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07/21/2004: "Boobs on Bikes"
2:00 pm – Just finished the “Boobs on Bikes” Parade through Auckland and wow was it fun! We were all sort of dreading it thinking that it was kind of a weird promotion, especially to hold a topless (totally legal here) bike run in the middle of winter (yes it’s winter here), not to mention we all knew we were going to freeze our asses off. After all, at best it was in the high 50’s and it was pouring rain at 5 am this morning. We gathered at the Vixen offices at 11:30, were paired up with bikers (mine was named Guy), bundled up for the ride toward downtown and sent on our way. Jacklyn Lick, Dolorian and Hayley (NZ’s first Penthouse Pet) rode in a big red convertible leading the parade. On the freeway, with the wind rushing by, I was soooo cold but once we got to the designated start point they took our jackets and away we went! I was surprised to find that I really wasn’t that cold at all! My hands were a little chilly, and there were definitely pockets of air coming off the ocean which sent a chill to the bone now and again, but the combination of driving slower and being downtown between the buildings made quite a difference. It was truly amazing watching the people line up along the streets downtown (this is an annual event, and highly publicized), waving, shouting and taking pictures. Women were even getting into it waving, giving us the thumbs up alongside the men and calling out to us! Man, that certainly wouldn’t have been the case in America! I saw one woman, standing on a median with a baby and she was making the baby wave to us all as we went by! A lot of people were obviously surprised and you could watch a lot of heads turn and tons of people fumbling with their phones to take pictures. We drove though downtown, where I observed the oldest building being 1909, I realized that New Zealand is relatively new country, at least in the cities, compared to America even. It reminds me a bit of a not-quite so charming and newer Seattle, but maybe that’s just cause it’s on the water and they have one of those big needles in the middle of the city. While driving down K Street where the sex shops are, Shayla squeals and points at a building – there is an enormous billboard on the front of it from the movie Smells Like Sex, the boxcover featuring Shayla, Juli Ashton, Jenna and myself (blond); that was so cool, I am going to have to try to get a picture of it before I go. We gathered at the end of the route for photo ops before heading back to the Vixen offices and lunch at, appropriately enough, the Cock & Bull. On the ride back my biker, Guy, revved it up for me a bit going faster, I got a little sentimental at that point, as we zoomed back through Auckland, thinking how cool it really is sometimes being a porn star. Look at the places I get to go and the strange and fun experiences I get to have – all things I probably would have never had the opportunity to do had I done anything else for a living. I think of my parents, who are in their 50’s now and have been relatively nowhere, certainly not out of the country, and I am extremely happy and thankful for the experiences I get to enjoy! Being a porn star has it is ups and downs but stuff like this is certainly one of the perks!
7:00 pm: We are all back at the hotel to enjoy some resting - after all we are continuing to try to adjust and shake off the jet lag – Syren scheduled massages for us all this evening and Jacklyn and I went and sat in the hotel’s really nice private Jacuzzi (oh, we are so going to be shooting content for all our sites in there!) getting all relaxed before. After the wonderful massage, we ordered up some room service and watched a movie on the portable DVD player, falling asleep in the middle of it. Ah, life is good.
***I will try to add an entry or two over the next couple days, but the convention days are long and hectic so the next entry may be on Monday (that's Sunday to you...).
