So there I was…

It’s not every day you find yourself in Fiji. Especially when this morning you were getting your kitchen installed, after your wife had just melted down about how bad the kitchen was.

I bagged my stuff and tools of my trade and shuffled out the door of a wet Lower Hutt Friday, just as trades men were walking in carrying all manner of modern appliance and whiteware.

Cats, no where to be seen, weren’t sitting around waiting to wave me off for the next nine days.

Deadbeat animals.

I’m sure cats were put on this Earth to prove the truth that not everything needs a purpose.

But I digress.

Four hours later, it was a cool and grey December day, when we touched the ground in JFK, hot and steamy October day, when I touched down in Nadi International A’

(another digression, but I’ll allow it because Angel of Harlem is cool)

Impressions of Nadi

From what I’ve seen, Nadi is not a pretty town. But also neither is cake batter before the baked cake has been iced. Or beat up eggs before someone’s fried them, and added ham and cheese to make an omelette. I’m staying at the Nadi International Transit, and here’s the view from the corner intersection:

Granted, it doesn’t look like much, but one of these buildings is a Westfield Shopping Centre – or the start of one (Doh! Its behind me when I took this photo). And all around this cluster of new modern buildings close to an international airport are a whole bunch of export firms. And these buildings are modern.

My spidey economic senses are twitching – this is something that might be building…

Why aren’t my spidey senses going nuts? Well…. look at the streets. Look at the “other” building on the corner opposite the red building (the Nadi International Transit, btw) that’s either getting constructed really badly, or being deconstructed really badly.

Hard to tell, but which ever way its trajectory is going, its not a work of art. Its more like a work of low skill, low labour productivity.

And that my friends is why this area is a beaten egg, not an omelette. Or a messy bowl of batter, not a lovely cake. Its almost like whoever started making something going in the right direction got distracted by, gee I don’t know – what’s for dinner tonight – and never got back to finishing whatever job they’d started.

My cats do the same. Maybe Nadi is made by cats?

Somebody’s horse has stumbled galloping out of the gate, and now Harry Half-Arsed done pay them a visit and stopped this place being super awesome… *sigh*

Culture Alive and Kicking

Meet the Sassy Kava!

Woo hoo!! What a place! Meet the locals:

These hardworking backbones of Nadi industry are telecommunications Linesmen. And like most Linesmen all around the world, they want nothing better on a Friday than to let their hair down and drink some kava with their mates.

Especially since the dude in red was sporting a nasty thumb injury, thanks to the tip-top skills of the dude in grey who pulled a piece of wire at exactly the wrong time, and sliced nice and deep into his thumb.

They told me their names, but I could barely hear them because they spoke so softly. I hope Man in Grey paid for kava all night. 🙂

Anyway, the place was PACKED! Everyone was sitting around in their friendship groups drinking Kava at their tables, with live music playing. It was a real privilege to be allowed to hang out with these guys for a bit of authentic Fiji social culture 🙂

Here’s some videos of the band, laying down some Phat Trax!

Go to the Sassy Kava 🙂