Different Strokes - Auckland

Staying with other people, gives you a mirror on yourself, at least if you are a man. Pete is a development engineer and as he says: he deals in facts. I can see where he is coming from, sort of. Myself, I do much more in the interpretational area. I say things just to get the conversation flowing, even if they are not absolutely true. I don’t exactly stray from the facts, I just fill in the gaps a little.

Pete supports NZ and is having a great time as they beat all-comers in the World Cup cricket. I am trying to ignore England as they become an international embarrassment. I know, I should support them through thick and thin but I have other places to put my emotional energy. Pete doesn’t quite get this. You either support them or you don’t.

You can see other differences, Pete takes on BIG projects, having added a whole basement floor to his home, doing much of the work (with Sue) himself. He has all those nice big labour saving tools, like band saws, in the basement. But that's not the reason. He just investigates how to do it, considers the facts and gets on with it.

I do projects but on a smaller scale. I have a rusty knife and a blunt screwdriver. I just can’t devote that much energy to one thing.

I remember another friend, an electrical engineer. We once tried putting up a gatepost together. It took hours after we’d dug the hole to set the post in concrete. He kept measuring it again and again to make sure it was true. I’d have thrown in the cement and had a wonky post but the gate would have closed. My basement would have been wonky too.

My point is that we are all different and it is finding the connections despite, or maybe because of, those differences that makes it all work. There is no one right way.