Ben won New Zealand idol, for all of you who were not following. I haven't been since I left Auckland, but Michael was my fave from the beginning.

NZ Idol was absolutely huge. Pretty much everyone knew someone on it somehow. It would be comparable to Maritime Idol where we would all have tried to figure out everyone's background, who their father is and where their mother works. And whether we were too closely related to date.

No, national glitzed up karaoke competitions are not the reason I haven't written in a few days, although I feel that it can be described in song... Kim Mitchell's "I am a Wild Party".

No, again I lie, but I did have a fun and busy few days. Thursday night the Sellar/MacEwan crowd was in town for some local brew and pizza. Friday, there was somewhat of a gathering among long termers at the hostel (there's about 10 of us now it seems). Saturday I enjoyed a low key day and then an evening with Kathy & Pete and their adorable kids Jenna & Kyle (west coast Canucks who took a family a working holiday down here) where they graciously invited me for a lovely roast dinner (I must look malnourished in an Ethiopian sort of way) and then a few more drinks with Foley crowd. Sunday Rob Kemp came in town and we wandered the city, but seeing as it was a chilly night, were forced to warm up at an Irish pub and enjoy a few pints of cider (Canadians are deprived of this absolute pleasure). Last night Rob & I again went for a nice dinner and chat but wisely chose to head back to the hostel before the pubs welcomed us back in...we decided instead to sit outside and stayed up even later!

All in all, it's been a really fun bunch of days but after about 5 5-hour nights in a row, I'm about to drop! And seeing as it's 9:31pm now, it looks like I didn't make my 9pm bedtime. crap.

My wonderful brown-nosing brother was talking about homesickness (sissy). It's a conversation that comes up fairly often with fellow travelers and it's a hard one to answer. Being able to keep in touch with everyone (especially this time) really makes things easy. Of course I miss home in some ways, but I don't long to be there. If I did, I would lose out on the experience of being here and enjoying this moment. I do appreciate home (family, friends, town, familiarity) much more every time I return. And Mom only has room for only homebody (ya mamma's boy).

Rob and I chatted though about how nice it is, after weeks of meeting people on a short term basis, to first of all, stay in one place long enough to get to know others beyond the basic traveler conversations, and, even better, how nice it was to see each other--we've been friends through university and know each other fairly well--and have a real conversation about anything and everything, filtrated with personal jokes and one liners that few other people would understand. Obviously, no matter how well you get to know people when traveling, the friendship still doesn't have that history. Need friends of all sorts. Also realized that most people you meet and develop relationships with in life are due to circumstance - neighbourhood, work, school - and you usually come from somewhat similar backgrounds but bring each other different interests and passions. When traveling, the people I meet are from all different backgrounds but we've been brought together by our passion.

Anyway, funny enough, everyone agrees that it's pets you miss the most. People you can talk to and maintain your relationship, pets you just abandon. Although the way Miss Molly is being raised, that's a good thing. Mom finally appreciates having such perfect children now that her 'youngest' is failing out of obedience class. Maybe now she'll raise our allowance?

Speaking of appreciating what you don't have, being back at a busy job is sooooooooooooooooo nice. It's not overly challenging, but it is busy and there's a learning curve involved. I was wrong the last time I talked about the company though - they don't make the doors, they "pre-hang" them (put them in the door frame). They also cut the holes for glass (called open tops, putting the glass in is called glazing), and make wardrobe sliders (one door slides in front of the other) and cavity sliders (the doors slide into the wall). That's right, I can talk the talk.