ukulele orchestra!

What the heck, you ask? Yes, a whole orchestra of ukuleles and one bass. There was a holiday concert at the San Fran Bathhouse on Cuba Street last Thursday night. 'ere we go:

"Dream a Little Dream of Me"
"Take On Me"...(complete with dancing reindeer man...scary)
"Hey Ya"

At one point a terribly drunk Santa Claus got up on the stage and tried to jump into the audience. Luckily I was farther back at the time of santy freefall. The people standing under him quickly moved out of the way when he launched himself from the stage and he landed on the hardwood floor. He was up and dancing the second after the impact, though. Everyone gasped; unfortunately I was too busy looking in shock at what had happened to take out my camera at that moment. But he was okay in the end, probably just a little bruised the next day. We all had a laugh when he got up and continued to dance like a fool.

And finally, since Warren says I should post more pics of myself, here you go - this is me after the orchestra performance (I needed a haircut badly, but I got one the next day, not to worry):

miscellaneous falcon

Sorry for the random geeky title for this post, which has everything to do with miscellaney and nothing to do with falcons, except for maybe the sky in the pictures you'll see below.


Jalil, Kevin and I decided to have lunch outside on the little hill behind our animation building at Wexford. It was quite a windy day, but the view from up there was gorgeous. This is a sample of what we saw:










It was so windy up there that Jalil had the great idea of pouring some lychee tea into his mouth. From the air. Hilarity ensued.

The next day, all the wind subsided and I went back up to the awesome viewpoint and snapped some more photos. Check out the bay in its rare mirror-like state:



And then I was able to take a sweet picture of the godrays shining over the houses and a qantas airplane:

weta holiday party and infusion

Quick little post here before I'm off to play world cup soccer on Jalil's xbox 360...

Last Thursday was the Weta Digital Holiday Party, which was a blast. Got some yummy skewered chicken with yogurt dip, some biscottis deliciosos, and, my personal highlight of the night, little chinese takeout boxes filled with fish and chips and one-hand-squeezable packs of tartar sauce, YUM! ...took some pics of the night and you can view them here:

weta digital holiday party

After that, we went on over to the afterparty at a club called "Sandwiches" where an australian dj group called "Infusion" was playing. I took some video of it and there is some crazy head-bobbing action going on (sorry about youtube's wonderful ability to throw videos completely out of synch, but you get the idea).

They were described as the Australian "Underworld"...and since I am not too familiar with their music, I must defer to the master of electronica - Jon Morley. What do you think, Jon?

sweet weekend

This weekend was fun, went to the botanical gardens for a bit, in the hopes of having a nice Saturday pancake brunch, but when we arrived, it turned out to be a bakery with no menu. So, we just snapped some photos of beautiful flowers and went off on our merry way to our backup plan, which was the famous "Chocolate Fish Cafe". Luckily, we took the scenic route there on our drive and I snapped some sweet pics of the bay and coastline. Pics here.

Later that night, we went to an animator's house party. Alvise Avati. Such a friendly man from Italy with an awesome flat. Definitely good times there. Had some wine and garlic bread and chips and a swimmingly grand time!

The next day, we went to a co-worker's bbq, which was completely chill, which was the perfect way to end our weekend. We had sausages with buttered bread (fairly common in NZ) and yummy appetizers and this dog was the highlight of the event, as his begging was adorable (see above).

p.s. They say "sweet" in new zealand a lot. I say that a lot too! But they say it for other things too like "It's sweet if you want to use the car for tonight." American translation: "It's totally fine if you want to use the car for tonight."

go bruins!

Wow, I just learned that we kicked major arse on Saturday*. UCLA beat USC at football. Kickass!!! It's funny because on Sunday over here I went to a coworker's bbq and I was wearing my UCLA bruins cap to shield me from the harsh sunlight (in fact, there is a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica and parts of New Zealand during certain periods of the year - as the Earth rotates, the ozone hole reveals various parts of the planet to the sun's rays). Anyways, I had no idea at the time that it was the most important saturday of a college football fan in Los Angeles. The epic game of the Bruins versus the Trojans. Coincidence? I think not!

Go Bruins!!!!!!!!! Let me know when the next important game is and I'll wear my cap. But remember, Los Angeles is a day behind me!

*Thanks for the update, Erin. I live in a sheltered world where nobody talks about UCLA. =)

Children of men and pics galore

Funny how some movies come out here in NZ before they do in the States... It's rare, but like tonight, it's bleepin' amazing.

I just saw easily the best film of the year.

It's a flick called "Children of Men." I know Nattida, you told me about this movie preview a long time ago.. remember when out of the blue I guessed the main actor - Clive Owen! He did an amazing job in this film. Probably his best performance. And the director, Alfonso Cuaron? Oh my god. Like, oh my god. If he doesn't nab the oscar for this film, wow. The movie was so intense...it felt like I was in it, living it...breathing it, feeling it. You just have to see this movie when it comes out in the States. But don't expect the christmas feel good movie of the year. Brace yourselves. I mean it.

And thanks to Jalil for driving me around today. I embarrassingly locked my keys in my flat this morning. Hilarity ensued and I was chauffeured to work and yeah...it all worked out.

On another note entirely, here are the loads of pictures I promised to upload and we'll be caught up with my camera! Well, almost. =)

New albums:
First week outside of the Duxton
Bowling Night 4 Dennis' Birthday
Thanksgiving at Wexford!
"The Burning Sheep" bonfire
Thanksgiving Party at Lori's