2nd entry (sorry not feeling very imaginative)

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So it's been a while since I've written another blog, though that does mean I have a little more to write about than dropping barbeque lids and my shorts. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, there's something to do every night - events for different nationalities, 'Canadian night', 'Kiwi night' etc and whatever other nights they can come up with for an excuse to go out and drink lots.

There's also a bunch of little things to get used to, in particular one thing i've noticed here is the amount of spiders. We even apparently have the 'White tailed spider' here, nasty little bugger that can ruin your evening and cause some pain. I removed my first 'mildly poisonous' spider (forget what its called, has a cross on its back) from the bathroom a few days ago and then a huge red one the other day, which although was probably harmless somehow managed to teleport out of the cup i had it in on to my hand - freaky little thing. Had to pin it down again and release it on the frontage where creepily, it waited inside a small empty glass until sunrise, one inch from freedom at all times (It wasn't dead).

We've also been busy with events in the day aswell such as the Hall sports day and the Dunedin rail trip. Sports day was awesome, thousands of people came on to the field just like in a battle from Lord of The Rings, all chanting/screaming and even someone blowing an Ork-like horn. They really take sports seriously here, i'm going to a big rugby game this saturday in Dunedin and need to get face paint on and learn some chants. We also went on the Dunedin rail trip, an 8 hour journey through huge mountains, rivers, desert like landscapes - pretty much everything you could hope to see. I'll post some pictures up of it soon, it was awesome.

One thing i'm glad im aware of now here is a law we really don't seem to have in England - no open alcohol containers in public. Not sure if we have that back in England but no one seems to care if we do; and its certainly a lot stricter here. Over here I calmly walked into the 24/7 completely sober with an open can of beer under my arm and the shop assistants not only angrily made me leave but pretty much made sure I ran out. Apparently quite an offence here, but anyway no criminal record yet so i'll just remember in future!

Besides that theres a whole bunch of words which I've had to change so people know what i'm talking about - football has had to become soccer, corner shop - dairy, swimming trunks - togs, flip-flops - jandals and a whole bunch more. Even if i don't get an accent, people still wont know what i'm talking about when i get back! Anyway I think thats about it for now, i'm doing my first gig tonight at an open mic thing in about an hour so need to go pace about nervously and get myself ready.

Hope everyone's good,
Tom

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Comments

[Noelle]

Good Luck!
Hey, hope the gig goes well, Tom - first of many! Looking forward to the train trip photos and any others (freaky teleporting spiders, you done out in war apint etc). Really enjoyed reading the update and relieved to hear my son doesn't yet have a criminal record.

[Jen]

Hello!
Tom! Good to hear from you and glad to see you are keeping up the english lager lout stereotype..... you are just the type. Hope you are ok and not missing the magic roundabout and kodak building too much. Much love xxxxxx

[Chantal]

Good Luck!
Hey :) Love the sound of those spiders :D haha.. I find the animal very fascinating. Maybe that red one was waiting til you weren't looking so it could creep back into the house!! England do have the 'no drinking in public' law in places but they are shite at enforcing it. They do however confiscate alcohol from those under-age. Good Luck (belatedly) with that gig :D If it's already happened.. how did it go?