(no subject)
Ryan: Friend. Ryan sent the first of seven text messages that I've had today from people saying 'goodbye'. I take that as a hint that I should be gone already.
Blair: Friend. He's at his work function tonight with a good mutual friend of hours that I keep missing. Like two ships...
Gale: Friend. At dinner on Tuesday night, she gave me Christmas pudding.
Andy: Friend. He promised that he'd cry, so I made sure that our last 'goodbye' was surrounded by people.
Hugo: Friend. I still cant believe that I didn't get to say 'goodbye' to him in person.
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London countdown: four days to go
Christmas is the period where we instinctively clamber to catch up with friends that have become strangers over the course of the year.
Take that thoroughly harrowing experience, multiply it by three and you begin to understand the days that I've been having in light of my imminent departure.
I'm essentially torn in two directions. The first is my family guiltily demanding entire days of my time. The second is my friends, determined to ignore the fact that I've a lot of people to get around. Wednesday let me appease both groups - at least for a day.
In the rain, I took my sister and her three children to Kelly Tarlton's, McDonald's and Rainbow's End. All were mercifully quiet. The attractions and the kids. More importantly, all were brilliant fun. I was buying a Christmas present for myself as much as them.
As coincidence would have it, I ran into a large group of actors at the theme park, out at their work Christmas party. My niece and two nephews hid behind me as I chatted. They just stood silently staring because these people were (World) famous (in New Zealand). It was like early Christmas for them when I made introductions, which is a fantastic discovery because getting autographs from friends is a much cheaper way to get through a gift list.
When I walked into James' house later that night, the laid back Christmas dinner I was expecting quickly evaporated in light of a table cloth clad, 18-seat dinner. As I share a lot of common friends with James, I got to say goodbye to a number of good friends, allowing me to hit six birds with one stone.
The departure process has been tackled differently by different friends. Ryan took the opportunity to tell me (drunkenly) how much I mean to him. Blair has simply chosen not to discuss it, going into a stir whenever I broached the subject. Gale informed me that I'm just moving to a suburb of Auckland called "London". I imagine my new suburb takes a while to get to. Andy decided he wanted to say 'goodbye' six or seven times. Hugo just got upset.
It would seem that leaving the country is like attending your our funeral because everyone feels the need to say nice things to you. Because I'm a realist, I'm quite certain only 30% of what they're saying is true.
Blair: Friend. He's at his work function tonight with a good mutual friend of hours that I keep missing. Like two ships...
Gale: Friend. At dinner on Tuesday night, she gave me Christmas pudding.
Andy: Friend. He promised that he'd cry, so I made sure that our last 'goodbye' was surrounded by people.
Hugo: Friend. I still cant believe that I didn't get to say 'goodbye' to him in person.
===========================
London countdown: four days to go
Christmas is the period where we instinctively clamber to catch up with friends that have become strangers over the course of the year.
Take that thoroughly harrowing experience, multiply it by three and you begin to understand the days that I've been having in light of my imminent departure.
I'm essentially torn in two directions. The first is my family guiltily demanding entire days of my time. The second is my friends, determined to ignore the fact that I've a lot of people to get around. Wednesday let me appease both groups - at least for a day.
In the rain, I took my sister and her three children to Kelly Tarlton's, McDonald's and Rainbow's End. All were mercifully quiet. The attractions and the kids. More importantly, all were brilliant fun. I was buying a Christmas present for myself as much as them.
As coincidence would have it, I ran into a large group of actors at the theme park, out at their work Christmas party. My niece and two nephews hid behind me as I chatted. They just stood silently staring because these people were (World) famous (in New Zealand). It was like early Christmas for them when I made introductions, which is a fantastic discovery because getting autographs from friends is a much cheaper way to get through a gift list.
When I walked into James' house later that night, the laid back Christmas dinner I was expecting quickly evaporated in light of a table cloth clad, 18-seat dinner. As I share a lot of common friends with James, I got to say goodbye to a number of good friends, allowing me to hit six birds with one stone.
The departure process has been tackled differently by different friends. Ryan took the opportunity to tell me (drunkenly) how much I mean to him. Blair has simply chosen not to discuss it, going into a stir whenever I broached the subject. Gale informed me that I'm just moving to a suburb of Auckland called "London". I imagine my new suburb takes a while to get to. Andy decided he wanted to say 'goodbye' six or seven times. Hugo just got upset.
It would seem that leaving the country is like attending your our funeral because everyone feels the need to say nice things to you. Because I'm a realist, I'm quite certain only 30% of what they're saying is true.