I’m on a “Aprisma Spectrum” course all week, which is basically a network management tool for the uninitiated. Looks pretty tidy too in the latest flavour, using java and web front-ends to great effect. Certainly much better than what I have been used to in the past!

In other news….2 dimensional time! Fact or fiction? Itzhak Bars seems to think this could be fact as he postulates around the standard physics model and the quantum model, bringing together a number of similarities, and “symmetries” explained by having another dimention to time, one not quite so tangible as the one we are used to. Certainly enough to make you think. This world is changing at an incredible pace…our perception of the universe, time and space, and even our own mortality.

My view is to keep things simple, and not pretend to know any of what I’ve just been talking about. There are a great many things “out there” that we can niether see nor comprehend. Now if scientests want to give these things labels so be it, but it isn’t going to change the type of cereal I eat for breakfast in a hurry, or make me any smarter….whether you label something as a UFO, or a natural phenomena, or an extra dimension - it doesn’t really matter - all these things have always existed and always will in a standard and uniform way, the only thing that seems to be changing is our perceptional language as we try to come up with ways to explain those things we can niether see or know. As scientests all over the world continue to search for the elusive theory of everything I will offer my own simplified equation here and now:-

Everything in the universe = status quo ad infinitum

….yes I admit it….I’ve been reading New Scientist again….

Hehe… not posted in a while huh. Well here I am again…it’s such a beautiful country I now live in, and I am only touching the surface, after doing the ‘Sunday Laundry Routine’ as it has become, I headed off on a bit of an adventure round to Lyall Bay, in the glorious sunshine, and witnessed lots of surf, and sea and sand! Oh and road signs warning about penguins crossing the road lol!

Anyways - here are a few more piccy snippets of my new habitat enjoy >>

Remember Petone from the last lot of photo’s? well I finally challenged my vertigo a bit and climbed a few hundred feet up a hill (in my car mind!!) to bring you this different view:-

Pretty cool huh?

This is a view of ‘Welly’ - Wellington across the bay (which is actually the Ocean believe it or not!)

This is the first of my ‘Lord of the Rings’ shots…it is not the exact location shot but it’s the same river they used for the river Anduin (the one leaving the Elven stronghold of Lothlorien) and it is quite literally on my doorstep….

This is me trying to be arty with my macro on the same river!

This next and final one I entitle ‘Flying Solo’ and is a rather nifty shot I got from my trip last weekend down to Petone.

So much more to do and see, I think next weekend I will head up to Masterton (weather permitting), and see what photo ops present themselves.

In other news…Wild Hogs is a really cool fillum; liken it to a version of ‘Road Trip’ but of the over fortys! Nuff said for now. Soon be halloween and I need to find something clever to wear to the upcoming party (by all accounts one of the biggest in New Zealand!) put it this way, apparently there will be a near life size dragon! If anyone knows what a life size dragon looks like, please let me know ;P

Keep it real, and don’t work too hard now folks!

I have to admit, this is going more smoothly than I thought it would, I’ve been for a bit of a haircut in town, and for the equivelant of about 7 quid, I got a cup of coffee, cut and shampoo - plus some intelligent conversation with a lovelly kiwi lass named Ella…

I’m just freshening up now, before popping out for a ‘Barby’ in this lovelly Spring weather!

Now that I have a motor, I feel free to explore what I really want out of this experience here whether it be learning to crew a boat (one of the things on my list), or continuing my brass band music, or even doing some serious hiking (sorry ‘tramping’ as they call it over here) anyways I’ll catch ya’s all laters…

It would appear a small collony of ants have taken a shine to my bedsit. Oh well, much as I hate killing things they gotta go, so I have laid out some nifty little ‘ant hotels’ filled with some attractive and tasty (yet leathal) cocktails for them…

In other news here are a couple of snaps of the nearby area where I live, I will take some more snaps tomorrow:-

This is a view from the pier at Petone, looking towards Eastbourne (surprisingly in the East!!)

This view is looking across the bay from Wellington City (from some botanical gardens there) the white buildings towards the left in the background is roughly where Petone (pronounced — > Pee-tony) is…

Um…can’t remember what this was, but looked like a good shot so I included it anyways.

Finally back at Petone, on the Pier looking towards my home, you can’t actually see it here, but I live right by those there hills see?? Hmm…well, perhaps once these ants are gone I’ll take some pics a little closer to home ;P

…oh and in other news??? My broadband got switched on early yay!!

The pictures here may make the place I live look ideal, and beautiful, but to put it all in perspective, I live under constant threat of major earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, oh and flooding from the river outside my front door ;P

After having a wander round town today, I happened upon a charming (not quite mint condition) Nissan Sentra (same as the Almira??) 5 door hatch back, central locking, in a dark green. Will have to do a new WOF (Warrant of Fitness - bit like an MOT) in December, and I’ll need to re-register it in November, but I’m otherwise covered until then and it’s currently parked outside my digs.

For a runabout with plenty of space, it cost the equivalent of roughly fifteen hundred quid in UK dosh - bargain in my opinion, but heh….I’m no expert and I am sure I’ll get told off by the ’so called’ experts at work on Tuesday….

Anyways, just wanted to share the joyous news - I’m off exploring now…laters

Wooohooo….my broadband will be activited in 4 days!! In the meantime, I am making do with ‘free’ dial-up….

I have spent this morning, going through a few second hand car sites, medical insurance sites, and house and car insurance sites (I forgot just how slow dial-up was!) Based on still supporting my UK mortgage, I am still clear ‘bi-weekly’ by over $30!! That’s by over estimating all my premiums too and based on a larger than normal food bill (and assumes I own a car) - so all in all I am definitley on target for doing things better this time round than I did when I first moved into my house in the UK! Back then I was a novice, unsure of the real cost behind living on my own - now I am finding things a breeze - I’m not sitting up at night worrying about where my money is going, and because the pay system over here is either weekly or in my case bi-weekly I can better plan my finances….

My next payday will be on….Halloween of all days! hehe…anyways it’s after 3pm and I have been a lazy git all day, so I am off out to get some shopping for tea….laters.

Still waiting for my home broadband to be switched on, home being the nice little bedsit I found in my first week. To those stalwart fans of my blog you may have noticed a small suspension of service…. this was thanks to an unscrupulous “phisher” continuing to pound at the vulnerablilities of my website.

Like I’ve got nothing better to do, than to sit on hold to someone in the US to fix it, kudos to my host though once I got through they were quick and understanding.

Today is a momentous occasion though, it is officially my first payday of my new job, and I am now in a position to go shopping for a car (yippeee). Not that I don’t mind walking places because it’s good exercise, the main shopping mall to where I live is about four miles away, and gives me a leasuirly 45min walk in the improving Spring weather, yes the sun is making more of an appearance. Regarding pay over here, things are done slightly differently, instead of being paid monthly I am being paid bi-weekly; something of a knock back from the agricultural history of New Zealand I think? Anyways, that’s why a lot of things over here are quoted at weekly rates instead of monthly. In order to help this approach internet and phone services are quoted ‘monthly’ …..aaargh!!!

Nuff said for now (because I am still at work and have to be sparing with my internet useage); watch out for more regular updates AND photgraphic proof I really am in New Zealand after my ‘bedsit’ broadband is switched on….honest!

Most things work, surprisingly; makes a change from an IT perspective I guess?? I now have a tidy little bedsit, only took me a week, and it’s in my budget so all going to plan (yay), just “NEED” to find some wheels…

Also hooked up with a brass band guy at work, who plays for a top section band in Wellington (some ex Black Dykes Mills/William Fairie Engineering peps in it too!!) so I’ll head over for a listen (doubt I’m the right calibre for them)….luckily though there is a lower section band in Lower Hutt (where I live at the moment) which should be cool when I find them…

Weather is attrocious!! Spring my @#$@ but I am told this is typical for an October, gail force winds, rain, thunder, more rain, more wind etc…. hence the lack of photo’s, once the weather clears up I’ll take some pics.

That’s all from me for now, finger’s crossed I get my own internet connection ASAP!