Now I’m writing this blog post on Microsoft Word because I
currently don’t have access to the internet and I’m not sure how long it has
been exactly since my last post so I’m just going to go through Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday and hope that’s back far enough.
So Monday I worked, as usual, and then after work we went
out for Hospo Night at BCC. Monday nights are usually quite funny at work
because we all want to get to Hospo night as early as possible so we work extra
hard to close early – closing faster than we do probably any other night. Most
of us went out – Jonathan (France), Marijke (Holland), Ben (UK), Tolston
(Germany), and then we saw some of our friends from Rosie, another Hipgroup
restaurant. We had a couple drinks at BCC and then went over to Danny Doolans,
one of my favorite bars here in Auckland because of all the classic American
music they play. Ben – the chef I had a crush on – came with us but then
invited his new “project” Luna, a Korean girl who learned English from a bunch
of Irish people and thus speaks with an Irish accent that he finds very sexy.
It’s clear to me that my chances of ever going on a date with Ben are now zero
as he’s seeing her and I can’t compete with being Korean or talking with an
Irish accent. Darn! Anyways, we stayed out until about 3am dancing and having a
great time. It was so nice to get back to Danny Doolans after not being there
for a month or more.
Because I was out so late I didn’t really do anything on
Tuesday. I didn’t have to be at work until 4:30 but I probably didn’t get out
of bed until close to 1 pm so it was pretty much a waste of a day. Oh well. At
4:30 I had coffee training at work so I got to learn how to make espresso
shots, steam milk, and make coffee in the very particular way NZ people insist
their coffee is made. I received a “perfect” from the instructor, which made me
quite happy J!
After coffee training it was my weekly shift at Milse. It wasn’t that bad
except that it was SUPER slow. It was raining all day on Tuesday and when it
rains here no one leaves their house so we had almost no customers all night.
The rain/storm we had on Tuesday apparently ended up being one the worst
they’ve ever had in NZ but compared with the storms we get in America it wasn’t
all that bad. Nothing like that storm that came through Minneapolis last year
wiping out power to most of the city -
when lots of Uptown lost power and all those trees came down. Anyways, we got
off work early – about 10:30 – but I wasn’t all that tired and didn’t want to
go home so I decided, after much deliberation, that I was going to go out by
myself again. I drove around the city looking for a good bar I could go to by
myself and finally settled on a place in Ponsonby called Grand Central. I’d
never been there before but it looked like that only place around that (a) had
an actual bar I could sit at and (b) had people at it. I went in there around
11:30pm and had a great time. Nice people, good atmosphere, good music. I made
a few new friends – Taylor, a bartender from another bar in Ponsonby, Neil, the
bartender at Grand Central, and Nora, whose name I thought was Laura for quite
a while. I stayed out for a few hours since I didn’t work on Wednesday I didn’t
have to be home. All in all, it was a good night. I’d definitely go back to Grand
Central again.
So that brings us to yesterday, or Wednesday. I got to start
off my morning yesterday by talking with a friend back home, Sonja. It’s always
nice to start my day with chats with people back home. After that I decided it was time to get out
of the house so I went for a drive all over Auckland. There are so many cute
neighborhoods around Auckland and sometimes I just like to drive through them.
I drove around from probably an hour or more and then decided to stop in
Ponsonby and get some lunch. As I was parking my big truck on the street I hit
someone’s car. (I swear to god this truck I have here is going to be the death
of me!) To be honest I was tempted to not leave a note because I really don’t
have money to pay for the repairs but I decided I just can’t do that – (a)
because I would feel guilty and (b) because I always judge people who do that
and I don’t want to be hypocritical. After inspecting their car (and mine) the
damage wasn’t that bad. I hit their car with my tire so although it looked
quite bad, most the “damage” was just rubber from my tire that rubbed off on
their bumper. It doesn’t appear that I dented their car at all and I only took
off paint in an area about the size of a quarter. Their car, however, looked
quite new – and white – so I figure they’d want to get it fixed. I left a note
with my phone number but haven’t heard from them yet – it’s been about 24 hours
by now. I’m hoping they never call me but if they do I think it’s going to cost
me about $300 to get it fixed. Not terrible but what a stupid accident! Dumb!
Anyways, after that I decided not to stay in Ponsonby and
went somewhere else for a lunch that wasn’t any good and a glass of Pinot
Grigio that was quite delicious. Following lunch I went home and had a nap
before going for dinner with some people from work that night – Elizabeth (NZ)
and Adrendna (Singapore). We went to a place on K’Road called Coco’s Cantina.
The place was cute. I wasn’t feeling amazing but I still found the food quite
good. I had a chicken liver pate. After dinner with them I met up with Jonathan
(France) and Felicity (NZ?) in Ponsonby where they were eating and then we all
went out to Golden Dawn. After a short while they decided to leave but I stayed
on by myself. I ran into Neil, the bartender from Grand Central that I’d met
the night before, and had a nice chat with him. He then left and I met a nice
couple, Rob and Lucy, who work together and were one their first kind-of date.
It was more an impromptu night out that turned into a bit of a date. After
feeling sufficiently awkward being the third wheel on their “date” I moved onto
a couple of guys that we sitting down the bar from me – Adrienne and someone
else who’s name I can’t remember. Adrienne offered me a job at a restaurant
downtown and told me he’s give me more hours, better hours, and more pay than
my current job. I might go in talk with them about it but I likely won’t take
the job. I like the people I work with, I like my current job, and I like
working at a really good restaurant, it will help me get more jobs as I travel
with experience like that on my CV. Anyways, I went home last night about
midnight maybe. Went to bed and that was that.
Today I’m “off” again but was called in for a shift this
evening 6 to close. Because of these extra hours I decided it was finally time
to get sole protectors put on my new cowboy boots and get them into the
rotation of shoes I’m wearing. Although I’ve had them here in NZ for a few
months now I haven’t worn them yet because I wanted to get them all nice and
protected first so they don’t fall into disrepair like my current pair. I
dropped them at the shoe repair just now and will pick them up next week. It’ll
be so nice to have a good new pair to wear! I’ll probably still use the old
pair when I’m going somewhere dirty or wet or whatnot but then I’ll also have a
pretty and clean pair for going out or to nicer places. Yay!
That’s all for now. I have some errands to run today, maybe
go for a drive around Auckland again, and then to work this evening.
Best!
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