a) i was late home and b) I was sober. Best laid plans of Mish and Men come to naught. By the time I left work and walked up to the PlayHouse, it was just after 7pm. Mike had parked himself at a table by the door so I spotted him instantly; Allen arrived in short order. Sonia and her girlfriends arrived about half an hour later. With Greg arriving in timely fashion. And why all this meeting? We all had tickets to Billy Connolly at the Aotea's ASB Theatre last night. All in different seats because tickets hadn't been easy to come by.

Billy Connolly is brilliant. I watched fondly as if he was an old friend - I've seen him a couple of times before. I was too tired to actually laugh all that much but I still managed to laugh out the loudest at times. He came out on stage a little after 8pm - no announcements, we knew who were where here to see. He explained what he was going to do - how he would talk and tell stories, how some of the stories didn't have punchlines, how some of the punchlines came first rather than last, how some of the stories didn't have reasons. He then proceeded to give an example of a circular story with tangents and no punchline. It was like a navigational guide for his show.

He talked and talked and laughed at himself and others and talked and worked and worked, the perspiration beginning to show on his black shirt. No intermission and no relent. He mantained momentum and control for the nearly 2-and-a-half-hour show and then he said "goodnight Auckland" and left.

He's brilliant. Best line from the show of many lines that I'll never remember "he should be fucked and burned". Oh, and how he liked the missionary position: standing in a big pot of water staring whistfully towards Mother England while they stoked the fires.

We regrouped and went to the pub. I was too tired to talk much. Too tired to even drink. And hungry beyond belief.

Bands in bars should be banned. What is with that - some noisey covers band banging on and on and 6 people dancing and the rest of us screaming at each other trying to be heard. There's a time and a place and I'm saying No to bands in bars.

Today is Saturday; I slept late. Now it's just gone mid-afternoon and I've done little of anything. I ate apple sponge cake for breakfast/lunch - can thoroughly recommend it as a breakfast of champions - right up there with cold pizza, Boxing Day trifle and service-station-mince-pies.

I know it's been a little disappointing around here - updates have been hard to comeby and fixing the broken bits is difficult with my work schedule at the moment. I can't promise anything changing in the near future. I'm going to Sydney for a week so I might have stuff to say if I find a means to get it online.