Back from Auckland

Very tired, but quite satisfied really. Hanging out in my room, geeking out on Baroque and writing Lizzie a letter on my *new* uber cutsey Japanese writing paper, which includes the profound phrase:

dear sweet dot. For the life that is ordinary with fabric of a dear sweet dot an accent

Bella has started a late night cooking mission... the house smells delicious. However, I ate everything I could in the Koru Lounge at the Airport, so I'm hardly hungry. I was struck with how anti-glam the Koru Lounge at Auckland Airport is... I'd always imagined it a bastion of high taste, an opportunity to rub shoulders with like minded types, before the Loungees hit the skies, taking their place in first class where they would sip champagne with toy dogs called Poochie perched on their knees. It was rather more like a normal flight lounge but with free food and booze and a mechanical massage chair, which I proceeded to shanghai for about three quarters of an hour... But not glam. Full of middle aged business men in suits. And starring a woman affectedly quoting Goethe in Deutsch to a German man.

Saw Hayley while I was in Auckland... she's doing a whirl wind tour of New Zealand and our paths crossed, quite fortuitously methinks. I had dinner with her and Anna at the Northern Steamship, a pub with a very talented interior designer on their design team... floor lamps tacked to the ceiling and outdoor hanging basket chairs in the window. And perfectly and deliciously mis-matched chairs. Otherwise a pretty ordinary Mac's Brewery type pub... met a sock entrepreneur... discovered that fabric technology in unpatentable (if that's a word). Spoke to accountants. And Elam graduates. Which is a fairly eclectic group of diners.

ALSO had a fab fab wonderful fab fun yakitori and sake binge with the Boy who was passing through on the way to see his fams in Tauranga for Easter. Had a surprisingly Japanese-themed trip away, really. With the glorious $3 Japan shop and Japanese pottery buying frenzy and the copious amounts of Katsu-don, Donburi, Sashimi, Tempura and Sushi consumed. Oh, and lots of Japanese bottle iced tea. Yum.