October | 2014 | Aimee Writes

I wiped my eyes as Codey entered the room.

“Are you okay?” He asked with concern when he saw me. I could understand why, I bet I looked terrible with puffy eyes and a snotty nose.

“I’m fine, it’s just..” I flicked my eyes towards the T.V.

Codey followed my gaze and rolled his eyes, “Seriously, Emma? Why do you watch that? It makes you cry.”

Codey was referring to the music video I was watching. A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. It did make me cry but I loved it. Why wouldn’t I watch it again and again? I sighed. Codey would never understand the female species.

“Because, Codey, I love this song and the video.”

Codey rolled his eyes again and sat down beside me to watch it again on repeat. He looked at me, “Have you watched the dvd yet?”

I shook my head, “No. I’m watching it after I listen to this song a couple more times.”

“Oh, great,” Codey muttered. I smiled, though he complained, I knew he would stay and watch it with me. He was the best boyfriend.

“Which Twilight dvd is it we have to watch?” He asked.

“Breaking Dawn Part One,” I informed him.

“Oh. Your favourite one? Right?”

I nodded. It was my favourite movie from the Twilight series. Mainly because it featured this song and also because it has the scene where Bella and Edward get married.

Codey got up and I knew he was heading to the kitchen to make popcorn. He was at my house so much he knew where everything in the house was located off by heart.

Three minutes later he came back carrying the popcorn bowl and I took it from him. I was very greedy when it came to popcorn. It was my favourite food and poor Codey struggled to get his fair share when he was sharing with me. He never seemed to mind though, claiming that he did expect things to be like that, considering it was my favourite food.

The A Thousand Years music video ended and Codey quickly got up to put the dvd on before I could play the video again as I had planned. Codey hated to see me cry more than he hated the Twilight series. That was okay, I would watch the music video again later. I smiled to myself, I did have it on my laptop, my desk top computer and my phone after all.

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The heart of Gigatown Timaru: Hashy (:

MY GIGATOWN STORY

At the start of March, this year, I came across a friend’s Facebook post about Gigatown and why the rest of Timaru should get behind it. The post had me intrigued and I headed over to www.gigatown.co.nz to learn more. The Gigatown website explained that Gigatown was a competition, run by Chorus, for the fastest internet connection. 1 Gigabit per second. Fifty New Zealand towns (North and South) battling it out to become the world class tech and business hub. All I had to do to help my town was use the #gigatowntim hashtag on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. So, I made an account and chose Timaru (the best town) as my town to support.

While Facebook is my favourite social network it is tweeting for Gigatown Timaru that I enjoy the most. When I first joined the #gigatowntim twitter team I didn’t take the competition quite as serious as the others, mainly because I didn’t completely understand it. However, after some pretty awesome people- who had been on the Gigatown Timaru team since the very start- explained exactly what becoming Gigatown could do for me and the Timaru community and what my tweets meant to the competition I started to take it much more seriously. Now I tweet #gigatowntim every day and Facebook and Instagram every other day. The #gigatowntim Twitter team is made up of some amazing, dedicated people and we always have the best chats about Timaru and how fibre will benefit us. The best bit? It is so much fun! 😀

WHY TIMARU BECOMING GIGATOWN IS IMPORTANT TO ME

Timaru becoming Gigatown is pretty important to me for a few reasons.

1. Timaru has the community who has worked the hardest to get us so far in the competition.
2. Becoming Gigatown would give Timaru all the resources it needs to become the next smart city.
3. Becoming Gigatown would increase Timaru tourism and that will keep Timaru businesses thriving.
4.Becoming Gigatown will give our economy a massive boost.
5.Becoming Gigatown will give the Timaru community so many more opportunities.
6.Becoming Gigatown will give the health sector a boost.
7.Becoming Gigatown will produce more jobs in Timaru and therefore decrease unemployment.
8.Becoming Gigatown will be great for the patience of the Timaru community.. no more buffering, quicker uploads etc.
9.Becoming Gigatown would give Timaru the opportunity to stream awesome events such as the Caroline Bay carnival.
10.Becoming Gigatown will really enhance Timaru’s quality of life.
11.Timaru deserves to have the fastest internet in New Zealand and be up there with places like Chattanooga.
12.Timaru already has the infrastructure and skill to accommodate fibre.
13.If Timaru becomes Gigatown we can keep those awesome ‘Visit Gigatown Timaru signs’ 😛

There are so many reasons why I want Timaru to become Gigatown but my main reason: Timaru has this one dream, this one goal that we are all working towards and doing our bit for each and every day. There have been hours and hours of hard work put in towards this goal and so much behind the scenes work a lot of which hasn’t been seen. I honestly can’t think of anything better than seeing this dream happen for us.