Tag Archives: splathro

So I might have gotten slightly engaged….

You may recall that this time last year I met a very lovely lady and becoming somewhat attached to her. On the 29th of January it was our 1 yr “official” anniversary, which we spent in Wellington.

I realised there’s nobody that I’d rather spend the rest of my life with than her, so last night I asked Lisa to marry me. And she said yes. :’)

Whilst this ring is not as pretty as a Linux server, I think Lisa did approve of this purchase more.

I love you Lisa – spending the rest of my life with you is an amazing, scary, exhilarating feeling all at the same time.

Realising that there’s someone in my life who cares about me as much as I care about them just continues to amaze me every day and I’m so, so happy I met you.

So yeah, I now have one very surprised but happy fiancé and about a million tweets from followers, friends and family. As we were in Wellington for the weekend, it worked out well, being able to see and catch up with many of our friends and my side of the family. (Thankfully she said yes, it would have been a very awkward weekend otherwise). ;-)

Still a lot of stuff to figure out and sort out, I had kind of assumed at this stage my work was done,but turns out there are weddings, life plans, cake testing and getting something other than seans to wear to sort out. :-/

We haven’t really made plans yet, but we’re thinking engagement of at least a year, before we make that final step (or she’ll get sick of me and leave by then and I’ll become (more of) an alcoholic reclusive geek), so it would be a wedding in early 2013. Unsure where, but sounds like Wellington or Hawke’s Bay

I know a few of you want to know how it came about, how I proposed, etc, I’m hoping Lisa will blog that in the next day or two along with some horribly cute couplesy pics once we get someone to take a pic that’s more public appropriate than the content of my phone’s camera.

I’m sure I’ll blog something more in the next few days, just wanted to get something up ATM. :-)

Xmas & New Years Plans

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Time is rushing by in Auckland and already making xmas and new years plans. I’ll be heading down to Hawke’s Bay for the Xmas period with Lisa’s family and then down to Wellington for a few days to see my family and catch up with a few friends.

Holiday plans are:

24 Dec: Drive from Auckland to Hawke’s Bay
25 Dec: Hawke’s Bay [Plans: Family Stuff]
26 Dec: Hawke’s Bay [Plans: None]
27 Dec: Hawke’s Bay [Plans: Family Stuff]
28 Dec: Hawke’s Bay [Plans: None]
29 Dec: Drive from Hawke’s Bay to Wellington. [Plans: Catch up with family]
30 Dec: Wellington [Plans: catch up with friends]
31 Dec: Wellington [Plans: catch up with friends]
1st Jan: Drive back from Wellington to Auckland

If you’re in Wellington or Hawke’s Bay on any of those dates, let me know, always keen for drinks and a catch up. :-)

Other than that, I will have from 1st – 8th Jan (inclusive) in Auckland on leave, so if you’re passing through Auckland, come say hi. I expect to be sitting around coding and upgrading my laptop’s Linux build most of the time. Possibly from in the pool, considering I can barely handle the Auckland heat already. :-/

OMG Auckland

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Goodbye Wellington (pic of my plane by @scottjpalmer at Wellington Airport)

So I’m now offically an Aucklander, after my trip down to Kiwicon, I can’t deny it any more – I’ve moved in, my server is back online and I’m slowly setting into regular patterns of work/social life with Lisa.

It’s been pretty weird so far, having days that are up (yay, omg new city, new exploring, new friends) and days that are down where I miss some of my great Wellington friends, family and reminiscing on past experiences.

I grew up in Wellington and whilst somewhat well traveled (in the AU/NZ region anyway) this is the first time I’ve actually truly lived away from home and it’s a big change – from living in the city where I know every other street, had visited friends/hookups in every other suburb, started a business, met some amazing people, obtained nemisies, to living in a strange city which I’m unsure about whether or not I’ll like.

To be fair to Auckland, most of my past experiences have been as a visitor here for business, so trips have basicly involved Airport – Traffic – Office – Traffic – Airport which isn’t really giving the city fair trial, so I’m prepared to go into this with an open mind, to look at what’s good in Auckland rather than focusing on the bad and to get out there to meet new people and do new things.

I’ll be in Auckland for certain until late June 2012, when Lisa and I will then be re-evaluating what we want to do – I’m still very strong on doing a number of years overseas, it’s more a case of deciding when the best time to do it is. And I expect to return to NZ eventually, particularly if I do decide to raise a family long term, I think I’d want to do that in Wellington.

Going to miss my family in particular – not being able to pop over whenever I feel like to chat and hang with my brother is certainly a downside to the move.

And I’ll also miss my very good friend Tom, who has been my long suffering flatmate, for a while employee and most importantly friend. Considering we’ve probably been flatting together for the past 4+ years, it’s kind of like leaving a partner or brother. :-/

It’s also a time of great change as I close a chapter on my single years – I now have a flat with just Lisa and I – no longer firing objects or having sword fights in a kitchen with rackmount servers all over the floor with my friends; dragging some random people home; heading to strange addresses late at night to meet snuggle buddies; collecting blade servers from weird places to setup in my startup company office and heaving it through the office alone or boozy twitter sessions in Wellington’s great bars.

Wellington is both full of great and bad memories… I love it more than anything and will be back, but in a way, it’s nice having this chapter away from it for a while.

Right now, starting a new chapter in life with Lisa <3 And it’s scary, but it’s good. :-)

Pretty Wellington (from #geekflat apartment I lived in for the past ~3 years)

Packing Nightmare.... I found I have 3 car loads of stuff and only had one car :-/

Found my first Linux whilst tidying up :-D

Squeezing everything into the boot of my car before driving up to Auckland. Managed to fit my big server in underneath everything and used clothes in all the odd gaps... even stuff under passenger seat. I need a bigger car. :-/

Goodbye curry with @thatjohn (John) and @macropiper (long suffering Tom)

Final night in Wellington, the fireworks farewell was a nice touch ;-)

Server online at new apartment. Pretty much #1 priority. Far cry from the days of the twin 42U racks tho!

Week in Auckland

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Been a busy week – I flew up to Auckland first thing on Monday morning and just arrived back tonight on Sunday. There’s a bigger update here on how things are going with the move and plans, this post is mostly just a dump of a few pictures from my future home-to-be.

Auckland skytower in the distance obscured by rain

Standing on the Northcote Rd motorway bridge, looking out towards the Smales Farm busway (where the very excellent North Express (NEX) runs to/from)

Driving along the Auckland Harbour Bridge

Donuts. One of the delicious perks of being in Auckland. (there is essentially no donut shops in Wellington. TBH, that's probably a good thing for my waistline)

Noooo.... broke my only bag halfway during the week... was a real PITA finding alternative ways to carry stuff :-( Vinyl just isn't that great for hard wearing joins like that.

Maybe I should carry around less things.....

Sal's Pizza, part of the staple Aucklander diet. Some chick I managed to pickup with my studly ways in the background.

Lake Pupuke in Takapuna, North Shore, Auckland at night. (see wikipedia)

It's the moon! Either clouds or smog :-P (ok prob not, but let's all mock Aucklander's addiction to cars some more)

Slowly morphing into an Aucklander

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October is shaping up to be a pretty insanely busy month, I haven’t even had the time to update my blog for a while or finish some of the project I’ve been hacking away at. :-(

This month is pretty much non-stop travel around both NZ and AU – I have 5 days over in AU in Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as a number of flights to and from Auckland for work projects as well as the impending move up to be with Lisa.

Infact, based on hours spent in different cities this month, I’m going to be around 30% Wellingtonian, 20% Australian and 50% Aucklander…. before becoming an official Aucklander from the 30th of October.

Whilst it’s pretty hectic, it is somewhat good timing. Work is flying me to Auckland a bit for an important project that’s underway, so far I’ve already spent an entire week in Auckland, and likely to spend another week or maybe more up there whilst Lisa and I hunt for a flat – plus it means Lisa and I don’t have too many huge gaps without seeing each other.

(I’ve literally just landed in Wellington and expect to spend (at most) two nights in my own bed before flying back out).

We haven’t confirmed a flat yet – really not a fan of flat hunting, always so many different flats to sort through until you find something that isn’t entirely disappointing, and then there’s all the fun of working with agents and owners to actually get an application in and approved.

The fact that NZ rental stock is utterly crap also doesn’t help towards this goal – far too many hours lack any insulation, have kitchens or bathrooms last renovated in the 70s, are way over priced and have horrendous terms like 12 months fixed term, renewing in blocks of 12 only.

We’ve submitted an application for one place, which the agents appear happy with, but haven’t had final confirmation yet, so there’s a bit of limbo currently – hopefully we get it, as it does look like an ideal place for us and they can do an 8month contract with flexible renewal.

I think Lisa and I have pretty much settled on the shore now, looking at places around Takapuna – there’s a good selection of food and other shops, good transport to town if needed, and we can actually afford enough space to live out there, unlike in the city with tiny apartments.

I’ll be back up next week, so I’m sure further updates will follow by the end of that week. :-)

Auckland, here I come!

Job for snugglier half!

October AU Travels Plans

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I’ve been in a bit of a travelling mood lately – first a North Island roadtrip then snowboarding, next I’m off to visit Melbourne and Brisbane, two of my favourite cities .

I’ve visited both places a few times now, but keep getting drawn back, particularly to Melbourne it seems – going there again for the food and going back to Brisbane because I love the river and city so much.

I was tempted to visit Sydney again as well, but I couldn’t really fit it into the schedule – not sure about Sydney, I enjoyed my visit there, but not sure what living there long term would be like, especially compared to cities like Melbourne….

Unlike past trips, this time I’m taking @splatdevil – it’s going to be our first international holiday together and I get to introduce her to the awesomeness of both places. :-)

To help organise meetups with internationally located friends/readers/stalkers, here is the travel plan:

Oct 20 – 08:00 – arrival in Melbourne
Oct 22 – 13:00 – depart Melbourne for Brisbane, arrive around 14:00
Oct 24 – 16:00 – depart Brisbane for Wellington

That gives us around 2.5 days in each city – so if you’re around and want to catch up with Lisa and/or myself, please let me know when you’re available and I’ll schedule stuff in. :-)

We haven’t planned any specific activities yet, so please feel free to make suggestions/recommendations on things to see and do. :-)

North Island Roadtrip

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In a random fit of madness I decided to take a couple days leave this month – meaning I have a four day weekend, from Thur 25th to Sun 28th.

I’ve decided to spend this by taking a road-trip from Wellington up to Auckland, along with GF Lisa and possibly another friend.

Planned schedule is as follows:

Thur 25th: Drive from Wellington to Auckland via SH1, will arrive in Auckland by around 18:00 and do twitter drinks that evening at Mac’s Northern Steamship 122 Quay St, from around 19:00. (see twtvite to RSVP/more info).

Fri 26th: Spend day in Auckland, visiting friends, planning some day trips.

Sat 27th: Half day in Auckland, drive down to Rotorua, spend night at hotel.

Sun 28th: Visit geothermals, before heading back to Wellington around midday, via SH1 again.

If you are in Auckland and want to meet up, come along to Twitter drinks, or let me know what suits and Lisa and I can make time where possible :-)

Also – if you’re inbetween Auckland and Wellington, not too far out, and want to meet up, please let me know and we can plan detours to come say hi! :-D

Oh and as an added bonus, we’re expecting a Tasmanian open source geek @chrisjrn to be tagging along for the Auckland portion of the trip.