When you're alone, and life is making you lonely, you can always go...

Three days in country today. A brief update for those of you who are keeping score.

Here's the car we bought in Auckland. It's a 2004 Subaru Forester LL Bean. We are the first NZ owners, which means the last person to own it was Japanese. He put a bit of work into it, including a fairly high end TV/DVD/Navigator/Back up cam/who knows what else. Unfortunately, the thing only speaks Japanese, so it is not of much use for us.


During our two days in Auckland, we happened upon what's left of the original cemetary. Nico did not think this was even a little funny, and got mad at me for taking the picture.


And a quick stop at the Auckland zoo. I do not quite get the kiwi sense of humour. Tortoises however, are the same all over.

Things accomplished (so far) on day one in New Zealand:
1) Cleared immigration/customs
2) Checked tandem at airport because it was unlikely to fit in rental car
3) Bought cell phone (actually just a sim card for an old cell phone)
4) Rented car
5) Dropped luggage off at hotel
6) Opened bank account
7) Won Car!!! (okay, it was at an auction)
8) Returned rental car
9) Picked up tandem at airport
10) Checked into hotel
11) Found Justice of the Peace to witness pharmacist application
12) Mailed pharmacist application via overnight courier to Pharmacy Council
13) Enjoyed a Mac's Gold.

Dinner with our Kiwi friends tonight; taking tomorrow off

Kiwi Mike is far more productive than USA Mike

I thought I’d take a chance and forget about the States

[I started writing this a week ago, but never got around to finishing it...sorry if some of the tenses are off.]

"Why are you moving to New Zealand?" (or perhaps the slightly funnier, at least to the non-Kiwi: "Why are you moving to Australia?") is a question I have been asked more times than I care to count. I am certain I had a much better answer eleven and a half months ago when we started to seriously plan this move...and the question comes so frequently now, that any answer I could provide would undoubtedly sound canned.

If you have some time on your hands, pick up a copy Slipping into Paradise: Why I Love New Zealand. The book is not very good, but in the first few pages the author sums up why we're making this move; or at least why I'm making this move...I am sure Nico is getting asked enough about why she would do something crazy like move halfway around the world by all of you, and does not need to hear it again from me. Anyway, put the book down after the first chapter; except for some very good reasons to not move to Australia, the rest of it is not worth reading.

So why do I want to move to New Zealand? I could easily tell you how the idea got planted in my head: I somehow started getting letters from New Zealand's Department of Labour telling me about a huge pharmacist shortage, a climate identical to that of the west coast of the US (only in reverse), and beach houses for <$200,000 (US). Friends tell me I started talking about moving to New Zealand in 2006, but I really can't remember.

After a vacation/reconnaissance last year, the question that was becoming even harder to answer was: "Why are you not moving to New Zealand?"

Keep reading...maybe I'll have an answer to both questions in the future.

One of the last weekends in the OC

Jazz sextet at the Laguna Coffee Company (drummer and keyboardist are obscured).


There is no beach in Laguna at high tide.


Khanh...caught in a rare moment of not being at work.


Perhaps the Great Park will be a little better the next time we are there.
This would be a better picture if I were not too lazy to photoshop it.


This would be a better picture if it looked more like the first one.

People are less sweaty going

People are less sweaty going in than they are coming out of the Bikram Yoga Studio.

Conversation I've had with my boss at least 20 times over the last 5 years

Me: Boss, It's never easy

Boss: My father says that.

Me: My father says: "Locks are to keep the honest people out".

Boss: That's also true.

I have no idea if he's just playing along with me, or if he never remembers the previous conversation.

10 things I accomplished in the last 10 years...

1) Visited 9 countries; you can read about all of them somewhere on this blog
USA
Canada
Mexico
Switzerland
Germany
France
Jamaica
Italy
New Zealand

2) Learned to sail

3) Taught 200+ people to sail

4) Graduated pharmacy school

5) Became licensed as a pharmacist in two states (and two countries)

6) Worked for the same company for most of the decade (barely, but quite an accomplishement considering how I spent the first 4 years of the decade)

7) Ran 6 marathons

8) Lived in two of the most beautiful places on earth
Newport Beach
Napa Valley

9) Increased net worth from negative $80,000 to...I don't want to say how much, but it's pretty impressive considering where I started the decade (and let's not forget two recessions, one of them Great)

10) Stayed married for another 10 years

Christmas Day Sail

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

Views from the balcony





I was going to write a treatise on the difference between Newport Beach (the OC) and Laguna Beach (the Real OC), except I was writing about the actual cities, and just threw the names of TV shows in there for fun...but that made it too confusing. Maybe some other time. For now: there are far, far more transients in Laguna Beach than Newport; it might be that there are not a lot in Laguna, and I am just not used to seeing any.

Empty

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.