24/2/15

Dear Diary,

On my last day in Christchurch I walked down Edinburgh Street and off of it branched Granton Street and Leith Street and I wondered if the town planner who named the streets in this suburb must have been a homesick Scottish ex-pat. At the time I wasn't having a great time of it either but I was more frustrated by circumstance and less suffering from homesickness.

I’ve always maintained that being homesick while on holiday is for fools. Who would want to go home when you're on holiday? How much of a misery guts would you have to be to think that being at home, working away in the dark and cold winter would be preferable to , well, anything other than working! You miss your friends, they will still be there, working away as usual, when you get back. Miss your family? They are usually just annoying people you can’t get away from and have to tolerate over a Sunday lunch once a week. The same bickering arguments will be awaiting your return just like the brussel sprouts. Miss your cat, well, I kinda get that one to be honest ... but nevertheless, toughen up. Homesickness is for fools.

Walking around Dunedin today I was struck by how much like Edinburgh it really is. Both cities share the same bizarre geographical fault that means you can't walk anywhere without having to walk uphill to get there, both cities have weather that can turn against you without a moments notice (it was sunny when I shut the bedroom door behind me and raining by the time I made it outside!) and both cities have so many of the same street names it constantly felt like I was walking around my home town.

Princes Street is the obvious common link and as it is the main thoroughfare in Edinburgh , so it is in Dunedin too running right through the center of the central business district. After the Octagon (a large roundabout dead center of town with eight roads leading into/away from it Princes Street becomes George Street, which seems unerringly familiar. There's a York place and an Elm Row that run close to each other but never actually meet (strikingly similar). Leith Street and Grange are side by side but both are on the wrong side of the tracks from Heriot Row and the street name of the road that forms the Octagon, which must be the prime piece of real estate in Dunedin city center, and definitely the most expensive to buy/rent is called, Moray Place! The same named street in Edinburgh prides itself on being the most expensive in the city!

After hours of wandering around enjoying the city today It all became a little too much for me and I started to see what the all fuss about being homesick was about. As I sat under the statue of Robert Burns (yep, Scotland's national poet has a massive statue in his honour in the place that is the furthest point away from where he lived.) and ate my shortbread that was supplied in my B and B room (they didn't even know I was coming from Scotland, it’s just something they do here) I contemplated if I was really thinking that I missed home, work and friends enough to give up being on holiday. A quick check of the weather forecast for Edinburgh revealed that it was due to be overcast with a maximum temperature of 7 degrees celsius. A time wasting glance at facebook revealed that all my friends were complaining about their work and wishing they were on holiday.

And just like that, I was cured.

To celebrate not being homesick I went looking to buy a souvenir cloth patch (I collect them you know) and found that there are two choices for Dunedin patches. One that has some penguins on it (as cold as Scotland gets you don't see them very often there), the other is of a Scottish piper!

(sigh)

I bought the penguin one and went to the pub to watch the Ireland V. U.A.E. match and wash away my foolish lament and prepare for tomorrow's big game ... Scotland V. Afghanistan !!!



"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it." Jules Renard - (1864 - 1910)