marc.vic.max.elliot

Penang is off!  There weren’t enough people booked on the course to make it worthwhile so it’s been canned.  The following week I might be back in Sydney though………

Vic is very excited (as is her Mum) because Alison, Vic’s sister, gets back after two years of travelling around the world. Her flight from Santiago, Chile gets in tomorrow morning and she’ll see Max for the first time!  It’ll be interesting to see how Max reacts to her

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions in regards to my ICS problem (esp. Tom and Stu) I finally tracked the problem down this afternoon – it was a Zone Alarm Pro issue and I seem to have it sorted out.  The easy thing of course would be to go wireless and buy a router… maybe next payday 😮

What else was I going to say………………….. oh, that’s right! The next 26 things project has started and hopefully I’ll get time (about a 20% chance I’d say)

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I’ve spent most of the day today loading a laptop up with XP pro and then trying to get it to share my internet connection using ICS. It’s supposed to be easy – is it f*ck!!!! If it’s easy then why won’t the bloody thing work?! Oh well I’ll shut down for the night and see how we go in the morning…….

This was a surprise win as a POTD at digitalphotocontest.com today

Here’s my own version of a Friday five

? This shows how much my life has changed:  This morning I was off into town to look for a suit bag for my trip to Sydney on Monday and was looking for my watch (well, one of them ) but couldn’t find it for the life of me.  I looked everywhere (I thought) for about 15 minutes and in the end gave up and put my lovely Longines dress watch on.  As I was leaving the house I brushed past the breakfast bar and knocked something onto the ground and lo and behold there was my watch!  The funny thing (at least to me) was that my Tag Heuer Chronograph had been hiding under an (unused) disposable nappy(diaper) Oh the irony!

? Max has now got to the stage where you can chase him and he knows what’s going on.  If he’s in the mood and you crawl after him he speeds away and laughs/screams hysterically!  Very cool and great fun for me

? A difference between the UK and NZ.  Today I parked in a car parking building in the center of Wellington and, after seeing my brother in the building and having a chat to him, left the car parked for almost 4 hours with the passenger window wound down.  I came back to discover that the inside of the car seemed untouched.  Good old NZ

? Our new fridge turned up yesterday It is so much bigger and much nicer than our borrowed fridge.  We moved all the food over and the damned thing was only about a third full!

? I still can’t believe that I have to check in at 04:00 on a public holiday for my flight to Sydney on Monday…………

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Moving is a pain in the arse! The flat we’re moving to doesn’t have cable either so Max will have to say goodbye to Uncle Leo from TechTV

Today the weather is clear but breezy.  Southerly swell and northerly breeze make for an interesting walk along the coast…..

Postcards. Usually pictures of places with enough room on the back for one slightly expanded thought.

Jen was bemoaning the fact that people don’t write to each other much any more.  Of course I took this to heart and after an exchange of postal addresses there was a postcard from li’l old NZ winging it’s way to Boston and one from Boston (showing Beacon Hill) making it’s merry way over here.

I thought this was great and so when Lor said that she was moving from the US to London I thought it would be nice for her to have a wee surprise waiting for her when she got there She had sent out her address quite some time before she moved and so a week or so before she flew out I sent off a postcard. Lo and behold it was waiting for her when she got to her new apartment in her new country

So my question is – anyone else want a postcard from the South Pacific?  If so, drop me an email (marc(at)marcandvic(dot)com) with your postal address and we’ll see what we can do.

In the UK when I would leave a bus by the front door I would say “cheers” to the driver. I would do this for providing me with a service just as I would say thank you to a shop assistant. People, including the driver more often than not, would look at me as though I was some kind of freak (but at least a polite one )

In NZ 90% of passengers say “thank you driver” when they get off the bus – even saying it loudly from the back door.

One small difference between the two countries. 

Don’t go to bed early thinking you’ll get started and just read a few pages of Digital Fortress by Dan Brown.

If you do you might just end up still being awake, bleary eyed and low on battery, at 01:30 so that you can finish it and see what happens…….zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Good book though

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Well it’s Monday (again!) and the highlight of the weekend had to be the All Blacks taking the Bledisloe cup back off the Aussies. Good on ya boys!

? Whilst looking at other 26things sites I came across Deb’s blog – Slipstream. She’s lives in Wellington and has a fantastically amusing, easy going, words-roll-out-of-your-brain-and-onto-the-screen style of writing that I can only dream about.  Check it out.

? If the only carbs or protein you’ve had for three days is a solitary potato don’t, I repeat don’t, go for a run up a big f*cking hill. You will feel as though somebody has come along and given you two strings of wet spaghetti for legs only minutes after leaving home. Just trust me on this, OK

? Damn! I am eating a carrot and typing and I’ve just bitten my inside of my lip….. and I’m bleeding…..ouch!

? Max is becoming more “mobile” by the day. He’s not actually crawling or anything but he’s going from sitting to lying to rolling over with the greatest of ease.  I really don’t want to be in this shithole of a flat when he becomes truly mobile. Gotta get me a job and toot-sweet dammit.  I had a phone interview the other day which seemed to go OK and the guy said that he’d like to meet me in person……..we’ll see what happens.

That’s about it for now. The last two entries have been bullet points I know but that’s how life feels at the moment – kind of staccato’ish.

Oh and I think I’ve stopped bleeding