, which was nice, the bar staff were all taking pictures fro0m behind and below. Anyhow after a while the DJ cam on the speakers and announced how "hot it was getting, maybe we need some......firemen!!!" At which stage a ton of guys in firemen outfits ran in, at which stage we left.

So bar the occasional drinking not much going on, i am back in the Black Shep in a proper warm, clean room without condensation on the windows and dripping from the roof. Will be here for 2 weeks then have to move again. goingtop be pro-active this time and book a proper hostel a few weeks in advance. See i have also looked at my bank account and it is not doing that well. Anna's visit really took a lot out of it, typical women. So i have decided to tighten up the bootstraps and give myself a budget and try and stick to it. Cutting down on all my stupid expences, which unfortunately involve all my internet time. I am a member of the gym and library and have a ski pass so hopefully if i justy stick to those things i will not be tempted to spend that much else. I am not in dire straits by any means but just cant continue like i have been spending.

I joined a job agency in town and will wait for a call from them but i think that i will also start randomly sending my CV to a few of the hotels around the place and see tdo they have any wokr. I do not want a full time job though, cuz that would just make all the money i spent no snow boarding stuff a waste of money, 15-30 hours a week is what i am looking for.

On another random note however, i was walking down to the gym last night when i saw this guy practising Capoeira over by the lake front. I went over and asked him if he knew of any classes that go on around town and while he mentioned one or two he invited me to go training with him a few times a week. I told him i had only been doing it a year or two cuz he was pretty class and it turned out he had been doing it 20 years, but he said that that was no problem as it is just easier to train with somebody else and that he would be able to teach me some stuff as well. So hopefully i will start getting my 1 on 1 free capoeira lessons next week. Then after talking to him and walking 50 yards down the road i met another South American guy i know (they are common as dirt over here) and his friends, also from South America. I got talking to them and it turnes out they are looking for a house, gave them my number and we may go looking this weekend. Then while in the gym got talking to a guy about his tattoo and it turned out he was from Ennis, its a small world.

Thats one thing that weird over here. When you are travelling on your own you have to learn to be self-sufficient, or insular as one girl i was talking to about it said. If you are not with a group then you have to get used to spending a lot of time just on your own and learning to be happy with that. But you also have to learn to be more out-going and willing to talk to complete random strangers, to initiate conversation with people anywhere cuz otherwise you will never make any headway. Have to admit that was not very easy for me at the beginning but you get used to it.

I will be well insular this weekend though. Have pre-ordered the new Harry Potter book and will be picking it up on Saturday morning. Its being released at 11 o clock in the morning over here so i though, "super, i will get to read it before all ye bums back home" then i realised that with the time difference it would be just about midnihgt in Ireland ant thats when the big releases are at back home, grrr. Will probably spend the weekend reading that, its nearly 800 pages long so i should finish it in a day or so, a day if i dont sleep til late. Sounds like a plan.

Where Paul talks about the Harry Potter Film

Will try not and give away spoilers but tough if i do. Plus i presume this will be of no interest whatsoever to Steve and Pa, philistines that they are. So just back from ye olde Harry Potter film. Went with three fellow hostel people in this pretty sweet cinema. It was real old and had been a theatre for decades so there was big sweeping stairs, fancy foyer, vaulted roofs and class balconies and stuff in the cinema room, cant really call itjust the 'screen' cuz it was prett big. Anyway the cinema was nice.

First impressions coming out of the movie was "Is that it?". Found it very underwhelming to be honest. Perhaps it is the book that it is based on. Order of the Phoenix is actually one of the best books in my opinion, mostly because the story actually starts going somewhere, its pretty big, and not as childish as the first few. I think that might have been the problem though, turning that type of book into a film was always going to be a tall order.

First of all they of course had to cut out large amounts of the story in order to make it a watchable length. It was a little over 2 hours long i think. So for fans of the book like myself it was a bt frustrating that they left out bits that i would have thought were important or just interesting. But then for people who did not read the book it seems a bit disjointed at times as they seem to take for granted that people will know what is happening behind the scenes. I seem to remember thinking the same after the last movie, but not to the same degree. It parts this one definately seemed rushed and too much was happening in too little time, the obligitary montages were trying to pack to much in and were leaving too much out.

The fact that this book was more of a placeholder in the series and was a bit more about character and plot development rather than action always meant that it was going to be an odd one. Even though it was relatively long it was all just buildig up to the climax at the end and so i felt not much was going on in between. Lots of Harry Potter being angry and angsty and the others trying to be understanding. Although saying that yerman Danieal Radcliff was far better in this than he was in others, perhaps cuz he did not have to do much except mope. He is not really looking much like a 14 yearold though. Guess its easier to make a 20-year old look 17 ala Dawsons Creek thatn to make a 17 ear old look 14. Yerone who played Hermione got a bit annoying after a while, just seemed to be outraged about stuff the whole time with her eyebrows going crazy and runing around in her peadophiles dream-jumper.

The ending was pretty class all the same but not sure if it was worth waiting for. I am definately glad i went to see it though, kind of had to be done. Roll on the 26th, have the book ordered.

Looking at vegtables causes cancer

Ai-yi-yi, here is me looking chuffed, why? The weather has been brilliant the last few days after the rain blew itself out. I went to the beach yesterday and just lazed around with Lacy and read books. The place is really nice, its a forest that runs right down to the coast so you have the sea, the beach, thick forest. I got a wee bit burnt but nothing like what happened me a month or two ago. Fun was had an i started a few good books. I am thinking of going down to New Paltz in a week or two and it will be around 8 hours travelling each way so i am trying to find a stock of books to keep me going. I worked it out and if i get the 9:15 bus from Rockland i should be in New Paltz by 8:30 that night and that included an hour stop in New York and Boston. I am looking into it and got some good news today when one of the girls in work said it is usually not much of a problem to get days off after labour day which is monday.

So anyway i went to see Transporter2 yesterday with Cliff, my man-date. The film was alright, it was almost a parody of the genre at some stages and was sometimes so cheesy that you had to laugh but twas enjoyable. I was talking to Cliff afterwards and it turns out he is a screen-writer for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, unfortunately i dont watch it much so i did not know much about it but it seems pretty cool. He knows that guy who played Keller in Oz which Steve might understand. We got talking about borad-games afterwards cuz he is a complete afficiado and he gave me a few suggestions about some games that we might get for Christmas. Unfortunately our nerdy conversation was broken up by the women who had gone off and gotten very drunk on their own. We went back to bi-polar Bettys place and just hung around there. I got on really well with her last night actuall, i showed her how to do Irish dancing and we bonded over our shared appreciation of the Carpenters. All in all very confusing.

So since i was not starting work til half 2 today i went kayaking with this woman who comes into the store a lot and is fascinated with Ireland and all things Celtic. Still i got to ramble on about home while we went paddling out the coast to her families Island. It was scorching hot out and the water was just beautiful, it made me really glad to be here. At the minute i am just back from work and i am exausted. I was closing in the store today and while i enjoy it, it means that i sometimes finish quite late. Still i managed to get another invitation to go play World of Warcraft again so that is cool. Apologies for the brevity and mundanity of the post but perhaps i shall have more to say tomorrow. It is kind of hard to make everyday things sound exciting.

Mainly a Nerd-fest only Steve would understand, also a callout to Pa.

So I am just after finishing watching a new anime film called Steam-Boy. It was good enough, set in a alternative reality in London during the 1890’s. While it was a Japanese Sony production it obviously had a lot of British people in it, the characters were all from Manchester and you could tell and in one shot of Manchestor there is this green pub called ‘Rovers Return’. Those funny-eyes japs would not understand that! I was also watching the previews of upcoming film and there was one that I think Steve would like, its Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and it looks fucking class, I know its called FF:7 but it seems to be about Tidus and I think I saw Yuna and Wakka in it too. Of course this is completely over the heads of ye non computer geeks. The whole thing is done like the cut-scenes from the game. Check it out on ye olde inter-net.

Work is going good, Sunday was excellent. I was in charge of the books for the day and so I just chillaxed in my bare feet for most of it. While I had to do a bit of cleaning after the crowds of The Lobster Festival I was also given a very important task. Yes between much subtle influencing of Suzanne and sleeping with my manager I have managed to convince them to get graphic novels for the store! So on Sunday I was given the task of going on Amazon and ordering 15 of the best one-off graphic novels I could think of. I LOVE MY FUCKING JOB! As it is only a trial thing I left off the heavy bloody ones like Preacher, Constantine, Authority and DV8 and since we were not getting any series I could not get the Batman No-Man Lands, Transmetropolitan or the Sandman. In the end I picked a few Swamp-thing, a few JLA, Amalgam, Batman and Y. We had to get ones that would be the most popular rather than the best art or writing.

I met a woman from Dublin today in the store. It was weird how I realised it. Unlike New Paltz, where I was surrounded by 4 other irish people most of the time, here I am only talking to Americans. I still however notice their accent, but when this woman gave her order it seemed to me that she had no accent whatsoever. Its like the Americans voice are distorted by their accent and an irish voice comes through strong and clear. Anyway she is from Dublin and just over for a few weeks.

I have suddenly realised that since I came over I have worn long pants only 4 times. The weather has been so nice ever since I came here I am just living in my shorts. Luckily I bought another three pairs when I came here. Appearantly this has been one of the sunniest and driest summers on record over here. Since I arrived we have had an average temperature of around the low twenties and a good few where it nearly reaches 30. I have just taken it for granted but Suzanne and Patrick are in awe of it. I just wake up and say ‘of look, another cloudless blue sky’.

Not a very interesting update I know but not much of interest has happened. I suppose I should give a call out to Pa in case he explodes in a bloody mess of profanities. I am thinking of you sweetie and I have sent you a little present, it should be there in a week or two. An email would be nice though.

So long and goodnight all.

Ar n-Athair ata ar neamh

How do, all my crew? You will all be glad to hear that most of my afflictions have gone down. Thanks to copious amounts of sleep and self-medicating the mosquito bites have faded and i have avoided getting any more. The reason my sunburn was so bad was that the skin was too cracked to put Aloe on it so i just left it and that made it worse but now that i am putting on Savlon cream and some herbal stuff it is healing very nicely and no longer stops me sleeping. Plus my sunburn as a whole has died down and i am now peeling, which means i have loads of skin to eat, Hurrah

I went to go see Fantastic Four yesterday as it was my day off. Noone else was around so i ended up cycling up on my own. I was pretty disappointed in it to tell the truth. Absolutely full of product placement, cheesy acting and it committed the biggest comic-book adaptation mistake of not remaining true to the comics. On the other hand i did see some good trailers before hand, Tim Burton's 'The Corpse Bride' looks promising and does 'The Island'. Another chop-socky action one that seems like it may entertain Steve is 'Transporter2', now admittedly the original Transporter was just a mediocore homo-erotic excuse for Jason Statham to take off his top as much as possible and writhe around in oil but this one seems pretty class. He fights a bit like Jackie Chan with lots of props and it seems pretty real, no invible ropes. I shall check in out come September.

I also went to a poetry reading down in the cafe (or The Read as we call it) last night. It was class. It was a Beat Night and everyone had to dress up in black and there were candy cigerettes passed around, people wore berets and when ever someone read you would click your fingers and go 'yaaahh'. It was a complete piss-take but it was pretty funny. We also had a trumpet player and a double bassist who were doing improv behind us. I went up and did one called 'Our Father' which was actually just the Our Father in Irish, i told them however that it was a olde heartwrenching poem about a mans connection to the land lost to the British and a family lost to the famine. Stupid americans. I only found out afterwards that it was being broadcast and was also streaming on the net so ye could have listened in. Ye may get a chance again in the future as one of my managers does a radio show every Monday and she said she may let me have her slot one week if i wanted. I am thinking of doing 2 hours of Irish music, ie Frames, Mundy Juliet Turner, Aslan, Damien Rice, Snow Patrol (they are irish yes?) Keane (again i am presuming they are irish), some Even Better than the Reel Thing, BellX1, The Thrills and maybe, maybe some U2. I am limited to what i have on my laptop you see, i dont actually have any Cranberries which is a pity. Closer to the date i will give ye the address and my probable playlist so ye can make suggestions, [that does not include steve as he is a musical cretin]

Okay so after the beat night myself and Suzanne went to the bar were we had a little talk. You see my 'work-related dilemma' was that for the last month i have been 'seeing' my manager in work, who for now one will be called The Madam. Now we have been keeping it on the sly as we were not sure how Suzanne and our other supervisors would react. The chain of command is me, the The Madam in charge of the books, the Yvonne the manager of the cafe as a whole then Suzanne who owned the Cafe and the bookshop and the coffee roasters. I did not like lying to Suzanne however and since she is an intelligent woman i think she was getting suspicious about the amount of time i spent 'watching videos' over in The Madams so i brought her to the pub, got her a few whiskys and then told her. She was thankfully alright with it which is a great relief, The Madam had told me that they usually make a point of not hiring people going out as it complicates things but i think we have been very well behaved in work and noone knows bar one girl who saw a mark on my neck and has been giving me slack about it since. I killed her last week.

Oh and one more thing, i was walking down town the other day and in many shop windows there are these professional pictures of individual kids with a sign saying 'Rick, a celebration of adoption'. Now i thought, "how nice, this must be kids who have just got homes". How wrong i was, it turns out that these kids are looking for homes! Yes its kind of like Have a look at these orphens and if you see a cute one you can bring it home. Yes buying children is still alive and well in the States.

amen

edit: i just finished the entire 1st season of Arrested Development, it was fucking class. Cant wait for Season 2

Home Comforts?

Hmmmmm, I am just finished the new Harry Potter book. I don’t know what to make of it. It must be good as I really want the next one and feel shocked after reading it. The books are getting more and more adult and I do not know how they will make this one into a kids film. There is a girl in work who I know has read it so I will talk to her about it tomorrow.

Oh and today was not a good day in work. Although the day itself started out well enough. I’ll start from the beginning. I got up at half nine and after breakfast and was then picked up and went for a swim in the quarry. This time we were completely alone and it was amazing, in the middle of a forest and it was really misty, highly enjoyable. I then came back home at around half twelve and thinking that I did not have work til half one I decided to watch an episode of Arrested Development. At around 10 past one the phone started ringing and I was suddenly filled with dread, I raced upstairs to check my timetable and to my horror I saw that I was supposed to be in work at half 12! I fucking sprinted down and just got in as my supervisor was ringing my boss at home to see did she know where I was. She was not at all pleased. I was pissed as well cuz it was my fault and I felt bad.

The problem with my supervisor on the coffee counter is this. She is completely bi-polar. She used to be a cocaine addict but kicked the habit a few years ago but now is completely unpredictable. Liam and Amanda may remember the barmaid in P&G’s. Now Kiai is completely like that but thankfully she is nice the majority of the time. I have gone to a few barbeques with her and myself and her have gone to the cinema a few times. Plus she offered to bring me to Portland on my days off. The problem is in work when I cannot begin to fathom which way the capricious winds of her humour will blow. She will either be completely sarcastic, condescending or plain ignorant. ON the other hand she could be charming, genuinely interested in what I am saying or really funny. These moods can switch in a heartbeat and it is beginning to put a downer when I am working the coffee counter. I end up just being very polite and neutral with her which I don’t enjoy. Perhaps the problem is that we are friends outside work and she does not know how to handle it. From my point of view I am not intimidated or threatened by her at all and perhaps a bit disrespectful, if she slags me I return the favour so maybe she is trying to be a real boss in work to compensate. Who can know the mind of a woman.

In other news I got a call from my mother last night. It turns out that next Friday my father, brother and uncle are flying into Boston and coming up to visit. Truth be told, and keep them hush, I am not too sure how I feel about this. I mean it will be great to see them and chances are they will be here for my birthday but they are putting me in an awkward position. I am not, and no offence to anyone, in the slightest bit home-sick here. I am enjoying myself immensely and rarely feel a longing for stuff like I did in New Paltz. I am really looking forward to going home in October but at the same time I am really looking forward to the next 10 weeks here. I am not crying out to see familiar faces is what I am trying to say. Plus I do not know what to do with them. My uncle is ill and in a wheel-chair and my brother is only 12 so entertainment is limited there. Getting time off work is also going to be very difficult, it will involve going to the afore-mentioned boss and asking a favour. Plus they are coming on a Friday and on the following Wednesday a Lobster Festival starts here and it is the busiest time of the entire year, eclipsing the Blues Festival exponentially. It will be good to see them but I forsee problems.

Hmm, the Winds are changing

Aye yi yi folks, looks like it is going to be another three hour sllep night. Just in now and am due to get up again at six, although i suppose that is around 4 hours so thats okay. You will never guess what is sitting here in my room at this very minute, thats right the 6th Harry Potter book, known as HPATHBP from now on. Yes one of the joys of working in a bookshop is that we get things before they go on sale so very illegally Suzanne brought one home for me a day before ye plebs got it. Hurrah, now when the last one came out oh so long ago i started it at eleven at night and had it finished by five the next moring. This one is a similar length and i had intended starting it when unfortunatley i had to go watch videos, damn rodents!

Today was one of the laziest days i have had, the sun was absolutely splitting the rocks so after the gym i went out on the Hammock with my book War in a Time of peace (a detailed look at the Administrations of the Bush, CLinton and Bush Jnr Presidencies) and did some study. Being now completely paranoifd about mosquitoes the same way cattle is around electric fences i slathered myself in sun cream and added liberal amounts of Deet, which is an industiral insect repellent that also keeps away 90% of other living organisms. After a while i was getting hot so i decided the best way to get a tan is not lying on your back in a wife-beater so i took that off and did some gardening to get an overall colour. NOw after a while i decided to go back in and discovered too things, one very good and the other very bad. Good news first, i had only gotten bitten once in the entire time and instead of swelling up and ballooning to obscene portions it was already fading, my body was finally not going into anahepeltic shock every time i was bitten by a measly bug. ON the other hand i saw that i had unfortunately got burnt....on the fromt.....while i was wearing the vest. I now have strap marks and it looks like i got burnt while wearing a bra which people seem to find very funny. but not me, i also got burnt on the insode of my knees and on my ankles, talk about random.

Anyway i am off ot bed to try and procure some of Morpheous sweet Lethe-derived draft, i dont even know why i wasted time writting this, tis ful of mistakes, as Treebeard would say, HARRUMPH!!

A Revelation

Today i went to rent some videos (Jackie Chan: The Legend of the Drunken Boxer if you must know) and i suddenly realised something, no longer do i have the squabbling, grunting psuedo-mature proles telling me what i can and cannot watch, finally i have complete freedom to rent whatever visually mind-expanding, culturally challenging, ethnic and imagination-driven movies i want. Tomorrow i will get Electra

Happy as a Pig in Shite

Ahh yes, lying in bed after a nice lie-in. I was up til all hours last night with Suzanne, my 55yr old boss/landlord. Turns out she is a huge fantasy/kung-fu fanatic so we got out two Jet-Ki movies (Legend 1 & 2, brilliant really funny and some really good fights, daft as a stick though) and talked about the respective strenghts and weaknesses of the Wheel of Time Series and the LOTR movie adaptations. I have the entire day off again and i am lost as to what to do. I would nearly prefere to go onto work for a while.

I cant hold it in

I did something dirty today, there is a Gathering type store in town. I bought the new White dwarf. There were paint sets and new Wood Elves are looking so good!