Theme songs

One of the things that struck me just recently was that whenever I move to a new city, I typically get an album stuck in my head. This first occurred during my summer in Melbourne, Australia working as a research associate at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. I had no idea it would be a pattern, but I spent many hours walking around Melbourne in the sweltering heat listening to Things of Stone and Wood’s first album. That summer held some amazing memories: lying on the roof of RMIT in a thunderstorm, sleeping on the floor at Craig’s, helping getting Craig’s air conditioning working, discovering the vent I was sleeping next to held a mummified foccacia, the crazy suspension guy, artists, jazz, humidity, a love of red wine, and computer graphics.

When I move to the States, it was Radioheads “Ok Computer”. This album was my send off from NZ, some crazy parties, stupid crushes, working till the end, and a feeling I wasn’t coming home … When i got hear, this album captured the loneliness of a big city, although DC is not big compared to NYC! As my time in DC progressed and I aged years and years I moved through Cafe del Mar and Global Underground to Thievery Corporation.

I finally noticed the pattern when i moved to NYC: moving cities requires a new alternative rock album. My NYC vice is Snow Patrol and in particular the album Eyes Open.


To get a feel for what all this means … here are some snippets from the lyrics on Eyes Open that really speak to me:

It’s hard to argue when
you won’t stop making sense
But my tongue still misbehaves and it
keeps digging my own grave with my

Hands open, and my eyes open
I just keep hoping
That your heart opens

Why would I sabotage
the best thing that I have
Well, it makes it easier to know
exactly what I want with my…

Hands open and my eyes open
I just keep hoping
that your heart opens

It’s not as easy as willing it all to be right
Gotta be more than hoping it’s right

I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it
Collapse into me, tired with joy

from the track Hands Open

I find a map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from A to where you B
It’s only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place
Where I’d find your face
My fingers in creases of distant dark places

from Set Fire to the Third Bar

I only need
The compass that you gave me
To guide me on

And it’s beginning to get to me
That I know more of the stars and sea
Than I do of what’s in your head
Barely touching in our cold bed

Are you beginning to get get my point
That all this fighting with aching joints
Is doing nothing but tire us out
No one knows what this fight’s about

It’s so thrilling but also wrong
Don’t have to prove that you are so strong
Cos I can carry you on my back
After our enemies attack

I tried to tell you before I left
But I was screaming under my breath
You are the only thing that makes sense
Just ignore all this present tense

We need to feel breathless with love
And not collapse under its weight
I’m gasping for the air to fill
My lungs with everything I’ve lost

We need to feel breathless with love
And not collapse under its weight
I’m gasping for the air to fill
My lungs with everything I’ve lost

from Its beginning to get to me

Oh, and I think I worked out how to embed youtube videos … can you tell?

Filed under: New Zealand, nyc , melbourne, moving, music, nyc, snow patrol, sound

Boy, 5, boards wrong bus, left on roadside

Ok, so this is a fantastic example of the difference between the US and NZ. The story quoted below showed up in Stuff this morning:

A five-year-old boy who boarded the wrong bus was left on the side of a road 10km from his home. Matt Holmes, a Year 1 pupil at Tauranga’s Oropi School’s Year 1 was allowed to board the first bus run on Wednesday afternoon when he was supposed to get on the second one. The school today admitted responsibility and said it was “distressed” at what the youngster had to endure, The Bay of Plenty Times reports.

The boy was allowed to get off the bus at Waimapu Service Station – 10km from home. He then tried to walk home. A member of the public saw him and called police. His parents Tracey and Trent Holmes say were “horrified” at what had happened.

Police told the family they would talk to the school but were unable to lay charges.

Now pause for a minute, can you imagine what might have happened in the US? First of all the parents would be laying charges at the school, the driver, the school district, anyone they could point to. Damages would likely tally millions of “psychological damage” to the poor kid.

Now, there is no doubt that Matt was terrified, scared, and tired by the time he got home but isn’t this one of those little lessons you need to learn: don’t get on the wrong bus! I’m sure we all learnt it at some point. In New Zealand, the summary appeared to be “no real harm done, boy, no one will do that again!”. In the US, the outcome would likely be much different … what do you think?

Filed under: NZ vs USA, New Zealand, ample sufficiency, happenings

The one way

So this is one of those funny little things that hits you when you head back to the US. In Dunedin, New Zealand (my home town) there was a major street realignment when I was just a wee boy. They changed two streets into one-way streets (the first of their kind of any substance in Dunedin). They have henceforth been known as “the one way”. Now just stop for a minute … “The One Way”? Imagine calling something in the US “The One Way”! Anyway the sheer absurdity of it made me smile just last week.

Filed under: New Zealand, happenings

Ample Sufficiency

So to kick off my series on NZ versus the USA in terms of living, working, and bringing up a family I thought I better explain a little cultural basis. One of my mother’s favorite phrases is “ample sufficiency”. To use it in a sentence: “No, I’d rather not have another chicken wing, I’ve had ample sufficiency”. It wasn’t until I was back in NZ this time that I realized exactly what this really meant, how it flowed out into the greater vision of the NZ state f being, and how starkly different it was to the US perspective on things. Now excuse me while I digress into generalizations …
In NZ, most of the people I know are aiming at “ample sufficiency”. They want enough money, a interesting enough job, something close enough to family to be happy. They don’t need the best car in the neighbourhood, they don’t need the largest house in the city, they don’t need many of the things, the average American family takes for granted. Do they want them?  Oh yes, they’d all love nice cars, big houses, something better than the neighbours, but they are less prepared to sacrifice life, love, and family to get these things.

The average  American family wants it all, they want the biggest house, the newest car, they must be better than the neighbours. If they all go to private school, darn it all we’ll go to a better private school. The ideal here in the US is: independantly wealthy, living the high life, with multiple houses, a few luxury european sports cars in the garage, and vacations around the world every year.

So for the rest of this wee series I want to explore what my personal po-dunk half-arsed personal socio-psychological theories tell us about the two countries, why this is so, and what I think might change it all for the better.

Filed under: NZ vs USA, New Zealand, ample sufficiency

Heading home

Wow, seems like only yesterday we were flying over to NZ for my sisters wedding. Now we are slowly packing up, cleaning the house, crossing off things on Nana’s “honey do” list and generally getting ready to go. Dunedin has showed us fine weather up until today, where we hit the traditional 11degC/50degF rainy Dunedin day. This is the weather I remember and quite appropriate for the final day here in New Zealand’s mainland.

Tomorrow it’s off to Auckland at 10am, we lay over for 8 hours in Auckland and Sharine’s friend May will visit with her new wee baby (Elaine). Then on the big plane back to SFO. It has been quite the whirlwind tour but we have loved every minute of it.

I have a whole nest of story ideas on my way back, I’m going to start a blog post series on “What’s Wrong with NZ” and “What’s Wrong with the US” as a point/counterpoint on what an expat Kiwi thinks about the differences between the two countries. With any luck, some rich billionaire will read it, think its a great plan, buy my an island nation and set me up as ruler of my own kingdom … hah!

We’ll miss Nana and Great Poppa a lot back in the States … and I’m not really looking forward to having to get back into the groove of work and life in the snow and ice of a Washington winter. Well, see you all soon, back in the US of A …

Filed under: New Zealand, happenings, kids

Washing lines …

One of the other things I notice in NZ versus Rockville is washing lines … Sharine & I just returned from our 3 day mini-vacation within a vacation up through the Mackenzie Country in the middle of the South Island. It was fantastic but it occurred to me, almost every house has a washing line, whereas in the States, almost no one has a washing line! Photos from the deep heartland visit including Mount Cook, the turquiose waters of Lake Tekapo and Pukaki, and the fantastic Southern Alps will be uploaded as soon as possible.

Filed under: New Zealand, happenings

Mementos

I’ve been having strong reactions to many things across my New Zealand vacation. I can’t really verbalize them .. but I’m going to throw out a list and see where it takes me …

• Emissions – Last time we were in NZ it was obvious that for a clean green country, we are not curbing emissions in any way, the average age of a car in NZ is probably double or triple what it is in DC. There are many more old diesels … stinky. There are also many more people burning wood fires
• Weather – things are whacky down here in NZ the same as in the US. Summer is cooler, winter was hotter and cooler all at once, the weather is very different
• Heat pumps – when I left NZ 8 years ago no one had heat pumps. No its a little too cold, a little too hot, and almost every house has one (your you yanks, its kind of an electric powered air conditioner/heater)
• Small – everything is closer … 7 miles into town from the farthest suburb, minutes across town to everywhere
• Road rage – people are angrier, there are more cars on the road than ever before, and NZers are not patient drivers. Our roads have not kept pace with the growth rate of automobiles
• Food – gosh I love the taste of food cooked in/covered in/made with NZ butter and milk.

The last one is a doozy, I haven’t stopped eating since I got here … must have put on pounds (kilos) already!

Filed under: New Zealand, happenings

A Wee Trip Away

So after a quiet day or two, Sharine & I are planning a trip up to Christchurch, hoping to stay with my old dive buddy Wayne, shop a little and head over to Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo for a night staying at a “homestay” or bed and breakfast place. We’ll be leaving the kids with nana and great poppa so it’ll be nice to really get away!

Big drama after the wedding from the place that Jan & Doug held the reception: they were very particular about who could go where and we had several issues (mostly minor) regarding how they served the wine and the lack of access for elderly wedding guests. However, they just rang Jan, yelled at her, then rang nana and complained at her as well. Accusing Jan of not paying the bill, Jan has every intention of paying, she just wanted to air some of her complaints. Very unprofessional behavior from Stoneridge Estate.

Filed under: New Zealand, kids

The Wedding

Wow, what a whirlwind few days. Sharine, Kylie, Hunter, Nana, Great Poppa, Jan, Doug, and I all sped up to Queenstown for Jan’s wedding. It was fantabulous! I’ve uploaded a whole mountain-load of photos to my flickr site (previews at the right). We had a fantastic time, satyed in a wee rented holiday house about 3 minutes out of Queenstown, had a house full of people (up to 50) most of the weekend. Jan looked great, Doug was fantastic, and it was a real pleasure meeting Doug’s family and friends from Australia.

Filed under: New Zealand, happenings

We made it!

Well the flights to New Zeland weren’t nearly as bad as last time, a smidge early each time, kids were fantastic and we finally made it. After a minor plumbing catastrophe and a wee nap we are rearing to go in Kiwi-land. Off to Queenstown tomorrow, then dinner with Doug’s family and friends, golf with the groom to be, rehersal dinner, wedding! then reception (and a speech), then an after wedding barbeque, and finally back to Dunedin! Phew a whirlwind few days methinks.

Filed under: New Zealand