I Saw My Friend’s Umbrellas In New Zealand

PAHIA, New Zealand- When my friend David told me that he made umbrellas I thought he was joking.

“Dude, you make what? Umbrellas?”

Yeah, umbrellas.

But the guy doesn’t just make any umbrellas, he makes the best umbrellas probably ever made.

He’s from New Zealand — a country that knows wind and rain well.

I know the designer and manufacturer of Blunt umbrellas from my time in Xiamen, in the People’s Republic of China. We’d party on the beaches there from time to time together. I liked going out with the guy, because you knew that something was always going to happen.

There is really few things more onerous than staying up late and spending the money to drink (completely obliterating the following day) and then having nothing happen.

Who was it that said that the reason you drink is to make things happen?

Well, I haven’t seen David in some years, but while walking through Pahia I saw his umbrellas prominently displayed in the window of some high-end tourist shop.

Excellent.

I like meeting the people that make stuff — perhaps for the simple reason that I can go, “Hey, I know that guy” whenever I see the evidence of their work displayed in the shops of the world.