Thomas | Māngere Bridge
“I’m Thomas and I live here in Māngere Bridge. Probably work. You know, thinking about what I have to do the next coming week or so. Other than that, I usually kind of day-dream at night-time, or spend the early hours of the morning, still day-dreaming, futurising. That sort of stuff. Fantasising.
I’m a bit of a Star Trek fan. I do watch a lot of clips on YouTube. Things about our universe and how big it is, it literally blows my mind. I normally fantasise about one day being either kidnapped or abducted by aliens, and they give me their ship, and I’m able to travel throughout the universe, wherever I want. Not to mention, if I had such a thing in my possession, what it could do for me here on Earth.
I was born in Rotorua back in 1971. I was a child when I got put into the system at a very early age, where I was transferred through a lot of families and moved around quite a bit. Mainly Central North Island, Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, South Waikato. About 12 years ago I had a drinking and a drug problem, and I did something about that. Went to rehab and I’ve been clean and sober since then. I’m not the person who I was once upon a time ago. I have a life. I won’t say beyond my wildest dreams, but certainly, it’s beyond my wildest expectations. I enjoy life now. I take the most simplest of things, like just going for a simple walk down the road, or something like that. I really appreciate that. I have a pink cockatoo who’s my best friend. Me and him go for walks all the time and I really enjoy life as it is at the moment. Quite simplistic.
I think in the whole process of not drinking and drugging, it’s very rewarding because it gives me the sense that I’m actually doing something good for myself. But I don’t think about drinking and drugging that much these days, it’s something in my past life. But in relation to overcoming things with drinking and drugs, fortunately for me, I’ve got a mentor in my life, someone who I approach every week and he gives me the opportunity for me to talk about what’s going on. So, I think the solution for me is basically talking about it, rather than just trying to ignore them or deny them, and then in that process, I’m able to overcome them quite easily. But I don’t have any replacement for drugs or alcohol, no.
I hear a lot of people moaning about our traffic. Traffic problems here in Auckland. Fortunately for me, my work doesn’t involve travelling during traffic hours. The type of work I do is I work in the entertainment industry, and everything’s based on people who wish to hire the particular company I work for. I’ve been unfortunately stuck in traffic, and I can’t understand how people put up twice a day with our traffic problem here in Auckland. It’s literally mind-blowing, but a solution to our traffic problem is simply just don’t drive. I’m looking around at the homeless situation we’ve got going on here in Auckland specifically. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done in relation to that sort of thing, and I don’t know why they can’t start on that one. But other than that I don’t really have that many problems, I kind of focus on what I have to do and then in doing that, my life seems to be quite simple.”
