It is Rugby World Cup 2011 time in New Zealand, and it is also the time that my boss says yes to me taking a trip to the Auckland office. Exciting right. Yep, I think so too and I am sticking with that.
My usual routine for a city that I have never travelled before and I am lucky enough to land the night before I have to start work is: I check into my hotel and check out the facilities available (I mainly mean wifi or other means of communicating with strangers and looking at photos of cats or other cute small animals), I then go walking.
The walking bit is great. I love wandering the streets and looking into shops/cafes/pubs and trying to pluck up the courage to enter. When I was younger and a smoker I was quite the extrovert. I know you see it too, don't you, underneath the chubby layers.....it has become dormant and I now struggle a little with the whole being on my own, surrounded by groups of friends and couples. But that is not to say I let it get stop me from going out and making an effort to experience what I can.
Tonight I wandered down to the waterfront area, Quay St. They have a boat show on at the moment and some additional shops specifically for the RWC tourists. I hear strains of Crowded House coming from an Irish pub and I know that I have found my venue for the evening. Comforting in its standard decoration in the vein of all Irish pubs, I make my way to the bar and buy a pint of Tui Blonde (don't hold it against me - I sometimes order beer by sentimental reasonings more so than taste). I find a booth and settle in for an evening of live music from a mediocre guitar playing solo singing rough neck and some rugby on the tv.
It is 5 mins until the game starts and suddenly the crowds pour in. I am now sharing my booth with 2 different friend groups who are all eyeing me off wondering what I am doing taking up space that means some of their friends can't sit down. The singer is going from bad to worse; Oasis is followed by Bon Jovi. It is not even 21:00! The crowd sing along in a swaying mass of drunkeness ".....I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride....."
It then occurs to me that these people have been drinking since the first game of the day at around 15:00 (if not before). They have many hours of intoxication under their belts and it is glaringly obvious to me that I am the only sober person in the bar excepting the staff. I then concluded I had to get drunk very fast and join in the revelry or perhaps it was time to take my leave....
I chose the boring option. And as the door closes behind me I hear the first few bars of Guns n Roses and I keep walking wishing that I had stayed for just one more song.
