As promised, here is my homage to New Zealand to celebrate Waitangi Day.

Here is a link that will give you the full run down on the treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of New Zealand. February 6th marks the anniversary of the treaty signing in 1840 and while the treaty is still contraversial due to conflict about it’s interpretation the day is recognized annually as our National Day.

It’s funny actually, we don’t celebrate Waitangi Day in the same way Australians mark Australia Day. Sure, we get the day off work and many people head out of town for the long weekend but NZers are pretty low key about many things… and unless you come across a group of expatriates in Leicester Square on Feb 6th you might not actually notice celebrations going on… Especially not in New Zealand itself…

Anyway, regardless of your take on the whole Waitangi thing there are a million reasons to celebrate New Zealand.

1. It is quite possibly the most stunningly beautiful country in the South Pacific, if not the world.
2. The New Zealand people are some of the most hospitable and welcoming people you will ever meet. It is not unusual for friends or neighbours to drop in at any time and be offered meals or even beds for the night. Even better, strangers will be welcomed the same way.
3. New Zealanders are as sports crazy as the Australians, but for the NZers, their fortunes rise and fall with the fortunes of our National Rugby Union team, the All Blacks. A loss to the boys is like a dark cloud going over the sun!
4. New Zealand is a South Pacific nation and the culture is heavily influenced by the other cultures in that region, music and food shares many characteristics with its island neighbours.

The truth is, I could go on all day… as I am sure you could about your home, but I am so proud to be a Kiwi, and even though my chosen home is Australia, my heart will always belong to New Zealand first.

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Well, it has been a bit quiet from me lately… it isn’t for lack of anything going on… more like a lack of inspiration and a bit of a blue fug…

I mentioned back in Jan the difficulties surrounding doing work for a friend… it has become all a bit surreal where I think there has been all sorts of misinterpretation of our actions and things that have been both said, and unsaid. I got the impression all was less than well when I submitted a quote for work he wanted done and the only response I received was a request for the tools required so he could try it out for himeslf. In fact, it is the 2nd time he has asked for a quote and then not responded to it, I mean, at all, not positvely, nor negatively. Nothing…

I am trulynot upset by his choice not to take me up on my services but I am really bothered that he didn’t have the bottle to say, thanks deeleea, a) can we talk about your price? or b) do you mind if I try and save cash by going it alone?

Seems like it all has got a bit personal.

Sigh.

The truth is, I feel better of out of the whole mess, there were too many paralells with situations I found myself in during the “Year from Hell”. But it bites that to save myself, I have to distance myself from friends.

I marvel.

I spent years, and years and years at the mercy of my inferiority complex which was all centred around the fact that it was Christianity that made me and my family different (read socially retarded) from everyone else. From my school years right through most of my 20’s this fear prevented me from developing any kind of relationship with anybody outside the church circles I moved in.

Tragic. Ghastly.

The reason I have been mulling this over is that I spent the evening with Bet and 2 other girls this evening, none of whom are involved in church related activities and we passed the time away playing cards… Worse still, there was money at stake*… to compound the whole scenario further, we plan to do it again in 2 weeks… and finally, to add insult to injury … we are playing at my house.

Hah… she says… thumbing her nose at convention.

Gasp… I know, a veritable scandal, and my Baptist ancestors will be striking my name from the family plot in heaven… But we had a great time, there was no barrier of creed, a language barrier yes…. 2 of the participants are German, the other a fluent German speaker so I was the minority in more ways than one, but none of that mattered… we laughed ourselves silly (contributed in no small part by the excellent bottle of Shiraz on the table … egads… I’m on a slippery slope now…) and I believe we could be well on the way to developing great friendships.

“The church” has a lot to answer for in having alienated people whose lives could have been vastly different if there were less people like me spending years sticking to the safety of the familiar and more spending time and being the kind of person in “the world” who loves God but loves people too. I mean, it wasn’t as if He shut himself away in the temple and didn’t meet with the great “unwashed” was it? Sadly, it was that behaviour which belonged to the very people who asassinated him…

Anyway, I am loving having a friend who is introducing me to more people than I would have had the privilege of meeting otherwise, giving me the opportunities to do fun things I wouldn’t normally do. That’s Life Enriching… as life enriching as worship, as prayer and as the study of Scripture. (And you know, I wouldn’t be lying if I said, it felt as though it were sometimes even more so…)

*A grand total of $8.00 was pooled at the end of the night contributed in most part by yours truly owing to the most points gathered at the end of the inaugural evening of “International” rules Rummy (Romme)

I have had an interesting couple of days and have been working furiously on getting all the trivial little details of my current website project out of the way so I can get shot of it altogether.

Hence no blogging…

I have learned the hard way that doing a site for a friend is fraught with problems and after a particularly heated meeting on Thursday night where I found myself feeling all the same stuff I thought had gone with the passing of the year I felt it best to get my head down, get the site to a place where I am happy to have my name on it and then pass it on.

In spite of the trauma it is a good lesson (or 4) to get out of the way early…

If you are the designer …
1. Don’t do contra deals… you will still end up on the losing end of the bargain.
2. Be very clear about what you are offering to do.
3. Don’t take criticism personally.
4. Don’t get invested in the project even if you and the client are friends, it’s just a job.

This is insane, like telling a perfectionist it doesn’t have to be perfect… that’s the drama, if I want my name on his site as the designer… it has to be just right!

ed. removed bitter and twisted post

I’m aware I could be overreacting. But in a meeting where there was no dialogue, instead, a monologue of changes required and no room for discussion I felt like I was right back where I started with the loss of my ‘voice’ in my old job.

So … if you don’t hear from me in the next couple of days … you’ll know I am still obsessing…