The third day, the sabbath

It is poignant to remind readers of the reason for the season. We have just reached the end of Easter Sunday. Jesus Christ has failed to return to earth. I spent the last half of the day at work. Beleive me, if Christ had come back we'd have heard about it by now.

It got me thinking about the whole thing, as I have been enjoynig copious amounts of Easter eggs since Good Friday like you wouldn't believe, man. What is the third day? While according to Wikipedia, that ever evolving machine of common knowledge, the third day, or Sabbath, is every Sunday, commemorating the return of Jesus. By that definition it is commemorated by some people every week of the year, but by chocolate-lovers only once - Easter Sunday. Then this led to the enquiring what the Sabbath meant to other, even stranger members of our society. Did you know that seventh day adventist belivers observe the sabbath from sunset friday until nightfall saturday. That means that the they have to spend the coolest, most happening period of the week at home praying to someone who might not even exist. I used to know one, actually, and his life was a continuous struggle between his social life and his deeply ingranied religious beliefs. That wording "sunset" friday and "nightfall" saturday is the main problem. I mean it is clear when sunset is. "Nightfall" is somewhat less clear. Some would consider it sunset, others as late as midnight saturday. This confusion is a smokescreen of confusion designed to cheat beleivers out of the best, most fun part of the week.

I'm not really sure where i'm going with this. I assure you this is the last time I will try to make a religious statement.

Until next time...

Here I am cruising down the new inner-city bypass while chasing a cool little mini. This part of the bypass has actually been open for a while, but the southbonud route only just opened last week. At their own insistance, the new road bypasses the asses of several hundred anti-roading protestors who have plagued this city for years. However, as hated as they are, it turns out they were right all along - The bypass sucks! The part pictured is pretty much the only below-grade bit of the new road. The rest of the bypass is interupted by no fewer than five sets of traffic lights. Not much of a bypass at all really. Folk round here reckon it has done more harm than good to traffic congestion, unless they are reading the Dominion Post, who think its the best thing in Wellington since the council itself.

Since my last post I have moved to the great suburb of Newlands. An 8 minute drive to the city and half the rent i was paying, i can't complain. And despite saving all that money on rent I get to live in perhaps the most white trash suburb of Wellington (not including Upper Hutt). The suburb is anchored by the Innkeeper of Newlands, a neighborhood pub which allows its esteemed patrons to get shit-drunk and then continues to serve them booze, which sure makes it an interesting place to be. And with Newlands at the top of the property crime stats, and being nearly continuously buffetted by a northerly wind that would be considered hurricane-strength anywhere else in the world, i cant think of a better place to be. Seriously though it is actually a nice place!

I have been going out a fair bit, trying out some new bars and resturants, checking out standup comedy nights on thursdays (you're garanteed a good night as long as you don't sit in the front row!), and the other night i even went bowling at The Lanes which is a new tenpin place combined with bar downtown. Good fun. Have kept up my flying but have decided to put it on hold for a month or so cause its getting pretty expensive. And my last lesson was a complete waste of time due to crowded airspace meaning we had to go into a holding pattern for the whole lesson. Well it was almost a complete waste of time, except for the sightseeing. I was holding just south of the basin reserve with views all over the city below me. Was pretty easy to forget about flying the plane and decend a few hundred feet by accident!

Also I got into going to the gym... rarely.. but any excersise is good. And I'm thinking of getting a motorbike again.

Happy New Year

And yes, thank you for pointing out that the new year isn't that new anymore. I haven't been neglecting you deliberatly, oh blog, but i forgot my username and password. Google will help you if you forget either one of a username or password, but alas not if you forget both. Trial and error has finally seen me re-enter my account to bore you with the mundane details.

I've been quite enjoying myself of late, trying to get out and about as much as possible, to enjoy the summer, go down and patronize the botanic garden concerts etc, and while it was a late bloomer this summer is finally turning on some quality days. However, if its not one thing its another and as a gen x-er i will find something to complain about. Balmy weather is the last thing i wanted today, as i showed up to work to find that there had been a fire on the 9th floor which had taken out the electricity supply to the building. It had also fried one of the backup generators. Upon my arrival in the god-forsaken hellhole the center was running on what was left of a 60 minute backup battery. There were no lights on, no tv, and no air conditioning. Against all my hopes and prayers, all systems were back up and running before long... all systems except the air conditioning which remmained broken down all evening.

I have had a radical start to the new year.. been flying a few more times and loving it i might add. Not sure what to do next. At the moment i am just plodding along, flying once a week. But getting a pilots licence will take forever at that rate. Man they make you jump thru hoops for a pilots licence. It's not rocket science! Give me the keys to a 747 and i'll take you anywhere you want to go. But no, it takes 200 hours to get a mere CPL, and thousands more hours before they will let you fly a machine of that magnitude. There is a certain truth to the school of thought which suggests that the flying part is easy, its the landing which is hard.

So i'm looking at moving out of my Northland bachelor pad. I think cheaper rent is gonna be where its at as i look to spend more on flying and less on living. Looks like i have a few good friends lined up for flatmates soo hopefully that will all work out nicely. I could save substantial amounts of money by flatting with folk, and this greatly excites me.

In Feburary i have 14 straight days off work. It's going to be a blast. It'll be like having school holidays or something. I plan to spend most of it at home, just chillin and doing stuff, having time to reflect and relax. I'm also planning to head north on another Beggs Rockin' Roadtrip which will be cool.

Well i've reached the end of my blogpost. I'm sure there was more i was going to say but it's getting late. Until next time.

In the summertime...

Not too much news this week, but thought I would post anyway just for good practice.

Went flying. Loved it.

This is the plane I flew. Its really small, and probably lighter than - certainly not heavier than a car. We took off from Wellington airport facing south and were airborne almost immediately after going full-throtle. Climbed to about 1500ft and headed for Turakarau Head. Here the controlled airspace around the airport ended and I was free to climb higher and dork around over Lake Ferry and South Wairarapa. Flew over a really swanky looking $4000/night lodge and looked down at a helicopter flying tourists there way below us. Then turned around and went back around Turakarau, then up the Eastbourne coast past Somes Island to the Petone Esplanade, then rejoined the airport traffic pattern and headed for Mirimar Peninsula before completing final turns to a perfect touchdown at the airport (handled beautifuly by my instructor). We cleared the runway pretty quick as there was a 767 coming in right behind us. I'm doing another lesson on Wednesday, this time logging my first flying-time towards getting a pilots licence.

Went to a couple of Christmas parties, which i enjoyed probably a bit too much. At one I was grabbed by four women and thrown into a spa pool fully clothed. It seems they were unhappy about an incident involving me and a high-powered water gun moments earlier.

Also had a good day on Tuesday, ending with a couple of beers out in the sun on the street at the Dog and Bone, where there was standing room only and we shared our table with a couple of friendly tourists who were in town to see Elton John.