The Time Capsule arrives

Posted in: Drivel

You know the cute idea of taking a little box, filling it with knick-knacks, burying it in the ground, then years later "finding" it again, fascinatedly & coyly remarking "oh, cool! What crap interested me then!" ?

Well, I have done just that, except it was a 750kg box of everything I owned, and "buried" in a garage in Wellington, NZ. This Life Experiment cost me at least US$4,500 between two shipping companies, an unused work visa, and Customs. But at least I now have three woks, six pairs of skates, and some out-of-date painkillers.

The Time Capsules

What is this all about?

Back in 2002 I left California with the intention of working in New Zealand. I had a job lined up 'n everything, thanks to Jez and my unstoppable interview techniques. Indeed, my final telephone interview was a seven-way conference call with everyone at the target company assessing me. I had got myself locked out of Karen's flat in San Francisco so was calling from a payphone in a local grocers in the Haight on a calling card. More entertainingly, before the call I had some time to kill so (obviously) hit a local bar. Unfortunately they had a Jägermeister happy hour...

Anyway, I got the job, shipped all my gear to Wellington, and took a return flight to UK for three weeks. For reasons involving pay, T&Cs, timing, and a girl I stayed beyond the three weeks. And am still here over three years later. My US life however then was on the High Seas at a shipping cost of, if I recall correctly, around US$2,300. It arrived in Wellington and since I didn't have a work visa Customs slammed me for import, compounded as it were by the incompetence of American Movers / Monterey Peninsula Movers I was slammed again for customs storage charges before finally having the whole lot very kindly hosted by Jez in his garage.

In 2002 I was Frequently Asked why are you not in NZ yet? That piece, written in May 2002, has some more stories altho' not the one here, at least revealed, about me getting sozzled before a final interview ;-)

Since then, a combination of simply having no space in the UK for all my junk, no solid idea if I was ever going to NZ, and a strong sense of not wanting to think about it anymore goddammit I just left it there. And left it there, ... and left it there... It was like having my finger stuck in a tin can: it hurts from cutting it on the lid, but I know it'll hurt more to get it out. Having spent so much money on shipping etc already, and not wanting to spend any more to retrieve it, irrationally I just left it. Jez however recently moved into a smaller place and it had to go somewhere; the decision forced. The shipping cost as it turned out was astonishingly much less than its outward journey. So here it all is: my life three years ago.

I've spent the last ten hours or so opening it up. The contents and the memories have been intriguing. To follow...

Posted by Paul Makepeace at May 6, 2005 23:30 | TrackBack