Coming Home

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellow,

WE HAD THE BEST DAY

My return to Kāinga Ora was everything I had hoped for. I am part of two teams. The first is a project team bringing Salesforce to Kāinga Ora, the second is a broader data governance team. 

I met the data governance people first. They seemed a bit dryballs if I may put it frankly. Their team meeting was a bit formal and stilted and I sensed they were being on their best behaviour. 

"Do you have any questions?" asked Soni.

"I do," I replied. "And it's been bothering me this whole time, it's really important to understand does Jelaire* have a DOG????"

Jelaire had blurred her background but clearly SOMETHING was wagging back there. 

And anyway, the next thing I knew, screens were being unblurred and there were dogs popping up on EVERYONE'S screens!

So I subverted that team within 25 minutes. Box checked. 

On to the next. The project team seemed a lot more relaxed and happy. It struck me how night and day this was from last week. It was a meeting with few buzzwords and BS and everyone seemed sparky and happy and enthusiastic. I didn't have to do anything!

Afterwards I had a chat with the project coordinator Lee-Ann. "Wait... what's your accent...?" I asked. "Are you...?"

"South African," said Lee-Ann. "Sorry is my accent a bit thick?"

"No, no, it's not that," I sighed with happiness. "Another South African. I think we are going to be best friends."

Later I messaged the CST group. I said that I had met my new work wife and she was "surprise, surprise another South African". Then I added "don't tell Fazzy" making sure to tag her in this comment. 

You can see her response above. 

Of course this was in addition to meeting my old friends from last time around. I saw Erica and Emma and June and Jeroen and Calvin and OtherSimon and got big welcomes all around. 

It was SO GOOD to be back. 

But THEN

I met up with Manda in Porirua and she drove me to the car yard where Caro was just buying her new car. There was heaps of paperwork and Jefe was waiting patiently. He'd had a tough day with lots of emergency calls which he was having to handle via his phone. 

It was so nice of him and Manda to help us out like this. They are just so lovely to us. 

Caro was AGLOW with happiness. She'd had a rough day of stress, waiting for the car financing to come through (it had arrived literally minutes before the car yard was due to close for the day). But now the car was HERS. 

I drove back home with Manda and she told me all about HER lovely day at the Cordon Bluh. After a rough couple of weeks at the start, she is now loving the role. More importantly, they now love HER and she is already developing plans to move up in the organisation. 

We got to Paraparaumu to Jefe explaining the essentials of the car to Caro. "So THIS is how you pair your phone to the speakers, and HERE'S where you adjust the volume..."

Jefe. He's such an A/V guy.

Caro and me both luxuriated in our days. I don't know if we've turned a corner. Given the challenges ahead for both of us, I would venture not. But I'm optimistic and happy. And Caro has her car. And we have the best friends. 

And yes, you can tell Fazzy.

S. 

* Pronounced Jillyah.