So… just chatting with my wonderful (and fluky at Scrabble) cousin Thomas… who informs me that my brother Matthew & wife Helene now have a red MG.

These are things one ought to hear first hand.

Finally… an addition from Matt’s PhD Supervisor (David MacKay) on Climate Change. Seems to be saying that Nuclear is the way to go as a stopgap..

Would someone clever please invent (cold) fusion. Soon. Like.. now..

Odd’s ‘n ends post this one. Firstly – a panorama from a most enjoyable walk on the Port Hills with Maaike… good to get out and stretch the legs at the weekend – even if not quite managing to get away from the city.

This week I had a trip up to Auckland for meetings… it was a ridiculously early start (05:40 flight). Still, I was in town by 07:30 so had time for a nice chai latte before work.

On the way back down I saw the following picture – which I thought was quite hilarious. I should have shown you the full picture as there was a mural spanning all around the room….

So…. there are three pretty cool things of note..

Glynn and Jayne have got engaged. This is really awesome news… they’re both incredibly lucky to have eachother… and I’m pretty psyched that it looks like they might stay in NZ for a while (unless the bay area sucks them in).

Also great is that Dave Aubrey has entered the world of Blogging – and also has found himself exactly the job he was holding out for… Good on him.

Only Slightly Less Incredible news – is that the picture below (apparently of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves) made it to become picture of the week on metvuw. Quite happy about that one.

This weekend we be takin’ a voyage of discovery over the seas (up the coast) to the little cove of Lake Daniels… Where there be pirates. And Rum. And more rum.

And no pictures of me… unless Steve posts one.. In the meantime, here’s a picture of Steve having eye-liner applied… and the pirate table .. AAARRRRR

Maaike was unfortunately unable to come – as she has started where I started… in a Contact Centre.. but by all accounts is enjoying it (except for having to work one day of the weekend…)

Saw some pretty stunning clouds on the way home – it had snowed (and one of the cars did a 180 on the way home… with a small collision)

What else… my work contract expires in 2 weeks so I have to apply for my job. So hopefully that works out… apparently I’ll get the word ‘Senior’ in my title.. cool eh. I’ll have to change the title of this blog to ‘Patrick’s Senior New Zealand Weblog’. Perhaps. ARRRRRRR

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRR

It’s great being a pirate.

It was the queens birthday weekend here, and so a good chance to get away for the weekend. Traditionally it’s the weekend that the ski-fields open, but according to www.snow.co.nz none of the fields are opening until at least the 14th June… Still, with the way petrol prices are going hopefully snowpool will be a hit this year!

Anyway.. what else… so yes, Warrick & Hannah and Maaike & I headed up to Black Hill Hut. It’s only a 1 1/2 hour drive from Christchurch and also it was sheltered from the weather we were supposed to be getting this weekend.

It started off with a cuisey hour long mountain bike ride along a four wheel drive track..

Maaike did *really* well as she was on a commuting bike she had picked up from our friend David Bones (who may not have known his bike was going to be used for such things!!). Those Dutch definitely know how to cycle… I was wheeling my fancy dual suspension bike past things she was going for.. yes… I am a total wuss.

Anyway – after that it was just a couple of hours up to the hut…

If you’ve ever wondered what the inside of a 6 bunk hut looks like..

And from there it’s a short 15 minute walk to the top of the hill where you get a pretty excellent panorama out to the sea – and inland to the Cragieburn range…

And yay – received my invite to Warrick & Hannah’s wedding in October – can’t wait..

Mind you… I was slightly irritated with Warrick on the night in the hut. Not any more of course… but… well… I am – just a little – competitive. I don’t mind loosing tooooo much, ehem, but one does want to play ones best ;) Anyway, it was the boys vs girls at Tantrix… so much honour and glory at stake. Warrick and I were ahead – but not by much… and then Warrick decides it’s all just a bit mean and starts helping the EVIL opposition. Sigh. I apologised (later) for being moody ;) Still, we were all friends again after playing Beanie… An excellent card game – it’s quite like Gin-Rummy.. but with wild cards. Quite frantic – but fun.

Anyway – that was the long weekend… roll on the snows.