Hubris.co.nz

December 23rd. Finished work at 2pm. Drinks in Amanda’s office for her last day. Jeremy was already putting his name on the door. We ran out of liquor. Then we ran out of the vodka I fetched from my office’s freezer. We went to someone’s house via the dairy for more wine. I’m not entiiiiiirely sure who’s house it was. I ordered pizza off our work tab and of course didn’t realise it was actually my client I was talking to until it was too late and I’d already embarrassed myself. Everyone made a big deal about thanking me. We trekked down to Lambton Quay and then up to The Big Kumara. It was 10pm by that stage and so I peeled myself off from the group and cabbed home.

December 24th
Death on a stick. Nevertheless I managed to scrub both bathrooms and shop for Xmas Food and feel like dying some more. Drinking with workmates never ends well.

Christmas Day
Mum and Neil showed up just before 11am which made me tetchy cos I was still washing dishes, and dropped off a trestle table and a whole bunch’o food. Mum went off to pick up Anji&Richard and Karen, and then we proceeded to eat (crossaints, bread rolls, pear brandy champagne cocktails) and eat (nibbly bits) and eat (more nibbly bits) and open presents and eat and drink. Anji and Richard left sometiem around 6, so the rest of us ate some more, then watched Shorters (stupid getting teary-eyed at weddings) and then ate dinner – which was just a beef fillet salad. And we drank some more and drank some more and Mum read aloud all of the book Karen had given me – The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists – which is quite possibly THE BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN and it had us thumping the table and yelling “HAM!” and “RUM!” and “ARRRRRR!” and “GROG!” and “HAM!” and occasionally a foray into “BRAINS!” when zombies were mentioned. It was all great. Until about 1am when I got really sick, of course. Stupid fucking blue cheese.

Boxing Day
Still blue-cheesed to death. I had an awful lot of dishes to do by myself. Sigh. I made myself feel better by reading slash and feeling glad that I’m not the type of loser who writes it. Then I felt worse because I realised I’d just been reading slash for a couple of hours.

Today
Sunshine! Swimsuit! Corona! Avocado! Reading! Yeah. Bored now. I want someone to play with.

PS: if you’re one of the few hubrettes who received xmas giftie from me but who hasn’t had the charm and decency to say thank you, well you’re still fucking welcome, and I hope you had a fucking choice-ass xmas anyway. You fucking rude sods.

‘ve been to three Industry parties this year, excluding work-dos. Here’s how they compare. Well, not ‘compare’ as such, cos I had fun at all of them, but here’s how different parts stacked up against each other. Don’t ask me why it’s so low down either, I can’t fix it. But if you click here hopefully it’ll jump.

Stories may come later. What do you want to know?

I’m now writing this almost two weeks later than events, which is strange cos I didn’t realise that time went by so quickly. Nevermind, let’s plunge into my last couple’o days in the Auck town shall I?

Monday 6th December
I finally managed to have myself a merry little sleep in, tucked away in Oratia, which was certainly very pleasant, even though I felt terrible cos I got a text from Martina going “Okay I’m ready! Meet me on K’Road” and I had to reply going “umm I just woke up, see you in an hour or so?” But eventually I made my way into town and picked her up, and since it was a gorgeous sunny day we drove over to Devonport and had lunch at Manuka. Then, because it was so very nice and because we both found ourselves being the only other people we knew who wanted to do it, we set off to look for a beach. Now, you’ll of course recall that I once spent the summer working for the North Shore City Council and that my job then seemed to consist of little more than driving around all day getting suntanned. However, that was a long time ago, so we went for a rather extended drive up the motorway to Greville Road and then a long way back down East Coast Bays Road (which pretty much doesn’t go past the sea at all!) trying to find a nice little beach, before I took drastic action and found our way to Milford Beach.

There weren’t very many people there, which was great, and there was a changing shed with showers and an open-roofed area like an Italian courtyard which was great, so we got suited up and tried to get away from any boys on the beach. The water was very very cold and it made me hyperventilate a little bit (“sorry Martina, I know I sound like I’m heavy-breathing at you…”) but it warmed up a little, at least enough to frolick and try to do headstands in. When I started trying to do yoga poses and pretty much ended up nearly drowning myself, it was time to call it a day. The showers weren’t warm, but at least they weren’t salty. We headed back to the right side of the bridge to Occam for some more food and a perusal of Civic’s video sale (Cruel Intentions, Far from Heaven and umm something else for $12) before Martina left me for a ride home. I was waiting for Iva to call me so we could meet up, so I found myself a park to sit in and cuddled up with The Dirt. It’s soooo good. I wish I was in Motley Crue, for serious.

It turned out that Iva was trapped on the shore, so we decided to see each other the next day instead, and I eventually made my way towards KateH’s, via a phone call to La to see if he wanted to come along to the party we were going to that night, for a girlie website that I won’t name – which, after I uttered the magic words “free booze” of course he did, so I told him where the party was at and he said he’d meet us there. At Kate’s I believe we probably watched Shortland St together, and got poshed up, me making the last minute decision to switch from my party frock to my cleavage top (and of course SHRN yellow scarf), which I think in hindsight was quite fortuitous, and we set off to pick up her friend Olly, who is British but edits a certain ‘lifestyle’ paper. Haha, that’s me exercising my ‘get out of jail free’ card again. I get to say “but” because we all know that I find British accents ridiculously hot, BUT I try not to waste my time hankering after boys if I know straight away (as opposed to at Ruby on Friday) that they’re gay. Y’dig? Yeah. Anyways. We had to trek around and around and around The Secret Garden looking for La, cos the entrance isn’t actually on the street that it says it’s on, but eventually we kind of gave up and went in, keen to get started on the free liquor. Or at least I was. Given that KateH was driving, I imagine that she was a little more restrained. I got severely fucked off because Horrible Gay Jonny (and let me point out here that the ‘gay’ tag is used because before him I’d had another Horrible Jonny flatmate) was serving drinks and grrrrrrrr he makes me so mad with his theiving and then his fakeness. Bah. I’ve vented about this already. But I am setting the scene for what comes later by giving a partial reason as to why I downed so so so many glasses of bubbly very quickly ie: I was angus and also a little bored until La showed up. KateB was at the party too, but she left pretty early, so mostly I just talked to Olly and KateH (although they knew lots of people) and La, until much later in the night when we were out the back adn the bubbly had run out and I’d switched to beer and was talking to a whole bunch of random guys and a couple of other people I knew. Now, in further stage setting, let me tell you about the toilets at the Secret Garden – they have shower curtains for doors. Yuck! I’d had one piece of cheese that went straight to my bowels and I was like aaaaargh, but then I thought “Well, you know what? These girls here jostling for space to adjust their makeup, I don’t respect them, why should I care about what they think of me?”. Later though the toilets were all floody and still really crowded, so I couldn’t have a quiet puke, which meant that all the beer and bubbly stayed in my stomach. Foreshadowing.

Eventually almost all the people I knew had left – KateH with the oh so subtle “call my cellie when you get to my house – or if you should happen to be staying in (certain address implying that I would be in someone else’s bed), I can come and pick you up from there”. Aww bless her. I imagine I said something like “Well, I’d like to say that’s not going to happen but I’d probably be lying”. Needless to say pretty much as soon as she’d left, perhaps, I found myself making out with a boy, and soon we were in a taxi on our way to his house. Now, I’ve made out in taxis with three other boys before (oh hush, not all at the same time) and the drivers have always been the embodiment of discretion. This driver was an ASSHOLE. Okay, admittedly I can’t remember exactly what it was that he was saying, but I think it was of the nudge nudge wink wink “go on my son” type commentary which was really really unnecessary, and which probably contributed a little to my later unease. Anyways so I found myself in a house that is very familiar to me, and in fact on a bed that I’d been on before, peeing in a bathroom where I’d peed so many times before mid-coitally, and it was just a little bit strange. Before I knew what was what, he had a condom on, and I was like “woahhhhhhh, wait a minute….” I know that I’ve bitched for a year and a half about my total lack of sex, but what with it staring me in the face like that (so to speak, of course), and the feelings that being back in that house stirred up again, I suddenly realised I couldn’t do it, and I told him so. I’ve been without sex for so long I’m a second-time virgin, and I just think it’d be really wrong to do it with someone that I’m not in love with – or failing love then at least Ridiculously Hot wrists-tied-above-my-head, him-whispering-in-my-ear-about-all-the-things-he’s-going-to-do and then how-he’s-going-to-pass-me-onto-all-his-friends-cos-I’m-such-a-fucking-whore Dirty Passion Violent Fucking. Giggly-drunk-friend-scoring isn’t good enough, unfortunately. So instead, I went down on him (well, I would have anyway) but I was in much more of a hurry for him to hurry up and come so that he’d stop begging me to let him fuck me. He still had the condom on at the start, and that was strange, and of course, his dick was hitting the back of my throat, and I was still full of beer and bubbly, so what happened? Oh yeah, I started gagging and my mouth filled with vomit. Now, I thought I’d just swallowed it back (heh) but after he’d finally finished, he was like “umm, I’m going to go sleep in the lounge, cos you threw up on this side of the bed” and I was like “omg, wtf?” and then I got all offended and was like “FINE! If you won’t sleep with me then I guess I’ll go to Kate’s” (cos you know, I totally had the moral highground on my side – hahahaha) and after he’d left, I groped around in the dark (some more, haha man, how many fucking double entendres can one entry have? I guess this is like, a year and a half’s worth poured into one night) trying to find my clothes, since he doesn’t have a lightbulb in his room. I left without a skirt (luckily I was wearing pants underneath) but with pearl necklaces (haha, see previous-to-previous brackets) and hiked up to the main road to get some cash and find a taxi and hope that my cellphone battery didn’t die, which it seemed to be doing. Somehow though I managed to get a taxi, and the driver seemed much nicer when I complained about the previous one, and KateH got up and let me in and all seemed well in the world.

Tuesday 7th

I woke up around 10.30am, feeling pretty damn sorry for myself, let me tell you. Kateh had left a room outside the room that I was sleeping in with her worknumber on it, so I gave her a call cos I knew she was supposed to come home and turn the alarm on when I left. When I told her that yes, I had gone home with the boy, she briefly wondered why I hadn’t just stayed the night there then, but accepted my explanation that it was weird. I don’t know if I mentioned the puke thing or not – I probably tried to conceal it so that she didn’t worry about her flatmate’s bed. Who knows? Anyways, it transpired that she wouldn’t be able to make it home until lunchtime so I had a cold shower (like I should have had the night before, but nevermind) and settled down with my laptop to write the ‘Things Not To Do Whilst Sucking Cock’ entry that only my Hubrettes can read, and to contemplate how much my black and silver skirt meant to me vs the having to go back to the boy’s house and pick it up. Well, when KateH finally got home it was 2.30pm so I realised I couldn’t put it off anymore, so it was off to the boy’s house with me. Him and all his flatmates were all sitting out on the back porch in the sun. I had no idea what he’d told them, but I do know that the walls there are paper thin (and that the girl he shares a wall with is a prudey little virgin, hahahah). I tried to play it all casual, just “hey, how’s it going?”. He was laughing at me when I had to say “so um, did I leave my skirt in your room?” so I double-casualed it by saying “haha, that sounds really bad”. Yeah I’m going to pretend that your flatmates didn’t hear me faking an orgasm if I want to, okay? Sweet. They were like “oh what are you up to today?” which meant I had a trump card up my sleeve – I told them I was going to go see Iva, which was true but also I knew that there was bad blood between them all, so they started going blah blah blah which took the heat off me and I got to leave holding my head up high. Phew!

Next up on my agenda was a visit to Wendy’s and then to the shore to see Iva Beaver. we sat in the sun and talked about Bernard, amongst other things. Ahh sweet sweet dusty cups. Then I went to meet up with OLIVIA and STEVE and KYLA, once I finally found her house, that is (stupid Americans saying “eighteen” instead of “seventeen”, or more likely stupid hungover not-awake&capable of listening me). After cruising Franklin Road to see the lights and marvel at the audacity of the house with a COFFEE CART in front of it, we went to Joy Bong for dinner, where I struggled to question how the tofu was done in a tofu and eggplant dish I was eyeing up (when I’m around vegans I eat vegan). I got a different dish instead cos I was afraid it’d be the squishy kind I don’t like, and as Olivia said of my tofu, it turns out i want it done like it’s a bouncy castle. It was so great to see them again, cos I haven’t seen them since umm forever, but they were tired from the flight, and I was tired from the debauchary and found myself only able to say “the thing with the stuff” and “so hot right now”. Whatever happened to Verbacious Joanna? We fought over the bill and I thought I won and paid it but the next day I found some cash in my bag so either they slipped it in or I am just terrible with money. Then we went back to Kyla’s to watch half of Harry Potter 3 and make dirty jokes about paedophilia. Have some chocolate little boy, and all of that. Of course the night didn’t last nearly long enough, but sigh, I guess I’ll get to see them again in a couple of years or something.

Wednesday 8th
Having stayed at Kateb’s again, I got up in time to do some research on a Certain Band Who Have A Lot of Members adn Wear Robes because I was interviewing their frontman. He was a little grumpy and the line wasn’t that good. Sigh. Then I drove back to Welly and Sebby was overjoyed to see me. The end.

When I said it would be all in one part, I was lying.

Saturday December 4th, continued
Finally I realised that I couldn’t watch Dawson’s forever, and that it was high time I get my shit together and make the journey to The’Tron, via dropping Katie off in town. Of course it started raining then. I’m still not used to driving a car that actually has functioning windscreen wipers (Inco’s scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaped and scratched) and of course it was that stupid dumb sometimes-sunny bullshit, so I was all confuzzled between glasses and sunglasses, aaaaaaaand (just to bitch a little more) I don’t particularly like the drive to Hamiltron at the best of times, and even less when I’m hungover, but I made it there in one piece. The motel I was staying at, The Airport Motor Inn, was (strangely enough) out at the airport, which is another half hour or so through Hamilton, but luckily it was signposted, cos there are few things I hate more than getting lost in The’Tron (except perhaps getting lost in West Auckland).

My motel room was very beige, as I had hoped. For some reason, I was thinking that the neutrality of it would inspire me to some great writing since I couldn’t have my Doom Generation motel room fantasy. I shattered the peace by bleeding red and purple all over their white towels and also probably got traces on the clean white sheets when I had a nap. I am a deviant. I’d stuck my toe into the outdoor swimming pool and decided against it because while I’m crazy I’m not actually insane. The shower was all needley and great massagey though, which made me happy. I drank many glasses of water trying to rehydrate and then it was time (well, well past time but I stopped to watch the Simpsons) to get my act together and get dressed for Chelsea’s after-wedding. Wedding-esque (not in the long and white and poofy, but in the ‘appropriate attire for a guest’ sense, of course) Dress? Check. Pearls? Check. Cardigan? Check. Pink Lipgloss? Check. Scoddy old silver birkis? Check. Then all I had to do was stand in the motel’s driveway for an eternity waiting for the taxi, but that’s okay cos while I was waiting I got a call from La, who had obviously arrived back from Australia and received the note I’d left at his house threatening to cry if I didn’t have a chance to hang out with him. Excellent. (Wait, again, what tense am I in? Oh who knows anymore.)

The taxi took me out into the countryside dotted with Lifestyle Block type places, and we both cunningly managed to work out that the house was the one with all the cars parked around it and balloons tied to the gate. Given that I hadn’t seen Chelsea since Uni, I was a little nervous. Luckily, I spotted Kyla, and she pointed me towards Elly, who told me to sit down at her table and then as soon as I did, she got up and left. That’s when I went to find a drink. I met all sorts of people who, once they established that I was Jo Hubris and not any of the other Jos, knew all sorts of things about me. Mostly they didn’t even tell me their real names, let alone any kind of web name, so I was left to stick out my hand and say “Hi, I’m Jo,” expecting that usual social convention would compell them to introduce themselves and not reply with a “I know” and keep talking. Pah, feeble social convention, they laugh at usual social convention! Anyways, I sought out Elly and kept her company while she stuffed weiners in herself. Since neither she nor Kyla nor Murray, who had just arrived at this point in my narrative, were drinking, I decided to take it upon myself to drink their share as well. The gorgeous big garden was set up with a series of canopies and pavilion type things, but it was starting to rain so eventually, after I left ridiculously garbled messages on a video for Chelsea (sorry!) we retired inside to watch Richard and Chelsea open their presents. I want to get married! Oh so many presents. Also like, as I did mention in my earlier drunken entry when I got home from the wedding, I’d kind of like to look beautiful and be in love, just like Chelsea. But I’ll settle for appliances. Then there was dancing! Lots and lots of it. In fact, Elly and I got thrown out at the end,because Richard and Chelsea had already left, and I guess Richard’s parents’d had enough of us – which is probably a valid complaint. I had after all been naughty and used the inside toilet, something that made me feel terribly wicked and probably made me have a guiltier face than I did at Dee’s wedding.
Earlier in the night I’d confided in Elly that I’ve been getting exceeding paranoid when I drink and would she please be able to make sure that I got home safely in case I got pissed, and so she was kind enough to drive me back to my motel, even though I wasn’t pissed to the badness point, just the ridiculous amounts of fun and also trying to teach boys how to waltz point, where I logged on and wrote this incredibly eloquent journal entry. Which, as it happens, cost me $10 for the phone call, so I hope you enjoyed it.

Sunday, December 5th
What I would like to know is which bastard decided that it would be a good fun thing for motels to have a 10am checkout. It certainly wasn’t me anyways. But there you have it, according to my receipt I managed to shower and pack in a severely hungover state and pay my $122 bill by 10.07am ($105 room, $6 minibar, $10 internet phonecall, 40cent taxi phonecall). Yay me! And then I rang Brenda and got directions to her house. She’d promised to cook me waffles but I was feeling so ill that I had to make a quick stop into Burger King on the way there. You know their “suck it and see” straws? Well they come with a fucking piece of paper telling you what colour your straw is before you even get the chance. What’s the point in that? None! There is no point. Plus the straws feel oooky and taste yucky. You suck, Burger King. What doesn’t suck is the coffee Brenda makes on her posh machine, and her home made cookies. We sat and drank coffee for an hour and a bit and gossiped. I think she’s fantastic. She didn’t make me waffles though, but that’s fine because I was full of BK and cookies and coffee anyways. My throat was hurting like a motherfucker, as it had started on Thursday what with me singing for eight hours on the drive up, and then continued with the singing and dancing on Friday night, and then the Saturday night, and the unhealthy lifestyling and the talking talking talking. So what did I do? I left Brenda to go meet up with Amy&Andee and talk talk talk some more.

The cafe we went to – Metropolis was cheaper than an Auck or Welly one, and big plates of pasta and yumness. Haha, look at the quality of my England Writering. We got caught up on our current lives (Amy’s doing a PhD! !!!) and settled in to bitch about our old lives as well. They finally told me about how a girl who I thought was my friend slept with the guy I fancied six and a half years ago. OMG! So that makes what, seven ‘friends’ who’ve done that now? You’ll excuse me if I’m a little cynical when it comes to friendships now and put an ever increasing value on the TWO YEAR RULE. I’m looking at you here Jessie, as my newest friend. And Heather too – make sure you keep your thieving mitts off Zach Braff, dammit! Anyways, the story of this girl and boy in question is that she’d been at my house in Mt Roskill when he’d invited us over to his place on the shore, and so she drove us over, and he offered us a smoke and I was like “oh no thanks” cos I didn’t want to embarrass myself by coughing, and then he said that I could crash there for the night so the girl wouldn’t have to go back to Mt Roskill to drop me off since she was from the shore anyways (I should have known better) but I said no to that too, because I was fucking dumb 17 year old, and so she drove me home and apparently went back and slept with him. Nice! I stopped talking to her a couple of weeks after that anyways since someone cut&pasted me the nasty shit she’d been saying about me on IRC anyways. Hahaha IRC. Funny. (Also hahaha if, Mr Boy in Question, you’re still lurking). But Amy, Andee I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DIDN’T TELL ME SOONER. Heh. Then we went and admired the RiffRaff statue (Hamiltron is so wack) and then I drove back to Auck for nailpainting and facials with Kateb. Hurray.

Where she left a trail of red & spunk & puke across the North Island
So, my trip to Auckland. I’m going to drip-feed it all into the one entry, so keep coming back (it works if you work it).

Thursday 2nd December
Last Thursday, I hopped in my mother’s car and I started driving and I started singing. Nine hours or so later, with stops to grab coffee and laugh at the fact that The Brown Sugar Cafe hasn’t changed its menu in seven years at least, and to eat lunch in Taihape and to gratefully make it to Tirau right on the dot of five pm in order to make it to their nice bathrooms before they shut, and without a stop to paddle in Taupo cos I kept going “next bay, next bay” and then I’d run out of bays, but with a stop in at Volcanic to leave a note for La begging him to call me and to be disgusted at what they’ve turned my proud house into, and with a little extra time spent getting lost in West Auckland, I finally arrived at KateB’s place in Oratia and got to stop driving and stop singing.

Kateb and I drank a lovely bottle of Sacred Hill Rose out of tea cups, ate dinner and talked a whole pile’o shit. I convinced her to let me sleep in their lounge instead of their spare room in which Glyn had been screenprinting, cos it was a little fumey to my oversensitive nose. So lovely to catch up and gossip. I slept really well when I went to bed too.

Friday 3rd December
I had a super hot wonderful date booked at 10.30am in Grafton so I had to haul my ass across town to get to that. Hayley was thrilled to see me, of course, and we spent a long time debating the merits of semi vs permanent, and in the end we decided on an as-permanent-as-possible semi, in order to maximise the shine. I picked a reddish colour for all over, and a darker purpley shade for low-lights. Bright bright bright! We had a wonderful gossip while she did the foils, then her trainee (I think) painted the rest of my head and one of my nails is still tinted from scratching my ear. Whoops. Nevermind. When they put heatery things around my head, they sat me in a chair with a massager built in – oooooooh lordy I giggled at first and they laughed and laughed at me. Hayley gave me a headrub when she was shampooing my hair and I purred. Then she cut the layers back in, and the fringe, and decided to do funny things on my left hand side. She was like “I love that you’re not arguing with me” and I was like “you’re holding a pair of sharp scissors!” but I of course trust her completely. Fuck my hair looked SO FUCKING GOOD when it was done. I told her I was going to dinner with all the Kates (thinking that KateM got her hair done by Hayley, when in fact it was one of the other hairdressers, nevermind) and that they’d all be inspired to get their acts together and book in for another/their first appointment. I got a fiver off for that I think. So yeah, it was $180 all up, but if you saw me on Friday, or even Saturday, you’ll know that I totally got my money’s worth, purely in saunter factor.

By the time I was done, it was midday, and I was heading to Newmarket anyways to try and find something posh to wear to the wedding/pulp party/whatever, and so I figured I’d pop up to Katem’s office to say hi. There’s parking at her office, which is great, and she was at work and thinking about lunch, which was even greater. So we headed down to some cafe on Remuera Rd (Umbria?) for some good food and nice wine and fantastic conversation. The trouble with KateM is that she’s very good at saying what I want to hear, so in discussing a particular boy she was all “I really do think he actually liked you, it was just really bad timing for you both”- which is great to hear but probably not very healthy cos it means that I obsess more – and lord knows I already obsess enough! But we had a really good catchup and gossip and she told me she was coming to my dinner that night and that I should order her something meaty if it looked like she was going to be running late.

Then I went up to Benediction to have coffee with KateB and she gave me a yellow mesh RJC scarf that she’d been sent but that suited no one, except me because I have fucking great colouring and can wear pretty much any colour. So yeah, it means I get to be way posh, since RJC is all like fancy and stuff, and expensive, and I’m so not naturally. I took the time to consult the paper to try and find a movie I wanted to see at a convenient time where I wouldn’t have to pay for parking. There really wasn’t a hell of a lot of choice, so I ended up going to the 3.45 session of Bridget Jones (again) at The Lido (which, if you are unfamiliar with, is on the cover of Dimmer’s album).

The Lido is in Epsom, which meant that I popped into The Millhouse to try and find something nice to wear. Big mistake. Sure they had my sizes, but the only things I liked were over $500. The Millhouse stocks Trelise’s fat-people range. I get to say ‘Trelise’ because I know someone who works for her, so hehehe check out me namedropping designers in this entry. So so wrong. Anyways, there was no one in the theatre except for me and two old ladies who talked loudly during the ads. The movie was funny enough I suppose, even though I was sober this time around.

I was due at KateH’s at 7pm, so I figured I’d go to St Lukes and continue my quest for Wedding Outfit. I found it! A black dress in flippy floppy material, it’s sleeveless and a little empire-waisted, and it had a pink and grey geometric print on it, which is a little strange, because that’s so much more mainstreamy than something I’d usually wear, but it is perfect for weddings, so (and let me put this in capital letters) YOU ARE ALL ALLOWED TO GET MARRIED NOW since I have the perfect outfit to wear to your wedding. Cos you’re inviting me right? Right? Yeah, anyways, so I can wear my tie-front black mesh cardigan over the top until the liquor sets in and I stop minding my arms so much. Excellent. Anyway, I was running around St Lukes when KateH texted me saying I should get to her house half an hour earlier so that we could go buy snacks in preperation for our slumber party, but I figured since I was already at the mall, I’d just do it myself. Three bottles of cheap bubbly for me, a bottle of Wither Hills Sav for her and a whole pile’o junk food loaded up and I was on my way to Pt Chevalier.

How’s my tensing going? It’s pretty shit right? I mean, for a Grammar Queen, I’m pretty loose. Oh well, y’all love me anyways because I am still SHRN. For serious.

At Kateh’s I got to wash the Auckland sweat off, and we drank a bottle while we got poshed up and watched Shorters. Then we taxied in to Kingsland to Mekong (which the divine Miss. H had booked, and then I’d rebooked to change the numbers from 9 to 11). The guestlist? On the AUT side of the table: KateH, KateM, KateB, Justin, Maree and Shirley (Me: “Just call them all Kate, they’ll get over it”). On the NZm side of the table: Heather (who wrote about it here) & Paul and Martina & her brother Chris. And then there was me at the head of the table. There was some gooooood food and some good conversation. There was a lot more wine. There was sticky rice! I heart sticky rice so much. Dinner stretched out over a long time cos we had entrees first, and people were late and all that kinda stuff. I tried to talk to everyone and to make sure everyone was having a good time, as I always do. I am a good hostess, fo’sure. Well I hope that everyone had fun anyways.

Once dinner and many many bottles of wine were finished, the AUT side headed up to Ruby while the NZm side went home after one drink. I heart Ruby! It’s a small place, but they play great eighties music and make really yummy cocktails which people kept buying for me. All my friends were drunk and they kept touching me, and I was like “aaaaaargh! I haven’t had sex in a very very long time, what the hell are you doing?” We were all dancing and singing in that tight space when a guy came up and started dancing with me. He was very hands-all-over but was very cute, so I was like oooh, and all my friends were like oooooooooooooh. He kept dancing with me and I kept grabbing his ass and we were laughing and giggling for a long time, and so when someone suggested leaving I was like “ummm no, let’s just wait a bit”. He kept leaving and coming back and then hugging me and telling me how gorgeous and wonderful I was, and then finally I realised that every time he left it was to go and talk to another boy, and so click click click, I was like “oh you’re gay right?” and he was like “yeah” and I was like DAMMIT. But we still continued dancing and having ridiculous amounts of fun. Eventually the bar called last drinks and according to my bank statements I paid $49 for a bottle of Deutz. I have no idea what time it was but it was decided it was time for us to leave – since like, they were kicking us out and shit. Plus I’d just about got into a brawl for some reason with some girl – apparently I knocked her drink but she was a total bitch about it. Anyways.

We got dial-a-driver since Maree had her car there and so while we were waiting I had a very entertaining conversation with a very drunk Justin. I don’t remember much of it, but I was probably complaining about all of his friends that I’ve scored, and recounting the conversation about the one in particular that I’d had with KateM at lunch, and he was like “hmmm” and I was like “no, I know we’re right!!!” and then he said that I was one of the most intelligent women that he knew, which is always nice to hear. And then the dial-a-drivers came and it was all very entertaining squeezing into the back of one of the cars and stopping to let Shirley out somewhere. The rest of us went back to Pt Chev and KateH’s to watch Dawson’s Creek. Yay Dawson’s retroness! Justin passed out in the bed I was supposed to sleep in, and KateM went home at some time, so it must have just been me and Maree and KateH watching. The next morning I was supposed to go to brunch with Martina and Heather but I was too hungover so I stayed napping in KateH’s lounge and watching more episodes. Season Two is totally where it’s at, since that’s when they got all self-referential-ironic and actually had a sense of humour that they later lost. I’m suprised by how hot Pacey isn’t though. I’m sure he used to make me swoon. Then again, so did Eddie Furlong – and various real life people who now I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. Ahh growing up is funny. So is revisiting your not-so-grownupness .

1. Throw up. Okay, it’s been a while and he was a lot bigger than I was used to anyways.

That’s the whole list. Cheers.

Last night I went to the nzgirl.co.nz party with KateH and KateB – well, I went with KateH as KateB’s date, but they didn’t check invites at the door anyways, which is a good thing because it meant that we could smuggle in La (“hey La, do you want to come to a posh party with free booze?”). It was so very mwah mwah darling. Gay Horrible Jonny was there serving drinks and he was like “hi, mwah, I haven’t seen you in ages” and I was like “oh maybe that’s cos you moved out without giving any notice…” and he was like “this is a party, we’re not going to talk about thsi now”. I wanted to punch him in the face very very much. He could have just poured me another drink and not said anything. I don’t get how people who have burnt their bridges in two cities by making off with half of everyone that they’ve stayed with’s cd collections can not know that oh gee, maybe people aren’t very happy about it. La was like “let it go…” but the thing is that Jonny and I weren’t on bad terms to the best of my knowledge when he moved out, which is what makes it worse. Anyways.

I had about eight glasses of bubbly before that ran out and then I had to switch to beer and god knows how many of those I had. A lot. Right now I am at the lovely KateH’s house but at some stage I will have to go and find my skirt at the boy’s house which I don’t especially want to do. Fuck I hate lecherous taxi drivers. Like, if people are macking it in the back of your cab, sure, watch, but DON’T COMMENT. Fuuuuuuucking hell.

I am in Hamilton. If I wasn’t (or technicality afterwards) at Chelsea’s wedding after-party, I’d be all pretending it was Fiji Baby, but since I am, I’m all about the dude, fake fur (it was fake right?) white fur coat with a wedding dress is like SO HOT RIGHT NOW without even the SHRN irony but also just REAL COOL and I know when you played ‘Mandy’ it was Angel Irony yeah? Yeah!

Anywauyus, so like, I am in hammy. Specifically righty now i am at a motel right by the airport polishing off the minibar. The best surface to dance on is the soft rug of Richard’s parents’ place and if his dad hadn’t been so nice I would wantm to mug him and steal his blazer. Assming like, you know, that it would fit me, which it wouldn’t, so he is safe.

Let’s get married? And it’s not even for the appliances. It’s for the love (like ,the reception love, rather tha n the “we will spend the rest of our lives together love”).

It amuses me that after Heather-who-must-be-obeyedtold people she was going to give them Xmas Cards if they signed up and I had to up the ante, three more people signed up. You have until the end of the day to become a Hubrette if you want to be in on Xmas Goodness, and then that’s my cut-off point. Of course you can still become a Hubrette after that, but Santa might not be so generous.

Tonight I am going to my parents’ house for a Thanksgiving Feast and to see a Hot Dutch Boy. Well, I only imagine he’s hot because he’s Dutch and as we know, all Dutch boys are hot, like boys from Canadia eh. He’s the son of my parents’ friends, and when we lived in Germany we used to stay with them a lot. When Mum asked me if I wanted to show him and his pregnant girlfriend around town, I was like “umm what would I talk to them about?” and she was all like “Well, you guys always used to play Playmobil together” and I was like “hmm, well I suppose 20 years on, I could bust out my stuff – except that he had much cooler stuff like the Western Town.” Now I am full of Playmobil nostalgia. The website’s pretty good, although Playmobil has changed since my day. They still have the ghost though, and the Victorian House sets which were the last kind that I bought, although they’re more fancy now. And I had the Indian Camp which came in handy when I built lego forts for my Pioneering Playmobil to defend. Shame that the Indians won so often and all the women got raped really. You know that junk(ish) store on Lower Cuba St that has a giant Playmobil boy in its window? If you were to accquire that for me, I would love you for all eternity.

Okay anyways, I must try to put that site aside for now. But I WANT IT ALL okay? Cool. One day I will be a wealthy hipster with a basement rec room and I will assemble all my playmobil goodness on a huge big table and have a funny hat to wear whilst doing so, like a model train enthusiast. And then oh how laid I will get. I do believe that my point was that after tonight I will be taking Momma’s car, and tomorrow I will be driving up to the Auck, so if you would like to see me, you know what to do – 0212127920. Rock’n roll.

The Civil Unions Bill gets its second reading on Thursday. If you support it, please take a minute out of your day to email your MP and tell them that. If you have a spare five minutes, why not target some of the MPs who are wavering. No Right Turn has a good list (look for the “Uncrossing Our Fingers” title. This is the letter I sent out (with obvious name/party changes as applicable) which I found on www.civilunions.org.nz and adapted a little:
Subject: Please Support the Civil Unions Bill
Dear John,

I would like to express my support for the Civil Union Bill.

A considerable number of people, including people who voted for Labour, and the people of your electorate, are denied access to the institution of marriage because of their sexuality.

The Civil Union Bill offers more options to the New Zealand public, including gay couples, who want to have their relationships legally recognised and enjoy equal rights as promised under the Human Rights Act 1993.

When MPs supported that Act, including no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, family status or marital status, they began a process which was certain to end with debate on these matters.

The Bill is a modern way of dealing with tangible issues around recognition of relationships, giving legal status and self-respect to those couples, both gay and heterosexual, who choose it.

I know that I ? and everyone that I know – will only be voting next year for a party that supports human rights.

Yours sincerely,

Joanna McLeod

If you are feeling especially lazy, you can use the mass voting machine but be sure to make your letter fairly generic and make sure to fill out your address and everything so that they’ll pay attention.

A list that might help you feel better about coming in to work on the Monday morning….