Friday night was Sarah's party, a great time was had by all. Heaps of people turned up, the only bad part of the night was all the rain. That didn't really matter though, the deck outside is covered, it was just the leaking roof inside that got us a little bit worried. Here's some pictures from the night.

We had lots of music, Icecream cake, lots of drinks, punch that Sarah made (really tasty and went really fast) and lots of fun!



Saturday morning we woke up fairly tired and a bit (lot) hungover. Then we went out to the Kumeu Food and Wine festival. Sarah and I just drank water/OJ though, having had lots of food and wine the night before! It was a really nice day though in the sun, not quite as cool as the Devonport festival last year though.



Today we got up late and...

Happy Birthday Sarah, 23 today! I woke up nice and early (mostly due to my terrible sleep, more on this in a minute) and leapt up to cook her pancakes. I couldn't find the recipe book though so I had to go and wake her up to find out where it was. So it didn't go quite according to plan but at least this time I put all the right ingredients in and produce some semi decent pancakes. I realise for most of you this is not much of an achievement, but it is for me.

Sarah's having a gathering of people at her place tonight, so I'm looking forward to that, It should be lots of fun.



I got my car back yesterday as promised by the workshop. It only cost $900 in the end which (while still very expensive) is better than what I had budgeted for. I...

As I've already mentioned, it's Sarah's birthday on Friday. One of the (early) presents I got for her was to get her hair straightened. Before she went in for her three hours fifteen minute hair appointment yesterday, her hair looked like this. After she came out of her hair marathon, she looked like this! Pretty dramatic change wouldn't you agree!

Here's another really nice photo of Sarah too. She's very happy with her new hair do and I don't blame her, I think it looks fantastic too. I might get mine done all curly just to be different!



I took my other darling into the workshop today to get the cam belt changed. I've probably mentioned this before, this is one of those things you can keep putting off and putting off. But if your cam belt breaks, really bad things tend to happen to the motor of...

What a busy few days it's been!

Friday night Gary, John and I went into Takapuna and went to The Copper Room. We had a great time there, good to catch up with Gary again. Then we went to get something to eat and finally stopped in at the local Irish pub for a nightcap where one of John's female friends joined us. Once we got home I got a little bit mad with my PlayStation and smashed it into little pieces. It hadn't been working anymore and all my attempts to "correct" it hadn't worked. So I gave it one final piece of "correction" and it fell into two pieces. Whoopsie.

Saturday I was a little tired in the morning so I kinda slept in until the afternoon, then Sarah came over and we went shopping (after some nice hangover cure subway)

Actually I have to mention while...

Hi people!!

Wednesday night Sarah and I drove down to Devonport to get a bite for dinner, we went to the local Fish N Chip shop and ordered. I got a superburger and it was damn super! Huge massive thing. While we were in the store I spied a flyer for A Clockwork Orange being performed at a local Auckland Theatre. I thought it might be cool to go so I asked Sarah if she'd be interested.

Then yesterday Sarah emailed me and said she'd managed to score free tickets to the dress rehersal. Cool!

So that's what we did last night, went to the theatre. It was so hot and muggy in the room, but apart from that it was a great performance. The first 10 minutes were quite hard to watch I thought, seeming to make little sense. But after that I really got into it, it was...

Made it back safe today!
Glad to be home, Sarah was waiting for me at the airport which was a nice surprise though we almost missed each other. I didn't know she was coming out to get me and it was only because I grabbed my phone to call her I realised she'd been trying to get hold of me.
Back to work tomorrow!

I got up nice and early today and promptly fell back to sleep. Whoops. Woke up an hour later at 8am, jumped out of bed and pulled open the curtain. Amazing!! A perfect sunny day with no clouds at all! I went downstairs to have some of the continental breakfast this place claims to have. All we had though was a bit of toast, juice that tasted like piss and a kid that wouldn't stop screaming. I left quickly after stealing two apples.

I then decided I'd walk in the direction I was sure the Golden Gate Bridge was. After walking for half an hour (I saw a sign that said GG Bridge this way, honest) I asked someone how close I was to the bridge. The look on his face said it all... So I walked back to the hotel (by now 9am) and went online to figure out...

So here I am sitting on the train out of Santa Clara heading up to San Francisco where I am going to spend the next two days. This morning I got up nice and early and took some really gloomy (but I still think they've very cool) pictures of the Santa Cruz Pier. It was very cold, wet and windy when I got up at 7am to take them, but I think they were worth it! I was feking cold this morning.

Then Carlo and his wife Tammy came and picked me up, took me to breakfast at this crazy cafe that served up a really healthy breakfast. I had vegetable fritata, lovely with cheese on it and hot sauce too. Just what you need to get your day off to a flying start.



We then dropped Tammy off back home and went back down to Santa Cruz to have...

And now I'm in Santa Cruz!

Went in to visit a big vendor of ours today, had a great day there playing with their new tech and chatting to various people. I meet Carlo again, he was back in Auckland 2 or 3 years ago now, I'd forgotton what he looked like! But he remembered me.



After all the network stuff was done Carlo offered to take me down to Santa Cruz (here where he lives) and take me out for dinner etc. First he showed me his house which he and his wife have been working on, really really nice. Outdoor shower and little pond, they're really happy today because they just got the heating for their kitchen tiles working.



They've found me a hotel (where I am now) and I'm thinking I might take an extra 2 days off here to go up to San Francisco. As much...

Got up nice and early this morning, went into the cage to do the last bit of cleaning up required then realised I'd left the one cable I needed back at my hotel. Stupid me.

So I turn around and walk back, on my way I saw the most amazing thing. About 20 police cars (I am not making this number up) I swear came tearing up the main street and pulled onto the highway. The lead car actually parked to block the traffic coming through the intersection while for 30 seconds I stood there and gaped as all these police cars, marked and unmarked came flying past, lights and sirens screaming. It reminded me of the blues brothers. Then they were gone and everyone went about as normal.

I got the final bits of work done in the cage, came back to my hotel and packed up my bags...