I have a friend who once said "I lived in Sendai for two weeks", and I have never stopped making fun of him (i.e. when he went to the toilet and someone asked me where he was, I replied "He's living in the toilet"). To me, two weeks is a holiday. But then, where do we draw the line? My friend says that he went to Sendai to work, and was given an apartment for the duration. But two weeks? I've had a holiday for two weeks where I rented a small apartment.
I thought of this quote today when I was moving out of my flat in Wellington and counted back how long I had been there. It was only ten weeks. Ten weeks? That could be a holiday for some people, so I wondered if I really could say if I lived in Wellington. Here are my thoughts about whether I did:
Yay: It was more than two months
Nay: It was only ten weeks
Yay: I paid regular rent, power and other expenses
Nay: I didn't own a single piece of furniture in my bedroom and I used a shoebox as a coffee table
Yay: I earnestly went job hunting and took on student jobs to make ends meet
Nay: I knew it wasn't permanent
Yay: I helped friends move house
Nay: I never really bothered making new friends knowing it wasn't permanent
Yay: I had all my details changed to Wellington, including my postal address
Nay: I never got letters anyway (not always my fault, remember)
But then I look back over my Wellington era, and back at the question of whether I lived in Wellington.
From moving here without a real plan or any certainty about the next few months, to some great cameos from friends (and family), the ridiculous flat situation, doing stupid student jobs and enjoying them more than I should, the Saturday vege markets, and beautiful days like these biking along the waterfront:
Well, that and the cameos from friends (and family).So back to the start of this post, I can confidently look that friend in the eye and say "I lived in Wellington for 10 weeks."
This brings me to the end of the Great Re-Migration, as soon I'll be back in Japanland. It has been a Carrot-top-like year and a bit - you don't expect it to be very good, but when you get dragged along to go because all the other Vegas shows are sold out, you really do enjoy it and wonder why you doubted you would.
I'll keep up the weblog, under a new (yet to be decided Banner), but thanks for keeping up with me and my occasional and erratic brain droppings. Don't expect much to change in the next phase of ruvaman.blogspot.com, apart from perhaps more stories that happened because of plum-wine hallucinations. Because location is really the weakest excuse for anything - like a stoner wanting to try every possible situation while high, until eventually he's just incredibly more stupid than he incredibly already was.
Stay safe and have an amazing week!
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