andrewnicol.net - blog

Sailing on a race track

It was a beautiful day in Papamoa this morning and as with most stunning days I longed to sail, but today that seemed like just to much like hard work.

So I decided to con my brother Craig into going Blokarting . The first thing you noticed when you were walking to the race track was the silence. The same silence that you experience when you cut the motor on a yacht and move to sail power. It is incredible.

With the briefing aside we were ready to race. Team Craig with co-pilot Kyla on-board, and Team Andrew with co-pilot Talia. I'm not sure who won because we passed them more often but they did more laps. Figure that out if you please.

Kyla is convinced that they won and Talia thought it was boring so kicked back for a rest.

Anyway, in my mind it was worth the $15 for 15 minutes, although another 5 knots of breeze would have made it a heap more fun. Craig was to heavy so kept coming to a almost complete stop.

8 out of 10, will be 10 out of 10 when they can guarantee a good breeze.

A funny oxymoron

The camping ground that we are staying at as a strict no Alcohol policy. You CAN NOT bring alcohol onto the site.

So imagine my surpirse when the hand gel in the toilets is alcohol based. You would think you could get a different kind of hand gel.

Family Holiday

Today we (the Nicol family) started a traditional kiwi holiday at Papamoa.

OK, given the fact I am blogging from our caravan, maybe its not quite as traditional as kiwi holidays used to be.

A review of my blog

"In short I thought I would start shouting into the wind..."

And with those words my blog began. Like most things in my life my blog has proven to be random, distracted thoughts. It comes and goes depending on my mood and has had three major changes to its look and feel.

It will continue to change because I love change. It will continue to be random and change in writing style because I am always learning and experiencing different things.

Anyway here are a few of my favourate posts etc from each month since Aug last year.

Old Posts

Old & New  ... Lost after 3 years is the new car smell, it now has one of those car airfreshener smells . A smell that you know is hiding a potentially more potent odour, the way lighting a match in the toilet tries to hide a foul stench... read more [nb this is my most commented post a whole 3 comments]

Origin Pacific falls from the Never Never Land ... In my opinion Origin was doomed to failure before their first flight left the ground. They tried to behave and act like super powers, then align themselves with super powers like Qantas, rather than establishing profitable niche markets ... read more

Authentic Community ...I think this small business called agóge. This business with people from all over the world, with varying educations, from different religions and diverse upbringings is starting to become an authentic community ... read more

Woolgathering at 17,000 ft about the Marlborough Sounds ... I sit in the ATR, transfixed at the sight of the Marlborough Sounds out my window and grateful for the relief from a tiring day that woolgathering about the Sounds allows. ... read more

Flying an Alpha 160 ... "It is like climbing into a new car when you have been used to driving a car that is 25 years old." ... read more

Most enjoyable book

Blue like Jazz - Donald Miller.

Best quote

"I’ve always thought smack in the middle of a contradiction is a great place to be!"  Bono - U2

Cabin Pressure (2001)

I watched this movie last night about a plane that flys itself, and is hacked into by an old disgruntled employee.

Never ever ever watch this movie. Bad plot, long winded and bad acting. The most amusing thing is it was found in the horror section at the video shop.

You have been warned.

I ended the year a loser!

For those of you who know me even a little bit, you will know that I am not at all competitive. Well maybe just a little bit, ok I'm very competitive!

On New Years Eve we decided to head to the Natzkes for a BBQ and see the new year in with them and some of their friends. As the night progressed we started playing Sing Star which is always a heap of fun. Somehow (because most people were stone deaf at the beginning) I managed to have a final duel with Kris McDonald and I lost badly.

After humming my way through a song I bearly knew and being shown up as a sing star fraud (similar to Milli Vanilla in 1990) I decided to turn my hands to 500. I thought I must be able to win cards and while I won the occasional hand we lost both games. Great! what a interesting tribute to 2006.

In 500 the other night I only got the joker once, and the left or right jacks a couple of times. A night of being dealt bad hands.

Now here is the interesting thing. I play 500 like I do life (although I generally win more than I lose).

• I love to make call (even if I have nothing to play) because I like a challenge.
• If I have a really bad hand, I just want to bail.
• I can make generally turn some pretty bad hands into winners.
• I am continually reading people.

I talked to Rob about playing him at golf. May be then I could start this year a winner. :-)

The perfect cafe

I waxed lyrically in a previous post about the perfect cafe. Well the other day I got this photo from Jeff (JD) & Heather Orr in Canada.

How cool is that! What a stunning photo, the perfect winter cafe!

I wonder if it does interactive food?

The perfect cafe

I have blogged before about the interactive mocca that you buy from the 'Naked Grape' in Tauranga.

Well, now I have found an interactive Muesli in Hamilton. It's a new cafe that opened in Te Rapa called AGIO, which is Italian for 'relax'. It does average coffee, but a great Muesli. Check out the photo from my cellphone. Just pour it into your plate and you are away!

Anyway, just because there is no point to this post, I got to thinking about the perfect cafe. I think the perfect cafe would be on leisure island, I have no idea of its real name, with a view like the one taken from my PDA below, and sell interactive mocca's and muesli.

How cool would that be?

Oh and I think there is a lesson to this post and my previous one. I really need to buy a small digital camera that I can take with me wherever I go. My 1 megapixel PDA with a dirty lens simply doesn't cut it.

Woolgathering at 17,000 ft about the Marlborough Sounds.

There they are! The Marlborough Sounds.

The picture from my PDA does it little or no justice, but I simply had to take some photos. The lady in front of me had a real digital camera and I thought of asking her to email them to me, but my courageous contemplation turned to weak actions.

I sit in the ATR, transfixed at the sight of the Marlborough Sounds out my window and grateful for the relief from a tiring day that woolgathering about the Sounds allows.

I have long dreamed of chartering a yacht and sailing around the Sounds. I dream of waking up on a still, warm, sunlit and cloudless morning surrounded by little islands covered in bush and farmland. The only sound is the sound of water lapping enchantingly against the side of the boat. I dream of jumping from the side of the boat for a quick swim to remind my body it is alive. Then I dream of the mandatory cooked breakfast that has smells and aromas and tastes that can only be experienced in location such as this.

It's a dream. A long held dream. Hopefully one day it will become a reality.

Wasted Food.

By means of introduction, a gobblelygook is a device that sits in your sink, that you run water through and it mashes up the food into waste water. From there it is mixed with all sorts of waste water delights like #1’s and #2’s and other stuff and pumped to the sewage treatment plant. In Hamilton’s case the water is then pumped back out into the Waikato River upstream of the Auckland domestic water supply intact.

Auckland water … yummy yummy. The Wiggles should rerecord there song!

Anyway, the other day I was putting some left over food down the gobblelygook and a guest said I should save it for another day. They then said “think of all the staving people in Africa”. Now this is not a dig at that person, because I have heard this statement a number of times in my life and I am sure it is more about not being wasteful than anything else.

But if we were really to stop and think about all the staving people in Africa, would it really change what we throw away.  For me personally eating stale bread the next day is not my idea of fun and if I did it would not help the staving people in Africa or another place one iota.

I guess the point of this post is that there are heaps of statements that we make that really mean very little unless we are actually prepared to follow through on them. If I really thought of the staving people anywhere, and was compelled as a result, I would do stuff and give stuff (not left over bread) that would actually make a difference in their lives. If I don’t then there is little point raising it as an issue.

The person who made the comment may already do all of that, I don’t know, but I was challenged about the throw-away phrases I use that do the same thing.