Conclusion: The Auckland Blue wins EVERY month of the year - Auckland is bloody warmer all year round! As per sunshine hours, the difference is more noticeable in winter, where the average temp is nothing like as low as it gets in London. In London it's basically a bit chilly come November, and you feel like you've beaten the Devil if you've held off from sticking the central heating on until then. But Auckland, at its coldest, is about the same as October in London, and for six months of the year (November to April) London is colder than Auckland is at the very depths of its winter.
Sunday 13 March 2011
Auckland vs London pt2: Temperature
It's Saturday night. Needless to say, I am not out on the tiles smoking my bodyweight in crack. I am sitting on our horrible sofa having a few beers. Our flat is a bit thrown-together, to say the least. I've just repositioned our draught-excluding orange towel over the big gap under our front door. Hey, I thought, as the breeze numbed my fingertips: perhaps this will be the last time I have to worry about being bone-chillingly cold for six months of the year?
Conclusion: The Auckland Blue wins EVERY month of the year - Auckland is bloody warmer all year round! As per sunshine hours, the difference is more noticeable in winter, where the average temp is nothing like as low as it gets in London. In London it's basically a bit chilly come November, and you feel like you've beaten the Devil if you've held off from sticking the central heating on until then. But Auckland, at its coldest, is about the same as October in London, and for six months of the year (November to April) London is colder than Auckland is at the very depths of its winter.
Conclusion: The Auckland Blue wins EVERY month of the year - Auckland is bloody warmer all year round! As per sunshine hours, the difference is more noticeable in winter, where the average temp is nothing like as low as it gets in London. In London it's basically a bit chilly come November, and you feel like you've beaten the Devil if you've held off from sticking the central heating on until then. But Auckland, at its coldest, is about the same as October in London, and for six months of the year (November to April) London is colder than Auckland is at the very depths of its winter.
Friday 11 March 2011
Auckland vs London pt1: Sunlight hours
Right, so I've been banging on about what the differences in the weather are going to be like when we move to Auckland; and I've finally got round to working out some seasonal averages. (This was the direct result of Leo refusing to sleep in his cot and being an absolute rat-bag at 4am, causing me to get up and leave them two to it...)
I'm going to publish four sets of stats, on sunlight hours, temperature, rain, and wet days. Here's the first, on sunlight hours:
Conclusion: Auckland wins this one hands down. There's roughly one hour per day more sun in spring and summer; but a massive 2.3 hours more sun each and every day in autumn and winter. Goodbye unchanging grey dishcloth skies of London!
I'm going to publish four sets of stats, on sunlight hours, temperature, rain, and wet days. Here's the first, on sunlight hours:
Conclusion: Auckland wins this one hands down. There's roughly one hour per day more sun in spring and summer; but a massive 2.3 hours more sun each and every day in autumn and winter. Goodbye unchanging grey dishcloth skies of London!
Thursday 10 March 2011
Palace 1 Cardiff 0
Great result and a terrific end to the day. This is me and the boys afterwards, Selhurst emptying quickly. Cardiff bought a shitload of fans down, great support for a Tuesday night, had no trouble in the ground. Good to see Dave back on his feet, he's had loads of trouble with his hips, with one more replacement to come.
Sad in many ways to think that this will be one of the last Palace games I see for a wee while, but very happy memories - not least because I backed us to win and made a massive 50p profit.
I walked a beer home and was still up at 1AM.
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Another year older
It's a magic day.
Not only is my birthday the oh-so-inconsequential 37th, meaning I don't have to lock horns with death-anxiety, but it is also fantastically sunny in London, I have the day off, and I've just set free an extremely noisy track via my Soundcloud page. It's mixed a bit too loud actually. I'm also revelling in the afterglow of a banana cake, looking forward to going to the game tonight (Palace v Cardiff), and sitting here knowing that Rach and Leo love me.
And further to that - I've got a bit of the caterpillar cake I got at work to finish off; and come tonight, if Paddy McCarthy scores first and we win 3-2, I'll win two grand.
There is so much rich joy in the now right now. Time for a beer.
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Caterpillar slices
So it's my birthday tomorrow, and they knew I was coming at work, so they baked me a caterpillar cake. Well - Mr Sainsbury baked it. Tough crunchy casing, sticky smartie scales, eyes and nose...but, oddly, no caterpillar mouth. Brown and sugary.
One of the most gruelling tests of patience for me at the moment is waiting for the exchange rate to slowly rise before our move down under. A move of just one cent in our favour (i.e. a weakening of the kiwi dollar) means our savings will increase by about NZ$500. So, if we see rates of 2.5 to the pound - by no means unreasonable; it was about 2.8 when I was first there in 2007 - we'll be NZ$15,000 better off.
That'd buy a lot of cake.
One of the most gruelling tests of patience for me at the moment is waiting for the exchange rate to slowly rise before our move down under. A move of just one cent in our favour (i.e. a weakening of the kiwi dollar) means our savings will increase by about NZ$500. So, if we see rates of 2.5 to the pound - by no means unreasonable; it was about 2.8 when I was first there in 2007 - we'll be NZ$15,000 better off.
That'd buy a lot of cake.
Monday 7 March 2011
"John Peel!"
Leo's a sweet guy. Here he is listening to some kids' stories in the "My Life Illuminated" exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall. His daddy imagines that, in another world and at another time, he might instead be getting off on some bluegrass/gabba on John Peel's radio show.
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