So it occurs to me that it's been a long time since I wrote about how much I love New Zealand music, and this seems rather neglectful. This is somewhat precipitated by the fact that I saw The Black Seeds play in Winterthur on Saturday night, but also because I was talking about New Zealand accents last week, which led me to recall that even my amazing boyfriend with his excellent grasp of English, had trouble watching Goodbye Pork Pie without English subtitles because the accent was so thick, and that led me to Rhombus because of their Clav Dub video, and anyway I still spend an inordinate amount of time listening to Fur Patrol, Fat Freddies Drop and of course The Phoenix Foundation, not to mention all the others as evidenced by my last.fm profile. So I thought a blog post about how awesome New Zealand music is must be long overdue.

Here are some of the videos on youtube that I've found that make me go, "arrrrggggh!! New Zealand!! Homesickness!"

The Phoenix Foundation / Bright Grey:


The Phoenix Foundation / 40 Years:


Fat Freddy's Drop / Wandering Eye:


Fat Freddy's Drop / Roady:


Rhombus / Clav Dub:


Salmonella Dub / The Love Of It:


The Black Seeds / Slingshot:


Hollie Smith / Philosophy:


The Woolshed Sessions / Stringing Me Along:


Bic Runga / Sway:


And of course, Fly My Pretties / Fly My Pretties:

I just bought, for what I think is the first time in my life, an umbrella.

And it's totally necessary in Fribourg. There's rain, and there isn't always awnings to walk under on my way to work (in fact there isn't, more often than not), but throughout the process of shopping for one, buying it, and taking it home, I felt extreme guilt.

Probably my Wellingtonian readers are the only ones who will understand this, but for everyone else: It's completely ridiculous, as a Wellingtonian, to own an umbrella. Wellington is so windy, that if it's raining, you're pretty much guaranteed to have your umbrella turn inside out and optionally break, within five minutes of stepping out the door. So I have this internal block about umbrellas. It doesn't occur to me that I should use one, or own one, and I experience surprise when I see other people walking around with them, before I realise I'm not in Wellington, and it's quite reasonable, sensible even, to own an umbrella.

So what is my problem? Well, I feel like I'm betraying Wellington, my Wellingtonianism, if such a word exists, by owning an umbrella.

So what can I do? Assert my Wellingtonianism in ways other than the scorn towards the umbrella owner: continue to wear black, whinge about the quality of the coffee, and the lack of hops in the beer, and steadfastly refuse to believe the Matterhorn is anything other than my favourite bar.

Over the last few weeks before I left Wellington, I had to run about and carry out a few leaving rituals. Things I had to do a last few times. And then there were some things that happened that I didn't plan, but made me smile anyway with a slight feeling of nostalgia.

Here are a few of those things:

• Epic beer at the Malthouse with Flight of the Conchords on the tv


• The Eggs at Matterhorn on the last Saturday of the month


• Bubbles in the Bucket Fountain


• Tom Yum Soup on Marjoribanks


• Pronounciation of Marjoribanks


• Listening to Fat Freddy's Drop


• Boozey Friday Lunch


• Morning Mojo Doppio


• Running about Mt Vic barefoot at 8am after locking myself out and bumping into someone I know


• Sarah Wigg playing at Mojo on Friday night


• The Cuba Street Small World Effect


• Breakfast with my mother at Scopa


• Matterhorn Sunday Roast


• Mischief Bad Group Saturday Boozey Dinner

PS: I'm in Zürich!

Last night I was walking home along Courtenay Place after the Mahara Hackfest, and I was grinning to myself about a certain bunch of awesome things that are going on at the moment. Like, giant Penny grin. Giant!

Anyway, I was distracted by a car beeping, and I realised it was the parked car I was walking past, so I stopped. I looked in, but I didn't recognise the driver, so I was about to shrug and walk on, when he pointed at his mouth, grinned, and gave me the thumbs up.

I gave him thumbs up back and kept going. How awesome is that? This dude was just happy to see a crazy manic grinning girl.

So I related the story this morning to Vex, who said, "only in wellingtron would something that awesome happen"

Dear Wellington, I love you! You are awesome! Love, Penny

Since coming home I have

- had dinner at the Matterhorn
- watched my mother receieve a Festschrift at Te Papa
- been out to breakfast with my parents at Bellagio in Hataitai
- driven around the bays
- had a very boozy mischief bad group pot luck dinner. Girls only daquiris = vagaquiris.
- been to the Affordable art show
- had lots of good coffee

It's starting to feel like home again. Maybe the fact that I finally unpacked yesterday helped.

& now it's time to sort my shit out, get up and go out for Sunday roast at the 'Ho.

bitsey update:

- I am far far too overloaded right now and there isn't really an end in sight. Need to learn to say no.
- zomg. Brenda and I are going to oscon. Fucking yay!
- I wish so so so so much I was at debconf right now. There are millions (ok, exaggeration) of people I would love to see. Particularly madduck, who, even though I asked politely, Andrew declined to smooch for me.
- mahara.org is finally live.
- andypants is coming back to Catalyst soon! This is excellent news.
- I have a giant dark purple bruise on my ass from weekend debauchery. I need to get a photo taken.
- Mischief Bad Group has moved to Sunday Roast rather than Sunday Breakfast starting this weekend. This is good as I can't deal with Sunday Breakfast in winter, but sitting in the courtyard at the Matterhorn from the early afternoon and drinking red wine under the heaters is seriously appealing.
- Dysfunctional naming scheme. Total lack of ability to call people by their names because it makes them too real. Instead I have to create creative descriptive (and often elaborate) names for them. And then when other people refer to them by name in front of me it's shocking.

I saw this:



We had a picnic.

- Diesel sweeties and coffee in bed with tehbeddernets
- No less than four mouse shaped presents from my cat
- A picnic in a tree
- A sundial
- Processed cheese (it's as disgusting as I remember it being)
- Monteiths summer ale in my back yard
- More diesel sweeties
- Monkey Bars by J5.
- Etch is out!

I've been thinking about what I was doing this time last year, and I found this entry, which reminds me of what I was doing this time last year, and how it was making me really miserable. Which is maybe why I dreamt about it last night. Fuck sometimes I wish my subconscious would piss off.

The Matterhorn have started doing Dirty Laundry on Monday nights again. Last night Samuel Flynn Scott played, and I went along with a few people. I very nearly stayed home, I was quite comfortable and didn't really want to have a late night on Monday, but I was bribed into going with a glass of wine. Yes, it's that easy.

Anyway I was really glad I went. We were even treated to an acoustic version of Damn The River, as well as a few songs off Horse Power that The Phoenix Foundation almost never play live.

But now I'm tired.

Somehow, I spend a week in Sydney with almost no conscious attempts to ward off the sun, and get only very minimal burning on my shoulders.

I spend one afternoon in the garden in Wellington, drinking gin and tonics with a friend, and wind up incredibly burnt in legs, tummy, chest.

Hubris.

Dear Ra,

Please let this not peel. Please let the tan lines fade somewhat so I don't look like one of the bimbotic barbies at Bondi Beach.

kthxbye,

Penny

- more margaritas than you can shake a stick at
- kidney stabbing with spoons
- very expensive, hotttt, new dress
- fitting mojo spoons in mouth
- more margaritas
- reverse bungee
- dressing very up to go out on saturday
- invading booth at motel
- astoria sucking for sunday breakfast
- giraffes at astoria
- mad supermarket shopping with simon
- dst eating my brain
- ricochet
- two different sales people touching my breasts while trying to convince me to buy things
- discussions about our new tv program, the adventures of oney, zerox and their sidekick, freezerdog
- darwinports > fink
- new euphemisms
- not enough sleep
- not enough sun

Stolen from Brenda (I cannot believe you left off Mojo Invincible!), I think this came from WellUrban. Bars I have had a drink in are grey and bigger:

Arbitrageur, Arizona, Atlanta, The Backbencher, Ballroom, Basement, Beau Monde, Beaujolais, The Big Kumara, Bisque On Bolton, The Black Harp, Blend, Blondini's, Blue Note, Bodega, Bohdans, Boogie Wonderland, Boulcott St Bistro, Boulot, Bouquet Garni, Brewery Bar, The Bristol Hotel, Brix, Bull & Bear, Cabaret, Calzone, Cambridge Hotel, Capitol, Caucus, Chameleon, Chicago , Chow, Club K, Concrete, Confidential, Copita, Courtenay Arms, Coyote, Cue Room, Curve Bar, Dockside, The Dog & Bone, Dojo, Downtown Local, The Dubliner, East West, Eclipse, Endup, The Establishment, The Feathers, Ferrymans, Floriditas, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Front Room, Gibbon's Bar, GoGo, Good Luck, Green Room, The Grill at Duxton Hotel, Happy, Harem, Havana, Hog's Breath, Hope Bros, Hotel Bristol, Hotel Willis Lodge, Hugos, Hummingbird, Il Casino Piano Bar, Imbibe, Indigo, J'Aime Bordeaux, Jet, The Jimmy, JJ Murphy's, Juniper, Kazu, Kitty O'Shea's, The Lab, The Lab Underground Bar, The Last Supper Club, Latino's, Leuven, Liquidate, The Loaded Hog, Logan Brown, Lone Star, Lone Star Lounge, Lovelocks, Lumiere, The Malthouse, Matterhorn, Maya, Medina, Mercury Lounge, Mezzaluna, Milk, Mini Bar, Mixjah, Mojo Invincible, Molly Malones, Monkey Bar, Monsoon Poon, Morocco, Motel Bar, Neat, Occidental, One Red Dog (Blair St), One Red Dog (Kumutoto), Paradiso Bar, The Pit, Play, Pod, Ponderosa, Pound, Pravda, The Quarter, Rain, Red Square, Restaurant 88, Rouge, Sandwiches, Seam, The Shack, Shed 5, Shooters, Sojourn, Southern Cross, Sovereign, The Speight's Ale House, Stadium Bar, Stage, Stellar, Subnine, The Syn Bar, Taste of Korea, The Tasting Room, The Old Bank, The Thistle Inn, Toast, Trax, Tupelo, UU, Valve, Vespa Lounge, Vivo, Wasabi Sushi, Wellington Sports Cafe, Welsh Dragon Bar, West Plaza Hotel, The White Room, Zibibbo