ireland via london

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.