Since Spring arrived and the shop started to come together and I got to my second trimester and stopped feeling exhausted all the time, I started to really enjoy being in Dunedin. It wasn't Dunedin's fault it took a while; it took a while to get to know some of my best friends, plus, when we first moved here I was a little under the bell jar, if you know what I mean. Anyway, now I wake up and it's (usually) sunny, and I look out over the harbour and I feel glad to be here. I pick leaves out of my strawberry plants in my little garden, and think about my old apartment on Queen Street that didn't get any direct sunlight, and I feel happy. I have weird conversations with people in shops who seem to have all the time in the world to talk, and when uni kids make room to let me and my burgeoning stomach pass they actually look at me (not entirely Aucklanders' fault that doesn't happen much up there; we're constantly giving way because there are so many of us - but still, it's a nice effect of living in a small place), and holding up other drivers isn't the end of the world to them. I like it. So I'm going to start telling you about little things I like down here; places, people, whatever, and then you'll have lots of reasons to come down here, and maybe, if you're crazy like us, you'll be so enchanted you'll think about moving here... Maybe. Anyway, the first of my favourite things about Dunedin is Otago Access Radio (OAR), 105.4 FM.
The best things about OAR:
1. The variety within shows. I've heard '93 Till Infinity (which is NEVER played on the radio) played straight after an awesome country song I'd never heard before. Unless a show is dedicated to a particular style (like the excellent Jazz Cafe on a Thursday evening), you don't know what might be next. It might be great. It might be spectacularly bad. It's always unexpected.
2. The variety of shows. There's the Bridging The Gap, hosted by recovering addicts taking part in the Bridge programme, who share their stories and what certain songs mean to them (a lot of Tracy Chapman on this show). Voice Of Samoa, on a Monday, which begins with a rousing and beautiful recording of the Samoan anthem and then seems to be this woman who phones the host and then talks so fast he can't get a word in for the next half hour. Vinyl Vault, which features great music and which I always mean to listen to but then forget. Some show I listened to once hosted by a kid, where he interviewed his sixteen-year-old saxophone teacher (reading both prepared questions and responses) before they played a duet. And there's Phil's Trucking Show. Phil is a guy who speaks with a computer-generated voice, like Stephen Hawking, and he has his own radio show, during which he does shout-outs to truckies. I think that is one of the coolest things ever.
3. All of those things, again.
I like to imagine that people I see on the street or talk to in shops might have their own shows on OAR, and I like knowing that's not an unrealistic fantasy. I know there's no "real" NZ, but there are certainly people who are more real than others. OAR is full of these people; people who are artless and genuine. Which, in my (limited) experience, is a pretty good reflection of people in Dunedin. (Not me though. I am ALL smoke and mirrors. Come buy clothes from me!)
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