Biding time: Day six

The best thing about today was the awesome dinner at GPK with Anna. Yum!

The worst thing about today was the super-full feeling after the awesome dinner.

I like the weekends. Even when I'm not working they're super-awesome.

Biding time: Day five

The best thing about today was sleeping in past 9am - hooray for the weekend!

The worst thing about today was the crappy kebab I had for dinner.

There is currently a foot right beside my head. It's a little distracting.

Biding time: Day four

A lazy one today.

I've managed to check my PO Box - which is something I haven't done in a week or so. I used to do it every day because it was directly opposite work, now I'm starting to wonder if it's actually necessary. Might be time to finally give it up!

I also managed to clean out the storage cupboard and the garage. I got sick of my clothes getting covered in sand and fluff - it really is about time that place got a sweep. Done now though which only leaves the windows, the vacuuming and the fridge left to attack in my storm of cleaning the flat, but I've decided they can wait until next week.

Other than that I've watched a few episodes of Man Men and have officially caught up on my RSS feed. There's still two weeks to go and I'm running out of things to do - any ideas gratefully accepted!!

Biding time: Day three

Another day managing to get up by 9am. To be honest I thought that would be the hardest thing about this whole holiday but it's proving fairly easy which is nice.

I cleaned, put things away, did some ironing... It's mostly been a very relaxed day. But then Cate called to ask if I'd like to take part in a TV3 interview about Chatroulette.

Now, anyone who's used Chatroulette will know it goes mostly like this...

Dick

Dick

Vag

Group of people drinking

Dick

Teddybear

Dick

Dick

Sign of a guy looking for tits/vag

Vag

Dick

Teenager

Vag

Tits

Group of people drinking

Dick...

...and so it goes on. That's exactly what I was being interviewed about - my experience and what I came across when I logged onto the site.

From my previous experience with these things, most of what I said will probably end up on the cutting room floor - if I make it into the story at all - but hey, if you have 3 weeks of nothing, you may as well fill it with every interesting opportunities that turn up - and a news appearance definitely falls into that category!

Biding time: Day two

Ah, today getting out of bed was hard. Short of the motivation to avoid becoming a bum, it's hard to get out of bed without a job to rush off to. Nevertheless it was still a 9am wake up - it just took me a little longer to get moving today.

Once I was moving however it was onto more of those little jobs I've been needing to take care of and then I found myself wondering what on Earth I was going to do to occupy my afternoon.

So I got in touch with Cate. For some reason, going to MOTAT sounded like a good plan so that's where we headed.

Now, I haven't been to MOTAT since my third form trip in 1996, so it's been a while, but I can kind of see why - that place is in rather desperate need of an overhaul. It's pretty clear that some money needs to be invested - there was no consistency, exhibits seemed over crowded with stuff and information and it looked like things had just been added to the walls over the years, rather than some thought put into the whole process.

It didn't really feel like there was any flow to the layout either. Perhaps if we were on a tour we'd find it more enjoyable - it was certainly cool to see old police cars and see the evolution of communication - not to mention getting lost in the mirror maze - but overall the place just reeked of under investment.

Overall, fun, but I probably won't be going back for another 14 years...

After MOTAT, we were desperate for a nice cold drink (the tea rooms at MOTAT had closed...) and I had the idea to head out to The Falls - being in West Auckland, I figured it was a bit of a golden opportunity - so after a quick stop at Cate's, that's where we went for chunky fries, glasses of happiness and a chat with Alan, the owner of the restaurant.

It was a really nice way to spend an afternoon. I think I'm going to have to think of some more interesting places to go though - housework is only going to last for so long!!

Biding time: Day one

Sleeping in is not something I'm really planning to do on my three week break. While it would be really nice to slip into my natural sleep pattern of going to bed at 2-3 and sleeping til 11-12, it's not going to be all that conducive to work when I do have to go back, so even on my 3 week break I'm getting up at 9 - which, granted, is later than usual, but I don't think it's too bad.

Today I woke up pretty early. Earlier than I would have if I had work. I had had a mosquito in my room and the little bugger had bitten me all over and I'd been scratching in my sleep, eventually just waking up full stop.

I watched Sunrise for a while, then decided that I needed to start moving and getting on with things - starting with cleaning the house.

There have been heaps of little things that have been irritating me for a while and one thing I've been looking forward to is sorting all those things out. Today I started with the kitchen and the bathroom - both of which are now sparkling.

I am supposed to go to a BBQ tonight but I don't think that's really going to happen, you see I'm now quite aware of just how limited my funds are, and when I'm likely to get any more - and how much that's likely to be.

The fact is, it's going to be a lean couple of months and the BBQ is BYO and in Avondale, which means buying food and wine, plus taking a bus there and a cab back. Some quick maths tells me this BBQ is going to cost me at least $40, which is OK if I have a job, but when I don't...

Let's just say I'm quickly being made aware of where all my money goes.

So instead I hung out at home, had a nap, baked cookies, cleaned out the cupboards and (just to prove how much of a legend I really am) am now making a bacon and egg pie.

So far, my break from work, is rocking.

A bum no longer

I'm a big believer that the right things come to your life at the right time. Every major intersection in my life has been met with things going my way. Perhaps I'm just a lucky person, perhaps my lack of conventional ambition means that I'm more inclined to look at the opportunities that come my way rather than dismiss them.

Whatever, it remains that two hours into my first official day unemployed, I have a job.

A job that comes with a decent payrise over the last one AND a company car. Good excuse to finally get that restricted license under my belt.

I say I don't have conventional ambition because I really don't. To me, ambition is knowing where you want to end up and striving to constantly get that one more step toward your final goal. It's having a drive. It's knowing exactly why you get up each day and it's making sure that in nearly everything you do, you're heading in that direction.

Which isn't something I have. It's something I admire, but ultimately I don't have that stickability. I can't put the blinkers on and blindly strive toward a goal like that. Hell, if I'm totally honest, I can't even think of a goal which would get me that worked up.

In fact, my goal setting ability works nothing like that. It works like this: I have a set of things I would like to achieve in my life and I have a set of values or morals by which I live my life. I don't judge those around me and I take (or at least consider) every opportunity put to me.

I don't want to be a bum, and I want each step I take in life to move me forward - I'm just not moving in any particular direction.

It's led to some interesting experiences and has allowed me to keep my options very wide. In looking for a new job, I had many areas into which I could cast my net. I went wide and far. I looked at every interesting thing I could and, as usual, it paid off.

I live my life with an ethos of acceptance. If I get rejected from a job I shrug my shoulders and move to the next one - it neither offends me or gets me down. Even while I was at my most scared and stressed out, no rejection I received was viewed as a personal insult. I have complete faith that things will always work out for the best (even if it does terrify me from time to time) - whether you call that luck, a fairy godmother or God, that's up to you - I call it the life I am lucky enough to have been blessed with.

So, now I have three weeks up my sleeve with which to tackle the bits and pieces I've been putting off for a while and also to just do the simple things like have coffee in the park or see a movie during the day.

And of course, I'll be blogging it all, so you'll get to live my three weeks as a quasi-unemployed bum with me.

Still unemployed

The best thing about today is that I didn't have to go to the Mobil, but I still got delivered Kapiti Icecream, Coke Zero and Mallowpuffs.

The worst thing about today is that my zero key is all sticky and needs to be pressed really hard to work. Yes, that's the worst thing. Today's been pretty excellent.

My new flatmate Caine went and picked up our dinner last night. He's a good flatmate, we like him. He can stay. (He also pays rent. Bonus.)

Best and worst: the unemployed edition

The best thing about today was the 3 hour nap I had this afternoon.

The worst thing about today was being bugged to get the most insane configuration of liquids (real Coke, blue Powerade, carbonated water and V) first thing this morning.

Today is my first day of unemployment. With luck, this stint will be nice and short but enjoyable.

I don't care that you bought a cow on Farmville, you freak

OK, so I'm just going to assume everyone in the world uses Facebook. Much like Google, it's just taken over the world.

I'm also going to assume that everyone has someone they once went to primary school/a conference/camp when they were 17 with who like to play Farmville/Fishville/Mafia Wars/Bejewelled (my personal favourite) or whatever.

Firstly, can I just say, if you are one of those people, don't spam your wall with that crap. I don't care that you play it - it's your life you're spending harvesting imaginary crops for imaginary profit to expand your imaginary farm - but I don't care what your farm/restaurant/aquarium/pet shop/whore house looks like (actually, I might care about the last one, sounds like a fun game, does Whoreville/Prostitute City exist yet?) We're on Facebook to catch up with those people we like, to see status updates and photos and get invited to cool events we never would have known about previously. We just do not care about your lost sheep, sorry.

The good news is, if you're like me and you hate that crap, you can get rid of it!

I've gone through my feed and below is a nice step-by-step of how to remove those annoying applications you hate. When you hide something, you hide it forever. You can undo it later via Preferences but really? Why would you want to?

So here is one application I haven't yet hidden from my news feed. Something about Crazies. I don't need to know much to know I don't care, so what do I do?

Hover your mouse over the awful application. You see that 'Hide' button that just appeared? Yeah, click it.

Now, I know you're probably thinking you'd like to hide your friend for spamming you, and you can if you'd really like to - he/she will never know - but do that after you've done this - click that Hide [Stupid Application Name] - this means that all those other friends buying milkshakes in imaginary restaurants or losing pigs or hoolahooping with Tallulah in Hawaii won't spam you either. In fact, you'll never see anything from that application again.

Instead you can become a fan of not being on fire, like that photo of your friend dancing on a table at a skeezy club on Saturday or comment to your heart's content about a friend's new job or baby.

Ah Facebook, how were we ever irrelevant and inane without you?

Gin Wigmore at The Bruce Mason Center

Last night Cate and I went to see Gin Wigmore at the Bruce Mason Center.

All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't pay for my ticket, because otherwise I'd be asking for my money back.

I often start these whiny posts by stating clearly that the artist was not at fault, and once again I find myself in that position.

Gin herself was beautiful, funny, engaging and a total pro. Her performance was spot on and she was accompanied by an awesome band.

It's just a shame that either the sound tech was totally retarded or the venue was so bad that we couldn't really hear much but gurgled noise.

The problem with Gin is that she has a voice which demands a very talented sound tech. I like Gin, and I like her sound, but the top notes need to be more understated and the bottoms need to be boosted - and that does not mean turning the sound up to full bore.

I really wish I could say I had enjoyed that concert more. I wish I didn't feel so bad about it, because I kinda feel like I'm complaining a lot about gigs at the moment when - in actual fact - I just have standards when it comes to shows - I don't even feel like they're that high. I just want to be able to hear the music and the lyrics, and not feel like my ears are going to bleed due to massive volume, which was only amplified when Gin really let lose (something she should be able to do - as I said, the woman is amazing).

Forgetting about the sound for a minute, Gin's little interlude making fun of Air New Zealand's use of her song Under My Skin was a crack up. She insisted that if the plane is going down, we're all fucked, so why are we playing such a happy wee song? Bless her, she's right.

Overall, I would see Gin again, but I have serious doubts about seeing another concert at the Bruce Mason Center... which sucks, because Vampire Weekend are playing there in April and I'd love to see them too.

Why not play at The Powerstation people? It's a million times better (and bonus, it doesn't require a trip over the Harbour Bridge).

Chairman of the Bored

It's getting close to my last day at my current job and it really cannot come soon enough for me.

In my 18 months here I've learned a system inside out and I'm effectively the first stop - for staff, contractors and clients alike - for support. If I don't know it, chances are it's a technical issue. I've written manuals which people don't read, I've come up with innovative ways of getting concepts through to people, I've run training sessions, done presentations....

But I'm pretty much at the end of my rope. There are opportunities ahead of me which allow me to learn, to grow and to move forward. There are things ahead of me that I am genuinely excited about and right now, I feel like a bird that wants to fly free whose wings are totally clipped.

Because I like to learn, I like to constantly find things out and apply new knowledge. Repeatedly giving the same knowledge to the same people just isn't my thing. It's boring, it's annoying and it leaves me with absolutely zero job satisfaction.

Given how excited I am by the proposal I'm writing, and how desperately I want to sink my teeth into that project, and how utterly, totally, completely bored I am here... clearly I have made the right decision in leaving.

It's possible I am being stupid and selfish being unhappy at my job and wanting to move on but you know what? I am young, I have no dependents and (fairly) low debt. I have the cash to support myself for a while and at least 3 job prospects in the works.

I'd rather be happy than secure and bored.

Precious

Life is precious. Love is precious. Education and friends are precious. Family and having people to care for and encourage you are precious.

Tonight I went and saw the film Precious. It's hard to write about such a deep and affecting film without feeling like you're letting it down - nothing I can say can ever hope to reflect the deep and troubling dramas that Precious has experienced.

The thing about this film that really got to me was the absolute transformation Precious goes through. She starts as a girl - so fully aware of the world and all it's dark sides, yet so completely unaware of all the good things those of us who are luckier in our circumstances take for granted.

Like her mother. Her mother's self-obsession and apparent total loathing of Precious automatically puts the audience into the girl's corner. We can see that this girl has never heard a word of encouragement from anyone and that her life - and we want her to succeed. We want to see her rise above that.

Throughout the movie we see her encouraged to grow. She makes new friends and meets people who, like the audience, want her to win in life. She takes on the challenges and we see her time and time again rise from the ashes and keep going. By the end of the film she is a young woman and transforming - I can't say transformed because there is clearly so much more to her story than what we see in the two hours we are in our cinema seats for - into someone of worth, someone whose story we want to know and want to share with others.

Of course, everybody has their motivations, and one of the most heartbreaking moments for me was listening to Precious' mother explain why life had worked out the way it had for her daughter.

The movie is first of all heart breaking, but also inspiring and - what the critics might not tell you - funny.

I was engaged from the first moments of the film and not once did I wonder when it was going to end (Twitter has all but killed my attention span, so this in itself was an achievement).

Technically, the film was shot beautifully and it's rare you find a cast so well put together and, well... humble - just try to recognise Mariah Carey when she makes her appearance - the cast bow to the content and let the story do the work, they are merely the tools through which it flows. It's not often you find a film that lacks egos in the same way as this.

Beautiful, thought provoking and humbling.

Five Gopher Guys - go see this film.

The flatmate from hell

OK, so some off my readers have talked to me about this, and some may have read the tweets, but finally I have the time to record the story of my Flatmate From Hell (FMFH).

I've been flatting on and off for about 10 years now. Over that time I've lived with 25 different flatmates. Some I love dearly and am still very close to, some I love and still catch up with when I get the chance, some I can't even remember their names and a couple I will never forget, but really wish I could.

But this one, he took the cake.

When he answered our TradeMe ad he was great - nice, happy, funny (and those who have met him also say attractive, but I never subscribed to that idea)... he stood above the rest and was actually our favourite.

We offered him the place, explained how the finances worked, told him we'd like him to pay a bond and a couple of weeks' rent in advance, and let him know when he could move in.

The money went into the flat account, he moved in - it was dandy.

But, as it turns out, that was all the money he planned to pay.

Over Christmas we all got busy - he headed out of town for a few weeks, I went on holiday and our third flatmate was working pretty flat-tack. It took him a couple of weeks to realise the FMFH had neglected to pay any more rent. Thankfully, we had a bit of a buffer in the form of his bond and I pay my rent monthly, while the third flatmate pays weekly, so that went a long way to making the rent go through week to week.

But as we entered the New Year and normalcy began to return, we started to chase him up. At first his excuse was actually pretty believable - stupid, but believable. He told us that he'd accidentally been paying the money into his ex-flatmate's account and she'd spent it over the Summer period. To be fair I've had an old flatmate do that in the past and while it's a little bit stupid - it happens to the best of us.

So he said he'd sort it out and that the money would be in our account on Thursday when he got paid.

Thursday came and there was no money. We hit him up again. Apparently he'd put the cash into his girlfriend's account.

Honestly, how hard is it to use internet banking, right?

I gave him the account number again and just told him to get his girlfriend to put it straight into the account - no harm, no foul.

The next day however, no cash, no excuses.

By this time the flat bills were starting to come in - he owed internet, phone, tolls and power on top of the rent.

Thursday. It was going to be in the account on Thursday.

We decided we were going to get that in writing - and because of all the problems he apparently had with technology, we'd also demand it in cash. By this time he owed $1,000 and we were facing the probability of not making rent.

We rang the landlord and explained our situation. She decided it was time for a flat inspection, and also raised the possibility of getting the place managed (which, for the record, I'm not a fan of - I prefer to deal directly with the landlord).

Thursday came and we didn't see him. He was at a work dinner and would give us the cash tonight.

Friday came and he told us he'd deliver it the next morning.

Saturday arrived. We had the landlord around. I made it clear to her that with or without this payment, he was getting his marching orders - I'm taking on the lease and responsibility for the bills soon and I just couldn't handle having such a liability in my house.

That afternoon we gave him his notice - he had a week to get out of our house. In talking things out with the third flatmate, we also discovered we'd both been having food go missing on a regular basis. I knew the FMFH had been responsible for some of my food going missing (easy to put the blame on one person when the other isn't even in town) but the third flatmate had had mince, eggs, bread, rice and pasta all walk out of the cupboard. He originally thought it was me, but couldn't work out why I wasn't asking like I usually did.

On Sunday we got a text message saying he'd been at his parent's place in Napier trying to sort out his mess. To be honest we were relieved - even though I don't like to rely on my parents or ask them for help, it is good to know that when everything hits the fan, they'll be there for me. I'm lucky like that, I assumed he was too.

But Monday night we got what I can only assume was the truth - it's so completely stupid it has to be.

Apparently, he had had $800. He wanted to pay back the money but he was $200 short. So he did what every rational, normal person would do... he went to SkyCity and attempted to turn that $800 into $1,000. When that inevitably failed, he got drunk for the rest of the weekend.

Thankfully by this stage we had a document signed by him stating he owed the money, we'd smoothed things with the landlord and we'd arranged for a friend to take the room downstairs, so we escaped mostly unscathed, but it was still a bit of a sting to see him spending his money on things like alcohol and burgers without even making an attempt to pay us back.

We still owe the landlord a week's rent - and that is absolutely our priority in terms of moving forward - and both the third flatmate and myself are owed money for bills, which to be honest I've all but written off.

There were mistakes on both ends in terms of checking account balances and letting things drag on for so long but now we are faced with having to go through legal channels to get our money back, and to pay the landlord.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that the bills need to be paid and maybe I'm lucky in that the 24 other flatmates I've had - despite their pitfalls - have all had the one single most important quality in common, in that they made sure the rent was paid. We've all made mistakes, we've all gone with less because the money wouldn't stretch as far as we'd like it to, but this just takes the cake.

By late morning Sunday, we hadn't seen or heard from FMFH. I was reaching the end of my tether and had started to threaten to put his bed in the garage, dump his crap on top of it, wheel it all to the side of the road and change the locks. The third flatmate and a friend were both very keen to watch me do this - I have a lot of patience and compassion, but God help those on the end of my wrath when I have had enough. (Un)fortunately, he did collect his belongings, return the key and leave us.

But not without delivering us a very strong warning about the trust we put in those we live with.

It's just a big, gay day

I went to the Big Gay Out today. It was my first BGO and it was great fun.

I spent most of my time there handing out badges and promo material for Avenue Q, which is coming to Auckland in May. It was quite fun, I got to go out and talk to heaps of people from all walks of life - I even got to pin a badge on a drag queen - and for my efforts I've earned two tickets to the show.

Plus I got some awesome promo material.

All in all today has been a great Valentine's Day. I've totally enjoyed it.

The Lonesome Buckwhips

Last night I went and saw The Lonesome Buckwhips at The Classic.

They were great fun and really funny. They perform musical comedy and while some parts of their act need polishing, and bits just made me squirm, overall I had a great time.

The premise is we're watching a sibling band of three brothers and a sister who were all taught how to play music by their Uncle Fiddle.

Parts of the premise work really well but the incest jokes tended to grate a little to be honest, but overall it was funny - with songs like The Wahine was a Once Off and Santa, King of the Jews, it was pretty hard not to laugh a whole heap - and at $15 a ticket I'm hardly asking for my money back.

Totally worth seeing should you get the chance.

The Lonesome Buckwhips on MySpace

The Lonesome Buckwhips official site

Titles. Blah.

The best thing about today is that it's Friday, so tonight I'm going to fully relax, and tomorrow I can sleep in before attacking my giant proposal (which is mostly written but needs proofing and formatting).

The worst thing about today is that I'm very wound up. There are still flatmate dramas (one day I will get around to blogging our ridiculous flatmate situation - perhaps tomorrow when he moves out and the story is pretty much complete), I've got a proposal to do and at work I'm being asked so many questions every second of the day. It's not just my replacement, it's everyone. I leave in one week and there is still so much to get through to people. It only adds stress because it adds to the documentation I clearly need to finish before I leave.

I can't think of a statement. Thankfully, in itself, this is a statement.

Over. It.

Argh. Between work, my extra project, my social life and Lost, I totally missed yesterday's blog.

Ah well, moving on.

Right now I'm kinda over a lot of it. I need sleep, rest. I need a bit of security, a job.

Things will get better, this is just a minor hump that I've just got to work to get over - in 2 months it will be all but forgotten.

But right now, I'm over it.

Ducks are walking into a row

Things are continuing to fall into place.

The personal cashflow has been given a welcome bump by the hocking of a whole bunch of belongings on TradeMe, I've scored a job interview for next week and the little opportunity I'm working on from yesterday's blog is just going from strength to strength.

In so many ways I'm just on the right path. I've surrounded myself with happy, supportive, awesome people. I'm going for an opportunity which I'm really passionate about - and which, as it turns out, I'm perfectly positioned to do.

It's going to be hard work to get my proposal in on time - there's the base research, getting the costs pulled together and organising a team to make it happen - not to mention convincing the panel that I'm actually the right person to do it.

But sometimes things just feel right, like you can't go wrong. Even arriving home yesterday, I discovered a perfect connection sitting on my deck, having a smoke and a chat with my flatmate.

I can't help knowing I'm going to be completely gutted if I miss out... but at the same time, I can't see why I will. Things are too good, too right.

The last time I had this feeling, I was applying for the job I have now.

I'm so excited, I'm so passionate - I've forgotten how fun it is to follow threads of research to the nuggets of gold, how satisfying it is to weave together all the threads to bring together a complete picture.

It's refreshing.

Excitement afoot!

Last week I saw an ad for a contract for tender. I looked at it and something kinda clicked for me. The problem is, I'm not entirely qualified for the needs in that contract.

However I have worked for the last 18 months in a field where everyone I work with, is.

Last night, Anna saw the tender ad, which I'd kept, and simply said "you could do this".

It's amazing what a little bit of encouragement can do.

Today, I've sorted out access to reference materials, found professional references, talked to colleagues and found a partner for the project.

Quite simply I'm going to put my hand up for something really big that really excites me. I can't wait to get home and throw myself into it.

Mexican food makes my friends fart

The best thing about today is not publishable.

The worst thing about today was pretty much nothing, it's been a pretty excellent day.

I like burritos. A lot.

The best, the worst, and something random

The best thing about today was kicking out the flatmate who isn't paying rent and lining up a good friend (who will) to take his room.

The worst thing about today was this morning's hangover. Thank God for Ponsonby pies at Mobil.

Five years documentation of my life has now been shredded and thrown out. The clean out of my room is nearly complete.

I want another four-day week!

I feel ripped off.

Kiwis are typically quite a patriotic lot. We all have our own ideas of what it means to be 'Kiwi', but one thing that is absolutely, totally, completely Kiwi is Waitangi Day.

Regardless of how you feel about the treaty of Waitangi (proud, sick and tired of it, indifferent or angry about injustices or whatever), Waitangi Day is a day to celebrate our history and our unique culture.

Whether you do that by trekking to the Bay of Islands, sitting in front of the telly, having a BBQ or going out to one of the many celebratory events in the various centers around the country - it doesn't matter. Simply taking a day to sit back and reflect on our beautiful country and all it means to us - whether it be our history, our culture or the environment - is what Waitangi Day is about.

But our national holiday - the holiday on which we celebrate our national identity - is not 'Monday-ised'. So if it falls on a weekend, there's no holiday.

But there is still a holiday surcharge on products. So not only do we not get a holiday, not only do we not give the national day the respect of proper observance, we have to pay more for the privilege of enjoying our Saturday at the pub with friends.

What's that about?

Reboot

On Sunday I threw a shit fit. I threw it because I've been under a whole lot of pressure lately and felt like I had absolutely no control over the things in my life.

This wasn't helped by the collected crap in my room. Uni notes, boxes of crap, clothes I never wear, stuff I own but hide in the corner behind the couch... it all had to go.

Not to mention my dresser and bookshelf look suspiciously like a Smurf barfed on them.

Essentially there is not a single piece of furniture in my room I am proud of. That needs to change, pronto.

I'm 27, I'm a working professional. I have a social life and friends. I live in a house with other working professionals. It's time to stop living like a damn student and time to start taking charge of my life... beginning with my room.

So right now I am in clean up phase - digital stuff that has been lying around on CD is going onto a hard drive, stuff I don't need or use is being thrown out. I've got permission to borrow the office shredder over the weekend to get rid of all the papers I've collected over the years (there are power bills from as far back as 2005...) and I'm starting to think about what my room and my life would look like if I took back some control.

The last week has been all about change and goals. This will continue until... well, until I'm not living in a jumble of things found, gifted and scrounged. I want to live in an environment of things I love, that make me happy... not things I happen to have acquired.

Laneway

Finally I get a chance to put down my thoughts on Laneway.

Firstly, I have to say that the music and the performers were awesome. I am so glad to have finally seen Florence and the Machine. The image of her wailing at the sky from the top of a speaker stack as the rain fell and the wind blew her hair back is one that will probably stay with me for a long, long time.

In fact, let me just wax lyrical about Florence for another paragraph, because at the very least, she deserves praise for how amazing she sounded, how sexy she looked and how utterly phenomenal she is as a performer. She bounced, she sang, she got the crowd going crazy, she's funny... and every minute of her performance exceeded my expectations - and given her album Lungs is one of my favourites from 2009 - I had high expectations.

Apart from Florence, The XX were also a highlight. Wonderfully put together sound with a great live effect. I was wondering if they'd be able to pull off the same magic they have in their album - it's so controlled that I couldn't be sure they could recreate that vibe live - but I needn't have worried, it sounded great! (Although the wind didn't help, it threw the sound about all willy-nilly during their set)

To be honest I'm not a huge Echo and the Bunnymen fan, however we DID have fantastic spots, two rows from the front, and the concert was of a very excellent standard. Don't get me wrong, just because I'm not a huge fan, it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them (the huge fans around me certainly did) - it's just a lot harder to gush about an act you're not as passionate about.

So the music, we have established, was a success. Great bands, decent sound. Worth the ticket price.

But as a festival? Laneway really didn't cut it for me.

First of all, the venue. Britomart is essentially a carpark. A concrete carpark. A concrete carpark with a little seating, but nowhere near enough to let 5,000 people rest their weary feet. There's a tiny square of grass, and a weird fountain where water squirts out of the ground, but it is, and always will be a carpark.

The carpark thing is worth thinking about here. There were no plastic mats in front of the stages that may have saved the aching we all felt in our feet after a few hours, there was not enough grass to sit on and more than once I found myself actually, literally, sitting in a gutter.

It is worth remembering that the day wasn't all that brilliant - it rained on and off throughout and I finally had to use the rain poncho I have taken to the last five Big Day Outs. There are a few things that would have been brilliant in the sunshine, but in the rain just made an already uncomfortable day even worse.

Firstly, I have a mega issue with one of Britomart's "fountains". The one where water just pisses out of the ground and into the air, where trash gets blown, becomes wet and thus collects and looks disgusting. The one where I can't help but think "what a silly waste of a precious resource". The one that always makes me want to pee. Yeah, that one. If Laneways had been held on a sunny day, that fountain would have been great. I see toddlers playing in it all the time and no doubt drunken/drug addled/sober-but-crazy people would have run through it, had waterfights etc, but in the rain? Well, it got in the way of a food queue and meant there was a giant chunk of space no one could use. I simply couldn't work out why it hadn't been turned off and the space used for something else - perhaps a bank of picnic tables or space for another food retailer. But I did see a number of people washing their hands in it so I'll reluctantly say it did have some use I guess.

Secondly, Britomart is like a giant wind tunnel. On a sunny day I'm sure the breeze would have been much appreciated (especially standing on black concrete all day with little shelter), but on a cold, rainy day the wind-tunnel affect just made the sound distort around the area.

And onto other complaints (yes, I have a lot of them)...

• Only four food sellers for 5,000 people? This equaled lines. Long lines. It also meant that food sold out. We couldn't even buy a crappy waffle because they sold out. Not only was it ill-thought out, it was kind of irresponsible. Had it been a fine day there would have been major issues with people standing for more than 20 minutes in the blaring sun with no shelter, waiting for food and water. As it was, many underestimated the sun through cloud and I saw a lot of pink skin as the sun was going down.
• No variety in the food. If you didn't want deep-fried or you're gluten free? You're out of luck.
  
• One major water seller (though you could buy water at the food stalls, once you got to the front of the line), charging $5/bottle (as opposed to the $3 at every other retailer), with no free way to refill provided.
  
• The ridiculous system for buying alcohol which went something like this...
  

1. Stand in a line for 10-15 minutes to get into the bar area
2. Get to the bar area, get in line for 2-3 minutes to buy a bar voucher for $30. This entitles you to 5 standard drinks (beer/wine/RTDs) and is completely non-refundable.
3. Walk from bar voucher tent to bar tent. Stand in line for up to 30 minutes to buy a maximum of 4 drinks prior to 5pm, or 2 drinks between 5pm and 8.30pm (remember, the non-refundable voucher is for five standard drinks which means to actually use it all, it's multiple trips to the line)
4. If you skipped step 2 and got to the front of the bar line with cash? Too bad. Go buy a voucher and wait in line again.
5. Sit in the alcohol pen, on the ground, in the gutter. You will have a ridiculous number of drinks because you don't want to face the hell of the line again. Your favourite band will be playing soon so don't bother to enjoy your drink (not that you can, you're more worried about avoiding the puddle next to you), skull it and get out of there.
   

• Lines, lines, lines.
• Everything ran late on the day and sets were cut short which was unfair on the bands and unfair on the fans.
• No pass outs. I get this concept entirely but if you're going to heard people like cattle, give them nowhere to sit, nothing to drink and nothing to eat (perhaps an exageration but see above comments) then you need to give them the option to look after themselves! 5,000 people attended, just under 2,500 people are fans on Facebook where most of the updates and information was posted (500 on Twitter) - that's at least 2,000 who didn't get a LOT of information. Even the Big Day Out allows pass outs when it's pissing down with rain.
• No shelter. The shelter structures provided were laughable. Someone tried to tell me the BDO is the same but the BDO has the stands, the Boiler Room and trees - thousands of people can sit in the stands, in the shade. Britomart had half a dozen tents and none of them had a single seat.
  

I understand that this was an inaugural event and as such there were bound to be teething issues, but really the system for alcohol was so complicated there really should have been information clearly giving instructions, the fact that there was practically nowhere comfortable to sit should have been considered and I don't think it takes a genius to realise 4 food sellers for 5,000 is not going to work.

I will give them was the fact there were no lines for the portaloos, but being fair, if you know where to go there are no lines at the BDO either. The small area and small crowd also made the event quite intimate which I loved, but it would have been a lot better if I was even moderately comfortable.

Overall I give the music an A and the event itself a solid D.

Laneway, you have a long way to go before you become a must-do music festival and, to be honest, the biggest thing to change is the venue. Next year I'll look at the lineup and decide, but I'm not sure any act will get me back to a music festival at Britomart.

Titles are overrated

The best thing about today was finally beginning to feel like my ducks are lining up in a row again - it's going to take time, and some work, but I can clearly see things working out, which is quite a relief.

The worst thing today was waking up at God-knows-o'clock and discovering I have food poisoning.

Florence is amazing. The more I think about that concert last night, the more I want to marry her.

Rush Blog: Laneway edition

The best thing about today was finally seeing Florence and the Machine live. I love her, I love her, I love her.

The worst thing about today was the lines. I feel like I've spent half my day lining up on concrete - mostly because that's actually what I've done.

"As the water fills my mouth it couldn't drown the echoes out"

- Drumming Song, Florence and the Machine