stand out - when your bored, write in a blog. everyone else is just looking at porn.

That should be a sufficient justification for this whole thing.

Anyhow, the boredom continues. Barbecue earlier tonight - I think ill stick to grilling steaks henceforth - I had found these delicious prawn skewers this afternoon at the Auckland Fish Market (more on that in a moment), and I marinated them in a spicy sauce and Cajun spices. BUT when I went to grill them, first I severely undercooked them: the first shrimp was decent, but about 10 minutes after eating it, I got this sudden nasty feeling in my stomach, like I felt like I was going to be sick right there. I thought to look down at the shrimp, and upon going back to my flat and retrieving my watch, which can't tell time but still has a wicked intense light on it, and looking, sure enough - the shrimp weren't cooked. At all. Back to the barbie they went. For a long time.

Of course, in my attempts to keep me alive at least one more night, I overcompensated to the point that the shrimp shriveled up and were permanently adhered to the skewers. Yum, rubber-like shrimp. However, as my friend Sam put it, the barbecue has more or less become his oven - in that there will probably be another cookout tomorrow evening. And for that, I have a steak that will have been marinating in a basic brine and Worcestershire sauce for just about 30 hours...and if I screw up a steak, well I just don't deserve the title of "man," now do I?

I have found my thoughts starting to stray back to what I will do upon returning home - don't get me wrong, it's amazing here, the friends I've made are wonderful, and I hope to keep in touch with a substantial majority of them (preferably all...). But, I think when November does come, it will be time to go back to Boston. I already have a list of culinary things I plan upon embarking in the second I return - UHOP for buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks, "Worst Pizza Place Ever" (aka Pizza Pie-er on Mass Ave) for their jalapeño poppers...ugh the list could go on forever.

(for the record, because I know of corporate types trolling blogs and sites similar to this to get true opinions on products, Pizza Pie-er is actually wicked awesome...)

OH yes, I forgot - the fish market. It is very neat to see - sadly I didn't bring my camera...but I'll probably be going at least once again in the near future to get more things. However, it could not be in a more sketchy location of Auckland - at least on the weekend, as all that are around it are fishery-related factories, which looked fairly desolate - actually completely desolate. Although there is a shuttle from center city to the area, I decided it was a nice day and I didn't want to wait a half-hour, so I walked out to it.

The first 2/3rds of the walk are through what I'm going to guess are reclaimed port areas. What I mean by that is, probably 10, 15 years ago, the area was probably also really run down factories and other industrial type things, but since that point, they have been redeveloped into upscale condominiums and workplaces (e.g. I walked past...Vodafone, Microsoft, HP, you get the idea). But, quite literally, I turned the corner, and all there was were desolate streets and closed factories...if this were any city in the U.S. I'd be concerned about getting mugged (regardless of it being the middle of the afternoon) - the market was an oasis in a desert of shit, quite frankly.

Within - the most diverse selection of fresh fish and crustaceans I've seen in quite a long time - I don't even think we have a permanent market like this in Boston. Yes, we have Haymarket...but that is really just a summer thing...more or less a large-scale farmers market with other things. Also, found a shop that had good quality meats, cheeses, and (hopefully) pies - bought one of those. But I don't think it would be worth going all the way to the viaduct unless its for fish.