Tis that time of year again

Christmas is just around the corner. Its less than a week to go. I'd hate to be in town this week and next weekend. I'm sure it will be crazy at the malls.

I have to say I'm not a big fan of Christmas. Before I go on rambling, just wanna say, I am not the Grinch nor am I scrooge-like (maybe?). I used to like the Christmas season. Maybe for the novelty of it. Growing in Malaysia we went carolling for the entire week before Christmas and was involved in the midnight mass at the Anglican parish I went to. So weeks leading up to Christmas meant lots and lots of practices. But I did enjoy it. Cos I got to do things that I didn't get to do at other times of the year and I got to hang out heaps with my friends. Christmas wasn't much of a family event when I grew up. We had a meal together maybe with friends or relatives and my parents would give us presents. But its was simple and low-key.

I find Christmas in NZ very stressful (or perhaps I am just getting older and grumpier). You feel left out if you didn't have family or didn't have friends to spend Christmas with. You finally have some time off work but your friends are all stressed and have left to go back to wherever their families are gathering for Christmas. Then there is the mad Christmas rush where there are lots of people everywhere - malls, shops, supermarkets etc. Its stressful just watching them!

I've given up buying people Christmas presents. First of all, I can't figure what to buy. Then you just go ahead and buy something and wonder if they will actually use it or chuck it in a dark corner of their room. Then you wonder who else have you forgotten and mostly then if you are like me, you will go shopping in the last week leading up to Christmas when the whole city is out shopping, so you are pushing and shoving while still deciding what to buy. So I have decided that I will not buy any presents for people because it is just far too stressful. Anyways, there is a website that suggests just that. So perhaps I will spend my money on a piglet or a goat or an acre of farmland. Let me know if you wanna go halves on a donkey. They cost quite a bit but will go a long way...

The Time Traveller's Wife

I have really enjoyed reading this well-written book. It is essentially an old-fashioned, boy-meets-girl, love story. Except that Henry met Clare when he was in his 40s and she was 6 and then they got married when he was 30 and she was 22. How? Well, he is a time-traveller.

The book chronicles the many magical meetings between Clare and Henry as she as growing up (and him time travelling to meet her) and also their life together. Imagine meeting the person you are to marry as an adult as you are growing up. But only being able to meet him for brief moments sometimes months or even years apart. As you can imagine its not a "normal" relationship at all as Henry suffers from a rare medical condition - he time travels. He is prone to disappearing from the present at any time which also makes their relationship interesting. At times, Henry in the present is interacting with a Henry that has time travelled. We also get a glimpse of what life was for Henry as he grew up (he started time travelling when he was very young) and also of Clare's life which helps flesh out and give life to the characters.

The book is written as a first person narration. So we get the story from Clare's or Henry's perspective. It is very easy to read and I was very quickly engrossed in the lives of Henry and Clare. I highly recommend it. It will make a nice easy read for the summer.

Miracle Drug!!

Just to prove that I was actually at the concert...

Elaine and I waiting in line. Elaine came up with a bunch of friends from the Mount. They got in around 1-ish and starting waiting in line inside the blue tent. She was the one who told me to come to blue tent and "smuggled" me to where she was cos when she arrived there were only about 200 people in front... Roger took this picture with his phone - hence the bad image quality.

Thats me in front of the stage cos I managed to get into the front mosh pit bit. I bought a U2 t-shirt there which was a good thing cos I felt quite cold when it poured (and I got wet) and was glad to have 2 t-shirts under my thin jersey... But it was all good!

The circle (which the arrow is pointing to) shows where I was standing for the concert. I decided to stand by the barrier to the claw-like extension. Though it meant I was slightly further away from the main stage, it meant I was about 2 metres away from Bono (and also Adam and Larry when they came down that extension bit) at times. But considering I was expecting to be standing in the middle of the field having to tip-toe and just be able to make out who the tiny people on stage were, being able to be so close was totally surreal!

ooo... the sweetest thing

Friday night, 24 Nov will be a night to remember! I was not entirely excited about the concert for some reason. My bro couldn't sleep the night before as he was so excited about it. But I slept like a log, and neither did I get up early as well, in anticipation. In fact it felt like a normal day.

Got to the stadium at around 3 and went to buy a T-shirt before the hoards of people arrived. Then went to look for the blue tent as Elaine said. Got there and got in the queue and rang Elaine to say I was in the queue. Thanks to her I managed to jumped ahead by 50-80 people as she and her friends had gotten there around 1pm. Heh.. heh... But the good thing was the first 1800 (or so) people to queue got to be in elipse bit!! So I was so near the stage! I decided to park myself by barrier of one of the claw bits which meant that when Bono (or Adam or Larry) came out to the claw bit, they were like 2 metres away from me!! It was just unreal! Unfortunately, I hadn't bothered to bring my camera cos I thought the likelihood of being close enough to take a decent photo as close to impossible - afterall there were 42,000 at the concert and prob about 15,000 or some would be on the field. And in many ways, the concert sounded like a good ol' Kiwi sing-a-long.

The concert started with City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo and then Elevation where Bono made references to NZ. And of course he sang One Tree Hill - but not without poking fun at it first (he said to bring some seeds up there!) and managed to intersperse a few lines from 4 seasons in One day in it too. The stage set-up was just incredible. A giant screen (of sorts) behind them and video screens on both sides of the with a camera focussing on each one of teh band members. The set ended with One and Bono promoting the Make Poverty History campaign. It was awesome when he got everyone to hold their cell phones up cos it looked like the stadium was covered with fairy lights. Oxfam were there earlier selling white bands and hopefully the Make Poverty History campaign got more people signing up to the mailing list and from there more people wanting to be more aware and be pro-active on the issues.

I was pretty impressed at Bono's attempt to sing Pavarotti's part in Miss Sarajevo. Then it was cool havign Larry come out onto the claw (the one I as near) to play the tom and cymbal that was set up there for Love and Peace. Bono then continued the banging the drum in the intro to Sunday Bloody Sunday. There were two encores. Included was a rousing rendition of Angel of Harlem, and towards the end of Myterious Ways, Bono got a girl onto the stage and serenaded her with With or Without You. The final encore ended with Kite where Bono released a kite into the sky (which unfortunately got caught on the giant screen thing on the stage).

The only disappointment was that they didn't sing Yahweh or '40'. In the US and European legs of the tours, they mostly finished with '40'.

But still... I couldn't have imagined a better night. The concert was fantastic, and bring up the front was an unbelievable bonus. It definitely worked like a miracle drug.

its going to be a beeeeeeeeautiful day

One more sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to build or not to build

I'm in Auckland at the moment, so thought I will blog about an Auckland issue - whether or not to build a stadium on the Auckland waterfront (picture shows artists depiction of the proposed waterfront stadium). Apparently it will cost $500 million, but knowing how these building projects go, it will be likely to cost around $700 million (thats my uneducated guess).

Politicians like to be able to leave a legacy - usually a visible one if possible. And I wonder if building the stadium is their (local and national politicians) way of leaving something that they can point to and say that they built that stadium.

The govenment has said that part of the funding will come from taxes. I'm not sure I want my tax money to go into building a stadium that is quite likely to be empty for most of the year. I am rather (optimistically) hoping that tax money will go into better use like health funding and reducing waiting times on waiting lists. Not to mention the potential eye sore it will be on the Auckland waterfront!

Sometimes I wish politicians would stop stroking their own egos and do things that would benefit the community even if it means they themselves are unnoticed.

In the meantime, (and as much as it pains me to say this) perhaps Australia should start getting ready to host the World Cup.