G.G.I.F (good god- it's Friday...)

“Ladies, have you ever had a man...
go away for business and come back with a tan?”
Things that make you go hmmm- C&C music Factory

“If our Lord wasn't testing us, how would you account for the proliferation, these days of this obscene rock and roll music...?”
The Reverand- Footloose


Ma- is the Samoan word for embarrassed or shy...and after months of trying to convince myself, friends and family that I'm not on holiday, I am rather working quite hard- it's with mild embarrassment that I have to confess the last couple of Friday nights have had some fairly holiday'sh overtones...(I thank my Catholic education for the vague sense of guilt that pursues me whenever I find myself having a good time.)

My cuzzie, aka Messy Flowers, accompanied me to Waitangi Day celebrations at the NZ High Comm last Friday night. Attended by everyone who's anyone on the island- it is the High Commission's premier event of the year- and as ever, they ensured that the Kiwi volunteers here were all included, and even extended to allow us guests like Messy. (By comparrison- Australia Day at the the other high comm became a divisive affair when volunteers were invited, but their partners were not...splitting couples like communities in 'Straya Day tradition. I'll bet 2:1 that someone ended up blind with an aussie flag wrapped cloaklike around their shoulders beligerantly discussing immigration policy using footy metaphors and words of two syllables or less).

Waitangi Day was an exceptionally tasteful affair...with the Samoan PM, the Head of State, a choir, a haka, a bar, some nibbles and everyone dressed to the 9's. We managed not to lower the tone (until after we left, at which time the tone plummeted to a very dingy nightclub for about 30 minutes, followed by Macdonalds...). However, the highlight of the night had to be walking home, when a van pulled up to offer us a lift...and ex All Black, horticulturalist and all-round nice-guy Vaiinga Tuigamala politely delivered us home.


The Samaoa Chamber of Commerce also held their 2014 end of year Christmas function...on Friday the 13th of February. You haven't experienced time confusion, until you've celebrated a xmas celebration, Friday the 13th and Valentines day within a 24 hours – I wondered if I was going to wake up to Easter eggs.

In a room full of Apia's business community and political players (the PM, a couple of cabinet ministers, overseas dignitaries, and more CEO's than a dual subscription to Forbes and CLEO magazines...), it was difficult to distinguish where the charitable funding ended and the commerce began...but it appeared to be somewhere between the raw tuna and the beer towers.

With 6 bottles of wine and a Vailima “Beer Tower” to each table of 8 Samoans, the result looked dangerously like an NRL awards gig. We only had 6 people on our table...the beer tower was refilled once (the equivalent of about 20 stubbies each time)- and on departure, the empty wine bottles were filled with beer and taken home. One guy at our table was deligated sober driver- which left 12L of beer, and 6 bottles of wine and the equivalent of a small chicken and a large tuna in absentia amid just 5 people...

It's uncomfortable to think of charitable funding as you watch that kind of devastaion wrought on a bar and numerous platters. Tickets were sold for the CoC* event- so it wasn't publicly funded- but the stark contrast to the 3rd world (as described by the UN) requirements for Samoa's “other” public is not an enjoyable one to stand amidst. The PM's long, boring and seemingly insincere speech on Samoa's development goals didn't help (a new cruise ship port....um, ok, not my suggested starting point, but I don't have a degree in Social Development...).

The startlingly good band helped- nailing everything from Princes “Purple Rain” to Grease classic duet “You're the one that I want”- with the female lead sung more or less accurately by a dude who looked like Inga, and sounded like Olivia. It's hard to be cynical when they're playing "Footloose"...it gets easier when you wake up the following day.

*CoC= Chamber of Commerce