- Meet (Vegan)
Whether you're a Vegetarian in need of guilt-free comfort food or a mildly curious omnivore, you can't go wrong with Meet. Serving up all vegan all-America fare, their menu consists of various burgers, pasta/ rice bowls and fries almost any way you could imagine. Their burgers all use a house-made patty which is the best vege alternative to a beef patty in flavour and consistency that I've yet experienced. I highly recommend The Angry Burg (beer-battered patty and wicked hot sauce) if you're into spice or The Meet burger (standard patty, chipotle mayo and onion rings YES) and definitely order some of the BBQ Things (vegan version of BBQ chicken wings) to start. Not only is all their food vegan but their booze is too, cocktails included! We tried out both their locations during our time in Van and I'd recommend the trip up Main Street for better atmosphere at their original spot. The Gastown location is a touch tricky to find, they have the same menu so the food is equally awesome, the space in that part of town just feels a little less welcoming. Most of their menu is also either gluten free or can easily be adjusted to be on request. Portion sizes are massive so don't be afraid to ask for a doggy bag. - Bandidas (Vegetarian with lots of Vegan Options)
Bandidas on Commercial Drive is hands down the best Mexican food in Vancouver (Yes, I've had Tacofino, this is better) as evidenced by the hordes of people in and around the place whenever we went there. As I understand it they'd recently expanded their premises before we got to try them out but honestly I think these guys could pack out a restaurant double the size. We had the good fortune of living relatively close to Bandidas so found ourselves there more than once. Try the Edna Dip (baked cheese dip served with sour cream and corn chips) and literally anything from the Enchilada section of the menu (I'm sure their entire menu is awesome but I never made it past the phenomenal enchiladas at dinner time). If you're ever hung over near The Drive, these guys also run an all day breakfast and a 9-3 brunch menu, from experience I can vouch for their breakfast burrito on that side of things, it kicks ass. These guys aren't exclusively vegan but a lot of their menu items can be made vegan and they pro-actively offer the opportunity to veganise a number of selections. I can't see any of their food's appeal being lost by veganising so if you are that way inclined, Bandidas still comes highly recommended. As well as serving amazing food, these guys also deck their walls with visually spectacular local art. Plan ahead as Bandidas is pretty much packed non-stop so you may be faced with a wait for a table but their service team and kitchen are incredibly cohesive and make for an unparalleled dining experience once you do get a seat. - 3G Vegetarian Restaurant (Despite the name, I'm pretty sure their stuff is vegan)
Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the decor, these guys do amazing things with meat substitutes. The best descriptor I can think of for their menu is if you'd expect to see it on a Chinese Take-out menu, 3G probably has it. Serving up the pseudo-Asian classics us Westerners love like Orange Chicken or Sweet and Sour Pork, these guys replace the meat with scarily realistic soy-based substitutes. We felt a little guilty eating here because it felt like cheating on our Vegetarianism but I can assure you they're 100% meatless and depending on what sauce comes with your dish, more than likely vegan too, though I'd double check with them on that before taking my word as gospel. They have an array of rice dishes that make use of vegan cheese which is the basis for my supposing that their other dishes are likely to be vegan. As far as I can tell, this restaurant is run by just two people, one who acts as the waiter and one who cooks the meals. Their service style feels a bit odd for sit down dining and is very casual but they are lovely people who make good food so it is ultimately a very enjoyable experience. While we always dined in, there were many people popping in to pick up take out orders, they're clearly a neighbourhood favourite. - The Foundation (Vegetarian)
If you like hip-hop culture, you'll like The Foundation. The decor and the music rattling from the speakers scream urban groove while the menu is vege paradise. Regardless of your dietary habits, if you get chatting to Vancouver locals you're bound to have this place suggested more than likely coupled with "you have to try the nachos!" You have to try the nachos by the way. They're awesome, they're meat-free and the serving size is ridiculous. The two of us struggled to get through a small so I'd say with a couple of beers each you could comfortably go one small order between 3 people. The large order is twice the size and could easily cater for 6 people. The rest of their menu is probably just as good but honestly we made the mistake of ordering something other than the nachos (yam dip and it was truly excellent) the first time and it was way too much food to handle. Get the nachos, add their guac, and you're in for an epic time. - Jam (Serves a lot of meat dishes but has some very solid vegetarian options)
Brunch is hands down my favourite meal of the day. There's nothing more luxurious than rolling out of bed in the afternoon, throwing the cleanest of your floor clothes on and treating yourself to a cooked breakfast out. Brunch has all the best foods: pancakes, waffles, eggs on toast, eggs benedict (meatless eggs bene is my personal favourite meal), hash browns, without the giant pain in the ass of dragging yourself out of bed that comes with breakfast. As such I had to include a brunch spot on this list somewhere and Jam takes the cake for most tremendous all round brunch experience in the city of Vancouver. Originally a staple of the Victoria culinary scene, these guys opened up a few months ago on Beatty street, a stones throw from Stadium- Chinatown skytrain station. While Jam is not exclusively vegetarian, they do have some epic vegetarian options which I feel make them worthy of inclusion in this post. I had the Veggie bowl and after much pleading from our waiter opted for the "little" version. Here is where I feel obliged to warn you that the portions at Jam are gargantuan. I'm not a light eater, I'm just over 6 feet tall and weigh roughly 80kg (176 pounds), I average 5 to 7 fully loaded plates at an all you can eat buffet and this supposedly "little" bowl of crumbled biscuit, gravy almost beat me. In all honesty I only finished the damn thing to impress the waiter, who did seem very genuinely surprised I got through it all. Clem ordered the red velvet pancake stack and was served a full cake worth of pancakes. She struggled through about 1/4 of the plate before admitting defeat and asking for a takeaway box. It was evident in the understanding nod of our waiter that this was how most meals at this cafe ended. We ate those pancakes for like 3 days afterwards before they were done, no kidding. Size aside, both of our meals were beyond fantastic, words cannot describe the amazing things they achieve with biscuits and gravy. The only downside of Jam is that they have a relatively small space and everyone loves them. This means that when we went, not too long after their opening we were faced with a half hour wait for a table for the two of us. Don't be deterred, just plan ahead, the food is more than worth the wait and once inside, service is exceptionally attentive and very fast. If you only have one brunch out in Vancouver, do yourself a favour and make sure it's at Jam.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Top 5 Vegetarian Restaurants in Vancouver
As promised in my last post, here's a shortlist of the best vegetarian restaurants in Vancouver. This is by no means and exhaustive list, Vancouver is blessed with a plethora of great vegetarian restaurants and you should try them all if you have the means. This should at least give you a solid start and point you in the right direction. Happy eating!
Monday, January 9, 2017
Going Vege
At the start of our time in Vancouver, faced with living on a budget and not knowing much about where to find cheap groceries (pro-tip: Safeway is expensive!) Clem and I decided not to buy meat for our meals at home any more. I grew up eating and cooking a fairly diverse range of food from many ethnic origins and was never a fan of the traditional meat and 3 veg style meal that colonial countries seem to revere so removing meat from what I was cooking wasn't much of a challenge.
With Clem being prone to iron deficiency I was a little concerned that no meat would cause problems for her but hoped that the inclusion of iron rich foods like black beans into more of our food, and the little bit of meat we'd still be eating on nights out would be enough.
As time went on, it became apparent that the importance of meat in our diet was a cultural idea that had been way over-hyped for us growing up. I'm no expert on human nutrition but with neither of us suffering any apparent ill-effects from eating significantly less meat, it seemed to me more and more like the enthusiastic encouragement to eat meat growing up was likely just flow-on propaganda from those who profit from the slaughter of animals. Perhaps I'm being too cynical.
At any rate, a couple of months into our new at-home lifestyle decision, we were walking home one day when I was suddenly hit with the idea to cut meat out altogether. I didn't miss it at home, I didn't feel like I needed it elsewhere. It made sense to me on an ethical level where I'd always struggled with the hypocrisy of claiming a love for animals whilst not thinking twice about funding the killing of animals for food. Clem agreed to join me and just like that we were the dreaded "V" word, we became vegetarians.
Vancouver is perhaps the easiest city in the world to become vegetarian. I don't know that the stats exist but I'd bet that aside from perhaps some religiously influenced cities in India, Vancouver probably has the most Vegetarian restaurants per capita with most offering a wide variety of vegan options too. With our at-home cooking already replacing meat largely with various types of beans and lentils and our going out covered by an amazing array of cuisine options, we had an easy transition into a meat-free life.
Since going Vegetarian, I personally feel that I have more energy for the most-part than I did when I ate meat, I feel better after eating than I ever did before and I feel much less hypocritical about professing a love of animals when I'm not eating them. Overall, it was the right decision for me, and I'm sure Clem feels the same way.
We had a conversation with one of our flatmates who was vegan once and he said something along the lines of "Good food is good food and my choices are my choices" which is a quote I try to live by with my vegetarianism. I know better than a lot of people that life is a very different experience with different sets of challenges for everyone so I'm never going to judge someone adversely for eating meat. My choices are my choices and the ones I stick with are the ones that work for me and make me happy.
What I will say on the moral side of vegetarianism is this: Nobody's perfect, I'm still a massive hypocrite with the amount of dairy, eggs and other animal products I consume that stem from places that inevitably engage in at least some cruel practises even if it's not directly killing animals. I understand that their may be people out there who medically cannot entirely remove meat from their diets and many more out there who are simply unwilling to make such a massive change, particularly one that differs from their cultural norm.
What is indisputable is that the majority of people eat far more meat than is necessary. If you are unable or unwilling to remove meat from your diet, please consider cutting down. If you eat meat 7 days a week, maybe try meat-free weekends, you'll learn more about food in the process and you'll get more creative with what you eat and cook. The meat industry has a lot to answer for in terms of environmental impact and if we make the collective effort to consume less of it, we can collectively make a positive change for the planet. Think about the future, think about your children, cut down on your meat consumption.
In my next post, I'll talk more about some of the awesome restaurants we had the pleasure of experiencing in Vancouver and what they offer vegetarian food-lovers.
With Clem being prone to iron deficiency I was a little concerned that no meat would cause problems for her but hoped that the inclusion of iron rich foods like black beans into more of our food, and the little bit of meat we'd still be eating on nights out would be enough.
As time went on, it became apparent that the importance of meat in our diet was a cultural idea that had been way over-hyped for us growing up. I'm no expert on human nutrition but with neither of us suffering any apparent ill-effects from eating significantly less meat, it seemed to me more and more like the enthusiastic encouragement to eat meat growing up was likely just flow-on propaganda from those who profit from the slaughter of animals. Perhaps I'm being too cynical.
At any rate, a couple of months into our new at-home lifestyle decision, we were walking home one day when I was suddenly hit with the idea to cut meat out altogether. I didn't miss it at home, I didn't feel like I needed it elsewhere. It made sense to me on an ethical level where I'd always struggled with the hypocrisy of claiming a love for animals whilst not thinking twice about funding the killing of animals for food. Clem agreed to join me and just like that we were the dreaded "V" word, we became vegetarians.
Vancouver is perhaps the easiest city in the world to become vegetarian. I don't know that the stats exist but I'd bet that aside from perhaps some religiously influenced cities in India, Vancouver probably has the most Vegetarian restaurants per capita with most offering a wide variety of vegan options too. With our at-home cooking already replacing meat largely with various types of beans and lentils and our going out covered by an amazing array of cuisine options, we had an easy transition into a meat-free life.
Since going Vegetarian, I personally feel that I have more energy for the most-part than I did when I ate meat, I feel better after eating than I ever did before and I feel much less hypocritical about professing a love of animals when I'm not eating them. Overall, it was the right decision for me, and I'm sure Clem feels the same way.
We had a conversation with one of our flatmates who was vegan once and he said something along the lines of "Good food is good food and my choices are my choices" which is a quote I try to live by with my vegetarianism. I know better than a lot of people that life is a very different experience with different sets of challenges for everyone so I'm never going to judge someone adversely for eating meat. My choices are my choices and the ones I stick with are the ones that work for me and make me happy.
What I will say on the moral side of vegetarianism is this: Nobody's perfect, I'm still a massive hypocrite with the amount of dairy, eggs and other animal products I consume that stem from places that inevitably engage in at least some cruel practises even if it's not directly killing animals. I understand that their may be people out there who medically cannot entirely remove meat from their diets and many more out there who are simply unwilling to make such a massive change, particularly one that differs from their cultural norm.
What is indisputable is that the majority of people eat far more meat than is necessary. If you are unable or unwilling to remove meat from your diet, please consider cutting down. If you eat meat 7 days a week, maybe try meat-free weekends, you'll learn more about food in the process and you'll get more creative with what you eat and cook. The meat industry has a lot to answer for in terms of environmental impact and if we make the collective effort to consume less of it, we can collectively make a positive change for the planet. Think about the future, think about your children, cut down on your meat consumption.
In my next post, I'll talk more about some of the awesome restaurants we had the pleasure of experiencing in Vancouver and what they offer vegetarian food-lovers.
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
The World's Largest Junk Removal Company
In April of 2016, about a month into our Canadian adventure, I accepted full time employment with the self-proclaimed largest junk removal company in the world.
I was to be an agent in their call centre, taking incoming calls from whoever felt like calling in, with the ultimate goal of booking as many junk removal jobs as possible. As often seems to be the case in my life, it was a job I had no experience with in a totally foreign environment, the perfect opportunity to learn new skills.
The company was a franchised business started up and still headquartered in Vancouver, with owner/operator franchises throughout Canada, the U.S.A. and Australia. Most calls required dealing with Americans, the ultimate test of patience, though I worked later shifts to coincide with peak call times from Australia (time differences, yo).
Basically the system worked like this: customer has a bunch of old furniture or household rubbish lying around, they call in, we give them a run-down of the service over the phone and arrange a time for two guys in a truck to show up at their location to give them an estimate on the cost of removing the items based on the space the items take up in their truck, if the customer likes the price the guys go to work and get the stuff they have loaded up to be taken off and disposed of with recycling or donating being the preferred method where available.
For the most part it was an enjoyable experience. By nature of the job, the people I worked with were all very friendly and made for a lot of fun in between calls. Fostering a positive workplace culture was high on the list of company priorities and they did a pretty good job of it. In particular the other people on the Australian team were all great and a good source of home culture (or close enough to it anyways).
While working in a call centre got boringly repetitive pretty quick, I was trained in different aspects of the job pretty frequently. Between that and sales competitions on a daily, weekly and monthly basis it was bearable for the 6 or so months I was there. It was rare that I got through a full week without some kind of bonus money from comps and I even managed to win myself a kindle in one of the monthly contests which was pretty sweet.
On top of being relatively well paid and incentivised, the company also gave me a benefits package which I got a few free chiropractor sessions and a couple of therapeutic massages out of. My one regret is not using more of the benefit money offered while I was there. Oh and an endless supply of decent filter coffee didn't hurt either.
While I'm definitely glad to be on the other side of the experience, it was a huge help to have stable full time work in Vancouver. It enabled Clem and I to live comfortably while both putting enough away to be enjoying our travel time as a I write this and never thinking twice about getting out to experience what Vancouver had to offer (So many good restaurants, a couple of good coffee spots, Ellie Goulding live, Canucks hockey, Book of Mormon, Grouse Grind, Capilano suspension bridge to name a few).
The getting sworn at by people who called us in the first place over things as trivial as pricing was never fun, the people dumb enough to think a free service could afford extensive advertising and a 1-800 number were insufferable but the many happy customers served both new and returning and the friends I worked with made it worthwhile. Working in a call centre co-ordinating junk removal was a test of patience, an opportunity to improve sales skills, an opportunity to improve customer service skills and lead to some solid friendships along the way. As much as I don't miss it, I'm glad to have had the experience.
I was to be an agent in their call centre, taking incoming calls from whoever felt like calling in, with the ultimate goal of booking as many junk removal jobs as possible. As often seems to be the case in my life, it was a job I had no experience with in a totally foreign environment, the perfect opportunity to learn new skills.
The company was a franchised business started up and still headquartered in Vancouver, with owner/operator franchises throughout Canada, the U.S.A. and Australia. Most calls required dealing with Americans, the ultimate test of patience, though I worked later shifts to coincide with peak call times from Australia (time differences, yo).
Basically the system worked like this: customer has a bunch of old furniture or household rubbish lying around, they call in, we give them a run-down of the service over the phone and arrange a time for two guys in a truck to show up at their location to give them an estimate on the cost of removing the items based on the space the items take up in their truck, if the customer likes the price the guys go to work and get the stuff they have loaded up to be taken off and disposed of with recycling or donating being the preferred method where available.
For the most part it was an enjoyable experience. By nature of the job, the people I worked with were all very friendly and made for a lot of fun in between calls. Fostering a positive workplace culture was high on the list of company priorities and they did a pretty good job of it. In particular the other people on the Australian team were all great and a good source of home culture (or close enough to it anyways).
While working in a call centre got boringly repetitive pretty quick, I was trained in different aspects of the job pretty frequently. Between that and sales competitions on a daily, weekly and monthly basis it was bearable for the 6 or so months I was there. It was rare that I got through a full week without some kind of bonus money from comps and I even managed to win myself a kindle in one of the monthly contests which was pretty sweet.
On top of being relatively well paid and incentivised, the company also gave me a benefits package which I got a few free chiropractor sessions and a couple of therapeutic massages out of. My one regret is not using more of the benefit money offered while I was there. Oh and an endless supply of decent filter coffee didn't hurt either.
While I'm definitely glad to be on the other side of the experience, it was a huge help to have stable full time work in Vancouver. It enabled Clem and I to live comfortably while both putting enough away to be enjoying our travel time as a I write this and never thinking twice about getting out to experience what Vancouver had to offer (So many good restaurants, a couple of good coffee spots, Ellie Goulding live, Canucks hockey, Book of Mormon, Grouse Grind, Capilano suspension bridge to name a few).
The getting sworn at by people who called us in the first place over things as trivial as pricing was never fun, the people dumb enough to think a free service could afford extensive advertising and a 1-800 number were insufferable but the many happy customers served both new and returning and the friends I worked with made it worthwhile. Working in a call centre co-ordinating junk removal was a test of patience, an opportunity to improve sales skills, an opportunity to improve customer service skills and lead to some solid friendships along the way. As much as I don't miss it, I'm glad to have had the experience.
Monday, December 19, 2016
First Weeks in Canada
Upon arrival in Vancouver, Clem and I were met simultaenously with the excitement of possibilities and the overwhelming list of things that need to be accomplished within a short time when moving to a new place.
We had temporary accommodation sorted courtesy of Couchsurfing (Shout out to Taz, the best host anyone could ask for) which gave us a bit of freedom in our first few days to get the rest sorted at a relatively leisurely pace.
We were exceptionally lucky with how smoothly everything went for us after our arrival. Our first real day, we stopped in at a Service Canada centre and had our S.I.N's (basically Canada's version of a social security number) sorted in less than an hour, got bank accounts set up through TD who offer 0 fees (North American banks suck for fees, they sting you wherever they can) for the first 6 months on any account for people who are new to Canada and started our search for permanent housing.
After combing through padmapper, kijiji and craiglist for suitable places within our price range that looked to be in accessible areas of the city, we fired off a few messages and setup a couple of viewing times. Everything had been so easy for us so far and everyone had lived up to the stereotype of Canadians being nice that we were beginning to get suspicious. Surely, something had to give sooner or later. It didn't. The first place we viewed was perfect for us. A downstairs but not basement suite with our own bathroom, kitchen and well sized bedroom and our own outdoor access in a house with 5 other people. Basically it was a private space with the option to come and go through our own door without having to go into any of the rest of the house if we didn't want to, but also living with a bunch of great people so plenty of social opportunities too.
The next day we officially moved into our new place which came unfurnished. Again resorting to kijiji and craigslist we quickly found someone who sold ex-display and ex-hotel beds on the cheap and was willing to drop us off a queen mattress and boxspring to our door for about $100. The bed was perfect, the mattress super comfortable and clean and the guy who dropped it off helped us get it set up as well.
With long term accommodation sorted in a spot that was 5 minutes walk from the skytrain (Vancouver's metro train network, basically their version of a subway) and only a handful of stops from downtown, the only thing left to do was get work sorted. Clem and I both signed up to a few recruitment agencies with the hope of finding the odd bit of temp work to pay our bills until we found something long term.
I got in touch with a moving company and as well as a bit of labour work through agencies, I got the odd day on the trucks. Highlights from that experience include moving a multi-millionaire out of a North Vancouver waterfront mansion, and moving a small flying company's gear out of one hangar into another one at Vancouver airport, which involved handling a lot of small aircraft components. Clem also picked up the odd day of work doing various office tasks for different companies.
Before we had left New Zealand, I'd received a message on Couchsurfing regarding work. I'd posted on Couchsurfing the rough details of our trip which is how we managed to get a host for our first few days. Someone had sent me a message telling me to get in touch with them once we were in Vancouver with regards to call centre work. At the time I'd sort of written them off as one of those door to door type direct marketing companies where I'd be stuck cold-calling people all day trying to get them to donate to charity and getting paid by pure commission. They'd left me the name of the company and a brief description of what they were all about. The reason they'd sent me a message was because their call centre serviced their Australian customers and they were after people with Aussie and Kiwi accents for authenticity.
In the end after reading through information about them and hearing about some of the things they offered ($13.50 an hour as a training wage for the first month and $16.50 after the first month plus an incentive structure based on performance, free beer every 2nd friday, only taking inbound calls) I decided to give them a call and started working there in April, approximately one month after arriving. Not long afterwards, Clem was assigned to a job through one of her temp agencies who liked her enough to keep having her back and ended up there full time for the rest of our time in Vancouver. Essentially within our first month, we had everything we needed to be comfortable for the entirety of our 7 month stay in Van, not too shabby.
In our first weeks of Canadian life, we were met with Canadian loveliness in all its glory, managed to get ourselves set up in permanent accommodation with ease and had no trouble finding work. Massive thanks to everyone who helped us out in our early days in Vancouver especially Taz for hosting us in Richmond for our first week, Tyler for being awesome and welcoming us into an awesome house and Brendan along with all of the fantastic work people who made my life in Vancouver very easy.
My next post here will be about call centre life in Vancouver, with the world's largest junk removal company.
We had temporary accommodation sorted courtesy of Couchsurfing (Shout out to Taz, the best host anyone could ask for) which gave us a bit of freedom in our first few days to get the rest sorted at a relatively leisurely pace.
We were exceptionally lucky with how smoothly everything went for us after our arrival. Our first real day, we stopped in at a Service Canada centre and had our S.I.N's (basically Canada's version of a social security number) sorted in less than an hour, got bank accounts set up through TD who offer 0 fees (North American banks suck for fees, they sting you wherever they can) for the first 6 months on any account for people who are new to Canada and started our search for permanent housing.
After combing through padmapper, kijiji and craiglist for suitable places within our price range that looked to be in accessible areas of the city, we fired off a few messages and setup a couple of viewing times. Everything had been so easy for us so far and everyone had lived up to the stereotype of Canadians being nice that we were beginning to get suspicious. Surely, something had to give sooner or later. It didn't. The first place we viewed was perfect for us. A downstairs but not basement suite with our own bathroom, kitchen and well sized bedroom and our own outdoor access in a house with 5 other people. Basically it was a private space with the option to come and go through our own door without having to go into any of the rest of the house if we didn't want to, but also living with a bunch of great people so plenty of social opportunities too.
The next day we officially moved into our new place which came unfurnished. Again resorting to kijiji and craigslist we quickly found someone who sold ex-display and ex-hotel beds on the cheap and was willing to drop us off a queen mattress and boxspring to our door for about $100. The bed was perfect, the mattress super comfortable and clean and the guy who dropped it off helped us get it set up as well.
With long term accommodation sorted in a spot that was 5 minutes walk from the skytrain (Vancouver's metro train network, basically their version of a subway) and only a handful of stops from downtown, the only thing left to do was get work sorted. Clem and I both signed up to a few recruitment agencies with the hope of finding the odd bit of temp work to pay our bills until we found something long term.
I got in touch with a moving company and as well as a bit of labour work through agencies, I got the odd day on the trucks. Highlights from that experience include moving a multi-millionaire out of a North Vancouver waterfront mansion, and moving a small flying company's gear out of one hangar into another one at Vancouver airport, which involved handling a lot of small aircraft components. Clem also picked up the odd day of work doing various office tasks for different companies.
Before we had left New Zealand, I'd received a message on Couchsurfing regarding work. I'd posted on Couchsurfing the rough details of our trip which is how we managed to get a host for our first few days. Someone had sent me a message telling me to get in touch with them once we were in Vancouver with regards to call centre work. At the time I'd sort of written them off as one of those door to door type direct marketing companies where I'd be stuck cold-calling people all day trying to get them to donate to charity and getting paid by pure commission. They'd left me the name of the company and a brief description of what they were all about. The reason they'd sent me a message was because their call centre serviced their Australian customers and they were after people with Aussie and Kiwi accents for authenticity.
In the end after reading through information about them and hearing about some of the things they offered ($13.50 an hour as a training wage for the first month and $16.50 after the first month plus an incentive structure based on performance, free beer every 2nd friday, only taking inbound calls) I decided to give them a call and started working there in April, approximately one month after arriving. Not long afterwards, Clem was assigned to a job through one of her temp agencies who liked her enough to keep having her back and ended up there full time for the rest of our time in Vancouver. Essentially within our first month, we had everything we needed to be comfortable for the entirety of our 7 month stay in Van, not too shabby.
In our first weeks of Canadian life, we were met with Canadian loveliness in all its glory, managed to get ourselves set up in permanent accommodation with ease and had no trouble finding work. Massive thanks to everyone who helped us out in our early days in Vancouver especially Taz for hosting us in Richmond for our first week, Tyler for being awesome and welcoming us into an awesome house and Brendan along with all of the fantastic work people who made my life in Vancouver very easy.
My next post here will be about call centre life in Vancouver, with the world's largest junk removal company.
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Thoughts From an Aeroplane Bound for Vancouver
In my spare time I try to push myself to free-write whenever I have a pen, a particular writing book and enough ambition. My usual exercise is to write non-stop until I've filled a page in this particular book which usually takes close to ten minutes at a casual writing pace. The following is largely one of these free-writes from the flight to Vancouver mostly used to put my mind at ease and to try to make myself feel tired so I could sleep on the plane:
Aeroplanes are great thought incubators. Even more so when you're trapped on one for roughly 12 hours.
You get through a movie, knock back a drink and before you know it, you're bored with the screen in front of you and you've killed a grand total of 2 hours.
To say the very least I'm excited. I am 10 hours away from the adventure I've been working towards in some way or another for almost 2 years. I am also terrified. This may surprise most of those who know me but I always am terrified when travelling far from home. I should hope that I always will be. Fear goes hand in hand with excitement and there's nothing like a leap of faith into the unknown to bring a welcome helping of both.
North America is hallowed ground to me. It has held a sense of home for a while. I am ready for this.
I have with me my favourite person, without whom this adventure would be less than half as exciting.
These are the thoughts and feelings that occupy my mind at what must be about 10.15 p.m. New Zealand time. They are the culmination of the planning, waiting, dreaming that has brought me to this plane seat.
I have a cue of good music lined up. As I come to the end of this page, my next time-wasting tactic is to listen myself to sleep as the mid-flight game plan on these long hauls so often is. This has been a long time coming and I could not be more grateful for the harmonious way in which everything has timed out.
Roll on Vancouver
Aeroplanes are great thought incubators. Even more so when you're trapped on one for roughly 12 hours.
You get through a movie, knock back a drink and before you know it, you're bored with the screen in front of you and you've killed a grand total of 2 hours.
To say the very least I'm excited. I am 10 hours away from the adventure I've been working towards in some way or another for almost 2 years. I am also terrified. This may surprise most of those who know me but I always am terrified when travelling far from home. I should hope that I always will be. Fear goes hand in hand with excitement and there's nothing like a leap of faith into the unknown to bring a welcome helping of both.
North America is hallowed ground to me. It has held a sense of home for a while. I am ready for this.
I have with me my favourite person, without whom this adventure would be less than half as exciting.
These are the thoughts and feelings that occupy my mind at what must be about 10.15 p.m. New Zealand time. They are the culmination of the planning, waiting, dreaming that has brought me to this plane seat.
I have a cue of good music lined up. As I come to the end of this page, my next time-wasting tactic is to listen myself to sleep as the mid-flight game plan on these long hauls so often is. This has been a long time coming and I could not be more grateful for the harmonious way in which everything has timed out.
Roll on Vancouver
Brotherly. Love.
In November of 2015 my older brother married his fiancee in a beautiful chapel, overlooking the rugged South Coast of Wellington.
There's something surreal about watching the first child of your generation get married. The photographs of parents' weddings, aunts' and uncles' weddings when they were in their early 20s come to mind. It is strange to be reminded of these pictures in the midst of re-creating them, knowing that these will one day be the pictures that his children will thumb through in awe of how their parents looked when they were younger. They will marvel at the style of our suits, the way in which we wore our hair, the magnificence of their mother in her red wedding dress.
One day my own children will look at them and think how strangely different Uncle Campbell and Aunt Linda look on their wedding day in comparison to their modern day middle aged counterparts. It is a strange eventuality to suddenly become aware of in the midst of the most joyous of occasions.
Perhaps I'm full of shit and entirely too fanciful.
At any rate, my brother, the oldest of myself and all our first cousins, married the love of his life in November of 2015 in a beautiful little chapel that comes part in parcel with an equally gorgeous reception venue, both of which overlook the rugged South Coast of Wellington.
I had the honour of being the Best Man which meant aside from organising the bachelor party where myself and several of his closest friends attacked him with paintball guns over the course of several hours, I also had to deliver a speech at the reception.
The ceremony was a lovely coming together of cultures, the bride was stunning in red as per Chinese tradition and my brother glowed in his tux in a way I've never seen before.
As I suppose is a side-effect of growing up, occasions where the whole extended family gets together are few and far between so it was lovely to have everyone there in celebration. In particular it's always fun to see the cousins I grew up with who I'm lucky to hang out with once a year, us all being spread out across the country and across the world from each other.
The reception was, as expected, an emotional experience given the combination of Campbell being the first of our generation to get married and the somewhat tumultuous way in which we grew up, our parents splitting up when I was about 4 and Cams about 6.
Not long before speeches, my grandparents on Dad's side had asked me to include an official "welcome to the family" from them to Linda which I agreed to do for the sake of honouring their sense of tradition.
I spoke about growing up together, what brotherhood meant in the context of my relationship with Campbell over the years. We were raised by our mother who worked full time which often left us with only each other for company. This meant that I relied heavily on Campbell for advice, protection and help from our days in primary school through to my first couple of years in high school. I'd like to think he needed me as much as I needed him through much of growing up.
Anyone who knows me now, knows that I'm a fiercely independent person. I move in the direction of my dreams and I try to ignore the voice in the back of my head whispering negativity in my ear as much as I possibly can. I am unafraid to take chances and I'm unashamed at how little I have figured out at this stage in my life.
I owe a lot of that attitude to having grown up in a supportive family environment, and knowing that if I really fuck things up, I have an amazing big brother who always has my back and is perfectly happy not to tell Mum.
I managed to get through my speech without totally losing my shit, and only cried a little at the end when I'd said pretty much everything I wanted to say.
My parents also had heartfelt words to offer, I can't say I kept it together too well during their time with the mic.
The reception was capped off by an awesome dinner, lots of dancing, and a lot more drinking than I maybe should have done. I spent most of the night after the formalities hanging out with cousins but managed to first do a round of quick catch-ups with pretty much everyone, and some introductions to the few that hadn't had the chance to meet Clem yet.
Credit to Campbell and Linda, they pulled off one hell of a party! If either/both of you are reading this, congratulations and may your years together be full of joy.
It's a strange feeling to have grown up with a brother, to have seen him in so many different lights, relied on him for so many things over the years and to see him at the happiest I've ever known him to be, promise himself for life to the woman he loves. Truly a unique and remarkable combination of emotions.
I had the honour of being the Best Man which meant aside from organising the bachelor party where myself and several of his closest friends attacked him with paintball guns over the course of several hours, I also had to deliver a speech at the reception.
The ceremony was a lovely coming together of cultures, the bride was stunning in red as per Chinese tradition and my brother glowed in his tux in a way I've never seen before.
As I suppose is a side-effect of growing up, occasions where the whole extended family gets together are few and far between so it was lovely to have everyone there in celebration. In particular it's always fun to see the cousins I grew up with who I'm lucky to hang out with once a year, us all being spread out across the country and across the world from each other.
The reception was, as expected, an emotional experience given the combination of Campbell being the first of our generation to get married and the somewhat tumultuous way in which we grew up, our parents splitting up when I was about 4 and Cams about 6.
Not long before speeches, my grandparents on Dad's side had asked me to include an official "welcome to the family" from them to Linda which I agreed to do for the sake of honouring their sense of tradition.
I spoke about growing up together, what brotherhood meant in the context of my relationship with Campbell over the years. We were raised by our mother who worked full time which often left us with only each other for company. This meant that I relied heavily on Campbell for advice, protection and help from our days in primary school through to my first couple of years in high school. I'd like to think he needed me as much as I needed him through much of growing up.
Anyone who knows me now, knows that I'm a fiercely independent person. I move in the direction of my dreams and I try to ignore the voice in the back of my head whispering negativity in my ear as much as I possibly can. I am unafraid to take chances and I'm unashamed at how little I have figured out at this stage in my life.
I owe a lot of that attitude to having grown up in a supportive family environment, and knowing that if I really fuck things up, I have an amazing big brother who always has my back and is perfectly happy not to tell Mum.
I managed to get through my speech without totally losing my shit, and only cried a little at the end when I'd said pretty much everything I wanted to say.
My parents also had heartfelt words to offer, I can't say I kept it together too well during their time with the mic.
The reception was capped off by an awesome dinner, lots of dancing, and a lot more drinking than I maybe should have done. I spent most of the night after the formalities hanging out with cousins but managed to first do a round of quick catch-ups with pretty much everyone, and some introductions to the few that hadn't had the chance to meet Clem yet.
Credit to Campbell and Linda, they pulled off one hell of a party! If either/both of you are reading this, congratulations and may your years together be full of joy.
It's a strange feeling to have grown up with a brother, to have seen him in so many different lights, relied on him for so many things over the years and to see him at the happiest I've ever known him to be, promise himself for life to the woman he loves. Truly a unique and remarkable combination of emotions.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Star Trekkin...
To those reading that are unfamiliar with the city I grew up in, you're about to get a good idea of how crazily quirky it can be. Wellington is renowned for its eclectic arts scene and I cannot stress enough the eclectic part of that phrase.
For the last couple of years in the city, a group of players and creative-minded theatre folk who operate under the moniker "Enterprise Entertainment" have put on a production called Summer Star Trek. Basically, it's a low budget, high enthusiasm outdoor theatre show in which a carefully selected episode from the original (George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner...) Star Trek series is acted out live.
As "After the Dance" was fast approaching its closing nights we inevitably began to discuss amongst ourselves what was next for us in theatre. One of our leads mentioned that Summer Star Trek auditions were coming up (he had previously played Kirk in their productions) and someone else mentioned that they were planning on auditioning as well. I hadn't thought much about doing any other theatre related things but I got to thinking that this might be a fun thing to go out for. I got in touch with Enterprise Entertainment and booked myself an audition time.
The episode they had picked for the upcoming show was "Mirror, Mirror" in which the Enterprise crew find themselves accidentally switching places with their "evil" counterparts in an alternate universe. I watched the episode a couple of times, looked through the scenes they had picked out for the audition process and decided that I'd quite like to be Dr McCoy.
The auditions rolled around, I was horribly nervous and managed to get through the obligatory 1-minute monologue I'd chosen which was a short excerpt from "Saving Private Ryan" that I thought would be good for conveying emotion subtly. We ran some scenes from the show, I relaxed a little bit and it ended up being quite fun by the time it ended.
I left feeling as though I'd done well but my audition group was quite a small one and we were the last group so I wasn't overly confident about the likelihood of being cast.
At the time I was exhausted from work and the schedule I'd had to live on for "After the Dance" which was basically: wake up at 3.30am for work, work 8 hours then come home around 12.30 to sleep for a bit, wake up around 5pm to have dinner and get to the theatre for call time, finish the show and come home to sleep a few hours before work.
The proposed Star Trek schedule was basically 3 months of rehearsals before performances and performances split over two weekends and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to commit to that sort of a schedule with working early mornings. I made the decision that if I was offered a part with no lines or very limited lines I'd turn it down in favour of a healthier sleep schedule. Then I got a call from the director.
Being a big ball of nerves, I let the phone ring out and waited for the txt to come through telling me I had a new voicemail. I ran a few scenarios through my mind and planned how I would react to various different outcomes before deciding to put myself out of my misery and just check the message.
I had been offered the part of Farrell: The personal guard of Captain Kirk in the "evil" universe. This was not the smallest part in the show nor the part with the fewest lines. It was however, a very small part with very few lines. I decided not to take it.
I then went to the kitchen, gathered the necessary ingredients from the cupboard, pre-heated the oven, mixed everything together, poured it into an oven-safe dish, baked it for an hour, took the dish out of the oven and left it to cool before cutting myself a big ol' slice of humble pie which I promptly consumed. It was a little bitter at first.
There was nothing else coming up that I wanted to audition for and I decided that being involved with something as crazy as an outdoor Star Trek show in any capacity was better than not being involved and regretting it later.
I took the part, put as much focus and effort as I possibly could into my character outside of my lines and had a hell of a lot of fun.
The rehearsal process was long but the company was fantastic. The shows all went really well and drew large and enthusiastic crowds. A lot of people I'd met through "After the Dance" came along to see the show as did some of my family including Mum who happened to be in Wellington for work during the performance run.
At the after party event, our director Shannon gave out award certificates along with one of the prop badges each that we had used for costuming during the show. That was a really nice touch and it takes someone who really cares about every facet of a production to personalise something like that for every member of cast and crew involved.
I made some good friends through Summer Star Trek and looking back its amazing to think about how many cool experiences I almost missed out on over something as trivial as not getting the specific part that I originally wanted.
Enterprise Entertainment also do a Star Wars themed show called 30 minute trilogy which sounds exciting and I'm sad I can't be a part of it, as happy as I am to be hanging out in Canada for the next little while. I'll definitely be signing myself up for auditions with these guys the next time I'm in town, they're a great group of people to have worked with.
The next post here will be about my big brother's wedding in November of 2015, Live Long and Prosper.
For the last couple of years in the city, a group of players and creative-minded theatre folk who operate under the moniker "Enterprise Entertainment" have put on a production called Summer Star Trek. Basically, it's a low budget, high enthusiasm outdoor theatre show in which a carefully selected episode from the original (George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner...) Star Trek series is acted out live.
As "After the Dance" was fast approaching its closing nights we inevitably began to discuss amongst ourselves what was next for us in theatre. One of our leads mentioned that Summer Star Trek auditions were coming up (he had previously played Kirk in their productions) and someone else mentioned that they were planning on auditioning as well. I hadn't thought much about doing any other theatre related things but I got to thinking that this might be a fun thing to go out for. I got in touch with Enterprise Entertainment and booked myself an audition time.
The episode they had picked for the upcoming show was "Mirror, Mirror" in which the Enterprise crew find themselves accidentally switching places with their "evil" counterparts in an alternate universe. I watched the episode a couple of times, looked through the scenes they had picked out for the audition process and decided that I'd quite like to be Dr McCoy.
The auditions rolled around, I was horribly nervous and managed to get through the obligatory 1-minute monologue I'd chosen which was a short excerpt from "Saving Private Ryan" that I thought would be good for conveying emotion subtly. We ran some scenes from the show, I relaxed a little bit and it ended up being quite fun by the time it ended.
I left feeling as though I'd done well but my audition group was quite a small one and we were the last group so I wasn't overly confident about the likelihood of being cast.
At the time I was exhausted from work and the schedule I'd had to live on for "After the Dance" which was basically: wake up at 3.30am for work, work 8 hours then come home around 12.30 to sleep for a bit, wake up around 5pm to have dinner and get to the theatre for call time, finish the show and come home to sleep a few hours before work.
The proposed Star Trek schedule was basically 3 months of rehearsals before performances and performances split over two weekends and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to commit to that sort of a schedule with working early mornings. I made the decision that if I was offered a part with no lines or very limited lines I'd turn it down in favour of a healthier sleep schedule. Then I got a call from the director.
Being a big ball of nerves, I let the phone ring out and waited for the txt to come through telling me I had a new voicemail. I ran a few scenarios through my mind and planned how I would react to various different outcomes before deciding to put myself out of my misery and just check the message.
I had been offered the part of Farrell: The personal guard of Captain Kirk in the "evil" universe. This was not the smallest part in the show nor the part with the fewest lines. It was however, a very small part with very few lines. I decided not to take it.
I then went to the kitchen, gathered the necessary ingredients from the cupboard, pre-heated the oven, mixed everything together, poured it into an oven-safe dish, baked it for an hour, took the dish out of the oven and left it to cool before cutting myself a big ol' slice of humble pie which I promptly consumed. It was a little bitter at first.
There was nothing else coming up that I wanted to audition for and I decided that being involved with something as crazy as an outdoor Star Trek show in any capacity was better than not being involved and regretting it later.
I took the part, put as much focus and effort as I possibly could into my character outside of my lines and had a hell of a lot of fun.
The rehearsal process was long but the company was fantastic. The shows all went really well and drew large and enthusiastic crowds. A lot of people I'd met through "After the Dance" came along to see the show as did some of my family including Mum who happened to be in Wellington for work during the performance run.
At the after party event, our director Shannon gave out award certificates along with one of the prop badges each that we had used for costuming during the show. That was a really nice touch and it takes someone who really cares about every facet of a production to personalise something like that for every member of cast and crew involved.
I made some good friends through Summer Star Trek and looking back its amazing to think about how many cool experiences I almost missed out on over something as trivial as not getting the specific part that I originally wanted.
Enterprise Entertainment also do a Star Wars themed show called 30 minute trilogy which sounds exciting and I'm sad I can't be a part of it, as happy as I am to be hanging out in Canada for the next little while. I'll definitely be signing myself up for auditions with these guys the next time I'm in town, they're a great group of people to have worked with.
The next post here will be about my big brother's wedding in November of 2015, Live Long and Prosper.
Sunday, April 3, 2016
After The Dance
At some point in mid 2015 I had one of those brilliant cosmic experiences of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. While walking from town along Ghuznee street, trying to work out where the closest bus stop was to get home. I happened to look the direction of the Gryphon theatre just as I was passing the window. In the window there happened to be an audition notice. I took down the contact information from it and emailed off an inquiry as soon as I got home (the auditions were due to commence two days from my becoming aware of the notice).
Fortunately I was able to book myself into an audition slot and sling together a 1 minute monologue to audition with. The audition process was as painless as performing in front of a judgement panel of 3 complete strangers and having to run scenes with another complete stranger can be (utterly terrifying) but I got through it. The next day I got a call from the director offering me a small speaking role with a handful of lines. I was ecstatic.
My part was to be the handsome young toy boy of a middle aged upper class woman who is actively refusing to acknowledge the fact that she is indeed getting older. It required me to develop a Cockney accent which was a fun challenge to have, and to create a believable young man who is exceptionally working class and somewhat out of his depth amongst the glamorous company he keeps despite his romantic partner keeping him immaculately dressed. To be frank, it was a glorious amount of fun.
Shortly after the casting being announced for this show which I'll refer to from now on by its title "After The Dance" (Terrence Rattigan for anyone unfamiliar) I got a job working mostly early mornings (4am starts) which became a challenge in terms of tiredness levels and having time to sleep but more on that in a later post.
The production run for the show was set for mid-September with my scenes rehearsing twice a week until the weeks before opening night where for obvious reasons the schedule got a little more involved.
For my first foray into theatre since high school and my first ever show in the realm of amateur theatre as an adult, this was a phenomenal play to be a part of.
I had a lot of fun putting together my small part and making noticeable improvements throughout the rehearsal period but I also learned a hell of a lot about acting from the amazingly talented people that were a part of it all and made a few friends along the way.
Our director entered our performance into a Wellington - wide theatre award and we ended up winning in several categories (my scene partner won best actress without even being one of the two female lead roles!) and gaining honourable mention accolades in several others which was nice because the awards were announced a couple of months after we closed so it gave us all a lovely nostalgic feeling to read through the judges comments about the show.
A lot of the people that were involved in the show have had numerous previous involvements with the different theatre troupes in Wellington so when it came to production time, I felt like there'd be a few nights where I'd be the only one to not know anyone in the audience. When it came down to the production run though, I had a few friends come out to see the show and several out of town family members travelled to Wellington to see it (thanks Marshy, Darshy, grandma and grandad) so there were only one or two lonely nights for me.
I have a lot of moments in my life where I can't believe what stupidly good luck I've had to end me up in particular situations and having the opportunity to act in Stagecraft's rendition of After The Dance is one of them. If anyone from the cast or crew of After The Dance happens to be reading this, know that I am grateful to each and every one of you for making this such an amazing first real theatre experience for me, and that I miss all of you and hope you're having fun with whatever shows you've all been involved with since.
I know that as soon as I'm back in Wellington again (writing this post from Vancouver, B.C. right now) I'll be looking out for audition notices and jumping straight back into theatre life. As much fun as Canada is I'm gutted to be missing out on being a part of Stagecraft's production of History Boys, it's going to be an epic show!
My next post here will be about my other theatre engagement in 2015/ early 2016, SUMMER STAR TREK!
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Speak Up
Some time early last year a friendly acquaintance offered me a short musical set at a gig she was organising. Lacking in confidence and new material, I hesitated in getting back to her and didn't end up playing. Over the last little while I've seen her brand as a rapper expand monumentally and I imagine it's a matter of a very short period of time before you start to see her name in the mainstream of NZ music. Naturally, I've been kicking myself for a while, although I feel a sense of pride at how well she is doing for herself.
In July of last year, I received a message from a poetry friend asking if I was keen on a paid half hour poetry set as part of an event he was organising. Never one to repeat mistakes several times over I replied "Fuck yeah!" or something to that effect.
The event was called Speak Up, designed to be a new monthly poetry event where poets could open mic their work in a safe and friendly environment. Presumably this was to address the overwhelming numbers that Poetry in Motion (an existing monthly event that hosts open mic's and slams throughout the year in Wellington) was starting to see at their events.
I'd come away from poetry shows with a bit of cash in hand before from winning/ placing in slams but this was the first feature length set I'd been offered and the first pre-arranged paid gig I'd been asked to do. I decided to write mostly new material for it and spent the weeks leading up to the big night wonderfully excited, albeit anxious as all hell.
Closer to the day I had the unexpected honour of several of my family members (mostly out-of-town based) saying that they were coming down especially for it. I'd designed my set material around a theme of "shit that happened to me in high school" with poems grouped across topics questioning origin, morality, drug use, alcoholism and sexuality so I was a little worried about what my grandparents might think of it all.
For all my stressing, I decided ultimately not to censor any of my poems and to just go for it as best I could. There was not a comfortable moment on stage for me but I think that's true of any new experience in the realm of live performance. I had similar feelings about my first season slamming even with making it to regionals that year. Nowadays slamming in front of a room full of people comes with the normal nerves but mostly with a sense of fun and camaraderie between poets.
The gig went well. My family loved it. I loved the experience. The organisers seemed happy with their choice of me as a feature performer. At the moment I'm playing with the idea of re-working some of the material from the set into a full-length poetry show for the Wellington Fringe festival the next time I'm in town for one. When I got off stage and all the thank - you's were said to everyone who came along (who are all of my favourites) I felt really good about it all which is a nice place to be as an artist (a state of being that is so often accompanied by crippling self doubt).
Speak Up didn't end up continuing as a monthly event for whatever reason which is a bit of a shame but I am beyond stoked that I was asked to feature on the night. I am also exceptionally proud of myself for taking up the opportunity without hesitation. It stands as a big "fuck you" to all the times I've been kept from devoting time to the things I enjoy most (writing, performing, playing music, socialising with friends) by mental health issues and crippling self doubt.
More thanks than I have words for to Duncan Hope who organised the event, Tarns Hood, who was also a billed poet on the night and is a very talented performer, Michael Gray who ran the door on the night and is always full of kind words and hugs and anyone/everyone reading this who came along to support me on the night. I love you all and you make my life so much easier for being in it.
My next post here will be about my involvement in local theatre in the later months of 2015.
In July of last year, I received a message from a poetry friend asking if I was keen on a paid half hour poetry set as part of an event he was organising. Never one to repeat mistakes several times over I replied "Fuck yeah!" or something to that effect.
The event was called Speak Up, designed to be a new monthly poetry event where poets could open mic their work in a safe and friendly environment. Presumably this was to address the overwhelming numbers that Poetry in Motion (an existing monthly event that hosts open mic's and slams throughout the year in Wellington) was starting to see at their events.
I'd come away from poetry shows with a bit of cash in hand before from winning/ placing in slams but this was the first feature length set I'd been offered and the first pre-arranged paid gig I'd been asked to do. I decided to write mostly new material for it and spent the weeks leading up to the big night wonderfully excited, albeit anxious as all hell.
Closer to the day I had the unexpected honour of several of my family members (mostly out-of-town based) saying that they were coming down especially for it. I'd designed my set material around a theme of "shit that happened to me in high school" with poems grouped across topics questioning origin, morality, drug use, alcoholism and sexuality so I was a little worried about what my grandparents might think of it all.
For all my stressing, I decided ultimately not to censor any of my poems and to just go for it as best I could. There was not a comfortable moment on stage for me but I think that's true of any new experience in the realm of live performance. I had similar feelings about my first season slamming even with making it to regionals that year. Nowadays slamming in front of a room full of people comes with the normal nerves but mostly with a sense of fun and camaraderie between poets.
The gig went well. My family loved it. I loved the experience. The organisers seemed happy with their choice of me as a feature performer. At the moment I'm playing with the idea of re-working some of the material from the set into a full-length poetry show for the Wellington Fringe festival the next time I'm in town for one. When I got off stage and all the thank - you's were said to everyone who came along (who are all of my favourites) I felt really good about it all which is a nice place to be as an artist (a state of being that is so often accompanied by crippling self doubt).
Speak Up didn't end up continuing as a monthly event for whatever reason which is a bit of a shame but I am beyond stoked that I was asked to feature on the night. I am also exceptionally proud of myself for taking up the opportunity without hesitation. It stands as a big "fuck you" to all the times I've been kept from devoting time to the things I enjoy most (writing, performing, playing music, socialising with friends) by mental health issues and crippling self doubt.
More thanks than I have words for to Duncan Hope who organised the event, Tarns Hood, who was also a billed poet on the night and is a very talented performer, Michael Gray who ran the door on the night and is always full of kind words and hugs and anyone/everyone reading this who came along to support me on the night. I love you all and you make my life so much easier for being in it.
My next post here will be about my involvement in local theatre in the later months of 2015.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Home?
After a good couple of months exploring Melbourne (and with a working visa for Canada finally secured) , it felt like the right time to head back over the ditch and buy into the whole "being a real person" thing again for a while.
I spent a few days catching up with people and couch-crashing between my brother and my girlfriend before finding my own flat on the same side of town as I've always lived but a little closer to the city (just can't seem to stray from the eastern suburbs).
After a couple of weeks, a couple of hundred applications and a handful of interviews I managed to secure myself full time work back at the airport but this time working as a barista/ front of house for Mojo, a fairly reputable coffee place. As I write this several months after the fact, I'm still working there and enjoying it for the most part. I don't think anyone can ever really say they love getting up at 3 in the morning for work but outside of the early starts it's all good.
I have an interesting relationship with Wellington these days having both spent more time here than any other one place in my life so far and venturing far from it for extended periods of time over the last few years. Upon arrival I fall in love with the place all over again for about 2 months. I think a lot of people feel similar things about their respective hometowns. It's nice to be back in a familiar place, to get coffee from long-time favourite cafes, drink at preferred bars, participate in communities that don't induce huge amounts of anxiety. This city is definitely home to me and I'd proudly call it my city to anyone.
That said, since my first adventure off to the U.S. as an exchange student (and perhaps even further back than that) I have been very aware that my status here at any given point in time is merely that of a visitor. My time in this city is limited and every time I return it is with the mindset that I will shortly be off exploring again. I'm not sure if I'll ever find a place with the power to capture me permanently but Wellington is my home and the thing about home is it's a wonderful place to return to fleetingly. In order to properly return to a place, however, one must first leave that place for long enough to miss it.
I've been back now since May, and I'll be back until March which at the moment (just after Christmas) feels both too far away and incredibly close. This visit has been a good one, and I am ultimately glad to have had major travel plans delayed. At the same time, the moment I get to touch down on North American soil again cannot come quickly enough.
My next post here will be about one of the coolest performance opportunities I've yet had the pleasure of involving myself with.
I spent a few days catching up with people and couch-crashing between my brother and my girlfriend before finding my own flat on the same side of town as I've always lived but a little closer to the city (just can't seem to stray from the eastern suburbs).
After a couple of weeks, a couple of hundred applications and a handful of interviews I managed to secure myself full time work back at the airport but this time working as a barista/ front of house for Mojo, a fairly reputable coffee place. As I write this several months after the fact, I'm still working there and enjoying it for the most part. I don't think anyone can ever really say they love getting up at 3 in the morning for work but outside of the early starts it's all good.
I have an interesting relationship with Wellington these days having both spent more time here than any other one place in my life so far and venturing far from it for extended periods of time over the last few years. Upon arrival I fall in love with the place all over again for about 2 months. I think a lot of people feel similar things about their respective hometowns. It's nice to be back in a familiar place, to get coffee from long-time favourite cafes, drink at preferred bars, participate in communities that don't induce huge amounts of anxiety. This city is definitely home to me and I'd proudly call it my city to anyone.
That said, since my first adventure off to the U.S. as an exchange student (and perhaps even further back than that) I have been very aware that my status here at any given point in time is merely that of a visitor. My time in this city is limited and every time I return it is with the mindset that I will shortly be off exploring again. I'm not sure if I'll ever find a place with the power to capture me permanently but Wellington is my home and the thing about home is it's a wonderful place to return to fleetingly. In order to properly return to a place, however, one must first leave that place for long enough to miss it.
I've been back now since May, and I'll be back until March which at the moment (just after Christmas) feels both too far away and incredibly close. This visit has been a good one, and I am ultimately glad to have had major travel plans delayed. At the same time, the moment I get to touch down on North American soil again cannot come quickly enough.
My next post here will be about one of the coolest performance opportunities I've yet had the pleasure of involving myself with.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Laughing in Australia
My visit to the great city of Melbourne happened to occur at the same time as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and so as well as experiencing the usual quirks the city has to offer, I also got to see some pretty amazing comedians in their element.
The first show I saw was a spontaneous affair. I was sitting at the hostel chatting with a couple of people I'd just met when we decided we'd go out for a drink. The Canadian girl in our group suggested that we get tickets to a show as well and go check out some of the festival so we looked through the schedule and settled upon the London-based Canadian Catherine Ryan.
We got ourselves some food and a couple of drinks in town before heading up to one of the smaller rooms set up within the town hall complex where Catherine's show was hosted. She was vaguely familiar to me having appeared on some English panel shows I've seen but I'd never seen her do stand-up so I was going in mostly blind.
She was hilarious. From telling us about her room-mate (5 year old daughter) to the most accurate Beyonce impression you'll ever see from a white woman, her show came to an end far too soon. I think it ran for an hour but I would have happily watched her for double that.
The second, third and fourth shows I saw were a bit of a marathon affair. Looking for something to do one day I decided to check out the cheap tickets office where they sell off tickets to shows that day at a cheaper price to try and sell as many as possible to shows that haven't managed to sell out.
Arj Barker who I was familiar with through Flight of the Conchords and his various appearances at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival was one of the shows on sale so I got a ticket to his show. I realised while getting my ticket to that show that with the time it was on, I could probably swing getting to a show before and after his performance. I ended up buying a ticket to James Acaster who I'd seen on tv in New Zealand before and who I rate pretty highly as well as one to see the combined show of Guy Montgomery (NZ comedy's 2nd favourite Guy) and Rose Matafeo in an effort to support the kiwis at the festival.
Arj's show was as expected a flawlessly crafted hour of comedy genius culminating in the most shameless sales effort I've ever seen in a show that I paid to see in the first place. To some extent it worked because I did end up buying one of his dvd's, although mostly so I could get him to sign it and say hi to him, which I did!
I went into the Rose and Guy show without really knowing what to expect and was treated to a very New Zealand experience. An audience member got a phone call in the middle of Guy's half of the show and as he tried to call her out on it, she yelled back that it was from his cousin which was both hilarious and probably true. Rose was on form with her unique brand of awkward comedy featuring cringe-worthy stories from her life with a little bit of observational comedy and her famous attack on the creepy coffee club ads. All in all I underpaid heavily for the show these guys put on (I think it cost me 15 bucks).
James Acaster was someone I REALLY wanted to see at this festival so I was stoked to be attending his show. He is the master of awkward white boy humour and was in the best form I've ever seen him in (having seen him do a lot of stand-up via online videos). From talking about his thug-life days in the SW-4 (I think) street gang to his hatred for Lucas, whom he served on a jury with and eventually gained respect for after a series of harsh realisations, his set was all over the place in the most fantastic of ways. I can't decide who was funnier between James and Catherine but it was close.
I really appreciated the non-headline shows because they were in such wonderfully intimate settings and I feel like that's the best way to experience any performer. I'd take pub performances over crowded stadiums any day. Those sorts of shows make it feel like you're just hanging out over a beer with the performer rather than someone who has paid for the privilege of being in the same vicinity as a superstar.
The shows that I went to see in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival were all amazing and I will definitely be back for the festival in the future to see more great comedy.
My next post here will about my return to Wellington.
The first show I saw was a spontaneous affair. I was sitting at the hostel chatting with a couple of people I'd just met when we decided we'd go out for a drink. The Canadian girl in our group suggested that we get tickets to a show as well and go check out some of the festival so we looked through the schedule and settled upon the London-based Canadian Catherine Ryan.
We got ourselves some food and a couple of drinks in town before heading up to one of the smaller rooms set up within the town hall complex where Catherine's show was hosted. She was vaguely familiar to me having appeared on some English panel shows I've seen but I'd never seen her do stand-up so I was going in mostly blind.
She was hilarious. From telling us about her room-mate (5 year old daughter) to the most accurate Beyonce impression you'll ever see from a white woman, her show came to an end far too soon. I think it ran for an hour but I would have happily watched her for double that.
The second, third and fourth shows I saw were a bit of a marathon affair. Looking for something to do one day I decided to check out the cheap tickets office where they sell off tickets to shows that day at a cheaper price to try and sell as many as possible to shows that haven't managed to sell out.
Arj Barker who I was familiar with through Flight of the Conchords and his various appearances at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival was one of the shows on sale so I got a ticket to his show. I realised while getting my ticket to that show that with the time it was on, I could probably swing getting to a show before and after his performance. I ended up buying a ticket to James Acaster who I'd seen on tv in New Zealand before and who I rate pretty highly as well as one to see the combined show of Guy Montgomery (NZ comedy's 2nd favourite Guy) and Rose Matafeo in an effort to support the kiwis at the festival.
Arj's show was as expected a flawlessly crafted hour of comedy genius culminating in the most shameless sales effort I've ever seen in a show that I paid to see in the first place. To some extent it worked because I did end up buying one of his dvd's, although mostly so I could get him to sign it and say hi to him, which I did!
I went into the Rose and Guy show without really knowing what to expect and was treated to a very New Zealand experience. An audience member got a phone call in the middle of Guy's half of the show and as he tried to call her out on it, she yelled back that it was from his cousin which was both hilarious and probably true. Rose was on form with her unique brand of awkward comedy featuring cringe-worthy stories from her life with a little bit of observational comedy and her famous attack on the creepy coffee club ads. All in all I underpaid heavily for the show these guys put on (I think it cost me 15 bucks).
James Acaster was someone I REALLY wanted to see at this festival so I was stoked to be attending his show. He is the master of awkward white boy humour and was in the best form I've ever seen him in (having seen him do a lot of stand-up via online videos). From talking about his thug-life days in the SW-4 (I think) street gang to his hatred for Lucas, whom he served on a jury with and eventually gained respect for after a series of harsh realisations, his set was all over the place in the most fantastic of ways. I can't decide who was funnier between James and Catherine but it was close.
I really appreciated the non-headline shows because they were in such wonderfully intimate settings and I feel like that's the best way to experience any performer. I'd take pub performances over crowded stadiums any day. Those sorts of shows make it feel like you're just hanging out over a beer with the performer rather than someone who has paid for the privilege of being in the same vicinity as a superstar.
The shows that I went to see in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival were all amazing and I will definitely be back for the festival in the future to see more great comedy.
My next post here will about my return to Wellington.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Melbourne
In Mid-March, I got sick of not travelling and booked a ticket to Melbourne without anything much in the way of a plan. I stored all the stuff I couldn't take with me with family, emptied out everything from the flat as we were all moving out and the landlord wanted everything gone (furniture, dishes etc...). While it wasn't a whole lot of fun leaving Clem, it did feel really good to be getting on a plane bound for somewhere I hadn't yet seen.
I'm not really sure what all to write about my time in Melbourne but I'll brush over a few of the more memorable things and hopefully this post wont be too all over the place to follow.
Accomodation-wise, I booked myelf into a backpackers in central Melbourne before I left and decided if I liked it I'd just stay there the whole time. I ended up working there as a cleaner to pay for my accomodation and becoming a part of the staff culture which was an ecclectic mix of travellers from all walks of life. We had a bar downstairs that had something social going on pretty much every night and I spent a lot my time in my first couple of weeks down there meeting new people only to have them leave a couple of days later. It was a quick walk or free tram ride to pretty much everywhere you'd want to see in the central area from where I was staying so it had that going for it as well.
I spent a bit of time busking in the downtown area and loved that. The streets are wide and the foot traffic heavy which is pretty much a buskers dream. It was a bit more of an intense process getting a busking permit there than in Wellington but I guess that can be expected from a city of 4 million odd people trying to keep everyone in line.
The two most interesting people I came across were an utterly insane Englishman who became one of my best friends in the hostel, and an equally ecclectic guy from small town Victoria who I ended up taking a weekend camping trip round the Grampians with and who showed me some of the most beautiful parts of the state (cheers Ben).
My favourite hang-out spot in town was the ACMI (Australian centre for the moving image) at Federation Square where I spent a lot of time wandering through the free exhibitions and watching random collections of animations and short films from their archives.
I got incredibly sunburnt in the Cricket World Cup fan zone down by the river where I sat and watched with great commitment as New Zealand were embarrassed by Australia in the final along with an English cricket fan named Freddy who was equally distressed at our poor showing against the Aussies and two Scandinavians who probably had very little idea of what was going on.
I drank a lot of terrible beer at various different places across town, went to a poetry night at Ferdydurkes where I was too intimidated to read anything of my own, probably my only regret from the whole trip and was shown some cool bars around the central area which I could never find on purpose again.
I got to catch up with a guy that was hosted a couple of years after me by the same host dad as I was in the states. We went and got lunch and it was nice to chat with him about Fort and reminisce about things back there.
Ultimately, I went to Melbourne to get away from the familiar for a bit and achieved that. I can't wait to go back again some day, hopefully on a more permanent basis rather than a 2 month taster. I think my favourite thing about Melbourne is that it has a very ecclectic artsy feel to it (much like Wellington) but on an absolutely massive scale which appeals to me. I like that there is so much to discover there and that I could never find anything until I wasn't looking for it at which point it would appear seemingly out of thin air. Melbourne is definitely a city for the explorer, and there is so much there to be explored.
My next post here will be about my experiences with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival which co-incided happily with my visit.
I'm not really sure what all to write about my time in Melbourne but I'll brush over a few of the more memorable things and hopefully this post wont be too all over the place to follow.
Accomodation-wise, I booked myelf into a backpackers in central Melbourne before I left and decided if I liked it I'd just stay there the whole time. I ended up working there as a cleaner to pay for my accomodation and becoming a part of the staff culture which was an ecclectic mix of travellers from all walks of life. We had a bar downstairs that had something social going on pretty much every night and I spent a lot my time in my first couple of weeks down there meeting new people only to have them leave a couple of days later. It was a quick walk or free tram ride to pretty much everywhere you'd want to see in the central area from where I was staying so it had that going for it as well.
I spent a bit of time busking in the downtown area and loved that. The streets are wide and the foot traffic heavy which is pretty much a buskers dream. It was a bit more of an intense process getting a busking permit there than in Wellington but I guess that can be expected from a city of 4 million odd people trying to keep everyone in line.
The two most interesting people I came across were an utterly insane Englishman who became one of my best friends in the hostel, and an equally ecclectic guy from small town Victoria who I ended up taking a weekend camping trip round the Grampians with and who showed me some of the most beautiful parts of the state (cheers Ben).
My favourite hang-out spot in town was the ACMI (Australian centre for the moving image) at Federation Square where I spent a lot of time wandering through the free exhibitions and watching random collections of animations and short films from their archives.
I got incredibly sunburnt in the Cricket World Cup fan zone down by the river where I sat and watched with great commitment as New Zealand were embarrassed by Australia in the final along with an English cricket fan named Freddy who was equally distressed at our poor showing against the Aussies and two Scandinavians who probably had very little idea of what was going on.
I drank a lot of terrible beer at various different places across town, went to a poetry night at Ferdydurkes where I was too intimidated to read anything of my own, probably my only regret from the whole trip and was shown some cool bars around the central area which I could never find on purpose again.
I got to catch up with a guy that was hosted a couple of years after me by the same host dad as I was in the states. We went and got lunch and it was nice to chat with him about Fort and reminisce about things back there.
Ultimately, I went to Melbourne to get away from the familiar for a bit and achieved that. I can't wait to go back again some day, hopefully on a more permanent basis rather than a 2 month taster. I think my favourite thing about Melbourne is that it has a very ecclectic artsy feel to it (much like Wellington) but on an absolutely massive scale which appeals to me. I like that there is so much to discover there and that I could never find anything until I wasn't looking for it at which point it would appear seemingly out of thin air. Melbourne is definitely a city for the explorer, and there is so much there to be explored.
My next post here will be about my experiences with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival which co-incided happily with my visit.
Shakey Graves
Upon returning to Wellington after the fun of New Year's I returned to work as a construction labourer, something I was fairly confident I would be able to do full time without having to commit to anything more than a casual contract.
This was important because of my plan to escape to Melbourne in March to satiate my wanderlust briefly whilst waiting for the U.S. government to provide me with a copy of my non-existent criminal record so that my Canadian work visa could be approved...but I digress.
I signed up with a recruitment company who called me up the next day to send me to a site I would end up working on 40-50 hours a week for the next two months. Sorted.
During my time on this job two important things happened, the cricket world cup began with Australia and New Zealand co-hosting and one of my favourite lesser known musicians (though not for long) announced a New Zealand date on his tour.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the incredible alt-bluesy sound of Shakey Graves, get to googling that name. I highly recommend "Dearly Departed", "Late July" and "Roll the Bones" as songs to get you hooked on him. He hails from the famous musical city of Austin, Texas and is the type of artist (in terms of fan-base size) that would normally ignore NZ altogether (I'm looking at you Watsky!) on the logic that a couple of Australian dates covers all that needs to be covered in the South Pacific region of the globe.
When the announcement came through that he'd be stopping off for one New Zealand show at The Tuning Fork (A really cool bar type venue setup next to vector to cater to smaller scale gigs), I did some number crunching and booked my tickets as soon as they became available, electing to head up and back by bus over the working weekend, spending one night in Auckland.
I had a hell of a time booking accomodation because the night of the gig also happened to be the day that Eden Park was hosting a cricket world cup pool match between Australia and New Zealand (the first of two clashes we'd have with them in the cup as it turned out) but eventually managed to find a bed in a backpackers not far from Queen Street for a reasonable price.
On friday I finished up work, jumped a bus up to Auckland and arrived mid-morning saturday. After wandering around for a bit I came across a fan area set up with a big screen and seating for people to come and watch the cricket. Figuring that would be a nice way to kill time before the concert, I dropped my stuff off at my accomodation, stopped by a supermarket for game-watching snacks and water (it was a ridiculously warm day) and settled in a good spot within the grandstand to avoid the heat as much as possible.
The cricket played out pretty spectacularly with both sides dropping wickets like crazy, New Zealand eventually getting the better of our tasman counterparts very narrowly in what should have been a more convincing win given the bowling effort. The game wrapped up with just enough time for me to walk down to The Tuning Fork as doors opened so I got the best of both worlds really.
As expected the gig was fucking phenomenal. There was a New Zealand solo act named Will Wood https://www.facebook.com/WillWoodnz?fref=ts who was very high energy for one man with a guitar and is worth checking out. He played a few original songs and a few covers of classic country/blues type songs whilst rocking around stage in a cowboy hat. After Will's set, Shakey came out with his touring drummer and played a hell of a set. He ripped through all his staples (Roll the Bones, Dearly Departed, Late July) played some impeccable mouth trumpet and even called random fans up to stage throughout the night to help him sing some of his songs.
It was an incredible show and I'm grateful that Shakey decided to make the NZ stop on his tour. I hope he'll be back on NZ soil again soon or that I'll get to see him over in the USA or Canada next year when I'm travelling. Definitely worth the 24 hour return bus trip to get up there to see him and definitely good use of a weekend on my part.
My next post here will be about my Melbourne excursion and things I discovered in that crazy town across the ditch.
This was important because of my plan to escape to Melbourne in March to satiate my wanderlust briefly whilst waiting for the U.S. government to provide me with a copy of my non-existent criminal record so that my Canadian work visa could be approved...but I digress.
I signed up with a recruitment company who called me up the next day to send me to a site I would end up working on 40-50 hours a week for the next two months. Sorted.
During my time on this job two important things happened, the cricket world cup began with Australia and New Zealand co-hosting and one of my favourite lesser known musicians (though not for long) announced a New Zealand date on his tour.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the incredible alt-bluesy sound of Shakey Graves, get to googling that name. I highly recommend "Dearly Departed", "Late July" and "Roll the Bones" as songs to get you hooked on him. He hails from the famous musical city of Austin, Texas and is the type of artist (in terms of fan-base size) that would normally ignore NZ altogether (I'm looking at you Watsky!) on the logic that a couple of Australian dates covers all that needs to be covered in the South Pacific region of the globe.
When the announcement came through that he'd be stopping off for one New Zealand show at The Tuning Fork (A really cool bar type venue setup next to vector to cater to smaller scale gigs), I did some number crunching and booked my tickets as soon as they became available, electing to head up and back by bus over the working weekend, spending one night in Auckland.
I had a hell of a time booking accomodation because the night of the gig also happened to be the day that Eden Park was hosting a cricket world cup pool match between Australia and New Zealand (the first of two clashes we'd have with them in the cup as it turned out) but eventually managed to find a bed in a backpackers not far from Queen Street for a reasonable price.
On friday I finished up work, jumped a bus up to Auckland and arrived mid-morning saturday. After wandering around for a bit I came across a fan area set up with a big screen and seating for people to come and watch the cricket. Figuring that would be a nice way to kill time before the concert, I dropped my stuff off at my accomodation, stopped by a supermarket for game-watching snacks and water (it was a ridiculously warm day) and settled in a good spot within the grandstand to avoid the heat as much as possible.
The cricket played out pretty spectacularly with both sides dropping wickets like crazy, New Zealand eventually getting the better of our tasman counterparts very narrowly in what should have been a more convincing win given the bowling effort. The game wrapped up with just enough time for me to walk down to The Tuning Fork as doors opened so I got the best of both worlds really.
As expected the gig was fucking phenomenal. There was a New Zealand solo act named Will Wood https://www.facebook.com/WillWoodnz?fref=ts who was very high energy for one man with a guitar and is worth checking out. He played a few original songs and a few covers of classic country/blues type songs whilst rocking around stage in a cowboy hat. After Will's set, Shakey came out with his touring drummer and played a hell of a set. He ripped through all his staples (Roll the Bones, Dearly Departed, Late July) played some impeccable mouth trumpet and even called random fans up to stage throughout the night to help him sing some of his songs.
It was an incredible show and I'm grateful that Shakey decided to make the NZ stop on his tour. I hope he'll be back on NZ soil again soon or that I'll get to see him over in the USA or Canada next year when I'm travelling. Definitely worth the 24 hour return bus trip to get up there to see him and definitely good use of a weekend on my part.
My next post here will be about my Melbourne excursion and things I discovered in that crazy town across the ditch.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Discovering Auckland
In December 2014, I resigned from my much-loved position as a humble donut baker and waved goodbye to the horror of 2am shift starts. This conveniently left me with an entirely open Summer ahead of me and no obligations to anyone through the Christmas and New Year period with the minor inconvenience of having no income.
For those unfamiliar with Auckland City culture, the December/ January summer period is the time of year where the city's population is at its lowest, with most of its workers taking off out of the city to enjoy the sun. This being the case, we had the golden opportunity to explore the city without the hordes of people that usually occupy the space.
A thorough K road excursion was of course, a mandatory item on the agenda after fuelling up at The Strand Arcade Cafe (best coffee I've yet had in Auckland). We wandered from end to ecclectic end stopping in anywhere that took our interest. I searched in vain for a second hand guitar shop I'd stumbled across on an earlier trip eventually realising that the arcade it was in had closed up for the New Year period.
We got brunch and more coffee (well, alright, iced chocolates...) from a place in the St Kevin's Arcade complex which a quick google search tells me is called Alleluya. I highly recommend the food and the iced chocolate there. I had a big breakfast which was phenomenal and everything else I saw going to other tables while we were there looked incredible too.
After brunch we headed back to explore more of Queen Street via the Myers Park walkway which is my favourite part of central Auckland. It's this absolutely stunning park and walkway that starts at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to St Kevins arcade and finishes up by a really cool looking old kindergarten on Queen Street. There's a couple of quirky statues on the way and a kids playground that looks like it could be a post-modern sculpture installation. I make a point of walking through it about 5 times a day whenever I'm anywhere near that part of the city.
We made a stop at Real Groovy (again mandatory Central Auckland culture) and spent a bit of time fossicking through their novelty section and books before succumbing to tired feet and heading back to our accomodation to rest up a bit.
It was nice being able to explore central Auckland with Clem a bit, both to show her my favourite parts of it and to do a bit of discovering together. I started writing a poem about the central city that trip which I ended up finishing a little ways after and performing at one of the Poetry In Motion (Wellington poetry group whose events I perform at quite often) open mics. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to perform it at an Auckland venue and get some footage of it up on youtube. When that happens I'll stick it here for you all to see, I feel that it captures my experience of Auckland pretty perfectly.
The next post here will be about returning to work, the start of the cricket world cup and most importantly seeing Shakey Graves live at The Tuning Fork.
With Christmas and New Year's Eve well celebrated Clem and I had a day to ourselves in central Auckland before she was booked to fly home after which I'd arranged for another couple of days in the city for the sake of urban explorations in a place I'd not yet spent a lot of time alone in.
We booked ourselves into a backpackers just off the lower part of Queen Street, right in the heart of the city who charged us a fairly reasonable rate for a room to ourselves in such a convenient location.
For those unfamiliar with Auckland City culture, the December/ January summer period is the time of year where the city's population is at its lowest, with most of its workers taking off out of the city to enjoy the sun. This being the case, we had the golden opportunity to explore the city without the hordes of people that usually occupy the space.
A thorough K road excursion was of course, a mandatory item on the agenda after fuelling up at The Strand Arcade Cafe (best coffee I've yet had in Auckland). We wandered from end to ecclectic end stopping in anywhere that took our interest. I searched in vain for a second hand guitar shop I'd stumbled across on an earlier trip eventually realising that the arcade it was in had closed up for the New Year period.
We got brunch and more coffee (well, alright, iced chocolates...) from a place in the St Kevin's Arcade complex which a quick google search tells me is called Alleluya. I highly recommend the food and the iced chocolate there. I had a big breakfast which was phenomenal and everything else I saw going to other tables while we were there looked incredible too.
After brunch we headed back to explore more of Queen Street via the Myers Park walkway which is my favourite part of central Auckland. It's this absolutely stunning park and walkway that starts at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to St Kevins arcade and finishes up by a really cool looking old kindergarten on Queen Street. There's a couple of quirky statues on the way and a kids playground that looks like it could be a post-modern sculpture installation. I make a point of walking through it about 5 times a day whenever I'm anywhere near that part of the city.
We made a stop at Real Groovy (again mandatory Central Auckland culture) and spent a bit of time fossicking through their novelty section and books before succumbing to tired feet and heading back to our accomodation to rest up a bit.
It was nice being able to explore central Auckland with Clem a bit, both to show her my favourite parts of it and to do a bit of discovering together. I started writing a poem about the central city that trip which I ended up finishing a little ways after and performing at one of the Poetry In Motion (Wellington poetry group whose events I perform at quite often) open mics. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to perform it at an Auckland venue and get some footage of it up on youtube. When that happens I'll stick it here for you all to see, I feel that it captures my experience of Auckland pretty perfectly.
The next post here will be about returning to work, the start of the cricket world cup and most importantly seeing Shakey Graves live at The Tuning Fork.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Island Hopping
After a thoroughly enjoyable few days on the Barrier with Clem, we made our way back to Auckland by way of a flight and a bus from the airport to Queen Street ready to set off towards our New Year's plans on Waiheke Island.
A flatmate of my best friend Charlie had offered to host a group of us at her dad's place out there so we decided we'd all have a backyard campout in true kiwi style to see in 2015.
Clem and I organised our tickets for the ferry over and killed time shopping for last minute camping supplies before we were supposed to meet up with Charlie and board. He ended up running slightly later than planned so we weren't sure for a while whether we'd make the boat we were hoping for or if we'd have to wait on the next one. He ended up getting there right on time for us to all board together which was helpful for navigation purposes once we got to the other side.
With a conspicuous and uncomfortable amount of gear with us, we found ourselves a few seats on the boat to spread across and settled in. Charlie and I got set up with a couple of beers from the bar/tuck shop thing because there's nothing better than drinking on a boat in the midst of a glorious summer day.
He had a bit to talk about, having just spent a significant amount of time with his other half's family, who I'm pretty sure he'd only just met. She's an Aucklander so I guess he figured the Waiheke plan was a good excuse to tie in spending some time in Auckland and meeting her folks.
On the other side, we offloaded ourselves and our stuff, eventually finding our way to the correct bus stop to get us where we needed to be. This is where having Charlie there came in handy. I had very little idea of where we were supposed to be going or how best to get there. He at least had a vague idea and knew what bus we needed to be on.
Fortunately for us the bus stop we needed was right at the end of the line so there wasn't a lot of real effort involved in finding our way there. We arrived to find the other handful of our people chilling out in a giant marquee which fit a couple of couches, a food table, an air mattress and all of our gear with ample room to move about.
We spent what was left of the day which wasn't a huge expanse of time chatting, drinking and setting up sleeping arrangements (tent in the back yard). Charlie and I took a bit of a walk later on after it got dark which gave me a better idea of the geography around us and ended up down on the beach chatting for a while which was nice.
The next day was December 31st and absolutely stunning weather-wise. We decided we'd do something with the day and catch the bus into the town-y part of the island where most of the shops and cafes seemed to be to get lunch and spend some time at the beach.
We wandered around a bit before finally all agreeing to duck into a very busy restaurant where if memory serves correctly Charlie met up with us, having left to collect his other half Lucy who'd just arrived across from auckland on the ferry.
It was a nice spot to sit for a while, with a lovely outdoor area which had a table capable of seating us all (I think there were 8 of us all up) and allowed for a good amount of people watching. We sat and chatted for a bit over a light lunch and a few drinks before clearing out and heading down to the beach not far from there.
There was a bit of a breeze coming through at this point but a few of us were still game to go swimming. I didn't stay in long but it was nice to get some time in the ocean, having grown up spending significant portions of my Summer in and around it. In recent years I've been doing less and less ocean swimming in the Summer months and I definitely miss the feel of salt water on my skin when I've not been in for a good while.
After our swim, we got dried off and headed back over to the house. We organised a troupe to take part in an excursion the the local liquor store and service station to stock up for the night by way of several of us crammed into a four seater car.
With ample supplies acquired we set ourselves up back in our marquee with good music run through a halfway decent speaker and settled in to our intimate celebration of the New Year.
As the night rolled on and we arrived at the all important moment of truth that is the countdown, I found myself flat on my back in the dewy grass outside the marquee in the most wonderful state of inebriation imaginable. I was with it enough to participate in the countdown and share a New Year's kiss with the woman I love but out of it enough to fully appreciate the magic of the moment, to feel the joy of new beginnings as they should be felt whenever the December 31st clock strikes midnight and rings in January 1st.
Clem, Charlie, Lucy and I all left the next day once everyone had fully woken up and we'd organised our things enough to pack the tent. We'd had a great couple of days on the island but having constantly been in close quarters with other people for the past week or so, I was looking forward to having some decent one on one hangout time with Clem.
We said our goodbyes to the rest of the group, the four of us took the same boat back to Auckland and we all got lunch together at Mad Mex before going our separate ways. It was a nice end to one of the best New Year's celebrations I've yet experienced and it was nice to spend a bit more time with Charlie and Lucy getting to know them as a couple as well.
Our celebration on Waiheke was one I will remember and tell stories of for many year's yet. It was the perfect way to see in 2015 and the group of people that were there are an awesome bunch of humans. I hope next New Year's is at least half as cool as this one was.
The next post here will be about my explorations in Auckland in the early days of January 2015.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
A Very Barrier Christmas
For most of my life, I have alternated Christmases every year between Dad's side of the family and Mum's. I spent Christmas 2013 in Tauranga with Dad's side of the family so 2014 was Mum's turn. Usually my grandparents on that side of the family are the ones who host Christmas but this year Mum decided that she wanted to host everyone at her place on Great Barrier Island.
I flew up to Auckland and over to The Barrier a couple of days before Christmas with the plan of staying until a few days after Christmas. Clem was having Christmas with her family but was joining me on the island for a couple of days afterwards.
When I arrived, Mum's parents who I call Marshy (Mum's mum) and Darshy (Mum's dad) were already there. Campbell, Linda and Mum's youngest sister Nicole were also there for Christmas but arrived after me.
It was a lot of fun getting to experience the island in the height of its Summer boom. There were a lot of people around compared to my last visit. A lot of the holiday home owners were enjoying their Summer paradise spots and there were quite a few travellers over for the quality surfing as well.
We did a lot of stuff together, most of which was walking around and seeing places that I hadn't yet seen so that was fun. We also did a lot of eating and drinking in the true spirit of family Christmas. For a few years now, food has been my favourite part of the holiday season, not just the traditional Chrismas lunch but all of the good food before, during and after December 25th itself.
When Campbell arrived we went out and did some fun stuff together which was awesome because we don't get to hang out and do brother stuff all that often any more with having to co-ordinate schedules and such to do so. We took the Kayaks out a couple of times and tried fishing off them albeit unsuccessfully.
Christmas day itself was pretty quiet. It suited the location. We all just chilled out, opened gifts, ate when we felt like it, drank all day. The Barrier has a chill feel to it that sort of inherently impacts everyone in the place. It's a pretty hard place to stress out about anything and the perfect place to relax.
After Christmas, when Clem arrived, I had a couple of things planned to show her. We didn't have a lot of time to do stuff before we were back to Auckland and on to New Year's plans but it was enough to get around some of the cooler stuff on the island.
The main thing we did while she was there was visit the hot spring. We went for a drive across the island in a combined sight-seeing and filling up the car at a cheaper petrol spot adventure and headed to the spring after that. I assumed I'd be able to find the track fairly easily having been there before but I managed to get horrifically lost.
Where I thought the track started was actually the start of a different track. It ended us up in the same place but instead of an easy 15 - 20 minute walk each way we had an hour and a half's walk through rough, storm - damaged track to the spring.
We had a nice relaxing time down at the hot spring after the massive trek we took to get there and on the way out we linked up with the track we were supposed to take so we had an easy walk out. The only problem was that with taking the correct track out, we were about a 15 minute walk downhill from where we'd parked the car.
Being the gentleman that I am and being ever conscious of how far I'd made Clem walk unnecessarily already, I convinced her to sit and wait in a grassy area by the side of the road for me to go up and get the car. After a long uphill trudge on a very hot day whilst horribly thirsty I got to the car, drove down to pick Clem up and we headed home. It was a cool adventure even though it didn't go exactly to plan. Clem probably wanted to murder me by the end of it all, which is fair.
The other notable experience we had was attending an evening of food and music at the Barrier's Thai restaurant. There was a buffet of various Thai dishes and a local band (named Beatz Workin, google them) played a set of classic rock songs from the 60s,70s and 80s. The food was good as was the music and the weather. It was nice to chill out with family and to be able to enjoy everything from a seat at the back with a drink in hand.
The Christmas and Post Christmas festivities on the Barrier were a fun and relaxing time with family and I hope to be able to get back to the Barrier again at some point next summer. It was great to have Clem come over and to be able to show her some of my favourite things that I've experienced on the island so far. I couldn't really have hoped for a more relaxing Christmas.
The next post here will be about New Year's and our trip out to Waiheke Island.
I flew up to Auckland and over to The Barrier a couple of days before Christmas with the plan of staying until a few days after Christmas. Clem was having Christmas with her family but was joining me on the island for a couple of days afterwards.
When I arrived, Mum's parents who I call Marshy (Mum's mum) and Darshy (Mum's dad) were already there. Campbell, Linda and Mum's youngest sister Nicole were also there for Christmas but arrived after me.
It was a lot of fun getting to experience the island in the height of its Summer boom. There were a lot of people around compared to my last visit. A lot of the holiday home owners were enjoying their Summer paradise spots and there were quite a few travellers over for the quality surfing as well.
We did a lot of stuff together, most of which was walking around and seeing places that I hadn't yet seen so that was fun. We also did a lot of eating and drinking in the true spirit of family Christmas. For a few years now, food has been my favourite part of the holiday season, not just the traditional Chrismas lunch but all of the good food before, during and after December 25th itself.
When Campbell arrived we went out and did some fun stuff together which was awesome because we don't get to hang out and do brother stuff all that often any more with having to co-ordinate schedules and such to do so. We took the Kayaks out a couple of times and tried fishing off them albeit unsuccessfully.
Christmas day itself was pretty quiet. It suited the location. We all just chilled out, opened gifts, ate when we felt like it, drank all day. The Barrier has a chill feel to it that sort of inherently impacts everyone in the place. It's a pretty hard place to stress out about anything and the perfect place to relax.
After Christmas, when Clem arrived, I had a couple of things planned to show her. We didn't have a lot of time to do stuff before we were back to Auckland and on to New Year's plans but it was enough to get around some of the cooler stuff on the island.
The main thing we did while she was there was visit the hot spring. We went for a drive across the island in a combined sight-seeing and filling up the car at a cheaper petrol spot adventure and headed to the spring after that. I assumed I'd be able to find the track fairly easily having been there before but I managed to get horrifically lost.
Where I thought the track started was actually the start of a different track. It ended us up in the same place but instead of an easy 15 - 20 minute walk each way we had an hour and a half's walk through rough, storm - damaged track to the spring.
We had a nice relaxing time down at the hot spring after the massive trek we took to get there and on the way out we linked up with the track we were supposed to take so we had an easy walk out. The only problem was that with taking the correct track out, we were about a 15 minute walk downhill from where we'd parked the car.
Being the gentleman that I am and being ever conscious of how far I'd made Clem walk unnecessarily already, I convinced her to sit and wait in a grassy area by the side of the road for me to go up and get the car. After a long uphill trudge on a very hot day whilst horribly thirsty I got to the car, drove down to pick Clem up and we headed home. It was a cool adventure even though it didn't go exactly to plan. Clem probably wanted to murder me by the end of it all, which is fair.
The other notable experience we had was attending an evening of food and music at the Barrier's Thai restaurant. There was a buffet of various Thai dishes and a local band (named Beatz Workin, google them) played a set of classic rock songs from the 60s,70s and 80s. The food was good as was the music and the weather. It was nice to chill out with family and to be able to enjoy everything from a seat at the back with a drink in hand.
The Christmas and Post Christmas festivities on the Barrier were a fun and relaxing time with family and I hope to be able to get back to the Barrier again at some point next summer. It was great to have Clem come over and to be able to show her some of my favourite things that I've experienced on the island so far. I couldn't really have hoped for a more relaxing Christmas.
The next post here will be about New Year's and our trip out to Waiheke Island.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Slam Season 2014
I've been into writing poetry since I could first write in functional sentences as a child. I've been into performing since the first time I had the opportunity to take a stage. When I first discovered that my home city had a performance poetry scene after getting back from exchange in the latter part of 2012 I was beyond excited to get amongst it.
Back then, I got into it by way of signing up for a slam event which acted as a qualifying heat for the Wellington Regional Poetry Slam which in itself acted as a qualifier for the New Zealand National Poetry Slam. I had one piece which I'd barely memorised and a friend along with me for support.
By some miracle I came third in that heat and qualified for regionals. I did a little more writing and brought another piece with me to that event where I didn't end up placing, but I had fun and learned a lot. At this point I was really just feeling out the scene and I was still so nervous on stage that mental blanks were regular.
Fast forward past my 2013 trip to the US. On my return to Wellington I decided to get back involved in the scene. The events I'd competed in before had been put together by a group that now had themselves the name of Poetry In Motion. They met once a month which sounded managable at a bar in town which I'd never heard of at that time having formerly held their events at a rather small pizza place in town.
I decided to once again test my nerves on the slam stage and went along equipped with some new pieces, this time having actually taken the time to write and memorise before the event. Something felt different this time though. When I first slammed the sound of my voice coming at me from the back of the room made me uncomfortable and I felt like a scared little kid on the stage. This time the words were coming out the way I wanted them to, the audience reactions were what I wanted them to be and I felt like I was meant to be on that stage.
The scores I was getting through the night were reflective of a far higher level than anything I'd done prior and I was pretty stoked with myself on that. I was pretty sure that I'd made it into the top 3 again but there were a lot of other really strong performances that night and slam scores can be odd sometimes so nothing's ever a given.
As the third place name was read out, my heart sank a little, I figured that was probably my spot and when it wasn't me called I thought I was done. Second place got called out and the name belonging to it was who I thought would have been the winner but as I said before, slam scores are a little odd sometimes. At this point I was getting ready to congratulate whoever it was that had slotted into first place for the night, waiting for the name to be called.
I damn near cried. This was my third time in a slam poetry event and by some miracle I took first place. There was a cash prize that went along with it but honestly just the sense of belonging and empowerment I got out of that night was more than I ever could've asked for.
This of course meant that I qualified for the regional event later in the year so in my downtime I kept churning out loose lines that eventually got crafted into pieces from which I put together new performance material. I tried out some new stuff on whatever open mics I could get stuff organised for and kept churning through lines in my head trying to get stuff together that felt like it was of a high enough calibre to put out at regionals. I intended on doing the same pieces I'd done in the heat but I also wanted to try and write something in the mean time that could top that.
In the middle of the year, a slam event was organised in celebration of Matariki, essentially the Maori new year. After a little bit of procrastinating and inner debate, I decided to go ahead and sign myself up for it, promising myself that with the deadline of that looming, I'd actually get a new piece finished.
That goal was achieved and so I performed a brand new piece at the Matariki slam. The stage there was awesome. It was set up as part of Te Papa museums official Matarki celebrations so we had the privilege of using their Marae for the event. The place was packed out and there would have easily been a couple of hundred people there.
Unfortunately I didn't make the cut after the first round. I felt that I performed really well, and I got a relatively good reaction so I was feeling slightly hard done by if I'm totally honest. Slam scores don't always make sense though and I had performed the best that I could so I was at least happy with myself for that.
I got a few compliments from people I respect within the community on that particular piece so I shook the overall result of that one off and got working towards the regional final.
At the regional event I broke out a brand new piece which I was nervous about but I felt it would go over well with the audience. I performed better than I ever had before and in an amazingly strong competition, I had the honour of claiming third place. I couldn't believe it! In only my second slam season I'd managed to qualify for the National Poetry Slam finals.
The National Slam was hosted in Wellington on the Poetry In Motion home stage at Meow Bar. It was nice to have the comfort of a home stage in such utterly terrifying circumstances. I was more nervous before the National Slam than I think I've ever been before in my life. I had to down a good couple of beers to stop myself from shaking.
I did the same pieces at Nationals as I did at Regionals but switched up the order a bit because I thought the new one I tried out at Regionals was the strongest one I had and I really wanted to make sure I made the first cut, which eliminated half of the poets.
Again I had the good fortune of some of my strongest performances and the small edits and developments I'd made in pieces since the last slam seemed to go over well. This resulted in me making the first cut which I think left us with a top 7 competing in the second round.
I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to make top 3 although it would've been incredible to have done so. After making the first cut I was just hoping that one of our three Wellingtonian poets would win the night and that the other two might make the top trio.
In the end a Wellingtonian by the name of Ben Stokes took the title of National Slam Champion and as I predicted, I didn't make the top three cut but was more than happy with how my slam season had turned out.
I never even dreamed that I could write and perform well enough to make top 3 in a Wellington regional slam but somehow I managed to back myself enough to pull it off. The 2014 slam season was definitely a huge learning curve for me and gave me a massive boost of confidence towards future performances.
I could not have asked for a better set of results or a higher sense of self satisfaction than what I got out of performance poetry and slamming in 2014. I'm excited to hit the slam stage again this year and see what I can bring to the table. I'm sure I'll find a way to once again surprise myself and exceed my own expectations.
The next post here will be about Christmas 2014 which I spent on Great Barrier Island at mum's house.
Back then, I got into it by way of signing up for a slam event which acted as a qualifying heat for the Wellington Regional Poetry Slam which in itself acted as a qualifier for the New Zealand National Poetry Slam. I had one piece which I'd barely memorised and a friend along with me for support.
By some miracle I came third in that heat and qualified for regionals. I did a little more writing and brought another piece with me to that event where I didn't end up placing, but I had fun and learned a lot. At this point I was really just feeling out the scene and I was still so nervous on stage that mental blanks were regular.
Fast forward past my 2013 trip to the US. On my return to Wellington I decided to get back involved in the scene. The events I'd competed in before had been put together by a group that now had themselves the name of Poetry In Motion. They met once a month which sounded managable at a bar in town which I'd never heard of at that time having formerly held their events at a rather small pizza place in town.
I decided to once again test my nerves on the slam stage and went along equipped with some new pieces, this time having actually taken the time to write and memorise before the event. Something felt different this time though. When I first slammed the sound of my voice coming at me from the back of the room made me uncomfortable and I felt like a scared little kid on the stage. This time the words were coming out the way I wanted them to, the audience reactions were what I wanted them to be and I felt like I was meant to be on that stage.
The scores I was getting through the night were reflective of a far higher level than anything I'd done prior and I was pretty stoked with myself on that. I was pretty sure that I'd made it into the top 3 again but there were a lot of other really strong performances that night and slam scores can be odd sometimes so nothing's ever a given.
As the third place name was read out, my heart sank a little, I figured that was probably my spot and when it wasn't me called I thought I was done. Second place got called out and the name belonging to it was who I thought would have been the winner but as I said before, slam scores are a little odd sometimes. At this point I was getting ready to congratulate whoever it was that had slotted into first place for the night, waiting for the name to be called.
I damn near cried. This was my third time in a slam poetry event and by some miracle I took first place. There was a cash prize that went along with it but honestly just the sense of belonging and empowerment I got out of that night was more than I ever could've asked for.
This of course meant that I qualified for the regional event later in the year so in my downtime I kept churning out loose lines that eventually got crafted into pieces from which I put together new performance material. I tried out some new stuff on whatever open mics I could get stuff organised for and kept churning through lines in my head trying to get stuff together that felt like it was of a high enough calibre to put out at regionals. I intended on doing the same pieces I'd done in the heat but I also wanted to try and write something in the mean time that could top that.
In the middle of the year, a slam event was organised in celebration of Matariki, essentially the Maori new year. After a little bit of procrastinating and inner debate, I decided to go ahead and sign myself up for it, promising myself that with the deadline of that looming, I'd actually get a new piece finished.
That goal was achieved and so I performed a brand new piece at the Matariki slam. The stage there was awesome. It was set up as part of Te Papa museums official Matarki celebrations so we had the privilege of using their Marae for the event. The place was packed out and there would have easily been a couple of hundred people there.
Unfortunately I didn't make the cut after the first round. I felt that I performed really well, and I got a relatively good reaction so I was feeling slightly hard done by if I'm totally honest. Slam scores don't always make sense though and I had performed the best that I could so I was at least happy with myself for that.
I got a few compliments from people I respect within the community on that particular piece so I shook the overall result of that one off and got working towards the regional final.
At the regional event I broke out a brand new piece which I was nervous about but I felt it would go over well with the audience. I performed better than I ever had before and in an amazingly strong competition, I had the honour of claiming third place. I couldn't believe it! In only my second slam season I'd managed to qualify for the National Poetry Slam finals.
The National Slam was hosted in Wellington on the Poetry In Motion home stage at Meow Bar. It was nice to have the comfort of a home stage in such utterly terrifying circumstances. I was more nervous before the National Slam than I think I've ever been before in my life. I had to down a good couple of beers to stop myself from shaking.
I did the same pieces at Nationals as I did at Regionals but switched up the order a bit because I thought the new one I tried out at Regionals was the strongest one I had and I really wanted to make sure I made the first cut, which eliminated half of the poets.
Again I had the good fortune of some of my strongest performances and the small edits and developments I'd made in pieces since the last slam seemed to go over well. This resulted in me making the first cut which I think left us with a top 7 competing in the second round.
I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to make top 3 although it would've been incredible to have done so. After making the first cut I was just hoping that one of our three Wellingtonian poets would win the night and that the other two might make the top trio.
In the end a Wellingtonian by the name of Ben Stokes took the title of National Slam Champion and as I predicted, I didn't make the top three cut but was more than happy with how my slam season had turned out.
I never even dreamed that I could write and perform well enough to make top 3 in a Wellington regional slam but somehow I managed to back myself enough to pull it off. The 2014 slam season was definitely a huge learning curve for me and gave me a massive boost of confidence towards future performances.
I could not have asked for a better set of results or a higher sense of self satisfaction than what I got out of performance poetry and slamming in 2014. I'm excited to hit the slam stage again this year and see what I can bring to the table. I'm sure I'll find a way to once again surprise myself and exceed my own expectations.
The next post here will be about Christmas 2014 which I spent on Great Barrier Island at mum's house.
Friday, April 24, 2015
My Second 21st Birthday
On Saturday, October 11, 2014, I celebrated my 21st birthday with my closest friends in the city that I grew up in. This was the second of 2 celebrations organised for the occasion and this one was timed to end on my actual birthday which was the day after.
It all started with a group dinner at a Chinese restaurant in town called Red Hill. I'd organised for a group of around 20 of us, including myself, Clemmie, Campbell, Linda and 16 of my friends to meet up there for food and some drinks before unleashing upon the city bars.
Our venue decision was based largely on the central location, cheap dinner prices and B.Y.O. nature of the restaurant and it turned out to be the perfect place to start our night.
Clemmie and I coincidentally ran into Campbell and Linda on the bus into town and the four of us were the first ones to arrive at the restaurant. The place had an interesting looking cocktail list so we sat and ordered some drinks while we waited for other people to get there.
As the others began to arrive, we all just sat around chatting over drinks until all of the seats at the table were filled. Once everyone had arrived we ordered food and ate. I think I ordered the Kung Pao chicken which was delicious. Most of the others brought wine with them so I had a couple of glasses of wine over dinner.
My rough plan for the night was to cruise through a few of the bars in town and end up at The Fringe bar for karaoke to cap it all off. After dinner someone suggested we go up to a park near town and drink up there for a bit. I hadn't done the park party thing since I was in high school and it felt like a good way to get the night going so we convinced the group that it'd be fun.
We stopped at the supermarket on the way to pick up booze and some snack food, I should probably mention that at this point I was dressed in a lion onesie that Clemmie bought me for my birthday which I put on in the restaurant after dinner and continued to wear for the entire night. A friend of mine who works at a pizza place in town stopped there to make some pizzas to bring up to the park as well which was awesome.
Up at the park we had spotify going through someone's phone blasting out of a little speaker thing so we had good music to accompany our juvenile festivities. We managed to get through about half of our supermarket provisions before everyone decided that they'd had enough and that it was a good time to go down and do the karaoke thing so what was left of our group stumbled down toward town to do that.
On the way to town, I checked the time and noticed that it had ticked over onto October 12. It was officially my real birthday!
I don't remember all of the karaoke but I do remember my first song. I did "Forgot About Dre" and absolutely nailed it. People kept coming up to me and telling me how good it was. I'd like to remind you all at this point that I was still dressed in a lion onesie so just let that sink in for a bit.
We had about 6 of our group left with us this late in the night and we all cranked through a couple of songs each. I got talking to a guy outside and told him it was my 21st so he bought me a beer which was nice of him. When we'd all had enough if drunkenly singing in front of strangers we decided to call it a night, so I said my thank - yous and goodbyes to everyone and hopped a bus back home with Clemmie.
The next morning I used the last little bit of money from the party fund to take Clemmie out for a much needed hangover curing breakfast and coffee date at one of my favourite Wellington Cafe's "Sweet Mother's Kitchen." I highly recommend their breakfast burrito, it's absolutely glorious, particularly the morning after a big night.
True to my usual style, I did my 21st in a slightly unconventional way. It was great to be able to celebrate with my family and people who have known me my entire life and I think it worked well holding that as a separate event. It was also fantastic hitting town in the city I've always known as home with the amazing people I've been blessed to have as my close friends.
As is typical of birthdays for me, I feel hardly any different at 21 than I felt at 20. The only thing I can guarantee is that on October 12th 2015, there will be a lot of Taylor Swift playing at my party and I will definitely be feeling 22.
The next post here will be about the excitement of my 2014 slam season and the New Zealand National Poetry Slam.
It all started with a group dinner at a Chinese restaurant in town called Red Hill. I'd organised for a group of around 20 of us, including myself, Clemmie, Campbell, Linda and 16 of my friends to meet up there for food and some drinks before unleashing upon the city bars.
Our venue decision was based largely on the central location, cheap dinner prices and B.Y.O. nature of the restaurant and it turned out to be the perfect place to start our night.
Clemmie and I coincidentally ran into Campbell and Linda on the bus into town and the four of us were the first ones to arrive at the restaurant. The place had an interesting looking cocktail list so we sat and ordered some drinks while we waited for other people to get there.
As the others began to arrive, we all just sat around chatting over drinks until all of the seats at the table were filled. Once everyone had arrived we ordered food and ate. I think I ordered the Kung Pao chicken which was delicious. Most of the others brought wine with them so I had a couple of glasses of wine over dinner.
My rough plan for the night was to cruise through a few of the bars in town and end up at The Fringe bar for karaoke to cap it all off. After dinner someone suggested we go up to a park near town and drink up there for a bit. I hadn't done the park party thing since I was in high school and it felt like a good way to get the night going so we convinced the group that it'd be fun.
We stopped at the supermarket on the way to pick up booze and some snack food, I should probably mention that at this point I was dressed in a lion onesie that Clemmie bought me for my birthday which I put on in the restaurant after dinner and continued to wear for the entire night. A friend of mine who works at a pizza place in town stopped there to make some pizzas to bring up to the park as well which was awesome.
Up at the park we had spotify going through someone's phone blasting out of a little speaker thing so we had good music to accompany our juvenile festivities. We managed to get through about half of our supermarket provisions before everyone decided that they'd had enough and that it was a good time to go down and do the karaoke thing so what was left of our group stumbled down toward town to do that.
On the way to town, I checked the time and noticed that it had ticked over onto October 12. It was officially my real birthday!
I don't remember all of the karaoke but I do remember my first song. I did "Forgot About Dre" and absolutely nailed it. People kept coming up to me and telling me how good it was. I'd like to remind you all at this point that I was still dressed in a lion onesie so just let that sink in for a bit.
We had about 6 of our group left with us this late in the night and we all cranked through a couple of songs each. I got talking to a guy outside and told him it was my 21st so he bought me a beer which was nice of him. When we'd all had enough if drunkenly singing in front of strangers we decided to call it a night, so I said my thank - yous and goodbyes to everyone and hopped a bus back home with Clemmie.
The next morning I used the last little bit of money from the party fund to take Clemmie out for a much needed hangover curing breakfast and coffee date at one of my favourite Wellington Cafe's "Sweet Mother's Kitchen." I highly recommend their breakfast burrito, it's absolutely glorious, particularly the morning after a big night.
True to my usual style, I did my 21st in a slightly unconventional way. It was great to be able to celebrate with my family and people who have known me my entire life and I think it worked well holding that as a separate event. It was also fantastic hitting town in the city I've always known as home with the amazing people I've been blessed to have as my close friends.
As is typical of birthdays for me, I feel hardly any different at 21 than I felt at 20. The only thing I can guarantee is that on October 12th 2015, there will be a lot of Taylor Swift playing at my party and I will definitely be feeling 22.
The next post here will be about the excitement of my 2014 slam season and the New Zealand National Poetry Slam.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
My First 21st Birthday
On October 12th 2014 I turned 21. All year I'd been thinking about what I wanted to do to celebrate seeing as 21 is an age at which one is obligated to make a relatively big fuss. I decided that I wanted to have two separate parties, one for all of my close friends and one for all of my family.
While that might seem like an obvious avoidance tactic, it was more because the only appropriate venue I could think of for a massive group of people was my grandparents house which is about 2 and a half hours drive out of Wellington.
It seemed to make sense to host the larger family event there and to have a group dinner followed by a night in town with all of my friends for the sake of an optimal invited guest to attending guest ratio.
The first of these two events was the family one which took place the week before my birthday so that it fitted in with Mum's school holidays. Pretty much my entire family was invited along with a few close family friends who I consider to be my family. I also invited Clemmie along because I thought it would be fun to subject my new girlfriend to the terror of meeting my entire extended family a month into our relationship.
I had work the day of the party and caught a ride with my big brother Campbell and his fiancee Linda after my shift. We arrived a few hours before the scheduled start time which gave me a few hours to get some much needed sleep before I had to be presentable and lively.
When we arrived Mum and the grandparents whose house we were borrowing for the evening were busy finishing off decorations and organising food prep. I said a quick hi to them all before I disappeared upstairs to crash out.
Clemmie was one of the first to arrive which was nice for the both of us. It gave her time with not that many people around to slowly be introduced to everyone rather than having to walk in and meet a hundred strangers all at once. It also meant I didn't have to worry about her getting lost trying to find the place for very long.
The place filled up pretty quickly and it was good chatting with everyone and revisiting my entire life through photos over a few drinks. Mum did a really good job of organising everything over the course of the evening and we had a constant stream of good food circling around the house.
About halfway through the evening, after dinner had been served, everyone was rounded up for the whole presents and speeches thing. I've always found it hard to pay much attention to compliments so having several important people in my life all make speeches about how proud of me they are was hard to sit through without bursting into tears but I think I did alright. It was really nice having both of my parents there particularly during this part of the night too. I haven't had a huge amount of significant life events where both of them have been around so that was cool.
I got a lot of really cool presents as well, from stuff that will prove exceptionally useful in future travel, to things with meaning that actually did make me cry, I even got the laptop that I'm typing this blog post on (thanks mum).
My family 21st was a great night and I'm glad I had so many people that were able to come along and celebrate it with me. I had an awesome time, ate great food, got exceptionally drunk, all the things that should be done at a good party. It was the perfect way to celebrate 21 years of life with a group of people who have known me for most if not all of those 21 years.
My next post here will be about the celebration I had with my friends for my 21st birthday.
While that might seem like an obvious avoidance tactic, it was more because the only appropriate venue I could think of for a massive group of people was my grandparents house which is about 2 and a half hours drive out of Wellington.
It seemed to make sense to host the larger family event there and to have a group dinner followed by a night in town with all of my friends for the sake of an optimal invited guest to attending guest ratio.
The first of these two events was the family one which took place the week before my birthday so that it fitted in with Mum's school holidays. Pretty much my entire family was invited along with a few close family friends who I consider to be my family. I also invited Clemmie along because I thought it would be fun to subject my new girlfriend to the terror of meeting my entire extended family a month into our relationship.
I had work the day of the party and caught a ride with my big brother Campbell and his fiancee Linda after my shift. We arrived a few hours before the scheduled start time which gave me a few hours to get some much needed sleep before I had to be presentable and lively.
When we arrived Mum and the grandparents whose house we were borrowing for the evening were busy finishing off decorations and organising food prep. I said a quick hi to them all before I disappeared upstairs to crash out.
Clemmie was one of the first to arrive which was nice for the both of us. It gave her time with not that many people around to slowly be introduced to everyone rather than having to walk in and meet a hundred strangers all at once. It also meant I didn't have to worry about her getting lost trying to find the place for very long.
The place filled up pretty quickly and it was good chatting with everyone and revisiting my entire life through photos over a few drinks. Mum did a really good job of organising everything over the course of the evening and we had a constant stream of good food circling around the house.
About halfway through the evening, after dinner had been served, everyone was rounded up for the whole presents and speeches thing. I've always found it hard to pay much attention to compliments so having several important people in my life all make speeches about how proud of me they are was hard to sit through without bursting into tears but I think I did alright. It was really nice having both of my parents there particularly during this part of the night too. I haven't had a huge amount of significant life events where both of them have been around so that was cool.
I got a lot of really cool presents as well, from stuff that will prove exceptionally useful in future travel, to things with meaning that actually did make me cry, I even got the laptop that I'm typing this blog post on (thanks mum).
My family 21st was a great night and I'm glad I had so many people that were able to come along and celebrate it with me. I had an awesome time, ate great food, got exceptionally drunk, all the things that should be done at a good party. It was the perfect way to celebrate 21 years of life with a group of people who have known me for most if not all of those 21 years.
My next post here will be about the celebration I had with my friends for my 21st birthday.
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