The way I see it...: April 2006

Jazzy Easter...Vreeland NZ extravaganza...Brokedown in Paradise

Sorry its been a while since I last posted, I have been hella busy lately with this and that all of which I will throw into a wee little summary right here. So I moved out of my residence of the past 5 months or so about two weeks ago and have been doing the hostile thing ever since. It was the same pain in the ass that moving always is except I had the pleasure of doing the bulk of the work bc the Vreelands came all the way over to NZ to visit their baby boy. For this reason I did it with pleasure and parted ways with my land lady on what I thought were quite stellar circumstances. I proceeded to work about 70 hours the following week preparing for Tuaranga's 44th annual Jazz festival over Easter weekend. It was exhausting but a very good weekend filled with excellent music and a very festive atmosphere. We laughed, we drank and we danced...what a way to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Kiwis seem to celebrate their holy days with massive parties and lots of booze, not exactly what I'm used to but who am I not to join in on the fun. When in Rome (I still don't know what that means). So Easter was good and extended to Monday which was a public holiday in NZ.

I was due to leave town on Wednesday, so I used Tuesday to take care of all the odds and ends around town that were still dangling...and ofcourse I had to blow it out on Tuesday night with all my Tuaranga compadres. I don't think I paid for much of anything all night which finally ended with me dipping out of the party at about 5am to go sleep in my clothes. I wake up the next day pretty exhausted from the weeks prior events and I still have stuff to take care of before I can leave to go spend a couple of days in the far north with the Vreelands. I finally finish everything and am about to leave town when I realize I still haven't gotten back the security deposit for my house. So I casually check on it, only to discover my bitch of a land lady wants to keep all $960 of the bond. Before I realize whats going on I am driving straight towards my old homestead to lace into this woman midevil style. Luckily she is not there and claims she will not be able to meet with me until the next day. I say luckily cause I haven't been that fired up in a while and I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten any money back after I fired bombed the house. My bar gladly got me nice and mello with a plethora of drinks so I had a chance to calm down a bit before the next day. So the following I use some of my McCarthy negotiation skills to talk some reason into the bitch and get some of the cash back.

So I'm off to meet the Vreeland's where we have a maravalous day on the water in a 50 ft sailing boat named phantom. It was great fun on a few different levels as I haven't seen anyone from home in so long and I get to hang with great people like the Vreeland family. So thanks again Roy, Jan, and Jules...ya'll are awesome. After the boat ride we continue to drink Margaritas and eat delicious food until everyone dozes off. Now I'm on my own as ole Pete has head off to Ozzy already. I figure I'll spend a couple of days driving around this area of country in the far north known as the Bay of Islands. I got about 20 minutes outside the place where the Vreeland's were camped out and my friend the Honda shit box decided it was time for a break. So I am stuck here in Paihia for the next couple of days while I wait for the diagnosis on ole Lanolin the sheep chasing Honda shitbox. The town overlooks a massive Bay that is scattered with random islands that cascade into the water in every way you can possibly imagine. Brokedown in paradise...poor, poor, Andy

and here is my brokedown destination and possibly the final resting place of my peice of shit car, I got a peice of shit car, that f*#@king pile of shit never gets my very far...its just my luck though the day I come into sole possesion of the thing it breaks down as most McCarthy cars have the tendency of doing

get out of my face!

what a pair

Jules Vree and I after a short lived snorkeling adventure

Sailing in the south pacific, scratch it off the list!

What a lovely group, God bless the Vreelands!

The Wizard and Oz, an extremely talented duo that I had the pleasure of sharing 4 days of music with. These two ozzies really pack a punch!

Heres a pic of Kelly Slatery, our Canadian connection whose voice has the unique ability to draw a crowd from miles away

I played the role of the naughty easter bunny during the late night hours after our bar closed

This was my home for the weekend, the gentleman in the shades and I rocked the crowd like Freddy Mercury in his hayday. I sold about 12 grand worth of booze in 2 days

The Streets were closed off for Jazz fest which was a huge success for everyone involved

little bit of this, little bit of that

Nothing too terribly exciting to report on my end, just been doing the whole work thing for shit money. I picked up a bar tending job, which is pretty cool but the wages in NZ are aweful and kiwis don't tip...the bastards. I am moving out of my humble abode in a couple of days as well and reverting back to hostle living. It'll be different, but I'm ready for a change. I figured I'd just throw some random picks at ya'll for old times sake...