My Afternoon Behind Bars

One of the best things about my job is the unusual places and people I meet, this afternoon was spent behind the electric fence of one of New Zealands prisons.

The people there were just like you and me in many ways except for the fact that unlike you and me they cant go home. To be sure some of these people have done terrible things, but as always it is striking when you come face to face with these people and see their humanity.

I'm going back again next week and believe it or not I'm looking forward to it, who would of thought.

PHOTOS FROM ON THE ROAD

20/20 is on a three week break from local stories and running a series of specials so I thought I'd post some photos of us out on the road doing our thing.
















Sonya Wilson and Chris Brown out Filming for our story The Keepers Secret















Sonya Wilson and Nick Chopper Reid in editing

Beth Roche doing a master interview for the story Nil By Mouth

Chris Brown filming late at night in a graveyard for our Blood Lust story ..... It was really really cold.

Something Awesome

Dave Dallas has some new sounds coming our way soon. I've downloaded Indulge me from Itunes and seen the video for Big Time on Juice and they're both great tracks.

Badwater Beaten

Lisa Tamati has once again run through hell and back. Lisa was the 8th female to cross the finish line in a staggering 37hrs and 14mins.
Its worth clicking across to her blog and having a read about how her race went.http://www.lisatamati.co.nz/home/runner

Killing Colds On The Couch

On Friday my family and I head to the Gold Coast, where my wife will be competing in a half marathon event. This is not that unusual as Lee is a great runner and likes to compete when she can.

Unfortunately both myself and my eldest daughter have been struck down by the worst cold ever. Our mission is to convalesce on the couch all the while trying not to pass on the bug. Lee has trained through some very cold mornings and really put in some hard yards, to be struck down before we head off would be a crying shame.

Wish us luck

TV Pro

I’m a television professional with over twenty years of experience, so when my daughter said she had a school project to do on earthquakes I had what seemed at the time an amazing idea. I suggested to my eight year old daughter that she do an interview with her Uncle Mike who is a reporter for the 60minutes show and had gone to China to cover the 2008 earthquake.

This would be simple I thought, I’d film it, borrow a friends MAC Book and edit it on IMovie. How hard could it be, I am after all a TV Pro. Well as it turns out very hard, first up my friends shiny new MAC Book is so new it doesn’t have a fire-wire input. No problem I’ll just use my old PC Laptop.

Next what to use as an editing tool, after searching the net I discovered that Sony Vegas provides a free trail of their Movie Maker software .
Software downloaded I started editing away in the knowledge the project was due in two days time. I was once an editor however it was just starting to dawn on me that was over ten years ago…oops this might not be as easy as I first thought. Eventually I found my way around the editing tool and had a final product the night before it was to be handed in.

Next step transfer the project to DVD, oops I need to download some more software. New batch of software neatly installed I was ready to publish and be damned …. system crash …. try again …. system crash …. repeat this sequence many times over. It is now midnight and I suddenly remember how old my laptop is …. you fool it doesn’t have a DVD burner.

Due day arrives I explain to my girl I’ll take the Flintstone laptop to work make a file and use another computer to burn a DVD. I then write her a note for her teacher saying that I’ll bring the disk in at lunch time.

Disk in hand I race from the city to my daughters school, find her in the playground and hand it to her. Daddy she says to me, yes I say, we don’t need it until Friday now.

New Blog

Hi my mighty army of followers, this is just a post to let you all know that in the near future i'm going to be transfering my blog over to a Wordpress platform. This means it will be found at different address, I will post that address, put it on Twitter, stick it on Facebook, send out a txt, and set free some pidgeons with notes attacthed to them.
Watch this space and any other space you have that might be worth watching.

Pip Pop

Chris Brown (20/20 cameraman), Beth Roche and myself just got back from Dunedin where we were filming a story about a family whose young girl Grace cant or wont eat.

Pip the young girls mother bends balloons for kids party's, now that may seem a bit hum-drum but you need to see the amazing things she does with these balloons. Keep an eye out for the story in the next month or so.

Girls Love Shoes

It really is true girls love shoes, she easily has as many handbags to go with them just to add weight to the stereotype.

The Great Easter Egg Hunt 2009

The Clues, the search and the prize, my two girls and their friends hunt for Easter eggs

To Twitter or Not to Twitter

I'm new to this Twitter craze and am not sure of the rules. I noticed that someone I know, but not well from work is on Twitter. I decided I would follow them and added them to my list. Moments later I panicked and removed them. It occurred to me that they might not like me to follow them and would find it uncomfortable, and also find it difficult to ask me not to.
Its kind of wiered a bit like being back at school, trying to hang with the right crowd but not being sure if you fit. Anyway if you want to follow my Twitter along with the whole eleven other random folk go ahead, my Twitter is on the right hand side of the blog.
Cheers and here's to hangin with the nerds.