Introduction

Twelve years ago I moved to Wellington.  When I was asked why I wanted to leave the calm, warm summers of Hamilton for a place renowned for its wind and much cooler temperatures I remarked in an offhand way that I wanted to live on the edge.  What I meant by that was that I was pitching myself into a city where I knew few people, there was going to be lots of wind and many of the times that I had been there it had been cold and sometimes lashed by rain either from the north or from the south.  When I came here in early summer the temperatures were more like early spring in Hamilton and the wind was, of course, blowing.  Little did I know that this new life was indeed to both physically and emotionally a time of living on the edge.

I had not thought at the time that in some ways this was time where I would live on the edge.  Physically we live where the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plates meet making for a very active earthquake zone, there is nothing between Wellington and Antarctica.  

I began working in Human Resources where you seem to be loved by no-one and eventually moved to shorter term roles by contracting.  Halfway during my time here I separated and whole new life began. I started traveling by myself. An experience of renting happened before I bought an apartment. I had a couple of health scares.   Eventually I met a wonderful woman from my past and as at writing we have a commuter relationship because she, inconveniently for me, decided many years ago to relocate to Sydney.

This is an occasional blog about life after sixty and my experience of trying to live my life by having experiences rather than things.  Primarily it will be about the things I do in order to experience as much as I can before the inevitable decline into old age and to that final stage of life, death.  Some of it will be reflections on that process, other parts will be the adventures that I have.
When I go on a more lengthy journey such as travel overseas to places like France I will continue the practice of writing  a separate blog.