nothing too exciting to report today for me at least. morning in the office then the afternoon downtown at my writing course. i decided to walk the 20 minutes to the training location which was all downhill but it took 30 minutes because crossing NZ roads is a very slow affair as a pedestrian. it was the same in Australia.
the problem is the the traffic light phasing which is so slow that it takes an age before pedestrians can cross. and then you often get people turning left at traffic lights because it’s green even when the pedestrian crossing is showing the green man (hence the sign above reminding car drivers that ‘peds’ have priority).
now, in london I wouldn’t care and would just throw myself across london roads. but everyone does it there and cars (generally) stop. by the way, if you are a youngster reading it, that’s a very bad idea. And it’s even more of a silly idea in new zealand as kiwis are very compliant and therefore cars don’t expect people to be in the middle of the road and drive wildly down their wide roads to reflect that fact.
the only good thing about using pedestrian crossing is the nice sound it makes when the green man pops up. that already has a pavlovian effect on me as i feel my body jerk as my legs start to set off whenever i hear its distinctive ‘kerpoing’ noise.
meanwhile jane went to kezia’s prize giving which sounded like it was children singing along to CDs and vaguely doing dance routines to varying standards. i’m not sure she was completely impressed ! It’s Esther’s next week which will be a bit different i think. it’s in the evening so i should be able to go too.
tomorrow i’m meeting a chap who works for the UCCF in Auckland. He’s a friend of a friend and we’ve only met virtually so far. He played a big part in ‘praying us in’ to New Zealand, so i’m looking forward to meeting him in real life for the first time. We’re meeting under the santa in the picture …
see ya