I woke up today after a rare and extended sleep-in, not to the incessant chatter of National Radio but to the friendly chirp of the local cicadas. After giving myself the old two S’s and downing a delicious healthy breakfast, I decided that from now on Sunday should be a computer-free day. No Google, no Panoramica, no web development, no nothing. Just me, Sunday, and possibly that big list of non-computery things that I always find myself procrastinating on, in favour of their more appealing digital cousins.
That thought lasted about 10 minutes, at which point I realised that I was missing some crucial bit of knowledge (about floor mats, no less) and rushed off to fire up the laptop, so I could get the lowdown from Google.
After a couple of fruitless searches, and a brief interlude for the third S, I concluded that there was no information available online. I had however become somewhat more informed about Otis Frizzel and Mark Williams, and become sufficiently inspired to post my first blog for 2010.
I moved back to Wellington in January, and Kate and I have set up house in the Wellington suburb of Karori. On the face of things, Karori seems like any other suburb, but delve a little deeper…
Things not to do in Karori #1:
Do not go to the park to eat your dinner.
If you do decide to go the park to eat your dinner, do not look like you are enjoying it.
Do not savour each oily French fry, each fatty bite of cheesy garlicky bread that greets your tastebuds.
Do not loll your fizzy ginger ale about in your mouth. Do not delight in the spicy sauce on your foil wrapped kebab.
Do not point out the slow joggers. Do not force more chips into your mouth than can reasonably fit, as the slow runners complete another slow lap.
Do not tempt the well-meaning exercisers with your evil treats.
Do not question the menu of the closed cafe on the side of the running track, nor wonder at the yet unserved beverages waiting unopened in the closed clubrooms.
Do not stare at the anorexic mother staring back at you in disgust, because you, sir, are definitely not from around here.
The damp, rainy cloud we have been living in for the past week has finally moved on, and we are now bathed in the sweet goodness of sunshine, via blue skies and a gentle welcoming breeze.
I hope this signals the end of winter and that I can soon ditch my alpaca slippers and dust off my favourite jandals once again!
Posted in Spring, Weather
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It is with great pleasure that I upload the first of (hopefully) many new photos to my stagnating Flickr account.
With our bond refund due any day, we decided to splash out and buy a new Leica digital camera to replace the faithful Sanyo that passed away over a year ago, during a snowy downhill run in our old hillside suburb of Costorphine.
The Leica’s maiden voyage was to Wellington and Ohakune, catching up with friends and attending a surprise birthday bash, but sadly missing my mother’s birthday lunch.
With time running out, we’ll have to make a concerted effort to document our take on Dunedin, before we leave at the year’s end.
Ok, now I know that Dunedinites are probably more hardy than their Wellingtonian counterparts, but for the life of me I cannot see the appeal of Mr Whippy icecream at 6pm on a Friday night when it’s cold outside and the sun has long since gone, er, where the sun don’t shine..
And yet both in my old residence in Kew and my new residence in Brockville, come nightfall, I regularly hear that friendly chime and the rumble of the Mr Whippy refrigeration van.
So what gives? What is the appeal of cold ice-cream when it’s cold and dark outside? When the sun can’t beat down on your cone and melt its frosty contents, regardless of what season it actually is (it’s autumn now..).
Is it perhaps similar to the appeal of a hot cup o’ tea on a hot day?
If you know the answer please enlighten me. I shall be eternally grateful!
Cheers,
Dan
There was snow on the ground this morning, so I took some time to catch up on some (frozen) rainy day activities, downloading Panorama Maker Pro and AutoPano Pro to try my hand at stitching together panoramas of some old holiday photos.
Although some of the panoramas turned out better than others, it was great to see all of the photos as part of the ‘bigger picture’, and to relive some great holiday memories.
AutoPano Pro (based on AutoStitch) turned out to be the more able of the two apps, but it was also much more complex. It will be a case of RTFM before I really get a handle on what I am doing here. In lieu of reading the instructions I sometimes found myself resorting to Photoshop to fix some glaring errors.
Check out the panoramas, from:
Cheers,
Dan
Welcome to another year! 
I hope it’s a good one for you.
This is my first summer down South. I moved down to Dunedin in March of last year and experienced my first urban snowfall in June. I’m still undecided on which season I prefer here – winters are quite bearable in front of the wood burner, with a whiskey in hand (and it helps that I work from home), while summers are all about swimming, riding and ice-cold Summer Ales.. yum!
I’ve just updated the site to show the latest post from each of my subsites. Because it’s summer, my enthusiasm for indoor activities is somewhat lacking. As a result, development on the new panoramica.co.nz site has temporarily stalled, and my other blogs are also long overdue for some attention.
My Flickr account has also not been updated in a long while, as I wrecked my faithful digital camera when I took it tobogganing during the snowfalls in June 
Oh well, never mind, life is too short to worry about such things.
If you subscribe to one of the RSS feeds, then when I do get some new content up, you’ll be the first to know Until then, take it easy, go outside, and enjoy our brief NZ summer!
Cheers,
Dan
We awoke early Saturday morning to find our hillside suburb of Kew blanketed in fresh powder. Slipped and slid out way over to the park to do downhill runs on our old Ultimate discs. What a great start to the weekend!
