Life has been good… very very busy but really good. Since I last wrote in this block I have travelled more miles than I want to think about, had some great success at work, made some great friends and basically just enjoyed living… All in I’m pretty happy.

What should I write about in my first post back? The trips to Walt Disney World or Disneyland? The brilliant conference I went to that I think will help me take some of the things I am working on to “the next level”? How about those mighty All Blacks? Do you still think they picked the wrong coach?… well I could talk about all of those things… and I probably will over the next month or so, but this post is about my biggest test struggle this year… The one that I was not able over to overcome no matter how much effort I put in to it, no matter how many people’s advice I sort or how often I tried new approaches… What was the thing that bested the great Emerson? The one that can wrestle the most difficult IT project into shape? The person that will happily tackle on the greatest of challenges and consider it “sport”?……

Try as I might I just couldn’t get my contacts in! No matter what approach I tries it was always hit an miss and mostly miss. I have absolutely no issue touching my eyes and having things stuck in my eyes. Due to having a strong history of cataracts and all the operations I’ve had on my eyes I’ve kinda grown up with doctors placing things in my eyes including actually placing needles through my eyes while I was awake (That one takes a bit to get used to but doesn’t’ hurt with atheistic just strange mentally when you think what is going on). The issue seemed to be that my lushes long eyelashes got in the way (Before you start to worry It wasn’t me who dubbed them long and lushes…).

In the end it is a $8 piece of plastic that seems to have resolves the issue. Essentially it’s a narrow plastic stick that you place the contact on the end of and then insert into your eye. It makes it really easy and you can be a lot more accurate in placing them in the eye than using your finger. It just goes to show you… sometimes you can spend great deal of time, energy an money on trying to find a solution to a problem only to find that the solution is something extremely simple. In my professional life I’m really fortunate to work with a group of people that are always looking at unique ways of solving problems to meet our customers needs. Sometimes those solutions are extreme complex but more than often I find that its the simplest solutions that normally end up being the most appropriate.

Well that’s it… my first post for a long long time… over the next few months I plan on catching you up on what’s been happening in OurWorld. Until then….

The negative side of course is if I do dye my hair… what colour? Maybe a natural brown with some highlights? Or maybe embrace the blonde within? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. The other issue is maybe dying my hair would be considered by others as just doing so because is grey… one sec… when did I… the one who used to have long hair and a earring (It was the 80s…) care what people think?

.

.

You do of course realise that I will do what I want to do no matter what the outcome of the vote is? I.e the poll is not binding but may be taken into consideration (call it a referendum)

I’ve always known how lucky I am to have met Keryn and how even luckier I was that Keryn agreed to marry me. Heck… even now I occasionally suggest that that she considers marrying someone better than myself however for some reason she seems happy with what she’s got (She might be the brightest person I know but I guess even she can get it wrong now and again).

Being apart for the 2 months is pretty hard but we are lucky enough to be able to catch up via Skype most days. It’s hard to imagine life without the Internet and the communication opportunities it offers. Being apart would be so much harder if we had to relay on expensive phone calls and snail mail.  The comforting thing is that even though Keryn is so far away it often feels like she is right here with me. I guess after 10 years I’ve got a sixth sense of what she’d be thinking, saying and doing it is sometimes like she is still here.

Miss you sweet and love you as much today as always.

We had a busy last few last in WDW with the highlight probably being the Concierge Wildlife Discovery Tour and the Behind the Seeds Tour. The Wildlife tour takes you behind the scenes of the Animal Kingdom with one of the keepers as your guide. Essentially you get to do the safari tour but this time are able to stop for pictures etc and have an expert to tell you about the different animals as well as the operation of the park.

The Behind the Seeds tour takes you behind the scenes of EPCOTs glass houses. We were accompanied on our tour by one of the scientists working in the facility who explained about the various growing techniques they are using and the various experiments they are working on etc. Most of their work evolves around using different forms of hydroponics to grow various crops both without the need of insecticides (using natural methods such as “good” bugs) and of course extremely quickly compared to conventional methods. They work closely with NASA and other groups to identify plants and growing methods that can be used in hash environments where water and fertile soil are not abundant. Very interesting tour and for $16 an absolute bargain considering it went for over an hour.

Tomorrow is going to be a very long day. I just worked out it’ll take about 32.5 hours door to door all going well. The trip looks something like this:

Orlando –> Devner (4:05)

Denver –> LA (2:30)

LA –> Auckland (12:55)

Auckland –> Dunedin (1:55)

By the time you add the various layovers you get a very long day. Luckily I’m flying Air New Zealand Premium Economy from LA to Auckland and have put in for an upgrade to business class so fingers crossed that comes through (If not no biggie because premium economy is brilliant but it’ be nice to have the lie flat bed considering the length of the day).

Well I better go and finish packing etc… (ok let’s be honest Keryn has finished most of the packing already). I’ll spend some time over the next few weeks finishing up my updates from Walt Disney World and the cruise etc (With Keryn gone my nights are going to be very lonely so it’ll keep my mind off things). Depending on how the day goes tomorrow I might have some time to blog in various airport lounges but we’ll have to see how trip goes.

In the last few days we have been to EPCOT, Disney Studios and of course the Magic Kingdom. We managed to see both the final show of the nights American Idol Experience and Fantasmic in the one night. Tonight we managed to catch Spectromagic and the Magic Kingdoms fireworks show “Wishes”. I’ll spend a bit of time talking about the American Idol Experience in a later post. It’s not often that a themepark attraction actually changes someone’s life (Not mine… one of the contestants). Anyway… more to follow at another time… when I’m not enjoying doing nothing so much

With no planning on our part whatsoever we managed to coincide our visit with the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival. I thought I would include some photos from the topiaries around EPCOT below.

Getting off the boat and thru customs was an absolute breeze. We were probably through the whole process in less than 15 minute and on a Disney bus back to Walt Disney World.

We are staying at the Boardwalk Inn during this part of the trip and have shouted ourselves to concierge level.  This is the first time we have every stayed at a “deluxe” hotel at Disney and certainly the first time we have done concierge level. I must admit you do notice the difference. The picture to the right is the view from our veranda. The room is certainly bigger than the value and moderate resorts and the room and resort amenities are of a noticeable hirer standard. Concierge level gives us access to a dedicated area of the resort with a lounge where snacks and drinks are provided throughout the day. We also get access to a vacation planner who can assist us with  dinner and activity bookings etc. We also get things like a turndown service (Love those little chocolates on our pillows) and messages left on our phones with details of the next days weather and confirming our reservations for the day etc. I have a funny feeling after we have experienced concierge level it is going to be very hard to go back to a moderate (of course the price difference might help with that decision).

Since we have been here we have just spent time relaxing (The theme for this trip). Since we have been back we have been to Disney Studios, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. We haven’t gone “ride crazy” but instead just enjoyed some favourites. Tomorrow we head on our Seqway tour of Ft Wilderness which Keryn is really really looking forward to. Let’s hope the weather keeps improving and tomorrow warms up a little.

   We spent most of the day taking advantage of the wide variety of activities on the ship. After a late start we popped on deck for a little look around and a snack. It was pretty windy up there so we headed down to one of the lounges for a cocktail. Later in the day we popped along to a special presentation of “Disney Innovations” which essentially explored the top 10 innovation Disney as brought to theme parks… it was a pretty interesting show and covered tings such as the hub and spoke, “the show”, auto animatronics, using film techniques such as forced prospective etc etc etc. After that it was time for a bit of a walk around the ship, a little of window shopping and basically seeing what was going around.

The show tonight was called Disney Dreams. It followed the story of a girl, Annemaree, who needed to learn how to dream again. Peter Pan helps her along the journey through the Lion King, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. It was an absolutely exceptional show and easily Broadway quality. The stage was spectacular with a number costume and stage changes as well as special effect such as indoor snow and fireworks. The singing was also of a high quality with my highlight being the duet of ‘Part of your world” with Annemaree and Arial from The Little Mermaid.

Dinner tonight was a French affair at Tritons. Tritons itself is themed to the Little Mermaid with the lighting changing colours to various shades of blue and green during the night. I had an excellent meal of escargot, French Onion soup, Fillet Mignon and Chocolate Mousse… simply delicious.

We finished the night at the adults only Cadillac Lounge listening to a live pianist playing and singing some classic tunes and enjoying a quiet coffee.

As I’m writing this we are steaming (do you still use the word steaming when modern ships don’t use steam for propulsion?) towards Ft Carnival where we will disembark tomorrow morning. It’s pretty rough out there as the ship makes about 20 knouts. Personally I like the rocking motion as it gently rocks me to sleep… I’m not sure everyone feels the same way. In reality it’s not too bad. Its certainly not like being in rough weather on a yacht or small boat but it is noticeable that’s for sure.

Tomorrow we are back to Walt Disney World. It’s been a great cruise and certainly something we would do again… hopefully with better weather.

The marketing genius part of the party is that they encouraged you to wear pirate attire for the party. Now there was no pressure to do so and in actual fact a lot of people didn’t but it was certainly encouraged a few times… oh and just in case you don’t happen to have any pirate gear on the ship with you… what do you know… the shops on board just happen to have a wide selection of clothes, bandana and accessories for you to buy (including the cute Pirate Mickey ears Keryn and I were wearing)… absolutely marketing genius. The original Disneyland ride opened in the 50s was turned into a very successful film franchise… which then saw changes to the original ride to incorporate parts of the movie into it… (which brought people to the parks)… and then they continued it on board the cruise ships by having the Pirates in the Caribbean deck party… absolutely perfect marketing synergy.

The party itself was pretty cool with all your favourite Disney characters in this pirate costumes. The part culminated in a fireworks show. Apparently Disney is the only cruise line that actually does fireworks a sea which is because I guess they leverage the technologies they have developed at their parks to do fireworks at sea etc. (They are also apparently the only cruise line to run first run movies on board the ship and to offer movies in 3D… as they made a joke of at one stage… “we can because we own the movies”, again… marketing synergy at its best).

A day in paradise…. Castaway Cay Disney’s own private island. Pity the weather didn’t play nice.

Today was our day at Castaway Cay which is Disney’s own private island in the Bahamas. Disney brought the island when it put the cruise line together and created an island paradise for its guest. There are a number of beaches on the island for families, teens and adults only beaches along with bars, a couple of BBQ restaurants and of course some stores to buy those Disney essentials. I can imagine what the executives of the other cruise lines thought when they heard that not only was Disney entering the cruise line market but they were buying there own island!

Apparently 22 people live on the island full time and currently there is a lot of construction going on to extent the wharf and guest services (including what looks like a water park actually in the sea itself… very cool) to be ready for when the first of the new Disney cruise ships (which are about twice the size of the current ships) come on line next year.

Unfortunately for us the weather was pretty bad when we pulled into the island (They’ve built a jetty so the ships can pull right into the island without needing tenders etc). I heard that the night before the captain wasn’t sure if they were going to make it into Castaway Cay at all because the weather was so poor and the seas were rough. It actually wasn’t too bad, probably 21degC but with highish winds. We did end up going ashore and headed to the adult beach which lucky enough is a

On the sheltered side of the island and was actually pretty nice. Keryn and I both went for a swim and later on Keryn spent some time reading her Kindle as I enjoyed myself swimming around.

Because of the weather before we left the ship the captain did announce that we would be leaving at 3:30pm instead of the scheduled 5:00pm to try and miss the worst of the weather.

Castaway Cay is a masterstroke on Disney’s part and I know a lot of people would have been happy if the ship stayed there for the whole four nights of the cruise.

Nassau itself is like any tourist centric South American/Bahamas city. There were a lot of people outside the cruise terminal trying to sell us things or get us to take their taxi etc. It’s not an issue as long as you are willing to say no politely and move on. The city itself is made up of old style English colonel style building with a Bahamas flavour over top. You find buildings painted in all kinds of bright colours, for example the Parliament buildings themselves re painted a bright Pink (I wonder what the Beehive would look like painted pink?).

  Nassau is probably not a place I would want to go back to. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed our time waking around the city but when I think of Bahamas I think of sandy beaches and relaxing in the sea, not walking around a town and having people trying to sell you things.

We actually ended up back on the ship by about 12 noon and spent the rest of the day enjoying amenities on the ship like the cocktail lounge which were nice and quiet as most people were off exploring Nassau.