I've grown tired of seeing everything I want constantly remain just out of my reach. It's almost like some all-powerful thing is watching me specifically and stopping me from attaining my nirvana.
For the last four years we've had Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings thrust down our throats - but more importantly we've had New Zealand rammed into just about any orofice. New Zealand has always been the brunt of sheep jokes, even managing to beat the Welsh into 2nd place. But it now seems that New Zealand is the hippest and trendiest place on the planet.
Many years ago I sort of hoped that New Zealand could be the place I spent my latter years - not my retirement, my latter years. Over 20 years ago I wandered into the NZ High Commission, for what was essentially a bit of a larf, and ended up chatting with a very helpful young Kiwi for nearly an hour. She told me that NZ had had a steady population drain since the mid 1970s and it looked quite easy to emigrate. I mentioned that I'd be looking at emigrating probably somewhere between 40 and 50, she didn't really think that would be a problem, but this was circa 1981.
Now getting into NZ is a bit like trying to escape from Alcatraz. It's probably easier to move to the USA than it is to NZ. 23 years ago I was perfect, now I'm too old, have no relevant skills and don't have enough money! The country is still losing 0.05% of its population a year as more and more of the young go to Australia, the USA or Europe. The clock is ticking too fast for me now.
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