This weekend it was off up to Wellington to see Glynn and Jayne. It’s a really stunning flight up from ChCh.. assuming you remember to pick your seats facing the Kaikouras.
Saturday was spent showing Maaike around Wellington (she’d not properly visited before). We went to see an exhibition by Yayoi Kusama a Japanese artist. She’s quite mad – but her art is really quite cool. Here’s a google images result
Food was eaten and drink was drunk. I was absolutely knackered after lunch (and in this pic with Glynn!)
…So had a wee nap before the evenings Roller derby entertainment.
Now – Matt Pepler who used to live in ChCh is going out with a lovely, pretty, demure lady – Silke. We met up with Matt in the D4 bar (populated by Irish Bar staff – as you’d expect)
And then onto the game. Now, roller derby. Well it’s an odd game – kinda like chariot racing – except on roller skates, with a good bit of WWF style theatrics thrown in for good measure. We were supporting the Silken Dagger (Silke) who plays for Brutel Pagent (they lost to Smashed Malice).
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Basically there are 5 players from each team playing at any time. They roll around in an anticlockwise direction – and one player from each team is the Jammer (person who can score). They have to get through the pack before they can score – and their opponents try to block them. In a nutshell.
There was also an interval where we saw some pretty skilled break-roller-dancing (or whatever you call it)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHq9siIoXKM]
So – an interesting night. I must say – it was quite intimidating when we went down on the court after and Silke came over to say hi. She’s tall enough to begin with – let alone with face-paint, padding etc!
Still – it’s amazingly impressive what they’ve achieved. There were 1000 people watching the match – and they only formed a group 2 years ago. Very impressive.
On Sunday Maaike and I met up with my friend Mandy (who I first went to Rai Lay with). It was great to meet up and hear more stories. Mandy is someone to whom improbable things happen to. She’s an art teacher and was looking for a cleaner whilst moving house. Somehow ended up trying to be hired as a mercenary by the supposed cleaner she was put in touch with. Mandy is the furthest person I can imagine from becoming a mercenary. Hilarious.
Anyways – then it was on to the market, ice-cream, sunburn (mmmm love that sunburn), scribblings on the pavement…
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And then to Te Papa (our place) to have a look around. They have a (baby 4m) Collosal Squid there. Those are seriously cool creatures. They can take a whale.
Also played on their interactive wall..
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNlp3ogEbGE]
On a final note – well, firstly – thanks to Glynn and Jayne for having us.. but secondly, Glynn and I get a lot of stick (well, me esp from Maaike ;) about sometimes, occasionally, needing some me time to just grab a second or two to go onto the internet, read an email or two, catch up on news.. – which engenders ceaseless heckling and abuse for being unsociable. However, here I was, trying to make conversation and Maaike was studiously ignoring me reading the paper (and Jayne was trying to entice Glynn back from the pub… without much luck).
Anyway – I reckon it all evens out in the end ;)
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