I'm not a geek. I'm not, honestly. But I'm all excited that I've found a way for you to post comments on my blog. This assumes of course that you actually want to leave any, but there's no harm in me being hopeful ;)

Talking of feisty birds. Penguins are 'feathering' their nests by turning to prostitution, but instead of doing it for money, Antarctic dolly-birds are turning tricks to get rocks off their menfolk. It's true - the BBC says so.

I'm looking out the window and see daffodils, snowdrops, baby animals and flirty birds, and I know spring has arrived. Again? Somehow that doesn't seem right - I've just left one behind. I'm consoling myself by the fact that the weather is still better than the UK, and summer is almost here. Then I can smile because while I'm over here frolicking in the sun, it's cold and wintry up north. (Hehe!)

Opps, guess I've just conformed to the English obsession with talking about the weather! Hold a moment while I think of something else to talk about…

Chelfyn's quietly turning into a bit of a bird watcher, think he's emulating Keith Flint (bloke with scary hair in the Prodigy) who's also an avid twitcher He came out with a classic today when explaining birdsong. You're walking down the street or waking up in the morning, listening to the little feathered things merrily singing away outside and it all sounds so lovely. Apparently though it all translates to:
"Look at me! Look at me! Wanna shag? I wanna shag! Look at me! Fuck off! She's mine! Fuck off! Wanna shag? Look at me! Look at me!"

Charming!

Finally someone has stood up and said 'No. This is unacceptable" to the US demanding immunity from the ICC - Norway rejects US call to give its citizens immunity from war crimes and Norway and US clash over court.

Another weekend almost gone and it's been an odd one. Friday saw another trip down to MonkeyFeather (this is getting to be a habit!) and much fun was had by all. I really must try and get to Auckland for a night out - have a feeling that it'll be much better than Hamiliton.

Saturday... well it wasn't a good day. Woke up and it just hit me, I was feeling homesick. It wasn't places so much as people and friends, and there was me cockily thinking that I'd got away with it. My cure involved being thoroughly unsociable, devouring a 600-page book in a day [Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb - not a bad read] along with some nice red wine. By the time I crawled into bed I was feeling a lot more mellow and, after talking to one of my favourite people and leaving a silly message for another at 3 in the morning, I had managed to kick myself back into touch.

Today I've been making necklaces to take into the shop at Pukekohe on a 'sale or return' basis, and just generally pottering about.

They have some great adverts here - the funniest I've seen so far was a billboard ad for a vacuum cleaner - the 3 ft catch phrase being "More suck for your buck"! I mean that's positively indecent... and right on my level; made me giggle.

Anyway had a bit of a road trip today which got me out of the house. My newly aquired bother Tim is off to the States and is selling up all his worldly possessions to be footloose and fancy free. He had a buyer for his van in Tauranga, but needed to hitch down to Wellington afterwards - bit of a trek from the east coast. An excuse to drive LWSC was materializing... follow Tim in convoy and check out the scenery on the way, sell the van (scarper sharpish!) and then down to Hamilton to desposit Tim on State Highway 1, strategically placed to hitch down south. It was all ticketyboo!

We passed through some pretty hardcore dairy country en route. By the side of some of the driveways where these cage/hut structures which I've noticed before but not understood what they were for. Today I found out. It was a sad to see little calves, sometimes quite crowed, huddled together in these cages with no food or water. Guess that's how they get them to wait for the cattle lorries... sniff.

Went to MonkeyFeather again last night. As it was the first Friday in the month Chelfyn does something a little extra special with the club, like extra lighting, production, and me with a little UV stall. I sold some jewellery - it was a quiet night which makes it even more impressive - but I got a real buzz out of watching people dancing around wearing stuff that I had made. I've found a shop on Ponsonby Road in Auckland (think Park Street in Bristol) who are also interested in what I've been making so I'm taking in some samples in next week.