My first blognotes were written on 16th October 2011 in a M.I.L.K notebook containing a few scribbled jottings made between 'January 10th 2003, Opononi, Northland', and '29th July 2009, A Life in Pieces'. They are notes about pivotal points in my life, looking forward and looking back, about the curtailments of age and health and the ineffable sadness of lost lives, friends, loves.
On October 17th Sharon and I moved from Milford to a six month rental in Orewa. So we are in transit for a spell having sold each of our properties and pooled our riches to purchase a single level apartment (18 Eaves Bush Parade) under construction in Kensington Park at the north end of Orewa (http://www.kensingtonpark.co.nz/). It is on the north east side of the top floor of the three-storey Streamside block (the left hand end if you are looking at the drawing), planned for completion in late March or early April. From our rental we can wake to the banging of the carpenters and step into the street to see the building taking shape at the end of the road.
It was the stairs that did it. I need to eliminate stairs from my life. A three level townhouse was becoming more than my hips and lungs could handle.
According to The Rock Follies...
Until you put
Your foot
Upon the stairway
You'll never know
What the stairway is
Or where it may go
Go up the stairway
It's time to climb...
in the expectation that the stairway will lead to better things. Not for me thankyou. My climbing days are over.
Mary and I built Sugar Mountain to those 1976 Rock Follies lyrics (www.therockfollies.co.uk/songs.html) but now I seek a life with Sharon on a level plane. For me stairways are only good for going down. If I want to go up in the world I look for a lift or an escalator.
There is one last stairway I will climb, however. It is to the top of Streamside before the lifts are in and the building complete. As soon as the developers allow us access I'll take my camera and post you the view.
For reasons that will become apparent if you follow my blog, I have adopted the pseudonym Breathless. Yesterday evening New Zealand joined me struggling to breathe in the tense last minutes of the All Blacks' 8-7 World Cup win. Sacrebleu. That was close.
