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*****!

I have got myself a second job as a waitress in a hotel a few doors up from the Mousetrap called the Paihia Pacific. It has an air of Fawlty Towers and is not the most efficient of businesses. The couple that run it are Robin and David and they are very laid back. This makes for a good boss who's never on your back but not for the urgency one often encounters in the Hospitality trade! They are lovely though and are appreciative of their staff and shout beers after work sometimes.

The restaurant has around 40 covers and is mainly frequented by tour groups - odd couples, glamorous old ladies, grumpy old men with a few middle-aged singletons thrown in. It's not difficult work but it's years since I did any 'waiting on' and my first night saw me make some boobs. The grumpiest of the grumpy old men, a Yank, had been causing trouble all night and asking for things that weren't on the menu, 'I just wanna Goddammned burger Goddammit!'. Now clearing isn't my forte and I tend to stack stuff up and hope for the best. This proved fatal however in the cramped area between the tables and inevitably the whole lot went over. To my horror, I saw a mayonnaise coated knife summersault through the air and fall, smearing the full length of the grumpy man's back, clattering to the floor. Fortunately, he was so old that he didn't really notice and I was able to wipe his lambswool cardy down without too much embarrassment.

So Jake (who worked for years in Catering and Events and has served Bill Clinton, Royalty and the like) spent an afternoon with me teaching me how to serve and clear and I have tried to put it into practice this week. On Saturday we had an alcohol-free wedding for 80 people from the local Brethren church. All of them seemed to be clones of each other. The women wore no make-up and all had very long hair tied up in an identical fashion. It kinda freaked me out - it was like being in an episode of The Sullivans! We were rushed off our feet but had a good laugh all the same and polished off the wedding cake left-overs! Ha ha!

The kitchen is mainly staffed by Maoris and they are a mental lot. There's blazing rows, confusion and things thrown but lots of howling laughter too and they were very patient with me at the start.