Meanderings

Ah. An entire shop full of happy internet connected computers. No lines. No 3 bucks for 30 seconds. This is contentment in its purest form.

Okay, that's pushing it a bit, but after a few days of lack-of-decent-cheap(ish)-internet, I'm sooooo happy to be here!!

I'd never do travelling around the third world, would I?

I had a very odd conversation yesterday. I'm currently in Kaikoura, a tiny seaside town, with deeply deeply impressively terrifyingly huge mountains around it (or so I have sussed out through the incredibly thick fog and conversations with locals). The seashelf dips out as impressively under water as the mountains climb up around us, so the fishing is really really good here, and that seems to be the main source of employment for most people here. Alas, if you don't want to eat seafood, there's no eating out for you here ;)

The other form of collecting monies here is sea life tours. I'm supposed to be going on a whale watching expedition later on today, but I don't know if that's going to happen, due to said thick sea fog. I may have to be satisfied with my wandering around near a fur seal colony yesterday (and when I say 'near' I mean about 10 metres away, close enough to see their whiskers and be blown away by being so near to seals!)

And on the wander back from the seal colony is when I had the odd conversation. I always knew I'd get back to this point. Trust me, I'm your Narrator.

There was a woman selling seafood meals by the side of the road. I stopped to get a juice, and we got chatting. She eventually asked me what I did for a living, and I gave her my usual pat answer, which is "I work in IT". She said "What's IT?"

And you know what - for the life of me, I could not remember what "IT" stands for. Complete blank. It's something I haven't had to think about for so long - everyone knows what "IT" is, which is why I give that pat answer. Don't they? I hummed and hawed and awkward silenced it for a bit, then mumbled something about "software, sit in front of a computer all day, actually not working now" and fled. And about 30 seconds later, I remembered that it's "Information Technology".

Stupid stupid brain.