northlandboy

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Working Hard

July 19th, 2010 · Uncategorized

I know, I haven’t been posting much here, but it’s because I’ve been working hard. Honest.

Unfortunately Anna is a student these days, so I had to go out and find work. Find it I did, a little different to my usual line of work, with a small-medium sized New Zealand business. It’s been quite interesting so far, and with some fairly serious growth plans, it could be an interesting ride over the next few years.

It does mean commuting to work by car, something I’ve never done before. All the previous jobs I’ve had, I’ve walked (mostly), rode a bike, taken the bus, or maybe the train. But for once, I’m driving a car. Very strange. Everyone else is going the faux-eco-hippy route, I seem to be regressing.

But the other work that has been going on is, at long last, completing my PADI Divemaster certification. I did most of the work for this last year, but didn’t quite finish it before going on the road. But, at long last, after far too many dives in Lake Pupuke, and way too much time in the pool, I’ve finished!

Will be quite nice to go diving purely for the sake of diving, and not have to worry about passing this or that task, and only have to worry about cleaning and storing my gear, not rinsing out 15 wetsuits…

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The Secret is Out

June 17th, 2010 · Uncategorized

For many years, my mother has been well-known for her baking. Cakes and biscuits are turned out regularly, and are well-received. Indeed, when I went to Whangarei a couple of weeks ago, Anna dispatched me with several containers, and instructions to procure some biscuits.

One of the particular favourites is the “Sugar and Spice” biscuits. These are a chewy, spicey biscuit, with a strong hint of ginger to them. However, my mother has for years quite strongly stated that “There Is No Ginger In Them.” This has become something of a running joke in the family.

How can this be possible – how is it that so many people who try them think they are a ginger biscuit? At last, some detective work has revealed the answer. Looking at the ingredients, ginger is not listed…but mixed spice is. Who knows what’s in mixed spice? Well, I didn’t know, and it does vary by manufacturer, but I happened to be looking at a packet of Greggs mixed spice, and noticed it contained…ginger.

Ha! No more denying it, they are indeed ginger biscuits.

But it’s OK Mum, we still love them.

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Route maps added

June 2nd, 2010 · Uncategorized

I’ve finally uploaded an interactive Google Map of my route. Look at the trips page. You can view it there, or follow the link to open in a new full size window.

It’s a bit rough, but it’s close enough to where I went. Over time I’ll add links from waypoints to blog entries, so that you can tie things together.

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Lucky Escape

May 26th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Last Saturday was a superb morning, clear skies, no winds, just a touch cool. Perfect for mountain biking. So, dog in tow, we headed out to Woodhill. Nice riding, things going well, just one problem – there had been quite a bit of rain over the previous days.

Came racing down the hill, up to a wooden obstacle that I’ve gone over before, going a bit fast, OK hit the brakes a touch, whoops, the wood’s wet, the bike slips out, and things all go horribly wrong.

Next thing I’m lying on the ground, the bike is several feet away, wheels spinning, Samson the dog is checking me over, and yet remarkably all my limbs are still working. A few minor bruises, a bit of a rest needed, then we go to set off. Hang on, the chainring doesn’t look right – should be it be in two pieces?

Not cheap to replace either, $135, since they only had an XT ring available. Could have been worse, could have been me snapped in two

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Ch Ch Ch Changes

May 21st, 2010 · Blog

I’ve finally gotten around to moving my blog across to Wordpress. This was triggered by Blogger dropping FTP support, but really, I should have done this a long time ago.

As you can see, it tidies up the look a lot. Yes, the Cutline theme is frightfully common, but too bad, it’s a nice clean look. I do quite like the rotating image across the top of the page – every time you reload, or click on a new page, you’ll see a new image. You can use the Tags on the right hand side to choose all posts related to a country I’ve been to, and when you’re reading a post, there will always be a link to the next and previous posts. This will make it far easier navigating the older posts.

All the old content is still there, but in a new format. You should still be able to post comments, etc, but you won’t be using Google logins – you can just enter whatever details you like.

There will be problems, not least of which is that I’ve moved the base links around – instead of having the blog at northlandboy.com/blog, it is now going to be at northlandboy.com/- this will affect your bookmarks!

RSS feeds have also changed – this is now at http://northlandboy.com/feed. If you are reading this via the old RSS feed, you must update your reader now, or it will not receive any new posts.

Any problems, please let me know, so I can get it fixed ASAP.

Still to come: Interactive route maps, perhaps with links to posts and pictures. At some point my older photos will get moved to Picasa, to make slideshows easier. I’m also going to put together a “highlights” slideshow.

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