It’s a bit tardy but as I’ve just started to update again……
On the 18th of September our very good friends Ian and Ngahuia welcomed Charity Elizabeth Polly Barrs into the world. These photos were taken on the 21st 🙂
So one of the reasons that I stopped blogging is that I was so busy. In the last few months the company that I work for has gone from three staff in-country to one, me. What this has meant is not only has my workload increased but my travel has increased as well. The original plan was for me to travel to Auckland two days every week to manage the business up there. Great in theory but it’s ended up being three days often and even four days at time. To give you some idea of what Vic has to put up with this is my travel coming up:
Next week 8th-12th October: Not too bad – Auckland Thursday and Friday
The week after is where it starts to get fun 🙂 On Thursday I fly to Auckland and spend Thursday and Friday on my normal Auckland stuff. I stay Friday night so that I can get up early to fly to Tokyo (a nice little 11.5 hour flight) Mon-Wed is spent training in Tokyo and I leave on Thursday to get back to Wellington on Friday afternoon.
Sunday afternoon (yep, 48 hours later) I fly to Sydney so that I’m there for Monday morning and the start of a three day sales meeting. Wednesday afternoon it’s a flight from Sydney to Auckland and after two days there it’s back to Wellington on Friday evening.
So as you can see things are a bit hectic…….
Even so I’ll try to keep up the blog, even if it’s just to point out interesting things I find on the web 🙂
Not much news to tell really…..
I had my first pre-season game of football/soccer yesterday and am sore, but not as sore as I thought I would be! We won two-nil which is always nice 
Vic has started up her own blog at quickly vickly which I think is her “mommy blog” and will definitely tell you a lot more about what’s going on during the day than this one does…. Pay her a visit.
I also found a lomo script and thought softy (who is now a chrysalis btw) would look good.
Yay – it’s great to be home again!
Let’s see, what went on since we last spoke. I had a Sunday afternoon drinking in a bar in Palo Alto called Antonio’s Nut House which was full of great people and friendly staff. The end of the afternoon and the train ride home is slightly blurred but hey, they made me feel welcome 
Monday to Wednesday was spent training and after the previous week it felt like a part time course with 9 to 5 hours every day!
Wednesday to Friday was spent traveling home and there isn’t really much to say except that was uneventful (which is what you want from air travel right?) I was greeted into Wellington by a great sunrise and the picture below taken through an iced up window on a bumpy flight just doesn’t come anywhere near doing it justice.
It’s been absolutely fantastic to see Vic and the boys after two weeks away and all I’ve done for the two days since getting back is enjoying them as well as I can. Elliot specially has been very huggy
Another couple of things (and because I took pics 
)
Yesterday (St Patrick’s Day) my Dad shaved his head down at his local Irish pub for charity. He raised almost 600 dollars for Child Cancer and, although it was a bit of a shock, it looks better than the bright green hair that he had dyed especially for the occasion!
And today we went and visited my Mum and left the boys with her for a couple of hours while Vic and I went shopping. After the visit Max bought a Monarch caterpillar home to put on our swan plant. He named him/her/it “Mr Softy” because he feels all soft when you touch him……
Hello from Sunny California!
What to say….hmmmmm…it’s sunny, not too warm and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road!
So far the trip has gone OK with the flight out here being uneventful but long (1 hour to Auckland and then 12.5 to San Francisco) I arrived in the early afternoon last Saturday and a colleague arrived just after me so we ended up having dinner together. On Sunday the two of us went up into SF by train and did the usual things (Rode on the tram, saw the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz (both from the shore) and just pottered around. The funny thing is we had our pre-course drinks that night and the Americans were amazed that we used public transport to get into SF. Admittedly it took a while (10 minute walk to the light rail, 20 minute ride, 1:30 on the Caltrain into the city) but we had a great time and had fun talking to conductors and just generally chilling with the locals!
The New Hire training was very long and very tiring. The whole week built toward a team presentation on Friday morning and the learning and planning was very taxing. The days went like this:
Mon: 07:30 – 19:30
Tue: 08:00 – 24:00 (team dinner)
Wed: 08:00 – 23:00 (work through dinner on presentation)
Thur: 08:30 – 01:00 (same as the night before)
Fri: 08:00 – 14:00 (presentation in the morning)
As I said, a long week…….
Today (Saturday) it was really nice to lie in and all I’ve really done today is go the mall, go to the movies (saw 300 – it was OK if not a bit predictable)
Tomorrow it’s back into SF for lunch with a colleague and then Mon-Wed some more training. I am so looking forward to getting home next week and I really miss Vic and the boys 🙁
Oh and one more thing – the print that I had in the exhibition mentioned the other day actually sold! yay!
Free wireless at Wellington airport – sweet!
Just about to get on a flight to Auckland and then a nice 12:30 leg to San Francisco overnight. Yay 🙁
Two weeks of NetApp indoctrination and the longest time I’ve spent away from the kids ever. I’m pretty sure that Vic has the short end of the stick but I’ll really miss them all 🙁
Not sure how much I’ll be able to update in the next fortnight but I’ll try to let y’all know how I get on.
Oh, and I bought a Canon 30D digital SLR to replace my six year old D30 (confusing nomenclature!)
Well I have my trip to the US confirmed. I leave on Saturday 3rd March and get home on Friday 14th – almost two weeks! Oh well, I was warned that this would happen but I’m also up in Auckland for Wed and Thurs this week as well…… Does anyone have any suggestions for things to do in San Fransisco? I have two weeks in Sunnyvale, California and it’s only about an hours drive from SF.
On a more positive note the family and I met up with a very good friend of ours, Gayle, for brunch today. While eating I noticed a nice painting on the wall of the cafe and saw that it was for sale. I mentioned it to Vic and she said that she had also noticed it so 10 minutes later we were the owners of an original piece of art.
