Karen: What are you up to?
Me: About my neck at the moment. I’m spending long days in the city, and what little spare time I have I’m spending with C.
Karen: How is work?
Me (when I first answered the question): Quite fun. I answer the phone and help people with their computer problems, which generally involves helping them get set up. There’s a great deal to keep track of, and I’m still learning how the business works.
Me (a week or so after the Karen interview): I just got put on the Wall of Fame for my niceness to customers.
Karen (would probably say this in response, although it hadn’t happened at the time she asked the original question): Yay! Well done!
Me (assuming that Karen would have said that): Really it’s because of a nice customer who called in to say that her internet connection was working again, and mentioned in passing that she’d found me helpful. There should be a Wall of Fame for good customers.
Me (carrying on answering the original question): I’m working all day on Wednesday and mornings the rest of the week, which means I have to get up by about 6.30 to catch the train. This doesn’t sit well with me, but it’s better than working nights.
Me (now): The train is nice and all, but for the last couple of days I’ve been biking into the city, which I think I’ll keep doing. It has the various merits of being cheaper, more fun and faster. Also, I get to go through the Domain, which has a great view. I can’t read a book while I’m doing it, but I can listen to Morning Report and switch over to the BBC World Service if they start talking about sport.
Karen (actual real question): How is school?
Me (then): One course is great, with plenty of meaty mathematics. The other is currently a bit vague and simple, but looks set to improve once we get to actually doing some programming. I’ve always wanted to write software, but never had the reason to squeeze time out of my day to do it.
The big disadvantage is that one course is on the Tamaki campus in the middle of the day, and the other is on the City campus at five. There’s a free bus between the campuses, but it still means about three hours of hanging around in the afternoons.
Me (now): It’s also going to mean leaving my bike at university for part of the day. I have been following with interest reports of progress in the development of cycle storage facilities at the University of Auckland. These reports indicate that no progress is being made whatsoever. Perhaps this will change if the City Council follow through on their recent promise to spend as much on public transport and cycle lanes as they will on roads this year.
Me (then - it was 20 March, which is the last day of the Bahá’í fast - so a bit more than a week ago really): I’m trying to spend most of that time on the Tamaki campus, because it’s quiet and peaceful, and the cafes are better. That is to say, they’re more pleasant to sit in and I’ll find out tomorrow whether the food is as nice as it looks because the Fast finished tonight. Happy New Year.
Me (now): The food is indeed nice on the Tamaki Campus. I’ve also discovered the Postgraduate Lounge on the City Campus, which is sort of like the Koru Lounge of the university. It has very nice food and sofas that come the nearest to being comfortable that I’ve yet found at the university. I’m not currently playing the part of a postgraduate student in this particular university, it doesn’t say anything at the door about which university you had to graduate from or what sorts of courses you have to be taking now.
Me (then): I’ve joined the Software Developers’ Klub, which has many jolly geeks in it. From this I’ve learnt that the Computer Science Department will happily employ undergraduates as tutors, and with my teaching and tutoring experience and my mighty MSc I should be a sure candidate.
Me (now): I’d definitely count as an undergraduate in this respect, as it’s the subject I’m actually studying. It turns out they won’t be making any new appointments until July, but I’ve sent my CV.
Karen: Are your adventures with comics continuing apace?
Me (then): Yes. We had our second Auckland Comics Workshop today,
Me (now): That’s today-then not today-now.
Karen (probably): Yes, I got it.
Me (now): OK, sorry.
Me (then, continuing from before I(now) interrupted): and following prior form it was all ex-Christchurch people - specifically Ruth, Andrew Kepple and me. Having it in a cafe was an idea worth trying, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s really not a goer. We were just getting into it when the staff decided to close for the day, so I think I’ll try having the next one at my flat. This will also mean that when someone suddenly needs a reference picture of Paul Holmes, it will be possible to provide one. We began working on a jam comic entitled “19 Things You Didn’t Know About Auckland”. My contributions were “Auckland is the southernmost capital city in the world apart from Wellington”
Me (now): I’m not sure what this means, but it sounds like the sort of thing that would sound true to Aucklanders.
Me (then): and “People who live in Auckland are known as Auckrons. They eat a fine paste made from fermented red beans and shoot lasers out of their eyes.”
Me (now): That doesn’t sound true anymore. It’s just nonsense.
Me (then): I’m partway through writing a script for a story set in the Hicksville universe, which may eventually get published in a compilation Dylan Horrocks is vaguely thinking of putting together. I’ve also decided to plan out the rest of Glop before drawing it, so that it comes to a satisfactory conclusion in four or five issues’ time. There will be a dramatic climax that fully exploits the well-recognised literary technique of deus ex machina, or at least seems to unless you remember a very obscure character who hasn’t been in the comic since the first page.
Tonight I’ve just submitted my first cartoon to the Listener. I’ve no idea whether they’ll take it, but Chris Slane said they were looking for cartoons, and for the last few issues he’s been doing pretty much all of them. If they go for it, I’ll be aiming to put one out every week on a somewhat topical theme. My first is about de facto relationships and unreliable buses.
Me (now): No word yet on whether they’ll take it, but it’s been Easter and all.
Me (then): I am in ruddy good health, apart from a kidney stone I had about a month ago, which was rather painful. I need to drink plenty of water to prevent it recurring,
Me (now): I have some water right here, and I’m drinking it.
Me (then): which means I haven’t been able to do a full fast, but I’ve tried to keep to the spirit of the thing by only drinking plain water through the day.
Me (now): How are the cats, Karen? As you know, they are still in Christchurch in my house, where you are, as you also know, one of my tenants.
Karen (would probably say): The cats are fine, Isaac. As you know from having asked a different tenant about them earlier. But do go ahead and mention your plans for moving the cats to Auckland.
Me (then, having just changed the subject to talk about my cats without benefit of the above introduction): I’ve also spoken with the landlord today about cats. We have reached an agreement that I am allowed to install a cat door provided that I pay to have it uninstalled and the glass replaced when I leave.
Me (now): Which seems a bit silly when you think about it. Surely it was an oversight not installing a cat door in the first place, and by installing one I will doubtless be doubling the resale value of the property. But fair enough. It’s his house.
Me (then): Once we have this in writing and the job is done, there’ll be nothing left to prevent the cats coming up here. I haven’t worked out exactly when yet, but it’ll involve someone putting them on a plane on a Friday evening so that I can meet them at the airport and be with them for the rest of the weekend to get them settled.
Karen (would have said, if she’d been Sean Plunkett on Morning Report): We’ll need to wrap up there. Thanks for your time, Isaac.
Me (if Karen was Sean Plunkett): Thank you, Sean.
Karen (still Sean Plunkett): It’s coming up to the news at nine a.m. and our birdcall today is the Kakariki, or yellow-crowned parakeet.
Kakariki: Caw caw