I called my sister today. She lives in the States and for those of you who don’t know I live in New Zealand. This is completely unimportant except for the fact that when I told her I had been made redundant she had no idea what I was talking about. So I had to explain that I had been laid off. “That sucks.” she said. Ummmm. Yes, it does…but then maybe it doesn’t suck so badly…
I have been 40 for three days now. And since I’ve been 40 I have been struck with a cold so so far I’m not too thrilled. I have to say that the last days of being 39 were about as awesome as they get. For my birthday Seb surprised me with a trip to Rarotonga. Now considering the fact that we are freezing our bums off in Auckland this was a most welcome surprise. We spent four glorious days basking in the sun, refusing to complain about how hot and humid it was, and swimming in the crystal clear waters of the lagoon right outside of our cottage on the beach. The place was postcard perfect…like a movie set. It was perfect. Happy 40th to me!
This cat on YouTube, his name is Maru, is quickly becoming my source of daily entertainment. He’s very smart but more than that he’s extremely playful and he has a wonderful personality. If you need a laugh or just want to lighten up your day watch one of his videos.
There’s been construction going on outside of our house now for about a month. The reason for all the noise and breaking up the road and causing enormous traffic jams in an already congested area was to create a zebra striped path for school children to cross the road without fear of being yelled at, honked at, or run over (in NZ the pedestrian, unless at a crosswalk, has no rights it would seem…but I’ll save that rant for another post).
Two things I just need to post because I can’t stop looking at them. The first if from a photgrapher who has created images from scenes in NY to create a theme. I love these…they’re terribly interesting. The second is a group of photos of Saturn. Absolutely stunning. Take a look for yourself.
Phew. Now maybe I can get some work done.
Three days after we canvassed Grey Lynn with cards expressing our interest in buying a villa we’ve had 5 responses. 5 out of 100 is pretty good in marketing terms so we’re thrilled. We’re even more thrilled that one of them has come back as a possibility. We’re putting all of our positive energy into this one hoping it comes through.
The villa is located near a house that we lost recently at an auction and the owner has been thinking about selling. He had his house evaluated two months ago so now we’re waiting to hear back from him to find out if his partner is keen. The suspense is nearly overwhelming!
Over the weekend we stayed in the city and spent two wondrous days relaxing. By ‘relaxing’ I mean we expertly crafted and designed a little note to our neighbors in Grey Lynn to let them know we want to buy villa and distributed over 100 of them around the neighborhood by foot to any house that seemed to fit our wish list. So far we’ve had three responses so we’re pretty happy. One told us our price was too low (fair enough), another said he was renting from his daughter and he’d pass on our message, and the third said
You are 6 times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack.
You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack.
…and knowing me…you are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack.
Don’t you feel better now?
There isn’t much to write about today but I wanted to remind everyone that we are somewhat documenting the construction of our cottage in bush (forest) in Coromandel. That’s the little peninsula that sticks out on the right side of Zoo Neeland. It takes about two and a half hours to drive there from Auckland…2 hours on the ferry. You should visit sometime.
If you can’t make it anytime soon you can check out the progress here.
I’m generally optimistic. I had the good fortune to underwrite Captain [Jacques] Cousteau’s voyages for 10-15 years. I asked him once if he thought we were gonna make it. He said, ‘Even if we knew for sure we weren’t going to make it, what could men of good conscience do but keep trying?‘
Quote from an interview on climate change with Ted Turner and Jeffrey Sachs.
