Stephen Witherden’s Website

A few weeks ago I ended up in Brisbane on a conference.

I wish I had written a long, engaging story about my experience, including the sights and sounds of the South Bank in Brisbane, the Queensland Art Gallery, the worst Mohito ever concocted and catching up with my friend Michael who I hadn’t seen for about a decade, but I’m afraid I am running out of time before my next overseas trip.

So, instead, here are some of the pictures I took of beautiful Brisbane. I would like to make special mention of the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary, though, where I met and was able to hold a koala!

I popped the box next to my car with a poorly stifled grunt and opened the door. Hmm, lots of my own junk was still here on the back seat.

There were 4 carefully dated bags of money strewn on the floor, I grabbed them and stuffed them under the front seat.

I stood up with a stretch and a groan. Tired.

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I drive in to work at an unusually early time for me: it’s around 7:55am when I arrived at the front gate to the airbase. The security guard smiles his familiar round smile as he waves me through. His cheerfulness belies the fact that, were it not for the identification I present to him, I would go no further than his little box.

It’s cold and dark outside, the Auckland sun only just beginning to shine a few anaemic rays in my direction. I pull up to the car park. The car park straddles the red line which denotes the “operational” part of the airbase to the non-operational part. “Identification to be visible at all times” the sign says something like that. I clip my ID onto my belt and walk to the door to the building I’ve spent most of my waking hours in this past year or so. All of my personal belongings go into a secure lockup just in front of the secure doors. Nothing unauthorised is permitted here. I’ve taken to simply dumping all the contents of my pockets here, just in case.

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My managing director, Thomas, made the mistake of asking me that phatic question as I was flitting around the office on Friday morning last month. At the best of times, I’m the sort of person who will answer that common question painfully truthfully. As it was, I had far too much information to impart on anyone daring to ask such a question.

“Well, Thomas, I’m in tip top condition!” I replied gleefully, hoping I’d get the chance to elaborate on the precise metrics by which I was “fine”.

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