That’s the living room floor covered in feathers, and the proud hunter wondering why we don’t appreciate her gifts.

Surprisingly, Lee was able to shoo the bird outside and it eventually flew away. I guess all that dinosaur DNA makes them tougher than they look.

That top picture is the trusty minivan parked in my reserved spot for the very last time.

Below is a 1959 Impala who pulled into a garage just ahead of me recently. It was beautiful, but as I watched it jounce over the speed bumps I had a chance to reflect on what I really value in a car. Like, sure, if I were made of money I would let my horizons widen out a bit. But having to limit myself to one? Boringly, the minivan wins every time.

This framed hole in the wall is over one of the urinals at the Lumsden Pub. Be sure to zoom in and read the caption!

Newmarket sunset last month

We knew there was sort of a soft spot in the floor of my office. What we didn’t know until we had a builder in was just how precarious it was. Turns that there’s tile under the carpet, except in the spot where the old wood-burning stove used to live.

Over the years, water must have run down the chimney and rotted the floor and the beams underneath.

All fixed now!

5:30 AM in the airport lounge… Starting my new job today with a 3-day orientation trip to Wellington.

On the one hand, I haven’t missed business travel all that much. But on the other… there’s worse things than a nice buffet breakfast and a few minutes of breathing in the carefully curated aroma of money and power.

Before and after photos of our new back steps, part of the work we’re having done around the place.

That’s me and a couple dozen of my now former colleagues posing with Peter the t-rex at my leaving party last Tuesday. Peter is hanging around the Auckland Museum for a few months and made a fitting mascot for the end of my HealthLink era.

After a week of RnR, I’ll be joining the NZ Ministry of Health where I’ll help design and implement a new National Immunisation Solution… sounds impressive! And hopefully it will be.

Although the time was probably right for a change, the story here is one we’ve become all too familiar with… a recruiter found me on LinkedIn and made an attractive offer. But even before we got down to details, I was sold after reading the job description… it’s like it was written just for me. Very excited!

My first official duty? Get on a plane to Wellington for a 3-day orientation. Koru Club, here I come!

Everyone involved in this picture is exactly as close to the hot tub as they want to be. I’m in it of course, and Misty is able to doze (meditate?), keep tabs on us, or spring up to chase a bird, all without fear of getting splashed.

When we are in the tub at night, Misty often sits with her back to us, as if guarding the perimeter.

No Toto, it’s not Pasadena, frozen in time like you remember it from the 1980s, but I can sure understand why you might think so.

These whale tail sculptures have been scattered around Auckland the past few months. Each is decorated by a local artist, and each has a story.

(I will say in passing that until this exhibit, a whale tail in my mind was something that occasionally appears below a tramp stamp. But clearly the world – or at least Auckland – has moved on from such puerile and sexist thinking.)

They follow a similar campaign of owls a few years ago, and it’s all modeled after the famous Cowparade idea. At the end of the exhibition period, there was an auction, and civic-minded bidders could plump down a few grand for some worthy cause, keeping the piece for permanent display.

If only Captain Ahab had had ApplePay and a pickup truck… things would have been much easier for him, not to mention millions of 11th graders.

I’m not surprised that this set of shot glasses ended up in the thrift store. I tried to imagine the scene …

“Sweet cheeks, I just know in my soul that you are gonna go fetch me and the boys some more of that Jäegermeister cuz you sure don’t want your lover man drinkin and drivin. Now that’s what I call marital harmony. Ain’t that right boys.”

Here’s that kingfisher I missed the other day, preserved for all to see on a utility box.

Just seconds before I took this picture there was a very nice kingfisher or kōtare sitting on that piling. Need to be quicker!