Getting away

I'll try and make this quick. I still have tricky days, and although the new job is far more interesting than the old one, it's amazing how much the change in job hasn't solved. Although this week I've had a chat to someone who has given me an idea (or rather the impetus to pursue an idea).

I'd like to go away. Properly away. It's four years since I last did that. I'm considering going to New Caledonia, although I'll need to wait till I have enough leave. I have been there before - in December 1986 - and can't remember much about it other than the searing heat. That was on the way to New Zealand - an incredible journey for a small kid. Our UTA jumbo jet had a name - "Big Boss" - and we stopped in Bahrain, Muscat, Colombo, Singapore and Jakarta at some point on either the outward or return trip. In those days you had to refuel much more often. I remember looking out the window of the plane to the Australian desert that never seemed to end. Occasionally you'd see a road, a car, some sign of life. Anyway, Phil has been giving me advice on what to see (and how and when) if I do go to New Caledonia.

Last weekend Kevin went to see his parents (or "folks") in Masterton so I decided to invite Tom, Rhiannon and her boyfriend over on Saturday. Not a bad evening (lots of good food), but I couldn't totally relax. Too much talk of computer games and Game of Thrones-type TV series. Apparently I'm unusual in ever going to the cinema by myself. I don't logically get why going to the cinema alone is any weirder than going to McDonald's alone. On Sunday I walked up Mount Vic and went to my cousin's place for dinner.

Work is fine. On Tuesday I went on a traffic control course at the Brooklyn tip, even though most of it wasn't relevant to me. A lot of the people on the course were in their early twenties, and their attitude to the course made for an "interesting" day. In my lunch break I finally figured out how to set the clock in my car - it only took me just short of four years (I'd got used to adding or subtracting the right number of hours and minutes but it had recently started to annoy me) - and I don't even know which buttons I pressed. Talking of clocks, at 1pm today, quite by accident, I saw the animated clock in the Old Bank Arcade do its thing. I had no idea what would happen, and I was quite impressed.

On Saturday I'm going on a difficult tramp (for me) in the Tararuas - it's scheduled to take ten hours and at this point I'm wondering how I'll survive. If I do make it I'll put up some photos in my next post.

The unknown...

Mum and Dad were here for three days. They could have got luckier with the weather. To avoid the awkwardness of being around my flatmate all the time (even though there's room for them here), they stayed at a bed and breakfast on Brougham Street. The B&B was run by a very strange chap, easily strange enough to cloud your impression of Wellington, or even New Zealand, if you'd never been here before. They saw William and Kate on Oriental Parade - the royal couple were on their way to the airport. It was good to see Mum and Dad - again - and it'll probably be September or October the next time I see them.

There's a relatively new member of the autism group I haven't mentioned yet. I'll call her Rhiannon. Towards the end of last year I said I was teetering on the edge of madness. Rhiannon doesn't teeter. She's only 27 but she's careened off the crazy cliff several times already. She lives with her boyfriend, who has just had major eye surgery, in a flat in Aro Valley. They rarely leave the flat, and they have a flatmate who hardly ever leaves his room but somehow consumes gallons of Mountain Dew. It doesn't add up. Rhiannon is very interested in nature, even if she is rarely amongst it, but her main talents are cooking and sewing. On Sunday morning I picked up some bedside tables that she'd bought off TradeMe. For that she baked me a chocolate cake. Tom arrived soon after I did. I stayed at their place for eleven hours which, despite the interesting and sometimes hilarious conversation, was way too much for me. Rhiannon cooked a roast dinner for us all.

Thinking about the last autism group meeting, that was yet another example of what you might call Aspie arrogance. The new bloke really liked talking about how awesome he was. And as for the ear-removal episode, if it was true it probably would have been all over the news. He said that because the student signed a waiver, the ear removal was legal, but I didn't think a waiver gave you indemnity against a deliberate violent act.

I've said in the past that I don't really get weddings, but that Irish priest who gave an impromptu rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah at a wedding (and went viral on YouTube) was pretty amazing. What a voice he has.

I've had quite a lot of anxiety in the last few days. That's not just because I'll soon be starting what is almost a mystery job. It's the flatting situation, the realisation that I might just not be cut out for living with other people, the growing older (another birthday - it's on Easter Sunday this year) and so forth. Over the long weekend I'll move the bed from the small spare bedroom into storage and try and carve out a "safe" space for me there. I'd like to learn Mandarin, and maybe do a drumming course, although I wouldn't be able to start either of those until late July. And I still haven't given up on my puzzles and phone apps.

Two more days in insurance. Ever.