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  • The Internet’s full of strange people who put strange things into search engines. Here’s me thinking I’m reasonably interesting when I get a few visits in my stats only to discover it’s because people stumble on my page from Yahoo looking for things I’ve innocuously mentioned. Some top reasons for visiting my site are apparantly:Ladyboys(mentioned from when I was in Thailand)Schoolgirls(from a photo of Kel and Lou in fancy dress as schoolgirls)Kate(as if there aren’t millions on the...
  • MSN Messenger is a fantastic thing. Just by leaving myself logged in at work I’ve got back in contact with three lost mates whose Hotmail addresses I’d put into the system and found they were online too. Up pops a little window and I’m chatting to people on the other side of the planet. Amazing. Something else that I’ve just discovered is travelblog.net, “a new weblog dedicated to breaking out of provincial mindsets.” In other words, a weblog for and about backpackers and travellers, with links...
  • Just finished reading The Stars’ Tennis Balls by Stephen Fry. Began with usual public school setting, class issues and young boys’ feelings but developed into a much darker story about jealousy and revenge. Began reading it on Sunday, lazing in the garden in the sun, and couldn’t put it down. Thoroughly recommended. Dan’s suggested going to see Unbreakable tonight but, given that everyone’s largely skint and knackered, we’ll probably save ourselves for Fringe Ben’s party tomorrow night. We’ve...
  • It’s all winding down over here in the run up to Christmas. Everyone’s talking about their “summer break”, planning beach holidays between Christmas and New Year. I suppose it makes sense: take your annual holiday around the public holidays and then have more time left for the rest of the year. Just doesn’t feel right. Sue and I are going up to the Coromandel - a Pennisula in the Bay of Plenty - for a few days before New Year on our own. Well, when in Rome and all that… Saw Charlie’s Angels on...
  • Sunburnt. Not hugely, because I did put sun cream on, but enough to get the nickname “beetroot” at work. The ozone layer’s so thin here that even when it’s cloudy you can get burnt - must remember to “slip, slop, slap” (slip on a shirt, slop on sun block and slap on a hat…) Had a great weekend, however. We all went up to the Bay of Plenty on Saturday morning and stayed at Tauranga. Went hiking up Mount Maunganui, swam in the hot thermal pools, parasailed in the sea and drove around lots. The...
  • Hurrah! I’m back designing websites! Executive Taskforce want me to stay on until March and are paying me lots of cash and letting me re-design their corporate websites. Said yes, obviously. Sue’s now on a fixed term contract which makes things a lot more “secure” and we can start saving for travelling next year. Weather’s still bonkers: the sun’s shining, it’s lovely and hot but it’s December! Had my first pint since leaving Britain, last night. And it was Kronenbourg! Fed up with “handles”...
  • New Zealand’s such a great place with lots of things to see and do but it’s easy to forget that the population’s only about three million people and so things aren’t quite on the same scale as back home. A case in point was Rainbow’s End, the “largest” theme park in the country. What they neglected to tell us what that it’s also the only theme park and about as big as one of Alton Towers’ car parks. It was great to be able to walk straight on to every ride but it was hard not to laugh at the...