Anyway, I had time to reflect that the last time I was at the Logan Campbell Centre was in 1992 to see Nirvana in concert.

By coincidence, I also went to see Foo Fighters last night at Western Springs stadium. It was a big show — about 50 thousand people all outside in the rain. I enjoyed it, though there was plenty of filler that could have been cut to make a more focussed and intense gig.

That also made me think back to my first ever big stadium concert — also at Western Springs way back in 1986. I seem to recall that there was rain that time too . . .

Went to the Christmas parade in the city on Sunday afternoon. A lovely day, but mostly the same things in the parade as last year.

Does nothing change?

Then on Saturday afternoon I headed to Waiheke island with the band.  We were playing for a wedding at the Mudbrick Restaurant and Vineyard.  It is a wonderful venue and we were provided with a fine meal and wines.  The audience seemed to enjoy our performance.  We stayed the night in a small and ancient caravan (not at the vinyard). But at least it was right on a beach.

Sunday afternoon we did some painting in one of the rooms of the house.

Walking home we encountered the Art in the Dark festival in Western Park. It was a wonderful event with lots of amazing illuminated installations. The place was crowded with tipsy and stoned young people and everyone was having a good time. Watched a “performance” involving a woman in bridal gown and a man with angel wings and a morning suit flying around hanging from wires. Some pictures are here.

Part of the tunnel construction project involved moving an old pub away and then back again. There is a video at the above link — it’s worth watching.

Anyway, my daughter’s school was involved in the walkthrough so I spent a few hours there collecting donations.

The extra special feature was that the All Blacks won the rugby world cup in a very tense match against France last night. So there was a huge victory parade this afternoon along the main street of Auckland. We went along but the crowds were so dense (pun intentional) that we couldn’t see much. Still waved and applauded the plucky All Blacks and managed to get a glimpse of the gold cup being held aloft.

Then walked to “The Domain” (a big park near the city) for a concert and family fun day. There was a great vibe — lots of people with All Blacks face paint and waving flags. Mainly spent the time queueing with Eve so she could go on bouncy castles.

It is a pity the world cup is over. There was such a great vibe for the last 6 weeks. Now all we have to look forward to is the elections. Boring!

I was in the library the other day and “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan caught my eye. It is an amazing wordless graphic novel. Some of the finest drawings I have ever seen.

Reminds me that I have forgotten to mention the Auckland Art Gallery, whose fancy new building has just opened. The new building is really nice. On the sculpture terrace there is Jeppe Hein’s `Long Modified Bench’, which is a cross between a park bench and a roller-coaster. Cute.

The two big news stories in NZ at the moment are the rugby world cup and the container ship “Rena” that crashed onto a reef and is spilling fuel and containers onto our pristine beaches.

There is also a large inflatable rugby ball that, I’m told, contains an audiovisual presentation (there was a 90 minute wait to get in, so I didn’t go). There is a stage, where a band was sound-checking.

The only really striking thing is The Cloud, which is an elegant building formed with a curved steel frame and a stretched canvas exterior. I assume the name intended to invoke the Maori name for New Zealand: Aotearoa, which means “land of the long white cloud”. Anyway, the structure is elegant, but there isn’t much of interest inside.

There is a cool timelapse movie of the building being constructed.

Apart from that just admired the cruise ship that was in, and the luxury yacht Family Day.

I had trouble with my aerial. Turns out the digital signal is polarised, and I had the aerial at 90 degrees to the correct plane. Now fixed. Simple physics.

Of course, this reminds of the old Maori aerial joke. Back in the 1970s one would occasionally see a beat-up old car with a broken radio aerial replaced by a bent coat-hanger. This lead to the phrase “Maori aerial”, popularised by the great NZ Maori comedian Billy T James (his act was to play-along with racial stereotypes about Maori people, but was loved by all. No, really). Here’s a typical clip of his show.

Saturday was one of the “Ponsonby Rd Market Days”. Ponsonby Rd is the main street right by our house. It has lots of cafes, restaurants, fashion stores, etc. A few times a year they have a big festival with roadside stalls and lots of bands playing. It was a great atmosphere. Lots of latin-influenced jazz bands. Including one with about the best drummer I think I have ever seen. Nice to just stroll along the street and people-watch. Plus plenty of balloons and face-paint for kids.

Not sure how much more I’ll do with this blog. I think it might be time to wrap it up.

The climax was an excellent fireworks display. We could see most of it from the road outside our house.

There is a real festival spirit in town and lots of groups of fans from all over the world. Have seen French, English and Scottish groups, plus large groups of Tongans and Samoans (many of whom live in NZ, or have family who live here).