It has been four months since my last blog, which may well be the longest time without an online record here. It's not a great surprise - this last four months, let's say the first third, has been something of a frenetic swirl. Looking back to December 2022, my blog was merely my first chess tournament in well over 20 years. Chess is something of a luxury now - I'm quite lucky that I only paid a small $20 for membership at the Auckland Chess Club for the absolute pleasure of six over-the-board games.
What came next? Well, there was Christmas of course - a small scale celebration compared to other years. And then a splendid trip to Australia where we finally reciprocated with our Australian friends and enjoyed the swings between 36 and 16 degrees. Upon my return back to work, I was jerked back into my old two-role status as my replacement quit after a tumultuous 5 months. Then there was our spin into house-hunting. There was the now historic downpours of this late Auckland summer, and once things vaguely dried out, there was the big move to our new neighbourhood, mother and all. And there was the bounce back to marathon training. To be clear, there hasn't been many moments to sit back and reflect, literally. I would count this as my busiest period of life ever.
Pick a swirl and there are threads aplenty. Moving house, and into our first home, has been an interesting experience. The search, our second attempt, was a normal bustle. We tried at first to do it ourselves, plotting out open homes and what-not. There were some mildly interesting places but nothing compelling. Then one of our friends landed their first home and recommended an agent to show us around and we agreed to give that a go - and it was quite the adventure. Being primarily a do-it-yourself kind of person (but not much of a DIY type), it was a bit of a leap. But entrusting such a process to someone else had its advantages - he would find all the places that matched our preferences, noticed why we rejected places and found better and better places until an area had no more places that met specifications and we changed focus area. We searched North Shore, specifically Glenfield and Albany. A few places were attractive but missed key features.
The biggest reason to reject was the lack of a ground floor bedroom with no stairs leading into the house. This was because we wanted to preserve the option, or even welcome the option from the get-go, of my mother coming to live with us. She has been "getting older" but at a faster rate than most elderly it seemed. She had her lucky breaks in not breaking bones when she had her occasional falls. She "humorously" got lost when driving once. Though she was diligent about remembering certain things, some day-to-day things often became big issues. It seemed only a matter of time for an accident, or her ability regressing to the point that living alone and self-management were not possible. Whether moving in with us straight-away or as a later option, we had to avoid steps or ramps in our future home and all facilities had to be available to the person on the ground floor. This took requirement took some getting to understand and be aware of. We would walk into a house and immediately note something such as there being a bedroom on the ground floor, a toilet, but no shower or bathing facilities. One place close to where we eventually bought was an excellent one level place, except for the fact that one that one level had steps up to it from most angles. As it was, when we started to talk about places, she was very open to the move and this consideration gained more weight.
Another criterion for us was parking - most new-builds had minimal parking, apparently part of council requirements to reduce car use, increase commercial intensification and public transport use. (Not sure if that is the case - our agent mentioned it at one place that we liked but with minimal parking.) As it was, with my mother moving in, we'd have three cars, and many places were on "no parking" areas on the roads they were built on.
We had our own room requirement of two or bathrooms, three bedrooms, but telling were the things we were willing to sacrifice for the above: a backyard, a convenient area and a new-build home. In the end, the place that fulfilled that was an older but renovated home, with a backyard but relatively inconvenient area out west. The settlement process was filled with hesitation, anxiety, sudden hopes and stabbing regrets as our money was ceremonially tied up into a mortgage.
The move itself would count as the biggest exertions of my life, especially because I did not stop my marathon training at the time. For over a week, I was averaging 35,000 steps a day as we moved first to mum's and then collectively to the new place. I ran in the mornings then did the packing away of objects, moving them from house to car, car to garage, or out of car and eventually up to new place. We had a moving company, of course, for the large items but the packing. And then there was the donation of items, the disposal of gathered and deteriorating items, the assembling of new furniture and the arrangement of it thereafter. In a curious twist, I'm pretty confident that the moving worked as a "prehah" workout, building a great core that supported the dynamics of running.
And with the running and moving my weight plunged to 60kg. There was a perverse fascination that unlike previous marathon training where I would approach but never touch the 65kg asymptote, this has been an exceptional period. It might have been the concurrent exertion of moving house. Or perhaps the slower transition up to higher mileage - as soon as I cross the 80km/week line I get ravenous and this time I lingered a longer time in the 60-70km range. I also started doing self-made smoothies for the first time in life with superfoods, as a post-workout drink, but possibly not replacing all that I burned off. Most of my morning runs were done "unfuelled" because I don't have time for more than a coffee before I head out the door. The most common superfoods in my smoothies are berries, maca powder and cacao, with occasional additions of ground hemp, hemp protein, chia seeds, greek yoghurt, arepa powder, matcha, kale and acai.
The addition of maca, and also my first use of ashwagandha, I might speculate was quite critical in not really feeling much stress during this period, aside from an anxious night or two. As mentioned my successor as Director of Studies resigned the second day back from summer holidays, meaning I had to swoop back into the role while still doing a very busy role. We had two massive weather events in Auckland that required a Covid-esque scramble to notify students of online arrangements, train staff, etc. A staff member had a heart attack and another was arrested and then paranoid, perhaps due to drug use. (The latter was dismissed not long after but not before making accusations against me.) A greenhorn staff member was going rogue at the same time. And two staff members in my other school became estranged and required me to intervene. All while I was moving house! Considering my episode last year, I was almost waiting for my psychology to react negatively. It didn't. I wouldn't say that I was exactly a Zen monk but it was pretty much all in-stride, but with little time to do anything but what was in front of me.
I am really looking forward to that normal, quiet life that the future often promises. I'm looking forward to our eventual housewarming when everything will be in its right place. I'm looking forward to my sixth official marathon in June. I'm looking forward to reading a novel on our excellent balcony and planting things in the backyard. I'm also looking forward to writing again and thinking more and doing a whole lot less.
