For those of you not connected by social networking/
Anna and I have our first baby on the way. He is due on the 17th of October.
I made a mix to celebrate his coming.
You can listen here.
Hello,
I know its been a long time between drinks but I have been busy. You probably have been as well.
Since I do a lot of flying I often get asked for advice.
This is an easily digestible list of tips.
*If you are in economy class book a special meal. This will allow you to eat early and also use the loo/brush teeth before everyone else does. This means you get get to sleep early. For breakfast service it means you can brush your teeth ect well before the rush.
* Have a pen in your man bag under your seat. This allows you to fill out your immigration card without having to find/borrow a pen or get into your carry on luggage.
* Pack charger and a USB cable for your phone/tablet in your carry on. The USB chargers built into seat are only 1amp so charge a bit slower than a wall point charger.
* 1above is the best product for supplementing jetlag. I take it every hour when flying. I also make sure I have some for the next couple of mornings after I arrive. I also get some for my return flight as some backwards countries don’t sell it.
* If travelling for work. Be kind to yourself for the first few days if you can. Don’t expect much. Don’t schedule any crazy projects/meetings. Not always easy when it is a business trip.
* When packing carry on think about how easy it will be to remove your laptop/items for security screening. I find backpacks better than laptop bags.
* When dressing for your trip. Think about removing shoes with laces/belts/hats/watches. If you don’t have to wear a watch/belt/hat/lace up shoes don’t. If you think you can win an upgrade by dressing nicely take the gamble.
* Avoid using the pouch in the seat in front of you for important items. You might leave something in there.
* When in transit don’t use the travelators. Not only is it faster but its good for your legs to do as much walking as possible.
* If you don’t have anything stronger. Karl Pilkington is still the best sleep aid.
* Copy your travel/itinerary to your smart phone as well as your passport. I use evernote.
* Be nice to the flight attendants. Don’t lose your temper with TSA.
* When queueing for security screening queue in the queue with the most suits. People in suits are used to having liquids in bags, pulling out laptops ect so the queue should be quicker.
Happy Flying!
A little mix I did on New Years day.
For a few weeks. A carefully crafted catalog of some significance is here forth fermenting.
I left New Zealand on Monday for Europe. I took a moment to admire the results of gardenmageddon.
People, if you wish to increase the satisfaction of gardening immensely. I highly recommend using a digger at any faintly remote opportunity. Not only does it allow you to remain seated whilst accomplishing greatness. You will also look cool.
I have exposed the frailties of jumping hemispheres many a time. What made this trip special was my rather presidential arrival to my new job. I arrived in France at about 1pm. In the past year it has become normal for a driver to be waiting for me. Sometimes with a name board. This time I had a rather smart chap waiting in the air bridge.
Instead of being whisked into a car I was escorted to the helipad. My boat you see had already started heading to Palma. Not to worry I would catch it up with the Helipilot. I have not spent much time in Helicopters but I did my best not to drool. The pilot gleefully informed me we only had a quarter of a tank of fuel and would have to be pretty smart to catch them up.
We had a bearing to follow but about 15 minutes into our trip we got a low fuel warning. I hadn’t really been looking that closely for the boat.
We had one false positive. The pilot then started asking me if I had seen anything. Relying on someone with jetlag for anything important especially a helicopter miles out to sea with low fuel is probably not a wise decision.
Thankfully we found our target. We landed safely. I felt a bit ridiculous carrying my suitcase across the pad with all of my new crew in fire gear. Thankfully I am well accustomed at feeling ridiculous.
Choppers and Diggers aye. Who would have thought?
A few years ago I visited Palma for a few days. It was a typical Palma experience.Under the guise of learning, I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. I sunned myself beside a rooftop pool. I got acquainted with a delightful fill your own vessel wine shop. I played some tunes as the sun went down. I missed my flight out and had my laptop stolen at the airport.
Not disheartened I ticked Palma off as a place I could gladly habituate.
A few years later, many twists and turns navigated I find myself heading back to Palma.
The Sleuths amongst you probably worked out a grand plan that went awry a couple of months ago. I did not like this.
But as often is the way a new path presented itself. If things go to plan and they will because I am writing my own script again. I shall be based in Palma for the six months of the year when I am working.
This will present its own challenges I am certain. But it is Palma. The place eats laptops and I couldn’t be happier.
Have I complained at length on how frustrating I find recording mixes? Let me complain a bit longer. Before I came home I was asked to play at a solstice party. I agreed and was put on at 5:30am. Playing outdoors at 5:30am presents some challenges. I thought I could surmount them with a genre which isn’t really appreciated in New Zealand or outside.
Techno.
Techno is what I cut my ears on a long time ago but as I was to discover it is quite a challenge to keep interesting and after the owner of the property asked when I was finishing and the next DJ unplugged my mixer I kind of knew my time was up.
Because my mixer was unplugged I did not get to record a mix.
What follows is a mix after I have upended the tea table many times.
I am still not happy with it but there comes a point when you must right the tea table and move on.
They say it takes 10,000 hours to truly master something. I now have four hour long mixes in the public domain. 996 hours to go.
This mix does have a few different styles and it only really hits what I could call techno towards the end. If you listen closely you can hear robots flirting with each other. There is also some nice space ship docking music. There is also some heavy machinery which is about to have some planned maintenance. I have included some nice vocals for my Mum. There is also a devilish sample towards the end for my darker reader.
It is the longest mix I have made and there are some decidedly human elements in there. But as my Wife rightly said. DJ’s practice making mistakes so people know there is a human mixing. #truestory.
I hope you enjoy it.
In times gone past I would write crew Bios. Usually these were people I had worked closely with. This one is a little different in that we never actually worked closely together. But working as you will learn is only half the picture. Talking widely, sometimes loudly on a large variety of topics is another great way to learn what is inside someones head.
Sam appeared on board last year about this time. He was a very green deckhand and had been on board for two months when I started. Knowing quite a lot about being a green deckhand we were soon confiding and his night watch hours lined up quite nicely with my ETO standby hours.
Sam is a sun kissed ‘strayan. His relaxed demeanour was sometimes mistook for tardiness. I realised quickly Sam was just a creature of energy. In fact it was not long after Sam started talking about good energy and how to harness it. Knowing quite a lot about harnessing energy especially for talking this was a good match.
Sam was the perceptive crew member who after my return from a very special two month navel gazing exploration of the universe succinctly remarked. “So you have got weirder Dan” this was poetry. I was soon filling Sams head with the wildest and zaniest theories I could find. He never said enough was enough. He always smiled and soaked it all in. A conduit for the incredible.
Over the Christmas period an ill fated Steward ordered a lot of very good crew red wine. The Dan and Sam sessions quickly became the stuff of boat legend. At a predetermined time we would dim the lights to one side of the Crew mess. A mandala visualisation would be beamed onto the television, music synchronised and red wine would be liberally used in a way to enhance the senses. Sometimes the conversations lurched into very theoretical mythological counter history. Many a time crew members wandered in to be repelled by the good energy field busily charging the conversation. The red wine strangely evaporated. The great red wine drought of 2015 is also the stuff of boat legend.
Sam made this quite cool video. If there was ever a way to create a million more wannabe deck hands this is it.
Sam was wise beyond his years in his own way. Before he left us to do a van tour of Europe,
He told me of grand plans to do a charity bicycle ride of New Zealand. I hope some of you get to meet Sam and feel a bit of that “good energy” it’s something the world needs a whole lot more of.
Sam I miss you mate and you know this. Take care and keep that GoPro rolling. Keep a bit of red wine handy. It will probably last twice as long now.
And so ends two months of tension. Poorly I am afraid. Some part of my past haunts me. I fear I will have no future in politics unless it is a revolution. Too much colour back there, it blinds those who look for it.
With age one starts to notice the grand procession of time. Cycles upon cycles. Why just a year ago to this very week I went through the same heartbreak with another career fork. Everything sounding so positive until that last twist of the knife.
Still, this very place which has been on hiatus can start again. This very place which may have caused contention.
Foolish? Probably. But it makes a good read.
Footnote
I have reinstated all 500 plus posts of this glorious blog. For interests sake I checked the date last year when a job application went strange. The date??? The 8th of April.
Forgive me if I stay in bed next year on the 8th of April. It is surely the devils day.
Hello,
Something has happened the last few days which has necessitated taking my blog offline.
Something Very Important.
I am not sure when my blog will be back online it might be reborn as something different.
Maybe paper?
Anyway I hope you have enjoyed this place. If you are subscribed you will get any future updates.