A good piece of timing

Our recent holiday in Cairns happen to coincide with an R&R visit for the crew of the USS Essex and the USS Tortuga prior to some ‘exercises’ with the Australian Army.

With security the way it is I was surprised to be allowed onto the Essex let alone take photos.

The USS Essex (LHD 2) “Iron Gator” is the largest ship in the US Marine Fleet carrying 1800 Marines, 1200 Sailors and 33 aircraft.

It is known as an Amphibious Assault Ship as it carried a huge array of ground vehicles which get transported to land via three enormous hovercraft that are also stored on board.

At 257 metres long it isn’t an aircraft carrier so carries helicopters and Harrier Jets (which take off vertically.)

The Essex Medical Department can be expanded to a 600-bed hospital with a 14-bed intensive care unit and 46-bed impatient ward, by far the largest at sea with the exception of hospital ships.

Google making some Interesting Moves

Over the last few weeks Google have been announcing some really cool stuff. All of it designed to move people more towards cloud computing.

The first announcement was Google Wave which Rod from Xero has explained better than I could.

In the last few days they have made a head-on assault on moving people away from Exchange Server to Google Apps and also providing Blackberry Syncronisation.

This does look interesting, it will be interesting to see what move if any Microsoft have in waiting:

Xero Analysis – Sam Stewart

So most of my readers by now will know I am a 100% Xero convert – though I am still waiting for the much anticipated Foreign Currency Release later this month to complete my transition.

Anyway I was recently catching up on Rowan Simpson’s blog and discovered a link to a wonderful analysis of investing in Xero and a model (I suggest you read the article and download the model from Sam’s site) to determine customer numbers and revenue requirements to achieve an acceptable rate of return on your investment given the risks etc.

While I found the analysis extremely comprehensive I was more intrigued by the author – the name rang a bell.

Reading various other posts on www.samstewartnz.com made me more sure this was an old acquaintance from my university days.

So I sent an email with a few snippets of history that would have been a  little strange were it not the same Sam Stewart but as it turned out it was.

Sam has spent time in Wellington after studying at the University of Auckland and is now currently in Brisbane.

Just goes to show you don’t need to rely on Facebook to catch up with old friends!

Frank Lloyd Wright… in Lego

Yes that’s right.

As I just outlined on Twitter some people have too much time on their hands. Case in point this person who loves his Lego creations:

The Lego version contains 9000 bricks, most of which are in the base and the stream. And at present, although the house is more or less complete, I have not yet installed the stairs leading to the stream from the main terrace. It provided several problems that I’ve yet to sort out. But apart from that the house is finished. Reviews are appreciated. Many thanks. 

Also announced last year Lego themselves are also bringing out an Architecture Series in partnership with Adam Reed Tucker of Brickstructures Inc.. Soon to be released are a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright Sets.

Shot while Running

I’ve had numerous injuries while running but have to admit all up till now most have been virtually self inflicted.
That was until today…
Today I was out doing a typical circuit around Auckland… down to Mt Smart, up Great South Road, Market Road and home.
The changeable Auckland weather is normally all I have to content with until about 35 minutes into my run I got shot in the jaw by a ****** idiot with a paint ball gun.

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Unfortunately having filed a report with the police there is little that can be done unless the idiots continue with there antics and all I can do is hope my swollen jaw settles down soon.
On one hand you have to say it was a fluke of a shot, on the other hand I have to be thankful I still have my right eye.

Maltese Architecture #2

Well the conference finished and I still had another day in Malta, so today we headed off to Valletta.

The streets were amazing, everything is so incredibly dense but it doesn’t seem crowded in anyway just extremely historic.

Today was the first day I’ve ever seen an elliptical dome which was simply amazing!

The architecture is mostly Baroque but also includes some Neo-classical and Modern Architecture.

Xero Capital Raising

It was great to see Xero’s recent annoucement about raising more capital.

The main thing this highlights to me and I talked about this in an earlier post: Even with economic times being the worst they have been for 60 years there is still opportunities to grow.

It also highlights that I have heard mentioned previously “Raise Capital before you need it as it will be easier to source than when you actually need it!”

Malta / Maltese Architecture

My travels this time have taken me to Malta for Graphisofts International Partner Conference.

After last year only just arriving at the conference a couple of hours before it started, this year I decided to arrive a couple of days early to avoid the stress.

Yesterday two of my Swedish friends and I set off on a mountain bike around the island. We didn’t actually do a complete circuit but certainly saw an enormous part of the island.

Fortunately for me, having not been on a bike for a couple of years, the Maltese drive on the left so all I had to worry about the pot holes. However as an British ex-pat said

The British drive on the left, the Europeans drive on the right and the Maltese drive in the shade.

So there were a few hairy moments!

Anyway check out the photos below:

63km is a long way to run…

Which is why on Saturday we did the 5 man-relay not the Solo Ultra-Marathon of the Te Houtaewa Challenge 2009

At 8:30 Saturday morning Sally set off to run the first 3 km section of the 63km Relay down Northland’s Ninety Mile Beach. For the next 4:47:19 we took our turn to run a 3km section and then drive down the beach slowly making our way from the bluff to Ahipara.

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The team consisted of:

  • Gav
  • Ed
  • Wazza
  • Sal
  • Me

All of them seasoned pro’s having run the event as many as 6 times before (it only started in 2003!) I was new to the relay but had run the extremely monotonous Half Marathon back in ’99.

The guys were a little nervous at the start when they heard there were 5 other teams entered this year, however the nervousness was uncalled for as we ended up winning by over 45minutes.

Hats off must go to Tony Ahern though as he finished only 38 minutes after us having run the whole 63km himself!

Hats off also to the organisers – the event is very well run and has a fantastic Far North Community feel about it.