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I have been known to buy the odd toy in the past. Below are some of my favourites, unfortunately some
of these have now passed on to new owners due to me leaving NZ.
Since renting and travelling in London is not exactly conducive to keeping toys this page is now a bit grim,
but one day when I get out of here... |
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NZ House |
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Every self-respecting toy owner needs a toy box to put them in. I still own this house in Auckland, NZ
(now rented out to a couple of marvellous clean & tidy tenants, if they happen
to be reading this!).
Lovely and sunny during the summer, my only dislike of this place is that the previous owners
did not concrete over the garden to keep the weeds away...
Has a double garage, 3 bedrooms, 2
bathrooms and less than a 5 minute drive to the beach/waterfront...
| View from the driveway, before I killed all the trees... |
Batchelor pad that it was, complete with pool table etc |
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NZ Rental Investment |
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My latest investment purchase in Mission Bay, Auckland.
Has 3 bedrooms, 720sq metre section, surrounded by million dollar plus homes and 5 mins walk to beach... wish I was there now!
| Yup, it's the white one. |
Haven't even seen it myself yet - but looks a great location! |
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Flexible Ducting Pty Ltd
I admit this isn't a toy by any way shape or form, but it is something I have a significant interest in! This is a company I purchased with my Dad and is now a 'family business'. They manufacture a range of ducting
products primarily for the mining industry in Australia.
A website for the business I put together can be found here.
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Cars |
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My last NZ addition to the "not practical but got to have one"
collection which is mine no longer. Key criteria
for purchase: go fast, look good, go fast, 2-seater, go fast, ... you get the idea.
In case you were interested, it's a 1994 Nissan Skyline GTS-T, 5-speed 210bhp 2.5litre V6 turbo, with
5" exhaust, blow-off valve, strut braces front & back... a truly grouse car.
Unfortunately the realities of life in London overcame the temptations of getting another vehicle worthy of excitement.
Given that petrol costs 80p/litre, insurance is outrageous and that the average speed within London city is 2.6mph (yes, that is official, and it is faster to walk)
my current vehicle is far more modest.
I prefer the angle in the photo taken on the left... but the right shows reality! A Ford Focus 5-door hatchback, 1.8L with all electrics,
abs, traction control airbags etc. Boring but effective for supermarket runs...
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Home Theatre |
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Okay, I admit it... I have been
known to watch the odd game of sport or a movie.
So I figured... if you're gonna watch it, at
least watch it in style! The TV (now sold) was a Panasonic
47-inch widescreen rear projection, capable of
multiple channels on screen for when you just
can't commit to only one program... For the auditory senses the
heart of the system is a Kinergetics Chiro
pre-amp, with Chiro 2-ch and 3-ch amps (140wpc),
a Chiro Dolby Digital/DTS decoder and
StraightWire interconnects. Speakers are Mission
735 fronts, 731 rears, Polk CS350 centre and a
Yamaha active sub (sold).
In the UK I scrape buy with a Sony 33" widescreen, Sony SV-735 DVD and
Sony video player - most flats are too small here for any real home theatre!
My wish list (for when I leave the UK) is just too long - basically I will replace all of the above
equipment for my dedicated projector based room...
You can find my DVD collection here.
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Computers... so I know what to upgrade... |
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My main development box is an Intel Pentium 4 3.0c GHz 800MHz FSB, Abit IC7-G Canterwood m/b, 1GB Corsair XMS3200LL DDR400 memory,
NVidia 6800GT AGP video, NVidia FX 5200 PCI Video, two 120 GB SATA & one 300GB hard-drives, Audigy 2 Platinum sound card, two DVD-writers all mounted in a Thermaltake aluminium Xaser III case.
I use a triple Dell 2405FPW 24" TFT setup, with HP ScanJet 4670 scanner, Nikon LS-40 Coolscan IV ED slide/negative scanner and Cambridge SoundWorks 5.1 speakers.
My previous PC shown here (now used for testing/backups) is an Intel Pentium III 850, Abit BE6 motherboard, 512MB SDRAM, 34GB IDE hard-drive, Creative TNT2 Ultra video,
Creative SBLive audio card, Creative MicroWork speakers, DVD-writer
My network is through a NetGear DG-834G 4-port 54MB/s wireless ADSL router.
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Golf Clubs |
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For my old golf mates back in NZ who want to see what I hit with nowadays...
- Taylor Made 320 9.5 degree Driver,
- Taylor Made 200 Series 3W, 5W, 7W (all woods with firm graphite shafts),
- Callaway X-14 steel shaft irons 3-PW (but don't carry 3-iron now),
- Cleveland 900 series 56,60 degree wedges,
- Odyssey White Hot #6 putter.
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Camera Gear |
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I no longer have excuses to take lousy pictures with this gear...
- Nikon F100 body
- Nikkor 28-105mm F3.5-4.5 AF
- Nikkor 80-200mm F2.8 AF-ED
- Nikkor 20mm F2.8 AF
- Gitzo 1227 Mountaineer carbon fibre tripod (expensive but my Bogen is just too heavy!)
- Arca Swiss B1 ballhead with quick release plates
- Nikon Coolscan IV ED Slide Scanner
- Bogen 3220 Tripod with Bogen 3265 Trigger-Grip head
- Nikon MC-20 Remote
- Cokin ND Graduated Filters, Nikon Polariser etc.
- LowePro Street Reporter and Mini Trekker bags
On my wish list in order of priority are:
- Lowepro Photo Trekker bag or some equivalent
- Tokina 300mm F2.8 Pro II Telephoto
- Kenko 1.4x and 2x Teleconverters
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| Last Updated Dec 31st, 2005
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