Saturday, 4 April 2009

No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk

I was doing the housework yesterday, and had decided to take a break, when I noticed a cop car sitting in the street outside my house with its lights flashing.  I had better investigate I thought.  So I climbed up the stairs to the street and noticed a fire truck further up.  Is one of my neighbours on fire? I wondered.

Then I saw the milk truck, over the side of the bank, and resting against a neighbours tree, just above his garage.  No ambulances, or any sign that anyone was hurt, just the milk truck and the tree.

It took 3 tow trucks (one with a Hiab crane), 1 fire engine and 2 cop cars all afternoon to sort the mess out.  What had happened was the milkman had got out of his truck to deliver some milk, when the truck took off down the hill without him.  He was really fortunate that it had hit the tree, and not a person, a house, or another car.  I was lucky it did not come down my driveway and wreck my car.

It did manage to take out the letter boxes of about 4 of my neighbours.

I do pity the milkman though.  It must be hard enough to make a living as it is with that job.  Now he has to contend with the fact that the days delivery schedule is out the window, a lot of spilt or wasted milk, the truck being out of action, the damage to the truck, the damage to the neighbour’s property, the tow fees and whatever prosecutions the police decide to make.  He did not have a good day and was looking rather glum.  I hope he is well insured.

I did manage to get him some water to drink, and some phone numbers he wanted over the course of the afternoon, and he kindly gave me a few bottles of flavoured milk.

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Sunday, 8 March 2009

Malcolm Ravenscroft

Last night I went to a “This is your life” presentation to mark the 70th birthday for Malcolm Ravrnscroft.  He was my Judo Instructor when I was a kid.  I was invited to give a short speech as part of the presentation and this is what I said…

“Malcolm was my Judo instructor, (which invokes images akin to an army drill sergeant) so it may be somewhat surprising that I have fond memories of him.

Malcolm took an uncoordinated kid, and with time, encouragement, and patience, taught him a little Judo. Although I never excelled at the sport, it gave me a level of fitness, balance, coordination and confidence that I had not enjoyed until then. Although over the last 20 years I have lost a lot of the fitness, I am still thankful for the coordination, balance and skills I learnt due to Malcolm.

Judo means “gentle way”, and Malcolm embodied that spirit. Although other dojos emphasised aggression, Malcolm’s classes were always about fun, cooperation, and about learning the skills. Instead of trying to beat your opponent, you were trying to teach them. It was this friendly environment that encouraged me to stay in Malcolm’s class from childhood, right through my teenage years.

I cannot imagine how many hundreds of other kids he must have helped in a similar way. The overall effect Malcolm has had on the Christchurch community must have been huge, but for the most part hidden and subtle.

Arigatou, Malcolm”.

I had not seen Malcolm for about 20 years, and he seemed to be surprised but delighted to see me.  As you can see I owe a lot to Malcolm, and it seems so do a lot of other people.  There were people from as far as Finland and France there for the presentation.

The presentation was also to mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of his company, Ravenscroft’s.  It turns out that since he has stopped being a Judo Instructor he has become involved in the Conservation Trust, working at Willowbank Wildlife Park to help conserve Kiwis.

I hope to be able to catch up with again in a less formal setting in the near future.

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

Red Lakes

The tramp today went very well. The place we went to is called Red Lakes, which is on the way (or a slight detour from) the route to Coleridge Pass. We stumbled across it a couple of years ago and decided to go back again for a repeat.

We crossed some farmland to the first lake, and a couple of us jumped in for a quick swim. Refreshing that early in the morning. We then walked along the side of the first lake, and the side of the second lake (by wading and sometimes swimming) until we had got passed these two lakes. The alternative to wading would have been bush bashing along the side, which would have been more time consuming and painful.

The we crossed al low rocky saddle, and down into a narrow gully. The gully was full of native shrubs, so the going was slow, with plenty of scratches form the Matagouri and Bush Lawyer. I lost a small amount of blood, but others lost more. We then climbed up along the side of the gully, which was very rocky and bolder, the group split up a bit at this stage, with one group (including myself) taking a high road, and another group taking a lower road. We met up again at the end of the boulders, then continued to the end of the gully (with some more bush bashing).

There we had lunch below Coleridge Pass, with Mountains all around us. The afternoon was spent walking out again along farm tracks, and then off to the Hororata cafe for carrot cake and coffee. An excellent way to spend the day.

Resolution Stats 1.21

For some reason I could not view my Blog yesterday, so I could not do an update. Never mind, the last couple of days have been quite good.

My Wii Fit stats are BMI 24.84, weight 70.1 kg, and age 36 years. My weight has almost got down the were it was before I went to Timaru. Maybe tomorrow I will start making progress again.

23 Active Tasks. The 37 active tasks in an earlier post was a mistake caused by my handheld PC not syncing properly with my desktop. 23 is pretty good. On Tuesday I cleaned the windows on the outside, put up the extra cladding, and cleared out the ditch, did some gardening and swept the paths. I ran out of time to clean the car, so will do that tomorrow.

I have started looking for someone special on the web site Findsomeone again. I have managed to establish contact with a couple of interesting women, so I’ll see how that goes.

Also I have got a job interview for a job as a hydrologist with the Regional Council. Excellent, this should be an interesting job and a good lifestyle. Seems I have been selected for an interview from over 100 applicants, but there is a big difference between getting an interview and getting a job. The interview is on the 2nd Feb. I have also been contacted by someone regarding a contract for software testing. It doesn’t rain but it pours. I will have to make a decision (or find a way to have my cake and eat it).

Yes We Can

Congratulations Obama on your inauguration. It is impressive that America has voted a Black man to be president. But other than this fact, little seems to be said about him. But I will say this about him; he is not Bush, and his platform of change makes me hopeful.

Good luck Obama. I hope you can do some good.

Monday, 19 January 2009

Resolution Stats 1.19

I really am not keeping up with my blogging every day am I. I’ll set a small goal to try and blog every day this week. So how am I going with my other resolutions?

My Wii Fit stats are BMI 25.3, weight 71.4, and Wii age 25 years. These are awful, especially since yesterday morning I had a BMI of 24.8. But I was visiting a friend all yesterday, and she cooked me some very nice meals, so I guess it is worth it. We’ll see how long it takes to get my weight back down again.

37 active tasks. Again, not so good. This is going to be a busy week. I still have to clean the downstairs room, and tomorrow hope to also get a few more chores done like clean the windows, but some extra cladding on the downstairs room to cover some rotting boards, and clean out the ditch dug last week of mud. There was a big downpour yesterday, but the ditch did its job and kept the water out of the downstairs room. Other chores are gardening, sweeping the paths, and cleaning the car.

Then another tramp on Wednesday.

Tuesday, 13 January 2009

Resolution Stats 1.13

I am not doing so well with my resolutions am I. Missed a weeks worth of blogging. Never mind, here we go again.

My Wii Fit stats are as follows: BMI 25.01. Weight 70.6 kg. Wii Age 27 years. Missed being normal by 0.1! Maybe tomorrow.

22 Active Tasks. I have been knocking a few off. Yesterday Dad came around and helped dig a drain under the house. That knocked one off. Now I have to clean the downstairs room.

Tramping tomorrow again. Paul is taking us up Andrew’s stream. I will try to fill in on both tramps tomorrow evening after the tramp.

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

Resolution Stats 1.7

Just a quick note today. I missed my weight target. My weight went up 0.5 kg to 71.6 kg.

The tramp today was a lot of fun, with varied terrain, I will post some more and some pickies tomorrow. So no tasks were completed.

Tuesday, 6 January 2009

Resolution Stats 1.6

Weight bounced up 0.2kg yesterday. So now my BMI is 25.19, my weight is 71.1 kg, and my Wii Age is 26. It is the 7th tomorrow, so let’s see if I have met my goal my weight is below 70.5 kg. Somehow I doubt it, although I have had a busy day helping a friend of mine shift, and have only eaten 2 eggs on toast, a Subway™ Sandwich, and a pottle of yogurt all day.

No progress on tasks today, still only 24, but helping a friend is a good excuse. The bright side is I haven’t thought of any new tasks to add.

Tramping tomorrow. White’s Gorge and the 3 Deans. The forecast is for a very hot day, and as this day finishes walking down the Waipara River, it should be a good day for it. I’ll write up a report about it tomorrow (and maybe some photos).

Monday, 5 January 2009

Resolution Stats 1.5

Progress at last, I have lost 1.4 kg! This puts my BMI at 25.12, my weight at 70.9 kg. My Wii Age this morning was 25. So good stats all round. I have only 0.4 kg to lose before I reach my goal, and I am finally in the normal weight range.

On the task list side I have 24 Active Tasks. That is 2 tasks completed, and 5 new ones added. Never mind, I am going backwards fast here. Still it is the tasks getting completed that are the important things. I made good progress on a third task, cleaning the downstairs room. It has been emptied out, now just waiting for it to be dried out (after the storm on Sunday) before cleaning, and then I will make it my home gym.

So it has been a busy day.

Sunday, 4 January 2009

Resolution Stats 1.4

I will go mad if I have to come up with an original name for these stats every day so I will use the Resolution Stats title.

The Wii Fit says my weight went up yesterday and extra 100g. Not much of a rise, but still not a drop. I will try skipping tea tonight and see if that jolts my body into burning fat. So at the moment my BMI is 25.62, my weight is 72.3 kg, and my Wii Age is 33. It goes up and down a lot, so long as I keep it significantly below my actual age I am happy.

I still have 21 tasks on my list. I completed a small task (refreshing my emergency water), and added a big task.

I have flooding in the downstairs room of my house, due to a massive downpour we had yesterday, so I need to dig a drain to stop it happening again.

Saturday, 3 January 2009

Lack of Progress

The Wii Fit today told me that my weight has not changed since yesterday morning. Damn. At least it has not gone up. So still 72.2 kg.

The good news is that my Wii Fit age has reduced to 24.

I have 21 active tasks on my task list. This is better than it sounds because I have added 4 more tasks that should have been on there. The bad news is all of the tasks done have been routine, so long term progress is nil.

Friday, 2 January 2009

Happy Birthday Blake

My nephew Blake had his 9th birthday yesterday. You are growing up young man.

Resolution Progress

I am using my Wii Fit to measure my weight and track progress, and in the 100 days that I have been using it I have managed to reduce my BMI down from almost obese, to what it is now which is overweight, but just above the normal range. Although my long term goal is to reduce my weight down to a BMI of 22, my immediate goal is to reduce my BMI to below 25, so I am inside the normal weight range for my height.

Of course the Christmas/ New Year season has not helped, but I have still managed to keep my weight under control.

My weight this morning was 72.2 kg, or a BMI of 25.58. My Wii Age (based on a couple of balance exercises) is 33. Not bad.

I have set a goal for the 7th to have a weight of 70.5 kg, which is a BMI of 24.98. We will see how I go.

I have one job application in at the moment, so this is small progress on my goal of actually getting some income.

I have 25 active tasks on my task list. Hopefully I should get rid of a lot of the routine ones today (basically housework), so this number should look better tomorrow.

This week is planned. I have not been following the plan perfectly (hence this blog restarting today and not yesterday), but I am following the original plan reasonably closely.

New Year’s Resolutions

These are my resolutions for 2009:

· Keep this Blog going. I plan to update it every day (where I can get to a computer). As a minimum I will be keeping track of my resolutions, but hopefully I will find more to say.

· Get my weight down. I plan to get my weight down so that I have a BMI of 22 (which is in the middle of the normal weight range) by the end of the year. This corresponds to a weight of 62 kg.

· Earn more than I spend. This means getting more contracts or a proper job.

· Get my Task List down to 0 Tasks. This means completing all of the current tasks that I have listed, both 1 off and routine, and completing any additional tasks I add.

· Planning. Plan every week to help stop wasting time, so that I can achieve the above resolutions.

· Be in a long term relationship. A sad goal I know, but there it is.

Every day when I can I will blog the metrics I will be using for achieving these goals.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone, and all the best for 2009! I hope it brings happiness, prosperity, and luck.

I have decided to re-start this blog as a New Year’s resolution. As it was it was becoming just a tramping log, which would only get updated one a week, and all the tramps were starting to sound the same. I will continue to discuss some of the tramps I have been on, if there is something of interest to say, but I will also be using this blog to track some of my New Year’s Resolutions (which I will detail in the next post). I hope to update this blog daily (when I have access to a computer).