The 'flying' orange

Below are some pictures from our going away party. I was later informed that the orange actually ended up hitting a fellow blogger. Any guesses who it was?
Hmmm, what shall we do with the orange?

On a mission with the orange. Not at the westies.


Somewhere beyond the smoke, the orange fell on a target.
I thought this was hilarious for some reason.

The Best and the Worst....

Our time in Sydney is near its halfway way mark - the perfect time for reflection and prospective planning. Three months ago, with our rose colored glasses, unpreparedness, overzealous excitement, a stash of splendid farewell memories, and with the wise saying of the Great Explorer himself Christopher Columbus - "You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” We set sail and began our lives as temporary itinerants with Sydney being our first base.

Since then we've sprained ankles, laughed until we cried, gone on dates, shopped until we dropped, had confrontations with Irish girls, slept in bad hostels, hunted around for New Zealand wine and much more. So for reflective and work procrastination purposes, here is a list of our best and worst of Sydney.

The Worst (in no particular order):

1. The four flights of stairs in Boomerang Hostel - potential disaster zone when carrying heavy luggage.
2. Banking - opening hours and new account application processes; 5 working day waiting period for card and then on top of that another 3 working day period for pin to arrive and activated.
3. The Gaff - Sweaty, Drunken Sleaze
4. Bad taxi drivers - if you think Auckland is bad, come to Sydney. 1st incident - Denied taxi for hospital just because taxi driver couldn't be bothered detouring to hospital via his way back to the taxi base. 2nd incident- Taxi driver tries to attempt a kiss and grab. (Shudders)
5. Home base Backpackers - TRAVELLERS BEWARE! - I could write a whole blog about this horrible place. Only good thing is we have met some great people there.
6. Lack of public garbage cans
7. Ridiculous entry fees for most clubs that just play standard non spectacular club music. I don't mind paying entry fees if its worth it.
8. Aggressive Irish girls
9. Office Politics
10. Movie Cinemas - airport line type barriers and no info posts about movies showing.



The Best (in no particular order)

1. The Beaches - no doubt about that!
2. Eating in Chinatown
3. The colours, sounds and vibrations of the fruit and vegie section at Paddy's market
4. New friends
5. Having money to actually save
6. Shopping !!
7. The epiphany moment of realising that you're not living in New Zealand anymore
8. Particular nights out.
9. Transport System
10. Intellectual conversation with hot Americans

And you’ll find out tonight oh it’s a world of extreme

Blogging has been inspirationless. Fingers touch the keypad but all that comes out of alt tab flick backs between gmail, facebook and red confectionery is ........................complete..............fuck..............all.
One would think that two months of being abroad would have conjured something worthy to write. Lets face it, blogging must been inspirationless if the only blogpost in the past two months i've written is focussed on how blogging is extremely dull.

I miss home. Yes already. Though am not ready to come back. Not even for a short visit. I seriously don't know how kiwigirl does it. The thing i miss the most is having friends on call whenever for whatever reason.

K that is it for now. Salmonella Dub tommorow.
Im sure there will be more interesting blogs soon.

x

p.s: promise

Mildly Frightening Adventures

I am sitting at an internet cafe, a regular haunt, and am starting to become a bit paranoid.

They are right outside our front door, and I have been coming here everyday for a month.

At first we thought the guys that work here were funny. They sit behind their desk, so low so only their eyes peer above the counter. It is peculiar.

While we're paying they don't actually speak - they grunt and nod, and sometimes they're not even there at all...

A funny place.

I just went up to the counter and discovered to my horror that the owner was writing up a spam email. You know, the ones that start off with:

"Dear SIR

I have great business opportunity for you please consider investing in zebra banking we offer interest free loan just pay fee of $50 into our bank account at zebra bank

...That kind of crap.

And they are always on the phone - I always got the impression they ran some kind of business.

I am a little weary about the information they might have access to, preying on innocent tourists that leave their accounts logged in... Getting access to their blood type, home address, bra size, personal information, etcetera, etcetera.

It's not as scary as Wolf Creek, and I am definitely avoiding the outback, but it is a bit thrilling.

Such badasses on this patch of the globe.

xx L

Suggestion

Mmm it seems that the newness of Sydney is beginning to diminish and now little things are being to peeve us off.
One is the annoyance of having to carry our disposal coffee cups, wrappers and alike with us until we arrive back to the hostel.

Our Suggestion - Get more fuckin Rubbish bins. One bin per kilometre in the central CBD is not enough!!

On ya, Labour!

In an attempt to provide an unbiased approach to reporting, the Herald today has cut some slack to Labour.

The spokesperson for Labour makes a seriously good point:
"The National Party hasn't released any policy but has instead been saying different things to different groups. This will catch up with them when they eventually say what their programme is."

The positive poll results for National are largely a product of Key's sweet talking and I'm surprised, given the National Party's track record, that people fall so easily into that trap of believing leftie promises from evil right wing politicians. Political marketing theories also say that a sales (empty promises) based approach to vote grabbing is not effective in the long term. So even if National do get elected this year, can you actually imagine it lasting longer than one term?

Okay so I'm not very eloquent today, and I shouldn't call people 'evil' as it's not very nice. But I am going a little mad here. I miss intelligent conversation. No one in Sydney seems to do it, bar the guys that try to get into my pants. And sooner or later, they stop talking because I can totally out talk them on anything intelligent. So far. And it is so offputting, and transparent!

I can see why so many New Zealand travelling bloggers need to blog on this kind of stuff. Today Pearl and I had to secretly watch the news in the lounge. And when we strike up the occasional insightful comment: Eg. "Haha, that was just like such and such in the eighties."

We are given blank, unknowing stares. Sigh.

So how about that Britney?

Above is an example of what Sydney has to offer.


xx L

Starting anew,

I always knew leaving N.Z was never going to be easy. In fact it was going to be hard. Stressful nights, points of starvation, crap hostels, no proper toilet facilities ; all you expect in a third world country except this is Australia - which makes the the situation seem ten times worse. Admittingly I am exaggerating, it really isn't that bad. Yes we have experienced the shite hostel with a bathroom that represented the camping grounds shower facilities you visited, in your Year 9 camp: concrete steel with rust coming through the edges with no water pressure coming at the heat spectrum of freezing cold to mild lukewarm.
In the unnamed hostel located in Kings Cross, one must walk four flights of stairs to access their dorm room - no lifts. Walking four flights of stairs is fine, that is if you have no luggage. Carrying luggage down is worse; the whole mathematics and physics of establishing and balancing luggage weight distribution plus taking steps down plus height can equal potential disaster as experienced last Sunday resulting in a badly sprained ankle, new accommodation and the discover of more perks that New Zealanders are entitled to here : Free Hospital Care.
Before leaving New Zealand, many advised us to move to Melbourne or even Brisbane and to watch out for those Aussies. Sydney apparently had no culture and that Melbourne and Brisbane is better. To them I say Bah humbug. Sydney is a fucking fabulous city. It is brimming with life, overflowing with galoshes of colors, melodies and best of all, people from all walks of life. It is also a great city to walk in - architecturally, flora and fauna, people watching wise. I do have one thing to say about the Public Transport system - Efficiency.
Trains run regularly, on time and until late. Taxis are galore and seem to be reasonably priced and the bus drivers are friendly, courteous and are always willing to help. Something that perhaps Auckland bus drivers could learn.
The current hostel we are now staying is very central and definite improvement from the Kings Cross unnamed one. It is filled with Brits, Germans, Europeans and few Asians. It has a massive deck where a regular few congregate everyday to eat, drink, smoke and be merry. Life isn't that much different from New Zealand. Everyone is very sociable, much more than the previous hostel. Even the managers/staff get into the groove of things. One could say that every night is a tipple night. Thursdays is wine and cheese night though more wine is consumed. Friday night was supposedly a trip to Bondi Beach for drunken antics all canceled by the previous night antics.
It would be wrong of me to finish my first posting about Sydney and not mention the male counterparts. The hostel lifestyle naturally places you in a position of being exposed to other travellers. It also exposes you to the world that is perhaps Tara Reid travel show inspired, i.e: Am abroad, lets fuck anything with two legs. The best place to start this, is always the infamous, popular Travelers Bar where free Alcohol is served between the hour of 9.30pm to 10.30pm most night if not every night. A poorly ventilated basement filled with sweaty drunken ruled by their dicks guys who hit on any girl that gives them eye contact. Eye contact being anything from 0.5 second glance to a looking through them while you are trying to spot your friend. Not all are like this. Most are relaxed , sociable, act appropriately and pretty good looking. And the Aussie male, why oh why did I not make more trips earlier before. Most Aussie males I have encountered are hot. There is something about the weather here - it does people justice plus the Aussie male possess a sense of old fashioned chivalry which unfortunately from experience many Kiwi males seem to have lost or is well hidden.
One Aussie male stopped and paid a taxi for me when he saw me limping home from town in the day, no questions asked and no hidden agendas of getting numbers etc etc. Just old fashioned chivalry. This is common in Australia. Learn New Zealand, learn - old fashioned chivalry is hot.

p.s : hope all is well in New Zealand.

You and Me...

Not much to say except that Woop Woop on the Weather today. Running through the Domain may actually be Do-able today. Hopefully all the lovesick puppies out there will remain indoors for the public good. Today is last day in N.Z - exciting times ahead.

Mmm here is some sweet Valentine loving:




The Delightful Swooner Eddie Cochrane (see below)

National to Lose Rich

Katherine Rich has announced she will be standing down at the next election to spend more time with her children.

This is a sad loss, I personally like Katherine and hold alot of similar values and political views as she does. She was certainly a great assest to the National Party and no doubts will be missed. Her ability to easily relate to people and seemed to understand the views of many New Zealanders on issues especially relating to education, social welfare and health.

With Katherine's departure Anne Tolley gets the education portfolio, which means she hands down her chief whip position to Nathan Guy and in turn Napier MP Chris Tremain will become the junior whip.

I like to take the scenic route.

I fucking love my Train wrecks. The bedroom floor is now covered with once thought Ghastly but now guilty pleasure magazines such as Cosmopolitan, NW, Cleo and whats the other one called. My regular favorite magazines such as Newscientist, Economist, National Geographic and Times are still around though indiscreetly swept under the train wreck montage.
Call me shallow, call me superficial but I really don't want to read or actually give a toss about some celebrity trying to raise awareness about any environmental, political, social or economic injustices through the adoption of some poor third world kid. No give me excerpts about Britney once again failing to go to court, another picture of Lohan in rehab, Winehouse telling the paparazzi to get f#$ked ' i dont need to go to rehab'.
Give me trash. Give me train wrecks! and you will soon find a long time subscriber.

Life

So I have finished all my politics papers for my BA, and I should have finished by BA today but because for Wellington Teacher's College I have to have a second teaching subject this has meant I am now minoring in English and also had to do this over summer. I have a semester left with 2 200 level ENGL papers and one 300 Level HIST paper -I can't wait to finish I am SO getting over studying. And everyone is telling me off because I declined my offer to do honours.

Also am looking at flats with my bf which is scary and exciting at the same time and makes me feel very grown up, especially as it means we will be purchasing appliance and furniture together. I really want a place that allows animals so I can have a puppy - although the big dogs I really want ie Newfoudlands and Bernese Mountain Dogs will have to wait until I can actually afford to feed them as it will probably cost more than feeding me.

Am enjoying watching the lead up to the American elections and the way things are looking NZ with certain people making silly swipes at other people (I think we all know exactly who I mean) and must say not entirely suprised that Labour booted Benson-Pope out, although am confused as to why they kept Russell Fairbrother in Napier instead of putting in Nash.

Looking forward to the year and am already committed to a certain regions election team, and I have no doubts we will keep it blue, and keep the area prospering under an MP who actually does things for and in the community.

Thats sort of a general wrap of where I am at. Whilst some of the team depart the shores for the greatest country in the world, I will remain in NZ and plod through my rather dull life, that every so often gets a dash of excitement

We put our pictures where they had to go

I'm in serious procrastination mode. Have about a million things I should and probably seriously need to do before flying off and I'm thinking about reconstructing Red Confectionery. No offense to the other Confectioners and veterans but the layout needs to be changed. I should warn you too - Contributers are going to be cut down dramatically. Dont fret your favorite confectioners are not leaving.
Three things I'm loving at the moment - Daft Punk "Digital Love", Kimonos and the very fact that Sydney is only 8 days away!!.

Gong Xi Fa Cai for tommorow everyone!

x

Happy exhaustedness

There are times in my life when I wonder, is it normal to feel this happy?

Last night was one of those. Thank you to everyone that attended the farewell party, it was fucking brilliant.

(Noise control made us turn it down at 10.15 but it didn't stop the party, oh no.)

I'm going to miss New Zealand so much!

xx L

"You better be home soon"

It has finally sunken in. I think the next time I hear that Crowded House Song "You better be home soon" - Tears are going to be rolling down the cheek and will probably feel the strong urge to write letters...no wait fuck that - an email.

Our farewell party was blimin top notch!. Over 100 people came through the night, Music was turned to stand by the speaker audible volume sometime after 10 thanks to Noise Control - Not that it ruined anyone's night.

Am so going to miss N.Z - friends and family definitely not my driveway, Viaduct, fish and chips, Out of Towners, Gilda Fitzpatrick, Marc Ellis, the word bugger, bush walks and more.

I am looking forward to all the adventures Lulu and I are going to encounter soon. I couldn't have a better person in this world to travel with!.

Party time!

Essentials for throwing a good party:

A function on your cellphone that lets you send multiple messages.
Facebook event planners.
A flatmate that works at Lion Breweries (does anyone else have a problem pronouncing brewery? I do...).
Large quantities of beer.
A few hundred sausages for the BBQ.
Potato salad.
Plastic plates, cups, etc.
Chairs, backyard.
A dealer to sort your friends out.
Non-scratched mix CDs. (No Spice girls or rap, they will get turned off and destroyed)
An impressive stereo.
Letters to the neighbors.
A party dress that you haven't appeared in public in before, and heels that don't get stuck in the lawn.

Have I forgotten anything? I fear that I have...

Third-term-itis

So. Every time I ask a John Key supporter why they are voting National next election, I am left confunded with the answer:

"It's time for a change."

When questioned they inevitably say something along the lines of:

"Well, Helen's done her run, you know, it's good to chuck out governments every few years."

No it is not. Imagine, how much money and time is wasted going back and forth with budgets and legislation in two somewhat polar moral directions. Changing student loan entitlements every few terms, for example. Yes, society changes and laws need to change to accomodate the growing population, etc, but it is such a downer to realise that not-so-long-ago there were no student loans. I think what I'm trying to say with this example is that it creates a lack of faith in the system, when the system is changing all the time, and is a bitch to understand.

After a while, people start to forget altogether what it is the government does, they become bad at filling in forms and even worse at understanding the news, and they forget what previous administrations have done. Come election time people say things like,

"Oh, let's vote National shall we, get rid of that NCEA thing." (Erm, National introduced NCEA)

There are myriads of examples of political ignorance; which I'm sure have been witnessed, rather than demonstrated, by the type of people that read this.

People like myself, for example, who didn't know a thing about politics until the year 2000, if that. I can't remember what a National-led government was like, because I was only 12 years old the last time such a ghastly thing happened. (Young people are in grave danger of being succeptible to Key)

People also get sick of seeing the same old broken veined politicians on TV, and even though they do a decent job, they inevitably get older and uglier and more weary looking, so the solution seems to be: vote for a different party.

The politicians in power eventually grow more arrogant and out of touch with the public. In the worst cases, they become corrupt and cynical.

These phenomenons are all symptoms of Third-Term-Itis and the result means a change of government for New Zealand. But not necessarily for the best reasons.

Wouldn't it be more effective to have a renewal of cabinet, and change party leaders more often? I guess the problem with politics is that most politicians don't know when it's time to step down. It's human nature. And I think the media has had a definite part to play in all this; always targeting politicians with an "us versus them" kind of mentality and showing a preference for news that is entertainment rather than information based. Nevertheless, voter turnout and political awareness has gone down, and cynicism has gone up. (Although I don't know where I can find figures for that)

And the idea that it's "time for a change" is merely a catch phrase - in New Zealand's case anyway.

Why change the government when unemployment is at its lowest in 28 years, we are ranked as having the 5th highest standard of living in the world, crime is down, and the economy is growing?

Things are not perfect, but they are a damn sight better than they used to be since around the mid-90's, at least according to the MSD's latest social report.

It's okay to say that it's time for a change if the government has done a lousy job - but in all fairness I think even an (intelligent) National supporter could agree that it hasn't been a complete disaster - the latest social report, regardless of the fact that it was written by the government, does have some very positive indicators. And it's not just the report, there are other things. Which would take me hours to write about, like the fact that I can swim in my local beach and know that I won't be getting poisoned any time soon. People from around the world are constantly telling me that we don't know what we have here, my own cousin got back from the UK yesterday and said that there is almost nowhere in the world as clean and safe as New Zealand.

Emotional language, but I think I've made my point.

I think it's about time that people start having good reasons for voting National.

"To Bridget - Just the way you are"

As some of you know, the Red Confectionery population is obsessed with the opposite sex. One particular Red Confectioner has limited her blog postings (you know who you are)for..........well details are certainly unnecessary. Hair has been GHDed, frequents visits to the beauty clinic have been arranged, Estee Lauder White Linen perfume 100ml bottle is now near empty, stupid jokes has been laughed at, dresses enhancing our best bits have been bought, and books, articles, Google searches on particular subjects that I for one don't give a toss about have been researched..... ALL in the name of the SAID SPECIMEN - the opposite sex.

The results vary - some of us like the darling Bridget Jones and that main girl off Pride and Prejudice (who i never remember the name of and probably the reason why i should have paid attention in English rather than perving at Mr Martin cute behind; never mind) seem to have found our Mark Darcy, while Others are still playing around with Daniel Cleaver.

Tuesday night viewing highlights has just gone up a whole new level with what could be the hit show of the month of February- "Rock of Love" aired on C4 - Tuesday nights at 9.30pm or 8.30??. Brett Michael's lead singer of that band that sang the infamous song " Every Rose has it's thorns" is looking for that special someone - the girl who will rock his world and oh poor him has 20 women to choose from. Last night 6 women's hearts were crushed and sent home. Brandi C (the annoying one) tho last one to be picked was lucky enough to be saved. Perhaps it was the heartfelt near spiritual nirvana promise she made to Brett Michaels - 3 wives, 4 girlfriends ...or was it the other way around. The girl is annoying and whiny. A soon to be favorite is Tiffany - staggering, slurring, mascara run eyes and one hell of a drunken mess that sure makes Brett Michael quest for love a whole lot more interesting.

Thought for the Day " Is anyone already sick of the shite reminders that Valentines is near?"

See below for more entertainment.

Bad Medicine

I am in love!

I have spent a long weekend travelling between Wellington and Christchurch and back all for the sake of seeing the one and only Bon Jovi.

The concert was awesome, with a crowd of about 30,000 people all on their feet dancing and singing along it was certainly the best concert I have ever been to. Jon Bon Jovi was fanastic - clad in leather I am sure he must of been melting but he did his butt wiggle and flashed that smile and every girl in the stadium must have gone weak at the knees coz I know I fell in love then.

Whilst in Chch I managed a few touristy things such as dragging the boys to the Cathedral (which I don't think minded) and Ballentynes as well as the Antarctic Centre and up the Gondola before departing yesterday afternoon.

Whilst it was a pleasant night for sailing by tummy did cope at all well I spent the better half of three hours rather ill aboard the ferry in the last hours and wee hours of this morning. Please to say I now safely back on land with no intentions of using the ferry any time in the near future.

Yes we can.

This is my first blog about something political - well its only the video clip of the second part of Obama's speech. I thought it deserved Red Confectionery's love and respect.
Hattip- Farrar.

The night where we fell in love with the new girl.

The new girl being - LitaBit

For the love of midweek tipples, viral (blogger) marketing and mostly the absolutely faboulous Kiwigirl being in Auckland - fellow bloggers and DPF trolls gathered together last Weds at the Chapel for drinks.

To be perfectly honest and full credit to foodtown wine sales, I can not recall a significant moments of the night except for few first (blogger drinker) observations:

1. Blogger drinks are all about self promotion.
2. Everyone predrinks before blogger drinks and are usually somewhere near tipsiness at arrival.
3. Farrar is going to be mentioned at some point.
4. Politics is mentioned usually initially by a male.
5. Bloggers and Trolls never look how you pictured them in your mind.
6. Photos are going to be taken (see below).