Two weeks ago I got to enjoy all the wonders of international air exploration to meet our new team member in Chicago.It was a wonderfully exciting week, highlighted by
· My second call up for the Fenders Cricket Team
· Being run into the ground by Rich on a wee jog lakeside
· Home BBQ cooking at the loft overlooking the city
· Thai take out on the Tattershaw’s new deck overlooking the city (note to kiwi diy’ers, deck’s in Chicago are built of plastic look a like decking due to the range in temperatures, the kiwi diy culture has no chance of taking off in Metro Chicago)
· Listening to wonderfully talented lawyers finding the longest possible way of telling you maybe!
· The office local pub where you can dine outside to the back ground noise of trains and jack hammers
· Shopping for dress up’s for the girls at the Disney store and Target

Travel Tip next time you have a few hours in San Fran Airport
Jump on the BART Train, get off at the first stop and enjoy the wonders of mall shopping. You can store your bags and take a shower at the travel agency in the airport.

Andy

Christchurch is my favorite city/town in NZ, but like most other cities in NZ it is rapidly becoming a sprawling web of suburbia.

Boulder had a very similar feel to Chch but with one difference. I could’nt imagine that a town with a mear 98,000 residents could feel bigger than Christchurch pop. 348,435. Perhaps Christchurch could learn somthing from cities like this, Boulder has a rule that the city cannot grow/develop out any further, therefore creating a tighter community and bigger “breathing” city feel. In Comparison to Christchurch, so spread out, even on a friday evening the city streets are as silent as a mid week church visit.

There’s an amzing book “Lifestyles by Bruce Mau “, but gruelling read, where he encourages low density metropolitan life. Decreasing suburban sprawl, building cities up , not out and living together as tighter communities to minimise societies impact on the planet.

On a lighter note he has a whole load of manifestos or “life mottos” about creativity and design. Some of my favorites are:

Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.

Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world.

Power to the people. Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can’t be free agents if we’re not free.

Brett King

Last week Tim, Murray and myself, had a rapid fire visit to Boulder, Colorado. The home of Crocs , the Dushanbe Teahouse and the characters’ house from the “Mork & Mindy ” television show. This was my first visit inside the US of A and it blew all my misconceptions of the place away.

I spent a good amount of the time suffering from insomnia and lack of appetite, but my personal highlights from the Crocs bootcamp were:

“Its Toasted” – Tim “happy chappy” Chapman coined the phrase as part of the new TZ1 language for decision making.

Being The First “Adman” through US customs.

Rick Rolling (gangster style) through Boulder in the “Loredo” listening to the non stop 80′s channel.

Adventures to the Firewood Lot with the “trusty” navigator Navman.

Sharing a room with messy Murray in the semi-murderous underground bunker.

Embracing the most organic city in North America by eating goats cheese and the huge variety of mushrooms , at least once a day to smell my best.

Being interviewed by Barns and noble about our knowledge of books, and Tim stealing the show.

Celebrating my 26th birthday with the Crocs brithday bear.

Seeing the US B-team and meeting the friendly felluhs at Crocs.

-King cobra snaking off.

The team at TimeZoneOne clock up a lot of air miles with clients to visit in the majestic heart of America plus both the west coast and east coast. We also spend a lot of time travelling between the USA and our pacific base. We have experienced many airline brands and have a big soft spot for Air New Zealand because of the tiny bit more leg room and for United’s Economy Plus because of the tiny bit more leg room.

Both airlines have produced some fantastic television advertising over the years but are yet to top my favorite from “the world’s favorite airline.” And to top it off, in the finest english tradition, they serve a terrific hot cup of tea! Enjoy the clip.

Nigel cross check doors 

Can you pass the third grade? Do you know your North Dakota from your North Carolina? How well would you do naming all the states of the United States of America?

With this game, you have a few minutes to drag the names of the US states and drop them in the right places on the map. The TimeZoneOne team have clients all around the USA so I am sure we will all deliver big scores! 

Click on the link below to play the game but be warned, it is very addictive!

http://www.pibmug.com/files/map_test.swf

Nigel Scores 40

Known best for it’s Hobbits, New Zealand’s creative industry is an extremely diverse sector which currently contributes around 3.1% of the country’s GDP. Along with film making and screen production, industries include music, fashion, textiles, television, digital content and our favorite, design (to name a few).

NZ’s sporting achievements are well known worldwide and are backed up by a nation of new thinking and fresh ideas. An America’s Cup win in 1995 highlighted the country not only as a sporting nation but also as one of design and innovation with the revolutionary Virtual Eye 3D animated graphics that accompanied the television coverage. Over the years New Zealand has also become one of the world’s leading locations for super yacht construction, leading in naval architecture and interior design. Award winning vessels such as Fitzroy Yachts ‘ Salperton (which recently won Best Sailing Yacht in the 30-44 meter class at the World Super Yacht Awards ) have become the standard for high performance technology.

Captain Matt Sparrow

Today I prepare my first TimeZoneOne blog. On the same day in ’69 Neil Armstrong hopped out of the Eagle landing craft and became the first man to set foot on the moon. That was a bit cooler than blog writing.Cooler still is Virgin Galactic ‘s attempts to get us all up there (well, low orbit anyway), and this bold thinking is apparently being embraced by New Zealanders. According to Carolyn Wincer (head of astronaut sales for Virgin Galactic) ‘Along with the Republic of Ireland, we (New Zealand) have the highest proportion of Virgin Galactic astronauts per head of population in the world’ . Nice.

Bring on the TZ1 staff outing to low orbit…

Matt ‘Space Pom’ Herivel

Hi sweeties, 

On Monday, in a parallel TimeZoneOne universe, some immensely exciting and emotional news rang around the world as our very, very close friends Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt welcomed their two newest bundles of joy. The babies, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, were born one minute apart and are fraternal twins. Even though an $11 million photo deal has already taken place for the first pic of the twins, TimeZoneOne has a pxt of the twins (see below) which Ang sent us earlier and, although we haven’t cleared it with her, I’m sure she’ll be fine with sharing it with our special TimeZoneOne friends & family…. 

Enjoy.

LYE 

 

 Sooo cute, their likeness to their parents is uncanny!

At TimeZoneOne we love being global and now we can officially call our blog global. We have regular visitors from almost every other time zone. This is where last month’s 694 visitors came from…

And here’s an overview of all the visitors since we started tracking statistics in mid-April…

This week is the 4th of July and for the New Zealanders among us who might not know much about this American holiday I have gathered a little information from the great Wikipedia (below). As for all you Americans ‘Happy Independence Day’ from all of us here in New Zealand.

4th of July:
In the United States, Independence Day (commonly known as the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, picnics, baseball games, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States, but is often also viewed as simply a summer festival, apart from its patriotic overtones.

And to get you in the spirit here is one of the better 4th of July fireworks displays:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFi3SDi_n8

Alaina