Such an amazing orange place! After driving a couple of hours through the desert from Scottsdale where we were staying, orange rocks and canyons start to appear – and they really are orange. A high concentration of somethingorotheroxide … whatever rust is! I was on a bus tour for the wives while husbands were at JSConf and the bus driver took us to a few different view points below and above the rocks and for lunch and a spot of shopping in Sedona.

So the rocks were amazing but the bus trip had its moments. Way more people than the wives’ bus trip last year had kids and they yahooed and screamed on the bus for 2 hours, one woman got motion sickness and kept throwing up in the bathroom at back of the bus right near where I was sitting. It was basically the nightmare trifecta for me – bad cellphone reception (it was the desert after all), screaming kids licking the windows and wanting to play peek-a-boo with me (I maintained a stare and pretended I was European and didn’t speak English so didn’t understand what they were saying … although I’m sure “hello. hello! Hello!! HELLO!! HELLOHELLOHELLOHELLO!! translates in any language) and someone vomiting after we all ate lunch at the same place. As soon as I got off the bus I jumped in the shower to scrub myself clean then drank a liter of bottled water. I survived. But didn’t go on the wife activities the next day. I worked in the coffee shop and beside the pool

Our first day back from Arizona was our first day in some new office space. The building that we’re in on the first floor, in a small suite, has been renovated on the ground floor into a huge warehouse-type shared office space – to be mostly rented on a desk by desk basis to entrepreneurs or local start-up companies needing a bit of space to get going before they commit to their own building. It’s a local venture and building owner, no longer with a New Zealand focus.

It’s large and funky and we’re a bit lost in it until they rent out the desks in the main shared space but it’s got some cool break-out/kitchen spaces and soon Epicenter Cafe will run a coffee machine in there for everyone. It’s still a bit bare and cold but it’s early days yet! Great to have somewhere a bit more settled. It’s all open plan and we’re in one corner with our friends from Kiwi Landing Pad who we shared offices with upstairs in the other corner and all the rent-a-desk spots in the middle.