Discussion: Closer to Home?
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The amount of public works that went into Sydney before the Olympics was staggering- yet NZers bitched and moaned and couldn't get their shit together enough to build ONE decent stadium and instead settled on trying to make a silk purse of the sow's ear that is Eden Park. It was frankly rather embarrassing.
It encapsulates the legacies of Think Big and the BRT in one package - state investment turned to mud by the former, private investment turned to mud by the latter.
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I'm a kiwi ex-pat too having lived in Sydney for the last 3.5 years, 8 years in and out of London and a year in NY during that time since I've been away.
I now have two children and would come home tomorrow if I could find a job to fit my skills. That's the major thing that keeps me in Australia. I left NZ to experience a much bigger industry. I did that and was very successful in my chosen field, and now there really isn't any equivalent to what I do at home so I'm stuck in Sydney which is about as close as I can get as I can't work out what I would do if I came home now other than have to completely change my career.
I am really grateful to Russell and Public Address as you allow me a window on home, or at least that liberal, coffee drinking, free flowing ideas side of New Zealand that I will always think of as home no matter where in the world I may happen to be.
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I am really grateful to Russell and Public Address as you allow me a window on home, or at least that liberal, coffee drinking, free flowing ideas side of New Zealand that I will always think of as home no matter where in the world I may happen to be.
Nice.
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I am really grateful to Russell and Public Address as you allow me a window on home, or at least that liberal, coffee drinking, free flowing ideas side of New Zealand that I will always think of as home no matter where in the world I may happen to be.
Ditto. The frequency of my posts is a clue to my sense of dislocation.
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Me too, although I've generally fallen into the "long time lurker" category....
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Nice one Gervais!
I moved home last week after four years, the only negative; change the right-hand rule when driving.
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Welcome home, Mr Monkley.
Now about that mango in your luggage.. -
Nice one Gervais!
I moved home last week after four years, the only negative; change the right-hand rule when driving.My better half told me today that apparently NZ is the only country in the world that persists with that particular rule. Another thing that should be changed. A common currency and open border with Australia would be nice too :)
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Welcome home, Mr Monkley.
Now about that mango in your luggage..Cheers.
The mango was in my stomach...
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One thing EVERYONE who visits the US should do - that copy of the green form they staple in your passport - the airline's supposed to take it when you check in to leave - sometimes they forget - if they do the INS thinks you're still in the country - don't go to the gates until you're sure the airline took it from you.
I've only been to the states twice, but both times the departing airline has forgotten and I've either had to remind them, or stop myself going on the plane to return to the counter to double check that it really does say "take this out before you leave".
hmmm... I was in England in July at a conference. At the end of it I caught a flight from Manchester to Heathrow then home.
When I checked in at Manchester I asked about having to go through immigration/customs ... the nice lady said that I would have to do that in Heathrow. I duly lined up in Manchester and went through airport security.
I get to Heathrow and transfer to T5 - but here's the thing, it was a straight transfer to T5, no customs/immigration, nada. Just follow these signs and get on that lovely driver-less train to T5.
Plane arrived, I got on and away I went.
Question is, have I 'left' the UK? Nobody stamped me out or anything so I'm left wondering, am I still 'virtually' in the UK?
Anyone have any ideas?
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I think you call the British Embassy and explain your quandary - they're not trying to catch you out - it's more a matter of 'sometimes mistakes are made'
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Ditto. The frequency of my posts is a clue to my sense of dislocation.
And me too. Along with Skype and a few other technologies and portals, PA/PAS allows me to keep a virtual foot on the right side of the Tasman.
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George, Te Ao Nui? Canberra? Huh?
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Paul, flex that reo.
The Great World, if I'm not mistaken.
Very skillful, I thought - though I see your reservation.
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More the Big World, Sacha. And if we're to be concise about it, I believe George may be trying to say The Big Bad and Wide World. Or that might just be me.
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I thought "Big" wasn't enough, though "Wide" was my first choice. Still, it's George's phrase to explain. You still on holidays?
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One thing EVERYONE who visits the US should do - that copy of the green form they staple in your passport - the airline's supposed to take it when you check in to leave - sometimes they forget - if they do the INS thinks you're still in the country - don't go to the gates until you're sure the airline took it from you.
Very good advice as it has happened to me twice. Airlines are very lax about removing this form and you have to go through a tedious process (writing to some outfit in Kentucky, with evidence to show that you have been living out of the USA since your last visit), to ensure they will let you in again. The whole process of entering the USA is migraine-inducing.
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Te Ao Nui. In the wider world, in the big world. Te Ao as 'the whole'. My Te Reo Maori is limited, so that's my interpretation.
I changed my location for a couple of reasons. The first is practical; I'll leave Canberra at some time in the next few months, and I can't be sure that I'll update my location here. I'll be somewhere, neither New Zealand or Australia, most probably (but not definitely) in Indonesia.
The other relates more directly to the current discussion. I feel like I'm in a few different places at once, and can't do justice to any of them. I'm in the wider world.
I'm in Canberra, physically, of course. But I know few Australians, and fewer still Canberrans; my friends and counterparts are from everywhere but here. My headspace doesn't reflect my physicalspace. I don't think there is anything unique about feeling young (in my case) and on the wind. This discussion and the ones that have preceded it give me the impression that it is the case for a lot of us.
Te Ao also speaks a recognition that my interpretation of the world is conditioned by Aotearoa, and at least on this board, I feel like I'm dealing with the world in relation to it. It's a rather nice metaphysical space to be inhabiting.
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Kia ora
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And add me too to the group who is grateful for PA's view on the parts of NZ I miss the most.
And nice explanation, George. Very similar to my own feelings on the matter.
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@Sacha - yes, still on holiday. Go back to my young 'uns next monday. I was waiting for Sofie and her Mr to come back from the UK so we could all go for a drinkie poos, but I think they may be a while yet. Do you fancy one or two? Who would like to come with?
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@Sacha - yes, still on holiday. Go back to my young 'uns next monday. I was waiting for Sofie and her Mr to come back from the UK so we could all go for a drinkie poos,
Whilst I have a moment :) Will be back soon but you will be back at work. :(
Today the clouds are grey, like Watford. The rubbish trucks reverse down the street one man pushing all the wing mirrors in.Awkward for some. We on the other hand are nursing hangovers. Yesterday was spent celebrating the other half's birthday and we threw in a funeral for his brother in the morning just for an added touch.Nice to spend a day with so many strangers that care.C'est la Vie. R .I.P. Johnboy. -
I'm in Canberra, physically, of course. But I know few Australians, and fewer still Canberrans; my friends and counterparts are from everywhere but here. My headspace doesn't reflect my physicalspace. I don't think there is anything unique about feeling young (in my case) and on the wind. This discussion and the ones that have preceded it give me the impression that it is the case for a lot of us.
Sounds much like my sister's experience in Brizzy when she worked at the public hospital there for 12 months not too long ago. She came to the realisation that most, if not all, of her friends there were either immigrants or foreign students.
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When I came back to NZ after seven years in the UK (Cambridge, mining the lodes of Silicon Fen), I was talking to a recruiter about a job. "It's at Telstraclear - that's a phone company over here," she said. "Yes, I know, I'm from Wellington," I replied. "Sorry, you're a New Zealander? You've got quite a British accent." "Well, I was over there for seven years." "Oh, did you meet many British people, then?" Which rather floored me. "Yes," I said, "I was living in Britain..." It turned out that she'd spent a year in London and had a social circle composed, quite literally, of only kiwis, Aussies, and SAfs. I was discombobulated.
I can understand wanting to socialise with people who you share stuff in common, and that a shared point of origin is a good conversation starter, but I'm always slightly taken aback when people who've been living somewhere more than a year turn out to have never actually got to know any natives.
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Remember that immigrants anywhere are self selected - they're the bunch of people who managed to get off their arses and move to another country - that's not easy, it takes a bigger world view, money, gumption ....they're often the best and brightest (of where ever they came from compared to where ever they've moved to - doesn't much matter where either of those places are)
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