Mundane Monday

Just to ensure that I am not conveying a dishonesty regarding our lifestyle in New Zealand I wanted to report on a Mundane Monday.  I woke this morning at 6:15, brushed my teeth, showered, and left the house at 7am.  I walked 10 minutes down the road and down the path between the houses across the bridge the spans a small creek to the train station.  At the station, I met the father of one of E’s classmates.  He is a PhD student from Denmark who is studying Food Science at the University of Victoria for sixth months.  His children, one E’s age and one a year older than J, did not speak any English when they arrived.  That’d be a more challenging adventure than we undertook…we went around the world but at least we all spoke the language of our new surroundings.

The train leaves at twenty after seven and arrives at the central train station about 15 minutes later.  Like I’ve said before, I love arriving at the downtown station and heading into the river of humanity flowing to their jobs.  I arrived at the office at 7:45.  I climbed the 13 flights of stairs to my floor…I only do that climb once a day but it’s nice to start with a hike.  I ensured that the door to the stairwell was closed because the air pressure in our new building is not stabilized yet so the doors don’t close on their own, which causes the alarm to go off.  Every inhabited floor of the building has a sign on the stairwell door telling you to shut the door, some rude “Close the Damn Door its Driving Everyone Crazy!!!” and some friendly “An unfortunate event has caused the door to try to exhibit some independence.  Please close the door to ensure its freedom is remains restrained.”

I walked from the stairwell, dropped my lunch in the fridge and walked to desk number 13, my humble abode.  I share a “pod” with three colleagues, which is great because they are nice, fun people.  Our new building is open plan.  It does get a bit difficult to pay attention due to other peoples conversations so I have earphones and I listen to music.  I’ve been listening to Broken Social Scene, a Canadian band…“Got addicted to the word leave”….dunno why but I like the way that lyric flows.

Throughout the day I wrote numerous emails, sent a letter to Spain, summarized survey results, wrote to an industry consultative group, prepared a briefing memo for a mission going to China, and prepared for a bilateral in Australia that I will be attending at the end of November.  I ate lunch at my desk but snuck over to the common room couch to read my book for half-an-hour.  I’m reading Magician right now…a fantasy novel.  It’s pretty good.  I think that next I would like to read “Being Peace” by Thich Nhat Hanh.  I like to switch up my reading, fiction with non-fiction, fantasy with reality, difficult reading with the easy stuff.

I left work at about quarter to five and walked to the train.  I bought a bag of chips at the station to get change for the train.  I miss North American chips….NZ chips are good but just not the same.  The train leaves from platform 1 at 5:11pm.  I made the train and read my book on the way home.  I got home and Talie had put together the patio set and was partway through the BBQ.  We had peanut chicken, carrots, and tomatoes for tea (dinner).  After dinner we played tag in the living room, which is pretty empty because we do not have our furniture yet.  We had a great time…E and J are pretty fast.  J, E and N performed Three Billy Goats Gruff and then we read it.  Talie read the kids a few more stories and at 8pm the kids went to bed.  After that I wrote this blog on Microsoft Word since I have downloaded a program that allows you to post to blogger straight from Word.  This evening I plan to watch “Insiders Guide to Love” a quirky New Zealand show that premiered last week.

Nothin’ too exciting, eh?  That said, even doing routine tasks is more interesting because we are in New Zealand and in another culture.