With Mai and I having gone our separate ways, the blog has indeed suffered. No need to fear though, we are working tirelessly to remedy that. I have just completed an entire overview of my time in Wellington and will be breaking it up into parts. Rather than the standard "day-by-day" format, I have formulated my time in Wellington into categories. The sheer magnitude of all this information (let alone the amount of words I wrote) is so great that, just as Quientin Tarantino was forced to split Kill Bill into two volumes, I must split my time in Wellington into FOUR. Today we start with my work experience.
"HOUSKEEPING"
I continued to clean rooms after Mai ventured back North. Taking her place was another German by the name of Enno, who joined Ernesto, Eric, and I to form Squad BEEE. Together, we cruised through room after room in a clear display of our awesome and unmatched cleaning powers. We passed the time listening to whatever we could find on the radio very loudly. I know pretty much every word to "Little Black Box" at this point. Our musical prowess didn't end there. We often created our own lyrics to popular songs, particularly when the radio signal in a room was poor. Probably our favorite one was to the tune of Aqua's "Barbie Girl", from which we took the line, "Come on Barbie, let's go party" and replaced it with, "Come on Enno, clean that toilet." I know what you're thinking, and yes, for a time we did consider quitting our housekeeping jobs to pursue a career in music.
On a more earnest note, it was quite a surprise to learn the extent to which music travels. It's not a secret that bands tour world-wide and therefore have fans far-reaching across the globe, so when my work mates know all the words to Lady Gaga songs, I'm not at all surprised. It's the lesser known songs that caught me off-guard, for example: as the opening chords for Blur's "Song 2" rang out from the speakers one morning, and I prepared to sing out the opening line of, "WOOO HOOO!" I stopped mid shout when I heard all three of my fellow cleaners sang along. Not only did they know the song, they knew the little known fact that the lead singer of Blur is none other than the lead singer of the more current Gorillaz, a fact that many of my peers at home are not aware of! Moral of the story: music knows no limits or boundaries, and is best listened to when sung with a thick German or Spanish accent.
I finished the housekeeping job after a solid three weeks and can honestly say I'm not too upset about leaving. I had may fond memories with my commrades, one of the fondest coming the second to last day, which just so happened to be the day after St. Patrick's Day. We may or may not have celebrated the night before and we may or may not have struggled immensely to wake up let alone clean for four hours. Our manager had a grand old time laughing at us in our misery, though she was merciful enough to bring us some tylenol and water. Another moral!: with the right set of people, what should be a horrid, unbearable day can turn out to be just the opposite.
With accommodation covered by the housekeeping gig, I landed a paid bar tending position at The Fringe Bar. This corner-situated bar (located on the end of the Cuba Street strip) doubled as a performance site and a karaoke bar. With comedy shows three or four days a week and karaoke EVERY night, it served as a perfect Mecca for all sorts of characters to gather. And with it's operating hours lasting until 6:00AM during the week and as late (or you might consider it early) as 8:30AM on the weekends, it often housed the masses when all the other bars closed their doors.
I began working Sunday and Monday nights, but have worked a couple of Saturday nights as well. After more than a month of tending bar, I think I've seen it all. One night we will close at 2:00AM because there is no one there, while one random Sunday, I didn't leave until 5:00AM because we had about 30 people in the bar, 20 of whom were from the Swedish Circus group that had been performing all week and were celebrating their last night Wellington with some karaoke, flaming shots, and break dancing. That same night, we were also graced with the presence of a contestant from New Zealand Idol and I was hit on aggressively by a transvestite. Surprisingly, I made it home without a scratch.
Monday nights were fairly standard. Comedy ended each night at 9 and the regulars wasted no time cleaning up afterward to begin karaoke. "Mustang Sally" was always the first to be sung, followed by other karaoke greats. I routinely sang "Time Warp" and "Come Together" with two of the comedians. When I got more comfortable on stage, I rocked a few solo songs such as "Snow" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Fever" by Michael Buble, "Seniorita" by JT (that one was for you, Steve) and "Layla" by Sir Eric Clapton. One night, I met a few members from the Brooklyn based group Antibalas who were performing here in Wellington. They were quite entertaining and you should have a listen to their unique Afrobeat style of music.
My last weekend of work came abruptly, as bad weather slowed our operations and I was sent home early most nights. I have plenty to take away from the experience: I have solidified my basic bar tending skills, interacted with all sorts of fun individuals, conquered a fear of singing solo on stage, and made some friends along the way. I know one thing for sure though: I won't miss getting off work after the sun has already come up.
"OTHER"
Having emailed an application to the Madison Recruitment Agency, I have received a number of random work opportunities. Although declining a door-to-door salesman job, I did accept two one-day work opportunities. The first, working in the ticket booth at Westpac Stadium for the Hurricane's rugby match. With only a few situations of disgruntled customers annoyed they couldn't get a particular ticket, it was reasonably easy. And I caught the last five minutes of the match, just in time to watch as the Hurricanes sealed the win with a final stop.
The second was a bit more random. TesltraClear sponsored 48 of their employees and family to come watch as New Zealand faced off against Australia in the fifth and final One Day International match of cricket. I was hired as an official food and drink runner, which basically meant I waited on hand and foot to run down the 13 steps from the stadium seats to the concession stands below to retrieve food and drink. Now that might not sound all that appealing, but considering this is New Zealand and everyone is exceptionally nice, it was quite enjoyable. I became fast friends with both the TestraClear employees as well as the concession stand workers. Although Australia had already sealed the series, winning three out of four matches, the fans were energized and supportive of the Black Caps, and they ended up winning! I also ALMOST witnessed a "Hat Trick," an extremely rare occurrence where the bowler tallies three wickets in a row... have I lost you yet? Cricket is actually kind of fun and I enjoyed watching all 8 long hours of the match. I also made out like a bandit, bringing home enough food to feed a small village (though it barely lasted the weekend with four hungry young housekeepers).
