Conor & Ildica's Place

November 7, 2011

Hororata Highland Games & the Trimble ‘Tug of War’ team

The village of Hororata across the Canterbury Plains was holding it's inaugural Highland Games this weekend to raise funds for the community there to recover from the "Darfield" earthquake in September 2010. Trimble got a last minute call from MoreFM to enter a team in the Tug of War competition but, after getting through the heats unbeaten, our team went out with a small whimper in the semi-finals. Great day out, with plenty to see and do, including Highland dancing, pipe bands, fairground rides, etc.

Kudos to Cam, Geoff, Ildica, Jason, Jonathan, Mark, Michael, Neil, Norman, Pat & Steve!  And Pat’s Highland dancing girls, Isla & Mhairi.

Full gallery here.

Posted by conor at 9:20 AM

October 7, 2011

Diary of a Demo

Over the last month, Nikau Construction have been demolishing the shell of Trimble's Building One here in Christchurch which was gutted by fire back in May.  It's been fascinating to watch, although a little unnerving when it's often difficult to distinguish one of our (fortunately diminishing!) aftershocks from a heavy piece of concrete crumbling to the ground just outside.  It may well take about 18 months before it's replacement is complete.

Full gallery here.

Posted by conor at 1:07 PM

March 25, 2011

Sobering

Footage from the Christchurch CBD after the 6.3 earthquake on February 22, 2011. Footage by Frank Film for the Ministry of Civil Defence.

I just cannot believe more people weren't killed in Christchurch on the 22nd, bearing in mind the earthquake struck at lunchtime.

Posted by conor at 12:05 PM

February 18, 2011

The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained

Posted by conor at 11:51 AM

October 17, 2010

Ranfurly Shield Defence at AMI Stadium

Took the kids along to an early evening NPC match at AMI Stadium. It was a Ranfurly Shield defence against Counties-Manukau (Counties fielding Tana Umaga - can't believe the guy's only a year younger than me!), Canterbury having wrested the Log Of Wood from Southland the week before.  It looked much warmer over the other side in the new Deans Stand.

Posted by conor at 11:11 AM

September 22, 2010

Long Journey Home

I enjoyed a short day in London heading down the river with Stephen’s sister Roisin towards Greenwich and enjoying some sights.  Shortly before heading to Heathrow to start the journey home, I got a message from Singapore Airlines telling me that my flight to Singapore had been delayed by 12 hours due to a cracked windscreen on the inbound plane.  The long and the short of it is that having left the Peak District in Derbyshire at Monday lunchtime, I didn’t get home to my poor earthquake-ravaged family in Christchurch until Friday evening, including spending a total of 60 hours travelling once I’d checked in at Heathrow.  Apart from some rather less than ideal support on the ground at Heathrow, Singapore Airlines went a long way to trying to make amends, including putting us up in Singapore at the Marina Bay Sands complex (an $8 billion hotel/casino/shopping complex).  The SkyPark on the 57th floor only opened a couple of months before, featuring swaying palm trees, an “infinity” pool, and great views over the city and the ships in Malacca/Singapore Strait.  Almost more mind-blowing was the whirlpool/waterfall in the shopping complex (which itself made me feel like a character from “Sex & The City”, with shops such as Gucci, Hermes, Tiffany & Co, Mahnolo Blahnik, Prada, Cartier, Rolex, Bvlgari, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ferrari, and an endless vista of other jewellers – almost all of which were unlikely to be able to supply me with a simple pair of boardshorts to use in the swimming pool!  The irony of ending up buying a t-shirt which included the phrases “Nature needs heroes” and “What footprint will you leave?” from the Timberland shop located in such a monument to excess is not wasted on me).  Most surprising at the end was to find that my bag had successfully followed me on a re-directed journey from Singapore via Sydney to be greeted by a family very relieved to see me after a tiring and stressful 2.5 weeks for them.

Posted by conor at 12:02 PM

April 13, 2010

Test timelapse

A test timelapse using our Canon A430 P&S, CHDK with an intervalometer script, Windows Movie Maker to stitch the frames together, and Youtube!

Posted by conor at 1:26 PM

March 28, 2010

Little bit of history

A couple of months back we had a tentative knock on the door from a friendly guy who reckoned he might have lived in our house when he was growing up, but that he was so young at the time that he didn’t have a personal recollection of it.  He came back a few weeks back with a couple of photos that his mother had given him of our house in 1943 when he was 3.  Very interesting to see.  A couple of obvious differences are the gravel path and lack of stucco cladding.

Photos kind courtesy of Richard Goldsborough.

Posted by conor at 9:45 AM

March 22, 2010

Kindy Wheelathon

Ruairi's last day at kindy more or less coincided with the kindy fund-raising “wheelathon”. Given the number of madly pedalling pre-schoolers, it's amazing there weren't any major pile-ups!

Posted by conor at 3:34 PM

March 8, 2010

Chinese Lantern Festival

We headed along to the Chinese Lantern Festival in Victoria Square, which seems to get bigger and bigger every year.  Plenty of food stalls, plenty of people, and not surprisingly, plenty of lanterns.  We didn’t stay until completely dark, with the kids getting a bit tired and cool as the temperature dropped, but very enjoyable; a hot-chocolate and a wander past the Chalice in Cathedral Square rounded things off nicely.  The “Face Changer” was a particularly impressive performer on the stage in Victoria Square!

Posted by conor at 11:59 AM

February 22, 2010

Digger-tastic!

A whole weekend of playing with diggers! First the Trimble Sandpit Open Day, and then a mini-hex up at Castle Hill. Big boys toys!

Posted by conor at 3:28 PM

February 15, 2010

Boys Day Out

A boys day out at the Air Force Museum Open Day with Grandpa Mike. Enjoyable short air display with the Air Force parachute team jumping out of a Hercules, plus 2 Iroquois helicopters and a Harvard.

Posted by conor at 7:20 AM

December 26, 2009

Christmas Dinner

Busy starling parents in the bird box above the deck outside Evie's bedroom.

Come on, where are you?	Ouch, mind your feet!	Mmmmmm	That’s better!

Posted by conor at 8:26 PM

December 15, 2009

Awesome 3D Virtual helicopter tour of Chamonix/Mont Blanc

http://www.aiguilles-chamonix.com/3d/

This totally interactive tour uses the Google Earth browser plugin, and lets you take an awesome trip around the Mont Blanc massif, fantastic for those who’ve hiked/climbed in the area.

Posted by conor at 12:27 PM

October 9, 2009

Choo-choo!

The Big Model Train Show was on at Pioneer Leisure Centre last weekend.  Lots of interest for kids big and small.  The amount of effort in some of these sets is unbelievable!

Posted by conor at 2:54 PM

July 24, 2009

Metric version of the trusty Boyd Glühwein recipe

* I use the quantity for 4 if I’m doing enough for a cheapo cask of wine.

Posted by conor at 8:44 PM

Went to see Slava’s Snowshow last night… Stunning…

It’s currently on at the Isaac Theatre Royal.  Definitely, definitely, definitely worth seeing if it comes to a theatre near you.

Posted by conor at 9:34 AM

June 28, 2009

Ildica's getting creative again

Ildica's just started making a range of greeting cards from a wide variety of "ingredients"; she's been looking forward to getting back to using her considerable creative talents for a while now.  More background and some examples here: reborn.ildica.com

Posted by conor at 11:35 PM

March 3, 2009

Saline Wind Turbines

Mike & Sheila are currently fighting a proposal to site a number of 120-metre high wind turbines within a few hundred metres of their farmhouse in Saline, Fife. You can find an article on the proposal by the Dunfermline Press here, and a proposal from the developers here. I've used Google Earth to mock up what Sheila believes to be the proposed site of the wind turbines. Click on each of the pins if you want to get an impression of what the view of the turbines will be from each location. You can open the model (complete with fly-around tour) directly into Google Earth by downloading this file.

Posted by conor at 3:46 PM

January 19, 2009

I'll huff and I'll puff...

Ildica & I are going to the Rugby Sevens in Wellington in a couple of weeks with our friends Ken & Elly from Dunedin, and we're going as the Big Bad Wolf and the 3 Little Pigs. Ildica has been her usual incredibly creative self, and has come up with this!

Posted by conor at 5:36 PM

December 1, 2008

Transportation

Made a transport investment to continue my eco-friendly commute to work, and bought another Giant bike. Unfortunately, I can see these skinny tyres being a lot less resilient to punctures, although the seat looks a bit more comfortable that the one on my Trance X1.

Posted by conor at 12:25 PM

February 14, 2008

Small world/ships that pass in the night

It turns out that our neighbour directly across the road in Christchurch, New Zealand is the daughter of a woman originally from Belfast, N. Ireland, who at one stage 40-odd years ago was a romantic acquaintance of my uncle's! We only came across this little tid-bit because my dad happened to be parking his car outside our house last week at the same time that our neighbour happened to be arriving with a couple of her visiting relatives, one of whom my dad recognised from Belfast years ago!

Posted by conor at 10:02 AM

November 29, 2007

Nearly there, it's the penultimate day of Movember

Well, you probably know I've been growing a Mo. My mum enquired as to whether that was a Mohigan, to which I pointed out that that was unlikely since it's been a while since I've actually been capable of growing a Mohigan.
Anyway, here's the evidence to date:

If you'd like to encourage me in my endeavour and sponsor my Mo please go to www.movember.com/nz/donate, enter my registration number which is 135894 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 135894. Please mail cheques to: Movember, PO Box 87 150, Meadowbank 1742, Auckland. All donations over $5 are tax deductible.
All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand who will use the funds to create awareness, increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer, fund research and scholarship programs.
Thanks again for your support.
More info is available at www.movember.com.

Posted by conor at 7:39 AM

January 29, 2007

Just what I needed two weeks ago...

One of my colleagues at work is involved in a newly launched website here in New Zealand, which is "filling the gaps between tradespeople & homeowners" according to their website: http://www.builderscrack.co.nz/.
I could have done with exactly this service about 2 or 3 weeks ago when I was thinking of employing a tradesman to rebuild part of the fence between us and our neighbours. At least the estimate calculator on the Builders Crack website seems a bit closer to the price I would have been prepared to pay for the job, compared to the ridiculous quote I got from Jim's Handyman.
In the end, between us and the neighbours, we did the job ourselves in next to no time, and at less than a quarter of the price that Jim's Extortion Services Handymen were quoting.

Posted by conor at 1:41 PM

May 19, 2006

One remote to rule them all

Got this geek toy for my birthday: a Logitech Harmony Remote Control. Replaced 8 remotes in our house with one. Will almost pay for itself in fewer batteries alone! After a bit of setting up, it works brilliantly. Simply press the "Watch TV" or the "Listen to a CD" button and the remote does everything else from turning on the amplifier and setting it to the CD input, to switching on the CD player and pressing Play.

Posted by conor at 10:11 AM

May 5, 2006

Winter is on it's way down here...

So I thought it was time to resurrect the Boyd Glühwein Recipe.

Wine (bottles)	1	2	3	5
Water (pints)	0.75	1.5	2.25	3.75
Ground nutmeg (level tsp.)	0.25	0.5	0.75	1.25
Cinnamon (inches)	1"	2"	3"	5"
Cloves	2	4	6	10
Granulated Sugar (oz.)	5	10	15	25
Lemons	1	2	3	5

Grate the rind off the lemon(s), and squeeze all the juice out as well. Put the rind, juice, and all the other ingredients above (excluding the wine) into a pan, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Strain the liquid to leave a fruity liquor. Add to this the appropriate number of bottles of wine, and heat to taste (don't boil!).

Enjoy ;-)

Note: It doesn't have to be expensive wine; more cheap and cheerful! Also, apologies for not going metric...

Posted by conor at 4:31 PM

April 28, 2006

Sore back?

Get one of these McKenzie lumbar rolls. My miserly employer wouldn't buy me one at a mere NZD28.50, so I bought one myself, and now that I have, I can see myself using it in the car as well.

Posted by conor at 4:33 PM

December 10, 2005

The irony of it

We had our work Christmas do last night and the boss organised a raffle. At the last minute he added a main prize of 2 tickets to anywhere in Australasia. And I won! Feeling a bit sheepish since I'm leaving in two weeks, but there were a lot of people had a good laugh about it. Maybe they'll turn out to be one-way tickets!

Posted by conor at 6:54 AM

July 31, 2005

Dunno who's scarier

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