There was a lot packed in to 2011. Earthquakes, an election, a world cup. A new baby and family stuff. Work. Here’s a summary in mobile phone photos, an idea I’ve pinched.

Update – here’s even more.

Our office moved to Victoria Street, and I’m lucky enough to have this view – I spent a lot of time staring out the window at the bustle of the harbor. It’s beautiful. I’m lucky.

A beer in the sun at Tauranga’s Harbourside restaurant on my birthday.

This was Telecom’s ‘war room’ table on the 2nd or 3rd day after the 22 February Christchurch earthquake. Work wise, I love crisis communication. The downside, of course, that to experience and develop your crisis comms skills, there has to be a crisis.

I haven’t been to Christchurch for years, and like most people not there, can’t imagine what it’s like to live with aftershock after aftershock – I have the greatest admiration for a mate living there with his young family determined to be part of the rebuild. It’s hard enough having a young family up here in wussy stable-ground Auckland, let alone among seismic uncertainty. For what it’s worth, I hope for a better 2012 for Canterbury.

Double Zs while in Hawke’s Bay

AA Gill

Thomas The Tank Engine gave me a new channel to express anal retentivity.

My fav street photo I took this year.

I took quite a few photos of what I was eating this year – looking through, it seems to be bacon and bread that I was moved to photograph the most, so this is representative example.

2011 was an excellent year for Pizza.

There was a world cup on – that’s me on the right. Extensive coverage, of course, can be found over at sportreview.net.nz. It was a great year to be a sport blogger.

The wee fella – I don’t like to share much about my kids in public online. Just know I love the crap out of them and my partner. We are very blessed.

The finish line – I’ve never been so ready for a holiday / alcohol.

I made a late entry in the comment thread of the year over at Dim Post, a challenge to “submit a paragraph in which Shelley writes a passage from a classic New Zealand novel in her own inimitable style,” referring to the Herald’s Remuera housewife on Valium / crack columnist Shelly Bridgeman. My paragraph is from Chad Taylor‘s Shirker.

‘What did you say your name was?’ he asked, remembering.
It came out weakly: ‘Ellerslie Penrose’.
‘Penrose,’ he said. ‘We haven’t driven that far south since that ugly clay pigeon shooting spat at Hotel Du Vin. Much prefer taking a Corporate Cab to the airport and flying over it.’

MediaSense is a new social media conference put on by Hal Josephson, a Hawke’s Bay entrepreneur, impresario and top bloke.

For me, this was a fantastic chance to meet folk I don’t normally meet, with people from all around the country attending. The Bay was well represented and I was most impressed with the locals’ friendliness and enthusiasm. These guys have secured interesting and challenging jobs or taken the plunge and started their own businesses in an area notorious for a vibrant food and drink scene. It had me scratching my chin several times about life outside Auckland. Hmmm. Needless to say, we were well looked after eating and drinking-wise, enjoying the hospitality of the Craggy Range and Black Barn vineyards, who hosted the event itself.

I was there as the corporate perspective in the local case studies section, along with  Tim and Matt from Uprise, Jayson Bryant, Tom from Catalyst 90 and Kayla from Mini Monos.

My case study was crisis communication. I told our earthquake story, which has some solid examples of the power of using social networks, and is a neat way to outline our approach in general. I think I got points for being honest(!), and I was pleased to get some  thoughtful anecdotal and online feedback.

I throughly enjoyed the afternoon panel hosted by Nat Torkington and featuring Xero’s Rod Dury, Matthew Miller from Mogul websites and Paul Brislen from TUANZ – local examples almost always give me more takeaways than any other section of an event like this. I was hugely impressed with Matt from Mogul’s common sense approach to social – it’s easy to overthink this stuff. Like Telecom, Xero is a heavy Yammer user, interestingly. I enjoyed Paul’s war stories from his the early days of doing this at Voda – can relate!

A nervous glass of water before speaking, while wishing I’d chosen more irreverent footwear like Jayson and Paul. Photo credit: @gnat.

It was observed that Twitter was roughly 70% of the conversation, but someone did point out you need to look at it in context with all social channels available to achieve your goals, especially the lesser known ones like TradeMe forums, even databases and email! Karen Leland gave her two hot tips for PR in social media as 1. pick up the phone, and 2. go to lunch. I liked that.

Full credit, as they say, to Hal and Odette for putting on a thoroughly valuable and enjoyable event, with some fantastic hospitality and conversations the night before, during and in the bar afterwards – I hope to be involved in some capacity next year. Recommended.

PS I need to mention Tweet2Eat – if you’re in the Bay, you MUST follow for all your food and drink recommendation requirements.

Clearing out my phone’s photo gallery.

If you look at this photo while standing next to the oven on 230 degrees on fan bake, you’ll get an idea of how hot it was this day, but with less cooling breeze.

This thing made us move out of our fishing spot in the Tauranga harbour channel.

Mine charming lunch companion who granted a couple of fan bois an audience.

The wee fella tries to run away from his old man’s architecturally unsound creation.This took ages!

Thereafter, TV One revisited, like a dog returning to its vomit, the Michael Jackson circus every night, for significant periods, for the next 11 nights.

Ian Bayly, I love your work.

I’m fascinated by people that make money from nothing on auction sites – like this guy flogging a Casio Vl-1 ‘possessed by Satan’.

So… a weekend tidy up yielded an innocuous cheese grater – and I decided to write a ‘hard case’ ad on TradeMe, taking full advantage of current hoo-hah over rising food prices. Oh Sunday Star-Times hysteria, you came in handy at last.

Best case scenario – lots of hits and comments, with loads of ‘lol!’s with a couple of people getting so carried away they actually bid actual money for something they could pick up themselves with their supermarket shopping.

Cross-posted from the New-Look Aucklandista

When I type ‘Auckland’ into my itunes I get exactly, ah, no results. Alright, there’s the Muttonbird’s ‘Dominion Road‘, a great song ruined by homesick ex-pats, and that punk-AK’79 affair about jumping off Grafton Bridge. Dublin must be shitting itself.

We live in a very pretty city, team, so how come there’s no catchy pop hits proclaiming sunny late afternoons on Ponsonby Road, driving around Tamaki Drive at night, or even a sea shanty to getting pissed down the Viaduct and jumping in the water? Surely we can do better?

To get us underway, I’m nominating ‘Silverdale‘ by ex-Bressa Creeting Cake guy Edmund Cake as my top Auckland song. Recorded in a secret Gore St lair, Silverdale is an bubbly ode to the joys of tripping around the shops on Saturday with your loved one. The whimsy-ometer goes off the clock on lines like “Driving to Silverdale – Bendon has a sale”, and “I’ll put my hand in your pocket, I’ll keep that docket.” Even Rendell’s gets a special mention.

Between us, we must be able to expand the Auckland Canon – what’s your top Auckland song?

Last weekend, 6 old friends drove to a remote Coromandel bach for a weekend of hard-drinking, bullshit-talking good times only possible when partners stay at home (no offence!).

It was a brilliant, save the PS2 plug non-compatibility SNAFU. The best bits were:

- The fridge:

- Unashamed, unapologetic and unmuffled farting was definitely on the menu. Mixed blessing, this one, in fairness

- Meat and potatoes was the order of the day, cuisine wise. I did cop a load of flack of buying Rosemary at the supermarket, though

- Winning the golf was nice – Coromandel golf course is a neat little track, and they didn’t mind us playing as a six

- The sunset on Saturday:

- Especially heartwarming to see the chaps quickly revert to a pack mentality once we started playing Mexican, descending like wild dogs on anyone DARING to drink with the wrong hand, use first names, or caught making false accusations (if you’re my Facebook friend you can see all the action). I didn’t even get my usual ‘dice hate me’ hammering, and all liquids enjoyed stayed on board. That shit’s beautiful

Massive thanks all around, esp the providers of said bach. Looking forward to next year alright.