:: griffiths in new zealand ::

Last Friday I handed in my notice to St John, where I have worked for the last four years - almost as long as I have lived in New Zealand. It was a hard decision but I have accepted an offer from a company called Lumley Insurance, who are based in the Auckland CBD just off Queen Street. It’s going to be quite a culture change from working for St John (an organisation pretty much unique in my experience) and going back into a fully corporate business environment. My new role is “Business Intelligence Analyst” which is a bit of a fancy title for someone who basically designs and builds systems for reporting - “business intelligence” is a bit of a buzzword these days but is not actually a new concept, its’ all about getting information to people who need it to make decisions, e.g. “how many products did we sell last week”, “what are our best selling items”. I’m really looking forward to the change, the only downside is that its quite a bit more time commuting and therefore less time I can spend at home with Logan and Nic. Looking at some of the economic issues going on round the world at the moment though I am quite happy just to still have a job and a roof over my head, anything else is a bonus!

Took this video this morning of Logan, who has just learned to stand up on his own, clever boy! Not long now until the little man is off walking by himself (and no doubt getting up to mischief)..

Apologies for the sound, seems to be a problem with uploading videos to YouTube…

Yes it’s getting close to election time, and no it’s not the McCain - Obama talkfest that seems to be dominating the global news. It’s also election time here in lil’ old New Zealand. Seems to be hardly any time since the last one (this being the second since I moved here four years ago) and it turns out that NZ holds an election every three years as opposed to the usual four or five. The two main parties here are National (the “blues”) and Labour (the “reds”), and they are pretty much like the blue and red parties in the US or UK - i.e. not much to choose between, both as inept and self-serving as the other.

However, it’s interesting to see how the pace of technology has brought some changes to the campaigning - this time round both Helen Clark (incumbent PM, Labour) and John Key (National) have pages on Facebook - judging by the number of “fans” they have, JK has a healthy lead - hey there’s an idea, we should hold elections through Facebook! Much more likely to get people to vote at least. National have also taken a lead by setting up their own YouTube channel, although they probably got the idea from the British Royal Family, who set one up a few months back (well, they probably got someone to do it for them, I can’t see Liz surfing the web somehow).

Sad to say, but like most people the only thing I am looking forward to from this election is some form of tax cuts - never been that bothered before, but funny how a mortgage and baby can make those extra few dollars seem much more important. The big losers this election for my money will be the Greens (yes believe it or not they are actually a major political party in NZ thanks to our proportional representation system) - they have not endeared themselves to anyone in the last couple of years, particularly due to the irritatingly patronising Sue Bradshaw and her “anti smacking” law. Shame really as deep down I am probably a bit of a hippy and was once a big supporter of the Greens. Unfortunately they are best sticking to what they are good at i.e environment issues, and leaving the social and economic policies to more sensible people.

Still, lots more election shenanigans to come before the big day, and I haven’t even mentioned Winston “Secret Donations” Peters and his farcical “NZ First” party…

It was Logan’s first birthday on the 2nd September and as this was a Tuesday we had a little party for family out our place on the Saturday before hand - Logan got to open some of his presents and we had party food, jelly and ice-cream, cheese and pineapple on sticks (a British children’s party classic!!). Nic made her first birthday cake for the little man, a lovely banana cake number and Logan demolished his piece (no icing for him yet though!) with much gusto by shoving the entire piece in his mouth at once On his birthday proper he also got to say Hi to Grandad and Grandma Griffiths over in the UK, by the magic of Skype, and open some more presents. Thanks to everyone who sent him toys and clothes, they were all fantastic and he has been a lucky boy.

The following Friday it was all aboard a plane as we left for a five day break to Fiji, courtesy of a generous gift from Mike and Marylinn (also known as Nana and Grumps Matthews!) and stayed at the First Landing resort just south of Nadi (pronounced “Nandy”) on the main island of Viti Levu. It was named First Landing because legend has it that the very first settlers to Fiji were washed ashore on the beach after their canoe sank on the reef just offshore. The resort was fairly small but a lovely setting and we spent a very relaxing few days sunbathing, snorkelling, swimming, eating and drinking (cocktails of course!).

Some photos here.

We spent the weekend in a great little bach in a place called Hahei, which is on the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula. Our friends Colin & Rebecca and their baby Claire came along as well and we managed to get probably the best weekend of weather in months.

I’ve posted some photos on Facebook.

I’ve been thinking of developing a new website instead of the current one - there’s a slowly evolving test version of it here for those that would like a sneak peek:

http://60.234.197.187/griffiths

It’s built using the open source Silverstripe framework, which is being developed in New Zealand.

Those who can remember as far back as February may recall that the missus and I got hitched, well there were a few “issues” with the official photographer - not least it taking him over three months to actually send us the photos. However he finally did back in May, unfortunately what with one thing and another I have been too busy to upload them until last week.

Nevertheless, upload them I have and anyone who fancies a trip down memory lane, or hasn’t seen any photos from the wedding can take a look at the best 100 or so here on Flickr.com

It’s been a very very wet and windy time here in Auckland for the past few weeks, it feels like it hasn’t stopped raining at all, so we haven’t been out and about much. However we went down to Hamilton last weekend to attend the first birthday of Georgia, the daughter of our friends Scott and Melissa. Shockingly bad weather but it was worth the drive to catch up with them and for Logan to get some serious playtime in with the other kids there. The deck project has been mainly stalled due to the weather, although I made a start on demolition of the old deck, and also picked up some cheap wood from a guy who had bought too much for his own project. I am awaiting a clear weekend to make a start digging some holes and putting in some of the first upright posts.

Logan goes from strength to strength, he’s now crawling everywhere at light speed and is accomplished at standing, climbing over things, pushing buttons (much to my distress with all the computers at our place) and is getting good at recognising words, sounds and pictures. Not long now til he starts walking by most people’s reckoning and he is already showing his performing talents, as he likes nothing more than to stand up by the music centre and have a little boogie to the music!

Last month Nic, Logan and I headed down to Rotorua for a long weekend, staying in a bach (holiday home) owned by St John. The bach itself was in a village called Hamurana which is on the opposite side of Lake Rotorua from the town of Rotorua. Rotorua is famous for being in a volcanically active area, with bubbling mud pools, steaming vents in the ground and some spectacular scenery. The three of us had a great (if rather cold) weekend looking around the historic town centre and government gardens, visiting the Paradise Valley wildlife park and some of the local lakes and taking a walk around the giant trees in the Redwood Forest (factoid: Redwood trees are native to California in the U.S.A. but some were imported to New Zealand decades ago and due to the fertile volcanic soil they grow twice as fast as in their native environment). Lots of fun and I have finally got around to uploading some photos as well:

Photos here.

The lovely people at Schmaps.com have selected one of my photos of Long Bay Beach to include in their Schmaps New Zealand guide, you can have a look here:

http://www.schmap.com/newzealand/water/#p=40630&i=40630.jpg

I also gave the people at Waipoua Lodge in Northland permission to use a photo of the Kai Iwi lakes on their website (bottom right photo):

http://www.waipoualodge.co.nz/links.html 

So this month has seen the onset of New Zealand winter, not really a winter by British standards, more of a wet Autumn, but anyway it is cold(er) and raining quite a bit. However, all is not lost! We have been making the most of having some time without the distractions of summer, organising and arranging and all the small stuff and details that comes along with running a household that involves a baby. Nic has been  taking Logan to story time at the local library and swimming lessons (well, more of an advanced splashing lesson!) at the local pool. Logan has put his experiences at the pool to good use by trying to relocate his bath water on to the floor every night at bath time. He has also finally started to crawl and has very quickly become rather good at it, scooting around the house trying to get in cupboards and drawers and other places he shouldn’t.

Its not all domestic stuff though, Nic and I are off to see the Rolling Stones movie Shine A Light on Thursday with our friends Rolf and Liesel, and then Nic, Logan and myself are heading down to Rotorua for the long weekend, staying in one of the baches owned by St John (the people I work for), which we are really looking forward to!