Anyway as I said, it has been a hard time since coming back – but things are slowly getting better. Have finally managed to catch up with most of my friends since I’ve been back, and made it a long to a few parties which have been great – despite a few set backs. Since returning from South Africa, i’ve also made myself a few promises.

In my extensive travels, lets say….I haven’t eaten the best! So i’ve promised myself to lose all of the weight i’ve gained travelling since the start of the year, and more – I want to be fit for the first time in a number of years now! Since arriving back, I have now dropped off 12.5kg of the weight I put on while travelling, with another 3kg to go within the next 2 weeks – then after that will be the BIG milestones to achieve! I’ve also managed to sort out a contract extension with my current job until late March ’10 which is fantastic! And am currently putting money aside, to find a new place in Auckland City.

Originally I was planning to go to Russia mid 2010, but it seems that plans have changed – and so must I, so am not sure as yet what my next ‘venture’ will be – but after completing my job in March ’10 (if they finally decide i’ve been extended long enough!) I will start looking at my options, at where to go next Things definately are much different now to how I invisioned them 3-4 months ago – but things never go the way we plan, and sometimes its a good thing

The last few months have had their up’s and down’s and have been totally busy with all the parties starting to roar to life with the likes of Chemistry, Gods Kitchen, Slinky, etc…amongst this also many things happening in a lot of friends lives that has kept me rushed off my feet!

 Well as reported in my last blog, I was on the look for a new car. Unfortunately, the car I wanted was sold within 20mins before I contacted the seller!! arghh….how could this happen!!

Anyway, things work out for the best, and for the price of what I was to buy an r32 GTS-4 for, I managed to pick up a 1997 R33 GTS25t (SpecII)…what a fantastic score! I have so far started some basic modification and cleanup of the car, including a nice shiny set of 18″ Advanti wheels. Just because a car is your daily driver, doesn’t mean you cant do so with fun & style!!

Shortly after purchasing & servicing the car it hit the drag strip at Winter Dragwars. Started with a not so impressive 16.7s, right….im sure we can get that figure down some what!

As my mate had also just purchased his car (a 210kW 1996 R33 GTS25t) we were lined up side by side, the cars hit the line, engines revving, exhausts roaring, tires start skidding up and smoke starts pouring out. The cars line up as the lights start counting down then bam! it happens…..the 210kW skyline blows its turbo black smoke pouring out the exhaust! An expensive day at the track, but with the blown turbo and the rebuild, it’s now stronger than ever.

So what happened to the KE25 Corolla? Well, a sad story – with the addition of a 3rd car…1 just had to go, there isn’t enough room for 1 person to have 3 cars let alone all the other cars sitting at the property. The corolla hits Trademe, within 2 hours of going up for sale it’s sold! WOW! You can see the auction for it here.

 Anyway enough about the cars, can you believe its October?? For the last 6 months I’ve been working on a special project for my company…infact it is a US$200m full IT solution replacement globally for our company. As such, much development is completed in our US parent company..what does this mean? Well, I’ve just received confirmation that I will now be travelling to Ada, Michigan! Departing Auckland Saturday 8th November @ 7:15pm; returning back on Monday 22nd December @ 9:10am…wow that is a long time!

It will be sad to leave my friends for so long, but wow…what an opportunity, i’m looking forward to taking advantage of the trip and now really can’t wait to go. America here I come!

 A small blog about my weekend…..wow this should be oh so interesting!

 Well it’s been an interesting week trying to get around with 2 broken cars, so sure enough on Friday afternoon I find myself catching a taxi home. As I arrive I notice there are a few cars outside my place. On closer expection it looks as though the partying has already begun for the weekend as there is a hugeeee selection of food being prepared and vast quantities of alcohol lining the kitchen bench and stocking the multiple fridges!

Nothing like spending a Friday night with a whole bunch of alkies listening to 70′s music…and their attempts to impersonate Queen, while downing vast quantities of alcohol & eating large portions of good food!

 Come on Saturday!

As Saturday comes around, my mate is looking for a new car…oh and hey so am I! We proceed to spend the entire day test driving a seleection of turbo skylines….what more could you ask for? :p  the selection ranged from R33 GTS25t’s standard, up to 210kW @ wheel modded versions, and then for myself R32 GTS-4′s up to 190kW @ wheels!

Saturday flows into night as I prepare for a big night @ Space!

Why is it such a big night? As its Tara Reynolds Last Ever Set in New Zealand as she brings her DJ career to an end! The night starts we arrive @ Space about 10:20pm to find the queue is already half way around the building…eeek! Finally make it into the club by 10:45pm to get our tickets and take off for a cruise – returning back to the club pumping about an hour later! Haven’t seen soooo many people out in a long time!  

Here’s a small example of how great a night it was!

As the night rolls into day we find ourselves leaving not too long before sunrise after an epic night.

But wow after a night like that, who can sleep? Nothing to do….so lets work on the car! As earlier 2 cars are broken, the KE25 SR-Coupe jacked up in the garage having charged the battery over night. After an hour of tinkering…success!!!! It appears to be a short between the Starter coil & Starter motor, mixed with the Starter motor being locked up against the flywheel….a few short minutes later and she roars to life!!

But, a weekend can not end there with only 2 nights of partying, so what to do….how about we turn the 2 day bender into a 3 day?

 Come 7:00pm and it’s time to get back to town for friends leaving party! a few drinking later, and random conversations with random strangers and we find ourselves finally at the end of the night by about midnight…kind of sad to leave so early but considering its 3 days….pretty good effort really. Driving home thinking about the 7hrs of sleep before getting up for another week of work on the Monday….

Anyway I have a few exciting things coming up that I wanted to share!

 1. Warriors!

Well it’s only 2 more days until Warriors Returns! A dance party in Auckland @ Transmission Room. While there aren’t huge names playing – there are the likes of High Dosage, one of NZ’s best DJ Duo’s playing as well as some of Auckland’s best hardcore & hardhouse dj’s. But the main reason I’m so excited is that for a start, I haven’t been to many gigs lately at a venue other than Space Bar – so it is nice for a change. Secondly, it seems like alot of people I know will be going so I’m keen to have a boogy with them, as well as some randoms I’ve talked to for a long time but never actually met!

2. Cousin coming to stay

Last year, some of my family decided to take an overseas trip – part of this trip was back to Scotland where most of my family originates from. In the last few day’s we just received confirmation that infact one of my cousins Andrew ho they visited will be coming to stay with me for a year! A big change from the likes of St Andrews to move to Auckland, but i’m excited to see him again- haven’t seen him since he was 10 and now 18/19. Also visiting for a few weeks will be my Great Auntie I haven’t seen in just as much time….so it will be an exciting time. Look forward to showing my cousin the best that Auckland has to offer and maybe a bit of a travel to some places in NZ

 3. My Overseas Experience (OE)

Well…this is a new one. But last month I decided that I will infact be taking a trip overseas later this year in September/October! It has been 8 years since I last left NZ (apart from work) so it’s time to get back out there. I will be spending the however many months saving for Plane tickets & Spending money. Also sorting out my British Passport (UK & NZ Passports are a bonus!).

The plan at the start was to visit San Francsico for a short time – perhaps check out a few other places near there before flying over to Zurich to stay with family. Meet & catchup with them and find out some things about them and checking out what Switzerland is actually like. From there it gets a bit unsure. Right now the plan is to visit Prague for interest sake, then fly to Moscow – aiming to be there at the same time one of my good friends is there. From there flying back to the US to stay with some more family again, this time in Pheonix and then eventually back home.

But – this is an ‘open’ trip. The minimum i’m aiming for is 2 months get away, but who know’s what might happen? Currently i’m pouring as much $$$ into my outstanding debt’s as possible before leaving for overseas. This way I have no hangup’s or worries should I take a bit longer than expected

I will provide updates on my trip plans as time goes along.

For now thats me, but i’ll be sure to provide another update asap

 So it’s been a while since I have last posted…infact almost 2 months since the big new years trip! So what have I been up to?

Well, no. I haven’t been a hermit in hiding…I have just been extremeeeeely busy! And what have I been busy with?

 Well before New Years I had made myself this promise..nay, pact; that I would take it ‘easier’ over the start of the new year once I returned to Auckland. Did this happen? Well….no, not really!

I’ve been working (I work full time as a manger) a large number of hours recently due to some troubles at work. Of course, when you’re having problems at work…you don’t want to sit around doing nothing all weekend stressing about it. So i’ve been out partying every Friday & Saturday night. Mostly hanging with my good friend at dance parties, after spending earlier in the night having some drinks @ her work (gotta luv friends that work in bars).

 As stated in the ‘About’ section, i’m also a car fanatic. So following on from that I’ve also spent quite a bit of time working on my own cars – 1 being a 1997 Mazda RX7, the other a 1971 Toyota Corolla KE25 Coupe. These keep me extremely busy working on and maintaining – as well as this I’ve also spent alot of time getting back into the Drags & Drifting scene watching the events that are on..if only I had a car to participate! (we’ll I did take the rx7 racing last year, but drifting would be more exciting!).

So, everyone needs some balance right? As cool as the above sounds I must admit…I do have a geek side. Oh god, why did I say anything…Well since the cat is out of the bag I am very much a Counterstrike (CS1.6) player – infact I’m the pwnage! (in my own mind) God…why did I re-install this stupid game…I pray for the day my computer breaks and I have an excuse not to play it!

First stop was McDonalds as neither of us had breakfast at this point, and a final refuel before leaving Auckland. It took a total of just over 6 hours from having lunch until we arrived at the BWCampground in Gisborne. The day was full of sunshine – not only had we both received a lovely shade of pink skin by the time we arrrived at the campground, the day was scorching hot. It also seemed that most of the campground had decided to arrive about the same time, after finding out that some had been waiting in line for over 4 hours we decided last thing we needed was to spend more time in the sun! Luckily we heard rumour of another check in point for which there was only about a 20minute wait to get your passes so we quickly embarked on our 2.5km walk to the other end of the campground. After arriving at 2pm on the 27th, we finally were in the campground and setup by 5pm ready for some drinks!

The only dissapointment at this stage was that our friends had been seperated to the other side of the area we were camping in, we quickly marched over there to join in drinks with them on the first night crashing early @ 1am. Now, you wouldn’t believe how unbelievably loud it is in a campground of over 7,000 people unless of course you’ve been to BWCampground…our friends quickly nicknamed the site ‘the refugee camp’, since thats totally what it looked like! This matched with the woodenbox showers, and portaloo’s that were just filthy

My friend I was camping with just couldn’t take the lack of sleep overnight with 4am – 6am being the only reasonably quiet time to sleep between, also the lack of facilities available. After spending the best part of an hour driving around motels checking out if any rooms were available we ended up at the Emerald Hotel. Now, I know its not exactly ‘roughing’ it, but after spending 1 night in the campground, 1 group of friends had already disappeared to a relatives house to enjoy the finer side of a nice bed & actual plumbing! I have to say, staying in one of the executive suites of this hotel definately made the time more enjoyable! Serviced room, Airconditioning, Showers, Soft beds; sure beats the hell out of staying in a tent on the ground with nothing much else!

The hotel then served as our base for the remainder of our time in Gisborne. Staying out of the sun in the cool aircon room & shaded balconies, using the nice cool pool facilities, while returning to the campground at night time to drink and catchup with friends!

After a few days of this the day finally rolled around, 31st December, 2007…the day of Rhythm & Vines! Everything was packed up into the car except the tent @ the campground for sleeping in. We shortly started getting amped for Rhythm & Vines with some drinks and a few other…well things. We shortly loaded up the rx7′s & holden with people and made our way to the site through the nice country side of Gisborne!

It seemed on finally making our way into the venue and locating everyone that one of the ‘Special Reserve’ areas was open to the public. We quickly made our way inside to enjoy some drinks before watching some of the acts perform such as New Young Pony Club, The Mint Chicks, Motocade, etc…. You wouldn’t believe how huge this place was, and how spread out the stadiums were! Literally took about 10minute walk between some of the stages, but then what else would you expect with around 15,000 people attending! The truely amazing acts of the night surely were Aural Trash and State of Mind (with MC TwinCam)….they were absolutely mindblowing! The event was very well organised with food stalls, booze tent, power nap area, hammocks for hire and even featured an ‘enchanted forrest’ for chilling out in!

The night finally came to an end around 6am with the 1st sunrise of 2008. We slowly made our way back to the campground. It was decided originally to sleep in the tent but this plan quickly changed. We packed up the tent and made our way to the hotel. Unfortunately all the rooms were booked out and wouldn’t be ready until 2pm. At this time it was around 10am and we decided to take off back to Auckland. Why wait 4hrs for a hotel room when u can be 2/3 of the way home in that time?!

New Years didn’t turn out as expected but still had an amazing time. Next time though I think…something a bit closer to home!

Some pictures can be found here

After finishing work @ 6.30pm and saying goodbye to all my work mates for the next few weeks its finally time to unwind and have some fun! Just thought I would blog a bit before I head out to town tonight for some drinks to celebrate.

Have alot of shopping yet to do tomorrow *sigh* before going away on holiday after Xmas! 2 Xmas parties to choose from tomorrow night…either Re-entry @ Space Bar or Xmas Party @ Zanzibar..hard choice but that can be made tomorrow! Then a few days with the family before the big road trip with friends to the East Coast of New Zealand to the famous holiday spot BW Campgrounds in Gisborne! Week long party with good friends, ending with a massive musical festival..Rhythm & Vines on New Years Eve, being the first city in the world to see the first rays of sunlight of 2008!!

Will miss some friends over new years, but looking back at the year talk about a winner of a year with all the new people! Bring on 2008!

The night started off at my friend Jay’s birthday party set in a nice hotel in town…few drinks with some great friends and random new people for a few hours. It’s amazing some of the interesting conversation you get out of people after a few drinks as well

Anyway, finally it hit’s 11pm’ish….the last person turns up and 3 of us are on our way to Pharmacy! We’ll the night turned out better than expected at first…and what more can i say but SHOWTEK are the bomb!! Full on night of hardstyle, with great tracks like The Color of Harder style, hardstyle remix of Wonderful Day’s, etc…..what more can you ask for!

Well there were some pics taken on the night but I don’t have hold of them and really can’t be bothered uploading them right now, so for now there are pics taken by photographers @ NZRave.com & biggie.co.nz if you want to see more. If you haven’t seen the famous and amazing showtek yet live – they’re definately one group you should make the effort to see….I can’t wait to see them again but next time with their MC!

You go to the Beach of course!

The plan was an Auckland Summer meet up at the beach for a certain p2p goup for some irl interaction, and actually put the face to the name! Well….the plan went to crap when the weather decided to turn to crap on saturday afternoon. But that didn’t stop us! Still half of the crew managed to turn up, including the sites founder and owner making a 9hr road trip each way all the way from Wellington! Luckily with the weather, the group which booked out the bbq site never turned up, we quickly took advantage to seize the site for cover and spend the afternoon talking “business” and a load of crap, cranking up the bbq and kicking around the rugby ball. Some can vs man races as the wind picked up blowing the cans away from the site, along with some duck vs seagull fightclub action as Masha feeds the birds (maybe not the best idea!) and yes…I did fall on my ass while throwing the ball around, yay for getting wet!

So what else does this crew get up to in Auckland when they arrange a meet? Why this of course.