Friday, December 28, 2007

Kiwiana Kristmas

Jandals. Barefeet. Shorts n singlets. Barbeques. Cold beers. Fish 'n chips. That twang in the accent. Sketti on toast. Pies. Barefeet. L&P (World Famous in New Zealand). Tattoos proudly on display "bro". Most adjectives punctuated with "az". Pohutukawa. The salt air. The burning sun. The laid back attitude. Christmas crackers...

The list could go on and on. It was great to be back home for the holidays. Have a barbie, swim in the Pacific, get annoyed by seagulls while eating fish 'n chips at the beach, enjoy a mince 'n cheese pie or two...

Simple pleasures are always appreciated that much more after a long abscence.
Kiwiana, you just gotta love it!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Driving Lessons

Whenever you are in a foreign country it always seems to be that at some point in time you have to brave the local buses. The experiences are always different, always warrant a smile and generally always leave you grateful that you don't have to do it on a regular basis.
Take the Mexican bus driver for example. Usually too busy talking to his mate perched on the side of his seat or that front part of the bus, to really give a damn if you have actually boarded the bus or not before he takes off. If he's not in the middle of a chin-wag or chatting up his missus he's racing against his fellow drivers for bonuses. Don't ask me how this works but apparently if they do their run quickly it's a good thing, safety... hmmm... what's that again?
The opposite of the manaical demon-driven driver is the driver that wants lots of dough. This particular breed will park in the middle of the road waiting for passengers, and they will wait and wait and wait...
Both breeds of driver appear to have gone to the same driving school or learnt the same method of driving- there is no clutch. This is the truth that runs through the bus driving community.
A clutch does not exist, the gear box is an alleged apparatus in the general vicinity of the front of the vehicle, passengers had better get a move on or get left behind, money ruleth the run and all this is sanctioned by Jesus.
Yes Jesus. The young lad in all his pitiful suffering poses is in all buses, sometimes accompanied by the "driver's prayer". Yep. The driver's prayer. There's a prayer for everything and everyone in this country. Quite phenomenal.
Feel sorry for ol' JC though. The poor bugger now also has crazy Mexican bus drivers to account for. Must be tough being the messiah.