After 4 or 5 Leffe Brune (so good) on Friday evening after the exam – it was time to bus up to Palmerston North. Thomas picked me up at the bus – so good to see him & Paula (his lovely wife) again. They were visiting my Aunt (his mum) and family up in Palmy. It was simply perfect timing that the course was on this weekend!

Now, onto the important details.. I have regained the scrabble crown – Paula says she is going to have a trophy made up. Good job too. I did have the luck this time – managing to pick up both blanks and get Harried (for 75 points or something) down.. (all letters out).

They have flown over to New York as Thomas is presenting to the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions this week. I do have plans to help save the world too… but more on that in a wee while..

It was also my cousin James’ birthday. He had an awesome dinosaur cake which his dad put together. Most impressive.

Finally it was time to come back down to ChCh. Feeling quite energised after the last week – though it has been a long one..

Now – who can see what’s interesting about the coke can?

So – all this week I was learning about PRoject management IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2)… it was certainly stretching! Most of the people on the course were seasoned project managers and I felt pretty out of my debth!

There were two parts to the course – the first was a theory exam (which I passed).. the second was a practical exam where you are assessed on your application of the process to a scenario. Hard to tell how it went – and honestly it doesn’t matter too much…

I certainly learned quite a lot. PRINCE2 is the UK Government standard and it’s pretty rigorous. In fact the UN is about to move to the PRINCE2 system.. so who knows – maybe I can get a job there eventually.

The focus of PRINCE2 is around the business case – and putting the customer in control. So the customer basically runs the project – has to define what they want – and ensure that the project is progressing as it should. This differs from what usually happens; where the customer says they want something – and then gets the supplier to define it – and run the whole show.

Anyways.. we’ll see.. Boyd on the left – and Scott (our trainer from crazy colour) on the right. Scott’s a pretty impressive guy – a young guy who has started up a pretty impressive training company that’s going from strength to strength. He is kiwi, but moved from the UK to Brisbane for lifestyle reasons…. good place the Southern Hemisphere.

Interestingly, Scott’s uncle was in Mad Max.

So, after three subterranean years in the country Andy and Kirsty (Davey and Davey soon to become when they get married in March?) said their goodbyes. It’s a shame, with them gone, and Dave Hume and Joe in Wellington – I’m not sure how much more caving I will get to do for a while.

Mind you.. we’ve been having a few earthquakes of late, and I believe some of the caves have had some rocks come loose. Makes things a little more interesting I suppose.

So – that is what I was sorry to say. I will miss them – but I imagine they’ll miss NZ too..

So yes, croquet… and not sorry to admit it at all! Excellent summers evening day. I sallied forth and purveyed the local croquet lawn yesternoon. Or something. It’s only $100 or so for a years membership – and that gives me free reign to bring friends (from time to time) and use all the equipment etc. And as the world championships (yes, they exist) will be played here in 2007 (or 2008 – can’t remember) one has to assume they’re fairly decent lawns.

anyway – Graham and Myra came down for a game.. they even said they enjoyed it!

Me – off to Wellington for this project management course. Not feeling remotely confident about it, am looking forward to a lesson in humility as much as project management! :)

However! my amazing cousin Thomas (and his lovely wife Paula) are back in Palmerston North this week – I am so looking forward to seeing him. He is working amazingly hard in a NGO / UN lobby position – trying to ban / stop the use of cluster munitions. He went to Lebanon recently after the invasion – crazy stories… so I am looking forward to catching up.

And beating him at scrabble… every time we meet up (to date) have played a few games, he’s the current holder, but only ‘cos he had all the high point letters ;)

honestly :)

So, managed to slightly break one of the things I look after in work – by coping something and copying it back again (and breaking all the links – or internal ones – in the process).

Not the end of the entire world.. but I *hate* when things don’t work as they should (well, things I’ve done anyway). Here’s hoping we can get the backup ppl to restore to what it used to be like.

Mind you, all made substantially better by Glynn cooking an excellent roast pork with crushed junipers in the gravy complete with roast pumpkin, potatoes and – something I love but haven’t had in aaages … spinach…Me and popeye… (Yes Glynn is a culinary genius).

So yes, a really relaxed – and needed – evening with Glynn & Jayne, two better people for the soul it would be hard to find.

While New Zealand is a wonderful place, the only downside – or at least the only one that could bring me back to Europe – is that it is a long way from family (& friends!). It is made easier what with mum & dad being in Uganda, but they’ll be back soon enough and I know I’ll be missing out on Sunday lunches!

But then here I can go climbing & biking & caving & kayaking etc. Hard to know. Last night though I went out with 3 friends (Isla, Brian&Mindy;) to see Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. It is a beautiful story and one I would recommend (if you have a heart ;). It is a simple story of an elderly lady who takes up residence in a hotel and is pretty much entirely neglected by her family. She is a wonderful person of course, and quite full of life. And it made me (makes me) miss my pretty amazing aging grandparents. What brought it into sharp relief was my Great Uncle Michael passing away this week.

He had a pretty interesting life! and one I only got to see a little of really. When I lived in Dublin I would make the effort every 3 or so months to hop across the water to see my grandparents – and it would be nice to have the cash to do that from here! So yes, there certainly are some drawbacks to living here…. It’s a hard one really. I am fortunate enough to have an Aunt & family living on the North Island – that does make quite a difference.