hello

Good evening.

Life has been very good the last month. Having a car is equal luxury and necessity, allowing us to get up to some really cool things over the weekend. We went to Piha Beach, on the west coast, the beach famous for 'Piha Beach Rescue', a true Kiwi staple of television involving surfers getting dragged out and kids getting lost. We took a walk to the Kitekite Waterfall, a 6 tier jobby which was stunning. We've been to Waiwera Hot Pools, an industrial swimming pool complex though with hot water, a cinema and slides. We had a picnic by the beach. We walked round Western Springs, and visited the Butchers, which makes Countdown meat look like stuff of imitation. We also stumbled upon a Provincial Rugby game, Auckland v Northland, a friendly game for the upcoming ITM cup, and casually there were a few All Blacks playing. I've come to really love rugby here, the appetite for it is insatiable. If one of the ABs doesn't have a game at the weekend for whatever reason, he'll pop down to his local club and play 80minutes with the boys. Today's (Monday's) sport news was opened with build up to the AB's V Wallabies game on Saturday, pipping the Athletics World Champs, the Ashes, The Community Shield, the NRL, the US PGA  and Nadal beating Djokovic down the ranks. I watched the Chiefs beat the Brumbies to a second Super Rugby title, and fucking loved it. Down the pub, it was nerve-racking and brilliant.

My friend Toto has gone back to Brazil for the first time in 7 years, so we had a man-date consisting of Pool, a metre pizza and then to the civic, a beautiful and tacky theatre. There was a film on for the NZ film Festival, The Spectacular Now, which was very enjoyable. It was like a semi-art house coming of age movie, pretty generic though very well done, though the star of the place was the Civiv. It got re-done for the filming of King Kong, was very 'kitsch', though my favourite part was the ridiculously high ceiling where they mapped out the stars in fairy lights, only properly, so if the film got a bit slow I just looked up, it was stunning.

Part  of the reason life has been very good recently is that Auckland Life is coming to an end. Auckland has been very good to us, and can see myself living here in the future, though not just yet. We both are scratching at the door to start living life a bit more, rather then just zombie-ing through the weeks, with the previously distant goal of saving money, buying a van and going on an adventure. There's light at the end of the tunnel. We've written a final 'to-do' list, consisting of 30odd things that we have to slowly tick off. It reminds me a bit of when I went away first time round, slight nerves, the uncertainty, though I remind myself that I've done it before and it was the best decision I ever made, there's no need to be scared of the unknown, everything will be alright.

I'm really looking forward to having no obligations in my life. I'm fed up of being on Auto-pilot, of not having many imaginative thoughts, of waking up in the morning knowing what I'm going to do today and being unexcited about it, only to go to bed feeling no sense of achievement. I miss walking down streets I haven't walked down before, just for the sake of it. Or looking at shit differently, like buildings and trees and finding them marvelous, instead of pounding the same streets cursing work and wondering what I'm gonna cook for dinner.

I'm looking forward to seeing Hannah properly and happy. We see each other so sporadically that I think we feel pressured to do something worthwhile, something of note to tell each other and ourselves about when we recall what we got up to at the weekend. I'm looking forward to not being tired. Being able to get up whenever we want, and be able to go to bed early without the foreboding predictability of tomorrow lurking over. I'm looking forward to reading more, and simultaneously being able to spell again. Recently I've felt thick, uninteresting, kinda like my personal weather has been overcast. I'm really starting to get excited again, my travelling batteries are re-charged, patience has come back, freedom has become desired again. All of the amazing things I did prior to NZ seems like ages ago, like they happened to a different person. Where I've been in Auckland a while now, I don't feel amazed with NZ, and it's something I can't wait to rectify.

So yeah, things are going good. A little bit up and down, the waiting, the excitement, the nerves and panic of lots of things to get done which, no matter how well you try and manage it, tell yourself you're being silly, get drunk, just ignore it, still creeps in. Though the thing I'm most looking forward to is getting time back, by almost pretending it doesn't exist. Time to do whatever we want. Whenever someone asks me what I want for Christmas/Birthday etc, I have to fight the urge not to say Bernard's Watch.

Lots of love x