Off the hook.

After a hectic couple of months at work, a super secret long weekend away in Dunedin seemed like a good idea. A few hours after stepping off the plane I found myself driving down the Green Island Motorway, thinking how clean the windows on my Dad's car were. Upon reflection I believe it's just that the air down here that makes things seem a little sharper. You cant beat Dunedin in spring.

My trip was well timed. IG had recently banned his wife from reading my blog - because, he later admitted, my posts had been rather depressing of late. We agreed to disagree, especially around my whole "end of the world" posts a few weeks ago. I explained my concept of grabbing pizzas while waiting to get through the pearly gates - as there would be a bit of a crowd. He didn't buy it. His fix the walk, fix the man philosophy hard at work.

Like Di, IG must have thought that living and dropping off one by one would be preferable to dying at the same instant in time. Our family cat of 18 years is slowly dying. He was a fierce great loving beast of a cat, but when I come back at Christmas he wont be here. What's great about that? I wouldn't miss him so much if I wasn't here to miss him at all. That must make sense in some twisted way - right?

I suppose IG was just relieved that I was not visiting Dunedin to return everything I had borrowed from him over the years. [1]

[1] In his mind, this step being one of the first on the road to "ending it all"

Trips to Dunedin can have serious undertones it seems.
This is much removed from my shallow Auckland existence :)

When I moved to Auckland, I was introduced to a much younger social circle, and thus was thrust into many events I had already experienced previously in Dunedin. In Auckland there were still 21st's and weddings to be had, whilst in Dunedin many of my friends had already followed the path to domestic bliss: in short they were all old. :)
Conversely my trips back to Dunedin involve more grown up - adult situations. My friends kids are getting older (as are we all). The problems faced here seem somehow much more more serious than those I remember ten or fifteen years ago, with more far reaching consequences to boot. I find it odd to discover in the intervening six years I have become more cut and dried (perhaps more dried), and less flexible in more ways than one.
I'm not sure I don't mind it either - there's some comfort in being certain about stuff: even if you're completely wrong!

I think my biggest epiphany of all the weekend, is that the answers to all these issues don't lie in one particular life. There are no absolute truths - it's a matter of finding your own truth in your own space and time. And if your truths are different to mine - so be it. [2]

[2] Except if the "different" physic doing my Mum's "reading" on Thursday pops up the same "name" where I'm concerned once again; in which case, all bets are off.

So dont worry IG, you may receive all those DVDs after all.

Oh - and for those of you I've depressed, this should keep the tone of the post a little more balanced.....