Movember

Movember is upon us and this year I'm going to do it. Unfortunately that means I need to start off clean shaven which means I lose the beard as well as the mo. This is something that has not happened for about 20 years and so its a little hard to let go.

But then again, if its worth doing its worth overdoing so I think I'll shave my head as well. Did this a few years ago and really liked the feel, but wasn't interested in the shaving bit on a regular basis.

I'll post some photos for posterity.

Blogged with Flock

Catch up

Haven't blogged for a while, must be getting lazy

Batching
During the school holidays Alison & Megan went off to Rotorua (some more photos here). Duncan went to Hamilton and spent some time with Granny & Grandpa which left  me at home to look after Juno. It was not as quite as I expected as I ended up going out 2 nights to toastmasters, and with having to walk Juno regularly I did not get many opportunities to have a swim, but that's OK. But I did come second in the area tabletopics competition for toastmasters.

Mum's new PC
Bought mum a new PC recently from PB Tech. Built it and got it working, but when it arrived in Hamilton there were problems. It all got very frustrating for dad & I to try and fix it over the phone so Megan & I went down last Sunday to fix it. I think the problam was in the network cable, as everything was working after I replaced the RJ45 connectors on it. Hopefully this PC should keep mum going for many years.

Rugby world cup.
NZ Knocked out in the quarter finals!. I'm still in denial and am not going to talk about it again.

Health
The whole family has been crook recently. I was off for 2 days last week, but Alison & the kids were off the whole week. It seems a combination of a tummy bug (quite bad) and a cold/flu. It's a real pain in the arse and I'm feeling quite crap today. Didn't even have a sea swim on Saturday.

Blogged with Flock

Visiting the Zoo

On Saturday we took some cubs and some scouts to the zoo for a sleep-over. This was organised by Adri for the cubs, but scouts were invited to bing up the numbers (and bring down the cost).

It was a spectacular day, warm and sunny after quite a wet & cool period we have had recently. This was almost a problem as there weere so many people at the Zoo/MOTAT & Western springs that parking was at a premium. We were staying at the old elephant house, & after dropping our gear there took the cubs/scouts over to MOTAT 2 to see the aircraft collection, and have a jigger ride and a tram ride to the front entrance and back.

Then it was time for some community service (weeding and sweeping out the hay barn) and a day time walk around the zoo. Dinner was a sossie sizzle and salads followed by a quiz for the youngsters.

The highlight of the visit was the walk around the zoo at night. It started at the store where we got to see what the animals (& the humans at the zoo) eat. Then we got to walk around the zoo on our own guided tour. We got to see some of the animals that are usually nocturnal and sights most people don't get to see.

The kids (and adults) we pretty tired by the time we got back so it was all quiet by 11:00.

Up early, breakfast and we were out by 8:00, a very successful visit.

See the photo's here

Blogged with Flock

Table topics winner

I entered a Toastmaster table topics competition this morning. It was my first time entering a speaking competition and I was suprised at how nervous I was. There was no real difference between this and 'normal' table topics during a regular meeting, other than the fact that we had to wait outside, we all got the same topic and the target was 2 minutes instead of 1.

The topic was OK but boring (should AU & NZ become one country) and I thought I got through OK, but had no idea how the others went as I got to go last. We had 2 really good humerous speeched from Robin & Jon and then they announced the results. I was well chuffed, but now get to go to the area competition, that should be really nerve wracking

Blogged with Flock

Quiet weekend

I was looking forward to this weekend, there were no scouting or other activities that I was aware of and I could just relax at home. It sounded too good to be true, and it was.

The list of jobs around the house does not go away if you are busy doing other things and mine hadn't. Saturday was fairly quiet though, I did need a but of a break and the weather was wet and windy too. I did pick up the trellis to repair the fence and a whole lot of other 'stuff' I needed, then we went to Greg & Sharons for the evening.

Sunday was a bit busier, I put up the trellis to start with. Then it was replacing the security lights at the front of the house. I don't find it too much fun standing on a 3m ladder screwing fittings above my head!. Then I took Juno for a good long walk and went to Browns Bay to get Duncan's library book. Next was finishing the sanding on the balustrade and putting the first layer of Danish oil on to finish it. By then it was after 5 and I sat down for a glass of wine feeling I had done a bit of catching up.

Blogged with Flock

Homebrew beer

While I was over in Aussie Phil was making some homebrew beer, which he shared with me, and I quite enjoyed.

So I put a brew down 2 weeks ago and Duncan & I have bottled it. I put another brew down on Monday so I should have a fair supply in the not too distant future.

I did do some homebrew a few years ago and did not get round to drinking it all. I was a bit dubious about drinking it now, as it was over 7 years old, but it was fine, great actually. But there is little/no chance of the current batches lasting that long.

Blogged with Flock

Cossgrove course

I went on a scout camp this last weekend. It was a Cossgrove course, about which I knew very little, other than that it was about winter camping. I didn't have high expectations and Duncan had to pull out as he was sick so I seriously thought about pulling out, but I had to deliverthe tents so I made the trip anyway and decided to stay.
Friday
We arrived at 8:00 p.m. and did registration etc. I had ticked 'Leader Patrol' on the form, not knowing really what that meant. What it did mean was being in a patrol with Mike and 4 others, doing what the kids did, which turned out to be a really good way of learning, and also having fun. Everyone got involved in setting up camp, which was a little challenging as it was completely dark, but we got it done. The kids were given supper and put to bed, but it was after midnight before the camp was quite. The leaders had a meeting to confirm what was happening the next day, and a bit of socialising, so we only got to bed around 1:30.
Saturday
It was quite cold overnight, but not too wet although there was a bit of rain around. Some of the kids were up around 6:00, but officially wake up was 7:15 so we stayed put until 7:00ish. We had breakfast and got straight into the days activities which included rope work, axe work and fire setting amongst others. We then got some cooking fires lit and the kids (and the leaders or 'Pink' patrol) cooked our dinner in dutch oven, really a flat bottomed potkjie. Once we had eaten we took a bus trip to the Parakai hot pools and spent the evening there, then back to camp. Kids were down by 11:30 and I was down by 12:30 although some of the others did a bit more socializing.
Sunday
Woke up to the sound of rain while warm and snug in a warm sleeping bag, a great feeling. However the pink patrol (or Pink Cadillacs as we called ourselves) were first to strike camp so we had some very wet tents in the trailer. But the sun came out mid morning and another pleasant day of activities and learnings was had by all. The happy, and tired campers were able to set off at 4:30ish.
Camp photos here

In general I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, a combination of low expectations and then enjoying the activities, organisation and company. Also learned many thing that we can take back to our scout troop. Well worth the effort.

Blogged with Flock

Ripleys

Duncan was a bit tired after the Dreamworld trip on Sunday, so we had a lazy start to yesterday. I originally thought about going to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, but Duncan did not seem interested. So instead we went to Ripley's Believe it or Not in Surfers Paradise. As I thought he was fascinated by the exhibits and bits of information all through the museum, it took us over 3 hrs to go through.

Well, its back to NZ today, a drive to Brisbane airport with Erin, then a flight to Sydney, and then back to Auckland Airport to be picked up by Alison. We are going to be stuffed tomorrow.

Dreamworld

Yesterday Duncan & I went to Dreamworld. He had been looking forward to this visit for some time as he had visited their web site and liked the look of the rides. Unfortunately when we got there te rides proved to be a bit much for him, I think he was a little under the weather too which did not help too much either. We did go on one of the roller coasters, bumper cars and a log ride, but his favourite area was the wild life experience where he got to cuddle a Koala and have his photo taken. He also enjoyed some of the games in the amusement arcade.


In general I found Dreamworld quite poor value for money, it was expensive to get in and then I seemed to be constantly reaching for my wallet as most of the things Duncan was interested in cost extra. It may have been a different experience if we had been able to do more of the rides that were available.

However Duncan enjoyed the day which was the prime reason for going there.

We finished off the day by going to a restaurant with Phil for a meal. Good, simple food, but absolutely massive portions, each portion, including Duncan's kids meal, could have fed at least two people.

Water world

We went to Water World today. It was a bit cool and there was a wind blowing that made things a bit chilly, but Duncan & I enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Plenty of time on various water slides and a good play on the wave pool and in the buccaneer area saw 6 hours slip by.

And dad really enjoyed himself too.

Over to Aussie with Duncan

I used up all my airpoints on tickets to Brisbane for Duncan & I. We left yesterday at 9:00, fairly civilized but the family was still up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the airport. The trip to Sydney was pretty uneventful, as was the stop over and next trip to Brisbane. We caught the train to the gold coast, caught it by the skin of our teeth, saved a 1/2 hour wait. The traveling was getting to Duncan by this time and he managed to catch a few minutes kip on my shoulder

We were met by Nikki and went back to where she stays with Phil who I met for the first time, nice guy, doesn't say too much. We also met their neighbour Erin, a very vivacious 24 year old. Dinner was roast pork and I sampled a fair bit of Phil's home brew, I also had a bit of red wine with Nikki, which proved a mistake, I am no longer able to drink lots of booze, I don't think I made too much of a fool of myself, but I was not feeling to bright when I went to bed, and the head was a little sore this morning.

This morning we took Nikki to Brisbane airport as she was heading over to South Africa for Dieter's (her son) wedding. She's a bit nervous as she has not seen the family in SA for a few years now. After dropping her at the airport, Duncan & I were going to go to the Brisbane museum, but the traffic getting into Brisbane city was so bad we gave up and drove back to the gold coast and spent some time at Surfers Paradise. Tomorrow were planning on going to Wet 'n Wild, a water based theme park as the weather here is really warm.

Birthday

Wednesday was my 45th birthday, not too much of a big deal, I went to toastmasters in the morning and swam after work.

I did get myself a 12 inch sliding compound mitre saw (Ryobi) and am looking forward to playing with it this weekend.

Mid winter dip

On Sunday we did a mid winter swim at Mairangi Bay beach. There were 9 swimmers, more than I anticipated which may have been because of the weather. The weather, and the forecast, leading up to the swim had been universally grim, a series of cold fronts moving up the country and gale force winds. Queenstown had to cancel most of the winter carnival due to bad weather!

But on Sunday morning we had a glorious day, the sun was shining and the wind was much weaker than I had hoped for. I'm not sure we would have had quite so many swimmers if it was raining and blowing a gale.

Just to add to the occasion, a small pod of dolphins swam past the beach, inside the buoys that Vic & I had put out, just 10 min before we started out. A lovely sight, what a pity we were not in the water when they went past.

The swim went very well, the water is cold (13 degrees celcius Geoff said) but not too bad after a few minutes. Most of us got out to the sailing buoy straight out from the club house, maybe 600m out.

Afterwards we went to a cafe' in Mairangi bay for breakfast & coffee. Vic & I had made up some certificates and Vic had brought some spot prizes from work which we handed out. I ended up with a collapsible walking stick, very nice with a compass & whiskey in the handle, but I'm not sure what Vic meant by giving it to me!!

Sunday on the water

Yesterday I swam with some other at Takapuna, but it is getting really cold now. We only went to the third buoy and my feet were seriously cold afterwards. Good company made it worthwhile.

After that I finished the deck outside out bedroom door, I think it looks quite good, but my back felt all the bending over.

Today we dropped Megan off at the twins in Devonport, and the Alison, Duncan & I caught the ferry over to Auckland. Pam had given me a family pass to the maritime museum and it included a ride on the Ted Ashby (a replica turn of the century sailing scow). We had a great time sailing on the Ted Ashby, it was cold but clear and a steady breeze, good sailing weather. Duncan got to sail the boat under the harbour bridge and the captain was patient and answered all his questions. We saw some boats involved in a race come past and a couple of people bungy jumping off the harbour bridge.

We went through the museum after that, an interesting place, and then caught the ferry back to Devenport, all in all a very plesant day.

Bedroom deck

I started this weekend with a swim in the sea off Takapuna beach. Good fun, but the water is definitely getting colder, I was not shivering when I got out, but it look quite a while to warm the feet up.

I had intended to pave the area immediately around the gate that goes between the front and back of the section, but Alison pointed out it should be consistent with the paving I am going to do to the front steps. But before I do that paving I need to build the deck outside the ranch slider to our bedroom.

I downloaded some instructions but found I needed to modify them as there is so little space underneath I could not put bearers under the joists, but as it is a small deck that isn't going to be a problem. So I bought the materials and, despite it being cool and drizzly the whole weekend, have managed to build all the framing necessary. All i need to do now is nail the decking in place. I have the decking, but it was wet when I bought it so waiting till next weekend allows it to dry a bit so I can stain it before I nail it down.

The weight is still at 76.5, I was a bit lower during the week but ended up where I started. I am a bit disappointed as I have kept my eating discipline well. I did go to the Mairangi Bay Surf Lifesaving prize giving on Saturday night and had 2 beers (shock! horror!) and a good helping of a really good paella, you can't stop living.

Queen's birthday weekend

I've just had a pleasant Queens birthday weekend.

On Saturday I went to Takapuna beach and had a swim with Vic, Marieke & Valentino (with Pam watching). The water is quite cool, it catches your breath until the first buoy or so, but after a while it is just cool. The sea was a bit lumpy and I found navigation a bit of a challenge. It also took a while to adjust to the different way of swimming in the sea, but in general it was a nice swim with some good people.

We (the family) then travelled down to Hamilton as it was Alison's birthday on Sunday and my mum has just turned 70. My sister was there cooking up a storm (Emily was there too) and Paul, Jenny & Sam were there so there were plenty of people to keep everyone busy. We did a roast lamb for dinner and I even had some.

I started on a 'liver cleansing diet' after taking to one of my colleagues and Alison agreed to join me. However 2 weeks into it a BBC program on food stated that 'cleansing' diets were a load of hogwash which put a bit of a kybosh on the plans. However, I have decided to continue in the spirit of it in order to loose some weight, my goal is 74kg and I am now at 76.5 from a starting point of 81-83. But I am avoiding red meat and dairy products until then. I'll blog an update when I make the goal.

On Sunday Dad, Duncan and I went to the Hamilton Botanical Gardens and took some photos, here's a link to some of them. This is one of my favourites. We returned to Auckland on Sunday.

On Monday (the public holiday) I went swimming again. The sea was calmer and I enjoyed this swim even more, I was able to get into a much better rythm. We're planning to do a mid-winter swim on June 24th, we'll see how that goes.

End of swim season braai

Well, we've done a fair bit of sea swimming this year and so it was appropriate to finish off with a braai. We (well most of us) swam the "Round the Head Classic" swim on Sunday morning. It was a bit of an early start, 7:30, but the weather was great, and it was a lovely swim. The tide was pushing us along and so those of use who swam under the jetty got an exaggerated view of our ability to swim fast. Coming round North Head and out of the Waitemata harbour I managed to confuse the promontory at the end of Cheltenham beach for a bunch of rocks I had to swim round and ended up going a bit wide, but I was not the only swimmer to do that so I was not too embarrassed. AT the end there was coffee, delicious sticky buns (Danishes actually) and cool drinks, a very civilised way to finish a swim.

The braai was at lunch time and the weather was fairly kind to us. There was Cheryl and her partner Jason, Hector, Pam, Vic & Janey and Helen as well as our family and Duncan's friend Robbie. Vic keeps a diary of his exercise and since October has swum about 220 km, not a bad achievement at all. We still are thinking about doing the swim from Milford to Narrow neck, maybe we'll do that on Monday (it's Easter this coming weekend) so we'll see how that goes.

Megan underwater

F1000015
Originally uploaded by JimBoeri.

Megan wanted something a bit different for her 13th birthday party so Alison organised a SCUBA party for her and some of her friends. It started a bit later than anticipated, but once we got going the kids had great fun. Alison & I also got in the water and got to blow some bubbles.

Wet weekend

It was wet because I spent a lot of time in the water.
On Saturday we took the scout up to Goat Island. It's been a long time since I was there last and it was good to go back. There were plenty of fish to see and David took some bread in a bottle to feed them. The scouts all had a good time and I got to swim around the island.
On Sunday I swam a (supposed) 3km sea swim at Red Beach with Vic, Sheryl, Pam & Helen. Took it really easy and swam with Pam as she was a bit nervous, but got round pretty easy. I was wearing an Orca wetsuit and have decided to buy one, it felt so much better than the Blue Seventy.

Queen Mary departure

The Queen Mary was departing and I wanted to see it. But I knew that the rest of Auckland thought the same and there would be traffic mayhem. So I managed to convince Kevin to take his (Wayne's) boat out and watch the departure from the water. In the end only Kevin, Duncan and I went on the boat, everyone else either had other plans or didn't want to be on a boat at night.
We launched at about 8 p.m. from Waiake beach and motored over to the harbour. Duncan was fairly nervous but Kevin kept the boat at a reasonable speed and we got there no problem. We did get spoken to by the coastguard as we weren't showing a stern light, but we managed to get it going.
The queen Mary herself is an awesome spectacle, especially at night when it gets lit up like a Christmas tree, and on the water we had a fantastic view. We had a great view of the firework display as well, although it was a bit further away than I had anticipated.
By the time we followed the liner out of the harbour and into the gulf it was completely dark, a new experience for myself and Duncan. Duncan struggled a bit on the way back, he didn't like the unpredictable manner the boat moved in with the various wakes coming off all the other craft, and being dark it was not easy to see the water surface. However, once we were on flatter water he regained his confidence and enjoyed the last part of the journey.
By the time we got the boat back onto the trailer and to Kevin's house it was after midnight, a long and tiring night for a 10 year old (and his dad).
But all in all, a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Whale Island swim

On Friday I left work at 1-ish and headed off to Whakatane to attempt the "Whale of a Swim". Quite a pleasant and uneventful drive the weather was pleasant and other than the inevitable roadworks nothing much to talk about. When I arrived at Whakatane I went straight to Piripai beach to see Whale Island. My first thought was "Damn, that's far away". I carried on to the 'motel' where I was staying, which was about 100m from the finish line of the swim. Motel may be generous, it was a flat at the bottom of the house, but was lovely and I had a good night there. A short walk into the town and a pasta meal at the local Italian restaurant and I was ready for bed.

I was up bright and early (5:30) and ready to load kayaks and be briefed at 6:30. Whale island was hazy in the morning behind the statue of Wairaka, but 9.1 km is a long way. But as with many events like this is was a case of "hurry up and wait". A combination of large swells and a very low tide meant that the harbour master had not opened the bar at the river mouth for general traffic and the coastguard was not prepared to take us out until it was 'opened'. It was fine for swimming as there was very little chop, but the briefing was delayed until 8:30. This did not really help my growing anticipation and nerves.

But at 8:30 it was all go, so the kayaks were loaded up and off to the island we went. My kayaker was a great chap called Jim Robinson (so there was a lot of "Hey, Jim", "Yes, Jim", "How are you, Jim", "Good, Jim") who is a multisport enthusiast. He had swapped his normal kayak (which he was told would be too fast) for a sit on one so it was easy to access the bag of powerade and water he was carrying for me.

The swim started at about 10:00, and was quite enjoyable, the water was a tremendous blue colour and as there were not that many swimmer (< 40) and kayaks it was not crowded. The first half or so was plain sailing, I went past the half way marker at about 1:35 but after about 2 hrs of swimming my shoulders started aching. Unfortunately it didn't get any easier from there, the more I swam, the more I felt it and the slower I went. I needed more short little breathers but Jim was always most encouraging, although he did tell me that 3 successive buoys were the '1km to go' buoy! The shore seemed to take ages to get closer, but eventually I was in the surf off Pipipai beach then walking over the sand spit and a final, painful, swim over the river to the finish, all in all it took me 3hr 46 min, but I finished.

One of the most rewarding parts of the event was the number of texts, phone calls and comments I received before and after the event. It was that support that kept me going in the last hour when I was not having too much fun.

Campsite rain blog

Well, we came to Mangawai for some restful camping and a surf club competition. The weather report did not look too good on Tuesday, but Wed was better and we made the plunge. It's now Friday, and the rain has really set in. The kids are in the pool, as they can't get any wetter,
and I have been putting up more tarpaulin to keep the rain out of the 'porch' area of the tent. We made a decision that we are going home tomorrow if the weather does not clear up, and the forecast does not provide any hope.

I have decided that this blog will be very random, and will be thoughts of the day if they occur at a time I can get them down. I originally thought it would be more of a diary, but I am too inconsistent.