A week of firsts

Last week was a week of firsts for me. All of them were ordinary and relatively unimportant, but for some reason I noticed all of them and the coincidence of them happening in the week.

First, and most importantly, I voted in the US Midterm elections using a system I’d never used before. Unlike previous elections, I printed out the PDFs e-mailed to me, including the ballot, and marked them and posted those back. In all previous elections I’ve used the official stuff posted to me.

Last Week I also went to a new grocery store, the New World in Papakura (the entrance is in the photo above). The truth is, I didn’t even know it existed until last week. I had to go to Papakura, anyway, so I was planning on going to the Countdown there, rather than the one a few minutes farther away in the much busier Takanini—a store I got to from time to time because it’s right next to the pet store/vets where I get Bella’s special food.

Nigel said there was a new New World in Papakura, so I decided to try it. It turns out, it’s a really nice one, better than the only other one I knew about, in Waiuku, which I’ve been to twice (and the second trip made me think I’d judged it too harshly the first time I went there). In fact, it’s good enough that I’ll add it to the list of stores I’ll choose.

Last week was also the first time this season the temperature hit 20 degrees (68F), and it went on to hit 23 (just under 74F). We’re definitely warming up now, which makes sense, since we’re in late Spring, and only a couple weeks from the start of Summer. To me, this is a very good thing, however, I may change my opinion if the summer is really as hot and dry as the weather mavens have predicted.

At the end of the week I was meant to accompany Nigel to the birthday party for the child of one of his work colleagues, who is from India. I’ve never been to an Indian celebration—I’ve been to Māori ones, of course, and Samoan, but not Indian. Sadly, I was behind in my work and couldn’t go, so that first will have to wait for another time.

None of that is out of the ordinary, and mostly it’s stuff that's important to me alone, not necessarily anyone else. But sometimes it’s good to just stop for a minute and note ordinary things that happened for the first time. We all need a break sometimes.