Phew. It’s finally up save for the about page, which is rather screwed as you can see when you click on it if you so please. I’m working on asking my friends to describe me for me OK, super tired, gonna buka puasa in 3 hours so I’m gonna go down and help Boy’s mom cook. I decided to puasa for one day.. hehe.

First let’s hit the bars! I lack decent pictures but these will have to do. Wasn’t gonna risk losing my camera on the piss!

The Flying Burrito Brothers
Corner Vivian and Cuba Streets

Home of excellent Mexican food, seriously good cocktails and my two favourite bartenders in the city. This place has the most complete collection of tequilas in New Zealand! The interior is very warm and inviting and the bar is pretty classy. I had a couple of very memorable nights here!

The Jet Bar
36 Courtenay Place

Their Finlandia vodka infusions rate 8/10 on my scale, cocktails are reasonably cheap, interior is very minimal and the bar area downstairs is good for privacy. They even have seperate pool rooms (I trashed Garret on their tables!) and a nice new lounge area with it’s own bar. Comes complete with yuppies even during the day.

Cell Bar
25-29 Taranaki Street

Not my kind of place, very dark and standard drink menu. I was there for all of five minutes. Usually features live jazz, music is better than the bar for sure.

Matterhorn
106 Cuba Street

One of the more arty hangouts, never tried the food there but the bartenders are pretty capable. There’s a courtyard at the back which is nice on cool nights. The tiny strip of bar can get pretty cramped on busy nights, but they don’t have enough space to cater for the mad crowds especially on weekends. Matterhorn’s been around for ages, and looks like it will be for a long time more.

The Jazz Club
Cuba Street

Newly reopened in time for the Jazz Fest. The event nights are always packed and I never seem to be able to get a ticket. Interior isn’t very appealing but the place serves its purpose of showcasing the coolest jazz acts very well. It’s not really a bar and definately will not be a staple watering hole.

Courtenay Quarter

Picture is quite bad, a bit of a last minute ditch attempt at getting a picture. This is the party district I stayed in. Among the better places are The Grand, Jet Bar, Amba, Kitty O’Sheas, Blow, Coyote, Happy, Humingbird and Paradiso. There’s an Asian club called Rain here as well, very nice silver interior with red lights.. I didn’t go in. Also the Wellington Sports Cafe, but it’s not really worth your time.

Cuba Street
Cuba Street and surrounding area

Matterhorn, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Volve are a few good places that can be found here. Watkin’s Bar, Indigo, Hotel Bristol, Good Luck Bar and Bar Bodega are also pretty good places and all in close proximity.

Bar Bodega
101 Ghuznee Street

I went there on Tuesday night for $2.50 bubbly. This place usually gets packed about 11pm and expect to see people stumbling out drunk after midnight. Interior is very standard Kiwi bar, wood floors and fixtures, music varies alot but they were playing 80’s stuff when I was there. Good place to pick up Uni chicks and semi-gay men.

StudioNine
9 Edward Street

Just celebrated it’s 5th Anni last weekend, S9 is the closest thing to Kuala Lumpur’s Atmosphere, except it has better lighting and interiors and a very regular crowd. Home to all the big names who spin in Wellington. Has 3 sections, Sub, Studio and Ninebar - chill out, dancefloor and bar respectively. It’s a must visit for anyone who goes to Wellington for a visit.

Amba
21 Blair Street

Another arty place not unlike the Matterhorn, features live bands and jazz weekends. Bar’s well stocked and it’s open during the day as well. They also serve excellent coffee and we’ve noticed that all the bartenders who work in Amba are drop dead gorgeous.

Sandwiches
8 Kent Terrace

Quite a new place. I haven’t been there but it came very highly recommended. Hosts the Wellington Jazz Massive (which I went to see at the Jet Bar) and features live comedy and a wide range of other music depending on which day you go.

Here are some pictures of my nights out when I had the camera around, some friends and some people I met recently.

Friday night
At Kumera and The Flying Burrito Brothers. I had 20 different drinks that night, ranging from tequila shots to badass cocktails, beer, wine and vodka shots. No wonder I was pissed! I’m very lucky I didn’t wake up with a bad hangover, it was gone the minute I stepped into the showers and I went to the Gallery the next day!

Me, Sheena and Bridget at the Big Kumera going for the cheap $3 drinks.

Me and Sheena at Burrito.

Me and Ian

Me and Mark (Sheena’s housemate)

Me and Andy!

Tuesday Night
At Bar Bodega with a mad bunch of people. Turned out to be a great night because my friends were there, the people I met from the place I was staying were there, Andy and his boys were there.. Bodega isn’t the nicest of places to party but like I always say, it’s the company!

Rachel and Ruth

Kalinda and her friend

Me, Sheena and Sabrina

Me and Andy!

Me and Mark

Me and Sheena

Me and Sabrina

Me and Sheena doing the pinky thing with the champagne!

Me, Andy and a bunch of his mates!

Me, Kalinda and Rachel

Me, Sheena and Mark (her boyfriend.. it gets confusing as her housemate’s also Mark)

Me, Sheena and Rachel

Randoms

Part of the Wellington Waterfront and Te Papa Museum

Wim Wender’s exhibition at the City Gallery

Shopping on Lambton Quay and talking to Nik!

Exterior of Artikel on Wakefield Street

Artikel loves more! Whee! Ian (yet another totally gorgeous bartender) told me why the Lindauers were going for $2.50 and last night me and my friends had so many we really didn’t care. I’m surprised I even remember!

I can be such a lesbian bitch sometimes. Haha.

Back to Wangas at 3:30pm, will post more then.. I miss my laptop!

Small Acorns on Willis Street, Wellington now stocks my jewelry.. and it’s going to be displayed right next to DYRBERG/KERN! I’m crossing my fingers Artikel will take the rest tomorrow.. if they do, I’ll be all sold out and this trip wouldn’t have been a waste. Those damned Lindauers are looking better by the minute!

I’m having a pretty bad day. So is Tiff, last I heard. I’m finally feeling disheartened after a week of trying to sell my stuff. Sure, I sold some, just not the volume I expected to. I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy but dammit, November seems to be a bad month. They all want me to come back in December for Christmas, but I won’t be here. The ones who are interested are only doing sale or return and it’s something I refuse to do. I’m at a cafe now because I’ve finally given up on getting a proper connection on the free internet computers at my place. After today I’ll know if Wellington was a mistake. It probably is. Two more appointments and I’m packing up, bus leaves at 3:30 pm tomorrow avo. At least those Lindauer’s are a sure thing!

Contrary to popular belief, I have been doing other things besides drinking. On Satuday I went to the City Gallery to see Wim Wenders photographs from the surface of the earth exhibition, and this one room featured 4m tall/wide photos from the Sept 11 aftermath. I sat in there for about 30 minutes just staring at the 5 photos and feeling very moved. I attended a bunch of Jazz parties, had a good perve at gay models at a fashion show in the city, walked to Thorndon to check out Helen Clark’s (prime minister of NZ) residence, shopped half the city and dined the rest, and am halfway through this ‘Wellington’ night scene review I was planning to write up here. I need to get more pictures but I usually don’t bring my cam out at night cuz I’m afraid to lose it!

I didn’t do many touristy things though, because I’ve been here so many times and Wellington isn’t all that big. I’ve covered most of what’s on the tourist map with Garret and my other friends as well. There are some older pictures in Zone Three if you’re keen to check them out.

I crashed the whole day today, it’s actually a public holiday being Labour Weekend, which is why everyone was out on Sunday night. Sometime in the afternoon I had the worst headache, so I took some paracetamol and crashed. Sigh.

Been having one too many hard nights out - I’m staying in the middle of Courtenay Place, which pretty much the main party district in Wellington. I did stay in on Saturday night, opting for much-needed sleep and possibly still recovering from the night before but Sunday was a little mad. I went for the Jazz Brunch thing at the Wellington Waterfront, then met up with Sheena, Vic and Mark at Amba for the Jazz Street Party thingie and I had my first sip of alcohol of the day in the form of a Bellini. We went to play some pool at Ball Room and watched 28 Days Later, a movie I knew absolutely nothing about, which was good because I like surprises, and was bad because it freaked me out and I was paranoid running all the way back to the Hostel and ringing Nik up to freak out some more.

I thought I was gonna have a quiet night in but I met some people at the common area and between the 6 of us, we finished off 5 dozen bottles of Tuis playing this drinking game called sociables.. this one round I picked a ‘I never..’ card and I have to say something I’ve never done, and whoever’s done it has to drink. My ‘I never..’ was ‘I never had anal sex before’ and EVERYONE drank - am I missing something here? God that round was so funny. After that we headed to Amba for more dancing and two Bellini’s later we went to Jet, and had passionfruit vodka shots. I pretty much staggered back and I remember going upstairs and hanging out somemore and falling off my chair. My bum hurts.

I made drunk phone calls to Nik which was very funny because I was talking nineteen to the dozen for 40 minutes and kept repeating myself. I’m glad he doesn’t have a record function on this phone. Mark used to record me saying crap when I’m pissed and then give me shit about it.

Tuesday nights at Bar Bodega - $2.50 glasses of Lindauer - I must say I am looking forward to it.

Last night in under 1000 words - total madness!

I went to Andy’s bar and he made me one of his old signature cocktails called the ‘Enlightenment’ and then I went over to Sheena’s place. It was so good seeing her again. We were not very close back in high school but yesterday we just clicked. Her friends and housemates are mad. We hung out drinking white wine until after the rugby finished then we went to the Kumara for $3 drinks. From there we went over to Andy’s bar again and I bought a round of tequilas, had a zillion cocktails and ended up too drunk/tired to move.. went to two more bars at least and had more drinks at the end of the night I just walked home and crashed. I didn’t even manage to take my makeup off and woke up looking like a skunk (I was drunk as one last night!)

And I thought I was just gonna have a couple of quiet ones.. *shrug* Am going shopping with the girls later.. if they’re up!

I had a strange encounter with the taxi guy yesterday when I took one from the Railway Station to my hotel - he thought I was an actress from Home and Away.. I’m pretty sure it’s a case of mistaken identity (didn’t know there were any asians on that show, not that I even watch it) until Connor, the cute Irish receptionist who checked me in said pretty much the same thing - he’s seen me on TV before. I have no idea who I look like on screen, but it’s flattering nonetheless.

I lazed around yesterday and got myself organized for today. This place has free internet, which is where I am now but the machines are so slow It will do though. Connor hooked me up with a printout of the package and I went to my first jazz gig at the Jet Bar featuring Sheba Williams and the Wellington Jazz Massive. It was good, I am not used to going out all alone, but I enjoyed the music. Sheba has a strong voice but just doesn’t have that depth to sing jazz. I got chatted up (being sadly, the only single girl there) by a guy and we spoke about jazz for about 5 minutes (my knowledge on this subject is sadly lacking) and we didn’t exchange names. I excused myself and went home after that. Prior to Jet Bar, I went to look for Andy at his bar. He wasn’t working but he was there. Let’s just say this low carb diet thing I’m on.. it doesn’t allow for alot of drinking. A shot of tequila and one of Andy’s brilliant concoctions and I’m already feeling it Good thing I’m not going on the piss with them!

This morning I woke up very early and made alot of phone calls to everyone on my hit list.. then I went to do my rounds. Out of the 20 shops/galleries/design stores I approached, 2 of them were interested. The other places (Avid, Tamarillo, Askew etc) don’t sell jewelry like mine.. I wonder why Jo suggested them, guess it doesn’t hurt to try But they were really helpful, all of them loved my jewelry and that led on to more contacts. I started out with 6 people on my list to see and ended up going to 20 places.

The Vault and Artikel were both interested.. we’ll see how that goes. Artikel is a very cool design store (I wanted to buy half the stuff in there!) and I don’t mind a place like that stocking my stuff, although they do want exclusivity! As for the Vault, the buyer is based in Auckland and I have to send her some pictures and samples. The manager really likes it, which is great news.. and if they’re interested, I have to supply them for three of their stores in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Crossing my fingers!

I took a break after all that walking.. I practically walked the whole CBD area twice and back and went for a haircut at Rodney Wayne on Cuba. My hair is now just slightly longer than shoulder length. The lengths are quite badly damaged because I had it bleached and straightened and permed (not all at once) and my hair was splitting and breaking so I just gave up and gave it the chop. I was rather dissapointed with the blow dry though, I think they’re not used to dealing with my kind of hair because they used some Kerastase Elasto-Curl and dried it in sections. I ended up looking like I was dragged through the bush backwards, so I made a huge fuss and they rewashed and restyled it. This time I made sure they used some mousse and dried it with a diffuser. It still wasn’t as good as what I do myself but I was tired and wanted to sleep so I went back. Rodney Wayne? Pfft! I’d give it 6/10 for cut and 3/10 for styling.

I went back and crashed after I ate some salmon sashimi. Nik called me from Singapore (he’s there for Juice’s 5th Anni this weekend) and I hardly remember what I said to him. I woke up about 8:30pm and went to watch Kill Bill at Courtenay Plaza.. Classic Tarantino - camera angles were amazing and the soundtrack is very typical but very good, there was even a Jap style cartoon bit but I the endless spurts of blood made my hair stand. Revenge is indeed a dish best served cold!

Tomorrow, Andy’s bar again before checking out StudioNine’s 5th Anni (hey it’s Juice’s 5th Anni too!) with Sheena if I manage to meet up with her. There’s a street party just outside where I’m staying (Courtenay Quarter) on Saturday which starts at noon till night in conjunction with the Jazz Fest and I’m keen to check that out too.

Ooh, the Sass & Bide East Village jeans are selling here for NZ$220 - should’ve bought it in Brisbane. I can’t afford it! It costs more than what I’m paying for a week’s accomodation here! Oh well.

I’m pretty much done with what I came to do, so I’m probably gonna do the whole gallery-museum thing. I found some quirky jewelry galleries today which was very inspiring. I don’t know what I’m gonna do for the rest of the week. It’s no fun travelling alone.. it’s not a problem finding people to hang out with but I’m antisocial that way. Blah.

I haven’t taken a single picture, but tomorrow I will.

Had a very very productive day today - managed to get all my things done before my trip to Wellington tomorrow AND I sold my desktop for NZ$600.. what a deal I think I paid about the same amount for it 3 years ago. Been busy packing and repacking and basically running around like a headless chicken most of the day. I’ve decided to leave my laptop behind, since I’m not gonna be staying at a hotel. Don’t want to risk it getting stolen.. I will however be bringing my PDA and hopefully that will be sufficient.. Otherwise I’ll just have to brave the stench at the countless geek dens cum internet/gaming cafes in the city.. not that I’m not a geek myself!

Wish me luck, I’m on one huge mission!