My old phone finally started screwing up often enough to warrant a replacement, so I’m the proud owner of a new Sony-Ericsson K700i. It has all the gimmicks: video camera, bluetooth, FM radio, MP3 ringtones and so on, so it should do me for a few more years.

Spent last night at a dinner for the Trade Minister, Mark Vaile. Dave’s company had bought a couple of tables, and Dave got to fill one, so he just invited a load of mates for some free food and wine. The event itself was a bit of a fundraiser for the National party so there were speeches and an auction. Listening to all the political waffle was pretty tiresome, especially when I support the Opposition, but when there’s steak & creme brulee on offer I can put up with quite a bit, especially as it wasn’t costing me anything. Apart from the speeches, it was a very nice dinner with a good munch of friends, which was Dave’s intention all along.

Cycled home, then went for a quick run. The first half of the run felt pretty crap, but after that it was plain sailing. My knees were giving off a few twinges, probably from the different movements associated with snowboarding, but nothing serious.

B: 30km – R: 3.5km – S: 1000m – W: 1 session

Biked home last night, did some weights, ate healthy. Got up early this morning and went for a swim.

5 * 200 FS, 60s rest (3:00)
Total: 1000m

I was really feeling it in my arms on the last two 200s, even though the pace is really slow. I’m sitting here in work yawning as well. I now know why most people don’t bother exercising – you’re just exhausted a lot of the time! Being unfit, you might get a bit out of breath after climbing some stairs or something, but you breeze through the rest of the day. Exercising tires you out, and while the long term benefits are huge, day to day it’s can be a struggle.

B: 20km – S: 1000m – W: 1 session

Weighed in at 89.5kg this morning, with 19.1% body fat.

Tom, Sean and Niall have decided to start what has become known as Fat Club. Myself and John have joined in as well. The basic idea is that we’re all carrying a little extra which we plan to get rid of. We have to report in every week with weight & body fat and there will be an “Underachiever Of The Month” award. So far it’s all talk, but we’ll see how things pan out.

Now that the snowboard season is almost over (this weekend will be the last), I hopped back on the bike into work this morning. Next step will be to get back into the pool and stay there this time!

B: 5km

Went for my first group ride with BRAT this morning in Centennial Park. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was all very civilised. We were taught how to ride in groups, what hand signals to give and the two different ways of “rolling over” – doing your turn at the front then dropping to the back for a bit of a rest. The hour and a half went by pretty quickly, the pace was pretty relaxed and I even managed to come first in the two hilly laps at the end, though only because the guy who was way ahead of me had a puncture ;-)

It’s a 7-week course, though I’ll miss next week as I’m down the snow again, which is probably just as well as it’s going to be a hill session next week!

B: 30km

89.3kg this morning, meaning a gain of 1.5kg over the two weeks in NZ. How much is muscle and how much is fast? Well, I’ll find that out this evening.

Just got back from NZ today. Had a fantastic time. Lots of high quality snow; too much, if indeed there is such a thing. Spent the first week boarding every day, in knee-deep powder. The contrast between the conditions last year and what greeted us this year were amazing. Powder, while being more fun anyway, also has the benefit of making it easier on steep slopes, so I managed to cover more terrain this year too.

Met up with Bevin, who’s in great form. She has settled into Wanaka nicely and is enjoying life there. Brought her up to Treble Cone and went boarding with her in Cardrona a couple of times too. She seems to be quite comfortable on any slope, but not too happy picking up speed yet. She’s progressing quickly.

The weather turned on us a bit in the second week. Lots of snow storms, meaning almost total whiteouts on the slopes, so we took a day off. Myself and Kev did some sight-seeing, the lads sat on the couch and ate, we all got trashed that night, Sean & Tom had an egg fight in their apartment, after literally crawling home, and Paul slid down an embankment, narrowly missing ending up in a stream. There was an avalanche in Treble Cone the next morning, which was fine by us as we were still drunk, so we hadn’t made it up the slopes that morning. Rumours flew, but no-one was injured.

Spent a couple of days in Queenstown after Wanaka. Brought Bevin with us and introduced her to Fergburgers. Myself, Bev, Neil and Sean had booked a trip to Milford Sound, but it got called off as the airport was snowed in. Went boarding in The Remarkables instead, which was almost as much fun. Said goodbye to Bevin that night as she returned to Wanaka, then went out and got drunk on Honey Vodka as it was our last night in town. Did a bit more sight-seeing, then had a go on the Luge at the top of Queenstown Hill. Great fun!

Overall it was another great holiday. Plenty of Brewskis, Fergburgers, mulled wine at the Cardrona Hotel and snow. What more could we ask for. No doubt the scales will indicate the downside tomorrow morning!

I’m off to Wanaka to catch up with Bevin and go snow-baording in Treble Cone. Yee haw!

Well I finally got the 2003 skiing video done, just in the nick of time. The deadline was for a viewing on Monday night, regardless of the state of the movie. I had almost all the editing done, and wrote it out to video tape. Everyone showed up in Tom’s to check it out along with some nibbles & jar. At an hour long, it was a bit longer than people were expecting, but since everyone laughed the whole way through, it was deemed a success.

There were two main issue, both with the audio; it got a bit out of sync for some reason, which I have now fixed, and some of the background tunes were a little loud. I just have to fix that, then do some white-balancing and it’s finished.