Holiday Time

Every couple of years I try to get back to the UK to see family and friends. I was last home in 2008 so it was time for another trip.

2010 also sees my eldest son turn 18, how time passes. This was used an an excuse to have a big family get together. I got to talk to some of my cousins that I haven’t seen in 8 years. Some had changed, some where still very much the same.

It is always nice to catch up with family, and it’s something I don’t do very often, so I’d like to say congratulations to all of my cousins that have gotten engaged, married or had kids since I last got to see you. Hopefully it won’t be 8 years before the next time.

Update Time

OK so I have been slack. Just realised its been over 8 months since I posted.

So what's happened in all that time?

Work wise I now have the grand title of Practice Lead Dynamics Solutions Northern Region, and have been busy with projects and trying to get stuff in place with my new practice.

Intergen were in the finals for Best Places to Work again, although we didn’t win our category we did improve on previous years.

We have 4 solutions in the Microsoft best solutions awards, find out on Thursday if any have won.

Aside from that we have been busy busy busy.

 

Away from work I still haven’t managed to get out and dive, something i really must get back into.

Been doing more on the re-enactment front, but still would like to be doing even more.

Currently on a well earned break in Aussie.

 

Current goals:

Blog more

Dive more

Train more, I need to get fit and loose a few kg’s

Sort through all my photos and get rid of those that aren’t any good

Long overdue up-date

Ok so the last time I posted I was on my way home for a holiday. That seams such a long time ago now. I did do some updates to my website but I have since undone them. I have gotten out and done moe photography. In addition to my Deviantart account, where I put my favourite pieces, I have set up a flickr account where I am to put more stuff up, I'll still be using my7 own site for mass uploads as time allows.

Also with the announced closure of MSN groups the group I have belonged to for ages has migrated to Multiply, so I now have an account there as well as my Facebook, Bebo, Tagged, LinkedIn and MySpace accounts. I have also setup a twitter account.

That said I really only check Facebook and Multiply daily although I am trying to make an effort to check them all daily. If anyone knows any good apps for uploading to all this lot easily that would make like a lot easier lol. If you want to get hold of me through Socail Networking then I suggest Facebook or Multiply

Holiday Time

Having not really had a break from work since the Taupo bash, and that wasn't exactly sitting around relaxing either, I got round to my mid winter break. This year I am going back home to catch up with friends and family.

Caught the late flight out of Auckland heading for Singapore. And by late I mean midnight. The last couple of times I have been home the airports have been a bit manic with security risks. This time it was a breeze checking in. I had decided to check in on line so when I showed up at the airport all I had to do was find the pre-checked line, which had no-one in it and wonder up. It certainly beats standing in the usual queues.

Decided that I would get a new MP3 player. The last one I bought was in about 2002 and has long since died. Not being a major fan of ipods I decided to get a Sony Walkman, so picked one up duty free, and then had the mad scramble trying to get it charged and synched before getting on the plane. Think I may need to read the manual at some stage as it decided to sync all my photos as well as music, not something i really wanted it to do but never mind.

Got to Singapore and was pleasantly pleased to find that all the power plugs in the lounges are international. They can accept a plug from just about anywhere, so no messing around getting adaptors that I'd only use for a few hours.

So with power, free wireless Internet and 4 hours to kill I figured I'd update my blog. And with time on my hands I may even post more than one update every few months, and might even spend a bit of time updating the website and playing with some stuff that I have been putting off for ages.

Website Update

I have had a good play with e107 although I haven't had as much time to try stuff as I would like.

Recently I found a new site builder called SliverStripe. It was designed by a team here in NZ. Given there is a general push for us to support all things Kiwi I decided to install a copy and see what it can do.

The current aim is to load new content to both the e107 based site and the SilverStripe based on to evaluate each. Eventually I'll decide on which to keep and decommission the other.

The e107 site can be found at www.shadownet.org.uk the SilverStripe one at www.shadownet.org.uk/silvestripe

Feel free to take a look and post me any suggestions or comments.

Technorati Tags: Webstie,updates

Deviantart

A number of my friends are artist's in one form or another a couple of them display their work through Deviantart. One of my fav's posts under the name BikerScout. I have known him for around 8 years now and I am always amazied by his work.

Given the photography I have been doing recently I opened up my own account there unser the user Toreador-Vamp.

Photo update

So I found I had a weekend fairly free. As I am fairly up to date at work I thought I'd go for a random drive, indulge in one of my hobbies and take some photos.
Heading off into the Waitakere hills I found the road to Bethells Beach. This is a fairly remote spot and is popular with surfers so I was hoping to get some shots of them. When I got there I found not only the surfers out but also the Lifeguards were training so I had a chance to snap a few of them as well. In all I took about 200 hundred shots, got to love sports mode.




















 A Surfer heads out

Lifeguards doing RIB training

Crashing through some waves

Surfer in action

Then in the evening I went out to try my hand at some night shots

Due to the wind and the extended shutter speeds, a lot of the shots came out blurry

This was taken on an over bridge with a 30-second exposure. I am fairly pleased with the effect .