So, occasionally at the end of the day, Ali and I will sit on our balcony and have a quiet beverage and talk about the days we've just had. In my mind I like to think of it as the final moments before the end credits of a weekly drama where the main characters have some inane conversation before the narrator uses their current life stories to sum up the moral of the episode.
I shouldn't be telling you this should I, because perhaps you'll find that a little weird, but to be fair, it's more to do with the amazing view we have rather than our lives being something that might constitute a weekly television program. (I think it's a kind of 'who knows what the future might hold in the next installment' kind of view. Kind of vast and beautiful in a city sort of way.)
Anyway, tonight our flatmate Ruth joined us and told us how it had started to spit on her way home, so she'd turned around and decided to catch the bus instead of walk, leading her to need to take out money from the ATM, and in turn leading her to spend too much time away from the busstop and miss the bus.
Hello, did somebody say Murphy?
Anyway, that in turn lead me to tell Ruth and Ali a story that was told to me by Neil Roberts, then head of TVNZ about a time when he had a bunch of intern kids follow him around the station, and then he took them home for a juice and BBQ or whatever as a special treat to end the day. During that time one of the kids saw his car keys and was like 'wow man, have you got a Lambourghini?' and he was like 'yes I have it's parked outside,' and held out the keys saying, 'do you want to take it for a drive?'.
The kid hesitated and said 'oh, errrr, oh...I don't know,' in a shy, is-this-too-good-to-be-true kind of way, at which point Neil Roberts takes back the keys and says 'ok, too late'.
And before the kid gets to say, 'oh my god of course I'd love too', Roberts turns to the others and says, 'this was a lesson that opportunities come just once, and if you don't run and grab them straight away, you miss out'.
Tough lesson kid.
While we were sitting on the balcony, across the way in a house a little bit below us the curtains kept flapping and a little boy who was clearly meant to be fast asleep was standing up on his bed in his jammies looking out at the strangers on the balcony of the house along the way.
And I thought - dammit Neil I'm going to get my camera and tripod - this one is too good to miss!
This man was sitting here when I walked into town and still sitting here when I walked back past about three hours later, I love his peaceful, earnest face and shoes so neatly placed beside him.
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