But settling down - working, paying bills, having a schedule - begins to feel monotonous.
Being in the van certainly has its draw backs, but ultimately it's freeing.
We're free to wake up whenever and just drive: as far as we want, wherever we want, and when we get tired it's as simple as pulling over. We need nothing but a tank full of petrol, some food in our cooler and a good song bumping on the iPod.
Being broke and having to work in order to replenish my savings makes me feel stuck and a little stir crazy. I feel as if I'm on a treadmill, constantly walking, but never progressing; making enough to get by, but never enough to flourish. It's extremely frustrating especially since I've grown accustomed to the nomad life.
One day, as I'm scrolling through the Raglan Notice Board, a post catches my eye. Foo Fighters tickets for sale: only $125.00 each for the floor, when they retail for $165.00. I mention this casually to Jordan whose eyes light up with excitement.
"Fran! We have to go! Haven't you always wanted to see Foo Fighters?"
I begin with my usual bevy of excuses:
1) I need to save money
2) I work weekends and probably can't get the time off work
3) It's all the way in Auckland
But then I stop myself. Because...
1) I'm saving money in order to have these incredible experiences
2) My work needs me more than I need them. If they can't let me leave a little early and come in a little late, screw them! It's a perfect excuse to quit
3) We have the van. It's simply a matter of filling our girl up, throwing in some bedding and hitting the road.
I want adventure! I want experiences! I want to say YES to every opportunity, YES to life. So I do.
I immediately message the poster to ask about the tickets, along with a few others who have expressed interest. She takes a lifetime to respond. Finally, she tells me they are still available and I can pick them up that night.
When I arrive at their house her husband hands them to me.
"You're getting a really good deal on these you know," he tells me bitterly.
"Thanks. Why can't you guys go?"
"When you have kids, unexpected issues arise," he tells me and leaves it at that.
Oh well, your loss is my gain!
Jordan and I fill the van with snacks and supplies and we're en route to Auckland.
As we make out way North we proceed further and further into a looming storm cloud. It starts to rain, hard. Soon it's a torrential downpour unlike anything I've experienced before. I can barely make out the road directly in front of me. This worries us as the venue is entirely outdoors.
"I see blue skies further ahead," I tell Jordan as we enter Auckland. "I think we'll pass right through this and the sun will come through the clouds just in time for Foo Fighters."
We follow the directions to 'Three Kings' to stay with the ever gracious Jeff. We just want to park out van on his street. He does us one better and offers us the fold out couch.
We open the sliding door of the van and a case of beer comes tumbling out causing a bottle to shatter. We attempt to scoop up the broken pieces. Once in Jeff's house, Jordan starts to open her bottle of cider and pink, sticky liquid comes foaming over, spilling all over the white countertops.
We're off to a great start.
We sit out on the patio with Jeff and his lovely flatmates, Alex and Mitch and throwback a few beers. The rain has letup and the sky has brightened substantially. They want to go get food so Mitch offers to drive us to the show. The tickets state that the gates open at 6:40. We round that up to 7:00 knowing that shows never start on time so we assume that 7:30 will give us enough time to catch the opening act, Rise Against. We are so wrong. When we arrive we can hear Dave Grohl's voice ringing across the grounds. We're confused and bewildered and start sprinting down towards the floor. Our fears are confirmed. Somer random guy I ask claims they've been playing for a while and that Rise Against already finished a full set (we'd later find out that the show started much earlier than scheduled.) Disappointed, we make out way through the crowd and make another startling discovery: The floor has been divided into two sections and ours is in the back. We can only get so close before we reach a gate guarded by security. In front of the gate in the "first class" section there are barely any people and HEAPS of space.
I begin trying to convince people around me to all bum rush the fence.
"They can't segregate us like this!" I cry.
It doesn't work.
The show is awesome, despite our late arrival and some rather shoddy acoustics. Foo plays for almost 4 HOURS! And they go hard the entire time. They do all their classics, a few songs off their new album, a couple Nirvana songs and a couple other covers. We dance like fools the entire time. When the show ends we're buzzing from the excitement. We join the masses exiting the stadium and notice that some very clever girls have set up a barbecue and are selling sausage sizzles (aka sausages and onion in sandwich bread, still weird to me!)
We eat 2. Each. And I immediately wish I had more. We start making our way in the direction of Jeff's house while simultaneously trying to wave down a cab.
A cab stops and the driver asks, "Where to?" We tell him and he keeps asking us for directions. Why do they do this? I'm obviously not from Auckland. I guess the point is to confirm that we have no idea how to get there, because he takes the longest route humanly possible and the meter continues to rise. Fantastic.
Back on Jeff's cul-de-sac there are heaps of cars and loud thumping music radiating from near his house. We walk past a car and see a guy fully passed out, but still sitting upright inside.
We quickly realize the part is actually taking place at their sketchy neighbours house, but at Jeff's, the floor is littered with beer bottles and a dance party has broken out. My throat hurts from yelling and I'm pooped, so I'm grateful that we're not going out.
We hit the hay pretty fast, in the morning its back to Raglan for another day of work.
A little weekend out of the ordinary, necessary for the sanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment