Ouch

Is this the Whale equivalent of walking into a door frame?

Full story here

I suppose it could have been worse, the boat could have been a Japanese "Scientific" Vessel...

Doggone it!

Seems appropriate on a sad day when a Police Dog is killed that this story should run. Just the ticket for reactiviating the blog- we like this sort of oddspot here

Dog shoots man....
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10658533

Waking Up

Hmmm time to start using this old chestnut of a blog again?

Fire and Ice

Now this is interesting, Iceland is a country I would love to see, but this is pretty gnarly (click)

In other news it was 22 degrees here at 5.30am, which is pretty nuts for this time of year. Hopefully its sending some rain to save the hapless Black Caps in Wellington today

Clarke and Lara?

Well knock me down with a feather I never knew these guys were an item.

Autumn

Well todays rainy spell probably means the end of the stunning weather we've had over the past few weeks.

Off to the West Coast over the next few days to reacquaint myself with all things agricultural. Should be good.

Feb 28 Tsunami

Well Darwinists would have had a field day with the number of idiots in NZ that rocked on down to the beaches yesterday to look for the "wave" after the devastating quake in Chile.

Its amazing how poorly understood tsunamis are. We were lucky yesterday that it was at low tide, and not as big as it could have been. But as the attached You-Tube shows, ChCh may well have dodged a bullet.

The Deans Stand

Went to the cricket last night and sat in the new stand for the first time. Good spot to watch cricket from. The Black Caps made heavy weather of it but got over the line in the end. Will definitely pop back for the Aussie game

It is amazing what they can do with grounds these days, cricket one day, then rugby two days later with the Super 14 kicking off this weekend. Not sure I'm ready for the rugby season to start yet though, it just seems like overkill.

One month down...

179km run, 1831km to go :)

2010 Target

Nearly the end of January already...gulp. Anyone seen summer?

I have set a handful of training targets for this year.

Target 1- to Run/ walk/ tramp 2010km minimum. So far I'm sitting on 140-odd km so I'm kind of tracking ok.

Target 2- Sub 8 hours on the Kepler. Need to find 21 mins of improvement.

Target 3 - Run the ChCh Marathon. On a road. Yuck!

Target 4- Compete in 6 events.

Target 5- Do the Abel Tasman race. Never done that one, always wanted to.

Theres a cool website I've hooked onto via Madman Marvin to tally up the KM's for the year. If you are into running I reckon you should hook onto it.

Its here: The Daily Mile

The New Decade Is Here

Do we call it The Tens? The Teens?

Whatever the case I rang in the new years gong at Okarito Beach on NZ's wonderful West Coast en route to an excellent few days up in my beloved mountains. Pure bliss. 2 fine days- and 2 wet ones, 400mm of rain actually!

Anyway, back to work today and its a battle to remember where things were at just 10 days ago with the workflow. We'll get there.

To underline matters, yesterday I was here (yes, thats a hot pool):

Back in business.

Well, two months ago I promised. And didn't deliver. 2010 will see more regular updates, I hope!

Suffice to say its been a busy time, some bad and some amazingly good. Overall the outcome for the decade is outstanding.

And on that note, short and to the point, for what its worth here are my Top Ten albums for the Decade:

1. Radiohead- Kid A
2. Muse- Absolution
3. The Killers- Hot Fuss
4. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds- Dig Lazarus Dig
5. Green Day- American Idiot
6. Arcade Fire- Neon Ballroom
7. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers- By The Way
8. MGMT- Oracular Spectacular
9. Dimmer- You've Got To Hear The Music
10. Guns n Roses- Chinese Democracy

And my Top 5 Gigs for the Decade

1. Iron Maiden in ChCh 2009
2. The Cure in Auckland 2007
3. U2 in Auckland 2006
4. Kasabian at the BDO 2006
5. Muse at the BDO 2006

I'll Be Back

I really must start posting here more often again. Don't give up!

Bears get thirsty too....

I doubt this was helpful for business. And half an hour in a beer cooler without cracking one open? Can't have had it's preferred brand in stock!

Viscious Attack Confirmed on the Aussie Male Psyche

There will be riots.... it has been confirmed on stuff.co.nz that Aussies will be limited to a mere slab of beer when they attend Bathurst. How will the average aussie survive on just 24 cans of beer in a given day????


David Boon and his cronies will be devastated!!!

Shakey Week

All I can say is lets hope the earth settles down now

Indonesia Aid appeal
www.reliefweb.int

Samoa Aid Appeal
online donation

Thoughts are with all affected by these.

Storm season underway

Summer is here in the Mainland. And with it comes the awesome thunderstorms we sometimes get in ChCh. Today one of them decided to develop right over my head in the middle of my Hagley Park lunchtime run. Didn't last long and was very localised, but it hailed enough to sent the golf greens white, put welts on my arms, and it had me wondering if I was in danger from a rogue lightning bolt at one point!

Pics are of the storm clearing away to the east of the city when I got back to the office

Back in the swing of it all

Well its been a great three weeks for reactivating one of my favourite past times- live music.

Three weeks ago it was Liam Finn and friends. A fantastic show, a bit like last years one man mad professor shows with EJ Barnes in part, but also very interesting as a big part of the set saw him as a bit player in a new band with Conan Mockasin and Larence Arabia. It was intriguing, and had me thinking of early Split Enz. I really did wonder if we were witnessing the birth of something special. Have a look for yourself if you are a fan at the new Liam and EJ track...



The next week it was Head Like a Hole. What a stunning trip down memory lane! Booga has aged as ungracefully as we all would have hoped and is now the proud dad of twins no less. HLAH ripped through a stonking set of all the old favourites from Fish Across Face, to Spanish Goat Dancer, to Comfortably Shagged. Best track for me was the highly energised version of I'm on Fire. The warm up act were good too- Luger Boa. I definitely recommend them. So many memories came flooding back of the crazy student years and this has rekindled hope that HLAH might come up with some new material now.

We all know HLAH inside out so I'll give you a Luger Boa track to chew on instead- this song just won't leave my head! We were close enough to the front row to see the whites of their eyes...the true test of a live music experience.




Finally last Friday it was two of the most talented acts up and coming in NZ- The Valves and Midnight Youth. Both acts were standouts at Southern Amp last year so it was good to see them again a year down the track. The Valves are almost what you could call a "Christchurch Institution" now, and deservedly so. They play a great set, each and every time. They did in fact steal the show from Midnight Youth.

I was concerned I'd be the oldest person in the crowd at Midnight Youth. Fortunately I was about the middle. They have a solid album out from all accounts- I have only heard the singles, but they played a good set. I was very surprised to see them cover Alice In Chains and Black Sabbath though- as was half the crowd I think! A very promising band, could become one of NZ's biggest music exports. Lets see how their "difficult second album" goes.



and Midnight Youth making a "run" for my Kepler playlist...

Chinese Democracy update

You will remember my raving review and top ten placing for 2008 for the GNR album Chinese Democracy last year.

It would appear sales have been slower than hoped due to a lack of promotion or a tour. Axl has had to seek a new income source...

Fathers Day

This is why we do it , big ups to all the other Dads out there