photos of paradise!

Photos here

I'll get some more up as these are from Jennys camera and there are still 360 or so on mine. So the dress up ones...the girls were trying to get to believe that they always dressed up their boyfriends so I gave myself up to them and I ended up looking like a fruity castaway! Was fun all the same.

This is one of my personal faves...



and this one!

To the beach with me!

In two days I'm off to Mal Pais....can't wait to spend some time with two friends in the surf. I really do love how things come together and things have definitely come together for this trip...another friend who is already living in Costa Rica is driving down to me to pick me up and transport me to the north west. New love interests always add a certain spark to travel and this one..... well... I will remain premain pretty quiet about....why?...I hate diluting the feelings by sharing them with anyone else.
Anyways pictures to follow....prolly once I get back though...have learned once already that I find no place for a computer on a holiday.

Fighting and Discipline

I made a trip out to Ocean Beach today after selling my Bang & Olufsen stereo to some fella from Bernal Heights. Loved that stereo but shit I never got the turntable working and the receiver just sat there after I hooked up speakers to my computer....was good to look but with my current attitude regarding spring cleaning it had to go.....have also pulled half my wardrobe out and stuffed it into a bag for a drop off to Goodwill.
Anyway...so out to Ocean Beach....went to see Hannah at Wises surf shop to pick up some board shorts for the Costa Rica trip. I really don't like shopping for clothes and tend to just pick out what I like without trying anything on. Getting home this evening I got the shorts out and tried them on....I laughed a little when I realized I had bought white nylon Billabong shorts that undoubtedly will be see through when wet!! This time last year I was at the same beach...Mal Pais...and wore a pair of short black running shorts..this year wanting to look a little more the surfer part I've gone for show everyone everything white 'boardies' sweeeet!
This evening I caught up with Hannah again we went to see Ong Bak. Wow...it's a pretty cool film. Lots of fight scenes that proudly state in the trailers "no wires, no harnesses".
I am in awe of the discipline required to become such a talented acrobat/fighter. Made me feel (as I'm sure it does most males) like I wanted to start training for Muay Thai.
I remember doing it when I was 15 and then again a few years ago...my memories of it?...busting my friends nose at 15 and dislocating my shoulder at 30!! I've missed the boat! I think i'll just stay in awe instead of in pain.

in Forever

Time slipped away.....haven't felt like writing anything here in such a long time. The year is new....travel plans, life planning, cleaning out the shit!!....so much the new year has in store.
I went for a massage at Kabuki Spa last night with a friend who works there. She hooked me up!! Nearly 2 hours of wet steam rooms, dry sauna, cold plunge 55 degrees...yikes!! and hot pools...I was so relaxed by the time my name got called for my shiatsu. went into this little room onto the butchers table and this little japanese fellow proceeded to beat the fuck out of me with his hands and elbows and what also felt like his knees! After fifty minutes of being treated like pizza dough he folded me into human origami and squeezed..the body responded with satisfying cracks and I felt like a new man. Somehow I fucked up my neck while I was in LA and this treatment set me right. I have decided to visit the Spa every Tuesday evening...it's like a mini holiday. Highly recommend.

expecting the unexpected

Home...finally. And it is home...I feel that this trip back to New Zealand made me realize more than ever before that this place is the place I call home. I'm not sure if I really want to be here right now but I'm happy to have found somewhere I can feel comfortable about planning a future. I'm not in the best frame of mind to be thinking of the future as nothing is ever certain and life is more often than not going to throw you something you don't want to have to deal with. In a sick way I'm kinda glad that I can still feel this way as I was beginning to think nobody could break my heart. So sink myself into work or overindulge in play and sometime soon it will all be behind me and I'll be left with a better understanding of who I am and what I need.....mmmm... what I need is a tall jack and coke!

Twenty years ago

I've been feeling a little strange all day today and it's only just now that I was reminded of the date. My father drowned 20 years ago today. I have been thinking of how I feel about the people in my life and how much I value them also how when I am not in touch with them it can affect my moods. Having a great vacation none the less.

Somewhere in the middle

Got back from up north the other day and am now back in Auckland. The north of New Zealnd is amazing especially my favourite beach up there..Taupo Bay. Regardless of the weather I always find it important to get in the water and taste the ocean, there is something so distinct about it and it reminds me of getting rolled by the waves as a child and getting sea water up my nose. Anyway it was fucking freezing so the swim didn't last too long but all the same it was great to get in. I've been giving some thought to having a computer on this trip and as good as it is for the obvious reasons it also irritates me. I think when I go on holiday I like to leave everything that links me with work or the thought of work way away from my leisure time. I miss San Francisco and realise how I have come to get attached to the city and the comforts of my life there. The old adage of "absence makes the heart......" etc, is ringing true with me. I woke this morning thinking I was in SF...it felt good.
Off to Coromandel tomorrow where we will stay in a house on the beach. I am looking forward to some long walks and another dip in the sea.