2025 So Far
Sunday January 26, 2025
The end of 2024 was pretty quiet without my parents around the house in Auckland. I wrapped up work for the year, I spent a lot of time at the gym, I caught up with people who hadn’t gone away on holidays. I’m at the age where my friends are all talking about injuries and ailments like gout. I spent Christmas with my sister and her in-laws out in Waiuku. The weather has been mostly warm and sunny, and I’ve been loving it.
For New Year’s Eve, I bought myself some prawns and green-lipped mussels, and cooked those up for a delicious seafood feast, then I headed to Mt Eden to watch the Sky Tower fireworks and the Harbour Bridge light show. As usual, they were a bit disappointing, but the vibe was great. I was staring out over the city close to midnight and admiring the night sky; even with all the lights of downtown Auckland, I was able to see Orion, Jupiter and Mars. It was a reflective but enjoyable evening.
I went to play badminton on New Year’s Day. After my foot injury in November, I was a bit rusty from a month off sports, and after playing almost nonstop for 90 minutes, my body began to shut down. With all the aching and tense muscles, my slipped disc triggered again, and I was in agony for two nights. Luckily I knew the stretches to do to alleviate the pain, but it would be another week before I’d be able to get a physio appointment. By that time, my pain had improved significantly and I was back to doing many of my daily activities without too much of an issue. No gym or badminton for a few weeks though. However, I did manage to do a "military grade" 3km obstacle course in Matakana as part of Sam's stag do, though I had to skip the 3m wall under orders from the physio. We were super filthy at the end of it, but it was really fun and the weather was fantastic that weekend. I rushed home to pick up dad to go to his wine club's annual general meeting which was being held on someone's property in Red Hills, and they had a bunch of alpacas and two fluffy cats that I played with.
I took dad out to Muriwai one night to try and spot the comet. Though the weather was too cloudy to spot it, it was still a beautiful place to hang out and watch the sunset. The gannets of course were all there, squawking loudly and returning from their evening fishing expedition. We tried again the next day, just by going down the road to the waterfront, but saw nothing.
Now I'm in Wellington, at an Airbnb a few doors down from one of the properties I used to live at - the one with Smudge, who has probably sadly passed away in the eight years I've been gone. The last time I was here, the city seemed pretty dead because many people hadn't returned to work yet; this time, it feels a bit more alive down Cuba Street and Willis Street, but it's awful to see the Central Library and council buildings still in a state of construction. Many of my old favourite restaurants have shut in the past few years, a result of a significant reduction in the government workforce and the state of the economy in general. Still, there's a sense of nostalgia and a triumphant homecoming; like I've spread my wings to see the world and I'm back to see where I started and honour the city that I called home for nine years. And it's odd, because I've been away for eight years now, but it doesn't seem as long as my time in Wellington.
It's been a busy weekend catching up with people and eating delicious food. Of course I went to Little Penang, and Auntie Tee recognised me after all these years. I went to the Sunday service at Central Baptist too and somehow volunteered myself for piano next weekend. There's a lot of new restaurants that my friends are taking me to over the next few days, and I'm really looking forward to connecting with all my old mates too.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:14am on Sunday January 26, 2025 :: 0 comments :: 