Winona’s first day at work is full of lacunas. Meetings are delayed. Her laptop isn’t ready. So she has plenty of time to think about how the impromptu party went on Saturday night. Now that everyone is older, last-minute parties don’t work so well. Wayne and Henny couldn’t get a sitter. Neither could Helena and […]
Entries from May 31st, 2010
Any Way The Wind Blows
May 28th, 2010 Comments Off on Any Way The Wind Blows
What has Will been up to, anyway? At work, he has been accepted into the tribe. He goes around with colleagues to lunches, drinks, software user groups, and the occasional sporting match. A great mob of them always go out for curry on Wednesday. The rest of the week, three or four of them tend […]
Mud and Petals
May 26th, 2010 1 Comment
It’s done. Winona emerges from an unrenovated office tower, clenching a mud-colored folder to her chest. The mud tone is the official branded colour of the Department of Stodge – all the signed paperwork for her Winona’s new job is now being clasped to her breast against a sudden downpour. The stony, low sky might […]
Bogan 3.0: Our Bogans, Our Selves
May 24th, 2010 4 Comments
Wazzer has been asked to model in an avant-garde fashion show. Wayne, having received an okay-for-the-recession bonus for managing his software development team, is listening to AC/DC on his upgraded iPhone. Wayland runs a hand through his hair and says, “I’m rough as guts, under the suit,†and everyone swoons. Welcome to the triumph of […]
Tags: bogans · social mores · wayne · wazzer
IAWL Likes…Stories Set In NZ
May 21st, 2010 1 Comment
The Lifer got some curious feedback about this blog the other day. “When I started to read it at first…I was confused. I mean, stories aren’t set in Wellington. They’re set in New York. Or maybe Paris. So it was hard to wrap my head around it that this was a story set where I […]
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It’s About Time
May 19th, 2010 Comments Off on It’s About Time
Winona has received a job offer from the Department of Stodge. She is not surprised. Twenty years ago, an offer like this would have meant a job for life. Everyone knows that it isn’t, anymore. But the employee selection system around it is still constructed as if this had not changed. Winona has been through […]
Tags: government · jobs · will · winona
1 BR Avail., Hataitai, Share W/Prof F
May 17th, 2010 Comments Off on 1 BR Avail., Hataitai, Share W/Prof F
Meanwhile, far from the Flat of Legend, Willow’s been finding the mortgage a bit tight. Sitting down to balance her budget, she grits her teeth. She knew home owning would change her spending, but there were things she hadn’t anticipated. She shouldn’t have paid so much for that kitten. Or to have the peach-coloured tub […]
Tags: social mores · unreal estate · wazzer · willow
The Flat of Legend
May 14th, 2010 2 Comments
Flatting isn’t always bad. When flat veterans are in a more mellow mood, they will talk to each other, in hushed and reverent tones, about the Flat of Legend. Somewhere in the mists of Aro Valley, up a leafy side street, there is the Flat of Legend. On winter nights when the Pleiades shine unimpaired, […]
Tags: old city · real estate · social mores · unreal estate · welly at its best
My Squalor Was More Squalid
May 12th, 2010 1 Comment
Winona has joined Will and his co-workers for after work drinks. One of them has asked where Winona is working, and gotten more than he bargained for as she describes her ongoing interviewing experiences with the Department of Stodge. “…so then I spent all afternoon taking those bizarre employment-fitness psychological tests. The ones where they […]
Tags: beer · real estate · social mores · will · winona
The Starfish
May 11th, 2010 1 Comment
“Get in the car! I said, get in the car! Get in the car NOW!†Helena Hutt takes the deep breaths familiar to any mummy trying very hard not to scream at the children. Right now she is driving them all to an ear specialist doctor, 30 minutes and a parking nightmare away in Newtown. […]
Tags: geography · helena · romance · social mores