Daniel at Auckland airport

Daniel leaves for Australia

Early on monday morning I took Daniel to the airport to leave for Australia. Just as soon as the weather gets just a tiny weeny bit chilly he's outa here like a startled rabbit. What's the matter with him? Anyway, he packed up after making a HUGE saucepan full of lentils, carrots and what have you, which he crammed into his rucksac somewhere. I pointed out that Australian immigration wouldn't take kindly to him bringing such stuff into their pristine land but he assured me he'd eat it all up on the plane. (Pity whoever sits next to him, those lentils can have a thunderous effect on the digestion.)
I've just finished an evenings work with Claydog the Incredible. Our task was to make a promo for a Lions Tour documentary made by Sky that hasn't been made yet! and one for the State of Origin rugby league match between New South Wales and Queensland. My suggestion for a voice over along the lines of 'State against State... Mate against Mate' which I made repeatedly didn't go down too well, however we finished the promos and once the boss (Claydog's boss that is) has seen them we'll no doubt be remaking them again on Thursday!

Waiheke photo

Just a note on that photo line up. It has to be said that the most striking thing for me about the photo is that there's not a lot of hair on the top row.

Friends Arrive from England and Azerbaijan

We had a trip across the Waitemata to Waiheke Island at the weekend to have a day with a few friends. Daniel was staying on Waiheke with another friend of his already. Here is a photo Bottom row: Grace, James, Alex, Tom. Top row: Anita, Me and Joe, Kathryn, Andrew, Yvonne, Neil.
We played a lot of cricket that day. Alex batted mainly and I bowled a lot. He refused to get out despite my best efforts.

Daniel took this photo

On Waiheke Island

View from Mt. Maunganui

We returned from Mount Maunganui at our steady pace, taking roughly 4 to 5 hours to get to Auckland. That's an average speed of 40 kms per hour which is actually not bad consisidering. I think that's right but cannot verify that precisely (my maths isn't too good and Tom has removed the desktop calculator to the refuse bin, which he then emptied.)
We dropped Daniel off near the Coromandel. He spread his belongings over the pavement and started hitch-hiking immediately. He soon got a lift to a Buddist centre where he stayed for a couple of weeks where he had to take great care not to kill any living creature. A one point he had to sieve some mosquito larvae from the bath and release them into a nearby stagnant pond.