The Chicken Coop

42 months ago, Leonie and I packed up our place in Greenhithe, Auckland, and moved to Wellington. That was quite possibly the best thing we did. And that one step into the unknown started a chain reaction.

30 months ago, the company I worked for in Wellington was sold to a US company. We (as non-owners) did quite well out of that. (Thanks guys! You have no idea how much that ment – well, maybe you do….) A side effect of that is, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve flown Wellington – Auckland – LA – Auckland – Wellington.

24 months ago, I was in St Petersburg, Russia. European, but so NOT European. Now trying to work out how hard it’ll be to get visa for us to go again (not too hard, I suspect) – and how hard the language will be. But we need to take the SPB lads up on their offer, really Can’t miss Vodka and Borsh in Russia.

18 months ago, both of us were made redundant, which is normally something that would freak most people out. People kept asking us if we were going to be ok. We decided to sell up and move to the UK for a while, after spending 3 months in Madison, WI. That would be possibly the second best thing we did.

And yes, we were VERY ok.

12 months ago, we had finished our 3 months in the mid-west of the US (Madison, WI, which was lovely), and had almost finished touring the north island of NZ in a camper van. Such a good reminder of just how fantastic my own country really is.

9 months ago we landed in London, after 6 weeks of travel thru australia, south east asia and greece. I’m still not sure if I like London. Some things I love, some things I hate. It’s not home, thats for sure, but it’ll be “home” for a while.

6 months ago, we were in Durango, Colorado on a mystery tour which pushed me – in some ways – to edges I didn’t know I had, and confirmed in other ways that really, I’m ok.

3 months ago, we visited Venice, Copenhagen, Paris, Glastonbury, Wye, Eastborne, Cambridge and Bristol. That is one of the things i love about London – everything is close, and cheap. Even New York, which I must go to again, is only 5 hours away.

5 days ago we were in London. Yesterday, we were in Durango, CO. Today we are in LA. Tomorrow we will be Auckland (up the sky tower for lunch, even). We are finishing off our round-the-world ticket with Business Class seats from LA to Auckland, thanks to the travel we did with Quest (thanks, AK, for signing all those expense claims) and it feels like a fitting end to an amaizing 12 months. Well, an amaizing 3 or 4 years, really.

After that, next stop is London – aka home, for a while – and more of a look around the UK and Europe. I’ve gone from a (senior) developer at a 5 person company to an architect at one of the biggest media companies in the world. I’ve written software for small handheld devices, and had a fairly core role (along with an amaizing team) in building a website which would rival the largest in New Zealand – on a BAD day.

We’ve lived in 3 countries, 4 cities, and – already – two diametrically opposite parts of London (Brixton, and Isle of Dogs / Canary Wharf).

42 months ago, Leonie would have said I feared change. Now I say bring it on.