My first time...

The title to this story may sound rather misleading but its truth is rather direct as tonight I went along to a beginners class for yoga cramped into a small room much like a sauna stuck in positions I care not to try and repeat frequently. The pungent smell of the room at first is strongly overbearing much like a mouldy scent of a wet towel only warmed up to just over room temp. I found that that the part I found easist was the concerntration required to control balance and breathing yet parts of my body would just not bend according to the natural laws of Yoga.
My friend Simon and his partner Yonne have been twice before and asked me if I'd like to try one session along with one of his colleagues from work and her sister. After about 10 minutes there is sweat dripping all over your body and probably a total of 30 in the class where at least 90% are female and the thought that continually went through my mind was that "...I'm half naked and I've usually exchanged converstaion or gone on a date with them before I get into a small room to get all hot and sweaty...."
Will I go back, possibly we will have to wait and see.

Bonus Time

Take a look at what I'm hoping to upgrade to when the yearly bonus arrives...

Callaway x460 Tour Driver, 10 degree with a Fujikura 26.3 Tour Platform stiff shaft with medium torque and a high kick point. The driver as previously noted has a consistent alignment sole that allows better set-up off the tee for those memorable long perfect drives.
View at : x460 Tour Driver

The x-tour irons, steel stiff shaft for improved weight and control throughout the full swing plane. These are the irons used by Michael Campbell to win the 2005 US Open and Phil Mikelson to take home this years green jacket at the Augusta Masters.
These I trialed a few weeks back and immediately fell in love with them, they are a big must and will be first on the shopping trolley.
View at :
X Tour Irons

If money allows as the bonus could and wilbe used to secure a few other things for Makayla, Then these will be last on the considerable shopping list. And they are the x-tour fairway woods, now normally I would choose the ideal clubs no matter what the brand or mix. But Callaway's clubs seem to be so impressively designed and packaged the need for actual marketing has been limited to try once and buy straight away.

Anyhow the fairway woods are similiar in design to the tour driver however the difference being the usual face size of a normal fairway wood where the only difference is in the advanced design features.
View at : Fairway woods


all n all.... YUMMY

This leaves only one more detail....

Hmmm A set of wedges, which to get, Cleveland, callaway or titelist

Maksupdate April 29th 2006

As you may recall a few weeks back, Makayla, was really quite sick and while I'm happy to report she is much better she now has come down with conjunctivitus. Her eye's have been looking puffy and red so we've had to regularly put eye drops and another type of ointment to try and better her condition.
She has high spirits but still very tired so we allow her to rest to allow her body time to heal itself so she can be back to her full health and running around chasing her cousin and fighting over toys.
Over the weekend I put her down for a nap and noticed after a while that it had almost completely covered her eye so softly picked her up still sleeping so I could wipe her eyes clean and put her back to bed which was the easy part. However it was from that moment I knew that I'd have to stay with her closely to ensure I could clean her eyes throughout the night as at times it looked as though she might not beable to open her eyes at all. That afternoon we went through half a box of tissues before I moved to a wet face cloth which was much better and saved about 4 tissues left in the box for wiping up her breakfast the next day.
Donne took the day off work to keep a watchful eye on her and her eye's progression to which she noted that they were a little better today. I heard someone say somewhere that if propertly treated that conjuctivitus can only last around 2 days so here's hoping for a quick recovery.
Get well soon Miekie, Love Dad

Weekends Golf

I had booked a round at Howick Golf course for an afternoon tee-off which was the earliest time available for 4 pax. However turning up on the day we were to find that the course had been closed due to the appauling weather conditions from throughout the week. Parking our cars just off the thoroughfare we jumped on the cell and called a few other places such as Wattle Cove and Manukau after writing-off Aviation as a possibility. Manukau was open but was closed for club champs, so we ended up driving back into the city to play 9 holes at good ol chamby (Chamberlain Park) where the course conditions lent some interesting moments.
Hole by Hole: Pulled my fav 5 wood from the bag and stepped up to the tee and put my patent draw leaving me with a great line to the green/pin before catching my 8 iron thin to still reach the green then miss my birdy putt by 1 ft to take a par on the first. Following that there was a bogey on the second and third, a par on the thrid then bogies on the next three holes before closing with two pars for 5over thru 9 holes. Which was enough to clinch the win by two strokes over my rival Mr. Johnson.

To summarise - Lately I've been feeling comfortable with my woods but not too confident when it comes to the ol irons.
I tried the new callaway x-tour irons and found them to match my swing perfectly and felt so nice trhoughout the entire swing so that's where my yearly bonus will be invested.

3 More Months

Just have threee more months to hang in at PRF for when my yearly bonus is paid out in August 2006 where I'm hoping to use a portion of that to upgrade from my current golf clubs to the new callaway x-tours for irons, driver and fairway wood.
I'll be sad to let my current 5 wood go which has a wilson bubble shaft and I quite like the consistency I'm currently gaining from its use on the fairway.
However with new and more current technology available to closely match my swing I have hopes to secure a good bonus payout to be enough to cover future plans for Makayla and the balance to purchase some new clubs.

MI3-Mission Impossible 3

After returning home from the usual weeky grocery hunt I had arrived home no more than 10 mins when I received a text from a good old friend to join her at the movies. We decided to go to MI3 with Tom Cruise and I have to say that it was rather predictable a story like that of green eggs and ham. Tom in the usual lead role was at times I felt too dramatic in scenes that didn't require it too be and others too much over acting. One scene disappointment and that was a scene that was too similar to that of True Lies directed by James Cameron. All in all I felt it was much like the first movie and didn't live up to the hype, bring back John Woo.

City Scene

The Auckland City Council have newly created a property website that can help you find out what's going to be built near where you live or want to buy which is a great benefit for those astute investos and for the average person looking to sell or buy a new home or develop a home or property. It was launched last week as a new online preperty page to enable hombuyers and property developers to access a wide range of property information without having to go through the whole process of calling &/or odering lim reports, property file CDs and access to neighbourhood reports which tell hyou just what building activity is planned and what licenses are held near the property your planning to buy. Also the usual access to the rates and bulding consents as per before.

You can locate at www.aucklandcityproperty.govt.nz

Maks Update May 17th 2006

Today whilst at work fielding an inbound sales call I received a phonecall to my cell phone from an unrecognised number. I knew for a fact that Maks had a cough on monday and immediately knew that there was a high percentage that the call was from her daycare, little learners, and sure enough my hunch was correct. They had advised me that she had a high fever and temperature with a running nose and wasn't letting anyone pick her up. I advised work of the nature and rushed to my car and headed towards dannemora to collect my poor wee little darling. On arriving my heart dropped to the floor as she looked terrible and miserable with only a small glimmer of relief when she saw me as she was in much pain it appeared.
We took her immediately to the doctor to have her checked out to be on the safe side but knowing that her temperature was not on defcon 3 status but best to catch it as early as possible. After a check up and collecting her prescription we were on our way home to rest where she's been asleep for the majority of the time we've been home. Donne stopped by to see how she's doing after her busy day at work, Oh yes Donne has started back at work as a full time travel agent with Flight Centre in Newmarkets 277 and fully enjoying it too which is also great to hear.
I'll be taking time off work tomorrow to take care of little mak's and get her back on track to her usually smiling self.

Gulf Harbour

Departing my apartment roughly around 0830am headed towards Gulf Harbour golf course. We arrived early with the hopes of using the driving range to warm up our swing but as it was closed we decided to tee off earlier as the weather was most likely going to set in with rain forecasted later in the afternoon.
Due to the rain dropped on the course over the past week the course was rather damp but drained better than most courses to the condition was ok.
The front nine started off with a double bogey due to poor putting which unfortunately was to continue throughout the day.
The fourth hole par 4 was a great hole with a steady 3 wood from the elevated tee followed by a 6 iron slightly right of the green leaving a tricky chip which fortunately turned out for the best as it found the hole carding a birdy and saving me from more terrible putting. Then came he eight hole where it all started to go down the wrong track as you'll see below. Just the worst play I could imagine leaving me rather disappointed with myself especially on the 13th par 3 where I was the only person to hit the green but then miraculously 4 putted for bogey. Furious, the troubles only continued making my round a 95 for the day which is 2 more than when I last played making my effort all the more disappointing.

Mothers Day 2006

To all those's mommy's out there, Happy Mothers Day 2006 from this blogger.

For the past two weeks I've been getting together and sorting out Donne's present which was delivered today in fine form. First up was a mothers day card which Makayla herself picked out and a very good pick it was too. We walked down the Whitcouls early this morning and I put her down and said "ok choose a nice card for mommy" to which she promptly ran up and pulled out a card and turned around to hand it to me. One thing I can say for this little princess, she know's what she wants and didn't waste anytime making a decisive decision.
So we then came home to wrap mommy's present which is a twin canvas of hand and foot prints with Makaylas chinese name and the name makayla in chinese down the right hand side. The second part was the most difficult, mostly due to software allowances on my computer program I used to build a dvd presentation of Maks first year video's and photo's.
But it all worked out well in the end

Butterfly Creek

Random things I learn't today

You can start up your own fake police squad in Iraq for about NZD$40 which would purchase you a uniform to which you would then be issued a squad car and an AK-47 assult rilfe.

In north queensland a guy was sorting out an over-hanging tree branch when a croc got fed up with the noise and jumped onto the branch and lunged at the chainsaw. After an hour of destruction the chainsaw was a complete write off and with a few broken teeth on the croc. Chainsaw 0, Croc 1.

Mexico have recently declared that carrying majijuana, heroine or cocaine in small quantities is completely legal.

In Cyprus for the awareness of breast cancer a record chain of bra's were interlinked to the distance of 11km's
On a more local note, Dunedin also hit the guiness book of records by holding the worlds largets pillow fight with about 6,000 people I think.