the lifebox archive

OLPC test-a-thon

2009-03-13T11:19:00.004+13:00

It has always been important to me to have some of my personal time devoted to community work. I enjoy it more than anything and always feels good to contribute in some way. While I was at university I volunteered at the Community Law Centre and Radio One at Otago University, but since then salaried employment made it difficult to divide up life so I could fit it in. Now as a self-employed business owner I have more control over my time, and as a member of Unlimited Potential and on the committee organising linux.conf.au 2010, I now have more than enough to keep me occupied in my spare time.

This weekend UP is running an event at the Southern Cross Bar and Restaurant called the OLPC test-a-thon. If you haven't ever heard of One Laptop Per Child, its an inspirational story. The project began at MIT with the idea that it should be possible to make a laptop for around $100 that can survive in hot equatorial regions, so that virtually every child could have access to a computer. They are distributed to schools and communities in developing countries so children in those countries get access to e-books, and communication tools, games and activities that promote learning and knowledge and try to limit the 'digital divide'. The software running on the laptops is open sourced, and is constantly improved and updated courtesy of volunteers around the globe, even in Wellington. A small group of volunteers have been regularly gathering every Saturday at the Southern Cross to work on the software and contribute to the project.

To assist them its always great to have kids to test out the unique interface, and so this Saturday Unlimited Potential want to help support the work that they do and promote a test-a-thon. Adults and kids alike are welcome to come along and learn about and test the laptops at 10.30am this Saturday. Martin Langhoff and his team of volunteers will be there to demonstrate the games and activities to talk briefly about the work of OLPC. Unlimited Potential will be there to giveaway prizes and some free coffees, and a free brunch to a lucky individual. Register now to save your place.

post SFD wrap

2008-09-22T18:01:00.004+12:00

What a great day Software Freedom Day turned out to be in Wellington this year. Thanks to Nat Torkington for coming down to host and again to all organisers and sponsors for their contributions. But an even bigger thanks to everyone who came. It was amazing to see over 215 registrations with most of those turning into attendance on the day.

Brenda will be writing up the event for our global competition entry so send your thoughts about the day through to her so she can include your feedback. We would love to run an event again next year for Software Freedom Day '09, and most of the organisers met this week to ensure that happens.

The barcamp is a phenomenon for the uninitiated and can take some getting used to. I experienced my first barcamp at kiwifoo in 2007. There I met colleagues from the ICT industry, participated in discussions with thought leaders and listened to new concepts and ideas I'd never heard before. I was buzzing afterwards, and that's the kind of reaction I was hopeful at least some of those who attended on the weekend were going to have.

The barcamp is an unorganised conference or 'unconference' where anyone attending can decide on a subject for a session at the start of the day. It is up to those attending each session to contribute to the discussion and raise their own related thoughts and views. It generally works really well and encourages everyone to participate. The photos of all the sessions topics are up on flickr, as are all the photos taken throughout the day.

The hackfest was a hive of discussion, testing and installs, and an addictive place to be. Jethro and Brenda created a casual meeting place with sofas at one end and tables at the other for those bringing serious hardware for the installfest. It was nice that if you felt like it you could break from the structure of the barcamp sessions and chill at the hackfest and drink copious amounts of coffee courtesy of havana and Fletch. One of the highlights of Software Freedom Day was seeing the kids arriving with parents and testing out the latest shipment of laptops from One Laptop Per Child. Next year we hope to have even more activities for the kids (watch out for the bouncy castle).

The giveaways were a huge hit, from the Sun and Fedora CDs, Sun t's and other google goodies, to the webstock prize drawn at afternoon tea time by Tash Hall from the webstock team. Congratulations to Richard Clark for winning the Golden ticket to webstock next year, and to our other two winners of the InternetNZ books 'Connecting the Clouds'.

Thanks again to everyone who helped organise the day, and made SFD Wellington an awesome event!

Software Freedom Day 08

2008-09-18T10:43:00.012+12:00

Really excited about Software Freedom Day this Saturday. When I enthusiastically put my hand up to organise it at our Unlimited Potential meeting, its a good thing I had no idea of the volume of work involved, but it has just become this wonderful thing! CWA New Media offered to help design and build a website to take registrations, Don and Chris at Catalyst IT came on board and then Brenda, Jethro and Martin Langhoff from One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) put their hands up to organise the hackfest. Nat is coming down to host from Auckland, and ICT networks from all around Wellington are pulling in together to help organise and sponsor. Suddenly I find myself having to do new things like apply for custom codes to receive goodies from Google and Sun Microsystems from overseas. I am biased but Wellington is really where its at right now for good ICT vibe!

The event is going to feature an ‘open source barcamp’ allowing participants to discuss their thoughts, ideas and experiences with open source software and a ‘hackfest’/'installfest' which will offer participants the opportunity to participate and the SuperHappyDevHouse hack-a-thon, demonstrate open source software to a captive audience, and have open source software (such as Linux) installed on their computer with help from the WellyLUG team. There will be free wifi, expresso courtesy of havana, an afternoon tea and after a short wrap up session at 6pm, pizza and beer!

All those registered for Software Freedom Day ‘08, and in attendance on the day will also have the chance to win an $895 ‘golden ticket’ to Webstock ’09 and associated swag (thanks to the generosity of the Webstock team). InternetNZ have also donated two books which will also be part of the prize draw.

I had some tinny luck myself at mini-webstock last week, with my name being pulled from the hat for a Golden Ticket to webstock. I was utterly stunned and didn't quite know what to do when my name was called. I'm stoked to be able to attend in Feb next year, its a big event and there are some awesome speakers lined-up.

On Saturday, thanks to many of our sponsors there will be a giveaway table with some free goodies for everyone.

Software Freedom Day ‘08 proudly organised and sponsored by Unlimited Potential, CWA New Media, New Zealand Open Source Society (NZOSS), SuperHappyDevHouse, WellyLUG, Ideegeo, Morphoss, Cafenet, Catalyst IT, Sun Microsystems, 920, Grow Wellington, Gen-i, Silverstripe, Xero, Google, Webstock and InternetNZ.

So come along. It's not to late to register here www.softwarefreedomday.org.nz

Start-Up, UP and Away

2008-07-09T09:31:00.003+12:00

Looking forward to the Start-Up, UP and Away party tomorrow night.

Start-Up Media are currently filming a tv series focussing on profiling NZ's online community, and at the same launching the 2nd edition of Start-Up magazine. The event is effectively a Wellington launch of the magazine and will be hosted by Start-UP Media, Unlimited Potential and SiliconWelly, a community of Wellington based, NZ-owned technology business innovators. Thanks to UP sponsors, and HP and Telecom particularly for helping out with this event. We also have some cool swag courtesy of Cafenet, Mojo and Hell Pizza, and of course a Start-UP magazine for all those who sign up to attend.

It's free to join UP and reserve your ticket for the event, and its a great networking opportunity for anyone in the ICT community in Wellington. Come along for a celebration of all things Welly and a fine story of Start-Up success.

juggling bits and pieces

2008-06-25T16:05:00.003+12:00

Working on a web-based startup fulltime is really only possible if you have a large amount of cash behind you, and even then most investors will want their money poured in to the business idea not your salary - fair enough!

This means though that you have to juggle a bit to find the right balance between earning enough money to pay for weddings and still maintain a caffeine addition, while having good opportunities to focus on your web project.

Just finished preparing a paper I will be presenting at a Lexisnexis conference entitled Turning Policy into Legislation. Looking forward to the opportunity of catching up with ex-work colleagues from the Office of the Clerk and the Parliamentary Counsel Office and meeting other conference attendees.

While I'm juggling things a bit at the moment, I'm lucky to have a flexible income source in the form of a government consulting company fivepeas limited. If there's one thing I've learned - its important to secure an income of some sort to give you as much freedom and time as possible for when you start working on your idea.

engaged in italy

2008-06-18T10:03:00.027+12:00

Just returned from an amazing holiday in Italy following the wedding in Spain, with the highlight being Glynn's proposal late one evening on Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Just loved Florence which came in the middle of our short tour of Italy. Our trail leading from Rome to Florence by train, then a tour around Tuscany in a hire car which included visits to Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, and then up to the Cinque Terre, Lucca and full circle returning to Florence, and then back on the eurostar to Venice. All in 8 days! Here are some photos of our tour and the ring.

Rome (Roma)

On our first evening in Rome we wandered from our accommodation in the Vatican District B&B Antiqua Roma (brilliant B&B) to the Spanish Steps and the Fontana di Trevi or Trevi Fountain, both major sites in the city. As is the custom we turned our backs to the fountain and threw in our coins to ensure we would return to Roma.

The next day we were up early because of jetlag and toured St Peter's Basilica and the Square, and then around the corner to the Vatican Museums to see the Sistene Chapel and the Raphael Rooms. All absolutely incredible and well worth seeing, but it really pays to go early. We emerged onto the streets at 10.30am to find queues 6 blocks long.

Despite the rainy weather, we flagged the idea of catching the tour bus around the city in favour of walking everywhere. In search of roman remains we visited the Pantheon which is probably the best place to see the most intact remnants of the period. Most ruins in the city are literally rubble that require a great deal of imagination or a personal tour guide to really bring it all to life.

I'd been missing my coffee rituals and Roma didn't disappoint with great expresso and a good excuse to sit down in Piazza Navona and watch people escaping the thunderstorm.

If you go to the Vatican on Wednesdays you can have an audience with the Pope. He usually appears on the balcony overlooking St Peter's Square but since it was raining he sat in the Bascilica and delivered his welcome in several different languages. We just happened to be there to witness it all, and the circus of photography and screams from the tourists made it felt more like a Hollywood production than a spiritual blessing.

One of our last stops in Roma was the Colesseum which is surrounded in the Roman ruins of the Forum. You can buy a ticket to see both and instead of an audio guide we opted for a video tour which recreates a virtual view of the colosseum. It's a clever gadget called the TimeMachine which you sling around your neck and hold up as you walk around certain points in the stadium while it generates images of the colesseum as it once was.

Florence (Firenze)

We took the Eurostar to Florence, and at 250 km/ph we arrived in 1hr and 50mins. We were staying not far from the station at Hotel Caravaggio which thankfully had wifi internet. I loved Florence, partly because it all seemed more accessible than Roma with the tourists slightly less obvious, and the music and culture more prominent. The food was absolutely incredible and the amount of pasta we ate defies belief.

The highlight of our entire trip came our first evening after the most delicious meal I can ever remember having at La Giostra. Glynn managed to guide me across the city completely unaware to Ponte Vecchio and proposed on the bridge late in the evening. I said yes (of course) and we enjoyed a lovely stroll over the famous bridge and around the piazzas in the city. A night to remember!

The bridge is historic, not only because it is famous for proposals. The current structure that crosses the river Arno, was built in the 1300s following a series of wooden bridges built originally by the romans at the same location. Jewellery stores line the bridge which apparently was saved from being bombed during WW2 under express orders from Hitler. In search of a ring we went back to the bridge in the light of day but the tourists had taken over so we decided to wait till Venice to see if we would have more luck there.

Tuscany (Toscana) - Chianti, San Gimignano, Siena, Pisa, Lucca

We said goodbye to Florence and hired a car for a two day adventure into Tuscany. We weren't sure whether we would make it up to the Cinque Terre so we just played it by ear with only one night's accommodation booked in San Gimignano.

We took the back roads and drove to Siena through the chianti region and stopped at a tiny village called Fonterutoli for a wine tasting and purchase. We learnt that to retain the chianti name, the local wine must be produced using 80% San Giovese grapes.

Glynn looked at me sideways when I compared some parts of the tuscan countryside to the rolling hills outside Dunedin but certain parts of the region really did remind me of New Zealand, mainly Central Otago with all the vineyards. We stopped for lunch at Il Borgo di Vescine and looked out over the vines while we enjoyed a platter of meat, cheese and bread. Magic.

A short stop in Siena, an ancient walled city with a maze of narrow one way alleys that restrict vehicle traffic to a minimum. On our fifth day of rain we decided to abandon common sense and drive our hire car straight into the walled city to try and park up outside the town square. After a bit of kiwi she'll be right and some hair raising moments for the irishman driving under instruction, we found ourselves parked two minutes walk from the main piazza and fountain, and time for another one of those italian coffees. It can be done, but wouldn't recommend it in hindsight.

It just didn't take as long as we thought to drive around the Tuscan region so we found ourselves with ample time that evening to stroll around San Gimignano, have dinner and enjoy "The Best Gelato in the World" - although not as good as Karl's at Kaffee Eis in Wellington. Our accommodation Hotel Pescille on the outskirts of the walled city was located on a beautiful vineyard. Although it was a cool evening we enjoyed a glass of their wine outside looking back at the famous skyline of the medieval city.

The tower of Pisa was still leaning when we got there. Not booked in advance we weren't some of the lucky ones entitled to climb it. The whole experience reminded me of our trip to Paris and laying eyes on the Mona Lisa. So famous and well-known and when you see them in the flesh you just have to stand there until you feel you've properly seen it. In our case that took around 10mins, plus a walk around the base. It is hard to believe how old it is and that Galileo once travelled to Pisa to drop things off the top of the tower to test his theory of gravity. The experience only slightly tarnished by getting lost trying to find a car park and the 5 hawkers in a line near the tower all selling the same battery powered GI Jo crawling along the ground. Who buys those things?

Cinque Terre

With time to spare we decided we could make it to Cinque Terre so we took the toll road. We whizzed up from Pisa to La Spezia in an hour. Having made good time on the A1, we spent a frustrating two hours trying to find a safe parking building, so we could catch the train into Cinque Terre knowing we would have a car to return to. We finally found the Kennedy car parking building and only took the bare minimum with us for the night.

The Cinque Terre is made up of five villages clinging to the coast linked by a walkway and train which travels between them every 15 mins or so. We decided to head straight into the largest village Monterosso and asked about accommodation at the train station. The lemon festival was on so accommodation options were slim but we ended up with a room in the town - next time we'll definitely book ahead.

Monterosso is a beautiful seaside town, with a great family atmosphere and one of the most popular of the five villages. Lots of children were selling lemonade and men were playing petanque down by the beach. After walking around the town we decided to walk over to the next village Vernazza for dinner. The Cinque Terre is a National Park so we paid 5 euro for a ticket to walk the two hour track which leads up into the small vineyards and market gardens owned by the locals. They recommend sturdy tramping shoes and we passed many red-faced tourists along the steep track. We walked it in jandels because we didn't bring any other footware with us - not ideal but certainly managed it.

The views from the top of the hills before we descended into Vernazza were breathtaking and the hassles with the car in La Spezia were totally forgotten as we sampled homemade limoncello from local growers on the track.

One day I want to return to Vernazza, the most beautiful spot for dinner you could possibly imagine. The walk down into the village is truely spectacular and the dinner of fresh seafood - yum, the whole experience felt so italiano. We'll probably be old and wrinkled and will be taking the train rather than walking but I look forward to returning already and having time to explore the other villages as well.

Venice (Venezia)

We'd been lucky with accommodation on our trip and Venice was no exception. Its hard to get accommodation close to the Grand Canal. At the famous Harry's Bar on the canal you can pay over $100 euro for a starter, so nothing's cheap in Venezia. We were lucky to hear about La Rosa Dei Venti 15mins walk along from the start of the canal and St Marco Piazza looking out at San Salute. The boat stop two minutes from the B&B was on the main route to the airport so we were well set up to just enjoy the sites right up until our departure in the afternoon the next day.

We wondered into the St Marco Piazza initially and then around the alley's and canals that connect the city by gondola and boat. Wished we had time to find a museum that explained exactly how the city is staying afloat and their plans to save it sinking into the mudflats on which it was built.

We visited Gallerie dell'Accademia and although it was enjoyable we were disappointed that Leonardo's Vitruvian Man stored at the museum is not available to be viewed.

The heart of the city is down the Grand Canal off the famous Rialto Bridge, so we cruised up the canal on boat No. 1 and got off to walk across the bridge into the markets and shops.

On our last night in Italy we decided to enjoy a nice meal and some tirimisu at the Ristorante Do Leoni in Hotel Londra Palace with a table looking out over the canal. Our visit to Venezia completed by wandering into St Marco Square on our last day to find a small jewellery store called Boldrin Gioielli with the perfect ring - the best momento and a magical end to 8 days in Italy.

hola!

2008-05-22T16:33:00.018+12:00

Lydia, Glynn's sister, works as a translator in Barcelona - which is where she met Eduard (Edu), a spaniard who asked her to marry him. Hence, Glynn and I travelled to Europe for a few weeks to attend their wedding in Spain, with some sightseeing included.

It was lovely to meet the Parker-Hills (the Irish Aussies) for the first time when we arrived in Barcelona, and we caught a tour bus together around the city. Glynn's parents, Lydia and Edu joined us the next day and we all enjoyed a meal together at a Spanish version of the chipper - amazing selection of seafood cooked to your liking. The gothic architecture of Gaudi dominates the city, especially the Sagrada Familia, which we stopped to admire one morning eating the traditional jamon (pronounced hamon) and cheese pastry for breakfast. Its already extraordinary even though its not complete, due to be finished sometime in 2026.

Over the two days we explored the city and kept heading back to Los Ramblos to enjoy getting lost in the atmosphere of the narrow maze of alleyways with shops and cobblestoned piazza's. A highlight was La Boqueria Mercat - a vast food market with stalls of fruit, sausage, jamon, seafood, bread and chocolates. The next day Glynn and I bought some goodies from the Mercat and wandered up to the Gaudi Park overlooking the city for a picnic lunch.

Leading up to the wedding family and friends had gathered at the venue at Hotel Figuerola, near the small village of Vandellos in the hills about two hours south of Barcelona by train. The irish and spanish hoards had booked the hotel for the weekend of the wedding and it was a great arrangement to all be staying in the same place for a few days so we could enjoy catching up with everyone (including a short round of non-competitive pitch and putt).

Edu - Lydia's husband, loves Spain, he is very passionate about the culture, his family and a big fan of the food and wine - and I can now understand why. The day before the wedding we had a large meal with Edu's family and the immediate Foster clan about 45 minutes by car from Vandellos in a small spanish village made of white limestone in the middle of rice fields. The village was built by General Franco to house workers he brought over from from Italy to work in the rice fields. Main courses of paella followed a series of delicious starters including everything from octopus, eel, snails and squid.

In Spain you eat your main meal in the middle of the day. Traditionally, all the shops close at around 1pm for lunch and a siesta in the afternoon reopening around 4 or 5pm. Dinner is a light meal eaten anytime from around 8.30pm till late. It took little effort for Glynn and I to adapt to this new eating and sleeping schedule, as with the jetlag we were sleeping and feeling hungry at strange times anyway.

On the day of the wedding Lydia looked beautiful and Edu very handsome. Thanks to Duncan for some of these photos I've included and he's posted more great photos of the wedding here. The vows were taken in Spanish but the ceremony transcended language and everyone understood the distinctive parts of the service. The reception was a colourful, musical fiesta, with four kegs of guinness shipped in by the hotel for the irish contingent - and they drank it all! During the meal there was music and traditional calls for the bride and groom to kiss each other, and then the parents of the newlyweds, with lots of napkin waving in between. The food was amazing and the cake was brought out in a darkened room with sparklers and more music.

In Spain they give the gift of money and the challenge is to give it in the most original manner possible. For example, one time Lydia gave her friends euros screwed up inside walnuts they had broken in two, emptied and glued back together. For Edu and Lydia their friends gave them a puzzle which once they had completed was turned over to reveal a code which opened a locked box of money.

In another tradition Edu and Lydia danced around the room and then stopped in front of a couple to give a gift of two dolls holding hands. That couple turned out to be us and once the gift and kisses and hugs were exchanged in front of the entire room of people to applause we found out that the gift tradition is given to the couple most likely to be married next!!! A bit of fun to end a really enjoyable wedding and something very different to the kiwi variety - congratulations Lyd and Edu!

Unlimited Potential Event: Tale of Four Cities

2008-05-02T16:19:00.003+12:00

Trying to start up your own global web business isn't easy - trying to start it up from Wellington also has its challenges, but its inspiring to see young start up companies going global from the harbour city. There is a definite web startup culture in Wellington that differs from anywhere else I have been in the country. I often think it's comparable to the coffee culture that pervades the city. The good-hearted nature of the local coffee houses that means additions to the coffee community are often celebrated because it all helps to foster the culture.

Attracting highly skilled staff and making sure we educate young people about the benefits of getting into IT are all part of ensuring the creativity that's going on the capital continues to grow. What do current highly skilled immigrants of the IT variety think of living and working in New Zealand? What keeps them here? How can we attract more young ruby developers over to New Zealand? How can we attract young kiwis back from overseas?

Unlimited Potential and the Wellies (a group of 'expats' who have moved here from overseas and chosen to settle in Wellington) are hosting an event on Tuesday night next week - called the Tale of Four Cities. Its a relaxed panel discussion over pizza and beer about why ICT professionals from overseas are settling in Wellington, what brings them here, what they enjoy about living in the city, and what makes them want to stay?

Hosted by Colin Jackson the panelists include Adam Shand who was born in England but grew up moving back and forth between New Zealand and California. He spent three years in Alaska working for one of the largest ISPs in North America and while in Oregon he founded Personal Telco, a non-profit which worked with local communities to provide free wireless internet access to the public. Five years ago he chose to move back to Wellington undertaking a mixture of management and technical work, as current digital operations manager for Weta Digital.

Professor Mark J. Ahn, PhD. is Professor and Chair, Science & Technology Entrepreneurship with a joint appointment from the faculties of Commerce & Administration and Science, at Victoria University of Wellington. The role of the Chair is to focus efforts for research to build understanding of scientific entrepreneurship in international and national settings, and the processes required to enable successful commercialization of science and technology-based innovations. Would love to hear Professor Ahn's views about settling in New Zealand from a personal perspective as well as his views about the capital.

John Clegg CEO of ProjectX and co-founder of zoomin, was involved in the Google Summer of Code initiative, and has worked in on startups in London, Asia, India, and Australia. John is passionate about fostering local talent - in a ProjectX Press release he says - "We are totally committed to getting talented young people working in this city and we are dedicated to making this city a Mecca for technology graduates from all over New Zealand."

When: Tuesday, 6 May 2008 - 5.30pm - 8.30pm
Where: Syn Bar, 4 Bond Street, Wellington

You can RSVP here. Come along and enjoy the pizza and beer, join in audience discussion and mix and mingle with "the wellies".

nectarine and white chocolate muffins

2008-03-11T21:13:00.004+13:00

While down south Glynn and I fed ravenous crew members with some recipes from home and a new spin on my favourite muffin recipe. We were lucky enough to get sponsorship from Webb's Orchard in Cromwell. During our stay they let us onto the orchard to pick as many nectarines as we could carry from older trees ladened with fruit too ripe by the time they would be boxed for sale. Consequently, they were perfect for eating and the crew had to contend with a constant supply of nectarines in the fruit bowl, nectarine cobbler for dessert, and the seemingly popular nectarine and white chocolate muffins.

Glynn started a discussion on the pavlova western group on facebook asking crew members for feedback on the catering - sure hope they go easy on us. I'm just glad no one got sick and every had enough at meal times. It was such a pleasure feeding the hardworking, grateful bunch who expressed their thanks with hugs and an appetite for seconds. Missing them all already.

In the meantime for the benefit of the crew and anyone else with an abundant supply of nectarines - here's the recipe for the muffins:

1 egg
½ C milk
1 C yogurt – I use plain natural unsweetened yogurt
½ C melted butter
1 tsp vanilla

3 tsp baking powder
1/3 C white sugar
2/3 C brown sugar
2 C flour
2 C white chocolate crushed
2 ripe nectarines

(I just used small white chocolate buttons or you can bash up an entire bar of king sized white chocolate into good bite sized pieces. Its important to get as much chocolate into the muffins as possible.)

Put the first five ingredients into a bowl and mix together, then add remaining ingredients and blend until just mixed. Fill muffin tin and bake on a high rack in the oven at 200 degrees celcius for 12-15 mins until the muffins spring back to the touch.

please hold caller

2008-03-11T20:52:00.003+13:00

I don't know whether it was the dry weather, the dust or just plain bad luck but after three weeks of highlights down south shooting a pavlova western my laptop and phone decided to give up both at the same time. $1000 to fix the laptop which is so not worth doing, and Telecom are mystified about the state of my phone which refuses to turn on but flashes its little red charge light woefully.

So finally, after much avoidance I'm going to join the mac family. Glynn is hopeful we can transfer my Adobe CS3 Flash license over to the mac, and we will be able run windows in parallel. Grateful for webmail and all my online applications which kept me from losing touch.

I'm also using the opportunity to switch to vodafone to get a better phone and call plan and a SIM card. Just charging my new phone at the moment so apologies to anyone who has tried to get hold of me since last week - your calls and messages will be somewhere in the ether. The good news is I can keep my old cell phone number. Hurrah!

making a western - yee-hah!

2008-02-24T01:02:00.003+13:00

What a great team Mike and Inge have assembled for this movie. Everyone is passionate about film-making and each their craft, be it sound, makeup, photography or our awesome Assistant Director Rebecca Rowe. Glynn and I on the other hand have lost our own appetite for food and catering. Our ability to judge amounts has become more sporadic as the numbers joining the crew fluctuate, tonight running out of potatoes being a good example. We get hugs from the crew though so we must be doing something right.

Just spent the week in Tekapo which had some awesome locations for cowboys and was such a lovely wee town, reminding me of Wanaka when I was a little kid. Kind of untouched and still serviced by a small Four Square supermarket. Everyone knows everyone and most of the locals double-up roles in the town - like Stuie Inch who pulled up in a scooter one day to tell me he was the postman for the town and had a package delivery for us up at the Post Office, and then the next day appeared across the fence to return a saddle in his role as manager of the sale yards next door to our holiday home.

We've settled in our Cromwell digs and are here to stay for the next 15 days. We now have an internet connection at the house which is just making a huge difference to the amount of work Glynn and I can get done in between catering... and to the amount of posts that can be put up on the mifilms blog. Important as we now have a loyal band of followers pestering us for updates.

There have been so many highlights and its only been a week - the team dynamic, the weather, the fact that Dad has come up and been such a great help, particularly for Glynn and I. The community spirit of Jenny and Peter Rayne who let us literally camp at their at their B & B in Tekapo during the day and work online using their wifi - and made the crew muffins!! The farmers who have been so generous with access to their land and to the stunt cowboys who came 4 days running with their horses and saddles. And tonight seeing a first rough cut of the film - amazing to see the hard work and attention to detail coming to life. Everyone is stoked.

webstock wrap up

2008-02-23T23:37:00.002+13:00

What an amazing few days at webstock. An incredible lineup of speakers. My notebook was full at the end with advice, ideas and loads of recommended reading.

Favourite sessions for me:

Tom Coates spoke about how web platforms create best value by being repositories of data, on which other things can be built. Platforms that facilitate connectivity between other third party applications - "must play nicely with others".

Simon Willeson gave a tutorial on OpenID. A practical explanation and a walk through the authorisation process making the benefits of OpenID really clear and understandable. A webplatform can use OpenID in different ways - but I was particularly interested in its use to authenticate third party business applications attached to platforms.

Jason Santa Maria talked about how design can not help but communicate messages to users, whether good or bad. He emphasised that having a strong story is key to a good design structure and providing "high value information" to users an important principle. "Design so web development is driven by the message not technology".

There were several other talks that I also *loved* including the very frank fireside chat Rowan Simpson had with Sam Morgan. It must be weird when people you don't know just start referring to you by your first name, like you're part of the family. I really enjoyed hearing about the types of investments he's made post the sale of TradeMe and the reasons why.

Glad the sessions will be posted on the webstock site so I can see the ones I missed.

Thanks to the webstock team for giving me the opportunity to attend via the scholarship programme - I had a blast and learnt heaps of practical tips I can apply to my own project.

mike culver speaking in wellington next week

2008-02-12T18:17:00.000+13:00

Gutted I will miss a talk by mike culver next week at Creative HQ while away down south feeding cowboys. Catalyst IT and Unlimited Potential host on Tuesday from 6pm till 8pm. The spiel sounds great -

"Amazon spent over a decade developing a world-class technology and content platform that powers Amazon web sites for millions of customers every day. Most people think "Amazon.com" when they hear the word; however developers and entrepreneurs are excited to learn that there is a separate technology arm of the company, known as Amazon Web Services or AWS. Using AWS, software developers can build applications leveraging the same robust, scalable, and reliable technology that powers retail business. AWS has now launched ten services with open API's for developers to build applications, with the result that almost 330,000 developers have registered on Amazon's developer site to create applications based on these services.

Mike Culver joined the Developer Relations Group of Amazon Web Services in 2006. Mike brings with him fifteen years of technology leadership experience, including at companies such as Microsoft. In addition Mr. Culver has a strong background running an IT organization, with over a decade of experience in the U.S. Electrical Wholesale Distribution (fittings) industry. And as a Web Services Evangelist at Amazon, he helps developers take advantage of disruptive technologies that are going to change the way we think about computer applications, and the way that businesses compete."

Interested to see his take on the next generation of web platforms and how they are re-orientating the interaction between consumers and third parties. Impressed with what I've heard about Amazon's storage services and would love to hear more about other the many other API's Amazon has released. Word has it that a videocast might be made so that chumps like me that can't make it, can still hear what he has to say. Sweet.

pavlova western

2008-02-11T10:26:00.001+13:00

Last time my brother asked me to help him shoot a movie I was given $100 and asked to cater for the weekend on location at his flat. On the way to the shoot Mike called and asked me to bring my hair dryer and make up. On arrival I was instantly promoted to the position of hair and makeup artist and second assistant director. That was a long time ago and thankfully this time they have a slightly larger crew. Last year Glynn and I made a promise to my brother Mike and his fiancée Inge that we would cater their movie. Consequently we are off to Central Otago at the end of the week to film a western. You can follow the exploits of independent film-making at its best on the pavlova western blog that has just been set up - see www.mifilms.co.nz.

Glynn and I will also be working while down there, in between peeling potatoes and making muffins. While we both have an ability to work from anywhere - we will be putting that concept to the ultimate test by heading into rural New Zealand. Today Glynn and the production manager will be checking out whether Telecom New Zealand can deliver the goods and ultimately the bandwidth for Glynn to be able to communicate with his team in San Francisco, and so I can skype and liaise with Wellington. Fun and games.

foofun

2008-02-06T10:24:00.000+13:00

Kiwifoo provides a huge opportunity to meet people doing amazing things in technology and other fields - and to share ideas and innovation, and thoughts about the future. All sorts of ideas can come about when you get smart people in a room from different disciplines, firing off each other and kiwifoo feels just like a giant thinktank. Those returning had a keen appreciation of how discussions at foo last year had an ongoing impact on the ICT sector. My observation was that it meant many sessions this year were well focussed on an outcome that meant further action post foo.

Like others have said the conversations sometimes shared in the corridors and over Russell Brown's coffee machine are the gold nuggets of foo. Some highlights for me were a session with thefreenet and others about establishing a free mesh wifi network in Wellington's CBD - mauricio provides a good summary of what's going on with the project. During a break I had a great discussion with Nic Steenhout from Mambo about how a start up like me can go about ensuring usability and accessibility in the development of web platforms. Who knew all these amazing people are working away right here in New Zealand. Lots of fun playing werewolf till all hours and awesome food - Glynn and I took note as we're off soon to cater my brother's movie down south so we listened out for positive comments and there were lots of them.

Nat and Jenine organise a great event, and make everyone feel welcome. Thanks heaps for inviting me and for having Glynn and I around for cockle hunting and kayaking on Monday - great foo related fun.

kiwifoo 08

2008-02-05T10:45:00.000+13:00

Back this afternoon from another awesome kiwifoo experience in Warkworth, north of Auckland. Some discussions there about the use of the internet to provide better accessibility to legislation and policy issues before Parliament. As well as working on my web start up I am a part-time consultant training others about the Machinery of Government and Parliament, so I am supportive of initiatives that help demystify the evolution of policy and the law.

Much work has already been done by those responsible for the administration of Parliament and the legislative process to ensure that legislation is available in an up-to-date digital format for the public to view over the internet at www.legislation.govt.nz. However, the legislation is more meaningful set in context - what stage is it at? has it been amended? what did the select committee think about the bill?

Parliament through its website www.parliament.nz is now aggregating information in a more meaningful way for members of the public, media, lobby groups and even the MPs themselves. For example, you can search on the Parliamentary site for the Copyright Bill . If you click on that link you see a quick summary of the bill's progress to date, and if look to the right under the downloads panel you can access a copy of the latest version of the bill. It's called "Bill 102-2", which essentially means it was the 102nd bill of this Parliament and that it's the second (-2) version of the bill as amended by the select committee. From this page you can also access the First Reading debate and see what the MPs said in the House when the Bill was first introduced. You can view the select committee's report on its consideration recommending changes to the bill and setting out the reasons why. In a relatively recent development a select committee summary links to a page where you can access all the submissions received and advice provided by officials to the select committee. One MP has already circulated proposed amendments for debate at Committee of the Whole House stage (the last opportunity for amendments before the bill is passed into law) - see SOP 154. SOP stands for Supplementary Order Paper - effectively an advertisement of proposed amendments to bills in draft form. All parties can circulate amendments by way of SOP, including the Government. If accepted by a majority in Parliament they will be incorporated into the bill.

Most people rely on others to interpret the processes and policy developments for them, rather than seek information from the original source. However, if you want it straight from the horse's mouth so to speak - try exploring the Parliamentary website and check out all the party websites. Ministerial press releases and speeches are aggregated at www.beehive.govt.nz and you can even stream question time live to your desktop.

Some ability to decipher the legal language, the processes and political spin will still be required to help demystify what's going on in relation to certain policy issues, but the Parliamentary website is certainly a great leap forward in making the laws and Parliament more accessible to us all.

ezy peezy wine club

2008-01-29T16:30:00.000+13:00

This year for Christmas I signed Glynn up for the Ezy Peezy Wine Club for 12months. Essentially you make monthly credit card payments to Regional Wines here in Wellington and they send you a case of wine (mixed or red or white) every three months. It's all going to be a nice surprise on the doorstep every so often and I'm looking forward to seeing what they send each time. Regional Wines seemed to have the best offering of several wine clubs you can find on the web. I've also heard there are good online bargains to be had at blackmarket.co.nz, so we'll try them out sometime too.

Regional Wines at the Basin Reserve have a great selection of beers and wines and Glynn and I often head down there to try and find our latest favourite. I've added a map showing its location. I had to join zoomin to do it - a great mapping service for locating local addresses and businesses. It wasn't hard to join up and despite a short hiccup requiring me to reset my password for some reason the user experience was all good. I frequently use zoomin to find local businesses and addresses so its nice to join up and I'll add some more places.

webstock 2008

2008-01-29T08:52:00.000+13:00

Absolutely stoked to be heading to webstock beginning the week of 11th February here in Wellington. One of the highlights for me will be hearing Kathy Sierra speak in person. I had been an avid reader of her blog until a series of bizarre online threats stopped her from posting, and I have also seen impressive footage of her delivering presentations before. She really has a handle on how to create a user experience that will have people returning for more and I love her diagrams and pictures, many of which she has now included on her last blog post.

Will be interesting to hear from a kiwi presenter now living overseas. Craig Nevill-Manning originally from Canterbury now works for Google in New York and created their product search service aka froogle. He's going to talk about how the large scale collection of data makes information more useful. Interesting, especially given all the controversy over the ownership of personal information on the web. There will also be a fireside chat with local hero Sam Morgan. Hope to hear about the difficulties he faced getting TradeMe up and running in Wellington, the attitude of local business to his success and future developments for the site.

I just cannot wait and want to thank organisers and sponsors for arranging a scholarship programme so that young early stage businesses like myself can come along and benefit from being exposed to the high calibre of speakers, and networking opportunities. I also get a t-shirt - woohoo!

what gives a cafe its true mojo?

2008-01-26T16:35:00.000+13:00

Visited the mojo cafe located on the ground floor of the new Meridian Building on the waterfront this afternoon. I asked whether there was any access to wifi on site and the girl behind the counter didn't know what I was talking about but said she didn't think so. While we might pop down again one day with the laptops and see what available networks there are - it was a bit disappointing to hear its not likely. What a great place to sit and do some work and drink great coffee. In a few months time you'll be able to go there and have lunch at wagamamas too! While it's a great location and they do serve great coffee, having access to the internet would give the cafe true mojo in my opinion.

I'm always surprised to walk into some cafes and not have access - I think those places are really missing out on an opportunity to use wifi as a marketing tool. Early this month it was announced that San Francisco is back on track with its plan to provide free wireless for the entire city. While we are a sister city to San Francisco - it would be a big ask to follow in her footsteps on that scale right now. However, my immediate wish would be a *free* wireless network in Wellington amongst all the amazing cafes in the CBD. In the spirit of being an ICT hub, and some would argue "coffee culture capital of the world" - surely it would be in the interests of WCC and local businesses to get behind and sponsor that sort of project?

homebrewing with gman

2008-01-26T13:02:00.000+13:00

during the week I spent of couple of hours helping gman bottle another of his brews. Czech Pilsner this time with a very successful drinkable Indian Pale Ale already under his belt, a watery and kind of tasteless lager and a gooey meaty stout. He wont appreciate my uneducated descriptions of his attempts so far but the IPA held such promise, its definitely worth encouraging and consequently participating in the brewing process. I now know that Nelson grown hops are the only way to go and sterilisation of the equipment is one of the most important things. While I haven't graduated to capping the bottles yet - foster says its important to be able to assess the right amount of pressure to apply - whatever ;) - I have been allowed to add the sugar and fill them. It's a load of fun - just need to figure out a name and make some labels!

Unlimited Potential's Bloggers Event

2008-01-26T11:44:00.000+13:00

Every year in January Unlimited Potential host a competition among bloggers to see who can come up with the best predictions for 2008. The winner as voted by the audience on the night will be crowned UP Visionary of the Year for 2008, and receive an official certificate, a beautiful tiara, and full bragging rights.

The bloggers this year are:

* David Farrar, Kiwiblog
* Mauricio Freitas, Geekzone
* Hamish MacEwan, local visionary
* Philip Fierlinger, turntable technologist
* Tom Beard, Wellurbanite

Each blogger will make 3 to 5 predictions in the following categories:

* Gadgets & Games
* The Internet
* Business & Telecommunications
* Technology
* Wellington & NZ.

When: This Wednesday 30 January, 2008, 5:30pm for a 6:00pm start.
Where: Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Level 28, The Majestic Centre, 100 Willis Street, Wellington.

RSVP and reserve your spot at this prestigious and FREE annual event and come along and enjoy the pizza and beer!

counting down to kiwifoo

2008-01-22T13:06:00.000+13:00

Glynn and I have booked our tickets and looking forward to our trip up to Walkworth for Kiwifoo aka BaaCamp on 1 February. Last year I had no idea what an "unconference" or "barcamp" was all about. Essentially, invitees get to set the agenda when they arrive by filling empty timeslots across the venue with topics they would like to share and discuss. You attend topics you are interested in and everyone gets the chance to participate.

Last year was the first Kiwifoo ever held in the southern hemisphere and the buzz was amazing. A bunch of people all with an interest in the global development of technology, particularly web-based technology, discussing how New Zealand was part of that phenomenon. My favourite session last year was one with David Cunliffe where leaders in the technology industry got to talk frankly about the *real* issues for New Zealand and the ICT industry. I also enjoyed meeting Rachel Cunliffe (no relation) from Throng fame, and other women doing amazing things in the technology field. It allowed me to better define what it was I was trying to achieve myself, and was surrounded by a bunch of people who just "got it", which was really encouraging and inspiring. I can't wait to spend time with fellow foo-goers again in a couple of weeks time.

no luck with the fishing

2008-01-17T19:53:00.000+13:00

After obtaining a freshwater license while on holiday down south, we fished the Clutha, the Dunstan, the Taieri and Conroy's Dam in Alexandra - but unfortunately we caught no fish. We bought a spinning rod though to add to our never-ending collection of fishing equipment. Unfortunately the boat at Ball Creek had blown a valve and so Glynn's dreams of a bluecod a minute with Robyn out at the local reef were also blown. A highlight was surfcasting with a balloon off the rocks just down from the crib. We waited for an off-shore breeze and then tied a balloon to a running rig at the top of our trace and hoped it would blow out the line to a good spot. It seemed to attract the attention of two large seals, however, but didn't prove as attractive to the fish. Despite the balloon blowing our line a good distance off-shore we had no nibbles and the constant problem of kissing our gear good-bye because of seaweed and kelp on reeling in. Anyway, we never gave up and are hopeful a trip up to Castlepoint reef this weekend might break the drought.

summertime

2008-01-17T19:39:00.000+13:00

On the way to Kaka Point from Alexandra during our holidays we stopped in at the Lonely Graves at Millers Flat made famous by Billy Connelly on his tour of New Zealand. To get to the graves you cross the Clutha River at Millers Flat and follow the road on the other side of the river all the way to Beaumont. The graves are on the roadside well-marked about 20 mins on the gravel road. William Rigney a local developer in the 1890's found a man dead on the side of the road and with noone claiming the body held a service and buried him by the river and on the tombstone engraved the words "Here lies somebody's darling". When Rigney died he was buried next to him with the words "Here lies the man who buried somebody's darling".

A quick trip down to Slope Point, the southern tip of the south island, a short 20mins walk from the car park down a slopey hill to a sign and seaviews.

Fishing Conroy's Dam in Alexandra with Mike and Inge and the Taieri River on the way to central. Bacon butties riverside for lunch to console ourselves that we weren't eating fish.

Sitting in the sun in Naseby having a beer and visiting the historic Vulcan Hotel at St Bathans.

Playing curling at the International indoor curling rink at Naseby. Great fun but could have done with more time to claw back the small lead Glynn had by the end of our one hour session. Weird being in the cold and ice when its 30 degrees outside.

Ball Creek and its famous landmark and the kids playing at the beach

Glynn's lager at the Ball Creek homebrew competition - winning third place - which is apparently a pretty good result for an outsider to the local community.

export year 2007

2008-01-15T13:57:00.000+13:00

Last year I was selected for the Wellington regional Exporter programme which was organised as part of Export Year 2007.

As part of the Export programme, I attended several free events including the 10 week BizFuel Growth Series - organised by the chamber and the awesome Ruth McDavitt, coordinated by Business Porirua and sponsored by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. Various training and case study seminars were held around the city, where I got to meet some inspiration kiwis in the business of exporting. It was really encouraging to meet and share with other companies already enjoying the fruits of their export success. I was surprised though to be the only web-based SAAS company attending with the majority of businesses product-based or selling manufactured goods over the web.

An interesting theme emerged during the course - that Australia is a more difficult market for kiwis to break into than UK, Europe or the States, mostly because of the Aussie attitude towards kiwi-made. Hasn't stopped many New Zealand companies though from making it big overseas in some of the more distant markets, and in Aussie too. With the phenomenon of the internet as a ubiquitous marketing equaliser, and many kiwi producers now creating and using their web presence to sell and ship product, I imagine Aussie attitudes will continue to evolve and it will only get easier to sell products across the ditch.

Thanks to those who selected me for the Export programme, the sponsors and to Business Porirua for organising a great lineup of speakers and tutors for the BizFuel Growth Series.

unlimited potential

2008-01-15T13:16:00.000+13:00

During the end of last year, while undergoing a busy period settling back into Wellington, I met a great bunch of people in the Wellyworld of ICT.

Unlimited Potential is a group of young enthusiastic people adding value to the exciting ICT hub here in Wellington. Volunteers organise monthly networking and technology-based events for those involved in the ICT industry and at the cutting edge of IT development. After volunteering Glynn to speak about Project Indiana for their Geeks, Games and Gadgets function, I became interested in being involved in a official way with Unlimited Potential. With the shift to Wellington becoming a permanent move I resigned from the Executive Committee of the Canterbury Software Cluster in Christchurch and joined Unlimited Potential as a member. Then late in the year at the AGM I became an UP Executive Committee member. We all share responsibilities amongst the Executive Team and organise events once a month - where you can also enjoy pizza and beer. UP enjoys sponsorship from a variety of local companies which means joining and all the events are free! I've taken on the role of looking after membership and look forward to working with a team of people to create successful events and contribute to Wellington's ongoing reputation as the ICT capital.

minus 16

2007-07-18T21:52:00.000+12:00

A friend of my Phil has been down in Antartica for the last few months wintering over and helping to restore items in Shackleton's Hut. Her blog makes an interesting read, and the last few posts have photos of the first rays of sun that are now creeping over the horizon. While the cold weather we've been experiencing lately is resulting in a bit of cabin fever, at least its not minus 16 outside.

cellphone salesman singing opera

2007-06-26T18:00:00.000+12:00

this guy in simon cowell's latest uk talent search totally nails his audition. it's always great to see regular people doing extraordinary things. tried to embed the video using blogger's new video upload service, but google must be experiencing overload because I couldn't get through to register for the trial.

catching up

2007-05-28T09:58:00.000+12:00

Its been great catching up with Myra and Graham, Patrick, Dave and Matt et al while down in chch. After loving the festival last year, I was really looking forward to to heading out with everyone to the Banff Mountain Film Festival - World Tour on Saturday night.

Highlight for me was Patagonia - A travel to the end of the World. A film about two Norwegian mountaineers crossing the South Patagonia ice cap. Borge Ousland and Thomas Ulrich conquered the ice shelf overcoming the harsh conditions with a dry sense of humour, and a single-minded focus on their goal. Really inspiring.

You couldn't get a more different cinematic experience than Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End. A bunch of us went along to Hoyts on Sunday, which was packed out for the screening, with Patrick and others ready for action in their pirate hats and eye patches.

According to trivia on imdb they started filming without a completed script, which maybe explains some of the reasons it rambled a bit. I fell asleep during 3 hours of confusing plot lines and some really bad acting from Orlando. Once again Johnny Depp was the highlight for me.

interclue launch

2007-05-24T09:46:00.000+12:00

Congratulations to Seth who has now launched his new 'killer startup' browser plug-in called Interclue. I've used Interclue and trialled his competitors cooliris and snap but found that Seth had really nailed the whole point of having a preview to links - Interclue was *really* unobtrusive and useful.

As you hover over a link on a webpage, a small icon appears at the end of the link, and if you hover over it the window pops up and feeds you the relevant content of that link - other plug-ins automatically open if you just pass your mouse over the link which I find annoying. Interclue doesn't show snapshots of the page like snap. Instead it provides a useful and informative summary of the content of the link, which then helps users make a decision whether to click through to it or not. In many cases you can just read what you need to from the window. It also allows you to immediately email the link to a friend or post to del.icio.us by clicking on the frame of the window.

I found that after having used it for a week, when it wasn't activated I missed it. During beta Interclue has picked up feedback to consolidate the design and features, and I'm sure its functionality will continue to evolve.

Seth and his team really deserve the reviews they have been getting - all you need to do is use it and you'll see why.

flight of the conchords

2007-05-23T22:52:00.000+12:00

Just watching tv3 tonight to see the entire first episode of Jemaine and Bret's series has been released on the internet a month before its due to be screened on tv in the states. The HBO site even has it set up so you can easily embed part of the episode - cool. how incredible is it that regular (albeit supremely talented) guys from wellington can get their own series on HBO. when it screens next month it's being broadcast in the timeslot previously held by the sopranos...insanely cool. unfortunately the broadband connection at my sister's means that it will probably be screened in the US before I actually ever get to see the whole episode on my computer. On the HBO page it says "After clicking, the video may take several seconds to load"....errrrrrgh. Jemaine and Brett need to work in a gag about the fact that if they ever make it big in New York, New Zealand will hear about it with the establishment of internet2.

There is a page on the HBO site dedicated to the show http://www.hbo.com/conchords/- so you can also go there and see even smaller bite sized pieces.

learning more about branding and design

2007-05-22T10:48:00.001+12:00

Branding and design are essential elements of an effective web 2.0 marketing strategy. I've been to a branding workshop recently as part of a Positively Wellington Business and NZTE series for startups. It's obvious that to compete with all the other startups out there, the design of a new site needs to be instinctive, user friendly, and good to look at. If the branding has the wrong look and feel, it can be hard to retain users...even if you are offering a killer service. It's amazing to see all the different interpretations of what user friendly might mean when you scan services on the net. I think keeping things simple is an important part of it..for me...if members of my family can't use it then its one good way of testing whether the user friendly threshold has been met.

I've really been impressed with Decisive Flow, a Wellington-based web design company. They worked on PlanHQ which is another kiwi-based online business service aimed at SME's and startups like me. Planhq allows users to create financial, marketing and strategic business goals around a "live" business plan so they can then manage and constantly update the variables to measure progress. The business plan can then be shared with anyone, including current and potential investors, and company directors. As a kiwi business if you are capital raising with overseas investors, but want to stay and develop your business in New Zealand, PlanHQ would be an easy way to maintain a good investor relationship from a distance. Being able to travel domestically and globally, access information and manage my New Zealand company from anywhere is all part of the dream for me, so Planhq fits into my web-based approach.

I've also been inspired by one of New Zealand's all time branding success stories - 42below vodka. Their advertising strategy was inspired, and they just stood out from their competitors. While its not a tech company, I learnt a thing or two from their global marketing approach and their attitude towards achieving their goals.

heaps going on

2007-05-21T21:51:00.000+12:00

After settling ourselves in Wellington and beginning to enjoy new opportunities and the coffee, Glynn and I are now back down in Christchurch for a short while looking after Sam, Lily and Mia - while Brett and Sarah enjoy a much deserved trip of a lifetime to Europe. After a traumatic first attempt Glynn's now changing Sam's nappies like a pro. Unfortunately he's on his way back to San Francisco for another week of meetings and escaping the daily duties. The grandparents are around as well though, so we are all pitching in.

Glynn and I have had a productive time in Wellington so far. I've been picking up some more government consulting work for Fivepeas Limited, and networking with some great people in Wellington for lifebox - silicon welly is a such small town. Glynn's been enjoying meeting the folks at the Sun Head Office, and having fun on the fishing expeditions even though we've really only had success at Castlepoint so far. Our bad run with the fishing has been totally surpassed by the fact he won us a trip for two to Martinborough for a couple of nights at a five star resort! I never win anything. It must be the luck of the irish ..or the 6 bottles of wine he had to buy to be in the draw at a local winetasting we went to at the Boatshed. According to certain irish folk, the luck of the irish means you have good luck one day and then bad luck the next (i guess that could count as the hangover?).

xero IPO

High levels of interest and excitement in the city about the xero IPO. I've been using xero and really like the interface and the simple step processes throughout the application. For me personally the *real* excitement around xero is the future potential uses for the online platform model, its not just "software as a service"... but "software as part of a live platform".... which can provide the user with all sorts integrated and hence convenient, internet-based tools. A very basic example of this is that ASB is already signed up and feeding realtime data into xero for its customers - I intend to ask my bank whether it will do the same for me. Imagine what other payment or administrative services can be linked to your online business accounts using the internet or mobile devices?

Whatever the future holds for xero and its IPO (and I wish them well), for the moment the real benefits of the product for me are:

* The reports are done for me so I limit the time my accountant has to spend on them
* My accountant can view my accounts and reports information from his home in CHCH, without having to send data up and down the country via email
* I can generate and send an invoice with the push of a button - from within xero
* I know that if anything happens I have a backup of my account information elsewhere, that's invaluable to me.
* I don't have to worry that I'm using the latest version - I know that for my monthly fee its constantly being updated and improved, with new features added.

I just don't want to go back to a desktop application.

wellington bound

2007-03-07T13:08:00.000+13:00

Glynn and I are heading to Wellington for a while - I'm going to focus on a particular phase of my project and Glynn's going to check out the Wellington scene. Can't wait to see old friends, and we are both looking forward to networking around 'siliconwelly'. Retaining links to CHCH though with opportunities to find synergies between the two cities and the various web communities in each. Hoping for lots of visits from new friends I've made down here in Christchurch. Will miss Sarah, Brett, Mia, Lily and Sam.

london highlights

2007-02-18T18:42:00.002+13:00

I've been meaning to post some photos of our stop in London for a while. Here's some quick pics and highlights of our last port of call on the way home, in no particular time and date order.

New Zealand War Memorial - Hyde Park

After learning a bit more about the New Zealand War Memorial on the way over, I was really looking forward to our visit to Hyde Park to see the monument on the return visit.

There were a few other visitors the day we went, was trying to spot the ex-pats, but no joy. Kiwis have left their mark there though and there were some wreaths laid to pay tribute to New Zealanders who have lost their lives in battle along side their British counterparts.

Walks around London

It was great to be able to stay with Fiona, a friend from back home, who now lives in London working at the Houses of Parliament. One day we walked together around the older parts of the city, including a tour around parts of the square mile to see remnants of the old walls of London and the monument where the Great Fire of London apparently started in a bakery.

One morning we went to the Columbia Road flower market, with stunning flower stalls and quaint shops lining the road. The marketeers sing out as you walk by "three bunches a fiva" and "cheap enough to give to give to someone you don't even like". They banter across the road to each other - "hey bryan, I got blisters bryan, from takin' all the monee" - hilarious. I guess you had to be there ...but I just loved the cockney accent.

Churchill's Museum

One of the highlights was a visit to the Churchill Museum which is located underneath the city streets, within the bunker where Churchill and his war cabinet met during World War 2. It was from the relative safety of the bunker that Churchill and his cabinet slept, ate, plotted and communicated with Stalin and Hoover. It was also where Churchill's regular radio broadcasts to the people of Britain were recorded. Everything has been left as it was the day the war ended in 1945. It's just quite remarkable and the museum attached to the old bunker highlights Churchill's life and career both before and after his stints as Prime Minister and as a great war time leader.

What I found most fascinating was the maps they had on the walls to monitor the progress of the war. The front line and other key boundaries were marked out with different coloured wool and drawing pins - red wool for the front line.

They used to keep score by counting the losses each side had suffered on a small blackboard and its still sitting there with the last scores entered on the board the day Germany surrendered.

Buckingham Palace

We missed the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace because they only parade and change guard every other day of the week in winter time. It seems its more about the amount of tourist demand than the issue of guards having to stand out in the cold, and obviously has nothing to do with whether the Queen is in residence or not. It kind of takes the enchantment out of it all, but when you've grown up with AA Milne's classic "They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace, Christopher Robin went down with Alice..." it's hard not to get just a little bit excited about being there, even though all you can do is stand outside the gates and wonder what's going on inside - but not for very long - places to go, more sites to see.

The Globe Theatre

Glynn and I really enjoyed the tour of the new Globe Theatre which has been completely re-built exactly how it would have been in Shakespeare's time. It has a great museum and we took the guided tour which was well worth it. See a photo below of Fiona and Glynn outside the Globe.

There's a huge amount of audience participation required during plays held here because the stage is so small, and those on the theatre floor were often and still are called upon to be in the crowd scenes. I can't wait to come back one day and see Julius Caesar, so when Mark Antony asks the Romans whether they want to see Caesar's will I can yell "show us the will, show us the will" - fun!

Tower of London

The Tower of London feels like the heart of English history. From the museum displays in the old white castle to the surrounding towers where Elizabeth 1 was once held amongst many others, including most wives of Henry VIII.

We lined up to see the crown jewels and got to see guards marching (tick), and the famous black ravens. Legend has it if they leave the tower the Queen's realm will fall into the hands of its enemies.

Arriving early enough we caught the first guided tour of the day with one of the famous Beefeaters who live on the grounds and are charged with protecting the crown jewels and defending the Tower itself. They are called Beefeaters because they were once fattened up to make sure they looked like they could defend the Tower, and one of the kings once used them to test out the meat on his plate because he was scared of being poisoned.

These people were paranoid about loosing their reign and being cheated on by their spouses so, many died at the Tower including Anne Boleyn, one of Henry VIII's wives who was beheaded in the courtyard and buried at the Royal Chapel in the Tower grounds. Legend has it that Anne was born with six fingers and was given as one reason she was often seen as a heretical figure or a witch. She was apparently so despised by the King that in the end she was buried in an unmarked grave in the Royal Chapel in quick lime. The Beefeater tour took us into the chapel and explained that when Queen Victoria had all the graves excavated for identification Anne's remains were found with one hand indeed having an extra digit. Her grave in the chapel is now marked, and her life story quite a read. While the royal family still attract a lot of attention today, I guess England must be thankful there's a bit more stability and reason nowadays than during Henry's reign.

Other highlights

Some other highlights were a visit to the Tate Modern, with a large scale interactive exhibition of a tube that you can ride down on a sack, although Glynn, Fi and I were all keen as mustard it was fully booked for the day. A walk over the Millenium Bridge to the other side of the Thames to see St Paul's Cathedral. No photos but a great visit out to Greenwich Museum and the international dateline. A self-guided tour of Westminster Abbey and a peek at the Tower Bridge from a vantage point inside the Tower of London.

Guided tour of the Houses of Parliament

We were lucky enough to get a personal tour courtesy of Fi, through the House of Commons, House of Lords and Westminster Palace. Fi's been working as a Clerk of a select committee of Parliament, and when required sometimes assists counting the votes when the House sits in the evenings. Over time Fi's built up an impressive knowledge of the history of the place. We were one of the first kiwi contingents to experience the McLean tour and I can recommend it if you are heading over to London - one not to be missed. No photos of the inside allowed unfortunately, but the House of Lords is just stunning.

It was really nice to spend time with Fiona and her man, Patrick. We had lunch together on Sunday at a small italian restaurant in Covent Garden and then on our last night we shared drinks at a traditional old english pub called the Holly Bush Inn in Hampstead. Glynn and I stayed on for dinner at the pub and he finally accomplished one of his missions while in London to try three different types of warm English ales. It was a great way to spend our last night in London and effectively the last night of our great Christmas holiday in the northern hemisphere - how fitting that it be in a pub.

Thanks to Fiona for having us stay and for all the guided tours and letting us borrow her A-Z of London. What a massive city and like our trip to Paris, left with a long list of all the places to see next time.

a good start to 2007

2007-02-18T18:42:00.001+13:00

Since returning from overseas its been a busy start to the year and apart from Baa Camp other highlights have included obtaining some more contract and consulting work; a visit from two Wellington friends - Dean this week, and Phil ,who stayed with us on her way down to Antartica last week for her winter placement restoring Ernest Shackleton's hut. A trip up to Wellington this week to provide some training and a public workshop for Change Training.

Looking forward to what the rest of 2007 will bring - its been a great start so far.

baa camp madness

2007-02-18T18:35:00.000+13:00

Early this year I got the awesome opportunity to attend Kiwi Foo aka Baa Camp in Walkworth. I got to meet some amazing people doing incredible things. Thanks to Nat who organised the 'unconference'. It was so encouraging (and kind of reassuring) for me to meet others working in the same web 2.0 space.

Web 2.0 is characterised by emerging internet technologies and business models that don't fit with the more traditional investment opportunity. Web 2.0 is really just a fancy way of describing the next generation of internet services that are focussed on the user having more control over their own content and choice of platform. The best of these internet platforms balance the desire for users to have control, with the need to provide a structured interactive and user-friendly environment to store, manipulate and easily share information with others online. Kathy Sierra, as always, explains the user control v organised structure balance well.

The more practical the applications are to the user experience, the more mainstream web 2.0 services are becoming, till they form part of everyday life - who hasn't now heard of YouTube?

While many web 2.0 internet companies are focussing on innovative niche opportunities, there are many others that are trying to use web 2.0 technologies to develop new online services to compete with current desktop software products. Xero is a prime example of how an online business product can be pitched against a traditional desktop software product - MYOB.

From these internet platforms we will manage our finances, our communications, and our personal information and storage needs. Many "mashup" services are out there piecing it altogether for users already but there are tonnes of opportunities for webdesigners and developers to create new and interesting online applications (especially using open source technology) harnessing all the benefits of the internet. Check out this funky demo of what the current state of web 2.0 means to Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.

It is such an exciting time to be involved in the web space and you could feel the energy at kiwi foo. I really hope I have the opportunity to go again next year to experience some more baa camp madness.

three days in paris

2007-01-15T23:43:00.001+13:00

Well three days in total - we actually had two half days and two full days. It's amazing what you can pack in if you ignore the blisters!

Arriving in Charles de Gaulle airport at lunchtime on Tuesday, it took us two and half hours to make it to our hotel via the underground train RER, with time spent just getting out of the airport to the train station. It was a bit of a trek with all our bags and we were happy to reach Hotel Langlois in Saint Lazare north of the River Seine. It was a gem, with a real Parisian atmosphere and our suite had a bathroom the size of Glynn's flat.

Tuesday afternoon and evening - Sacre Coeur, Montmarte, Ile de la Cite, Notre Dame

My friend Jason and several others recommended the walk up to the Sacre Coeur and down through Montmarte, and as it wasn't far from our hotel we thought that would be a great place to start. We wandered up through St Lazare, past the famous Moulin Rouge and made the gradual ascent up to the Basilica.

The Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) is perched on the top of a hill surrounded by the village of Montmarte. In the 19th century Montmarte lay outside the city limits. Consequently, it became a cultural centre and with the local nuns making wine it became a popular drinking area, so it wasn't surprising to see an irish pub as we wondered up to the church gates. It's free to enter the basilica and with the fading daylight its darkening interior was lit by the red glow of thousands of candles. Glynn and I made a donation and lit one too - it was just magic.

The architecture in Paris is beautiful, and the views are stunning from the steps of the Sacre Coeur, the highest lookout point in the city. You can understand why the french government in World War Two declared Paris to be an open city, protecting it from bombardment. Although the armistice with Germany was controversial at the time, and led to the formation of the French Resistance, the declaration helped to preserve the city. The sun was going down as we got to the top and we were rewarded with perfect snaps of the Eiffel Tower at sunset.

The whole scene was quite romantic, and even though the metro service extended to Montmarte you couldn't help but want to walk everywhere and just soak it all up. Artists and performers set up each day outside the Sacre Coeur and around Montmarte, and there was a real wintery carnival feel as we descended back down through the village and back into the central city. It was a great way to start our tour of Paris.

We still had time left on the clock and decided to head in to see Notre Dame and find a french restaurant on the Ile de la Cite, the original roman settlement situated on a small island in the middle of the River Seine. Unfortunately, and most unromantically, I got a migraine and we had to excuse ourselves from the restaurant we had painstakingly chosen, so I could throw up in rubbish bins all the way home.

Wednesday - Musee du Louvre, La Defense, Arc de Triomphe, and Musee D'Orsay

The Paris Museum Pass was a great discovery - at 30 euro for two days it was well worth it. It lets you in to over 60 museums and monuments, and allowed us to avoid all the queues. At most places we visited on Wednesday the lines were over an hour long, and it would have seriously affected our enjoyment of the day and limited our time.

The Louvre is the largest museum in the world and is massive, and lucky for us is open late on Wednesdays. It gets 5 million visitors a year (over 7 million the year the Da Vinci Code was published), and I just couldn't help but feel everyone had decided to come on the same day as us, as we fought our way to see the Mona Lisa. Once a fortress, and home to various leaders, including Napolean the Third, it has four main wings and you could spend days in each.

The Louvre is a masterpiece in itself, and I found myself stopping constantly to look at door and window frames, and the multitude of statues that stand on the outside ledges of the building.

Highlights for me were the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, Michelangelo's Dying Slave and the apartments of Napoleon III.

We took a break from the Louvre in the middle of the day to meet a work colleague of Glynn's at La Defense, the commercial district of Paris, about 15mins from the Louvre on the metro. Completely modern in style the area is a total contrast to the older parts of the city. It is home to La Grande Arche a massive rectangular structure, and from its steps you can see right down the avenues to the Arc de Triomphe.

After our traditional french lunchtime meal of duck and red wine, we headed back towards the Louvre on the metro stopping briefly at the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe is a focus for patriotic events and the eternal flame dedicated to the memory of the unknown soldier is located at its base. It is also the central hub of a vehicular round-a-bout called Place Charles de Gaulle. Cars cannot be insured for the small ring road that surrounds the famous landmark, upon which 12 avenues converge, including the famous Avenue des Champs Elysees.

There is no pedestrian crossing so access to the monument is by a tunnel under the road. Courtesy of our museum pass we again avoided the lines and climbed straight to the top of the monument, which also houses a museum beneath the viewing platform. The views from the top are well worth the climb, and you can see the avenues fanning out like the spokes of a wheel.

See below photos I took from the monument, one of the Eiffel Tower and one looking back up at the Sacre Coeur on Montmarte Hill.

Since the Louvre was open till 9.45pm we headed to the Musee D'Orsay, which closed at 6pm. It was my first taste of more recent works and the impressionists' paintings blew us away. We saw original paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, Renoir, Manet, Millet, Degas, Monet and Cezanne to name a few. You are allowed to take photos without a flash, which surprised me.

Back to the Louvre for a quick bite to eat and a tour of the italian marble statues, french painters, the Mesopotamia treasures, and another peak at the Mona Lisa without the midday crowds. We spent quite a bit of time gazing at her until we reached the point we felt we'd seen her, and then headed to Napoleon's apartments which were spectacular, and part of the old Tuileries Palace connected to the Louvre.

We'd both reached saturation point by the end of the day, and I was literally hobbling, but I still came away completely inspired. I have started an acrylic on canvas for Glynn here at home, and what I would give to be able to continually access these paintings and galleries regularly. I hope Parisians realise how lucky they are to have all that on their doorstep.

Thursday - Saint Chapelle, Le Musee Picasso, Centre Pompidou, Catacombs, Eiffel Tower

It's amazing what a hot bath can do to fool your legs and feet into thinking they are okay to walk. Ready for the next day and fuelled with breakfast at the hotel of boiled egg, pastries and coffee we headed off for our second full day in Paris.

We had heard from Tim and Bob that Sainte Chapelle was worth a visit and so we headed back towards Ile de la Cite. Built in the gothic tradition, it was consecrated in 1248 and translates as The Holy Chapel. The stain-glass windows on all sides of the chapel depict scenes from the bible. There are better photos of the chapel on this wikipedia link . Pick a sunny day if you plan to go, because the stained glass effect will be at its best.

We spent the next part of the morning at the Picasso Museum. I especially enjoyed wandering through the back streets of Paris to get to it, and we stopped for coffee and a pastry on the way.

After exiting the museum we stopped briefly to buy some cheese and bread for lunch and then on to the nearby modern art collection at Centre Pompidou, a controversial building well known for its exterior. Its utility pipes are on the outside of the structure, and are colour coded. It was interesting but many of the works seemed trivial and light, and I really struggled with the room with pink flowing material and the giant red shoe. It only seemed to make it worse when I read the intentions of many of the artists. Maybe I'm yet to attain enlightenment, but I think I just prefer more traditional forms of art and I'm okay with that.

The catacombs were next on the list and something completely different from the constant stream of beauty since arriving in the city. Paris is riddled with over 300 km of catacombs under the surface of the city. Originally they were limestone quarries until the tunnels were converted into mass burial sites in the 18th century. Its very cold down there, but I found it quite a peaceful place. All the remains are stacked in decorated piles and there are several altars where services have been held to commemorate those buried there. If you aren't afraid of the dark, or enclosed spaces and don't get squeemish I would definitely recommend a visit.

We emerged from the tunnels about one kilometre along from the entrance to the catacombs and headed to Les Invalides, Napoleon Bonaparte's resting place. A quick stop for a pint and coffee on the way there to warm up meant we arrived in time to see the doorman closing up early for some reason at 5.30pm, so we headed to the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was one of the last things on our list of places to visit. It's open until 11pm each night, which is good because it took 30mins in line just to get our tickets to the top. We paid slightly less (11 euro) to walk up the stairs to the second level rather than catch the lift.

It was bigger than I thought with two restaurants, a maze, shops and a cafe on the first level. We nievely wandered into a restaurant to ask if there was a table for two, but seemingly tables are reserved weeks in advance. Walking up the tower was great, not that we needed the exercise by that stage of the day, but every stair landing had interesting fact displays about historic events that had occurred on the tower and famous visitors. We had dinner at the a cafe and then stood in line on the second floor for 45mins to get the lifts up to the very top.

I can see why Paris is known as the city of lights - what a view. The Eiffel Tower itself contributes its own fair share by being lit up with thousands of twinkly lights all over on the hour. It also has a radiating beam of light that shines out from the top so its easily located at night from most areas in Paris. The direction and distance to both Wellington and Auckland are recorded at the top and although it can sway in the wind it felt safe out on the observation deck, but really cold.

A wonderful evening was complete with dinner at a restaurant near our hotel called La Brabant. Glynn enjoyed oysters and salad and I just went straight from soup to dessert - yum. I was absolutely shattered by the end of dinner, but you can't complain after a perfect day like that...and a lovely bottle of french pinot noir.

Friday - St Lazare

We only had a short time in the morning before needing to head to the airport, so we checked out of the hotel leaving our bags at the desk, and wandered around St Lazare. There had been no time for shopping during our stay, so we popped into Le Printemps, the largest department store in Paris, and about 5 mins walk from Hotel Langlois. We admired the pastries while we drank our coffee.

Sadly it was time to leave. We caught the airport bus this time rather than the train, which leaves from the National Opera House, another stunning landmark.

There were so many places we didn't get to visit, so I'm already looking forward to returning to the beautiful city of lights.

dublin city

2007-01-15T23:42:00.001+13:00

While Glynn was at work for a couple of days I headed into Dublin on the DART (train) from Wicklow to explore the city. It takes about an hour on the train, including the stops, and offers great coastal views.

I bought a ticket for the Dublin City Tour Bus which is a hop on, hop off ride taking in over 20 historic sites. Dublin was much bigger than I thought. The River Liffey, which divides the city, was my point of reference and I was armed with a basic knowledge of landmarks on the 'nort' side and the 'sout' side, as Dubliners would say. At one time the Ha'penny Bridge was the only river crossing, but it is now the oldest of at least 14 bridges that connect both sides of the central city.

O'Connell Street is the main street of Dublin on the 'nort' side and a spire built in 2003 is its newest and most controversial feature, otherwise known as the 'stiletto in the ghetto' and various other names I wont mention.

The street's most famous landmark is certainly the General Post Office which was seized during the 1916 Easter Rising, by the Irish Citizens Army and the Irish Volunteers opposing the British occupation. Padraig Pearse one of the rebel leaders read out a Proclamation on the front steps of the building declaring Ireland an independent republic. In response English forces bombed the building to a shell and eventually the young republicans surrendered. You can still see bullet holes in the columns of the GPO today.

Other stops on the bus tour included Collins Barracks and Kilmainham Jail, both providing interesting overviews of the political and social history of Ireland.

The Jail particularly has a great museum, guided tour and a history presentation given in the prison chapel. Those who took part in the Easter Rising were held at Kilmainham Jail and many were executed there. James Connelly, one of the main instigators of the uprising, was too injured to stand - so was seated before the firing squad. To ease the minds of members of the firing squad a blank bullet was always mixed in with the ammunition provided so that every man in the squad could believe with a clear conscience that perhaps they weren't responsible for the death of the person before them.

The presentation explained how those seeking a republic and freedom from British rule in 1916, did not initially enjoy the support of the majority of irish people at the time. Public animosity was understandable because of the violence associated with the rebellions, and the number of civilians caught in the cross fire. Many sons of Ireland were also fighting alongside the British in the Great War at the time. However, following the execution of the 1916 leaders and the inhumane nature of Connelly's death, new support for the republican cause was generated within Ireland.

As portrayed in the famous movie, these events also led to the rise of two important figures in irish politics - Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera.

Michael Collins, a young republican corporal during the 1916 Easter Rising, rose to become a nationalist leader following the Irish War for Independence, and had the thankless task of making the journey to London to negotiate the Treaty with England in 1922. Many irish folk have great respect for Collins. His speech to the people of Ireland to support the peace agreement he had negotiated (despite the fact Northern Ireland would remain in British hands as part of the deal) is very reasoned. He must have had courage to stand up in such an environment and argue for peace with Britain, especially when he knew the sort of price he could pay for doing so.

"When you have sweated, toiled, had mad dreams, hopeless nightmares, you find yourself in London's streets, cold and dank in the night air. Think - what have I got for Ireland? Something which she has wanted these past seven hundred years. Will anyone be satisfied at the bargain? Will anyone? I tell you this; early this morning I signed my death warrant. I thought at the time how odd, how ridiculous — a bullet may just as well have done the job five years ago"

Quote from Michael Collins the day the treaty was signed

His one time republican friend and campaigner, Eamon de Valera, refused to support the Treaty despite the majority of Irish people voting in favour of it and an end to violence. De Valera continued to campaign for a full republic and led further rebellions against the new Irish Free State Army now led by Collins from the Barracks at Arbour Hill. Churchill threatened to re-occupy Ireland if Collins was unable to silence the remaining rebels supported by de Valera. Under pressure Collins was forced to attack some of his former republican collegues, several of whom were executed at Kilmainham by the Irish Free State Army. That same year Michael Collins' convoy was ambushed and Collins was the only one in the party killed. The difficult task of trying to build an independent Irish state was left to de Valera and others. De Valera continued to play a lead role in Irish politics and was President for many years. At eighty five years of age, he was quoted as saying:

"It's my considered opinion that in the fullness of time, history will record the greatness of Collins and it will be recorded at my expense".

Out of all the places I visited, the presentation at the Jail, gave the best description of the complex social scene and competing political views at the time. The famous irish poet W B Yeats also captured the complex mood of the people after the executions in his famous poem Easter, 1916

An excerpt from Easter, 1916

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead.
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse --
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

-- William Butler Yeats

On the 'sout' side of the River Liffey Trinity College dominates the landscape and that university feel spreads to the Temple Bar area which is filled with pubs and restaurants and is a well known haunt of students. The university was founded by Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1592 and holds the Book of Kells one of the oldest and most beautiful books in the world. Caroline and I visited the famous medieval book, which is written in Latin and divided into four books, one for each gospel.

Trinity was also where Glynn studied and so I got a guided tour through the campus, to see the maths department, the dining hall, and the notorious campenile which stands in the main square - a student folk tale has it that if you stand underneath when its bell tolls you fail your exams.

A trip to the Guinness Factory was saved till last when Glynn was free from work. Well over the worst of the glandular fever, Foster was keen to claim his free Guinness at the top of the Gravity Bar.

As you enter the tourist attraction you get a souvenir paperweight with a detachable ring on it. On the self guided tour you can have a small sample of the brew and see how its made. You can watch old black and white film footage of the barrel makers putting a barrel together, and every 80mins someone from the tour gets to launch an actual brew that carries their name for the two week production process. Finally at the top of factory is the Gravity Bar where you use your paperweight and ring to claim a free pint of guinness. It's also a chance to see Dublin from one of the highest vantage points in the city.

I have now discovered from meeting the Foster family, Guinness has played an important role in the lives of many of Glynn's relatives. His great grandfather was responsible for making sure the barrels of guinness came down the Liffey on barges from the factory and were loaded onto the ships for export. His great uncles drove the custom-built train around the factory, his uncle has just retired from being a brewer there, and his father played rugby for the guinness rugby team. Glynn continues in the footsteps of other family members by mainly just drinking the stuff. But what a great brew it is!

christmas and new year in ireland

2007-01-15T23:18:00.000+13:00

Glynn and I returned to New Zealand last week and I'm busy settling back into reality after a very enjoyable time in Ireland and a stop in Paris and London on the way home. What a great way to spend Christmas - the northern hemisphere way. It was Glynn's first time home for Christmas in three years and we enjoyed a lovely relaxing time with his family in County Wicklow, with some day trips into Dublin to shop along Grafton and Henry Streets and see some sights.

(Baile Átha Cliath is the most common irish name for Dublin which means 'The Town of the Ford of the Reed Hurdles' - which is the name of the early settlement which joined with Blackpool also known as Dubh Linn in irish - to become the city of Dublin)

Glynn's mum is a great cook and our large Christmas dinner, complete with turkey and ham, plus dessert of Christmas pudding, trifle, brandy cream, custard and cream was eaten in stages. Food, drink and good conversation was a real focus of the day, and we enjoyed a lovely French wine Glynn's dad had saved for the occasion called Chateauneuf du Pape, made from four different grape varieties. Other food highlights included a Christmas eve meal with a beautiful port, some salmon, trout caught and smoked by Glynn's dad, and some Spanish treats, including manchego cheese. I ate so much food, and spent a large amount of time sitting in front of a roaring fire, so have great memories to bring home, and all the new year resolutions required to get back in shape.

In between Christmas and New Year Caroline, Alan, Glynn and I went to Glendalough which is an old monastic site in the Wicklow Mountains, about 40 mins drive from Kilquade. It was also the site of lead mines and was one of Glynn's climbing haunts. Spot the perfect round tower in the picture below in amongst all the amazing winter colours, and in the picture to the right St Kevin's bed which he made for himself to meditate and look out over the lake before founding the monastry in the 6th Century. It was once Ireland's largest religious university, but like Clonmacnoise was destroyed in 1398 by English troops.

What a great way to start the year and thanks to Alan and Caroline for having me stay and making me feel so welcome. Happy New Year everyone!

whirlwind tour of ireland

2006-12-18T06:50:00.000+13:00

My very own irish tour guide and I left County Wicklow on Tuesday morning and set off in a Foster family car (thanks to Alan and Caroline) on a whirlwind trip across parts of Ireland. The general plan was to see the west coast for two days and make it up to the Giant's Causeway in the north and back down to Dublin via Belfast by the weekend. I had maps with my wish list of places to visit marked out, and to help us take the right off-ramp.

Tuesday - our journey from Dublin over to the West Coast

There's not much you can do about traffic jams even if you have maps, so after passing our jammed up exit to Limerick we took a detour, which in 1 and a half hours had us near Clonmacnoise, a major site of religion and trade - founded in 548 by St Claran on the banks of the River Shannon.

Like Monasterboice, high crosses and a roundtower are featured at Clonmacnoise with a museum on site that holds many of the more delicate relics, including some well-preserved decorated grave slabs. The museum also provides a good illustration of how round towers were used with pictures of the clergy running up the tower by ladder to escape the viking, irish and Anglo-Norman raids. On each occasion Clonmacnoise was invaded (well over 20 times), the community there would re-build. However, it was finally reduced to ruins by the English garrison in 1552.

It takes about 3-4 hours to cross Ireland on the amazing new motorways that are spreading across the country like weeds (including the toll gates to pay for them). Our next stop was Bunratty Castle - about three quarters of the way to Liscanner, where we planned to stop for the night. Bunratty is unique in Ireland as the only castle completely restored to its original state, although we only had 30 minutes to see the uniqueness of the place before it closed - so we ran it (and had sore legs in the morning).

They say that good things come to those that wait. As I write this it's my birthday here in the northern hemisphere, and while I’m not telling how long I’ve had to wait – I can now say I've sat in front of a roaring fire, with a real irish guinness, in a real irish country pub, on a wintery Christmas night, with my irish boyfriend - what more could a girl want? After our long day of driving we stopped for dinner at a pub called Vaughan’s in the small seaside town of Liscanner near our B&B – I had monkfish stuffed in a red pepper – yum! I'm also loving the Guinness which has a different taste than at home, not as bitter.

At least I didn't have to wait as long as these unlucky creatures – take a look at this clever advertisement for Guinness. Thanks everyone for the birthday messages!

Wednesday – Cliffs of Moher, the Burren and Galway

We stayed the night at Carrig House a fun B&B overrun with Christmas decorations and with the biggest irish breakfast ever seen the next morning - black and white pudding, fried bread and more of that brown bread, it just keeps coming, but we like it - so its all good!

Our feast for breakfast set us up well for the morning out at the Cliffs of Moher and a climb over “the burren”. The Cliffs are a natural phenomenon and rise straight up out of the Atlantic Sea to a height of 400 feet/120m in places. Controversially, the area is being re-developed with a viewing platform being built into the hillside and glassed in. Locals have been concerned about the earthworks ruining the natural landscape and horrified at the 8 euro ($16 NZ) that will be charged to visitors once the new facility is opened.

When Glynn was young you could climb all over the cliffs, up to a roundtower and out to a concrete platform that hung out over the cliffs. Now viewing options are far more restricted, partially due to the redevelopments, but much has changed with the way the area is managed given the large number of tourists that visit daily. Sadly this still hasn’t stopped people taking risks, and tragically just last month a young Polish girl climbed over the barriers to the edge and the wind swept her off the cliffs.

You have to be careful on a windy day and with gale force winds on the cliffs that morning we stayed just long enough to get some pics and experience the atmosphere of the place – it was wild and just magic - and hope to come back someday to experience the incredible views promised by a fine sunny day.

Around the west coast the landscape changes quite dramatically and later that morning we drove into an area known as ‘the Burren”, around 300 square kilometres of limestone karst. A famous English Parliamentarian Edmund Ludlow - who during the irish campaign in the 1600s was responsible for hunting small bands of irish “tories” and “destroying food stuffs and crops” – once famously complained “It is a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him”. It is an inhabitable place that's for sure. However, it is a great place to climb and when Glynn was at Trinity the climbing club would drive over on a Friday for the weekend and camp, climb and soak up the atmosphere of the burren. We stopped by the road at Ailladie and enjoyed a safe climb down to the sea, albeit windy and wet, and I enjoyed seeing one of Glynn’s favourite college crags.

Around mid-afternoon we stopped at Poulnabrone which is the most photographed, and one of the world's best known, megalithic dolmens or portal tombs.

One of the greatest things about travelling around Ireland is the friendliness of the people, and after hugs from our B&B hosts as we left in the morning it was nice to meet some more irish hospitality at a small café in Ballyvaughan. We had a great talk to the owner of the café, an ex-fisherman, about the fishing industry in Ireland. Fish is expensive here because stocks - especially on the Atlantic Coast - are depleted. The EU while opening up many opportunities for Ireland, also opened up its coastal fishing zones to European fishing vessels, and many regions have been over fished. It became too difficult for Ireland to police the large number of fishing vessels off the coast, that flouted the restrictions and now many species are lost. Recommendations from locals have also been handy, and the owner of the café told us about a central city hostel in Galway called Sleepzone where we ended up staying for the night.

Galway is a great city – they call it the cultural capital of Ireland and I can see why. We had dinner at the Kings Head pub - with a kiwi and an aussie maning the bar. A taste of irish music at another local, just what I imagined an irish pub to be.

We took a walk around the lights at Eyre’s Square (the main town square) and saw the remains of a window where the Mayor of Galway hung his own son for murdering a Norman. See below the tasteful picture of Glynn. Despite this hilarity Glandular Man (he's now tested positive for glandular fever) was taking a break from alcohol to try and aid his recovery, so it was an early night for us in Galway.

Thursday - drive to Northern Ireland through the floods

We got up early the next day, with Glynn feeling better, and took a pamphlet from Sleepzone advertising another hostel in Downhill, Northern Ireland - very close to the Giant's Causeway. We made it our aim to get there by the end of the day. It was a long drive and we were slowed in our journey by flooding (the worst Ireland has seen for 50 years), bad drivers (Patrick they are everywhere - we need to talk when I get home) and tractors - about 50 of them Myra, so I've well and truly checked them off the list of things I was to see while in Ireland.

We headed north via Cong and Ashford Castle (near where Glynn's dad goes fishing in the summer, and also where Pierce Brosnan got married).

After being turned back because of flooding we retraced our steps from Cong back to the main roads and on to Sligo and then to Donegal for coffee and a walk around the town. The west coast in winter is quiet and we haven't had to queue with some places open shorter hours for winter. Unfortunately O'Donnell Castle in Donegal was already closed, so after an afternoon coffee we moved on into Northern Ireland. In Londonderry we stopped to get some Irish sterling (150 pound sterling from around $500 NZL - its killing me). We bought some things to make dinner at the hostel in Downhill. The hostel turned out to be a real gem and would recommend it to anyone. We made dinner, drank red wine (Glynn's self-imposed alcohol ban lasting all of 24 hours), and listened to vinyl records specifically Pink Floyd, and Dad, some Roger Whittaker.

Friday - Dunluce Castle, the Giant's Causeway and Belfast

The next morning we headed out to Dunluce Castle about 20 minutes up the road from the hostel. Dunluce is perched on the edge of a cliff (in the centre of the photo above) protected on all sides by sheer drops and access is only by drawbridge and imposing gateway. One night in 1639 part of the castle fell away from the cliff into the sea killing many of the servants and causing the Duchess who lived there at the time to leave the castle never to return. You can still see where the castle walls fell away.

On a cheerier note it was then off to the Giant's Causeway - the one sight that Glynn was most keen to see. We both enjoyed the audio visual presentation which explained the legend of the causeway, and then walked down to the rocks. The hexagonal causeway rocks were formed by vulcanic activity and appear to lead into the sea like a pathway.

The legend explains it slightly differently with two giants, one scottish and one irish taunting each other across the strait between Ireland and Scotland. The irish giant builds the causeway and invites the scot across to Ireland to do battle. However, as the scottish giant makes his way across the causeway the irish giant sees the actual size of his opponent and in fear disguises himself as a baby. When the scot arrives he sees the size of the baby and decides if that's the size of the irishman's baby son, he'd stand no chance against the irish giant. So he rushes back across the causeway to Scotland destroying it as he crosses so his opponent can't follow him home - I much prefer the version of the legend rather than the science.

Finally our last stop was down in Belfast. While waiting for our bus tour we wandered through the amazing Christmas markets at City Hall drinking mulled wine browsing the wine, cheese, fudge, pastries, sausage and many other european delicacies.

The tour began with the shipyards where the Titanic was built, which at one time employed over 30,000 workers. As part of the city's regeneration post 'the troubles' the shipyards are providing a new focus for development based on the history of the Titanic. Consequently, a huge commercial park and museum is planned in the old yards. The bus also drove down past the famous murals depicting political figures and events, the IRA memorial, and we saw many of the peacelines that still remain on the skyline even today.

However, the regeneration of the city was the focus of the tour, which was evident even when driving through areas where most of 'the troubles' occurred. There are construction and roading developments down almost every street. I really enjoyed Belfast and think it will be interesting to return in about 5-10 years time, which is when they predict most central city developments will be completed. It looked stunning as we left with the Xmas lights through the main street down to City Hall.

A quick trip home to Wicklow from Belfast that night with a stop in Dublin for dinner and a brief orientation. I have now spent the early part of this week acquainting myself with the capital city, but that will be a blog entry for another day.

What a great tour - this country is beautiful, and in many parts reminded me of Otago. I cannot believe the amount of roading and construction work going on everywhere you look, even on many of the roads out west. It really helped having a native irishman as a guide, and couldn't possibly have seen as much without him, so thanks to Glynn, and to everyone we met along the way who gave us directions, recommendations and friendly advice.

a round tower, an abbey and a passage tomb

2006-12-12T08:23:00.000+13:00

One of the differences between Ireland and New Zealand is the evidence of history going back 1000's of years in ruins, buildings and at heritage sites just about everywhere you look. Evidence of New Zealand's relatively recent past seems almost like yesterday in comparison to the story of Ireland.

On our way back from Carlingford Edu, Lydia, Glynn and I stopped at Monisterboice and Mellifont Abbey - two monastic sites dated around 900 and 1000 AD.

The round tower and high crosses we found at Monasterboice are similar to those found throughout Ireland. Monks would run up into the round towers and pull up the rope stairs behind them to protect themselves as the vikings approached.

The hexagonal shaped lavabo at Mellifont Abbey, shown in the photos and link above, is now only remnants of an area where monks washed their hands before meals. It is the only ruin of its kind in the world, and it must also set the record for being (in its day) one of the largest wash basins on the planet.

We travelled further down the old irish back roads following the River Boyne to the 5000 year old neolithic passage tomb at Newgrange. Newgrange is a well-organised commercial operation, but it still doesn't take away from the surreal atmosphere of the place. Used as a tomb for cremated remains, a passageway leads to a small chamber and both are covered by a large mound of stone and earth which blends into the crest of the hill. The neolithic artisans had a good grasp of astronomy, for like many passage tombs around Europe it aligns with the sun on a certain day of the year. Newgrange however is famous for being one of the oldest passage tombs and is now designated as a World Heritage Site.

On December 21st (the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere) at around 9am for 17 minutes a beam of light shines down the passageway through a roof box at the entrance, lighting up the inner chamber. Tickets to the event every year can't be obtained by an average kiwi girl like me (even with an irish boyfriend) and only VIPs, dignitaries and politicians ever get to see the actual event nowadays. The chamber itself is small and only held our tour group 17 at a time. While archaeologists and historians don't actually know what this lighting of the chamber meant to the neolithic people, we do know that the roof still doesn't leak after 5000 years - so they were smart, practical people who could probably teach a kiwi builder a thing or two. Newgrange was accessed in 1699 when the tombs were raided and many of the bodies and artefacts were stolen. When it was properly excavated in 1962 only five bodies remained and a good amount of graffiti circa 18th Century.

It was fun to be able to go there with Glynn's sister Lyd and boyfriend Edu, and it was another opportunity for me to get to know them better before they left to return home to Spain the next day. Glynn and I enjoyed the tour, especially when they dimmed the lights in the passageway and simulated the sun entering the chamber albeit with a 40 watt bulb. The tour guide's voice was sufficiently spooky to make the hairs stand on the back of the neck (a little bit). It was late in the day when we visited and with the sun setting low in the sky as we left we got a feel for the winter solstice on the 21st.

It's pretty wild to realise that globally we all probably share in the ancestry of the original Newgrange people - and while we can all celebrate how far we've come since our neolithic ancestors were walking the planet, there is no way that Glynn's flat will still be standing in 7006. There's probably a lot more we could learn from the neolithic people than just how to put on a good roof.

a castle wedding in carlingford

2006-12-11T04:32:00.000+13:00

We arrived in Carlingford after a two hour journey from County Wicklow on the motorway north. Both Glynn and I are still suffering from jetlag and found ourselves wide awake at around 3am so decided to drive up early to miss the traffic and make sure we had plenty of time to get ready before the wedding began at midday.

Carlingford is located on the eastern coast of Ireland just south of the old border into Northern Ireland, and exposed to the winds off the Irish Sea. It's a quaint fishing village with many of the old historic ruins scattered throughout the township, an old mint, gaol and entranceway to the town pictured above were the highlights for me. We met a cool breeze when we got out of the car but the sky was clear and it stayed blue and dry for the wedding, which was grand - as irish folk would say - and a bit of a miracle given the previous day of stormy weather.

In New Zealand you can get married in a church, or in a garden, or even at the beach...but here in Ireland you can be married in a 'fair dinkum' castle. Duncan and Denise chose to be married at Narrow Water Castle in an intimate ceremony with only a small number of close family and friends. The castle has passed through the generations and is still owned by the original Hall family, who provide it as a venue to help pay for the upkeep of the buildings.

It was special to be invited having never met Duncan and Denise, and was made to feel welcome. Photos were taken with the bride and groom as we arrived at the castle. I found myself ushered into the family photos before even having met the bride, who looked just stunning.

Those who attended the wedding were invited to a special lunch in Ghan House, an old homestead, and I found myself sitting next to Denise's brother a policeman (or Garda) and we talked about NZ v Irish justice policy (specifically the execution of warrants of arrest and diversion schemes) over seafood chowder, beef main and chocolate truffles - yum!

Following a quick nap back at our B & B we then attended the evening reception with extended family and friends at the Four Seasons Hotel. A huge buffet meal with guests 8 at a table. Lydia, Edu, Glynn and I were seated with Glynn's father's old rugby friends Tony and Harry and their wives Helen and Barbara. While we could hardly eat a thing because of the size of the lunch we'd had, I managed a guinness kindly purchased for me by Tony who used to be MD of the famous brewery before he retired. You can't turn down a guinness under those circumstances, and found it wasn't as bitter as the guinness you get at home. I'm looking forward to sampling more of the local brew as we journey around Ireland.

The rest of the evening I was introduced to the extended family. Glynn has many Aunts and Uncles - his father was one of seven. I talked about trains with Norman for some time and tried to convince him to make a trip to New Zealand to take the trans alpine railway from Christchurch to the West Coast. It was great to meet all of Glynn's immediate family too, his Mum and Dad, Tim and Bob and their new baby Ella, Duncan and Denise, and Lydia and Eduardo.

Even though New Zealand is as far away as you can get from Ireland the ceremonies are much the same with the reception, speeches, cutting of the cake and dancing to a band afterwards reminding me very much of my sister's wedding back home. Such a great day and by the end of the night the best cure for the battle with jetlag, with Glynn and I both sleeping right through the night since first arriving in Ireland.

ireland via london

2006-12-07T22:27:00.000+13:00

It's taken a long time - having somehow missed out on the obligatory kiwi OE to Europe - but I've finally made it to London after two uneventful long haul flights from Christchurch via Singapore. It's a first taste of the city for me on the way over to Ireland for Glynn's brother's wedding in Carlingford, and a bit of a scoping exercise for a lengthier return visit on the way home in January.

We arrived in the central city by tube at around 6.30am on Monday morning. We walked up out of the underground at Piccadilly Circus to be greeted by Christmas lights, morning traffic and shop owners on Regent and Oxford Streets sweeping and washing down their shop fronts and getting ready for the day.

Between stops in cafes for coffee to keep us awake and the essential muffin or two we wandered throughout the morning from Piccadilly through Soho and Chinatown, down to Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column. The Christmas lights and store decorations were sights in themselves and Glynn spent most of the time making sure I didn't get run over while I stared at the buildings and lights and snapped away on the camera.

We arrived in Trafalgar Square in time to see an annual gift of a Christmas tree from Norway being placed in the square by crane. Every December a tree is felled in a Norwegian forest and shipped to England along with trimmings as a token of appreciation for the UK assisting Norway during WW2. Glynn and I had a chuckle about how many workmen were required for the task of standing looking at the tree being placed in the square. Every year the Lord Mayor of London and the Mayor of Oslo light the tree during a carol ceremony.

While watching the process we were interviewed by an English journalist writing for a transport magazine who had travelled from Norway with the tree and was doing an article about the history of the annual gift. We had a chat about the New Zealand War Memorial which has been opened recently in the city to remember those who lost their lives during the world wars from New Zealand and the UK, and it also marks the special relationship NZ continues to have with the UK. It is located in Hyde Park and was opened in November by the Queen and the NZ and British Prime Ministers, with a contingent of war veterans in attendance, and a good number of ex-pats (for those current and ex Goffice readers spot Scoops coverage of our very own Jacinda at the ceremony). The memorial seems to have made an impression on the city and the journalist was advising me to visit, which we will do on the way back.

In the evening we went for a walk around the city from our hotel near Victoria Station to Knightsbridge and a look in at Harrods. No pork pies because they were closing for the night but another list item for the return visit. From Harrods we walked to Buckingham Palace via a pub for a pint, and then onto the Thames and to see Big Ben. Its been a great orientation and looking forward to January when we can explore some more.

We are currently at Glynn's parent's in County Wicklow - a rural area south of Dublin characterised by old irish sea cottages and small one lane roads lined by stone walls and hedgerows. Our bedroom window looks out over green rolling hills and sheep so feel at home. We've taken some drives around the coast and through local villages and will enjoy spending more time in the area on our return from up north. Just feel surrounded by history - with Glynn's dad pointing out that the ruins to the left are part of King James' original Castle - a casual comment as we drive by not even 5 mins from the Foster family home.

Unfortunately Glynn has been unwell with suspected Glandular Fever but will still take the two hour trip up to Narrow Water Castle for the wedding and reception tomorrow. Looking forward to meeting the Foster clan and experiencing more of the warm irish welcome.

77 degrees south

2006-11-01T15:56:00.000+13:00

My friend Phil who I met through sailing at Port Nic, apart from being a talented artist in her spare time, is by day a paper restorer at te papa - the Museum of New Zealand. She recently applied to help with the restoration of Shackleton's Hut in Antartica, and she's now heading south for the winter - 77 degrees south in fact.

To prepare herself for her departure, and to entertain and inform us from the ice she has started a blog, funnily enough called 77 degrees south!

chilling at the club fields

2006-09-18T13:06:00.000+12:00

As Glynn mentions on his blog the winter snowboarding and ski season is almost sadly over. Finally - after managing to survive (just) the infamous nutcrackers at Craigieburn and Patrick whispering "death,... death,..." in the car on the way up the mountain - I am now starting to link my turns on the board.

You North Island folk need to come down here next year for some of this snow action - the club fields are great. Spent a weekend at Mt Dobson which I really enjoyed. Also a favourite would have to be Porter Heights - good intermediate slopes and decent sized learners. Found Cheeseman and Craigieburn each to have their own challenges for me - mainly a bit too steep for me yet. Still enjoyed the experience of those fields though, especially the day lodges and views.

A bunch of us - Glynn, Myra, Graham, Patrick, Dave and Heidi - stayed at Bealey Hotel on the road to Arthur's Pass one weekend. After dinner at the pub we had a lazy evening in our lodge drinking whiskey and eating chocolate cake - yum! Woke up to spectacular views and drove through some great southern scenery to get to the snow.

Yesterday fell off the t-bar at Mt Cheeseman, and started hooning down the tow slope at speed towards a giant pylon. Gathered more speed, missed the pylon but took out two wee boys also going up on the t-bar behind me. Without being too dramatic - I thought I was going to die, and let out a bit of a scream that sent the lift supervisor rushing to his emergency stop button. It was really icy, and obviously... quite embarrassing. The two wee boys came to see if I was okay. That's the spirit of the club fields for you. Made my way up the lift later on but the mountain was pretty crusty and icy yesterday (aka gnarly) and didn't really thaw into the soft spring slush I needed to practice all my turns and involuntary landings.

All in all though learning to board has been a relatively injury free experience and I'm feeling pretty chuffed that I've managed to get a few good runs under my belt ready for next winter. A big thank you to all those who tutored and buddied me on their chill pass.

Definitely the best thing about the season has been getting away on weekends with great people and having loads of fun.

chocolate is one of my favourite things

2006-09-13T18:11:00.000+12:00

If you love chocolate too then I have two great recipes to recommend that I enjoy baking. A super easy chocolate cake that can be literally thrown together in minutes, and a chocolate muffin recipe that contains big chunks of real chocolate making them a great energy booster if you're out sailing or climbing - yum!

Chocolate cake

This chocolate cake is one of the easiest and yummiest cake recipes ever. It's made using vegetable oil so there's no creaming of butter and sugar required. It lasts for ages retaining its moist and fudgy texture for days after baking.

2 C flour
1 ¾ C sugar
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¾ C cocoa
¾ C canola or vegetable oil
1 ¼ C water

Beat all the above ingredients together and then add:

3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Place in oven at 180 degrees celcius for 35 mins or until the top of the cake bounces back to the touch.

Chocolate Icing

100g butter
65g energy (dark) chocolate - chunky bar size
1 -2 C of icing sugar

Soften butter and chocolate in microwave on low until they can be stirred together (do not melt the butter). Add icing sugar ½ C at a time until it reaches the right consistency for spreading on the cooled chocolate cake.

Chocolate muffins

1 egg
½ C milk
1 C yogurt – I use plain natural unsweetened yogurt
½ C melted butter
1 tsp vanilla

3 tsp baking powder
1/3 C white sugar
2/3 C brown sugar
2 C flour
2 C chocolate crushed – I just bash up an entire bar of king sized energy (dark) chocolate into good bite sized pieces

Put the first five ingredients into a bowl and mix together, then add remaining ingredients and blend until just mixed. Fill muffin tin and bake at 180 degrees celcius for 15-20 mins or until the muffins spring back to the touch.

five peas in a pod

2006-08-20T12:55:00.000+12:00

For the past 8 months I've been working down in Christchurch (for some of that time at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator) on a web concept called lifebox. But as all new business owners will tell you, there are risks that come with a startup and its always good and just makes sense to have a backstop or alternate income source to allow you to carry on with your project.

So over the past couple of months I've been setting up another company trading under the name Five Peas in a Pod. So far I've been providing training services in Wellington through Change Training a large public sector training company, and searching for small amounts of consulting work with other government departments and wider state sector agencies. It's really good to be able to use the knowledge I gained from my time in the public sector and at Parliament to now help train others about Government, policy and legislation processes.

Five Peas in a Pod represents me and four of my friends - we all started work around the same time in the Select Committee Office back in the late 1990s working for the Office of the Clerk - and also stands for five subject consulting areas namely Parliament, Policy, Politics, Processes and Procedure.

happy birthday flying machine

2006-08-08T14:28:00.000+12:00

After five years sailing out of Port Nic Yacht Club one of the greatest things I missed about Wellington was getting out on the water during weekends. So I was lucky this winter to pick up a ride in Christchurch on Flying Machine, a Young 88 keelboat pictured above. Ironically I used to sail on Flying Machine a few years ago when she was owned by Mike Upshon.

18 years ago Flying Machine was first launched in Wellington on 8 August 1988. She still hums along, and with the new owner investing in a new main she is competing well with the small fleet of Young 88s down south. The Naval Point Club at Lyttelton runs the Cardrona on Avon Winter Series and this year Flying Machine did well winning the series on club.

I still miss sailing and friends at Port Nic though especially the easy access to facilities, and firing up the BBQ outside the boatsheds after a hard days racing.

tax free

2006-08-01T21:40:00.000+12:00

There's not much in this world that's free, but if you are a new business starting out then I've discovered that the Inland Revenue Department offer a great business tax advisory service and its free! It's obvious that the IRD want to make sure that the right amounts of income tax are paid to them, and goods and services tax (GST) is properly applied, so it's in their interests to help new business owners get it right. Last week I was paid a house call by one of the inland revenue advisers and was really impressed with the service. While I already have an accountant, I would recommend it to anyone starting out. The Inland Revenue website www.ird.govt.nz is also full of useful tools and guidance for managing accounting systems and tax obligations, all helping to take the headache out of tax time.

lemonade scones

2006-08-01T19:18:00.000+12:00

Was about to email a favourite scone recipe to a friend and was thinking about how often I pass it on to others so thought - why not post it on my blog?

So here it is - its a goodie and always works -

Charlotte's lemonade scones

4 cups of self-raising flour
pinch of salt
300ml cream
a can of lemonade (approx 350mls)

Mix together ingredients and pat out on a floured surface, cut up into scones and place on an oven tray covered with non-stick spray, each scone slightly touching the other. Bake at 220 degrees celcius for 10 - 15mins or until golden brown. I'll admit I didn't bake the ones pictured, they are posted to inspire.

empty pizza boxes

2006-07-30T11:58:00.000+12:00

Most of the tenants came out of the woodwork last Tuesday for the in-house incubator lunch. Organised by the incubator its a great networking opportunity and spent some time talking with others about my project and what they have been up to. It was a good chance to learn from others that have already been where I'm currently at...and everyone was really helpful and encouraging. Looking forward to the next pizza lunch already.

snowboarding at mt cheeseman

2006-07-30T10:34:00.000+12:00

My first day on a board was spent falling over, so was glad of Glynn's wrist guards and would recommend them to anyone starting out on a board - as well as a skier to cling to on the tbar! Mt cheeseman is a club field and was just great. Much quieter compared to the big commercial fields, and some good lunch food at a reasonable price. All the main runs were well groomed and there was so much powder which was great for all those soft landings. A fun time was had and only an hour and 30mins away from Christchurch! Looking forward to another weekend away soon.

fun in the snow

2006-07-05T09:34:00.000+12:00

One of the best spin offs from living in a cold climate is the snow. As well as being close to great skiing and boarding conditions, playing with the nieces in the snow will be one of the highlights for me this winter. Mia and Lily made this snowman, with some help from Aunty Jayne and artistic guidance from Glynn. Lucky for some they have already clicked six days off their chill pass, and the pictures of the weekends away look stunning. Looking forward to my turn so I can learn how to board.

a trip to wellington

2006-07-05T00:33:00.000+12:00

Just returned from time up in Wellington. Travelled up to undertake some contracting work to support my personal cause of maintaining a life while I work on my web project. Good to be up with family and friends again, and to focus on the familiar world of the public sector. They say you can't beat Wellington on a good day, and after the snow we've had in Christchurch lately, it was lovely to see the sun and make the most of it with a drive around the coast. See pictures below of Seatoun Beach in Wellington and a Sunday roast with the Hay Street crew.

incubator baby!

2006-06-07T14:25:00.000+12:00

My very first blog post! I think that 'the lifebox archive' will be a mix of work related updates and personal bits and pieces. So here goes....

Lifeboxwise - I am currently working out of the incubator in Armagh Street in Christchurch, sharing an office with one other. Its all good! The incubator has been a great place to come and work and focus the mind on what I'm trying to achieve over the next while. See the photo of me in my woolly hat that I took for the incubator newsletter.

Spent the weekend at Wanaka with Glynn and some other friends from all over...england, ireland, france, slovakia... completely out numbered with only one other kiwi soulmate. Had a great time. Patrick has some photos of the weekend on his blog. For me the highlight was climbing outdoors for the first time - a 16, some 17s and one 18. Managed to get to the top of every climb I tried, sustaining a few bruises but really enjoying it. Pretty cold for climbing but had an awesome sunny day on the Monday at Hospital Flat ascending three routes on Tombstone - the local rockclimbing feature in Wanaka.