Witters from Down Under
Created | Updated Sep 2, 2009
Having moved from Scotland to Australia in 2005 to find out if she had fallen in love with the country as well as her husband a decade ago, she decided that the answer was 'yes' and intended to stay.
However life has always had a marvellous way of changing her best-laid plans. And it happened again. An unexpected work opportunity presented itself in mid-2008: one too good to miss.
As a result the Witter from Down Under is now coming from the land of the long white cloud - New Zealand.
Please join us and read Frenchbean's commentary on a new country, a new city, a new job and new friends.
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A Day in the Life of a Bean
Hello Everybody 
There was great excitement in the Shoebox apartment at dawn. I emerged from sleep with the 6am news bulletin and remembered that I had a date in Cathedral Square at 7.30am, so I came out of my customary morning coma more promptly than usual. The morning shower-dress-coffee-email-check and bolt outside all took place at double speed, to make sure that I didn't miss the deadline.
Out of the door, down the road, past the yacht in the sky… and send a quick text to say that I'm en route. Fortunately I was early enough to grab a restorative flat-white-to-go before arriving at the Cathedral.
Incidentally, the coffee in New Zealand is excellent. It is streets ahead of Britain and even better than Australia. No scalded milk, nor tasteless beans. They have every right to pride themselves on their baristas.
I reached Cathedral Square at 7:25am and immediately sent a text to say that I was early, and that I had 'assumed the agreed position' by the purple bug. First thing in the morning is not a bad time to be standing in the middle of a pedestrianised area alone, because there aren't that many people around. And those that were pottering about were intent on their own morning thing, so I could people-watch to my heart's content. Until I received a text...
Mission accomplished!
My family in Britain could see me standing in the loop of the tail of the purple bug on their computers, thanks to the Cathedral Square webcam .
Even by my standards this was a pretty bizarre situation. I could see the camera on top of the building in front of the Cathedral. When it was pointing in my direction I knew that if I stared at it for ten seconds, chances were that I'd be seen clearly. I felt a complete twit staring at the top of a ten-storey building but the police didn't leap out of their hut and arrest me, so perhaps it's not such an unusual occurrence.
By the way, the purple bug is in fact a fibreglass sperm called Darwin. It is part of the City-wide See Scape art exhibition that includes a yacht hanging 60ft in the air and people cycling around the city in silver helmets.
Bean-Cam was such a success that I have decided to have a repeat performance on Friday, for anybody who cares to join in. It will be my birthday... and I always try to do something I've never done before on my birthday. Well, I've never been on camera to people all over the world before...
Make a date in your diaries:
- 7:30am on Friday 7th November NZ time.
- That's 6:30pm on Thursday 6th November UK time.
- 11:30am on Thursday 6th November Los Angeles time.
- 4:30am on Friday 7th November Queensland time.
I will be there by the purple sperm from 7.30 to 7.50am NZ time.
Having expended an unnatural amount of adrenalin standing alone in the middle of a big empty space, the rest of the day could well have been a disappointment.
Not a bit of it!
There was a long-awaited opportunity to get out into the wilds with – amongst others – a local botanist, to explore a previously unexplored gully of indigenous vegetation. The landowner wants to get rid of it (unproductive). The Council may want to buy it for its biodiversity value.
I was dressed according to Instructions, in ridge-soled shoes, tramping trousers and waterproof/thornproof coat. We drove up unforgivingly steep and windy unsealed roads on the Banks Peninsula1 to reach an out-of-the-way hillside.
Having parked on a tiny verge next to a vertiginous drop, we clambered over a fence into seemingly impenetrable bush. There were slim tracks to follow – presumably created by deer or wild boar – and we slid our way up a stream, then up a forest-covered ridge.
To say that it was machete-like forest would be an exaggeration, but it was tough going as we climbed high through the forest understorey, tripping over roots, vines and dead branches; hauling ourselves up steep slippery vegetation-covered slopes and sliding unexpectedly down the other side. Several times we came to grief, trying to climb up a bank or over fallen trees, but it was well worth it. The excited call of a botanist in his element as he found a rare tree seedling or understorey bush confirmed that we'd be recommending that the Council buy the land.
We had a wonderful few hours of exploration and discovery. Photographs were taken (including several of my bottom as I scrambled up impossible vertical cliffs) but are not yet available (un)fortunately. Suffice it to say that it makes me thankful to be in this amazing environment – and even more thankful to be able to stagger around jungle-like hillsides, getting scratched and bruised on work time. What a great job!
You would have thought that returning to the office after (literally) dragging the botanist off the hills would be a disappointment.
Not a bit of it!
It was the day of the monthly Team Coffee Meeting. Almost as soon as I reappeared (muddy, bloody and unbowed) at my desk, it was time to retire to one of the local cafes for a bit of team-building. So the work day ended, surrounded by people with whom I now feel some affinity; sharing chat about wheelie bins, weeds, holidays on the Coramandel Peninsula and what to do when we get hit by an earthquake. I wandered home, weary and content.
And so the day came to a close in front of the computer, working on the Witter, drinking a very nice drop of Marlborough Chardonnay and nibbling an olive or two.
Ain't life grand?
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