by My trip to Auckland was a success. I met everybody I hoped to and a few people I didn’t expect to. As I mentioned in my previous post, Thursday’s catch-up really brought home to me that I need to be myself in spite of all the pressure from society to be someone else.
On Friday morning I met up with an ex-colleague of mine, the only ex-colleague I’m still in touch with. She now works as an actuarial contractor in the city. She still has two exams to go and the road to qualification is even steeper now that she has bigger priorities in the shape of a 2½-year-old daughter. Her first few years after arriving in New Zealand in 2005 were tumultuous to put it mildly, but things appear to have settled down. Her reaction to my move to Romania was extremely positive. She seemed genuinely happy for me.
Later on Friday I caught up with a lady who used to work for Autism NZ in Wellington; she was one of the first people I met here outside work and my cousin’s family. She ran a successful fortnightly meeting for people at the milder end of the spectrum. The attendance at these groups was relatively small, conversation bounced around madly between completely unrelated topics, and nobody seemed to mind (if anything these wild changes of tack were encouraged). We even had the occasional show-and-tell, such as the time somebody brought in the output of a 3-D printer: bread tags as I recall (this was couple of years before the first 3-D-printed gun). Although I was undiagnosed, these meetings gave me a safe but engaging environment every other Monday. Alas, the facilitator moved to Auckland in early 2012 and everything else about the group, including the clientele, changed too. The ex-facilitator, who I would certainly now call a friend, picked me up from New Lynn station; as we walked from the station to her car we were greeted by a so-called cloud sculpture overhead, but I can’t ever remember seeing a cloud in the shape of a cock and balls. Apparently it even lights up at night. It reminded me of a work request I got recently for a plan of all the services in an unusually-shaped area highlighted in fat marker pen. Two presses of the zoom-in button later I had an I-wish-sized appendage stretching across my screen. Changing the subject, I had lunch at my friend’s place. Their house and garden look amazing without being in any way ostentatious. It was the attention to detail that got me. I wonder if interior (and exterior) design is something you either have talent for or you don’t. She clearly does, and has put in considerable time and effort on top. Her sister-in-law was also there − she was off sick − and the three of us had a good chat.
I then saw Fuocoammare, a documentary film set on the island of Lampedusa, some distance from the main island of Sicily. Many African immigrants make their way to Lampedusa by boat, and sadly thousands have died attempting the journey. The film was something of an eye-opener. It was part of the film festival, and would you believe, they’ll be showing not one but two Romanian films (which I expect to be eye-openers too).
