Busy enough week with work… I’ve been working towards getting the system I run ready for a major upgrade in 4 weeks time. Hopefully it’ll not break completely ;) Fun and games.

We had our alarm tested. The movie of testing the alarm is worth a watch (well, I thought it was funny anyway).

Also made my first (but not the last I’m sure) batch of Caramel Squares.. Turned out quite well actually.

Just incase anyone should like to try (it’s dead easy I promise.. if I can do it anyone can (really)) – Thanks to Matt for the recipe.

Caramel Squares

Base:
350g self-raising flour
225g butter
110g caster sugar

Filling:
225g caster sugar, 225g butter,
5 tablespoons golden syrup,
397g (1 tin) nestles full cream condensed milk

Topping:
340g good chocolate (milk or dark), melted.

Preheat oven to 180C, gas mark 4. Rub the flour, butter and caster sugar together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Press into a 25cmx38cmx4xm baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden. To make the filling melt the butter in a heavy based saucepan over a low heat. Add sugar, golden syrup and condensed milk, stir continuously for 40-50 minutes. It should be a golden brown colour when ready. To test drop a little blob into a bowl of cold water, it should firm up. Pour over the pastry base and allow to cool. Pour over the chocolate and allow to set. Cut into squares.

I was pretty upset that I’d nothing planned for the weekend. Well, Saturday anyway. Dave upon hearing this invited me to come out Kayak-surfing over at sumner with Glynn. Now.. I dunno why, but I’ve not really ever been much of a water baby, and definitely not in the sea… but after one early capsize (in about 2 foot of water) (and a mouthful of sea-water too).. I completely enjoyed it.

Glynn was throwing himself at it hard – and actually managed to surf this 6′ wave in (which is big enough!)..

This was the tail end of the wave. About 20 seconds later he was holding his paddle above his head with triumph, and was promptly capsized. Still, an excellent effort. Looks like I should be off kayaking over on the West Coast with them next week. Not really quite sure how good it is for my back (which is still sore – so so SO annoying) but sure have to get out or I’ll go mental!

After that went mountain biking in the port hills.. great fun. I’m getting more and more tempted to buy one.

That evening I left for Tims Bach over in Little Akaloa. The last time I was there there were many more people there (it was summer) and there was drinking, dancing and general merriment. This time there were just 6 of us, but I actually really enjoyed just getting out of the city and have a bbq and a few beers with friends. Dragging the mattress outside and sleeping under the stars was good. Well, good ish, Aroha (who’s idea it was), as soon as she heard my glasses go into their case would make some comment about how beautiful the stars were / what a spectacular shooting star had gone by.. Lasers eventually!

This morning the others headed off early, and I just went for a short walk down and around the little old (1906) Anglican church they have here. It’s beautiful inside, wooden Maori carvings everywhere… a very peaceful place.

Went for a wander down the hill, past the old WW2 home-guard gun emplacements…

..before heading back up the hill. I was just about to sit down at a bench and enjoy my surroundings for a while, contemplating life, the universe and everything, when I realised I was about to crush a (well camouflaged but luckily not too well) stick insect.

I also put a short movie up (5 megs). You can also hear some of the native birds on the movie.. really… it’s such a great place & country!

In second year in college we had to make a connect4 game. Seeing as I’ve not really done any ‘real programming’ in the last couple of years, I decided to ease myself back in gently – and port the game from c++ to java. No, it wasn’t particularly challenging! (though had real issues getting some HTTPLibrarys to work…) aanyway.. if anyone feels like trying to beat my little program (it’s not very good really) have a go.

Oh, if you get an error saying ‘Content has not been allowed’ or something like that, either click allow.. or give up! hehe. You’ll need to have the Java Virtual Machine installed…

Or, even better, just surf the web with firefox

AI wins: “); echo($oldWins);?>

Surprisingly un-hungover on Saturday morning. A pleasant surprise, but still decided to be lazy. Which, I must admit (well, I choose to) I thoroughly enjoyed. Started another book (finished Richard Bransons autobiography which was most entertaining), and now onto Tenzing and the Sherpas of Everest. Those guys can tramp!

Anyway.. there’s a film festival on at the moment. Glynn, Mark and I headed to see a film called The Aristocrats. It’s sort of a documentary on comedians. It’s also extremely vile. Quite looking forward to A Fistful of Dynamite on Wednesday evening. A western by Sergio Leone. The same guy wot made The good, the bad and the ugly and many other excellent films!.

Sunday trad climbing on the Port Hills. Glynn leading most of them (I gibbered my way up a couple of easy climbs)

Oh, and daylight savings has come in over here.. so now we’re 12 hours ahead..

Had an excellent dinner at Florians on Thursday – a pre St. Patricks Dinner. Glynn had got into the spirit of things properly… and made a cake.

Oh Glynn has also put a video from Stewart Island up. Take note of his warning!

St. Patricks itself, as per usual, ended up in The Bog. I was less than impressed with the band though. There was one gig to dance to while we were there, and the did this wicked slow-pop-beat for U2’s ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for‘. Wicked being the word for it! Anyway, still proud to be Irish (esp beating England in the rugby and coming second ahead of Scotland in the 6 nations ;))