andrewnicol.net

168 | 365 - Almost home

To have a home, a real home, a safe home, a loving home, is their any sweeter thing?
 
Home is a place, but not the building. Home is the people, the laughter, the sadness, the exciting and the mundane.
 
At home you are best known and best cared for.
 
And yet for many many people in New Zealand don’t have a home. They have a place they call home, a roof over their heads. But it is not a home, certainly not in the sweetest sense of the word.
 
I flew to Christchurch yesterday morning for meetings, was scheduled to get home at 8:30pm last night. By lunch time our meetings were done, and Tere graciously dropped me at the airport and I caught the last direct afternoon flight.
 
I was home for dinner, home to chat with my kids. I was tired as it has been a very busy last 7 days. But I was home.
 
There is no sweater thing.
 
 
168 | 365 – This is a shot of the Q300 as we turn onto finals over the Waikato River to land home in Hamilton.

167 | 365 - Planning

Some of the very best planning and thinking happens by the ocean. Spent the majority of the day in Raglan with Campbell talking and planning. My normal phone and camera are both out of action, so this photo from a really really crusty image from an old Nokia.

166 | 365 - Jane Gifford

The Jane Gifford was built in 1908 by Davey Darroch, at Whangateau, initially to cart granite from mines in Coromandel to Auckland. She is 19.8 metres length on deck, has a 6 metre beam and a displacement of 60 tonnes. Based in Warkworth from 1921 to about 1938 she was used to cart shell from Miranda in the Firth of Thames to the cement works on the banks of the Mahurangi River, Warkworth. For a number of years she also carted road metal from the Public Works department Quarry at Motutara Island to Warkworth, for building roads in the area. She was also used to transport stock to and from Great Barrier Island and occasionally to Little Barrier Island.

http://www.janegifford.org.nz/

166 | 365 – Jim and I headed to Warkworth for an interview on Monday.

165 | 365 - Risk Taker

Jayden is showing me how he can be a risk taker, and tries to jump higher and higher. No pads or nets on our tramp. Hurt yourself, take risks, learn.

164 | 365 - Fresh Start

Up early to study. Went out for a break and breakfast as the sun rose over the Waikato.

163 | 365 Bright Spots

I like this photo because of the way the sun fuses with the water to create bright spots that look like small liquid fireworks (without the risk of burning your house down).
 
Spent the last couple of days thinking about bright spots. Things that are working.
 
It’s been refreshing because by default I focus on dull spots, i.e. things that need fixing, rather than seeing the cool picture that bright spots create.
 
The goal in seeing bright spots, is to work out why they are bright spots, and then try and replicate it to dull spots. Hmm, a complex train of thought.
 
Basically looking at why things are working, rather than focusing on why things aren’t working.

162 | 365 Pondering

I love the view out of my office window. I enjoy gazing off into the distance towards Mount Pirongia, which is 27km away to the southwest of the city. I am captivated by the movement of cars and trains journeying to their destinations at the bottom of the road.
 
When I’m on my mobile, I often get out of my seat and watch the world go by my office. I’ve been known to get caught leaning on the window ledge, just pondering, considering, thinking. Across our driveway is a café. I’m sure that people must look up from time to time and wonder what the weird guy is doing just looking out the window. “Get a real job” they probably think.
 
Yet a huge chunk of my job is thinking. And thinking can be really really hard. But without thought we carry on through life without change.
 
Without change nothing improves.

I got reminded that I need to think more yesterday. To ponder more.

So today will be a day of ...

161 | 365 Orange Goggles

You’ve heard of beer goggles right. The experience of allowing alcohol to somewhat taint a persons normal scale of attractiveness for the opposite sex.
 
Well maybe we don’t actually need alcohol to taint our view of people.
 
Maybe we allow our picture, our framing story of a person’s life to form an inaccurate view of a person we barely know. A wrong view no less.
 
Last night we had dinner with some friends and in the course of the meal we were chatting about one of our friend’s parents. I was really surprised to learn some cool and funky things about the dad. I have known that person from a far and never would have pictured him in the context I was told about. I was pleasantly surprised.
 
I think I do that more often than I care to admit.
 
It was as though I was looking through an orange bottle at a person. My framing story was wrong. My view was tainted.
 
 
 
161 | 365 Yesterday I forgot to take my camera with me, so this is a shot from my phone.
 
 

160 | 365 Balance

10 years ago today a great challenge was before me. On one hand I was compelled to care for my wife in labour with our first child. On the other hand was my desire to watch Team New Zealand defend the America’s cup. Trust me, balancing the two, while at a hospital is very difficult.
 
Today that baby girl is 10 and she too is balancing. Only her balance is physical on an imitation Rip-stick. I tried it out tonight. Trust me, balancing on two wheels is very difficult, particularly for an old guy like me.
 
Yesterday I was speaking to a person who used the term “work-life balance”. It’s a fascinating term. Work-life balance almost implies that you work and then you have a life. Life is far more complex than just work or life. Sports, family, children, finances, churches, work, friends, exercise, relaxing, entertainment, hobbies and the list goes on.
 
For me there is a continual struggle to balance all of the facets of life. Not just work and everything else. Maybe, we have the wrong term. What if instead of teaching people to have work-life balance, maybe we need to teach people to have “whole-life balance”.
 
Whole life balance I suspect is harder than balancing a wife in labour and the Americas cup, or an old guy riding a rip-stick.
 
Whole life balance. Provocative?

159 | 365 - Bright Light

You know that experience you have when you first turn the light off and everything goes pitch black. Then slowly, over a period of time, your eyes adjust. This process is called night adaptation. It takes roughly 8 mins to half adapt to darkness and around 30 mins to get full night adaption.

Once our eyes are adjusted. We can walk around with very little light as though it was daylight. We get used to walking around in the dark, and the night feels very bright.

Suddenly someone flashes a bright white light towards our eyes for less than a second. In that second our night adaptation is destroy completely and it will take a further 30 mins to completely restore it. We start fumbling around in the darkness again, wishing it were really daylight.

I took this photo yesterday morning. The bright light is not the sun, it is a street lamp that illuminates small exposed patches in its vicinity, while still casting deep shadows into the darkness. Dawn is breaking in the background. Daylight is coming.

Here’s the point. How bright a light will I be to the people around me? Will I be a bright white light that has significant radical impact? Or will I be like the streetlight, an artificial light that illuminates small patches while leaving deep shadows?

158 | 365 - Creative Cake

I’ve been thinking lately about how we are all creative. Every single one of us, in some way enjoys creating. Its as if we were created to create. And yet we are all creative in very different ways.
 
Some people create through art and paintings. Some people create through music and dance. And then other people create through welding or building or software or written words or stories or laughter or process or clothing or teaching or parenting. Why you can even have creative accountants.
 
And then once we have created. We look at what we created and say “it is good”, and our creation helps create us.
 
Today’s photo is a part of the Birthday cake, Karina, my very creative wife made for Kyla’s tenth birthday. It is the zero of the ten, and is a banana cake with icing edges and a slightly hollowed centre with blue jelly on top.
 
Very creative.

157 | 365: Friends

One of the hardest parts of being a parent is watching from a distance as your children develop friendships. We know that true friendship can craft our children, develop and enhance them. But we also know the wrong friends could have a long-term negative influence on them.
 
We would like to determine who our kids are friends with, but we know that they must learn those lessons themselves.
 
So we watch and coach. We listen as they describe hurts and share their joy as they discover true friends.
 
This is a picture of some of Kyla’s friends. We headed to Rotorua, for gondola and luge rides to celebrate her upcoming 10th birthday. Kyla and her friends were incredibly well behaved, had heaps of fun and enjoyed the day.
 
I am proud of Kyla. I am proud of the friends she is choosing. I am proud of how she connected with each of them yesterday.
 
So far so good. Long may it continue as we head towards her teenage years.

156 | 365 - Running

“So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadow boxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what I should.” – Today I ran 5 km’s. It’s been a while and it was hard work. I had to keep setting small targets. I’ll run to this corner, and then I’ll run to these shops. All the while I had the end goal of completing the run in mind.
 
As I was running I was thinking about how hard work life can be. Paul talked metaphorically about running with purpose in every step. Sometimes the goals we are called to, seem so unattainable and so distant.
 
It is easier to give up.
 
To stop running.
 
It reminds me that I have to set small obtainable targets and run with purpose to each one. Then move to the next target with purpose.
 
This is how improvement comes, how perseverance comes.
 
Then we complete.
 
We finish.
 
We win!

155 | 365 - Uniquely talented slightly crazy person needed for this desk.

Here is my problem…
 
I have three roles I need to fill. ‘Customer super star’. ‘Administrative genius’ and ‘Executive assistant’
 
Role A: Customer super star.
This role will be to take external calls. It will wow our customers, provide them a stunning service and generally win them over. We are looking for someone who has a vibrant personality and who loves connecting with people.

Role B: Administrative genius
This role will handle a variety of administrative functions within our company. It will be responsible for billing to training clients, supporting our trainers and assisting in payroll and countless other functions. We are looking for someone who has a high attention to detail, loves getting things right first time and enjoys admin work.
 
Role C: Executive assistant
This role will support the Management Team through and will co-ordinate and develop many of our internal processes like Health and Safety and our Quality Management System. We are looking for some who can document new simple processes from scratch and be able to keep the somewhat crazy members of our management on task.
 
Role D: All of the above.
In all roles you will need a fun upbeat personality, be flexible in the hours you work, a great self manager and have good to advanced PC skills.
 
 
Here is my solution…
No actually, you tell me.
 
I am happy to consider any person, young or old, man or woman, slightly crazy or slightly sane, for one or more of the roles. Each of the roles above (a-c) are, in reality, part-time positions. But combined (d) the roles would make a full time position.
 
The key is I really want passionate people working for me. People who have strengths that actually align to the work they are doing. People who enjoy doing the work they are doing.
 
If you are interested in one of these roles part-time, then apply for just that role (A, B or C). If believe you have the unique talents to be able to do all three roles then apply for D.
 
 
More information
Roles B and C (and therefore D) would need to be based at our national support office in Te Rapa, Hamilton. A picture of the view from your desk is attached.
 
Role A could be based in either our Auckland or Hamilton office.
 
Agoge is a young, innovative, nationwide company that specialises in providing ingenious services predominately to the transport, logistics and supply chain industries.
 
You can find out more about Agoge by visiting our website http://www.agoge.co.nz/working-for-agoge or give Andrew Nicol a call.
 
 
Apply
So let us know what you think and send a cover letter and your CV to crazyteam@agoge.net.nz

Dress Up

Remember as a kid if you wanted to be doctor, you simply dress up as doctor and you're good to go. That simple. In real life training to be a doctor is a lot more complicated.
 
As I flew to Christchurch this morning, the Head Steward on the Jetstar flight was in training. The trainer was providing practical insights, small tips, and cautions to the trainee throughout the flight. Apart from the announcement about Australian quarantine laws on a New Zealand domestic flight, it really was real-time experiential training.
 
In Christchurch I did some one-on-one training with one of my team. Not in real-time, but still practical, small tips and cautions to help him in his role.
 
Sometimes when we think of training, we behave like we are training doctors. But training should just be simple, experiential and primarily one-on-one.
 
 
154 | 365 – Dress Up – Jayden IS a doctor, checking up on Talia.

153 | 365 - It is Good

Did a lot of thinking about the word ‘good’ today. Good is such a generic and possibly overused word. In some circumstances it is a powerful word (He was a good man), in other situations it is somewhat non-descript (I’m good thanks).

 
It can be a virtuous word, a respectable word, an excellent and moral word.
 
I was at the beach enjoying a good coffee with Jim today and several guys came up the rocks where they had been diving. They had a good catch of Mussels and Kina. This is a good shot of the mussels arranged on the boardwalk. They are a good size and I’m sure they will taste good. As we walked away a fisheries officer turned up. He did a good job of connecting with the divers. I hope the divers were good and hadn’t exceeded the quota.
 
Good is an interesting word indeed.

153 | 365 - It is Good

152 | 365 - A new day

E. B. White once wrote, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
 
How often that describes me. I want to make a difference, to change, to improve the world and the lives of the people in it.
 
And yet.
 
I want to enjoy life, have fun, and to be honest park myself somewhere obscure and do nothing but wax lyrical about making a change without actually doing anything.
 
Planning when I have both desires is difficult indeed.
 
Today I took this photo of the Agoge Support Office just before our management meeting. It’s the start of another week. A week in which I plan to make a change.
 
We will see what happens…

151 | 365 - Ubuntu

 “Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. When you have ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate. If the world had more ubuntu, we would not have war. We would not have this huge gap between the rich and the poor. You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children. This is God's dream.” - Desmond Tutu

This is a photo of Cheree at CBC. Her and hubby own the VW van. We were talking about how I felt I owned a bit of their van. He talked about community, and I took this pic and it reminded me of Ubuntu.

150 | 365 ­ ŒDIY Technology

One of the things I love about the Internet is the opinion it offers. If you have a problem with just about anything, someone somewhere has experienced the same problem.
 
Today I pulled by DVD/HDD recorder to bits again. It’s a Phillips and it’s had 2 or 3 things go wrong with it since the warranty ended. Now it is not recording correctly and I tried replacing the hard drive with a newer larger hard drive. It didn’t work so I put the old one back in.
 
I searched the internet last night again, and have some other things to try today.
 
I would say also, that one of the things I dislike about the Internet is the opinion it offers. So often the “solutions” are not solutions at all and are advertising gimmicks to lead you to a certain website.
 
It takes a while to troll through them all to find real knowledge. But I have access to knowledge that I wouldn’t have just 5 – 10 years ago.
 
[150 | 365 – ‘DYI Technology’ – Inside an unreliable, practically useless Phillips DVDR3455H DVD/HDD recorder – I wont buy Phillips again]

149 | 365 'Clean Water'

Water.

Where I live it’s free, but we buy it. It’s clean, but we filter it. It’s readily available, but we take it for granted.
 
Water is a significant part of the poverty cycle. It takes hours out of a persons day. Imagine waking up today and having to go and find water to survive before you do anything else.
 
1 in 8 people in the world lack clean water. Will you make a difference?
 
 
 
[149 | 365 – ‘Clean Water’ – This is a shot of Kyla, my eldest daughter, drinking fresh, clean tap water.]

148 | 365 - 'Roundabout of Life'

A roundabout. Have you ever been a passenger in car when they decide to just keep going around and around a roundabout? You fly past exit after exit and just end up in the same place. With each rotation you feel both fun and sickness.

A roundabout. That’s what life feels like sometimes. It feels like you work exceedingly hard on this one big project or problem and then end up right back where you started. Doing the same thing again and again.

And again.

There are exits for sure, opportunities to succeed, to love, to step out. Opportunities bring risk and danger, so most of the time we just stay on the roundabout of life, with this strange fun, sick feeling.

I’ve thought a lot about Carpe Diem in the last few weeks. ‘Seize the Day”. I’ve been trying to make something of relevance, of importance, happen every single day. It doesn’t matter how small it is, I make a change for the better. It’s hard, but it helps me feel like I am moving forward, not being stuck on the roundabout.

When we do something small each day, soon big things happen. And we look back on our days and see progress, not just more of the same.

I took this picture on my way home from a meeting at 10:30pm. I hadn’t taken a photo yet. But at least the day was NOT a roundabout day. It was a day of small steps.

147 | 365 - 'Home time'

Rode part of the way home with Naomz today. That’s a first riding home with a colleague.

146 | 365 - 'Sweet Tooth'

I was talking with friends about the things we hunger and thirst for. Clearly they hunger for these sweets as there are none left at the end of the night.

145 | 365 - 'Jealous?'

145 | 365 - 'Jealous?' - Friends of mine Simon and Cheree brought this VW. I want to escape in one of these, tour the country and write a book.

144 | 365 - 'Humidity'

144 | 365 - 'Humidity' - Heat Clouds soaking up the heat and water when we went for a walk as a family last night with humidity in high 90%. Last night was our warmest night this summer 20.7c.

140 | 365 - 'Flight Path'

140 | 365 - 'Flight Path'



Took this time exposure of the stars just as a light plane headed over the house to Hamilton airport. You can see the beacons alternating from one side of the plane to the next.

139 | 365 - 'Symbolic'

139 | 365 - 'Symbolic'



A Person. Religion. Freedom. Grace. Movements. War. Faith. It is amazing how a cross is symbolic of so many things, some right and some wrong.

138 | 365 - 'Before sunrise'

138 | 365 - 'Before sunrise'



These two likely lads humour me and we meet at 6:30 every Monday morning. A great kick start to the week. You guys are remarkable!

137 | 365 - Tauranga Airshow

137 | 365 - 'Tauranga Airshow' - Sun, food, fast planes, what more could

a guy want. Headed over to Tauranga today with Brent and Richard to see the

airshow. Heaps better than expected.



Sun, food, fast planes, what more could a guy want. Headed over to

Tauranga today with Brent and Richard to see the airshow. Heaps better than

expected.

136 | 365 - 'Climbing Trees'

136 | 365 - 'Climbing Trees'



Kyla and Aimee climb a naturally custom-made climbing tree at the gardens in Te Awamutu after entertaining time at the Aquatic Centre, with Megan and the kids.

135 | 365 - 'Switch' - Finished reading this book yesterday. Wrote a brief review today. The tags say it all. Great book.

135 | 365 - 'Switch' - Finished reading this book yesterday. Wrote a brief review today. The tags say it all. Great book.

134 | 365 - The Boat Shed

134 | 365 - 'The Boat Shed' - Went for a pre-dawn stroll around Wellington waterfront to escape the stuffy hotel air-conditioning. Took this picture of the rowing club and the rowers setting up for the morning.

133 | 365 - 'Boarding Time' - Flew to Christchurch from Hamilton on an ATR. Took this photo as I walked across the tarmac in Hamilton.

133 | 365 - 'Boarding Time' - Flew to Christchurch from Hamilton on an ATR. Took this photo as I walked across the tarmac in Hamilton.

132 | 365 - 'Life Group' - Time exposure from home as Jo leaves and heads down the hill behind the trees.

132 | 365 - 'Life Group' - Time exposure from home as Jo leaves and heads down the hill behind the trees.

131 | 365 - 'My Camera' - Running out of time and inspiration so used a mirror to take this shot of the trustee Sony Cybershot camera I use for my pics.

131 | 365 - 'My Camera' - Running out of time and inspiration so used a mirror to take this shot of the trustee Sony Cybershot camera I use for my pics.

130 | 365 - 'Rain clearing' - The rain ceases, the wind changes, and the sky slowly clears. This is a shot of water on the hood of my car with the Basketball hoop in the background.

130 | 365 - 'Rain clearing' - The rain ceases, the wind changes, and the sky slowly clears. This is a shot of water on the hood of my car with the Basketball hoop in the background.

129 | 365 - 'Piha Rescue' - Headed up to Piha (West of Auckland) for a day of adventure with the family, Shot of a lifeguard watching the people between the flags.

129 | 365 - 'Piha Rescue' - Headed up to Piha (West of Auckland) for a day of adventure with the family, Shot of a lifeguard watching the people between the flags.

128 | 365 - 'A new day' - Awesome sun rise as I rode to work this morning.

128 | 365 - 'A new day' - Awesome sun rise as I rode to work this morning.

127 | 365 - 'Hanging Flare' - Ate my lunch at Te Kowhai airstrip for something different. Saw ZK-MPL an Impluse class 2 microlight do a flare and just hand there for almost 1/2 the runway. (I want to go flying again!!!!)

127 | 365 - 'Hanging Flare' - Ate my lunch at Te Kowhai airstrip for something different. Saw ZK-MPL an Impluse class 2 microlight do a flare and just hand there for almost 1/2 the runway. (I want to go flying again!!!!)

126 | 365 - 'Little People' - Left my camera at home today, so a random shot of lego.

126 | 365 - 'Little People' - Left my camera at home today, so a random shot of lego.

125 | 365 - 'Light Pollution' - The lights of the city provides light for this time exposure.

125 | 365 - 'Light Pollution' - The lights of the city provides light

for this time exposure.



 

124 | 365 - 'Empty' - Had an empty house and no photo of the day so shot out and took this empty shot.

124 | 365 - 'Empty' - Had an empty house and no photo of the day so shot out and took this empty shot.

123 | 365 - 'No Kids' - Walking, talking, relaxing, chilling, shopping - Awesome day with Karina.

123 | 365 - 'No Kids' - Walking, talking, relaxing, chilling, shopping - Awesome day with Karina.

122 | 365 - 'Man space' - A shot of my dad's man space and hobby area.

122 | 365 - 'Man space' - A shot of my dad's man space and hobby area.

121 | 365 - 'Suit Up' - Not very often you see a couple of the Agoge boys all dressed up.

121 | 365 - 'Suit Up' - Not very often you see a couple of the Agoge boys all dressed up.

120 | 365 - 'Stockpile' - A huge stack of empty containers at the Port of Tauranga today.

120 | 365 - 'Stockpile' - A huge stack of empty containers at the Port of Tauranga today.

119 | 365 - '3D' - View from my office today. It was awesome in 3D. Wish I could do the 3D thing on cameras.

119 | 365 - '3D' - View from my office today. It was awesome in 3D. Wish I could do the 3D thing on cameras.

118 | 365 - 'Sand waves' - The outgoing tide left a cool impression in the sand at Raglan

118 | 365 - 'Sand waves' - The outgoing tide left a cool impression in the sand at Raglan

117 | 365 - 'Surprise Streamers' - My daughter's made dinner and we ate in Talia's bedrooms :-)

117 | 365 - 'Surprise Streamers' - My daughter's made dinner and we ate in Talia's bedrooms :-)

116 | 365 - 'Out my window' - A delightful Sunday evening, on the couch, looking out into our backyard.

116 | 365 - 'Out my window' - A delightful Sunday evening, on the couch, looking out into our backyard.