What Saturdays should always be like

The Lantern Festival was totally enchanting last night.

But I'll start at the beginning. Saturday was a great day, all in all. Early afternoon, we drove to Narrow Neck in Devonport and chilled out in the sun for a while. (The shockingly bad sunburn complete with sunblocked finger marks on the backs of my thighs didn't make itself felt for another six or seven hours). Nice swim, and with beach hair intact it was back to the city and a bit of down time before heading to the Auckland Zoo to see Lucid 3 and Pluto.

Chris Cope played a solo set, and Lucid 3 were next. They played so well - must get a copy of their album. Towards the end of the set Lindi and I decided to take a look around the zoo. We traipsed along path after path before finding ourselves at the lions' enclosure, and immediately felt validated. Misgivings over the animals' quality of life aside, this is truly a magnificent creature. I stood agog and took about a dozen pictures... this one is best: Lucid 3 were really good, and then Pluto played. They were really good too! I was raving to Lindi about how much I like the song 'Hey Little', and quoting lyrics, and she dismissed me with a deft, "You're clucky." What can you say to that? Afterwards we convoyed to Parnell to collect some boys at the Big House, then we set off for the Chinese Lantern Festival. It was so so pretty! I hope you had a chance to see it, people of Auckland.

Then we went to retrieve the car, through the university, and following a brief stop on a lawn to spin some yarns I instigated a bit of tree-climbing. Can I get three cheers for tree-climbing!! It's not often you come across a suitable tree, at a suitable time. I did manage to bash my toe though. Mm, not so pretty. Rather similar to this injury, last January.

After that there was a birthday party, (with cheesecake!) and then Fu Bar for Coco Solid. That was great even though I got there so late there were only two songs left.