Being back home over Christmas and New Year and with the recent cold snap in the UK there was my first opportunity to witness something which my dad has described many times over the years; walking on the Lake of Menteith.
Lets get this out of the way early on, lakes in Scotland are usually called lochs but this one (which I’d always thought was the only lake in Scotland) is called a lake. It isn’t very deep and we were told in Geography at school that it is a kettle lake. It has three small islands, the most famous being Inchmahome, the location of a Priory where Mary Queen of Scots took refuge for a few weeks in 1547. I’ve been to Inchmahome Priory before as a kid and it is a local tourist attraction maintained by Historic Scotland who usually provide a boat service over to the island from the strangely titled Port of Menteith village.
The lake hasn’t frozen over since 1979 but when it does to a depth of at least 7 inches an outdoor curling tournament called The Bonspiel or the Grand Match is held on the loch. Unfortunately the event was cancelled but at least Dad and I got the opportunity to walk over to two of the islands, Inchmahome and the nearby Inch Talla with it’s ruins of a castle usually unreachable to the public.
It was a strange feeling to walk on the ice. Any concerns of it cracking were quickly allayed and throughout our time on the ice we saw some stable cracks but never heard any new ones. In places there was a covering of snow which made it easier to walk on without slipping and sliding around. We wore the wrong footwear though, we could have been over to the island in minutes if we’d brought ice skates.
The frozen lake
Mum and Dad standing on the ice
Continue reading ‘Walking on the Lake of Menteith’
Before I arrived back in the UK I had the pleasure of going to the Dunedin Scottish Festival, a week long series of events celebrating Scottish culture and local peoples’ roots. New Zealand is good like that. When the French were in town for the rugby they still made an effort to welcome their guests and make them feel at home, even with them being their competitors at the national game. One of the first things people will say about Dunedin when describing it to visitors is about it’s Scottish heritage and I’ve met a lot of people that talk fondly of some relative that came over.
Dunedin, Gaelic for Edinburgh has the rough road layout and all the familiar street names of its name sake, it has its own bagpiper that can often be found outside the Scottish Shop on George Street, Irn Bru, haggis and a variety of Scottish things can even be bought in the local supermarket, the tourists often taking pictures of the statue of Robert Burns in the centre of town. It all makes me feel very welcome and proud of my culture.
Bhav, my partner had enjoyed a ceilidh last year held during the festival and while we missed that this year we at least attended the opening ceremony, highland games and the St Andrews Day lunch.
Being on the opposite side of the world never felt more like home.
Me with the Mayor, Peter Chin at the Dunedin Highland Games
Mass pipers at the Highland Games
Recommending useful software is a common feature of technology blogs, but I thought I’d share with you some programs that I’ve come to rely on when using my Mac. These are general helpful applications, which can help people regardless of what they primarily use their computer for. It’s easy to go down the geek route, but here is a list of easy to install easy to use applications to enhance your computing experience.
Growl (free) and 
OmniGrowl (free)
Growl (free) gives you notifications on your screen when something notable happens. It’s able to notify you of events that originate in other apps, like Firefox and with OmniGrowl (free) you can extend that functionality to notifying you of the weather, birthdays, flights arriving, etc.
Continue reading ‘Mac software I can’t live without’
Recently I’ve been starting up a business with a group of guys here in Dunedin who already own a clothing company and want to diversify their business. We’ve been working together on the new venture for a while, entering competitions, writing business plans, the usual things and with the launch of our website threadjungle.com, I thought it was high time I mentioned it on my blog.
So what is threadjungle? It’s an ecommerce platform where users can set up their own store to sell customised items without having to worry about inventory, order fulfilment, customer service, paying for an ecommerce website, etc; we’ll take care of all of that for them. Oh, and the best bit is to open up and run a store is free and always will be.
We’re (or should I say I’m) still in the process of writing the code but we already recruiting testers to open stores, our first being RetroKiwi. So unlike Twitter, we should actually have some money coming in!
I was already really looking forward to going to Malaysia and I was promised an experience completely different from my previous Kampong (village) life in Sarawak. We were in Malaysia on business, pitching travel software to one of the most important tourism boards in the country, seeing what future Bhav’s company could have there and visiting her family.
We spent the majority of out time in Kota Kinabalu (KK to the locals) with Bhav’s Dad but visited Kuala Lumpur (KL, the capital) and Bhav’s extended family for a weekend too. I’ve never really been to KK before, my previous experience was getting a taxi from the international to domestic terminals before the recent building work. The city is quite spread out with a few hills separating residential parts. The waterfront area is the main location for tourists but even then KK isn’t a very attractive city and doesn’t have much in the way of tourist attractions. The Sabah Museum and Heritage Village is probably the main attraction. The museum is poorly laid out and quite dull but the heritage village outside is much better. Like its counterpart in Kuching, Sarawak (the other Malaysian state on the island of Borneo) the heritage village is a collection of buildings in the traditional style of the various tribal groups.
We enjoyed our time in Malaysia, and who knows, maybe it’ll be the next destination after New Zealand.
Me, Bhav and her Dad with KK behind us
Continue reading ‘Malaysia 09′
I don’t know why almost everyone outside of Auckland hates the city so much, I guess it’s the townie/country rivalry, but I really liked Auckland. It probably helped that the weather was so nice and consistently sunny. We were very lucky to be able to use Bhavs Mums apartment in the city centre and have her take us around and out for meals. It was great to finally meet all of Bhavs Auckland based family and friends too.
The first morning we went out to Mission Bay for brunch, a beautiful drive to a really nice part of town. I also visited the Sky Tower (you can’t visit Auckland and not see the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, apparently), the War Memorial Museum, Devonport, Mount Victoria, New Market, my first kiwi bbq and One Tree Hill.
From Auckland it was on to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia via Brunei.
Auckland from Bastion Point
Continue reading ‘Auckland’
We only had a few hours in BSB this time (I’ve been there countless times before due to having lived only a few miles away over the Malaysian border) and nothing has changed, not that I expected anything new. It was good to escape the airport for a few hours, get some lunch, retrace paths once taken and visit BSB’s only new attraction; the Kampong Ayer Cultural & Tourism Gallery. Kampong Ayer, once described by a European explorer as the “Venice of the East”, is a collection of somewhat rundown houses and other buildings built on stilts in the bay. I’ve been there before of course (and taken the sunset boat tour round it and everything) but it was still fun to go over on one of the little speedboats and see the new museum.
Our detour to Brunei was only short but was our first taste of things to come; the food, the heat and the way of life. It’s funny how you fall so quickly back into things.
Kampong Ayer, Brunei
Continue reading ‘Brunei’
When I met Bhav all those years ago (OK, it was only 2007) she was studying for her Masters in Entrepreneurship. After missing a few graduation deadlines for previous ceremonies Bhav finally graduated on Saturday with distinction and I’m so proud of her. I felt really lucky to be there to see her graduate and it brought back memories of my own graduation last year. I know she’d probably rather I stopped going on about it but I think she’s amazing.
Bhav and me in front of the Clock Tower, University of Otago, Dunedin
I must be a very lucky man to have my girlfriend not only put up with me but find out exactly what I’d always like to try and then book it for my birthday present. So on Friday morning, without any idea where we were going or what we were to do when we arrived, we drove along the water up to a beautiful place near Port Chalmers. Arriving at Hare Hill it was obvious why we were there, the horses gave that away. Oliver, the owner, is a really lucky man to live where he does and be able to go riding on the beach like we did. Definitely as good as I thought, even with the saddle sores and cold weather.
Unbeknown to me Bhav had also planned a weekend away to Lake Tekapo taking in Twizel and Mt Cook (the highest mountain in NZ), truly spectacular scenery.
Ginger, my trusty steed
Lake Tekapo
Continue reading ‘Birthday Weekend’
With the level of UK unemployment to reach 3.2 million next year (or slightly more than 10% of the workforce), I’ve been waiting to see what happens when the more than 300,000 students due to graduate this year hit the job market and what ideas the British Government have to help them out.
Before I left for sunnier climes graduate (or any form of entry-level jobs) were a bit like hens teeth and it was a situation that everyone knew was going to get much worse before it got any better. A survey by High Fliers Research of 100 firms found recruitment targets had been cut by 17% for this year. The economic downturn had rather predictably hit financial sector recruitment, with 47% fewer graduate entry-level jobs.
3 month long internships were suggested as a way to improve the skill sets of recent graduates and make them more employable. Governments don’t have the best track records with job creation however, “fancy a job comrade?” You can’t magic something out of thin air.
Now the Government is encouraging students to try looking for opportunities abroad. It kinda sounds strangely familiar but coming from Universities Minister David Lammy MP it does smack of trying to offload the problem to someone else.
New Zealand is currently trying to fight a “brain drain” which sees many young people each year move to Australia. Roughly one in four tertiary-qualified New Zealanders leave the country to live overseas, more than any other country in the developed world. What New Zealand’s PM is trying to do is get them back.
