Aro Valley is one of the old quarters of Wellington – still plenty of quaint (and antiquated) Victorian houses to be found. Some have been discovered by loving owners who renovate them sensitively, others are ladies in waiting.

I was really taken by these three houses perched up on the hillside – Te Aro’s answer to Les Triplettes de Belleville – one room wide. I’m standing on the road trying to figure out how to get up to the next floor and I realise the locals are staring at me. I can hear what’s running through their minds: Tourists!

I think the houses are kind of like land boats – I’d love to have a look through one – and it’d be fun to do the renovation to create to a beautiful land boat of our own. Admit it, they’re fun looking houses.

Manifesto
18. Every day express love. Some people need to hear it. Most people need to see it. Don’t take it for granted.
32. Every day have a laugh.
41. Every day use your mind. It is the greatest technology ever created.

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. — Vladimir Nabokov

When I wander down the streets I look into the faces of the people. In my mind’s eye I can morph some of the people – particularly the men – back into how they would’ve looked at school. These great pillars of our community still have gawky school boy or girl written all over them – it’s not even skin deep. In the faces of little kids I can age them, again in my mind’s eye, and I can see how they’ll look in 30-40 years time, all things being equal.

People are thinking, meditating, praying, concentrating as they traverse the day. I can imagine their ideas and thoughts, their prayers rising up into the ether – like bubbles. ‘Please don’t be a parking ticket, I’ll just grab a coffee, she looks hot, damn tourist with his camera, hmmm, what shall I have for dinner, does my bum look fat in this, he’s a dick, I hate secret Santa, I could go a beer right now, I don’t want to go back to work, and then I told him what I really thought, you must be joking, we’ve got get out of this place, that was close, I’m not paying that…’

And so the days go by, and every day they’re back again, I don’t really think there’s many people counting the prime numbers to 1,000. Another flurry of ideas, thoughts, prayers, dreams waft their way to the heavens. I’m working on making my thinking more productive, more responsive, flexible, and creative. Part of the exercise behind Fresh New Day is to look for new images, and in the new sights, new words and hopefully new ways of thinking. I’m not so sure this is really possible – what I think might be happening is when a couple of ideas get close it is possible to see the ‘old’ things then in a ‘new’ way. Morph them in my mind’s eye. See them younger, or older – the past, present, and future – all at the same time.

Manifesto
41. Every day use your mind. It is the greatest technology ever created.
46. Every day you can change your thoughts.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
– Marcel Proust

My lunch break was fast coming to an end. I had been busy exploring and taking photos. My camera was still hanging around my neck as I headed back to the office.

As I was about to enter the building where I work another staff member walked up beside me. He offered to hold open the door for me. He looked at my camera and said, “Pretending to be a tourist are we?”

I looked at him and replied, “Of course. I’m one every day. You don’t have to leave home to be a tourist.” After a second or two had passed I added. “You should try it.”

He looked at me as though I was nuts and didn’t say anything else as we travelled up in the lift to our respective floors.

Why is it that we always think the grass is greener somewhere else? People tend to ignore what is right in front of them and think that somewhere else is more interesting and exciting than the place where they live.

In reality we tend to know less about our hometowns than we think we do. All of us need to cultivate our “tourist” lens. We can’t all physically travel to new and exciting destinations. While we are waiting for the opportunity to be able to do this we could try visiting, as if for the first time, what we think is the familiar.

To be a tourist you need to learn to become aware. Every day take notice of what is going on around you. Develop your “tourist” eyes by really seeing and feeling your environment. Don’t say it’s all the same because I can guarantee you it won’t be.

Manifesto
14. Every day the ordinary can be the extraordinary.
17. Every day look through a new lens.
26. Every day take action. Every small step counts.