Close Encounters

So you know how everyone always goes on about how the 'travel' part of travelling sucks and being in airports is horrible and why is New Zealand so far away etc etc - I was always the guy that didn't mind the travel part, I always managed to find some adventures in there and you generally always meet some interesting people that have some pretty cool stories to tell. That was until this flight that I just finished a few hours ago.

It was 37 hours all up from Auckland to Madrid via LA and London and i'm ashamed to admit it here but after giving up smoking this year, i picked the habit back up a few months ago (i blame Barcelona in Summer for that). Anyways, it was a flight where in LA i wasn't allowed outside, and in London it was going to be a gamble with the timing and Heathrow as usual was crazy as - so here's me tense, tired, little bit stressy and stuck in one of those awful Heathrow styled security check lines. What did make it a bit more interesting is right next to me the whole wait was everyone's favorite bong hittin' West Coast Rapper - B-Real from Cypress Hill. Turns out they were on their way to Moscow for a gig and we started chatting. Lovely guy. Topics included - Russia, Vodka, Muggs being in New Zealand for New Years Eve, Lame-Ass Security Checks, British People and the really awesome documentary called 'Planet Rock - The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation' which he was interviewed in. My main point of this post is that I think you should go and watch the doco, very insightful exploration of the crack epidemic and it's affect on Hip-Hop music and culture. It's quite easy to find online, and if you can accept the fact that Ice-T is a really annoying narrator i'm sure you'll dig it.

Anyways, what did we learn? B-Real - good dude. Smoking - not cool.