I emailed my ISP this evening with a complaint about my connection speed. Here’s the automated reply:
Thank you for contacting Xtra Broadband.
Your email will be answered as soon as possible. However, due to the high volume of emails we are receiving, our response time can be up to 5 days. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Thank you. Xtra Broadband.
Funny 
Google rocks Ever seen the weird and wacky versions of Google?
Haxxor version
Pig-Latin Version
Elmer Fudd version
Muppet Swedish Chef version
Firefox Special Version
So, an update at last
In April Vic and I spent the weekend away in a place called Martinborough which is about an hours drive north of here and spent some time with adults doing adult type things.
Last weekend we went to the same place with most of the same people and had a fantastic time (again!) This time we stayed at a homestay called Todds Cottage (visit the site!). The weekend was full of great food, good drink and fun activities. After dropping Elliot off at my Mum’s place (Ali and Clay had Max) on Friday night we drove up and after a few drinks at the local had a lovely meal back at the cottage cooked by Ian and Ngahuia. Saturday was the activity day and so we split by gender and while the girls went off to be pampered at Turret House the boys spent two hours quad biking on the hills and in the rivers around Martinborough. It was one of the most fun things I have done and I found out that my quad bike topped out at 73kph on grass
Saturday night was a night out and the restaurant of choice this time The French Bistro. The restaurant has rated really well and even has positive comments from the likes of the New York Times food critic. With such a build up it was a shame that most us thought it was crap! Rubbish service was matched by mediocre food – I had whatever is French for Steak and chips – the steak was nice but served with shoestring fries that could have come from McDonalds and 5, yes 5, green beans. And that cost me 30 bucks….. Ah well at least we had plenty to drink 
All in all a great weekend!
It’s 21:36 and I’m still finishing off some Dell stuff before I go to Christchurch for the next two days with work.
So much for the update I promised you!
See ya
I know most of them must be webbots, crawlers, spiders and any number of automated trawling devices (176 visitors at one time? puurlease!) but 300,000+ hits is kinda cool
My next entry (tomorrow I promise) will tell you about the lovely weekend that Vic and I just spent in Martinborough san kids (but with adults!)
So we made it back from holiday in one piece! I must admit though that on a few occasions we could have easily been a child down……. New Zealand’s a big place to hide the wee body of a stroppy kid I tell ya
So in chronological order:
The first day was spent travelling from Wellington to Napier along State Highway 2 which is usually a 4 hour trip. Now before my overseas friends get carried away with the term ”State Highway 2” you should remember that this is New Zealand and that our second most important road is for the most part a wiggly little road with a lane each way and nowhere near enough passing lanes. 314km (195 miles) really does take 4:00 to 4:30 under normal circumstances! Of course travelling with a 3 year old and an 18 month old is hardly normal circumstances so a large part of the day was spent stopping in rest areas to eat/stretch legs/get Max to pee which was actually a very relaxing way to travel. Time frames were not important so we got to see little places that we wouldn’t normally. This trip would have been slightly shorter if we hadn’t needed to leave home three times! And after all that I went on holiday at the tail end of winter without a jacket of any sort – useless!
When we got to Napier we checked into our accommodation at Kennedy Park (great place for kids – even if just for the Jumping Pillow!) and settled in for the evening. Putting the kids to bed is when it all got interesting though…….. For Elliot there were three things that were new – 1) He was in his travel cot 2) He was in a new room and 3) he was sharing with Max for the first time. After 30 minutes of him going mental we walked back in to have Max, who had been silent up to this point even with Elliot screaming (and boy can he scream), sit up and say “Mummy, I’ve been a good boy but Elliot won’t stop crying and I think I might cry too” – bless him. We moved Max into our bed and he dropped straight off and once Elliot had gone to sleep (about 10 minutes later) we transferred Max back into the room with Elliot.
The next day was to be spent in Napier and in the morning we went to Marineland to see the dolphin (singular as the other one died a while back), the sea lions and the penguins. The show itself was pretty mediocre as there was only one dolphin and she’s 36 but the big male sea lion was quite funny with his barking and clapping and we were there for feeding time which was all a bit of a laugh. Max also had his picture taken with a little blue penguin which scared the hell out of him for some reason so I had it on my lap and Max sat next to me and stroked it. After lunch it was off to the National Aquarium of New Zealand for more sea life and again we planned it for feeding time. This time though it was divers hand feeding massive rays and 6’ long sharks which was much more exciting That was pretty much the day done and the boys went to bed better than the previous night but it still took a while.
The next morning we packed up and went for a bit of a wander around Napier then it was in the car for the 2 hour drive to Taupo. The boys both slept for most of this leg which was nice Once there we had lunch, visited Huka Falls and wandered around town until we could check into our motel. Once that was done it was off to the geothermally heated AC Baths for a dip in their very warm waters with the kids. Neither of them are hugely comfortable in the water (which we need to sort out) but seemed to enjoy themselves none the less. That night the boys were both so knackered that we put them to bed about a foot from each other and they basically crashed – yay!
The Saturday was the highlight for Max I think with the 6-7 hour trip home broken by a trip up to the snow (first time) at the Whakapapa skifield. The weather was atrocious driving up the mountain but it stopped raining just after we pulled into the carpark and after meeting up with Vic’s sister Ali, her boyfriend and some other people we spent 45 minutes playing silly buggers in the snow Max absolutely loved the snow but Elliot, unstable as he is on his feet, was a little unsure and basically stood there giggling at everything that was going on around him. Before too long it was back in the car and a two hour leg to Fielding where we stopped in to see some friends for an hour or so then into the final two hour leg home. Unfortunately due to severe rain the usual last 30 minutes of our trip took two hours! There had been a major slip over State highway One (only slightly better than SH2 BTW) and the diversions were causing havoc.
Home at about 6pm, boys into bed and then Vic and I could sit down and catch our breath…… The trip was a mixture of extreme frustration, tiredness and absolute joy at watching the boys experience loads of new things. The thing about the holiday though is that the great parts will remain in my memory a lot longer than the bad
There are some additional photos in this flickr album
I got back from Sydney last Thursday and was very glad to have no trips planned for about three weeks. The “highlight” of going to Sydney was the fact that Michael Dell himself was in town and we had a Q&A session with him (and 350 of his closest friends). It was interesting to see him in person as it’s never happened to me before and I guess when the boss of 70,000 people is in town then it’s something slightly special.
The other great thing is that as of yesterday I’m on two weeks holiday – much yayness and leaping about ensues…….. Vic pointed out a while back that I hadn’t taken any time off since Elliot was born (almost 18 months) and as my entitlement was creeping up towards 30 days I thought it was a good time to grab a break.
We don’t have a lot planned for the break though. I, of course, have a to-do list of things to do around the house and tomorrow we’re off for 4 days visiting Napier and Taupo and hopefully giving the boys their first real experience of snow up the mountain.
I’ll be taking my camera with me and will hopefully have some snaps to share if a) I get the time and b) the weather permits.
See y’all soon
Morning all and hi from Sydney! Between KL and here I was home for 5 days and it was great to be back. KL was just training so not much to say about it – Sydney has been sales ra-ra stuff and again, not much to say.
Every one at home is well although Elliot seems to be teething again and has turned into a grizzly, dribbly boy. Max just spends his time flipping from gorgeous and funny to stroppy and a pain in the ass – a normal three year old I think!
