Man, is it hard to get out and see things in this town. I have the flu, or at least a cold bad enough to give me hot and cold chills and thrills and fevered nightmares. There seems a total lack of chemists and pharmacies in this city too, so I can't buy even the simplest paracetemol or aspirin to sort it out. I am feeling a little bit got-at, I must admit.
But still it is pretty amazing simply never having to think about going out for the night or doing anything or, blessing of blessings, having to put anything together one's-self. The mere aura of the hostel in everyone's minds makes it an immediate state of party by about 5pm every day at the latest - constant rooftop barbecues, a free keg of beer and bottle of bourbon on Sundays and a universally friendly, funny staff make this all the easier, and many a silly staggering story has been had in the few days I've been here.
I think I mentioned Big Irish Nick coming home at 11 am, getting back on the drink about 3pm then going out for a full second night with no sleep or rest then falling off his stool in a little local late-night Pho (noodle) shop at maybe 4am on the second night, but another Irish guy kicked a cop in the arse and got a shoulder-beating for it, someone was doing something rude with someone one can only presume of the opposite sex in our dorm last night, and before I got in myself I was in a series of bars following an English lass around the town promoting her bar (drunkenly accosting white people and gently assaulting them with flyers, basically) and ended up being shown a little bit too much Muay Thai kick-boxing in a bar with some Romanian lads and an English guy, the Kickboxer, which is why my Facebook profile mentions my almost broken nose. And he really was being easy though (I'd have a broken entire face if he'd been genuinely trying).
Apart from that my main occupation has been reading Ender's Game (do it yourselves now, I insist) by Orson Scott Card, and wondering how the fuck it is I haven't seen a single museum or sight or made any use whatever of my shiny new digital camera.
Then I remember the hostel, the trumpets of beer and barbecues sound from all 'round the building, and the madness begins again.
I believe my next hostel in Singapore (flying out tomorrow night) is a less rowdy affair although I may as well have plucked this idea from my backside as I have no evidence either way, except that the folks who answer e-mails are not English, so it is probably, according the minute amount of evidence available to me, a more subdued affair over there.
In other news, my career(s) in New Zealand is(are) potentially in jeopardy as I cannot work full-time according the rules of my (Working Holiday) Visa, and the timescale seems to have been miscalculated by a full 6 months. Lengthy phone calls to NZ are shortly to follow of course, but honestly doing part time bar work and construction-related office/site jobs will allow me to move from employer to employer and properly see the country, whereas a full time career would almost certainly tie me to Auckland, so what they hey - do your best and make the best of it, that's all we can do 
