Welcome to my world...

Quite an appropriate title, really, seeing as it's also the title of a well-loved Kiwi song by country singer John Grenell.

So here we are. My first blog entry in my first blog. As my blog description says: this blog is about my passions, which are many and varied. I think I might use it a bit like an online diary, and as a space for my musings, as somewhere I can post stuff I think other people might be interested in, and as a place where I can go on about stuff that interests me. Whether or not it will actually interest anyone else remains to be seen... :)

I'm a very proud New Zealander and first came here from the UK as a traveller in October 1992. I completely fell in love with New Zealand, so after exploring the county for about 7 months I went back to the UK, packed up my stuff, said farewell to my friends and family - and came over here to live. It's been the best decision of my life, and one I have never regretted for a single second. Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand) is the most beautiful country in the world (IMHO), and I feel privileged to live here.

I'm a web designer and developer - I've been doing it for over 9 years now - and it's my dream job. The perfect combination of creativity and logic, which provides a never-ending opportunity to push myself, stretch my mind, and learn new stuff on a daily basis. I've been a contractor for much of that 9 years, mainly designing and/or building websites for design companies, but on Monday I start a new job at my dream web design company - Shift. Woohoo!

There's lots of stuff I'm interested in, and which I imagine will be a rich source of material for my blog entries. Like the contents of my iPod, there's a rather eclectic mix in there:

• Environmentalism and left wing/green politics - and a fascination with US politics especially - it's like watching a slow-motion trainwreck and not.being.able.to.look.away


• Web design, CSS, accessibility, usability and other geekery - I just spent 3 days at Webstock and it was bloody wonderful - I'll do a blog about that soon I think
  


• Gardening - I had forgotten how much I loved gardening until I bought my house (with garden) about 5 years ago and moved out of the innner city warehouse apartment scene


• Cats - because I have two cats and they totally rule!


• Rugby - because New Zealand produces the best rugby players in the world - and the game thrills me


• Literature - I am currently working my way through the great literature of the 20th century, plus more recent novels discovered via by my book club


• Music - because it makes me happy (I love my iPod!) and because I used to be one of the organisers of New Zealand's biggest dance party - The Gathering


• My Teevy boyfriend^TM Clay Aiken, whose voice inspires me to such a degree that I have flown not once but three times to the US to see him in multiple concerts. I just love him!

OK - well I think I might just post this entry now, and go figure out what else I can do with this great blogging tool. Welcome to my world!

Technorati tags: New Zealand, web design, web development, Shift, Webstock, gardening, cats, rugby, literature, music, The Gathering, Clay Aiken.