Christchurch Earth Quake
4:30 am (ish) Amy and I were oddly awake- unable to sleep and then the bed started to shake. The room started to move and it so aggressive that we were physically being thrown from side to side. What we thought would never happen while living in New Zealand was unfolding as the adrenaline kicked [...]
Spring updates
UK Trip As you can see from recent posts, I’ve been overseas in the UK. A trip that I would have preferred to have been for happier reasons than family illness- but while there I made the most of it . I caught up and re-connected with so many people. Ten years apart from family [...]
England visit…
What day is it? Oh yeah it’s Friday. Jet lag broke after 4 days or is it nights? And I’ve been here for a week already! It has been 10 years since I last visited Old Blighty and I wish it was for better circumstances with family illness being my main focus. While I’m here [...]
WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” update
Last week just hours after WordPress was updated to a land mark release “Thelonious” I had to resist better judgment and not press that UPGRADE button on the dashboard. Why? Well as we know- updates can right royally root a solid WP installation if not handled correctly. I have a considerable number of plugins on [...]
Mr. Change
It feels like sometime since I’ve blogged and looking back at the past few months- that’s not really the case. BUT …I’ve posted…with some reservation or lack of “something” in my mind. The past six months have been quite challenging both physically and emotionally as I’ve been struggling not only with the certain passing of [...]
I’ve tried a paper diary and Excel spread sheet…
This training “lark” is kind of new to me (well let’s not forget the 6 months of work for the Kepler…) and I use the term “train” quite loosely these days too. Either way, a weekly plan that consists of a few set days and workouts is where I’m at with my fitness at present [...]
AOC 2434Pw – 24″ screen review
AOC are not really a well known brand in New Zealand- and during my research on this particular model- the AOC 2434Pw- I came up with just a few reviews online. So after some “old fashioned” physical visits to electrical stores who stocked this model I was mighty impressed with what I discovered. The next [...]
Fixing laggy blue tooth mouse problems on a Mac Pro
A few years back I had issues with my wireless mouse always lagging. An Apple Tech visited my house to replace the blue tooth unit in the 2007 (first Intel Gen) Mac Pro in an attempt to resolve the problem- but it never quite fixed it up. I just had to accept that I’d be [...]
W H Worrall & Co Ltd / Rockshox New Zealand
<RANT> I’ve asked for my lemon of a fork be replaced after 7 failures within 14 months and I’ve no luck :( Considering that the fork was stored for winter- that equates to about 8 months of “on and off” riding. Anyway, here are the issues to date…. 1. Out of the box severe clunking [...]
Long time no blog…
Apologies for the lack of ramblings of late- Summer has eventually arrived over this side of the world and I’m keener to be out doing stuff rather than sat in front of this screen.Truth be known, I’ve not done anything that exciting since breaking my ribs anyway- other than attempting to keep my base fitness [...]
Daelim Bonita – our new family member!
It has been on the cards for a number of months now and today Amy and I headed into City Scooters here in Christchurch to lay down some cash on a new scooter. After some careful research we opted for a nice 50cc motor bike from Daelim- called the Bonita. Having no mode of transport [...]
Running in 2010
I’m not one for the whole new years resolutions as I tend to set goals on the fly and just do it. Saying that, I do have some personal running/ fitness goals that I’d like to achieve. 2009 was mental! With 2009 being the nuttiest year yet with regards to my physical challenges, I’m keen [...]
Meeting Grace & Phil
Phil contacted me via twitter some weeks ago to chat about some South Island running trails. Grace and Phil are currently a few weeks away from returning to BC in Canada after spending 3 months traveling, hiking, kayaking and camping across Australia and New Zealand. Awesome! Currently in Christchurch we met up for Thai on [...]
It never rains but it pours…
A few weeks ago on the Wharfedale ride I had the most epic spill of my riding to-date (15+ yrs) and landed hard on my left side. Initial x-rays found nothing to worry about and off I went. Well, yesterday a second opinion showed two breaks in rib 4 & 5 which means that I’ll [...]
My favourite posts of 2009
Another year nearly over, and what an epic it has been at www.paulpetch.com! Some obvious highlights have been merging of personal blogs into one (that went problem free within 24hrs!), lots of riding, shed loads of running (61.7 KM ultra anyone!) and a rapid increase in internet traffic. The more subtle stuff of 2009 has [...]
The Paul James Design years 2003-2007
When I lived in Australia (2003-2007) I established a small home based graphic design business known as Paul James Design (my middle name is James) that chugged along for 4 successful years. I’m currently having a “end of year” clean up of my computers hard drives and I’ve just stumbled upon some “raw” studio images [...]
AC Ryan PlayOnhd home network media player
I picked up a new addition to our living room yesterday, a swanky AC Ryan PlayOnhd high definition (HD) media player. I’ve been waiting some months for this unit as they are rare here in New Zealand so I was stoked to get a call to let me know that it had arrived. At home, [...]
Christmas party
I’ve been at the University for two Christmas parties now and hope to be there for a lot more. I must keep on track of my eating over the festive season though, as pigging out today highlighted!
Generating happy wordpress traffic with plugins
I’ve been asked recently how I’ve managed to attract a fair amount of new and returning visitors to the blog in just a few years. By fair, we are talking about 18,000+ page views per month. So I’m going to share my limited experiences and knowledge with you all. First things first, a blog needs [...]
Wellington Weekend
Amy’s boss shouted air fare and accommodation for us back in October (better late than never to blog huh) to visit Wellington as a thank you for some recent projects that she had just competed. Nice eh. Flying into Wellington we could not believe how sketchy the landing was, but once on our feet it [...]
www.paulpetch.com
Well. It has been on the cards for sometime and the majority of the posts at www.mountainbikingnewzealand.co.nz will shortly become part of my personal blogging rather than a fully dedicated website devoted to “two wheels”. With work commitments, more time doing “outdoor stuff”, training and a total change of attitude/ outlook to what cycling means [...]
November updates
Summer is here? Eeek. Mid November already and the days are hanging on until about 9pm ish. Summer seems to have officially arrived and as odd as it sounds my mind and body take a while to adjust to having all of this extra light and seemingly more warmth (13degs with sun is warm for [...]
Essence Bicycles closing – & I can relate
Times are tough that’s for sure & many businesses are closing. But Essence Bicycles are closing for a different reason and can be summed up in a post by Paul on Vorb. “The bike has become more than the tool, it is actually defining the type of riding. I think that is all upside down. [...]
Some visitor statistics to this humble blog…
Backing up the database and files this evening I thought that I’d check how things were coming along with regards to traffic. Well here you go….boy oh boy that’s a lot of people, page views and bandwidth for such a humble blog! WoOt! A big thank you to you all- including the fantastic post contributions… [...]
