Camels and Ginger Beer

“Look for camels in their preferred areas first i.e. near salt lakes, in areas of new plant growth, around the edges of clay pans (preferred sleeping areas and first areas for new plant growth) and in lightly wooded areas. Don't exclude the tops of hills or ranges as camels are adept climbers.”

www.camelaust.com


I’ve had vague thoughts of celebrating my thirtieth in sober fashion, in fact, I suggested to my friend whose having his at the same time, that we go pig hunting. I can just see myself stumbling along in the bush, gun at the ready, praying I don't come accross a boar. I guess the idea was to find some long lost manliness. My friend said he wasn’t into killing.

Yes, the last time I felt slightly manly was back in Griffith, Australia, Cotton Picking with a few rodeo boys. After a hot and dusty day's work, back at the camp by the Billabong, one of the rodeo guys used to talk about working as a camel spotter in the Northern Territory. Now I do wish I had gone up there and given that kind of job a go, although I can’t ride a horse or a motorbike (and so I'm sure I would have caused others great amusement in my efforts to do so). The rodeo guy, James, had also been on a cattle boat to Indo: you spent your time hosing down shit, but the pay was OK apparently. By doing this I could have fulfilled a family tradition of working with cattle. I do have farmers back up the family tree, but I’m referring to the freezing works. My grandfather was a works' foremen, and my father worked there for a while when he was young.

These silly regrets aside – I’m sure the cattle boat would have been horrible – arrangements for my thirtieth have lead me, through the usual alcohol haze, to something I’ve been interested in for a while. We were in Havana bar last night (me and two other soon to be thirty year olds), checking it out as a possible party venue.

Now Havana is a great quintessentially Wellington bar (or so I have been instructed to write), but I do ask myself why all this Cuba mania here? Why not of course? We have three main drags in Wellington: Lampton Quay, Courtney Place and Cuba Street. How did this last one come to be called Cuba Street?*** Cuba Street is the main strip for cafes, one of these cafes being Fidel’s. Elsewhere in town Cuban coffee is ubiquitously advertised, and another café, called Cubito, has a frontage featuring the rather annoying Che portrait.

I’ve never really seen many Cubans round - although once came across a small newsletter for ex-pat Cubans, a ridiculously pro Castro affair, with articles mostly concerned about how cold the winter is here. Most Latinos in Welly are Argentinean, Brazilian or Chilean.

The Cubito people are Johnnie-come-latelys who want to cash in on the trendy Cuban theme, or so claimed one of the owners of Havana and Fidel’s last night. He seemed a nice chap and he's definitely got a bit of business nous. He wasn't particularly Cuba mad, just likes to buy coffee beans there. He also gets up to China to consult on opening cafes, and so we were able to chat about the craziness of that particular scene. He’s now trying to bring across another type of rum to compete with Havana Club, and good luck to him. One thing which did disturb me though, was that he drank his rum with ginger beer! For all I know this could be the way they do it in Cuba. I tried it – certainly went down well – but I dunno, seems like the height of bad taste.

I do feel like a ginger beer now however... Here's something (vaguely) amusing on the Wellington Cuba mania syndrome from Salient, the local university rag

***The street is named after an early settler ship to New Zealand, the Cuba. Always Wiki before asking old chap.