Ben is in Wellington Right Now

Hi Everyone. I have actually been in Wellington for almost three weeks. I am house-sitting for Jim, a friend who I have never met personally: we know each other through a mix tape club that we participated in via mail and internet about a year ago. It also included my friend Leah, Jim's friend Victor. It was great, and now I am living in his house, and listening to the cd's where all the music came from.
What you see is thew view out of his back window in the southern suburb of Island Bay. This is what I look at when I eat breakfast. It's pretty great.
In addition to his house, Jim is lending me a bicycle, which I use to get around town a lot. I have a pretty laid-back life right now, though I have found some employment, which I will describe presently. Wellington is a very windy place, which makes seemingly simple bike rides surprisingly difficult, but as a city, it's quite small, so during the day I use my bicycle. Sometimes I'll just go around with my trusty city center bus map in my pocket, and find places to explore. I am learning that any place with the word "park" in its name is on a gigantic hill. One day, early on, I was sitting around the city center, and decided to go over to a park -- I ended up climbing up Mt. Victoria. Don't be too impressed, it's not huge, but the view was beautiful. From there one can see most of the city, the main part of which is in a valley between two sets of hills (there are suburbs on the other sides of the hills), which runs north-south. The bay comes up and wraps around the whole thing, and you can see all the waters from Mt. Vic.
Speaking of geography, I don't think I have ever seen a city that is such a textbook representation of the city/suburb model. Almost all of the "urban" activity -- night life, museums, government, etc -- takes place in the relatively small city center, and there are a series of smallish neighborhoods growing out from that in every direction. The southern ones seems to be more part ofthe city, but maybe I just think that because I live in one.
I have made a few friends here -- it's not too hard to meet people. I'm at my friend Steph's house right now. I met her and her friends last weekend when they were out celebrating the completion of teacher's college. They were busking on Cuba St, one of the main drags downtown, and after I stopped to sing with them, they took me dancing.

Ok, two more things, and I'll wrap it up:
1. Work. I have two jobs. One is for a guy named Michael, who makes fridge magnets out of his garage. Some days I take laminated sheet of magnet pattern and attach magnetic sheets with sticky stuff on them. Other days, when those same sheets have returned from the cutter, I separate them adn put them in packages. It's not bad, everyone is friendly, and I get paid in cash. Someone has to make the fridge magnets, right?
I also work for a catering company. I've only done two jobs, and will only do two or three more. Basically I put on the black pants, white shits, black shoes, black clip-on tie, and black apron with company logo and either carry around food at cocktail parties, or wait tables at fancy dinners. I was offered a wedding, but I'll be leaving town right around then. This is a fun job to have for two weeks, and the pay is pretty good. As with the magnet job, I can take it or leave it as I like.
2. I played a show! Yes, I took my trusty accordion, and went to Happy, a bar that I've actually managed to be in every Friday since I've been here (this next weekend might break the streak), and I played to a small but growing crowd who were coming in for some actual band. The booker's girlfriend also plays accordion, so she played first, and we even did a sloppy duet of Istanbul (Not Constantinople). There was a piano and a pump organ at Happy, and I got to play those, too. A guy who saw me says he's going to book me for another bar next week, but we'll see if he calls.

So there it is. Life in Wellington. Pictures will follow, though you should note that all our photos are now in categories, though not all labeled, making them a good deal more comprehensible.
Goodbye!