Stephen's Den

As I mentioned in a previous blog post. I was rear-ended by an intoxicated chap over a month ago. What I didn’t elaborate on was the painful insurance-saga that ensued.

When the accident happened, I called my insurer: AMI (also the insurer for the other two people involved) the phone-lady told me that they would email me a claim form in the morning. They didn’t. Ok, well, people forget, so the next day I printed a claim form myself, diligently filled it out and took it in to the AMI office personally, my long-suffering colleague Richard in tow for moral support.

It didn’t take long for me to realise that the advertisements are something of an embellishment and not a true reflection of the AMI business model. There was no leggy singing brunette weaving between the computer terminals, handing out smiles and wads of cash to all and sundry. Rather, I sat down with a confused young lady who appeared to be a recent ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) graduate.

Continue reading Christmas Miracle

It was soon after my birthday in October when I started suspecting that something was awry in my relationship with Sebastian. He declined a road trip with me, he didn’t come over to my place anymore, and when I visited him, he was reluctant, even begrudging with his affection.

After struggling with him for over a month, trying to figure out what I had done, or how things had changed in his mind, I decided to call it off.

Continue reading Break up

Well, as I am sure everyone who has ever lived in more than one place knows: moving sucks. Moving sucks big time. As of this very moment, everything has been transferred over from my old place to the new place, the lounge in the new place is strewn with belongings in boxes, bags and suitcases and a fine layer of dust has been disturbed such that it sets off my hay-fever; that said, it’s done.

We bought new furniture: I got a large screen TV & a couch, Sarah a couch and a dining room suite. Before we bought the furniture, however, we had to do analysis as to whether things would fit.

What better way than to use Visio to map out the apartment and move the furniture around? That’s what we did. This image shows the layout of the apartment, to scale, as well as where we decided to put things.

Click on the image for the full layout.

Click on the image for the full layout.

Just a quick post to draw your attention to some photos I took while travelling around the North Island of New Zealand.

One trip was to Northland, where I went as far as Whangarei. The second trip involves a sojurn as far South as I have ever been in a car: to Palmerston North.

Both trips rewarded me with exquisite scenery, something I will have to do more of in future. Please click the images for more images of the trips.

Some of you may already know that I am moving out of my pokey little apartment and into a new one. Some may also know that I am moving in with none other than Sarah.

Yes, as my gay friends are always so pleased to point out: she is my ex-girlfriend.

Don’t anyone get your hopes up, this is seriously a Will & Grace situation, I assure you.

Continue reading Home is where the Internet is

Well, every now and again you have a new experience. Yesterday was one of those days. I had left work on time for once in a rather chipper mood: I was meeting up with my friend Rick at Sylvia Park to go watch a movie. It was his only evening off for quite some time so we decided to make hay.

It was about 6:10 pm; I was travelling on Beach Road towards the motorway and had come to a stop behind a car waiting in a queue at the lights on Parnell Rise.

Continue reading Prang

An anniversary is something that happens once a year, in this case, as you can see by my timer on the left hand side of my website, today is the anniversary of my return to New Zealand from Texas. At times like these it’s often seen as an opportunity to look back and reflect on the things that have happened in the year past and look forward to the things that will happen in the year forward.

In my case, a number of things have happened this year past. I found a new place to live. I joined outline (an organisation supporting gay people over the phone). I became more involved with my church, becoming a member of the board and preparing a few services with my friend Alastair. I became lonely & wistful then met a new lover. I climbed a mountain, took up running (dropped it again for winter, brr), unintentionally helping trigger my dear friend Andrew’s fitness obsession.

I became an associate at work, got a pay rise, bought more shares , worked on more projects than I care to mention and even managed to get some real work done in the process. I got a second job supervising students at the university which forced me to grow much more than I’d like to admit.  I have made new friends and reconnected with old friends (like Shane who I literally haven’t seen in over a decade). I also threw my first birthday party, ever.

Continue reading Anniversary

I awoke at around 7:30am, groggy. Ordinarily I would pull myself out of bed and face the day bravely, plenty things to do; the Ports of Lyttleton need saving, after all. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep. I have an excuse, I am sick with a cold and I need a little R&R. At 10:11am, my boss Irene called me to see how I was doing. “Oh, you sound really bad still” she exclaimed encouragingly.

I lounged languidly for a little then showered and started getting dressed. You see, I had student presentations to attend at 1pm and I needed to sign something at work.

Anyway, you don’t need to know about that stuff. What you do need to know is at around 2:30pm, I was driving home, back South over the harbour bridge, a little tired still, from my sickness, quite hungry since I hadn’t yet eaten. Perhaps I’d warm up some leftover pizza for lunch. I should go get my haircut and maybe do the banking for church while I was there. I still hadn’t completed last week’s podcast and, oh, I should post those letters soon…

Continue reading Best Monday so far

“Oh, Rue!” I exclaimed in delighted surprise, embracing my quarry before he had the chance to return the salutation. “Oh, my friend, my precious friend!”

It had been a good night so far, judging by my level of intoxication: a very good night. Ruellan, an old friend from university had arrived fashionably late with his partner Melanie. The occasion? My birthday!

Continue reading Birthday 08

In America, the U-turn is a common, accepted manuver. It’s so common in fact that they have signs expressly encouraging you to do u-turn and lanes specifically designed for that purpose.

We New Zealanders find this an hilarious thing because in our country, the U-turn is right up there with peeing in someone else’s tea (or your own tea for that matter). You just don’t do it. It’s just not acceptable behaviour on the roads. To the extent that there are signs saying precisely the opposite: “no u-turn”, even when a u-turn is precisely the most logical course of action. Say, for example, you’ve gone over the harbour bridge by mistake, which happens more frequently than we’d like to admit.

Well, New Zealand has launched into the 21st century with what I believe to be the first (for our country) U-turn traffic light. Feast your eyes! Yes, it’s true, that sign on the right is actually a “U-turn” traffic light, in New Zealand (East Tamaki, to be precise). Below are images of the sign in action: