Greetings, 2012.
You bring my daughter’s birthday. January 1st, you have changed my life for ever, and each year will start with a celebration of the day that my daughter came into my life. Happy birthday, lovely Liv. I hope you enjoyed your early birthday party with your cousins, and your birthday morning nap, [...]
It has been a lovely Christmas, with sunny weather, milkshakes, beaches, and paddling pools. Although the weather has broken down today, Liv has had a lovely time clambering all over me and hanging out with her cousins from Central Otago. We have been skyping regularly back to London for her to see her grandparents and [...]
The weekend was good – not only was it Kate’s birthday, but we managed to spend the weekend not worried about selling a house or looking for a new place to live (so I can stop this long commute). Nevertheless, I was on the train this morning to get to Wellington. Four more days to [...]
The last three days of last week were phenomenal. We have had our house in Northland, Wellington on the market for the past month or so. We hadn’t had a serious call about it through the estate agent, until last Wednesday at about 2pm. I was on my way to see another house that we [...]
Today is the first work day for about a month where I have not been rushed off my feet. Factor in being a Dad and a husband, striving to be a good son, brother and Uncle, trying to buy a house, sell a house, viewing houses, getting a mortgage, traveling, writing, reading, commuting, and I’m [...]
On the plane back to New Zealand, I’m reflecting on the latest instalment of work away from My Wellington base: another trip to Beijing to represent New Zealand at a Chinese Government sponsored symposium on post-disaster psychosocial care. For the last 3 days, Chinese and international representatives – USA, Russia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Cambodia, [...]
I don’t do premium economy. Until now. Let me explain. The last few long haul flights for me on Air New Zealand have been excellent, and I have had chats with the flight service managers. They noted that I was not ‘one of their frequent flyers’ but had my Star Gold with another programme In [...]
It’s odd traveling when the NZ general election count had just started to reveal the picture of the next Parliament and the shape of the next Government. The final configuration was still to be revealed, and it was marginal as to whether National was going to be able to govern alone, or may have to [...]
As I sit in Auckland airport waiting for another flight to Beijing, I am following the election results rolling in on twitter. It has been a weird campaign, which has seen John Key twiddling his thumbs and refuse to engage in eye contact with the leader of the opposition during a televised debate just days [...]
An interesting thing happened while I was chatting to the mechanics in the bike shop in Beijing. When answering their question via Google Translate on what I was doing in China and what I did for work, I said that I was a psychologist. I’m not sure what Google translated that as, but both the [...]
Today is the 5th year anniversary of Air New Zealand flying to Chinese, so champagne all round for all passengers today, in all classes of the plane. the staff of Air New Zealand have been playing a blinder as far as I am concerned on recent flights: Debby Lemon in particular – kudos to you. [...]
I am more than ready to go home – by about two days overstay, I think. I am missing Liv and Kate a lot, and Liv seems so grown up on Skype now – when I could get it to work from being the Great Chinese Firewall. The impact of the firewall is profound, I [...]
After a bit of a wash-out day yesterday getting hopelessly lost in deepest Beijing where I had no gadgetry working or guidebook to hand, today is much better. I managed to find a Dahon shop a few blocks away, where some really nice guys almost sold me a Dream (or HAT 660). However, I took [...]
I’m not sure how much I am giving away any kind of secret here, but I was wondering why so many people in the 20-something generation here in Beijing in cafes etc seemed to have keyboard Kindles. Well, I had a hunch that a 3G version might somehow not be subject to the great Chinese [...]
Staying pretty close to the Olympic Stadium – The Bird’s Nest. Not that I can see it much. The air in Beijing today must be like the pea-soupers of old in London. We arrived in what looked like fog before dawn. It hasn’t shifted much and it is yellow and it smells. The problem isn’t [...]
This is an older 777-200ER, so not one of the flashier planes in the Air New Zealand stable these days. I hear they are having some trouble with relatively low loads on this route, so I’m not surprised they are low down on the refit list. Having said that, the service is great, as usual. [...]
I have been back in New Zealand for about a month now. The journey was ok until LA. But at that point, Liv’s body clock starting going astray, and therefore so did ours. I will gloss over details, but the flight from LA to Auckland was a nightmare and I only got about 10 minutes [...]
I am not at work today. I got home past 3am after attempting to pick up my sister and nephew at the airport. They were flying in from Greece to spend some time with my parents in London. The weather on the drive to and from the airport was awful. Rain and fog.
It was [...]
Are we in June already? How did that happen. My daughter Liv is now 5 months old, and we are starting to think about leaving London to base ourselves in NZ again. So, lots of things to finish off at work as well as sorting out rental arrangements and finances at both ends of the [...]
I’ll be changing the topline to this blog, as we’ll be moving back to NZ in September this year. The opportunities and quality of life on offer are better for us there at the moment, so it makes sense for now. If that wasn’t exciting enough, I had my birthday earlier this week, and along [...]
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