5. Anything hand made – sure you may have put the time and effort in but unless you’re 5 years old handmade gifts are hard to pull off without seeming cheap.

4. Anything with your suppliers logo on it – pens, mousepads, drink bottles. You get it.

3. Pot plants – WTF. I can’t eat or drink these.

2. 12 beautifully wrapped boxes with stale food in each. This one looks like you’re getting something cool but as you unwrap each box you quickly realise how lame this gift is .
1. Shit $2 ceramic angels. I don’t care if it is a corporate gift and comes with some witty card about how you can be an “angel” by donating to a charity of your choice. C- marketing. Show me the chocolates and wine.

5. Sleep cycle
It would seem I love tracking and analyzing stuff. I particularly enjoy the tracking and monitoring of pointless stuff like sleeping. So I have found a cool little free app called Sleep Cycle that tracks the type of sleep you get. The app records the time you go to bed and when you wake and charts by hour the type of sleep you get whether it be deep sleep, just sleep or if you’re awake. It also acts as an alarm clock and there is the usual “share” functionality via email or facebook. You never need to wonder why you wake up feeling so rubbish in the morning just check the app and see how much deep sleep you got. A word of warning though – this app tends to chew through the battery so make sure you have keep your phone charged throughout the night.

4. Chicktionary
My EBF introduced me to this addictive little word game – Chicktionary by Bing. The point of the game is to create different words from a jumbled list as letters. Play against the clock and get as many words as you can or find a set amount of words in a given time limit and earn ribbons. You can also challenge your friends and post your results on Facebook if you’re a nerd.

3. Tripit
Gone are the days of printing out your flight times, hotel reservation and rental car hire. Yip you can store them all in one handy little electronic place. Simply send your email reservations to tripit support or let trip fetch them automatically. You can also share your travel plans with friends and family. The feature I like the most is the fact that you can check flight statuses and boarding gates all from the push of a button. Can you say awesome? Yes, download for freeeeeee then!

2. Instagram
Instagram is a great way to add a twist to your photos. Take photos on your iPhone and run them through an instagram filter. You can share via all the usual suspects – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr!

1. Runkeeper
The perfect little fitness app that allows you to: track and monitor all your exercise activity and weight; find routes created by fellow runkeeper users as well as create your own; track your fitness progress by day, week or month, find races near you. You can also friend your mates up so you can keep them honest and give them assholes about their nancy 2km walking activities. For a little bit extra you can purchase fitness classes to train you for running a half marathon, 5km, 10km race etc. When you are out exercising you can select the prompts to help keep you on track. And of course it has all the social media plugins (facebook and Twitter) so you can skyte to your “friends” and “followers” about how fit you are. It integrates with itunes so you can select playlists to listen to while you’re pounding the pavememt. But the feature I like most is the angry / happy voiceover lady. Let me explain. If you’re trying to run a race in a certain time you can you can set a target pace. If you’re ahead of your target pace the voiceover lady speaks to you in a soft voice providing you with all you vital stats but if you’re behind she sounds like an angry (but posh) fishmongers wife. Check out my runkeeper profile!

1. Never calls you except when he feels like it
2. Never invites you out with his friends and when he does introduces you as a work colleague
3. Always wants to split the bill. Always.
4. Does nice things for his friends who are girls but never you
5. When he doesn’t get his way he will storm out of bars, cafes, restaurants etc and leave you sitting by yourself. Awesome. Winner
6. Never apologises even when he admits he was an asshole
7. Only ever wants to do things he enjoys
8. Tells you you could do with a gym workout or two
9. Yells at you when he doesn’t get his own way
10. Promises to do things with you then can’t be reached until you threaten to call his parents. “Well, you’ve got 24 hours to organise something else”. Fair to say New years 2010/2011 wasn’t the best!

4. Sandfly Bay is an isolated surf beach on the Otago Pennisula. To access the beach you’ll need to walk across a farm and down some sand dunes but the effort is truly worth it. If you’re lucky you’ll get to see some seals hanging out on the beach. Given it’s located deep in the South Island, warm clothing is recommended regardless of the season.

3.  Mangawhai Heads. Conveniently located one and a half hours north of Auckland Mangawhai Heads makes for a great trip if you’re short on time.  There’s heaps to do aside from some see side frolicking you could go to the markets, charter a boat and go fishing or do a wine trail.  Here’s a more comprehensive list. 

2.  Manu Bay, Raglan. Another great option due to its proximity to Auckland.  If you’re looking for some perv action, you’ve come to the right place! Some of New Zealand’s top surfers like Daniel Keropa.

1. Karekare Beach. Located  on the West Coast of Auckland –  the same stretch of  coast as other popular beaches Piha and Bethall’s Beach – Karekare is a less commercial and in my opinion far superior beach choice. The highlight of Karekare is the waterfall which is a 5 minute walk from the carpark.  There’s also some great walks you can do that have an amazing view out over the West Coast.

Ingredients

• 250g full fat cream cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tins of smoked salmon
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons of french mustard
• 4 shallots
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• Salt and pepper

Method

Beat cream cheese until smooth, add sour cream and mayonnaise, beat until smooth.  Fold in drained, chopped salmon, lemon rind, lemon juice, mustard, chopped shallots and parsley, mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate.

Ingredients

• 375g zucchini
• 1 large onion
• 3 rashers of bacon
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup oil
• 5 eggs
• salt and pepper

Method:

Grate unpeeled zucchini coarsely. Finely chop onion and bacon. Combine zucchini, bacon, grated cheese, sifted flour, oil and lightly beaten eggs, season with salt and pepper. Pour into well greased dish . Bake in a moderate oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until brown.

Serves 4 to 6

Over the past ten years Dunedin really has picked up its game. There are a great range of  cafes, restaurants and bars nestled in the heart of the city as well as a plethora of boutique clothes shops. Flights to and from Dunedin are reasonably priced now compared to the 90’s so there really is no excuse not to check out this little gem.

The Top 5 Things to do in Dunedin
1. St Clair beach – If you’re brave enough you could go for a swim / surf, take a walk along the esplanade, go for a swim at the hot salt water pool (again you’ll need to be brave as it’s not really that hot) or have a drink at one of the bars / cafes on the esplanade

2. Go for a walk around the university

3. Take a drive out to Sandfly Bay

4. Go to a game of rugby at Carisbrook

5. Take a walk up the steepest street in the World, Baldwin Street

5. Remember the Titans (2001) – Yip it’s about American Football and it’s quite cheesy but I love it all the same.  Could Denzel Washington look any better in this movie?

4. About a Boy (2002) – The Brits definitley know how to make a great film. And who would of thought that boy with the crazy eyebrows would of grown up to be quite good looking.

3. Love Actually (2003) – This is probably most girls favourite movie so not very original of me but what would a top five movie list be with Love Actually on it.  The only downside to the movie was Keira Knightly and that annoying pout, smile, snare thing she does.

2. The SIlence of the Lambs (1991) – starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.  A great movie but possibly not the best choice of movie to make your 12 year old sister watch…Who could forget the “Can you hear the lambs crying, Clarice” scene, I certainly couldn’t hence having to sleep for over two weeks with the lights on.

1. Top Gun (1986) – starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. If you grew up with older brothers like I did then no doubt you will have been forced to watch this every school holidays. It wasn’t for quite a few years after Top Gun first came out that I could truly appreciate Tom Cruise’s good looks.  This was of course before he spoke in public and well before the couch jumping incident on Oprah. But fair play to the man he is married to Katie Holmes after all.

Other notable mentions:

• Crash
• Annie
• The Blindside (would not recommend watching this on a plane unless you’re comfortable crying in a very small confined space and enjoy getting strange stares)
• The boat that rocked
• Notting Hill
• Inglorious Basterds
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Point Match
• An Education
• Old Skool

Heres a quick run down of phrases that I find highly irritating and yet often find myself saying:

• “Lets take this offline” - really?  We’re currently online?
• “Just pop it in my diary” – umm weren’t you the one who wanted to meet with me?? I’ll pop it somewhere else thanks.
• “It’s very high brow”
• “Given this is the first cab off the rank…” – sorry I didn’t realise we worked at the Coronation Street cab company
• “How long is a piece of string?” – Well show me your piece of string and I’ll measure it. But really - I asked you a question not because I was sure of the answer – quite the opposite in fact I don’t know the answer and this ambiguous answer leads me to believe you don’t know the answer either and can’t come up with something better
• People who over punctuate emails with smiley faces or write smiley face.  Not really a phrase but just as annoying as the above
• Again not a phrase but just as annoying are those who shorten words or use text speak – you’re an adult not a 12 year old sending a text message to your chavvy mates
• “Lets flesh it out”
• “Let’s tease it out” – tease what out?  its not a kitten your trying to get out from behind the couch
• “I can see you’re busy but…” – if you can see I’m busy why are you bothering me???
• “Have you got a moment, this shouldn’t  take long” – an hour later

Heres a great site that takes the suck out of workplace jargon.

1. It’s cold in Dunedin. It’s really not that bad.  Christmas day 2009 saw the mercury rise to 34 degrees and today as I write this article Dunedin has the national high of 29 degrees.   Uni students need to stop being so tight, pay to heat their flats and stop spreading this vicious lie. If you’re looking for a cold city look no further than Wellington

2. Dunedin is a bogan city. Its not nor are its inhabitants or people like myself who were born there. That honour rests with the neighbouring town of Gore.

3. People from Dunedin roll there r’s. We don’t.  Head further south to Southland to hear this carnie-like accent.

4. You can’t swim at the beach.  You can. Harden up. Nuff said.

5. It’s too expensive to get to Dunedin.  Yes, ten years ago it was but now with the rise in competition its much more reasonable to fly here.