Auckland - April 24th

It'll be fairly common that I write an entry and post it a few days later, free WiFi being what it is. This is the first such post.

So my journey has officially begun. I left Brisbane this afternoon and this evening find myself in Auckland, New Zealand for a long-weekend layover en route to Vancouver. My hotel, despite being fully booked, is completely empty as I write this at 9:30pm. It would appear that most of the guests are at the Korn concert happening up the road. No doubt I'll be woken later by the returning metalheads. I know, I know. If there's one thing I need to do on this trip, it's relax my need to have everything 'just so'. Shake off the OCD a little.

So, observations on Auckland. It's not very big, very hilly, and very very Asian. Walking back from the Japanese noodle bar where I had my dinner, I think I only saw one or two westerners. I sat for a while first at a lovely coffee house cum bar outside the theatre on Queen St watching the world pass me by. What struck me actually was the resemblance to Vancouver in people's dress, style, and mannerisms. Lots of touques, lots of parkas, and lots and lots of black. Nice. A group sat next to me and proceeded to put eyeliner on one of the guys. One of the others was wearing a pork-pie hat. From the sounds of their overheard conversations, they were going to the theatre later.

An auspicious start to my trip: I'm in room number 42. Maybe this means that on this trip I'll find the answer to life, the universe, everything. Now wouldn't that be nice.

On climbing trees

I've been using a metaphor lately that goes something like this.  When we are children, we are more than willing to scramble up the tallest trees without thought of our own safety or whether or not the tree will hold us.  We just want to climb.  As we get older, we become aware that climbing trees can result, in a small number of cases, in broken bones, concussions, and at the very least torn clothing.  We stop being able to climb trees at all.

I'm afraid I may not be able to climb this particular tree I've put in front of myself.  I leave for my 5 months of traveling in 2 days.  I've farewelled friends, tied up financial loose ends, and with difficulty said goodbye to a new love.  And now I'm terrified of the injuries I might receive on the climb.  It would be so much easier and safer to stay here on the oh-so-familiar ground.

New Learning Commons at Bond University

I went down for a lunch with a few past co-workers today and was absolutely blown away by the new space they're just finishing.  I was involved in putting together some of the architect's brief but this is way beyond what I'd expected.  It's a conversion of what was a really horrid, cold and echo-y void.