16-20 Nov – Yes, I’m still in Quito.  With the same daily schedule.  Get up around 6pm, maybe eat something, maybe shower, then head to Finn McCools to drink beer, play pool, and chat with all-comers until closing time.  Repeat.

But – some variations.  Organised a pool tournament on Sunday night.  Badly – eventually publicised it the day beforehand.  So – on the night, it was pretty much the staff, and the regulars who can be depended on to be here every night.  Like me.  I didn’t win.  Was given food poisoning though – just like the All Blacks.  Ursula took me to get some chinese just beforehand.  Spicy chinese didn’t go down too well, after 5 weeks of eating nothing but irish stew, shepherds pie, and sandwiches.  I’m pretty sure Ursula did this on purpose.  She didn’t win either – but that’s not the point.  I got knocked out in the semi’s by Gus.  All due to food poisoning.  Bastard cheating Irish sticking together.  Once again though, they eventually got defeated by the english.

Am currently planning on getting a bus north at 5am on Thursday morning.  Have to stay here for tomorrow, so that I can make sure everybody in the hostel comes to this pub for the england gayball game.  Then returning to Quito by the 20th December – so that I can either fly out of here on the 23rd, or – if there’s no tickets left – sometime between Jeebersmas and New Years, after cooking a Jeebersmas dinner for the pub on Jeebersmas Day.

Well – that’s all for now.  Hopefully the next update will be entitled something other than “Quito”.

11-15 Nov – And still here. Have a credit card, so can leave. But haven’t yet. Hopefully will on Monday or Tuesday. But have figured out I will probably return anyway – as flights from here are about a third of those from Bogota.

Pete, a ginga englishman left recently. He’d been here longer than me. And the pub threw a party for him – decorations everywhere. Model of him on the ceiling. Etcetera.

Had my first night behind a bar, serving people other than myself. Discovered something more I’m not good at. But think I improved hugely over the night. And people walking in, seeing me on the wrong side of the bar, were usually left in stitches, once they realised I wasn’t just stealing booze for myself. And it was good fun. Harder work than I expected – but still fun. And hardly any time to actually drink anything myself – which can only be a good thing.

Also – my website seems to have disk space stolen from it. So I can’t empty my inbox, or receive emails, or update photos, or anything. Except this – hopefully – as the space should already exist, inside a database. Hopefully. So – please send emails to my hotmail account, or my gmail account. Gmail account starts with krusekruse.

01 Nov-10 Nov – Waiting in Quito for my credit card.  Am about to spend my last cash tonight for my bartab.  Have possibly gone over my balance already – but lovely Ursula has offered to lend me cash until the card arrives.  Hopefully she wasn’t drunk at the time, and still remembers.

In other news, I got a phone call from the National Bank.  Turns out somebody has spent just over $2,300 New Zealand dollars on my card.  And the nice lady from the fraud department suggested that the manner of my losing my card was my own fault, and therefore I’m going to be liable for the money spent.  Wrote an email to them last night while rather intoxicated, but wisely waited until tonight so I could check what I’d written.  Wasn’t too bad when I did check it.  Had to describe the exact circumstances through which I lost my card.  I don’t think it’s going to go down too well.  And using the free internet at Finn McCools to write important emails to my bank which will decide whether or not I lose over 2 grand is possibly not a good idea.

Anyway, other events have been… guy turning up at hostel at 4am, in tears.  I stay up all night talking to him, and consoling him.  Girlfriend had beaten him up.  Nice.  Two nights later, acting as a bouncer here at Finns, stopping the ex-military Rick from killing a very drunk Arsetralian who’d just grabbed a glass off somebody and then deliberately dropping it on the ground.  Rick is like me in that he feels that this pub is his house, and the people here his family.  I had to use that in order to stop him from going nuts.  “This is my house too – and you’re not going to do anything in my house… your house.”

As well as being bouncer, counsellor, and all round good guy – have done a couple stints of relationship counselling, and a little bit of security escort for people between the bar and the hostel.  There’s been a few dodgy incidents in the street immediately outside my hostel over the last week. Have stopped carrying my passport with me – and hoping that if the police talk to me, they’ll accept the option of coming to the hostel to inspect my identification.  I believe that the law states they must – but the law here is rather, ummm, fluid.

Anyway, must go.  Necessito tengo una juego de pool, e mas cerveza.  Mas cerveza qual no tengo deniro para.  Caio.

01-04 Nov – Same old.  Except rather more sedate.  Not much point in doing daily updates – as each day has consisted of sleeping in as much as possible, eating, and then going to good old Finn McCools for some pool and chatting with people.  Only breaks in the routine have been:

- my credit card is gone.  Which means I’m stuck here until a replacement arrives.  Not too upset about that really – as I was finding it difficult to find motivation to leave.  Now I have an excuse to stay without feeling guilty.  And when I do get a replacement – it will definitely be time to move on.  But – how my credit card is gone.  I used it as a bond while I borrowed two wine glasses from a nearby cafe/bar.  When I returned the glasses, they told me the card was gone.  Have cancelled it of course – and it doesn’t look like anybody managed to do anything dodgy with it.

- the other extraordinary happening, Finn’s was closed last night!  It really was a devastating thing.  I couldn’t believe it.  Apparently there were people wandering listlessly all over the nearby streets – asking each other if they knew what was going on.  Not sure if it’s a bad reflection on ourselves – or a good reflection on how much of a homely place the pub has become.  And it was supposed to be the day when I’d have a go at working behind the bar.  Ursula wants me to work behind the bar.  Lee wants to hire me as a bouncer.  Or wants me to get by until my credit card arrives by hustling pool.  Me – I’m trying to eat as much as possible at the hostel so that the cost goes on my account.  And have moved into a private room, seeing as I’m here for a while longer.

Pen – don’t worry, I’m not going to settle down here and become a fulltime barman in Ecuador.  Will really get moving as soon as possible.

21 Oct-31 Oct - Yeah, I know it’s been a long time.  Sorry.  And about having to write it all in one update.  Problem is – I haven’t actually achieved anything other than drinking lots, sleeping little, and eating little.  Spent one night after pub closing with the owners.  And then the husband/boyfriend left.  So just me and Ursula.  Chatting away – and when we first realised what the time was, it was 2pm the next day.  Lee (manfriend) not particularly happy.  Have also spent a couple of other nights awake all night chatting to people.  Two of these times happened consecutively – so I decided to test the theory I’d heard a long long time ago – that after 72 hours without sleep, one starts to hallucinate.  Turns out it’s true.  Cool little hallucinations.  One other guy did the experiment with me.  I took him to bed as an unintelligable animal.  Checked on him later, and he was whimpering in his sleep.  Poor chap – broke him.

Have been referred to by lots of people as the King Of The Hostel.  But hoping to leave very soon.  Have spent yesterday and today catching up on sleep.  Next day or two will be spent building up the health more.  And then I can leave.  And that’s about all that’s happened over the last ten days.  I think.