Hello again all! I have been back for a few
weeks now and am settling back into city and school life wonderfully. Its
amazing how quickly time flies by when back in a familiar area with a schedule.
I feel like this last two weeks have only been a few days although a lot has happened. When I was in the south island each day felt full and the
time seemed to be far longer than two weeks, in a great way. Now days often blur together and fly by. I only have 4 more weeks of school
left now, which means I only have 4 of each of my classes remaining, that in
and of itself is a completely crazy feeling.
So what has been up in my world over the last
couple of weeks?
X-Mas Light Fish and Mirror Bay
The second night back in Wellington I was lucky
enough to go for a walk with my wonderful friend Maggie. We decided to head
down to the waterfront and when we arrived we were blown away by how calm it
was (I realize that was interesting phrasing). It was a dark night and no one
was at the waterfront. The water in windy Wellington bay was unlike I had ever
seen it before, motionless. It was glassy still giving the sailboats in the
harbor a perfect reflection to the tip of the mast as though placed upon a
giant inky black mirror. It was completely silent, which added to the eerie
beauty of the situation. It was often hard to speak, as even a statement of
awe would diminish the very thing that helped create the feeling of
wonder. We continued along the water until we found ourselves at the end of the Clyde Quay Warf peninsula, which is a long apartment building that
juts out into the water and separates the marina from the open bay. We stood at
the end looking out on the water when something caught my eye. Below us in the
deep glassy greenish water there appeared to be thousands of little flashing
lights. The mystery drew our attention and the world around melted
away bringing only these lights into focus. With time we realized it was a
massive school if tiny silver fish darting around in a wonderful dance. As
they would turn their silvery sides would reflect the lights from behind us creating the illusion of flashing lights beneath the water. We
watched transfixed by this gift. After some time
being tickled with glee and reminded that there is always beauty if I just stop
and take a moment, we decided to continue on towards Oriental Bay. We walked
along another marina with the boats perfectly reflected in the water below. We
paused to listen to flute music coming from the absolute other side of the
large bay, hundreds of meters away. The water was so still that the sound flew
across its surface all the way to us a from a
musician our eyes could not even see due to distance. We continued on to the
beautiful oriental bay where we sat and chatted for a long time watching the
incredible fountain carry shifting light up to 16 meters above
the waters surface. Every now and then a huge barge or cargo ship would come
into the bay creating perfectly even glassy waves that would distort and bend
the colorful reflections from the fountain and nearby streetlights creating a
mesmerizing scene. The waves would float across the bay shifting to match the contour
of the beach before disappearing with a soft crisp wave crash. It was a still
night that felt as though it was holding me and welcoming me back to the city,
a gentle shift from the serenity of nature back to the beauty of the man made
wild.
The Mac Wizard
After only a couple days back my computer started
acting very strange. It stopped connecting to any wifi networks and stopped
reading memory sticks and external hard drives. I took it to the I.T. department
at Massey and they managed to get my Internet working but only in the Massey
library. I called up my Internet provider and they did a ton of troubleshooting
with me over 3 calls totaling 6 and a half hours. Still nothing worked. So next
I called an apple help line in Australia and spent another 5 hours over 3 calls
troubleshooting with them but still no luck. I went back to the Massey I.T.
department and after a few meetings they finally understood I had a real
problem. This led to another meeting where the man helping me decided it was
time to pull out the big guns. He led me through a tiny door that opened up
into a massive room with 30 or more I.T. guys all typing away. As I entered the
typing slowed and heads turned. Eyes peered over screens to check out the new
person who had just entered their lair. I was led to the back corner of the
room where I could see one solitary man sitting with his back to me. He sat
with stacks of macbooks to his left and a few massive monitors to his right.
This was he, the man the other I.T. guys I had spoken with referred to as the
Mac Wizard. He introduced himself as Ken and then ran through many tests. He determined that it was not a hardware issue. It was magic
watching Ken work. He effortlessly glided through my system in ways I didn’t
know possible, digging out corrupt files as he searched for the root problem.
Ken whipped through my system leaving nothing but organized clean files in his
wake. He finally determined that my hard drive would need to be completely cleared. He
took a complete backup of my computer on his, then wiped my hard drive clean,
reinstalled a fresh version of my operating system that he had and then reuploaded
all of my documents. This only took two days. So after nearly 12 hours of phone
calls, 5 IT meetings and much googling on my part, Ken fixed everything in just
over a day. And it was completely free. So much gratitude! And Ken certainly
lives up to his title as the mac wizard.
X-Rays
I injured my right thumb almost a month and a
half ago heroically helping a friend. What was I doing you ask? Something not
for the faint of heart or weak willed. It was a dark night in Wellington with
the wind howling past my 7th story window, when my flatmate came to
me saying she needed someone with incredible strength to help her and thought perhaps
I might be of service. I agreed to give it my all. She then handed me the
impossible… a jar of pasta sauce that up until that point was deemed unopenable.
I wrestled with it for 20, nay, 40 seconds and then felt a little tweak in my thumb
followed by a pain. I didn’t think much of it but over time the pain grew
stronger. I assumed all would be well so I went to the south island and continued
on my daily life but the pain didn’t subside. After returning I went to the
doctor and got a few x-rays. Nothing broken but there is more space than usual
between a couple of the bones where my thumb meets my hand. So the next step is
to see a hand specialist. The amazing thing is all of this is free except for
the $25 x-ray. Its not too bad but figured I might as well get it looked at and
take advantage of this amazing health insurance. I will keep you updated on how
it is going. Oh and if you are curious I totally opened that jar.
Coffee Shop Baby
I was sitting in my favorite coffee shop typing
away on one of my blog posts about the south island when I felt a calm presence
watching me. I looked up from my computer and was met with striking deep
sapphire eyes calmly relaxing into mine. These eyes were fully present and belonged
to an adorable little face that peaked over his mothers shoulder while stood
speaking with a friend. These little eyes stared unapologetically into my soul.
I felt connected and deeply seen. We continued looking into each other
with the only change being a slight smile creeping onto our faces. After a few
minutes his mother was finished and started walking out the door. The little
face smiled took a last look and then, with a slow blink turned to see where he
was headed. This experience was stunning on many levels, most of which words cannot
adequately convey. It was a wonderful reminder that we are born with the innate
ability to connect deeply and that the fear of vulnerability is not naturally
within us but in fact a learned trait. Thank you coffee shop baby I hope that
skill of connection remains natural for you as you continue your beautiful
life. I feel deeply touched to have seen you and shared a moment of our lives.
Little surprise
Upon returning from the south island I had a
couple little surprises in the succulents that live on my windowsill. There
were two clover plants in different pots that had grown entirely while I was
away, each bursting many leaves (Photo 1). It was a great surprise, as I love
clover and am always inspired by the natural world. I feel like I have new
friends that fold up each night and sleep next to me and then wake up with me each
morning, opening to soak in the suns rays. One day it was particularly windy
outside and one of the clover plants was in front of my open window while the
other was safe from the winds power. The one in front of the open window folded
up in broad daylight to protect itself from the wind while the other stayed completely
open. WHAT! How cool is that? NATURE IS AMAZING!
The last noteworthy experience I will speak
about was printing in the studio a couple days ago (photos in printmaking post).
It was a public holiday so I had the entire huge printmaking studio to myself.
I spent 5 hours playing, exploring and learning a new technique with my music
filling the space helping facilitate a wonderful creative vibe. Outside there
was a storm raging. Rain was falling sideways and the wind was so violent,
trees bent horizontal. The only other time I have heard wind like this was
during a hurricane. The more the wind raged the more energy I seemed to get. It
was inspiring and helped create my own special creative bubble while also
letting me feed off of the wild energy.
All right I am going to sign off for now! I
hope you have enjoyed the stories from my past two weeks. I will write again
soon about my first Rugby game, some thefts and hopefully other amazing adventures. I
wish you all the best! Love to you all.
Aiden
Photo 1 - Surprise Clover
No comments:
Post a Comment