and lo, there was an enormous window. and it was good.
i did it - i went all the way around the planet and came back in one piece!
the trip seems to have been just long enough for me to be happily at home, no longer moving every week or two, but short enough that i wasn't waiting for it to end. of course, it may help that the next one begins in early october.
a few interesting things happened while i was away. one was that my entire department moved offices - buildings, in fact - so i left all my stuff in boxes, and came back to find the boxes waiting for me at my new desk. which is located next to a window that is approximately 2mx2m. the awesomeness of this is overwhelming, since i had only indirect daylight in the old office (by craning my neck and mashing my nose against the interior window). in fact, i wanted to title this post something involving a hybrid of awesome and office, but nothing looks quite right - offi-some? awe-fice-some? yeah, let's forget that.
anyway - behold!
oh, the excitement. but wait - there are also things to be seen from the window. look right! look left! look at the huddled bus-awaiters!
shame about the starbucks sign, actually, but since it's normally well outside my field of vision, it doesn't really bother me. the inside is also not too bad.
plenty of room for cephalopod paraphernalia. cephalopodiana? inventing words is obviously not working today.
a few other things of note happened in my absence. such as: my new zealand citizenship ceremony. oops! just when the immigration saga really, truly seemed to be ending (i should know better by now) - i returned to find a letter on my desk dated 11 june, informing me that the ceremony was to take place on 10 july. you can imagine how my stomach dropped when, on the morning of the 16th, i read the following words for the first time:
'you are requested to attend before his worship the mayor mr. dick hubbard to take the affirmation of allegiance...'
'if, because of illness or other urgent reason, you are unable to be present [...] please inform the officer named below as soon as possible. please note, if you are unable to attend this ceremony, it could be some time before we are able to arrange for you to attend another ceremony...'
'because this is an important ceremony, a high standard of dress is required... '
hey! they made me a citizen! i think i'll celebrate by standing up the mayor! crap, crap, CRAP. luckily i had informed that i would be away, and they had scheduled me on that date due to a clerical error. so i should be rescheduled fairly soon, although i may not get to meet the cereal king in person. to which i was looking forward.
everything else seems to be humming along much as before. the pebbles took exemplary care of all household flora and fauna (putting some of them on a probably much-needed diet); bumbly's tattoo is all healed and looking good (ack! post still in the works!); and there is about as much daylight now as when i left, and more every day, since i sneakily skipped the two darkest months.
i do still have a few things i want to post from the trip in retrospect though - especially some nice videos from various aquariums. i saw a live Mola mola! and so will you! but for now, just know that i'm back, and...
sorry, got distracted looking out the window.
