Today I have put live my latest project – a site on constructing the Manapouri Power station – http://manapouri.flexedesign.com. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but if I waited until I was happy with it, you’d never see it (I was contemplating using something other than Textpattern as the CMS which would add another month… it is a never ending story).
Anyway it is live so have a look.
16. November 2008 »
Jenny and John are in New Zealand for Mum’s 60th and John’s Dad’s 50th. I must say how much Jenny has changed – no longer a little sister, now a younger sister. Jenny is grown up and whilst there is an “of course she has” element something about this time cemented that for me. She out drank me for starters!
16. November 2008 »
This weekend Brook and I have been in Invercargill to celebrate Mum’s (Margery’s) 60th birthday, and the opening of her exhibition of drawings and the launch of her latest book, People Pots & Plants.
60 is a good milestone to celebrate and friends and family joined in the celebration. As many will know, Mum has Parkinsons Disease which one could argue makes having an exhibition more impressive, but people were there to celebrate and enjoy the work of Margery the person, friend, and family member – not the Parkinsons sufferer. I am a believer you can be sympathetic of a person’s situation, but you should not be sympathetic of the person – what ever their situation is, it will have and continue to shape them, but is not them.
15. November 2008 »
This weekend brought the first “The Great Christchurch Beer Festival” to the Twisted Hop. NZ beers, sun, music – a great day.
With Brook at a friends for the day, Joss and I joined some friends at the Twisted Hop on Saturday to enjoy tasting some beers from around NZ (and the worlds strongest & most expensive beer – Sam Adams Utopias 27% ABV at US$599 a bottle!).
Disappointing to see no porters there, but there was some very nice beers. Voting wise Invercargill Boysenbeery was a clear winner for me – even though generally I prefer a darker heaver beer. I probably would have put Brew Moon Dark Side Stout next, but I did not drink it on the day, choosing to try some new ones.
9. November 2008 »
Brook spent the night at Joan’s place this weekend – a holiday for us all (except Joan!). Some 5 hours after coming home and he still has something new to tell us about his weekend so it was definitely a huge success. How Joan managed to pack in so much into 24 hours I do not know. Joss and I enjoyed the extended time to ourselves.
I think the cat missed Brook the most – he was quit lost this morning without Brook and they made the most of the warm afternoon playing together.
27. October 2008 »
With school holidays here we shot off to Wellington and Dannevirke for the week to catch up with friends and family.
Just to annoy the cat, we added another night to the trip and started off at Kaikoura. It was stormy so did not get out too much there and given I get sea sick, I was a little concerned about the ferry trip the next day, but the weather was meant to be fine… Apart from driving past a truck crash in which a young boy was killed, we had a good trip up.
The ferry trip went well even with some rolling waves out in the strait. Travel sick pills definitely taken! Brook loved the boat and the magic show that was on for the school holidays – poor man, two trips a day.
Duncan & Nic where good and their house was very nice – be it a long way up in the hills – google maps was very helpful, and once we’d done it once it was rather easy to get to. Their cat Mojo was not pleased to see us and we basically did not see him the whole time we were there. They both were able to take some time off work (we did not have to do any arm twisting – they jumped at the opportunity for a day off) so we got to spend a decent amount of time together.
We travelled along state highway 1 out of Wellington to Dannevirke which was cool. Some nice country. The stay in Dannevirke was definitely a highlight. We all went to the cemetery to see Ray’s grave (my birth father) – this was the first visit for Joss and Brook so that was good to have them there (my wife and son to “meet” Ray for the first time). We turned up and there was a funeral going on!
We caught up with Nolan and Val having tea with them in their new house. They have made themselves a beautiful home. Nolan took us out to the old farm which I think I have not been on for 20 odd years. And we then had morning tea with Bonnie who happened to be in town at the same time! So that was good timing since we had not been well enough organised to go further afield.
Heading back to Wellington via state highway 2 meant a calling into the Schoc chocolate shop which fattened the waste line and thinned the wallet.
Joss could not be in Wellington without spending time (or having a drink) with Justine. Let the good times role!
Reading there was a storm warning meant I did not sleep well the last night but the return ferry trip ended up being smoother than the first. The wind whilst making for some white caps along the whole trip did not make for any big waves. And the brilliant weather meant we had fun a the beach and brought home lots of stones and shells too.
5. October 2008 »
Joss has added Blue Q items to her on line shop http://joss.flexedesign.com so go check them out
28. August 2008 »
We are just back from a weekend in Akaroa. It was stormy weather wise but a nice weekend otherwise. Going over the hill was mildly concerning – nothing too bad, but pays to be careful.
It was the first time we’d been there with snow around and it made the hills very picturesque. We still got to get out of the house and have a few good walks and check out the local shops.
Again we fell into the L’hotel trap – good food but man I do not like the owner/manager or what ever he is. Quality food, good service – you pay for it, but not the over friendly and unprofessional manager guy. Hopefully we’ll learn and next time not eat there if he is working (which seems to be always).
10. August 2008 »