I don’t get depressed but I do get frustrated!!!

I had knee surgery on the 7th of May and I went on my trip to Scandinavia on the 17th of May and had a great time but it’s fair to say that it wasn’t the best recovery and I know that. BUT there was no way that I was going to miss it.

My surgeon said to me after my first visit back to him that I was out of soccer for the season AND if I had half a brain, I’d give it away completely – let’s just say that I’m ok with having the rest of the season off (considering the injury happened in the first game of the season – it’s a long break)

He also said to me that all I was to do, exercise wise, until the end of June was limited swimming and small amounts of cycling on the wind trainer.

I have been doing both as well as strengthening exercises AND today is the 1st of July so I took the afternoon off work and have officially started my “training”


It’s a beautiful winters day, 10 degrees outside, sunshine and no wind so I came home, got my kit on and rode down to the pool, had a nice easy swim (about 700m) and then stretched the legs on the bike. I rode just on 11km averaging 30km/ph and felt really good. I think the many evenings on the wind trainer have really helped. I’m certainly not going to get overly excited but it’s good to finally feel like I’ve actually done something.


Last Sunday I did go for a ride in the forest on my mountain bike for about half an hour – it was raining and crappy outside but I was really getting cabin fever and just needed to blow some dust out of the joints – it was great fun and this is what I looked like when I got back. The wife laughed when I rode up the driveway covered in mud (you needed to see the back view) and you can see the forest in the background behind the roof of the neighbours place. We are about 300m from the forest and about 1km from the beach – such a great part of the city to live in.

Friday post

Wow what a quiet week with not too much to report at all
Last week I was out of town for 3 nights – wonderful work meetings but great to catch up with colleges from around the country. It was at venue about an hour and a half out of town so I took my bike with me and set up the wind trainer in the lounge room (we had a 3 bedroom apartment) and managed to get a few workouts in every morning and evening. My alcohol intake was very minimal over the few days which was a very good thing – I’ve been in trouble with a bunch of these before but all good clean innocent drunken fun!!!!


Had a phone call earlier this week from one of our airline reps asking if I was free on Thursday to fly up to Auckland to see the new seats and seating configuration for their new aircraft. Sounded like a horrible assignment so naturally I said yes. There were 6 of us that took up the invitation so off to Auckland we went all very interested to see this new and innovative product. They call it the Sky Couch – the first lay flat economy seat and have to say, not too bad at all. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the demand is for it.

I’m 6 foot tall and let’s just say that it’s not really designed for me but I can see the segment of the market that the airline is targeting and I think it’ll be a great seller.

Here is a picture of the new design.

We also got the chance to sample the airlines new premium economy and also the new business class lie flat bed – these are fantastic products and should be the market leader in this sector of travel.

Sometimes we get these type of opportunities and we have to grab them with both hands – this was a great day out of the office.

Did I mention that we went out and had an awesome business lunch – Brilliant working day!!!!

I do love my job.

Scandinavia Photos

Pictures galore – Scandinavia trip, May 2010

Please excuse the map but it’s just to give you an idea of where we went and in what order:

We flew into Copenhagen and went straight into some sightseeing starting with the royal palace where Princess Mary lives (the Aussie chick from Tassie) Had the night in Copenhagen with beer tasting at the Carlsberg Brewery. The next day had breakfast in Denmark, lunch in Sweden and dinner in Norway – lunch was in Gothenburg, a beautiful city before heading onto Oslo. More sightseeing the next day before heading off to the ski resort of Geilo (pronounced Yay-low) this too was a stunning little town – took heaps of pics. It was then up and over the mountains (this is the pictures of the snow and yes, I’m wearing jandals on my feet) onto Bergen on the coast. This was probably my most favourite place, the ocean has a certain smell and it just felt right!!

Was offered whale to try and I politely declined – coming from New Zealand and considering what is going on in the Southern Ocean with Japan, I couldn’t do it!!

Enough of the politics – From Bergen it was onto Flam and a 4 hour cruise out on the fjords and back to Flam. The Flam train in world famous and I can see why, more pics of snow and frozen lakes. It was then onto Oslo for the last night and the HUGE Gala dinner – this is where we were all given our awards for being the top sales people in our respective countries and it was great to get all dressed up and treated like royalty.

The Grand Hotel in Oslo is where US president Obama stayed and it’s also the place where the Nobel dinner is held for the Nobel Peace Prize etc – very flash indeed.

Enjoy the photos.

Friday Post – Sneaky and other stuff

I’m putting plans in place for something “sneaky”

You know when you get absolutely blindsided/surprised – I had such an event 4 years ago when my sneaky little sister got together with my sneaky wife and threw me a surprise 40th birthday party.

My sneaky workmates and my sneaky soccer teammates were also in on the elaborate hoax – did I mention that they got me good. I had no idea and I guess that’s the way that a surprise party is meant to go, so job well done everyone!!

Let’s just say that I’m making plans and will let you know the outcome at a later date. Look out!


On another note – I’m feeling better and my knee is also feeling a lot stronger. I can walk almost without a limp. I’ve been on my bike every night – it’s dark outside when we get home from work so I have the bike set up in the living room on the wind trainer so it’s all good (and nice and warm) I’m hoping to get out on the road this weekend depending on the weather. Have also been for a few swims but haven’t been doing any kicking which I have to say has been heaps of fun dragging my heavy ass up and down the pool!!!! (not)

I’ve really enjoyed reading a few of the blogs I follow – big “ups” to Julie and Tall Guy, following you guys is awesome and also huge ups to surfsister and whiff – thanks for my surf stoke. I gotta say that my surf adventures over the summer amount to very little. As scary as it sounds, after the crap year in 2009, it’s fair to say that my head has been in the business that we own instead of our personal lives that we live. This will change, but for now the focus has to be on the business. If you are a business owner, you’ll understand what I mean.

I’ve also found a few new blogs that are by triathletes and people who do triathlons – there is a subtle difference I think. I would consider myself a “person who has done a few triathlons” as I’ve literally only done a few but really intend on getting into this great sport – I just love it, I’m not that good at it but I still love it. My wife calls me a triathlete which I kind of love but we both know that I’m not there yet, maybe after next summer when I put a few results on the board.

Roll on next week – World Cup fever is upon us – yehaaaa!!!!