How to become Xenophobic in one easy lesson:- Live in a hostel. Further to my "isn't it great to learn about other cultures" postcard, I have reassessed my views in light of recent events. Living in a hostel for a long period and seeing a huge volume of people come and go, one gets a real insight into the foibles of certain races and nations. Especially when you're cleaning up after them. Apologies to anyone who may be offended by the following comments. The...

So we had bonfire night on the beach. Tomo bought the fireworks and was in charge of letting them off which mainly involved him putting them as near to us as possible and laughing manically while we ran screaming for cover. Everyone here (including children!) especially love the hand-held type of rocket that blasts 7 or 8 times over a distance of about 50 metres. Tomo enjoyed pointing these in our direction and aiming at boats moored off the beach. Crazy b*****! ...

So what have i learned this week? 'Salu' is Japanese for 'monkey' but 'Chin Chin' is Japanese for 'willy'. You can't get child's urine out of carpets with Fabreeze and a flannel. Don't forget to keep your mouth closed when you're scrubbing toilets in a hurry. Captain BirdsEye lives in Paihia. Tomo has been teaching me Japanese and telling me about his life in Japan. Tokyo he doesn't like because it's polluted and crowded. Arson is a real problem in hi...

So life goes on in Paihia and i am now very much a resident. Have installed myself in the staff quarters at the Mousetrap with mad brilliant Stephanie from Dublin. No more sleeping in bunk beds - YAY! We have a team meeting at 10 am to see what needs doing and go to work. This means that every day i get a marvellous lie in and have my porridge at leisure. My job is to change the beds and straighten up the twin and double rooms that have checked out, then clean...

I packed up the car on Thursday the 7th and said goodbye to Ellie and Stu in the pouring rain. The drive up North was quite tough as it was raining so hard. The cloud was very low and visibility was not good - i had my windscreen wipers on full blast but i still couldn't see much. After 4 hours (including a wee stop) i arrived in Paihia and wasn't exactly blown away. i have realised since that's because the sun wasn't shining, because when it does, this place i...