> Yesterday I was out of town all day for an interview in another city. This was for a writer's position and it would require me to move to a city I don't particularly want to move to, but it's just one more option I'm keeping open. It was a perfect day for driving through the country -- just me, Cat Stevens, the Eagles, and Bob Marley the whole way, with all the windows down and nothing on the road the whole way except sunshine and the occasional squashed possum. Halfway there, I got a phone call from *another* possible employer, the hanging-around-for-six-months one. I have ruled out taking this job unless I get desperate, as the pay is crap, but told him I would be happy to do freelance writing work for him instead. So he was calling to ask whether, since I was on my way to Hamilton anyway, would I mind continuing south to Te Kuiti after my interview, to track down a guy there who had invented an infra-red beam thingy for weighing sheep, and write a story about it? Cooool.

Most un-ewes-ual.

>...through wonderful places such as Kihikihi (which my RinkWorks-deprived mind read as Kikikiki on at least two different signs)...

Ah! That's what her label meant!

> By the way, I added another name to the list of "places to take RinkWorks regulars if they ever visit me." Turn off as you go through Ngaruawahia, and five minutes down the road to Gordonton is....CANDYLAND. Yes. In the middle of nowhere, there it is. Heaven. A candy factory which not only sells every kind of candy there is, but offers enough free samples to explode twenty people. Not to mention at least fifteen different kinds of fudge. Oooooggg...

How many cards did you have to draw to get there?

> The trip took a lot longer than it normally would, due to the almost continual roadworks. Following what seem to be the national roadworks regulations, the construction gangs were made up in the usual ratio of seven Rastafarians to two very old men with huge potbellies. By international law, of course, only one of these would be actually working at any given time while the rest stand around watching him with interest.
>
> On arrival in Te Kuiti, I located the guy, and as a result I am now trying to write a story aimed at the international electronics industry, about a spectacular new advance in livestock weighing technology. Woo hoo! I'll let you know when it's published, as I'm sure you are all extremely interested. ;-) It's lucky I'm a fast learner.
>
> Anyway, back to Auckland after a REALLY long day but a fun one, to find a whole bunch more requests for interviews waiting on my answerphone. So, things are looking good. I don't know when I'll be back here on a more regular basis, or where I'll be living or what I'll be doing when I am, but I hope to sort something out soon. :-)

That seems to be the consensus.

> Brunnen-"so! it weighs up to 1250 lambs an hour, huh? That's *fascinating*...no, really...."G

Nyperold
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