iamaelephant

In order to continue James line of thinking (whilst also making the first article for 6 months).

What games are people looking forward to this year?

What's Everyone doing for Boxing Day and New Years this year?

Chris and I are going to be in Whanga for Christmas Day and are thinking about either staying there Boxing day, coming back to Tauranga for BBQ etc. and catching up with everyone (which we could have at our place), or going to the Pirongia Races. So whats everyone else up to?

Also what are people planning this year for New Years? We don't have any idea what we're doing yet.

I'll start this with a few!

One thing I can do while sick is start my chilli farm blog. This year I'm planning to grow ten varieties of chillis for various purposes. I acquired the seeds recently and planted them into a propagator. This now sits by the window sill where it gets sun for about three quarters of the day. I'll water this very lightly (with a spray bottle) more or less daily.

There are about 2-3 chilli seeds in each punnet, so around 4 - 6 seeds for each variety. Hopefully most of these will germinate. When the seedlings have emerged and have two leaves I will thin them by removing the weaker of each variety. I want to wind up with two healthy plants for each variety by summer. Once the seedlings are big enough they will be transplanted into the vege garden, and I'll probably build a support wire for some of them.

One problem is that I'm not sure how big each of these will get. I've only grown ordinary chillies that you see everywhere in NZ - I think they're Asian Fire, but I'm not sure. Anyway, apparently some varieties get much bigger and grow like a bush. I'll have to have a read up on each one before planting.

See the picture below. The varieties, from left to right, are:
Malaga Bird
Thai Chilli
Scotch Bonnet
Brazilian Hot
Bhut Jolokia - the world's hottest chilli
Jalapeno
Cayenne
Hungarian Wax
Wildfire
Harbenero (mixed colours)

I'll keep an update here each time there's something worth posting.

(click to embiggen)

I parked my car in downtown Wellington (Allen street) last night and it wouldn't start when I got back to it. It had the telltale signs of a broken key transponder (chipped key). Called a tow truck this morning and he told me that this is a common problem - in that part of town there is enough radio interference to prevent the key transponder from working. Towed it out of range of the radio interference and it works fine. At least I don't need an $800 VW chipped key.

Moral of the story: be careful where you park in Wellington if your car has a chipped key.

Sup y'all, we're interested in organising a medium-to-large Halloween party at our place (getting in early to reserve the date). Looking at this point to gauge interest. Will be a competition for best costume. BYO booze, food provided. BBQ if warm enough.

Halloween is on a Monday this year, so will be on the weekend prior (October 29-30).

Hey everyone, I'm interested in organising a catch up with anyone who's interested via Skype (or alternative VOIP service) at some stage. Mostly for the benefit of those of us outside Auckland/New Zealand. I'm thinking say 4pm Saturday (NZ time) this weekend? Who is keen? I hardly ever seem to see anyone online on Skype, which is why I want to arrange something formally.

Hi Guys,

We are currently paying, what I deem, to be far too much for the inter webs.

We only need 20gbs of data and have no use for a phone line.

- Who's using whom and paying what?
- Any good deals out there that we should be looking at?

Cheers