waitangi day pub crawl

i've been partying with all the kiwis in london today. yup, every single one of them.

monday is waitangi day, a public holiday in new zealand to celebrate the signing of the treaty of waitangi, new zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840 (thanks to wikipedia for that). they celebrate that here with a pub crawl at all the stops along the circle line (or as many as you can manage before you throw up). you go from pub to pub (or end up loitering on the street with a beer can in your hand, as all the pubs end up full) until 4pm, when everyone congregates in front of the parliament buildings in westminster. the kiwi men then proceed to take off their tops (woohoo!) and do a haka dance.

holy crap, i have never seen so many kiwis in all my life! it seems like there are more here than in new zealand! kiwigirl and luce gave me a kiwi top to wear - i was kiwi for the day - but i felt like an imposter, as everyone knew all the words to the kiwi songs that they sang while we were squished onto the tube, and here i was thinking "what the heck are they singing?" i did know the words to a crowded house song, so i guess i blended in a little.

highlights: the number of hot guys everywhere, a bunch of them dressed up as sheep, or elvis, or completely naked - yes, we had a streaker run down the road at one point. we did indeed take pictures, so hopefully once i get them from kiwigirl i can post them here.

anyhoo, much beer was drunk and much fun was had. kiwigirl and i passed out on her bed for about a couple of hours, waking up to a post-pub-crawl-drunk-off-your-butt headache. don't worry, i feel better now.

came home and watched "interview with a vampire" on tv. i have a funny memory of going to see the movie in the theatre; canuckian and i ditched mr. bing and brown goddess for surround sound, as our tickets were in the theatre with surround sound and their tickets were not. ha ha ha, good times...

thanks be to kiwigirl and luce for letting a canadian tag along today!

CET