| Last Week | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Next Week

Monday, February 19, 2001

After breakfast, we drove south through the small country towns of Carterton and Greytown -- these are pale shadows of a prosperous past, although some effort had been made to tidy them up. Many of the old shops are now occupied by "antique" and second-hand shops tarted up to look folksy/colonial. We were headed to an even smaller place -- Martinborough, which is now the centre of a thriving wine-growing industry. I've done a page of pix with map, to give you some flavour of the area. We headed straight to a coffee shop, the Medici, which had been recommended to me by daughter Sue. They served us excellent coffee, a delicious muffin and a chocolate brownie.

We had a wander around the town; most of which is restored but buildings now host very different businesses than the original -- for example, the old Post Office is now a restaurant. We then headed south for 7 km to a farm owned by old acquaintances of Joan. They had retired here, but latterly had sold off half the land; there was a large area planted in grapevines, but this was leased to another landowner. They have a cottage behind the house which they lived in when the main house was being built; this has been turned into a very nice homestay big enough to hold a good-sized family.

We left them, and drove round Lake Wairarapa -- didn't get any pictures of this as the light was bad and very flat. Came back via Featherston and through Greytown and Carterton again to end up back in Masterton. We had seen a roadside stall on the way down which was advertising fruit, veg, and meat, so stopped and stocked up on sausages and fruit. Back in camp, we had a cookup and found the sausages delicious -- so may return back there tomorrow morning to buy more before heading home. We have a battery-powered refrigerator in the back of the car when travelling, so will be able to keep them cold. For dessert, we had fresh raspberries and blackberries with fresh cream.

Tuesday, February 20, 2001

We have breakfast and go into our well-oiled pack-up routine (by this end of the camping season, anyway). We had a bit of a problem with the two large suitcases we bought last Sunday, but managed to pile them together on the floor of the camper-trailer without them getting damaged by the interior spring struts that fold inwards when the lid drops down into transport position. We were ready to depart the camping ground by 9.45 am, which was astonishing. I rang friends (Merlin & Brian) in Palmerston North to see if they would be home when we passed through, and found that Merlin was out for the morning but home at 12.30. The extra time allowed us to backtrack 20 minutes to the outskirts of Greytown to buy more of those delicious sausages referred to above.

We started back heading north, and had a leisurely trip in light traffic, keeping my speed down. We stopped in Pahiatua for a bite and drink, and were through the Manawatu Gorge and into Palmerston North by 1 pm. Stayed with Merlin and Brian until about 2.30 pm, catching up with our respective family doings, then on the road again north. Went through Feilding and a minor road through some spectacular views (unfortunately it had started to drizzle and it wasn't worth getting the camera out) before rejoining the main highway north. An uneventful trip from then on, until we arrived back home in Rotorua about 6 30 pm.

Unpacked the car and dealt with a heap of mail before a quick tea; then upstairs to read email and catch up with my fellow daynoters' doings. That's yer lot for tonight -- I'm off to bed.

Wednesday, February 21, 2001

This morning saw a domestic crisis when I found the milk in the frig had gone off -- after I had poured it on my breakfast cereal. Fortunately Joanna arrived early, after dropping the children at school, and volunteered to drive round to the shop to fetch more. We went into town at 10.45 am to visit the lawyer and sign a mass of documents to facilitate Don's business changing banks -- mortgages, debentures etc etc. The company starts trading on the 1st April, so we needed everything ready to go.

I spent some time in the afternoon putting a visitor counter from thecounter.com onto a client's website. This facility is free, and they provide a useful range of stats when you log on. They also email the visitor numbers each week. Registering the site and getting the code was trivial -- but then I had to deal with the ISP who hosts the site (Xtra). For reasons of its own, Xtra will not permit ftp access to sites; you have to log on to the special Xtra page and then transfer your pages and images using the http protocol within this page. BUT, it won't work in Internet Explorer because that apparently lacks the http upload facility; so I had to dig out a magazine CDROM with Netscape on it and install it on Linley which is box #3. I really didn't want Netscape on Milly the work computer -- the last time I tried that, I had all sorts of clashes and BSODs, and had to reload via a DriveImage. It wasn't a problem working from Linley, as Netscape saw the file down the network and transferred it OK.

I was out after TV time to a Camera Club committee meeting -- by invitation, as I'm deliberately not on the committee -- to help with updating all the competition grades, rules, trophies etc. I had done a similar exercise with my previous club in Wanganui, so was able to discuss the ramifications from experience. Another senior member was also there, and we have been formed into a sub-committee for the purpose. Back home by 9.45 pm, and onto site update.

Thursday, February 22, 2001

Into town for a large part of the morning, arranging a bank draft for a trust investment. I then spent some time researching digital cameras, and in the process hit upon a possible solution to my problem of storing sufficient digital images while away on our trip to Greece and Crete. There is a product of Iomega called the FotoShow Digital Image Centre which is basically a 250 MB Zip drive with an extra Motorola PowerPC microprocessor and other bits. This receives images from a storage chip and transfers it to the Zip disk. That would probably be equivalent to 10 rolls of film if I saved everything at maximum resolution -- and another disk would double that to 20. But wait, there's more: as well as the USB computer connection, this device will connect to any TV. Using the supplied remote, you can view your images, arrange into folders, compile slide shows, and even do a little editing such as cropping and red-eye removal. I doubt whether this device has reached new Zealand yet, but it's certainly available for web order at about $US235, which is equivalent to $NZ562. As another 96 MB compact flash chip costs more than that, I think that could be the way to go. Should any reader have seen these, I would appreciate an email.

Another lengthy print job for Don this afternoon; letterheads, business cards, logos etc for a client. We had Rebeccah for tea and then took her to her 1st term school dance, as Joanna had a school board meeting (she is chairman) and wasn't able to do the running around. We had two other 13-year-olds to pick up, and duly delivered them all to the school. There's a picture on the Family page for those interested.

Friday, February 23, 2001

We woke to steady rain, which had already been going some hours, and the air was sticky and warm. The rain actually kept up until mid-afternoon. Today was hair-cutting day, so we drove over to the hair salon for the 10 am appointment. Back into town to meet Joanna and Don for coffee; I left Joan to come back with Jo and drove home.

In the afternoon, I attended a presentation by Telecom of their plans to roll out a CDMA digital phone network next June. Their existing digital network is pathetic (they are mostly analogue) but this should kick-start them into something better. The eventual aim is a developed CDMA 3rd-generation network which will be capable of 2 Mbps. I was interested from the web design point of view, to find out what penetration of WAP [Wireless Application Protocol] there had been so far in NZ. Apparently not a lot; the opposition company (Vodaphone) has put in a WAP portal but has not really promoted it heavily, as only a few sites have been developed and linked. The Telecom man was saying that they will be introducing phones with GPS chips which will be able to integrate your present whereabouts with, say, the sites of restaurants on a displayed street map. It would appear that we won't have to worry about producing alternate WAP versions, text versions, or scaled down pages to fit a Compaq iPaq for some time yet. Actually, Rotorua would be a prime site for a local portal, so that businessmen or tourists could access dining or accommodation info from their phone screen.

I have been pursuing my digital ideas further: the Iomega Zip device looks interesting. BUT a little more surfing elicits the following info: 2.7 lbs = 1.2 kilos with power supply, and is 9" x 5.5" x 1.7" which will take up a lot of room in my suitcase. Also the TV output is NTSC -- bloody Americans (non-standard as always). There is a S-Video connection but I don't think hotel TVs would run to that. I'm asking my computer pusher to try the NZ agents to see if they are importing any -- that would mean a PAL TV-out, but the NZ price will be horrendous as it's a small market. The best US$ price I've seen is $235 with free carry-case and car power cord. So it might be another largish Compact Flash chip after all -- at least that only weighs a few grams!

Also I've decided to pass up a digital video in favour of upgrading the still digital to the latest Nikon Coolpix 990. This is much more like a semi-pro camera than the 800. It has features like an external flash shoe (I have a compatible flash) and 3.3 megapixel CCD which will produce higher-quality images. Also far more control in manual modes as well as better auto modes, and it will take the wide-angle and telephoto attachments I bought for the 800. I am getting a lot more photo work with Don, now that the digital camera has proved itself in day-to-day work -- and the 990 will be even better.

Saturday, February 24, 2001

Much nicer day today -- woke to sunlight streaming through the window. Took Joan down to the supermarket for vital supplies for tonight's dinner at Lisa Cresc. I spent some time downloading and printing a very exhaustive review of the Coolpix 990. There was so much paper I ended up ring-binding it for ease of handling. This camera is as complex and configurable as my venerable Nikon 801, and the review info is amazing.

Received the info and invoice for our Greece trip today -- starts to get serious when you have to cough the money. We need to spend some more time on orientation with the maps, and reading the books I've collected. There will be enough people going for two full buses -- the tour operator told us initially he would be happy with 25 people, but now it's over 60. An interesting statistic I read today: over 90% of New Zealanders have passports. That staggered me, and illustrates just what a country of overseas travellers we are. Of course, we have to fly long distances to get ANYWHERE.

A pleasant evening spent at Jo and Don's house, with a graphic designer friend and his wife -- their children go to school with Ethan and Eli. Jo had decided to go Cajun, so she cooked a gumbo and had zydeco music playing in the background. Some good wine, and an enjoyable time.

Sunday, February 25, 2001

The weather has kept fine, but still humid. We got straight out after breakfast for a brisk walk round our park circuit. The sun was very hot; I don't think you northern hemisphere people appreciate the effects of our extra-strong ultra-violet: the burn time for white skin at 1.30 pm (which is local noon) is round about 12 minutes. A good tan can help -- most Kiwis at this time of the year are pretty brown; even though I only go out in the sun when I *have* to, my arms are a rich colour -- and even my knees are well-browned. Although, like most people of my age here, I have a lot of skin patches on face and arms which, if left untreated, would turn into a type of skin cancer. The dermatologist is going to get me back after we've been overseas, because the treatment for these keratoses is an ointment that makes a real mess of the skin for several weeks, so has to be done in winter.

I spent some time this morning and into the afternoon at the home of one of the Camera Club members. He is recently into digital photography, and needed help in calibrating the 35mm slide scanner. Fortunately he had a proper IT8 test transparency and print, as well as Photoshop 5.5. This made it much easier to get the histogram sorted out, and adjust the scanner brightness and contrast. With the addition of a decent Epson printer, he should now get good results.

The afternoon being really hot, it was a lazy time until after tea and TV time, when I went outside at 7.30 and mowed my luxurious lawns. The growth is still phenomenal; in past years, one could pretty well rely on February to be so dry that the grass was burnt brown, and the only green stuff to mow were the plantains and other weeds in the lawn. I finished about 8.15 -- and just made it before it got too dark to see. The nights are really starting to come earlier; but we don't lose summer time until the last weekend in March.