Week Two Day Four

Well 99% of the training has been and gone and only a marketing meeting in the morning and an exam!!!!
Just when I thought my school days were over, unfortunately this is not the case.
To finish up two weeks of training the company are shouting the newbies to lunch which following that later in the day we have end of month drinks.... $2,000 of any and all kinds of drinks you can imagine which apparantly they put on 'every' month. Which I'm more than happy to assist in the consumption and take the burbon, oops i mean burden off others.
I will have a photo of the group taken tomorrow and post that onto the website over the weekend.
One of the recruits is good friends with Gemma, who's partner is Matt who went to tech with Donne...
Monday i will be live so will have my email and DDI phone number available so stay tuned

mak update June 29th

its wednesday night and mak and i are enjoying the evening tv programming. just watching scrubs at the moment and she's fed bathed and all cuddly and warm. She's definately growing very fast indeed as one of her tops tonight just wouldn't fit her at all and didn't even make it halfway over her head, oh dear, she didn't like that one bit.
My good friend lana stopped by on her way home to see us and just thinks she looks adorable.
The cutest part of the night was danika and kaz joining us in the lift where danika took mak's pacifier and tried to give it to her. when we got upstairs karyn nursed princess and danika somewhat concerned about her darling cousin ran across the room to get mak's blanket to keep her warm, all without prompting. I was watching closely from the kitchen and just melted when I saw what she was doing and kaz got a surprise when danika handed her the blanket.
I will have a computer in a few weeks and filing many many photo's.
please send me an email to michaeljstark@surf.co.nz as i have very few email addresses loaded as never used it before i left freedom. So will be emailing photo's of princess out regularly.

Week Two Day One

Well we are now into the second week of training. On friday we got a good insight as to what a typical day would be as we spent most of the day of the phones with our future colleagues learning the ropes. After today we are all pretty much ready to press forth in the hunt for those commissions, however there still remain small odds and ends to tie up naturally to sync everything we have learnt. Aparantly the company put on drinks at the end of each month and we were advised that there will be $2k of drinks on hand in the staff cafe this friday which I'm rather looking forward too. They also have a cracking social club so i;ll be interested to know what they get up too as well.
more updates to follow.

Madison Fire

Just to update we believe that this mornings fire was caused by an electric blanket. Unfortunately the woman who lives in that particular apartment suffered third degree burns to most of her body. I just can't stress how much electric blankets are dangerous. How and or why some people may or not know why they are a serious fire hazard?
Well its caused by the wires that run all through the blanket that at any given time new or not, can break and then its just a matter of time until a fire breaks out. While some people like a nice warm bed to get into at night the safest time to use them is when they are unplugged. If you have an electric blanket i strongly recommend getting rid of it. If you do still wish to use it the recommendation from the NZ Fire Dept. is that you use it to warm your bed and then wait till the wires cool, which kind of defeats the purpose of getting into a nice hot/warm bed at night. When the wires are hot they are very brittle and can snap. You should never use it when you in bed that is a direct No No to do if you favour your current living.
Well thats enough from me for the day...

Mak Update June 26th

Princess and I spent Friday night entertaining ourselves with bad local tv programs and listening to music but we had fun. After a good nights sleep we woke so she could feed then it was a few smiles while I waited for davina to come round for breakfast. We went up to the heritage hotel with mak and had some very over priced eggs benedict, but it was an enjoyable breakfast. After breakfast it was time for a bath before another quick feed then it was off to see Kylie and Robin and their baby. We got a few cute photo's of the two babies together, but its amazing to see the differences in each child, other than the obvious fact the ones female and the other male. Carol and kevin dropped around so it was lovely to see them again as I don't think I'd seen them since HunieBs engagement party. After we left there we stopped off to see aunty leighann's team play indoor cricket "GO Saints".
Once we left the cricket we had planned to go to see my cousin Stef while we wait for half-a-nana-lana to arrive from Napier but they made good time and we went straight round to see them. It was great to also catch up with her parents Pam & harv who look very well and are in fact off to Fiji shortly for two weeks of 'Fun in the Sun'. So they all got to meet princess in between assisting them unpack all their boxes that had been used to pack all their belongings and hauled up to auckland.
It was a long day but a very eventful and enjoyable one all the same

Madison on the Sqaure

The time is a little after 6am June 26th Sunday morning & I have just returned to my apartment after standing outside in the cold for the past 45 minutes. Somewhere between 5am and 05;30 I was woken up by an innercity rooster called a fire alarm. This fire alarm could honestly wake the dead its that loud but it did the trick nonetheless. So we all made our ways down the stairwells and out into the welcoming cold winter air with what we fairly much went to bed with.
Gossip quickly started that it was a fire drill, Um hello people, who honestly holds a fire drill at 5am
This was all quickly dispelled when we noticed smoke coming out of the third floor windows, The sprinkler systems seemed to do the trick but the fast response of the city fire department was great. In the time from when i first heard the alarm to walking down the stairs and out into the freezing cold air, there were already two fire trucks outside and more showing up.
The problem was quickly sorted and the problem on the third floor came within control that all the residents were able to return to their apartments and slumbers.
Me, well if i'm awake now i will be so until this evening so not even going to bother trying to sleep again hence the reason i'm typing this. But i'm going to lay back and watch a movie now so cheers everyone

Maks Update June 23rd

Greetings & Salutations.
Well its yet anothr time for a Mak update and I'm pleased to say that each time I see her he seems to get bigger each time. Well sh spent lstnight with me and seemed quite at ease to begin with where we were able to take some very nice photo's of her with Danika. The more time those two spend together the worst my fears grow as to how they'll be together growing up with all their shopping expeditions and of the like. But they are terrific together that much is sure as the photo's speak for themselves.
After I gave her her bath and feed her she was quite settled and slept in her cot for a good 30 mins before she too wanted to come out and play. I do need to grow a third or fourth arm so i can eat while she is :-)
But she is healthy and doing very well indeed, and just the apple of my eye.

GO CAMBO !! !!

Just have to say a HUGE congrats to Michael Campbell who this last weekend won the USA Open which is a massive achievement. Its the first time a kiwi has won this title taking it off Retief Goosen from south africa who won it the last two years straight.
Retief is just a diamond in the rough on this course and just absolutely rips it apart but Cambo just held Goosen and Woods off starting the day with a birdie i think on the first hole.
What this means is that he's pretty much fair to say is SET now with endorsements and will have his PGA card guaranteed for probably the next decade.
His tournament winnings were NZ$1.25m - not bad for four days work ;-)
The moment he took the win order were flooding in golf shops for his polo shirt "team cambo"
For those who don't know it, MC has honoured NZ by stating any money he win's at home will all go to charity. I think this is a tremendous example of the kiwi pride and spirit so GO CAMBO.

Tueday June 21 2005

Well hopefully your all enjoying my little inserts of blah blah and not boring you too much. Hopefully I'll get more of a life to fill you in on more exciting material hehehehe.
Not much happening at the moment as concertrating on my training, but be sure to pop back in late thursday/friday as I'll have yet another Mak update for you, YAY ;-)
She'll be spending Wednesday night with me and I'm counting the time until i can see her.
Princess has been a laugh lately with lots of smiles and of course that brings HUGE smiles to our faces.
Mom flies in early July and dad a week later where we hope to spend a night down at terrace downs which hopefully its not too cold for a round of golf..... or two.... or three.... or four hehehe
Oh I love Golf, just wish it loved me as much hahahahaha

Week One - Day Two

Well day two is over with now, heads truly starting to fill up now. So much to take in but its all good. Learning how their systems work and security checks to run over prior to processing quotes/applications and the insurance process.
The trainer Craig Harding is just brill covering all aspects and making really easy and fun to learn and it must be as I haven't fallen asleep as yet, which is what i would normally do hehehehe.
There are quite a few different departments, such as account managers which is my position but there are assistant acct mgrs, customer services, lenders, and two others i can't remember but its remarkable how they all work together. ie. if i have a loan application has been approved i can get them into the office where an agent will meet&greet them to run through the paper work and get its signed off and notify me that its official and i get the confirmation of the commission. All while i may be dealing with another client.
The support structure is absolutely marvellous - anyhow more on that later
cheers.

"Michael Stark"

Ever typed your name into a search engine out of curiosity to see what comes back?

well thats exactly what i did!! the results that came back returned 29,100 web pages. Not having the time or inclination to even attempt viewing all of them i checked out a few with them ranging from musicians to doctors, scholars and even one who works for NASA!! some are artists and photographers, one even came back as a Michael Stark in a same sex marriage to a michael lestcher? Rest assured it was NOT THIS Michael Stark!! !!
They are based all over the world but mostly it seems that the majority reside in the USA, and too my knowledge am the youngest at 29 but can't say that for sure as only check out bout 15 pages of the total.

Well thats just some useless information for your reading pleasure ;-)

Week One - Day One

Well it was the first day at PRF today and it was very exciting as it looks as though this is going to suite me very well indeed. Great bunch of people and better yet, the staff room has a pool table which is "Brill". Covering the major basics of orientation such as the company background, systems and protocol, procedures and the like was very interesting and very refreshing in their outlook as an employer. Lots of odds and ends to keep an eye on but that should be all good. Training is over the next two weeks where after its all up to us to make the dolla dolla or starve basically but looking really forward to getting started.
We had to introduce ourselves to the room, so i mentioned that I have a precious two month old daughter and they especially the girls were very interested to know more and share their experiences. The guy's were a bit more stand offish except the trainer who has three kids also.
All n all i believe I made the right decision to move on and just rip roarin ready to get started.
It was a long day and we took quite abit in and there's only more to follow so going to go home now and read through all the material. Matt, If your reading this hope your first day at voda was a beauty too mate. Cheers Mike out

Weekends Over

Last friday was my last day at freedom air so that chapter has now come to an end. After that a group of us went along to the Hyundai Sports Cafe filming at the St. James theatre where not too sure if the show was much to rave about but we certainly enjoyed the alcohol. My uncle and auntie graciously baby sat my little princess while we were out for the night, thank you so much if your reading this. Saturday, Jason, Jake and I had hoped to put in 18 holes at Formosa but the weather once again got the better of us so we decided to reschedule, more on that it a wee bit. Saturday night I had Princess with me and she was just a bundle of joy and Danika was in my eyes very protective of her cousin, checking in on her with a concerned expression on her face. Picking her feeding bottle up wanting to feed her, the sight of it was absolutely priceless.
She slept like an angel so i was able to get enough sleep in prep for the recscheduled golf...more on that later. Princess and I woke at about 6-7am and just lay back chillin until i fed and bathed her which put a smile on her face, well both of ours as it woke Jake up :-)
Then it was off to drop princess off in trade for her uncle for that rescheduled round of golf... more on that later... So off to Formosa it was, then back home afterwards to where after what seemed a long day just had enough energy to shower, put dinner on and watch Top Gear.
Sorry did i miss out the Golf? oh well maybe I'll mention that someother time ;-)

Start the new job tomorrow, not excited as don't want to have too higher hopes just keeping it real but anxious to get in to it.

I also had the news that Lana & Steve are back in AKLD, YAY ;-)
Drinks soon k guy's & Welcome home

Will update again tomorrow to regale you of my first day on the job, cheers till then.

Vrooooooom !! !! !!

The Final Countdown

The time has come and soon to present itself with new challenges at my feet to which i will indeed pick up and welcome with open arms. I'm rather looking forward to the new challenges as I know its been along time coming and most likely refreshing. Over the past 3 days I've been training my replacement and I'm happy to say that the force is strong in my Padiwan.
You must be sure to check my new photo archive as have just put more photo's on there...
A few fun photo's with Matt but boy's will be boys, I'd put mine on there but for those younger views out there I fear not. But lets just say its "inventive" & leave it at that.
I was happy to see that Lil Mak took to her car keys with "Great" enthusiasm which made her daddy very proud as I will post the photo on shortly. Yes we'll make sure that Danika and Makayla are there to be the first ever females to win Bathurst driving for HOLDEN "Yeah" hehehe I'm sure i'll create a stirr there hehehehe

I recall the time when Donne and I went along to the Parent Child expo last year and BMW has a stall there with kids cars.... a Z4 !! !! electric car for a kid!!!! Dang. We entered the lucky draw but in someway i'm pleased we didn't win it, hows it that ya kid before she's born has a european car while your left driving a jap import hehehehe - Ah its all good :-)

Danika & Jake June 15th

Lil Mak 2 months old 

Maks update June 15th

TWO MONTHS ;-) and going strong.
Yes folks that right we were at two months lastnight where i had a lil wee muffin cake and candle for lil Mak. But being too young Donne provided the honours in blowing out the candle. Worry not as i was sure to take plenty of photo's to capture for posterity so if you wish to view photo's just let me know and i'll endeavour to fill up every bit of memory your emails can handle. Its hard to believe that its only been two months since she came to open arms as so much has happend in that time but one thing for sure is that she's grown so much over that time. From the tiny cute package that popped out, to the big smiles we have now, its just amazing how much joy she's been able to bring into my life. Each and every moment I'm apart from her I just keep thinking I'm just one more second closer to seeing her again as I miss her dearly, daddy's little princess :-)
Come to think of it, I've never seen some one cry so much only to get a tiny tiny fart out, its so cute.
Listening to all the sounds she makes and then new ones makes us all laugh, I endeavour to capture them on video but she all of a sudden goes camera shy, or just curious what her daddy's doing.

Last week to go

Well it seems as though i have been struck down with the all too common flu/virus that has been going around as of late. So much for having the flu jab great lot of good that did i must say. It was a tremendous struggle to crawl out of bed this morning and off to work. I was feeling awful so just went in to update the monday morning mgmt reports then left to get some rest. But bored and restless i decided to jump onto the internet to update my blogsite.
Today i have created another blogsite specifically set up for photo's that may not make it to this site. you will find it near the bottom of the links named photo archive. Once there i have placed a link back to Maksdaddy.
Take it easy - I'm off to bed.... and its only 14:32!!!!

Black & White Shot

What is a Googlewak?

A few nights ago, my friend Jake put a dvd on about a comedian named David Gorman and his experience with "Googlewak". What is a googlewak? i hear you ask, well basically its a game that people play using the google search engine. Basically you enter TWO and only 2 words into the search with the outcome returning just and only ONE website. easy you may think, well its far from it. Google searches over 4 billion pages of information that contain your words therefore you have to be somewhat inventive. but it can be done as this comedian explained which unfortunately i cannot devulge his experience as it has to be seen to be believed. Lets just say that before this googlewak experience he was given the bet to meet 50 other people named naturallly "David Gorman" and his time limit was to succeed by the end of the year. He travelled all over the world and even talked, coaxed 3 women into changing their name by deed poll to david gorman.....but he did it.
So now i put it to YOU, try this googlewak and if you, should you, do find a googlewak. Please tell me what you found as i will keep you all updated with my googlewak.

Happy Birthday

JUNE 12th : Happy Birthday to Davina and Amal

Last Week to go

As i sit in the internet cafe being one of two people in the entire place i look forward to the week ahead of me being the last week of official employment with Freedom Air. Thursday was seen training a support person for the role and come tuesday i shall be training my replacement with only four days to learn everything i have laid down into the role. I'm pretty adamant that i will be able to instruct them logically enough so that they will follow the structure/format in such a way i can train them easily.
All that is required is common sense, while you'll often find that its not always that "common" needless to say it can be taught. So with that said "Bring on Monday" i shall not hide in cowardness like Garfield but welcome it with a smile, and a cough as i have the flu at the moment.

Muriwai

Today is a day in my personal golfing experience i wish to put behind me. While it was a perfect day and conditions were good, unlike the weather my golf was alas, not. Jason you will be pleased to note that when i found the sand bunkers i did open my club face. The end result is that by the 18th hole we could look back and say with a smile that a day of bad golf will beat any good day at work. Muriwai is located on the west coast and runs as a links course with some very challenging holes which we faced head on. Jake accompanied Simon and I on the good walk ruined and was at the same time also able to check out what condition the surf was. Jake purchased a Toyota Hilux surf the other night in preperation for the arrival of his surf boards. So i'm sure you'll be able to see him riding some NZ surf somewhere. Anyway's signing off and will find my true authentic golf swing at the bottom of a whiskey glass

Nearing the End

With but just one week left at Freedom air time is running thin, I will be training a support person for my role today to assist the new rosterer/forecaster whom i start training on Tuesday. Friday next week being my last day it leaves me with 4 days in order to train and bring them up to speed, A challenging endeavour but it shall be done. But with that in mind i am very much looking forward to moving on, while it has been fun, that fun has ended therefore better and brighter things must be found on the horizon. So be sure to tune in next friday for my blognews where i shall update on my final last days with Freedom Air...
Until then

Maks Update

Today the little one has her immunisation shots which is where she will be presently; the precious little darling. I fortunately have taken the day off work to get some rest prior to starting my new position with Pacific Retail Finance. I shall be picking lil bub's up around lunchtime today where she will spend a fun day with her dad, less she's still somewhat upset about all her injections but that's all good. And I'm sure Danika will be excited to see her cousin again that i can be sure of. They are just so cute together and know they are going to be terrible shoppers together. We stood the two of them together Monday night and Danika just towers over lil Mak its so cute indeed so we caught some photo's of that to which i shall email to you all shortly. On other news... Jake has his first interview in an hour with Terence Cox associates where he will find out what positions are available to take on so touch wood and good luck he's able to find one suitable in the near vacinity.

Karyn's birhthday cake 

Karyn's Birthday

It was my darling little sisters birthday last sunday, I've attached a photo of her and Danika blowing out her candles. Can't beleive my sister is almost a granny hehehe. Its mom's birthday in two day's but as she is in Hong Kong i shall celebrate it by playing golf hehehehe. Lotsa love to both

Airbus A320 Cockpit View over Coromadel 

Auckland City Arial Photo 

Air Bus A320

Yesturday was Queens birthday weekend in NZ and Freedom Air decided with the arrival of their new aircraft to fly staff down to Hamilton. As we boarded the plane and flew into the blue yonder we flew around Auckland city then off towards the coromadel's before turning right towards Hamilton. Got some great photos which i'll post tonight so be sure to return soon to see those. The company also put on a great lunch with prize giveaways including several flights... unfortunatly i didn't win ;-( oh well. But after a fun day we had to catch a bus back to auckland, that's what you get when you work for a values based comapany.
The new A320 is a new aircraft similiar to the 737-300 but updated, its interesting when sitting in the cockpit to see no steering column and all they do to turn the plane is turn a small dial. Takes all the fun out of flying i think, but its an office with a spectacular view nonetheless

Jake "Rupert" Morgan

After 8 years since his last visit and 2 days of flying we were glad to welcome Jake back downunder to the land of the long white cloud. I first met Jake in Bangkok at the hotel management school i was attending at the time, where he and Alison soon became very good family friends. Its been great catching up with him and his travelling exploits, (Alison if you read this "Get ya butt down here too hehehe"). So its with that said and done, Jake Welcome home buddy.

Maks Update June 2nd 2005

7 weeks old and still going strong and doing very well. She has grown so much in this time and truly starting to come into her own i believe & making her mother and I very much proud parents. Lastnight her cousin was very excited to see her and covered her with hugs and kisses and would get very grizzly when she couldn't see her, it was quite sweet & funny too. But it only took one loud scream from a toddler to set off a baby then the deafening cries by the two could rattle a house to the ground, fortunately it didn't. Karyn & I stood their with our babies looking at each other holding their own and it was very much surreal yet exciting so we decided to exchange for each others niece but not the same :-) so we swapped back.
Its fabulous to see how the two of them get along and soon they'll be out shopping together, oh dear, daddy needs to win 1st division lotto heehee.
Well thats it for today's update, check back again next week for further updates, news and to see if i won lotto.

Dom's Place not to be

Place NOT to be: Wellington.
Something happened in the capital which sounds funny now but at the time must have been quite frightening.
Imagine this: You are on the phone to your mum who lives in Wellington. Mid-sentence your mum screams and then the phone goes dead. You try to phone back but just get the engaged tone. What would you immediately do?
(Phone 111, of course)
This is exactly what happened when a girl in Sydney was talking with her mum in Wellington. Fearing the worst the girl called the Australian police who immediately contacted New Zealand 111 staff who then sent police and ambulance to the address.
Luckily, the emergency callout was unnecessary. Mum had just freaked out when she saw a mouse on the lino. She then dropped the phone and sealed the kitchen shut so that the mouse would be trapped in there.
So Wellington, where Stuart Little caused a big problem, that is New Zealands place NOT to be today.

Enjoy the photo's

Well finally figured out how to at least put photo's onto my site.
Enjoy these for now, will place more on in good course.
If you wish to see photo's of my darling daughter please email me to request as will not be posting them on the website or the internet.
Well its the first of June today so lets make it a FUNtastic month