Sat, 20 December

RECIPE FOR A TENTH BIRTHDAY (ROAD VERSION) Ingredients: 1 motorway, emptied of everything but forward 4 bodies in a car, devices sleeping 1 December sky, uncounted steps beneath it Dumplings, quantity: enough 1 MiniSo bag containing the specific joy of choosing 1 candle tally now requiring two hands Method: Leave early. Do not track the kilometres. Let the Kāpiti coast fall behind like a number you've decided not to measure. Somewhere past Taupō, stop for nothing important. Stop anyway. Arrive in Auckland the way light arrives— all at once, without explaining the distance. Find the dumpling place. Order too much. Fold the napkins into something. Watch the birthday girl hold chopsticks like someone who will hold everything, eventually. Serving suggestion: Eat with hands that haven't checked a screen. Let the warmth be the only data. Measure nothing. Nothing. Nothing at all.