One of the things I loved about living in Toronto was the anonymity it provided. I liked that no one was really in my bidness unless they were invited to be. Turns out, Auckland is a small town wrapped in a big city package. Sigh.
We bought a house last week – hooray!! – and it was from someone we knew. That in and of itself is a bit unusual considering we know three families here but add to that that my phone was ringing off the hook within hours of the house purchase – agents trying to buy some goodwill to help us sell the house in a few years. (NB: the same agents who had lied, stolen, pillaged among other things in the weeks leading up to our purchase. This lot is seriously deranged, folks.)
Stranger still: went to my first girls night in Meadowbank – it is the suburb next to where we are living and where we bought our home. Lovely group of women and I was talking to one who inquired after where my girls went to school. When I mentioned St Kent’s, she knew Emma’s name immediately as her niece is in the same year as “the new girl from Canada.”
And it isn’t just me. Dave was at an event this week – he has been asked to join the Trans-Tasman Business Leaders Association – a group of about 40 silly smart technology folk from Oz and NZ – and he was in the elevator afterwards with the moderator who knew immediately that he was the canuck she had heard so much about it. Really? Turns out her grandsons play ice hockey with one of the three families we know and they had mentioned at the rink that there were some new ex-pats who may be interested in hitting the ice. Uh. No. But what a tiny little village we are living in!
I kinda like just blending in but I am afraid those plans have been foiled. Already.