Stonehenge and off to Vienna

It was my last couple days in the UK and I was staying with Jarlath. They gave me a great place to sleep and cooked some awesome food. They also enjoyed playing the train game and stomping me at it. It looks like they play trains often by their knowledge of the routes. A gracious host would have let the guest win at least on game.

The final day in London went well. As I was heading to the airport it started raining for the first time on the whole trip. The weather in Vienna is supposed to be sunny and warm. Booya weather goblins.

Here is a final shot of the backside of the London Eye.

From Weekend in Vienna

The last customer that we met with happened to be near Stonehenge so after the visit we drove some back roads to the rocks. On the way we drove by seemingly ancient old houses. One of them had a 4 foot thick thatched roof that looked amazing. I wish that I would have gotten a picture of it.

I must say that if you are ever in the area then Stonehenge is a visit you must make. There is something amazing about looking at 5500 year old stones that are a big mystery.

From Weekend in Vienna

I left Saturday morning for Vienna so I have the whole weekend to see the town before the customer visit on Monday. It is only about a two hour flight from Heathrow, we barely got off the ground before we were landing again.

I really want to go and see Fritzie's house. The crazy guy who locked up his daughter in the basement. I am sure that I can find someone to take me on a tour.

From Weekend in Vienna

The architecture in Vienna is really nice because in the old town part of downtown all of the buildings are about the same height. It adds a really nice symmetry and flow to the town. On the weekend it looks like they close most of the downtown area off to cars so it is pedestrian only. The streets were packed with people, I was getting a bit claustrophobic at points but I didn't freak out. I am a zen master.

From Weekend in Vienna

MOVENPICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Weekend in Vienna

Since the streets were so wide all of the cafes had ample room for sidewalk seating. This cafe that I ate at was inside a butterfly house, literally. Through screens you could see all the butterflies in a sort of rainforest environment. They had hammocks out front that people were not giving up.

From Weekend in Vienna

I found an oddly large number of statues of naked people fighting with animals. Why do they hate animals so much?

From Weekend in Vienna

St. Andrews church had an amazing roof.

From Weekend in Vienna

Here is the hotel that I am staying at. It is in a great location just a short walk to all the action.

From Weekend in Vienna

Here is the full photo album from the first day:

Third day in London

The third day in London consisted of lots more walking which is the way to see the city. I left the hotel without any particular plan except I had to be to the Globe Theater at around noon to meet Jarlath and the Family to go to the open day.

Walking down random streets you will see a sign on the side of a building that says "Thomas Edison lived here". Huh, now that is history. Its nice that it is preserved fairly well.

I started by walking up north and ended up at St. Paul's Cathedral. There was a nice grassy area next to the cathedral so I chilled out and read a book for a while.

From Third Day In London

After that I headed over the Millennium bridge to the Tate Modern. I was standing there looking at a painting in a random room in the Tate and I was thinking "Wow, this is really good". I looked over at the info sheet and yup, Pablo Picasso. It wasn't even protected by glass or anything.

From Third Day In London

The Globe Theater was really nice. They were having a free open day and doing all sorts of demonstrations. My favorite one was the demonstration of female sword fighting.

From Third Day In London

From Third Day In London

Now it is a week of work. But each day will be a new adventure of traveling through the city.

Second day

Today it was off to the Camden Markets and then my first shot at the British Museum.

Bradley mentioned that I should go to the Camden Markets. I had no idea what they were about, I didn't read anything, I just went. Off to the tube...

The underground system here is amazing. It seems like a model of how mass transportation should work. Also, when they say "Underground" they really mean it. When I arrived at the Holborn station on the underground I got off and found the exit. After a short set of stairs I got on my first escalator. It went up and up and up and up. Then I got off of that and found another sign that said "Exit". Turned a corner and there was another monster escalator. I must have been 12 stories under ground.

Also, the tube system here is amazing easy to understand. I think the hardest part was figuring out where to buy tickets and how they worked. And it wasn't difficult at all. I never had to wait more than a couple minutes for one to show up.

Anyhow, back on the Camden Markets. Off the tube I was thrown onto a street scape that I could only describe as a post-apocalyptic goth-punk mecca. Tons of stores that were selling leather body suits, not the BDSM ones, the "I am punker than you" type leather body suits.

From Camden Market

With no map I just started walking around checking stuff out. People were sort of filing into this area with a few stalls of things for sale so in I went. I just kept walking and walking and walking and there was no end to the little stalls with things for sale. Anything that you wanted for an Alt lifestyle was found here. From Candles to wind chimes, from Rave gear to Antiques, from jewelry to Japanese items. Hundreds upon hundreds of stalls. I was just completely overwhelmed. I realized that when I got back on the Underground to come back that I didn't buy anything.

From Camden Market

Back in on the tube and it was off to the British Museum. I was pretty beat by this point so I only spent about an hour in the museum before heading back to the hotel room to chill out. I will give the full details after I spend more time there.

From Camden Market

After the conclusion of day 2 I am really impressed with London although I don't think that I would live here. The cost of living is through the roof.

Here are all the the pictures:

London - More than half way around the world

The First Day:

My trip to London is starting off great. The flights from New Zealand involved a 3 hour flight to Sydney, then an 8 hour flight to Singapore, then finally the long haul of 13 hours to London. Luckily I magically got upgrade to Business class on the flight from Singapore to London. Business class is much nicer than premium economy since the seats fold almost flat and I got to live out one of my life's dreams which was to ride on the top floor of a 747.

In the airport in Sydney there was one of the new Airbus A380 planes. From the side it doesn't look all that big, then when you see it from behind it looks like a monster. Supposedly my flight that I have back from London is an A380 on the days other than my flight.

I left New Zealand at 1:30PM and got into London 26 hours later at 6:30 AM. It sounds like hell but it wasn't really all that bad, maybe because I was in Business for the worst of it.

Check-in to the hotel room wasn't until noon so I had a half day to check out the sites. My first stop was Trafalgar Square.

From First day in London

Just on the walk from my hotel to the square the history was amazing. The buildings are mostly ominous big stone constructions which are ornately designed. The detail on them is amazing.

All of the sites that you have seen in movies or pictures are larger than life. When you see Westminster Abbey in the distance or Big Ben come looming out from around a corner it is an unmistakable experience.

From First day in London

I heard that the weather here was bad, they weren't wrong. Rainy and cold with a hint of depression in the air. People are just hoping for the sun to come out. But as Kevin always says "Hope is not a strategy". Now here is an optimist:

From First day in London

Buckingham Palace was pretty cool:

From First day in London

There was no shortage of pubs:

From First day in London

I think that the highlight of the day was Westminster Abbey. As most of you know, I am not the biggest fan of churches but I really wanted to go see Charles Darwin's grave. The abbey's construction is really a wonder of the world. The whole thing seems to be constructed as a monetary pissing match between rulers. All of the monuments to the leaders needed to be more grandiose than the previous one which caused an almost nuclear war type escalation waged with money.

I did get to stand on Charles Darwin's grave which was awesome. My brain couldn't comprehend the awesomeness of that.

From First day in London

Big Ben at noon:

From First day in London

Now my goal is to get my body clock back on the local schedule. I slept from 10:00 until about 3:00 so I am almost there.

Today I am off to a couple markets and then to start my expedition to the British National Museum.

Here is a slideshow of the rest of the pictures from the day:

X-Terra Triathlon

This weekend I'm heading down to the X-Terra Triathlon in Rotorua. I'm doing the swim (1000m) and the run (11k trail run). I don't have a mountain bike so a friend is going to do that bit. I'm easily in shape for both legs. I'm just a little bit nervous about riding my motorbike down to Rotorua as I haven't done a distance ride in sometime. I should be fine.

So for now I've banned myself from (kinda) high heels for the week as my arches have been killing me.

Bianchi Volpe 1 Yr Challenge Month 9

My Bianchi Volpe is still holding up quite well on month 9 of my one year bicycle challenge. Last month I had an accident and landed on the hood of a car and luckily did not get hurt. Landing on the hood of a car is a lot softer than landing on concrete. The Volpe took some damage to the head gear and that had to be replaced for $90 but had it been in a car the damage would have been a lot more expensive.

Adventure Cycles is now my favorite bike shop. The owner is fantastically patient with his motley crew of local budding young bike mechanics and a significant contributor to other community activities. I like supporting the next generation of bike mechanics, even if I had to teach them a few things about replacing head pieces, which isn't something that you do very often. (Un)Fortunately I'll have to ride across town to get to his new bike shop location.

Northland NZ Tour - 6 Highlights

I went up north with a friend who was determined to go to the tip of New Zealand. So we did just that this last 'extended' weekend. Here are the six highlights and all of the pictures:

1. Paihia (Bay of Islands)- nice little town with ferry access to Russel and is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed aka birthplace of New Zealand. Would recommend the Pickled Parrot hostel. I could easily spend a few weeks in this area exploring.



2. KeriKeri - is a cute little cafe town and check out historic stone store.

3. Mahinepua - absolutely stunning views and lots of little coves and beaches to explore.


4. Coopers Beach - great place to bring parents and family.

5. Ahipara - Nice 'easy going' town. Good small surf break at high tide and access to 90 mile beach. Avoid at low tide as all the 4-wheelers take over the beach. Would not recommend the YHI in this town. Overpriced not too nice.

6. Cape Reinga - Must see the tip of NZ. Great views, good for a walkabout. Be warned it's a 'tapu' site so you aren't supposed to eat or drink at the park. Wasn't sure why there was a drinking fountain?


7. Rawraw Beach - The softest most beautiful white sand I've ever walked on. Period. I've spent a lot of time beach bumming and this sand was so soft because of all of the silica that naturally occurs in the area. Favorite NZ beach... for the moment.


View Larger Map

Well the last of my mad cartographic skills are now gone as illustrated with this rough sketch of our trip, from my ozone proof lips to your fingertips.

National Party is messing up transport in Auckland now

Did you mark my words..?... oh wait I did...where I posted here about how National Party was doing OK but needed to do something more with sustainable transport.

Well they messed up by reallocating all of the money set aside for public transport to more state highways. They divert your attention away from where the money came from by saying it was through administration costs. This doesn't stack up because how can they have streamlined $420 million on administrative costs if they haven't laid anybody off? Yes they have probably saved some on paper letterhead costs but the organization still has the same people, just governed by a different board. That money is coming out of money set aside for public transport, and walking and cycling funding. They've conveniently left out that sound bite.

I understand that Mr. Keyes may be hesitant to try to 'force' people from their cars. But the Auckland Northern Busway is an example of a well run public transport system that is packed full of people who find it more convenient and cheaper to use than driving.

In the rural areas, yes, roads are better for transporting agriculture goods. But a rural solution cannot be imposed on a growing metropolitan area constrained by the harbours. It's just not going to work and now it's going to take another year for them to figure that out, just like it took the Labour party to figure this out . It's just a matter of time before the gas prices rise again and little ol' NZ will be at the bottom of the proverbial barrel.

The logic is by investing in more infrastructure New Zealand will boost the economy with jobs. Well this logic applies equally to public transport in the Auckland area. Auckland is geographically constrained. There are no more places to build roads so now they are just gold-plating the motorways. Well if that is the case they might as well gold plate them with cycleways.

Bring on the Auckland Royal Commission, as the system we have now is not delivering, no matter what party is in flavour. Maybe they'll be able to provide some leadership.

We're making our engagement rings

We're taking a jewelry making class at workshop 6 in Kingsland here's a picture of our first silver rings, pendants (with brown stone), engagement mock ring (copper silver) and the beginnings of our wedding bands. For our engagement rings we are essentially piecing together three different bands trying to keep it simple yet interesting.

The gold came from these mini 'bars' of gold that we stretched through a 'ringer'.

We bought the gold through there wholesaler, but it wasn't cheap like silver that's for sure.

4 Things the National Party is Doing Right

I'll just say it right now I did not vote for the National Party (it's the republican equivalent). I was very excited to vote at a poll in NZ, as I have always done mail ballots in Oregon.

So here are 4 things the National Party is doing right.

1. They didn't mess it up with a bad copyright law and made it onto boingboing.
2. They are reviewing the Resource Management Act. It's their version of land use planning, but it really sucks, as it doesn't achieve good results. Whenever you say that to planners in NZ they look at you like your a pariah. In their minds, the only other alternative is going to be horrendously bad. The problem is it takes twice as long to permit projects as most other countries and this costs MONEY! As I've been told, the RMA was the national party idea, and they can now fix it. ...nuff said
3. The National Party is talking about a national cycleway. A cycleway? That's right, while most local councils are cutting back on walking and cycling infrastructure, they are talking about a national cycleway.
3. The National Party is continuing to invest in broadband infrastructure, despite telecos 'promising' they can deliver better than the govertnment. Yeah right! Cell phone reception sucks and the pricing structure is really expensive. Last week vodaphone voicemail went out for a day. They are barely keeping the systems running as it is. They have no incentive to provide cheaper more reliable services. We had better internet connection in Costa Rica than New Zealand.

Some things that are questionable - They are increasing spending in State highways. However, these projects are mostly in rural areas where the permit process had been completed. Somewhat logical but they still need to find some ways to quickly support sustainable transport in Auckland. This is urgent.

Muriwai Beach first day of summer

 

Thanksgiving bbq at the beach in Muriwai

Moving to New Zealand Plug

You may have missed it but some folks in Wellington posted a comment requesting to plug a new dvd about moving to New Zealand. They are from the east coast US and are now living in Wellington. Anything that helps skilled labour move to NZ is OK by me. Granted I've never seen this video so can't vouch for it. But if they wanted to send me a free dvd, and I'll check weather its good, and later post a nice review I would.

send to:
21A Cathedral Pl
Parnell, Auckland

Yes it's a shameless ploy for something free, but hey, I'm already in NZ and don't really need to watch it.

My first duo sport swim/run

I did a Stroke and Stride event at St. Heliers. 750m swim, 3 k run and I am pooped. I was really nervous about it, mostly about the transition and not having the flash gear, and having my blabs hanging out everywhere.

When I arrived at the race there were some real pros (totally buff hot people) walking around. Crap-oh-crap I thought. Well I walked around and eyed some ladies that looked more my style sat down and set out my stuff. Turned out they were talking about doing other runs/thons/tris etc or about how they got home drunk the other night. Whew! My kind of people.

I pushed it really hard for the 750m swim because I knew swimming was my better suite. What sucked is that I got out of the swim early in the pack and then just had everybody pass me on the run. I only passed two people running a - girl walking and an old man doing a half gnome like kiwi-shuffle (the guys start 20 minutes before the girls).

And I won a cool hat at the prize give away. I'm definitely going to do another event soon. I'll drag Adam along next time so I won't have to ride my bike home. That was the grilling bit. That added another 25km to my day on top of 8 hours at work. Work is definitely going to get in the way here soon.

Parenting Beyond Belief

For all the parents out there, I came across a really cool seminar for parents:

Participants learn effective ways to encourage religious literacy without indoctrination; help kids interact productively with a religious world; help kids develop active moral reasoning; weigh church-state issues in the public sphere; address sensitive issues with religious relatives using the principles of nonviolent communication; help children develop a healthy understanding of death and a joyful love of life; build a family atmosphere of fearless questioning and boundless wonder; and much more.

Here's the link:

I did the Auckland Harbour Crossing!

Yay, I swam across the Auckland Harbour today in the organized sea swim. I could have swam a lot farther. I think I'll try to do another ocean swim for a farther distance. They do a swim around Rangitoto that is about 4.8kms. I think the only thing holding me back is the chafing around my neck from my wetsuit. I used some anti-chafing stuff (comes in a deodorant type dispenser), which helped, but I still have a sensitive raw ring around my neck that burned like hell when I took a bath. I'll post my time result when they come in.

I was going to go for a jog today too, to start preparing for a triathlon, but I fell fast asleep after my bath. I'm making up for the last two sleepless nights. I think I was a little nervous, glad I finished and had fun.

Auckland Harbour Crossing Swim

It's time for me to do something crazy. I've been training for the Auckland Harbour Swim. I think I'm prepared. Yesterday I swam 3000 metres at the Parnell baths (cold saltwater pool), and I have been doing some open water swims with a local group at Kohimarama so feel fairly prepared, but it will still be a challenge. I'm looking forward to it. Wish me luck!

I hope my teeth don't get too cold and fall out.

Dental Implants in New Zealand

As some of you may know, I've had some dental problems stemming from an accident as a little girl. My two front teeth, literally, where knocked dead and I have been very careful with a second set of crowns on them. They finally both came loose at the same time, and I had both of the entire tooth pulled and two titanium implant posts as replacements. Titanium apparently does a really good job of 'melding' to the jaw bone. I have some really gross photos to go with the event. Dr. Collins at Newmarket Dental and Dr. Myers at the Institute of Dental Implantology. This website explains what happened.

This is a not-so-gross photo, but there are plenty more really gross ones here. These are my actual 'not' teeth. Oddly enough these new teeth (with temporary crowns until I get porcelain replacements in a couple of months) feel tons stronger than my natural teeth. Now I have a bionic mouth! And, yes, it was really expensive.

Still on the bicycle challenge

I've been riding to work everyday rain or shine. Yay, it's been fun and I've lost a little weight, fortunately no close encounters with cars since day 1.

Yesterday I opted not to ride my bike because of a dentist appointment, then I was going to take a taxi to work. For various reasons I ended up riding the bus to work during rush hour and it was soooo painfully slow. Urgh, I'd rather ride my bike in the pouring rain than ride the bus in rush hour. People were walking faster than the bus and I still had to walk a kilometer or so to work so what is normally a 8-10 minute bike ride turned into an hour long bus commute.

On the dentist, my front tooth cracked off from a weak crown and now I have to get a dental implant. It's going to be soo fun! I can't wait, plus I have nothing better to spend my money on. Dental insurance doesn't cover 'cosmetic' - since when does replacing a tooth equate to cosmetics? Insurance companies suck.