I can’t tell whether it is because I’m getting older, and therefore my bones are nearer the surface, but I’m pretending I’m not bored. Or at least not wishing I was somewhere else. The boredom raises in me and presses my flesh into the unyielding concrete tiles. I try to ignore the relentless yammering of some woman off to my side. The noise presses into my ears, my bones crush into the tiles, and boredom wells up like a belch you cannot stifle.

This is the time of school classrooms. My mind eases off in its easy lope, down well trodden paths. I’m not away soaring. I’m not Tom Sawyer on the raft. I’m not building castles in my mind. I’m in the gold – a seamless, edgeless, featureless, glowing-gold sphere. Sound turns down to a buzz.

I breathe in.

I breathe out.

I’m not being polite, I’m simply not there.

The kids know better. They get up. They walk away.

Manifesto
39. Every day trust that there is a bigger picture. You are a part of it even if you may not know what it is.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.
50. Every day has an ending.

In a moment of drunken bravado, Boris confessed to being the baby in the pram in Sergei Eisenstein’s movie, Battleship Potemkin. After a stunned silence the entire bar burst into laughter – first at the outrageous claim, and second at Boris’s embarrassing political naivety. His colleagues teased and taunted him mercilessly for weeks. His protests about just being a baby, and how his mother had allowed him to be filmed because she had known Eisenstein fell on deaf ears.

Stung by the hurtful comments, Boris’s heart could find no rest in the previous havens of beautiful and elegant structures. To him they had become a kind of blasphemy. As his heart darkened, he found creative inspiration in African termite towers. Thick stucco over brick walls, tiny windows, tiled finishes inside and out. Functional. Standardised. Godless. Man as an insect, a living machine. An inspirational example of collective behaviour. He found favour with the new leadership, and he forgot all that he had ever been.

Manifesto
06. Every day you make choices.
25. Every day your light shines for others to see.
43. Every day accept you will make mistakes. Learn from them. They are opportunities in disguise.

When I was a kid I used to come to Wellington and look up at the big buildings and wonder what it was like from ‘up there’. I still find the view looking up from ‘down here’ fascinating. There are many architectural styles to be found in the CBD. The overall design is anything but a coherent vision of town planning. I love it nevertheless.

I’m inspired to find the little snippets of design – some architect or designer has decided ‘stuff it, let’s have this – or that’. And we find some elegant little piece of applied art almost as an after thought – a tiny window perhaps, or an attractive piece of detailing work. Most of the buildings concerned would have been built when architectural drawings were made by hand – and so the detail work had been deliberate. Sometimes it seems like a private joke and I can image the delight in the designer’s voice as he describes the next subtle piece of work.

Keep looking up – there’s a beauty and an elegance in the functional patterns that surround us.

Manifesto
14. Every day the ordinary can be the extraordinary.
36. Every day be still. Connect to your inner being. Listen and be guided by it.
47. Every day you are responsible.

It’s a kind of magnet in the late afternoon. I think we might have to keep it on after the Rugby World Cup.

When else, where else is the light so beautiful?

Of course, most of the people are more interested in the other attractions than the way the light runs across the buildings and scampers up the hill sides.

In the world headquarters of the verb, even the light is an activity.

Manifesto
14. Every day the ordinary can be the extraordinary.
24. Every day is a journey. Not a destination.
50. Every day has an ending.

Other than the bright blue skies on those magical clear days, Wellington is not a brightly coloured city. That’s not to say that the town is colourless, rather that Wellington specialises in a fine range of muted tones. The combinations are often subtle, but often very beautiful. There’s also a rich fusion of Victorian and more modern architectural styles – it’s terrific – very inspirational.

As I walk around hunting for the elusive shot of the day, I wonder what the stories are behind the façades and windows. If this building was in use by time travellers, is this the light fitting they’d use?

Manifesto
36. Every day be still. Connect to your inner being. Listen and be guided by it.
41. Every day use your mind. It is the greatest technology ever created.
45. Every day you are a different person.

From there it to the eye-candy Myst series and then nothing – I haven’t played a computer game for years and years, diverted by writing web pages, drawing, photography, and more writing. I’m very sure the graphics that wowed me in Myst must look absolutely dreary now compared to all the new 3D software apps. Progress starts somewhere…

This morning walking to work I was entertained to see some active person had raided the stationery cupboard and bit mapped the office windows using Post-its. I love the contrast between the old steampunk style building and the bit maps – I hope the idea catches on across the city.

Manifesto
32. Every day have a laugh.
33. Every day try something new.
42. Every day celebrate. Who you are. What you have achieved. Things that matter to you.

Everything we have, everything, can be whipped away in a second. Most of us know this in a kind of theoretical way, but we still bumble through the hours in something of a dream, seemingly oblivious to reality. It’s only when there’s a crisis of some kind that we suddenly wake up to reality and to ourselves. For some it’s fantastic thrilling good news opportunity, for others it’s more of a shocking and tragic loss.

Either way I think it’s still something of a loss. We miss the every moment opportunity of being right here, right now, fully attending in the present, as we scurry on to the next “more important” moment. As if the anticipated moments are somehow going to be more important. More valuable. Somehow.

Manifesto
35. Every day focus on what matters to you.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.
49. Every day is a good day.

As I was walking down towards the parade I noticed from a reflection on a building one guy had managed to get a private viewing loft. I smiled to myself and thought how cool it would be to have the entire parade laid out at your feet – viewing just for your pleasure – on a perfect day in the capital.

I guess it’s just a choice we make – every day as a parade just for you – or some sort of sneaked peek out a grimy window at someone’s else’s parade.

Manifesto
05. Every day is now. The present moment.
23. Every day retain your personal power. It belongs to you. No one else.
25. Every day your light shines for others to see.

Good decision.

Manifesto
06. Every day you make choices.
14. Every day the ordinary can be the extraordinary.
17. Every day look through a new lens.