We liked the visit to the monkey forest in Bali so much we visited twice .. I was mugged on the second trip by a large female monkey who wanted my water bottle from the rucksack I was carrying..Man they are strong ... Also the first visit a female monkey thought I was after her 3/4 grown daughter ... much to everyones amusement As this big white guy was reduced to hopping around as a monkey not even knee hight went for my ankles on 3 0r 4 attemps .... But I liked the pictures at the end ....:O)
We did a "hop" from Sydney where I was working for a few days to Ayres rock or Uluru as the Orignals call it ..McD had come over towards the end of my work days to start the holiday early. She even got an invite to a vendor Dinner one evening ...but thats another story... It was mid 30s in the daytime at Uluru.. the next morning we ran out of the hotel room to catch a tour bus at 5:30 in the morning ...Me in shorts and a thin t-shirt ... temperature -1C..frost on cars...And us about to stand in front of the big lump of sandstone and take pictures .... Wind had picked up ...temp now way below zero with the wind chill factor ... good job i'm as paddded as a walrus .....
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We holiday'd in Bali after Australia .. They have the most Awesome bird park in place ...So well run ..Your feet are sprayed before entering to protect the birds and you wander around the most well looked after grounds.. Immediately next door is the reptile park ... just amazing. We spent an age in both...... This chap had spent a large amount of time with his (her?) back to me ...He definately did not want a picture taken. But the finally succumbed and sat down on his elbows (knees?) and relented .... So is this the cassowarie ??
This chap had me in a crouch run all over the hotel complex we were staying at in the middle of Australia, Ayres Rock. Now called Uluru to recognise the name given to it by the Australian Originals (Aboriginals) ... The mid 30C heat and this Englshmans antics made true the noel coward song of Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the Mid Day Sun ....But hey - I had Slip Slop Slapped on the suntan and had an Ozzy bushmans hat with the brim the size of texas on my head ..I was prepared for everything but a wasp that wouldn't stay still and me having cart my big frame in a crouching position around the hotel complex .....
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The weather is doing it's usual New Zealand tricks ...Freezing cold one day or one hour even, then it turns on itself and it's mild and raining or sunny or grey ..A lot of grey dayus this years winter ... making it no fun at all to play with new camera and try and take the unusual shots or at least some pleasing shots ..
And the the days are getting longer and the biurds are thinking Spring is here ..We even came across a brown mallard duck with half a dozen or so duckling no more that a day or so old trainling behind her...The things you see without a camera ....
It's gone crazy at work ...everyone is getting at everyone else and the whole atmosphere of the place has really gone down hill .... Too many arguments, too much "blame culture", and it aint going to improve ...I want out ..
At least next weekend (Sunday) I fly out to Sydney Australia. I have some site visits with out outsource services provider for two days. Then a short course on some architectures with another vendor ..>Then come that Thursday McD will arrive as well and off we go for 2 1/2 weeks of holiday, travel, and photography..
The plan is that we fly from Sydney to Uluru (Aires rock) to hopefully dine under the stars and photograph the big rock at sunset and sunrise... then we are off to Dawin at the top of Australia for a extremely quick stay just to break up the flying .. I have now read a bit more about the place ..Me thinks I will be going back again as its on the edge of some impressive national parks ...
Then to Bali we fly for a week or two ...Hopefully we will get to photograph heaps of people, wildlife, forests, paddy fields and the rest .... So far it's all against us for going there ... We struggled a bit to get lodgings but thats all sorted .... the governmenmt warnings are still out on the place after the Bombings of some years back... and then just this week there was a avian flu outbreak in the remote western regions of Bali... I had wanted to go there as I wanted to capture and photograph some of the more traditional bali ... ....... AND THEN ....Its reported that they have run out of booze !!!!!! Yeh gods how cruel is that !!! Thank our lucky stars for Duty Free !!!!
So I just have to survive one week ... Thats all just one very long miserable week .............
There is a photographic competition running with one of the digital camera magazies ... I wish I had practiced a lot more todate. Moany of the pictures already submitted are truely awsome in their quality .. It really does show how i'm still at the bottom of the ladder when you see these 'top of the ladder' pictures ....
Shall I go on about work again .... Nah far too depressing and boring :O) Mind you I did clear the small mountain of paperwork etc spewn across my desk over too many months ... It's all nicely 'folderized' or being recycled as I type ....
McDinzie and I went out for a wander around Wellington this morning ..Would have done more but the cloud got so low it covered the hills and then it started to rain ....
Driving into wellington we drove past a fatal car smash on the opposite side of the road. It's a sobering reminder of our fragile lives and how quickly things can change around us.
My mate over in England emailed me to tell me he has another job !! I think this current role has been the first andlongest he has had ... I think he started that just before he hit 40.. before that he had a few different jobs none lasting any time ..but inbetween then he gained a masters in Law and then a masters in Computing ....
I've been dieting. This last week seriously. the past few days have been very hard .... but 6 kilos in 7 weeks is a small success ....
I'm sat idly at my PC listening to Ricky Lee Jones songs and drinking too much straight 12 year old single malt whisky from a stemless wineglass ....
Been a sod of a week again ... Flew to Hamilton for a meeting with the regional manager there and his team ... Traveling with the IT outsourcer vendor managers it was pretty intense and full on .... The regional manager likes me at the moment ...I'd got a few things moving for him and did some politically incorrect enable-ments with a politically aggressive vendor aligned to part of where I work .... Anyway they like me ... The rest don't ...
Ricky throbs out her version of under the board walk ..... it's not bad ...
The wretched weather that's plagued the country recently moved on as we moved into Hamilton... We lunched at a cafe I knew well having worked/lived almost for 2 plus years in this city with a flat soul .... We sat outside and it was sunny and warm without any chill in the air and the laughter around the table was loud and free ...We'd survived the first visit ..even came away feeling positive that we were finally making the change so badly needed ..... The chicken salad wraps and kiwifruit chutney tasted fresh and clean and delicious and the coffee added nicely to the buzz of reprieve ...
and Ricky sings it must be love
And we all pile into the Ford xr6 rental car and I'm driving and the car is like a treat for me used to a clapped out Toyota import and the car strains to go much faster at the speed limit and now and then I let it loose and we sail past the slower cars and trucks and buses on the express way and for an hour or so we are all quiet and the moment is mine ... and then we hit Manukau and the Auckland traffic jam begins ...4:00 pm ... no accidents just the daily snarl up ..... and we slip away and out of it by 6pm to the city centre and the valet at the hotel takes the car away and I wonder whether to ask for it back a little later on and just drive north for the fun of it and see where I used to live and play around Browns bay .....
And Ricky sings easy money
But I'm tempted by the collective decision to eat at the local Mexican cafe/bar and so we pile into the cramped wooden floored, far to noisy cafe and munch corn chips and salsa full of chili and garlic and drink ridiculous coloured and flavored dakaries and take turns to tell tales about our most embarrassing moments and then east enchiladas and chili con carne and chicken fajitas........ And the tequila kicks in nicely .....
I've tired of Ricky and try Rob Thomas if you're gone
The night was the usual half sleep listening to the voices talking inside my head and as I wake fully in the morning I hear them whisper 'he's waking, can he hear us' and I tell them I can but I don't want to and put hands to face and rub the sleep away .... The hotel breakfast food is bland and the coffee bitter and feels like warm mud in your mouth....And then the day in Auckland begins ...
Rod Stewart sings they cant take that away from me ....
And the meeting we've been dreading begins ...I enter the meeting room and wonder where to sit ...It matters believe me ... My main protagonist the national operations manager..the man whose previous job was taken from him and I now have have moves to one end of the long table ... I decide that this time I'll take control ..I sit at the end on my own. The national manager sits off from the end of the table and when all are sat I spell out the agenda and start the introductions of the vendor managers around me .... the meeting is now mine and I open the table for them to voice concerns and we talk about what we are doing and the issues being faced and I get complimented for the recent actions as I was in Hamilton and then its contract discussions and I excuse the architect who pissed me off with his attitude and his comments that have crippled him with the vendor managers and I dismiss the vendor networks Client executive with a friendly comment and into the discussions we go ... I was ready and informed. Corrected the vendor managers who are new to the account as to points within the contract and played the meeting as openly as I could... The meeting had been built up as being a potential blood bath and I had taken it and turned it around ..... I hate meetings and the meeting games and rituals .......
And Rod sings blue moon
And As we walk to the next branch of where I work on Queens street I feel sick from the release of the stress and even sicker from the number of smokers as we drive through the throng of lunch time walkers mostly asian ....
The rest of the day did it's course without event and we were too tired and flat to do do anything but make our way to the Koro Lounge at the airport and fly home in our separate seats away from each other on the plane and make our separate ways home...............
And I load up some scarlatti harpsicord sonatas and stretch out cupping the glass in my hands and wonder when the sandman will arrive for me .........
I hate the cold ... I'll emigrate to warmer climes one day and never be cold again ... I'm so cold in this room with the PC that my fingers are wrinkling up as I type .... No cloud cover over night allowed the temeratures to drop. And now as the Sun shows itself and hits the valley I'm looking out over a bank of fog thats hidden the township below...
It's cold and I want to head north to the warm ......
Not having a lot of fun at work ... I'm ready to walk and they know it ... I've been attending Career mentoring sessions the past few weeks and She tells me I have better plans now that i've created with her ... .She tels me I should bide my time and get the courses I want to take out of the way first then make the right decision for the right move ....
There is a senior Service management / Operations anagement role advertised ... The agency rang me almost before I sent my CV over ....
I'm in hamilton and then Auckland next week for a few days .... It will be a blood bath as we have Outsourcing contract issues up there .... At least it might be warmer .....
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