On going home: thinking out loud

"Can you imagine where this race is run?  Turn our golden faces into the sun. Forever young... I wanna be forever young".  Love the tune.

100% Pure New Zealand's ad

Few ads have moved me more than this one.  I've been playing it quite frequently on YouTube for a good few years now;  and each time I do, it never fails to bring a tear to my eye.  Weird fella, you may say.  I can't explain it really but suffice to say it moves (and inspires) me enough that I should be writing a blog post about it - not the ad per se, but the place it promotes.

The youngest country on Earth - New Zealand - is a blessed land.  Of that, I'm totally convinced.  I mean, how can she NOT be when her people of every creed and race gather here before God's face - asking Him to bless this place and to defend their Free Land?  Having already visited thrice before, I continue to wonder oh-so frequently whether and when Oi Len and I will have the good fortune of returning again.  In fact, not a week goes by without me pondering over this question at least once.  Not a week.  Honest.

Oi Len and I in Glenorchy, New Zealand (June '02)

Note I said "returning" instead of "going there".  In truth (and I'm saying this unashamedly), to me New Zealand is home - despite the lack of any legal right for me to so claim.  But we've all heard the old cliché before, haven't we?... you know, home is where the heart is.  And like the millions who've visited her before and after me, I left my heart there too.  Not to sound like a broken record; but I miss New Zealand.  In fact I miss her so much it hurts.

So what's keeping me?  Well, we simply don't have the dough to go and stay there for any length of time which can justifiably be considered as "meaningful" (to me, that's a month at least) - not in the foreseeable future anyway.  Running one's own business isn't exactly a bed of roses.  Challenges come incessantly; and believe me, it's been really challenging the past year and a half or so.

On the shores of Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown (June '02)

If Oi Len and I were 25 years younger, hell, we would've just upped and gone on a six-month working holiday with only a shirt on our backs and a penny to our name - basically taking the risk and see where we end up.  But it's too late for us to do that now - you know, with our business and family commitments and all.  I suppose if airfares to New Zealand (not to mention the cost of accommodation, food and transport there) weren't so dear and the exchange rate was more favourable, we could still manage a fortnight or so there; which, given our circumstances, I'd be content with.  But unfortunately all these factors are conspiring against us at the moment and for now at least, it looks like we'll just have to live in exile for awhile.

But the plain fact remains - I wanna go home.  The last time I did so was in spring 2006.... that's a whole SIX years ago.  And that's too long.  Which brings to mind another NZ promotional ad.

Shit... I'm all teary-eyed again after watching this vid

In truth, I can be a pretty spontaneous person - that is, if I allow it to happen (jeez, what am I saying?...  ALLOW myself to be spontaneous?).  My trip to Paris in 2005, for instance, was born out of spontaneity.  A moment of insanity.  So what I probably need now to realise my dream of going home is an earth-shaking jolt upstairs - something wild or inspiring enough for me to say, "Screw it;  let's go!".

In a couple of days, Oi Len and I will be off to Hanoi, Vietnam for a short break.  After we come back, I'll definitely sit down and think about visiting home again.  Having said that, maybe I shouldn't THINK at all.... it'll be like Paris all over again!  Woohoo!




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