It Did Not Turn Out Okay
Tuesday June 9, 2026
In my last post, I expressed some optimism for how the year was going to turn out. Well, We Gotta Go! didn't meet performance expectations and as a result, we're all back on the job market. It was pretty crushing for us; we'd put our heart and soul into making the game quirky and full of character. Everyone contributed a bit of their personality; for me, the inclusion of the Explosive Durian and the King Durian items were a real treat, but Art Director Noah also made us graffiti tags in the gas station bathroom, so I used it as an opportunity to sneak in a Kiwi reference.
I think this one was particularly sad because the small group of us were so talented as a team. I will miss working with each and everyone of them dearly. In the meantime, the weather has improved and it's no longer consistently below zero, and the sun sets after 8pm now, so there's plenty of things to look forward to in the coming months. Over the past month or so, Toronto's trees have burst into life with the cherry blossoms hitting peak bloom, along with the magnolias and tulips. It's truly a lovely time to be out and about in the city.
I was in Ottawa for Victoria Day weekend to catch the annual Tulip Festival, which I had last seen in 2018. Saturday was spent driving most of the time. We wanted to get up early to head down to Dow’s Lake before the big crowds, and had originally planned to be there at 8am, but instead my brain decided to wake me up at 4am and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, we headed down at 6.30am and it was so peaceful and serene, barely any people at all. We met up with some friends later and went kayaking on the lake, then headed up to Parliament Hill and later to Gatineau Park for a short hike. Traffic heading back to Toronto was really bad on Monday, though we still managed to catch the usual fireworks down by Woodbine Beach.
We also went to Vancouver for a week. The weather was phenomenal - it only rained for 2 hours the entire time we were there. And of course the scenery was absolutely stunning. We did three hikes in the time we were there; the first was Joffre Lakes, an hour north of Whistler - three glacial lakes that flow into each other with that beautiful green colour and the stillness providing an amazing reflection of the mountains and the forests behind. We were there early before the crowds, and it was well worth it. The second was St Mark's Summit in Cypress Mountain, which took us up past the ski fields and over to the west side overlooking Howe Sound. The final one, the most brutal, was the Stawamus Chief in Squamish, a trio of mountain peaks overlooking the town next to the Sea to Sky Gondola. The initial climb was a 600m elevation of literally just stairs, worse than the Grouse Grind, but the view at the top was incredible. We covered many parts of town as well - biking around Stanley Park, exploring Steveston and Fisherman's Wharf, absorbing the ocean breeze from Spanish Banks and watching the sunset from Queen Elizabeth Park. I got to meet up with a few ex-colleagues as well, and as always, the food was excellent throughout the week.
Today I'm off to Europe. It’s a nice time to travel and it feels like a while since I’ve been overseas - New Zealand doesn’t really count as a foreign adventure. I’ll be heading to Barcelona for a few nights, running to my favourite cafe in the Gothic Quarter for a Suizo and Xuxo, then consuming as much tapas and alioli as I can, then I’m over to Rome for a week. The last time I was there, I had food poisoning, so I’m keen to rewrite those memories and properly visit the city and all its history. Then to Frankfurt where I’m meeting up with a Kiwi friend who’s living in the Netherlands, and we’ll road trip to Luxembourg, Brussels and The Hague and end up in Amsterdam where I’ll fly back to Toronto.
Posted by Jeremy at 5:11pm on Tuesday June 9, 2026 :: 0 comments :: 
Snowbirding
Friday December 13, 2024
The year has gone by so quickly. It felt like only a few months ago that I had come back from Spain and Iceland, where I’d faced so many tumultuous events over the course of 90 days. But here I am again, ready to escape the cold and dark of winter in the northern hemisphere. This time it’s going to be simple. Just one country. Staying with my parents in Auckland. One week in Wellington. Plenty of time to catch up with people and enjoy summer.
As usual, I was a bit jittery on my way to the airport, just nervous about all the upcoming flights and timings and whether my luggage would be overweight. I finished up work in the afternoon, packed all my electronics and had dinner at Gus Tacos before taking the UP Express to Pearson Airport. Baggage drop (21kg exactly! Could have brought more maple cookies) and security were all routine and without incident. I found a public piano in the gate area but a small kid was banging about on the keyboard and I didn’t feel like hanging around for too long so I just went to my gate and did my Duolingo for the night.
Toronto to Vancouver was pretty busy, but not completely full. One of my row mates was also travelling to New Zealand, and it was her first time on a plane as well! The flight was uneventful, though I managed to do some work on my website, miraculously. It didn't seem like that long before we had passed Calgary and the Rockies and began descending into Vancouver. A short layover and I was back in the skies over the Pacific Ocean.
I think I managed to get six hours of sleep, of which only four were uninterrupted. They kept feeding us at strange hours and so I kept waking up to eat. This why I’m fat. I continued doing some work on my websites to pass the time; the power supply on the plane kept my laptop going pretty well.
There’s something emotional about coming into Auckland. I always have Dave Dobbyn’s Welcome Home playing - I know the song wasn’t written for expats but I appreciate the sentiment and emotion of the song. As the plane finally descends below the cloud line, I see the beautiful blue waters of the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours, Rangitoto, the rolling Bombay Hills, and the Sky Tower. It’s been fourteen hours in the sky, and finally, I’m home.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:02pm on Friday December 13, 2024 :: 0 comments ::