From there, we walked toward Vulcan Lane/Lorne Avenue/High Street area, my favorite part of the city, to find somewhere to eat. We stopped for dinner at a Japanese restaurant on Lorne Avenue where neither of us had dined before. The food and atmosphere were really good, and we were practically the only ones in there. We ended up staying for hours, talking, telling stories, and catching up. He told me all about his trip back to Indonesia to see all of his family, and how his mom kept trying to put ‘skin whitening cream’ on him to make his skin lighter haha. I had no idea such a thing existed! He had a great time though, camping, going to the islands, Bali, surfing, etc. We didn’t leave the restaurant until somewhat late, then walked back to the hotel where Ricky showed me all the pictures of his trip on his laptop.
As soon as I walked into his room, I was hit by a massive heat wave. The room was small, and he’d purposely left his heater up full blast, along with another mini portable heater running at full power. Apparently, he was having a hard time adjusting to being back in New Zealand’s winter weather after living in the heat of the islands for the past month. So, as a result, he turned his room into a full-on sauna haha. The pictures of Indonesia were brilliant though. We also watched a video he recorded when him and his friend were riding a scooter through the busy roads of Jakarta. It was pretty crazy since virtually no one obeys the road rules, and repercussions for such behavior are basically nonexistent. So, everyone just does whatever they want to do. Pretty wild, eh?
A little later, we went back out for a second dinner…I think Ricky’s appetite had increased while he was away after being fed so much food by his mom haha. We walked to another Japanese restaurant close to my flat, and Ricky ate some duck soup while I just warmed up with some hot green tea. I love the fact that many of the Asian restaurants around here automatically serve hot green tea for no charge…does the body good. My evening with Ricky was once again absolutely wonderful. I hated saying goodbye to him the next day before he flew back to Wellington. I’ll be making a visit to see him before I leave for Thailand though. Plus, I will get to see Bryce and Brian at the same time since they will be in Wellington too!
On Wednesday, I had lunch with Sandra again, which was fun as usual. After work, I did some laundry while Emma was out and about. However, when I went to hang my clothes out on the clothes rack that we keep out on the balcony, I was surprised to see that the rack was folded up. I proceeded to make a very, very sad attempt to put it back together and was miserably unsuccessful haha. I tried and tried for what seemed like ages; I knew it couldn’t be that hard, but for the life of me, I just couldn’t figure it out! So, in the end, the rack ended up being flat on the ground with legs out, except for one small area in the middle, which I hung my towel over haha. I put the rest of my clothes on hangers and placed them strategically around the rest of the balcony on the chairs, etc. When Emma got home and saw what I had done, she began laughing hysterically and took pictures of my sad excuse of a laundry rack. Hahaha. Then, after she was done laughing, she said, “Okay, come here. We’re going to have a wee little lesson.” After said lesson, I can now properly put that stupid rack together (and yes, it was ridiculously easy). =)
That night, Emma and I went to a concert at a bar called Kings Arms to see the Sami Sisters play. Emma actually works there as a bartender sometimes when the bar gets extra busy, so she obviously has some connections. Therefore, her boss let us into the concert for free—very nice! The concert was pretty fun and Emma even helped out a bit behind the bar while we were there. Emma left for Hamilton the next day to meet up with her parents, as they would then all be heading to Taupo for a family reunion. Emma invited me to the family reunion as well, so I planned to meet up with her in Taupo over the weekend. Until then, it was only Thursday. So, I met up with Mary at Starbucks after work that day, and we stayed there for hours laughing and catching up.
After Starbucks, we decided to grab some dinner. We walked down Vulcan
Lane toward High Street, and ended up at a restaurant called Wagamama up some stairs off of High Street. Great dinner! The next day at work was good, especially because Chhaya surprised me with a gift. For at least a month prior to then, there had been advertisements all over the office for a work “Bollywood” event that was to take place on August 12th. It was to involve everyone dressing up in traditional Indian attire and such. I had already decided that I wouldn’t attend since it would be a bit unreasonable for me to spend a lot of money on such an outfit for one night.
Well, I never said anything to anyone about not going. However, Chhaya came to my desk that Friday afternoon carrying a bag, and asked in her sweet voice, “Aaaash, you’re going to the Bollywood event, right?” I told her I wasn’t, to which she immediately responded, “Of course you are! I brought this for you to wear.” Sure enough, in the bag was an absolutely breathtaking Indian ensemble that she had specifically picked out for me to borrow for the event! SUCH a sweetheart!! =) It made me feel very special. After work, I just chilled at the flat, watched TV, and blogged—had the place to myself too! That doesn’t happen too often when you have two flatmates.
Cheers,
Ash
No comments:
Post a Comment