Well, another fine mess I’ve gotten myself into. Quitting a permanent role during the worst job market Wellington has seen in 15 years. Nice one you plonker!

The TL;dr answer is that I wasn’t enjoying the work at all, it mostly comprising client-facing support of a single mail security product, giving me no time or energy for career development while my other skills go stale.

I was literally getting tired of the grind, spending most of my weekends sleeping and couch surfing, rebuilding my energy levels to face the following week. Stuck on the hamster wheel; living to work, not working to live as we should.

Now that The Duchess is shaking off the worst of Covid we’re hopeful that we can enjoy a few days away in Christchurch, plus I have my annual pilgrimage to ‘Ul coming soon, which I can now prepare for at leisure.

In the past few months I’ve found myself quite bored of technology — particularly all the hype around cybersecurity and AI — so a bit of downtime and break from work will hopefully fill my cup again so I can get back into work later in the year with some energy and enthusiasm.

While I’ve got decades of experience and great references to pull on when applying for new roles, it’s a crowded market with lots of competition, and I’m increasingly worried about being on the wrong side of ageism and whether those (people or bots) skimming through the applicant CVs will discount me as being too old. Fingers crossed something will show up on the horizon!

Sadly our friend Bruce passed away this week. We were fortunate to have enjoyed a lovely weekend with Bruce and Carol just a few months ago at their home near Cromwell, getting guided tours and enjoying their hospitality.

Bruce was a great storyteller in the mould of Billy Connolly, based on life stories with perhaps a hint of creative license, dryly told over a nice meal and glass of something. He’d been a journalist, had worked in Papua New Guinea, worked on the Clyde Dam, helped start up Kiwibank and I suspect many other things we didn’t even know about.

He was also a rock music fan, particularly of Status Quo, and it was so unfair that he lost most of his hearing and couldn’t enjoy one of his main pleasures in life. Even on our last trip when his health wasn’t the best he was still wearing an Alice Cooper tour shirt to breakfast and chipping into conversations with good humour.

https://www.tributes.co.nz/ViewMyTribute.aspx?id=20474

Picked a bad day to return to work after Covid.

Tried to chew through three days’ backlog of work and still didn’t make it through the To Do list.

Having a liquid dinner and counting down the hours to leaving this sodding job. (Did I mention I quit a couple of weeks ago? Oh well that happened too)

Video summed up the day nicely and gave me a chuckle – needs sound on.

The Duchess has been feeling grotty for a few days and I’m feeling quite run down myself so we did the New Normal response of a COVID test, expecting the usual all-clear.

Nope! Double lines for us both, though looks like The Duchess has it worse.

Good job we have decent emergency food stocks and can get our favourite restaurant meals delivered as it appears we will be isolating for a week or so.

The Duchess is moaning constantly, which I take as a good sign. It’s if she goes quiet I will worry.

Blowing a gale and bitter Southerly doesn’t mean you can’t hit the beach for a bonus afternoon doggo walk.

I was lucky enough to see a legend playing live last night – Peter Hook, bassist from influential 1980s Manchester bands Joy Division and New Order. It was one of those gigs where everything went well – almost full, genuine fans, yet sat at the back with empty seats around me so didn’t feel claustrophobic, sound system was great — viscerally loud yet crystal clear — with everyone on (fairly) good behaviour.

Held at Wellington’s Opera House, where the contrast of “The Good Old Days” style Victorian architecture and rock gig staging always seems incongruous, the older crowd were down the front dancing within a few numbers then stayed there throughout, shiny heads supplementing the light show.

The first half was all New Order songs, including absolute bangers Blue Monday and True Faith. The second half went back further into the Joy Division catalogue, where Peter’s voice fitted Ian Curtis’ feral vocals much better.

Unsurprisingly they finished with (IMHO) one of the greatest pop songs ever written – Love Will Tear Us Apart – prompting a crowd sing-a-long that had Peter tearing up.

I drove home afterwards with ringing ears, a signed T-shirt to add to the tour shirts collection and the satisfaction of another bucket list item ticked off.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350278798/joy-division-legend-visits-wellington-memorial-late-bandmate

An annual Upper Hutt tradition is Book Fest, where the local Lions Club hire out a local hall and pack it with cheap second hand books. You turn up with an empty shopping bag and leave with a dozen (or more) interesting additions to the unread books pile.

This year’s trawl takes the unread books pile over 100 so I could really do with a big Lotto win so I can retire early and start making inroads …

Had a very pleasant Star Wars Day yesterday, watching the original film at a packed showing at the local picture house that included lots of kids getting indoctrinated by their geeky Dads.

It reminded me of a vivid childhood memory of my Dad taking.ke to see the film back in the late 70s, particularly walking out of Hull’s Cecil cinema holding his hand, walking up Carr Lane with a head full of spaceships, lightsabers and John Williams’ epic score.

The only sobering realisation on this viewing was that, while I would love to think of myself as Han Solo, in reality I am more like C3P0. Damn.

Finally from our trip I enjoyed how our friends’ village has lots of quirky letterboxes, community libraries and even an egg distribution point and had to post a few.