Despite its notoriety for having terrible weather whenever there is a long weekend, Auckland produced some outstanding warmth and sun over Labour Weekend this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time up there - especially with my new car!

After work on Friday night, Juliann and I headed to Cha for dinner (apparently it's tradition, or something) and then to the airport for our flights. I was picked up at the other end of the plane ride by Cinta and Alice, and we were joined by Reuben, Matt and Sam at where else, but Momo's for a good old Taro Milkshake with Mango Pudding. Somehow, I got recruited for the Light Party flier drop on Saturday morning, so the next day, it was up and early to KCC for a few hours to run around Kelston and deliver fliers to the letterboxes.

I met my sister and her husband for lunch at Moto on Paramount Drive before chilling out at her place for a little while. They had been spraying some anti-mould stuff on the walls so they had to keep the poor cat locked up inside, so he was rather agitated. We guessed that he was suspecting to be taken to the vet or be given a flea shot (since he was locked inside), so he was understandably more antisocial than normal, but after a while, he settled down. Mrowr!

That night, I turned up (semi-uninvited) to Heong's housewarming where they were understandably surprised at my unannounced arrival. We spent some time getting the silly charcoal barbeque to work but it was worth it once it was going. He's got a nice quiet place overlooking west Auckland, with a bit of land and a deck at the back of the house, and even a self-contained sleepout for an extra tenant! And potentially a slingshot to shoot stuff and/or people at Fahad's old house.

Sunday was church as usual, and then lunch at (disgustingly good) Wendy's. I spent the remainder of the afternoon at Matt's house playing on the PS3 and dozing off, as I usually do on Sunday afternoons, and when the time came around, Matt, Sam, Steven and I bundled into my car and we went back to Paramount Drive for some Vietnamese at Pho Bien. Not fully satisfied, we drove to Parnell for some absolutely delicious Chocolate Boutique where we shared a Share Indulgence and a Chocolate Fondue. The night was still young, so we visited our old haunts, Yifans and Cue City before heading back home... via Momo's.

On Monday, I met up with the remnants of my schoolmates - namely, Mat and Graeme - for brunch in Mt. Eden and ice cream at Ollies, and since Graeme and I hadn't been to Mat's flat on the shore, we followed his SUV over the bridge, maintaining a safe distance to prevent my car being overwhelmed with gas fumes and smoke. We played some table tennis for a while, and even got some awesome rallies going (but they were shortlived because Mat kept stuffing them up) and I would have loved to continue but I had to drop Graeme back home.

I had a simple meal with dad before heading to the airport and arrived back in cold, overcast Wellington.

Sigh.

Oh well, at least it's a short week this week, and also, I'll be up in Auckland this weekend anyway.

So today, Matt and the two Sams were like "So you wanna have ramen?" and I was like "...OKAY!" so we bundled into the car and went to Kiraku on Elliot Street in the city. I had a Chashuu Ramen, which was very nice; I really like how they give you chopped garlic at Kiraku, because it gives the soup just that extra tang of flavour.

Not quite satisfied yet, we decided we would go to the Chocolate Boutique in Parnell. So we did. We had issues parking (I almost hit someone as well, but it was all sweet), but eventually we found a place about 5 minutes walk away, so it wasn't too bad. I had a mango creme mousse, Matt and big Sam had a chocolate frappe, while little Sam had an Italian Denso.

Still not fully satisfied, we went to Momo's where I had a champagne and grape nata, and three lamb sticks. Mmmm. So great.

At this point in time, I think I could do with a bit more food. Maybe some waffles or some of Cinta's famous chocolate pudding. Or maybe some more sticks at Momo's. Yeah. I'm hungry :3

On a small admin note: I changed my tag board a bit so that the tags with more hits are bigger in size. Ooooooh flashy.