flying into the future

Happy December 1st everybody! It is officially the first day of summer. It is my first real summer in a long time - i managed to skip last years by being in the wrong hemisphere. Should have picked my travel dates better - i'm definately a summer person.

It is hard to imagine that one year ago i was in the midst of my big adventure, the happenings of which are perminantly etched in the pages that precede this scroll. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday, sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. Sometimes I wish it was now, sometimes I'm glad it's over. Most of the time now I am happy about it. It didn't work out the way I had planned, but that is not necessary for it to have been a wild success. Did I grow for it all? Undoubtedly. It was the most intensely interesting, fun, amazing, wonderful, terrifying, exhilerating and satisfying time... it is but another building block of the person I am today.

I found out a new colleague at work used to manage one of the sites of a restaurant i worked at for a brief stint back in '03. I came clean and confessed that for 3 weeks I was a waiter. I told her how i quit because waitering was too stressful for me and I hated it. She interrupted me at this point and said "hang on a second... being a waiter is too stressful for you and now you work in an emergency communications center?". Made me think maybe I have grown up in the past few years afterall. I'm all about life and death now ;).

Actually I've been thinking about my work situation... and as much as I enjoy it and thrive on the chaos and strangeness of it all, it is one of those jobs that has a tendency to take over one's life. It is never healthy to have work constantly swirling through your head. So for some time now I have been seeking a hobby... i mean other than movies, xbox and drinking. I considered learning to sail or something... but then the other night i had a dream that i died in a plane crash. Far from being distressing it simply put flying on my mind, and i thought maybe flying would be more fun than sailing. So i've booked myself in for a lesson on Tuesday! I will be flying a two-seater Cessna 152 from Wellington Airport, touring the skies above the city and harbor for 40 minutes, before coming back to land. If I like it i'll make flying lessons a regular thing and set out to go solo and get my pilots licence.

Also this coming extended weekend (i'm off saturday thru tuesday) - Visiting parents on Saturday to view house renovations, 'farewell' party at Log Central on Saturday night (he's moving to Whitby), bowling on sunday with work group, followed by a 'uge barbeque with my colleuges for our group's christmas party. And on Thursday, which is not officially part of the extended weekend is the center-wide christmas party at zebo's. Its gonna be non-stop this summer, i'm going to make sure of it.

30 percent bro

Today at work I completed a 30 question 'bro' test. The idea was to find out how much of a bro i really am. Turns out, due to vast inconsistencies in the test criteria, I am only 30 percent bro - well below failure level.

Now I know what you're thinking, niggahs: there ain't no way that homeboy's only 30 peecee bro. And I have to agree with you. I henceforth accuse the 30 question bro test of outright blatant racism. The 30 questions were heaviy skewed towards traditional bros, for example: "have you ever had more than 6 people in your vehicle at once?" and "have you ever spent a day at the beach with a bus load of family?" It subtracted 3 percentage points if you answered yes to the question "have you ever been skiing?". These kinds of questions are unfair and exclusionist to today's modern bro.

Those who know me know that i'm way more bro than hoe, and I'm sure this disappointing result won't effect my standing with you.

In other news I went to the Brooklyn festival yesterday and enjoyed the day down on the streets while devouring a huge bag of cotton candy. You've only got one chance to ruin your teeth right?

Also this weekend I viewed Borat at the movies, and have to recommend it to anyone else who has a slightly insane, bordering on obscene sense of humor. Favorite part: when they put a grizly bear in the back of an ice cream truck, take the truck to a playground and turn on the music, then open the window just as a parkload of kids rushes over revealing a very grouchy grizly and no ice cream. Actually there were lots of favorite parts. But just don't waste your money on it if you are easily offended.

Following the movie I hosted a small gathering for an evening of electronic monopoly and beer/wine/rum appreciation. Have you heard of electronic monopoly? If you haven't played it, you haven't lived. It's not as electronic as it sounds, but there is a battery powered banking machine and all your money is stored on these little credit cards!

Well worth getting out of bed for

It has been a beautiful day weather wise and i had the day off. I lunched at Astoria at high noon, went shopping, visited the film archive, and wandered the streets soaking up the rays.

While in my travels a bus that was out of service slowly smoked past me. The electronic destination display was too small to fit the whole message in, so it displayed "Driver Under", for 10 seconds, before scrolling to finish the statement. As I waited for the screen to change i had a wager with myself over what the next word would be. Being a Stagecoach bus i thought there was about a 50/50 chance the next word would be "Influence". It finally revealed itself to be "instruction".

I bought the coolest Christmas present, something i have been hunting down for years. I finally found it in a shop a couple of days ago, but thought i would come back and buy it the next day. When i went back to buy it yesterday, the shop was nowhere to be seen. I had totally forgotten where it was. Sometimes i think i walk around and i am not fully conscious. I'm not even blond. I went back to where i thought the shop was, and it wasn't there. However, today i stumbled across it again. Unfortunately i cannot reveal what the item is as the intended recipient may be reading this blog. All you need to know is that it is the ultimate cool.

At the film center i watched a doco about the commercial building boom of the 1980s. The doco was made during the boom as well so it was a really interesting perspective. The boom began when the council wrote off the majority of the buildings along the golden mile as earthquake hazards and gave the owners 15 years to either strengthen or demolish. Baring in mind that the owners and developers of the time were the likes of Sir Robert Jones, not many of them were interested in spending money on low-rise high maintenence historic buildings, and so these buildings were demolished by the dozen. Hundreds of them met the wrecking ball before being replaced with the high rise glass towers of today.

It was an interesting perspective because it pointed out that the council was using earthquake safety as a guise to ignite the largest commercial building boom in New Zealand's history. The film quite correctly pointed out that the building styles used during the renewal create a new hazard: glass. When 'the big one' strikes (which the film said was overdue and it was made in 1983!) it is predicted The Terrace and parts of the golden mile will be about a foot deep in broken glass.

It is also interesting because one of the arguments against the renewal was all the inner city residential suburbs that were lost to all the commercial construction, and the construction of the urban motorway. Inner city residents, it was argued, are the lifeblood of the city, and that rigid commercial and residential zoning rules were to the detriment of the city's unique character. Today the city is in the midst of another building boom - this time almost exclusively apartment construction. Is this the best of both worlds? I think maybe. (Except i wish the apartments were cheaper...)

Regardless i mustn't be thinking too much! Today, if nothing more, has been a magnificent day to kick back, relax in the sunshine and take the lid off that first summer ale of the season.

Taranaki

Been in the 'naki for a few days on a work trip / glorified pissup. Thoroughly enjoyed myself. So much so that i have no photos. Visited New Plymouth and Wanganui and a variety of smaller townships: Hawera, Stratford, Waitara, Opunake and Manaia.

The mountain, viewed in a file photo below, looked magnificent as I drove up there on Monday.

Firewatching

So I was nearly asleep late last night when I caught wind of a 2nd alarm scrub fire burning out of control on the Eastern Hills out in the Hutt Valley. I ummed and ahh'ed about whether it was worth driving out there or not... but when i got word that the fire was close to skuttling the Anderson residence, thereby correcting a lifetime of bastardry, i thought this i had to see.

I scrambled out of bed and ran down to the car, scanner in one hand, shoes in the other. As I hit the motorway, still some kilometers from the fireground, I could see a wrath of fire lighting up a beacon right across the city. By the time I got to Waterloo the flames pierced the night-sky rising to mammoth heights over the hills. I, like every other nutjob in town, drove directly to the fire, seeking the best vantage point possible. As I turned on to Riverside Drive, traffic came to a screeching gridlocked halt. There was nowhere to go. Cars to the left of me, cars to the right... everyone's bonnets facing different directions while everyone's eyes were fixated on the best show in town. As the novelty of the situation wore off and people slowly realised that this traffic jam wasn't going to fix itself, the people in the cars started to look at each other... each one as embarrassed to be there as me.

With the cars not moving there was little else to do but to get out and mingle with the people on the street. I've been to many a bush fire in my time, and what is really striking is the way that these events bring out the community. People come out of their houses, people drive, cycle and run from all directions just to get a better look at it. And people actually talk to one another. It reminded me of a fire I went to in Cannons Creek one year. A Samoan family had opened up their lawn, with the best view of the fire, so that rubber neckers could get a good look at the action as the helicopters whirled overhead. The atmosphere last night made me wish i'd called into the grocery store on the way down there and bought a big bag of marshmallows for everyone to roast.

Oh yeah and in case anybody wondered - the Anderson residence survived.