I was actually wondering the entire post was something Bob's dad might have written? (thats a compliment, by the way).

I was actually wondering the entire post was something Bob's dad might have written? (thats a compliment, by the way).

Thanks, Fletcher. And yeah, that's me, the first ever David Haywood tribute band. Bob's father was good enough to vet this for me, give me permission to use it, and?

David if you're reading this...
Don't let that son of yours hang out with evil influences ... he'll grow up to be a country singer!!!

I'm going to have to wait for the Cliff Notes to come out on this one.

Oh, I don't really get it either. I'm just playing along because Emma scares me.

She is from Timaru, you know.

She is from Timaru, you know.

I am not from fscking Timaru! I'm from Taihape!

Wait, that doesn't work at all. As you were.

Don't let that son of yours hang out with evil influences ... he'll grow up to be a country singer!!!

Seen on a rear bumper:

Prevent In-breeding. Ban Country Music.

[W]hile I enjoyed the scoring system (some arcane combination of 'people put in the emergency room' plus 'girls got off with' multiplied by 'number of ancestors on First Four Ships plaque' minus 'number of mates passed out on road' divided by 'arrest record')

That'd be the Dickwad-Losers system then..?

Oh God, my early twenties just flashed before my eyes.

The shame.

Heheheheh. Megan, you make me so happy.

We used to go to nightclubs, and inevitably some very clean-cut guy in a white shirt with blue stripes would try to pick me up. He'd turn out to have gone?

Moving here from elsewhere, it really struck me how it seemed to matter what school you went to and what suburb you lived in.

Last year I was in a bar in Wellington, chatting to a seemingly normal man, who when he found out I was from Christchurch said "Really??

I might just be bitter because my ancestors arrived on the 5th ship.

Safety ship!

NEW ZEALAND

Date of Event: April 2, 2009
Name: Multicoloured Mayhem Day
Location: Throughout New Zealand
Description: Autism?

if it's not one of the first four, it might as well be number seven million and forty bloody eight! now get to the back of the queue girl!

True enough, but the list is here. A bunch of mine arrived steerage on no.freaking 13 (no banjo as far as?

I'll leave the full story to Giovanni, the "Lady Nugent" is listed as a barque Pictured here at Te Aro Beach

Though Christchurch sounds a bit like stories I've heard of Timaru...

And, alas, I didn't need your uncanny predictions to know that Bob-the-baby seems to be headed down the old-time music route at an ever-accelerating rate. He had me playing an 1860s song on the banjo for?

"in a lonesome valley, hanging from a wide oak tree".

Did you learn that at primary school too?

telling the uplifting story of a young man who stabs his girlfriend to death, and ends up "in a lonesome valley, hanging from a wide oak tree". Nice and cosy for a wet afternoon indoors.

You can at least get him to the late 80s... Murder Ballads anyone? Or Nick?

That song is one of the most annoyingly stick in yer head numbers ever and it's going to play in mine all day now. Bob would love it!?

Oops.

oh, Ruby, don't take your love to town

A murder ballad for the Vietnam vet generation! 'If I could move I'd get my gun and put her in the ground...'

telling the uplifting story of a young man who stabs his girlfriend to death

Bob knows 'Knoxville Girl' by the?

I claim no Canterbury ships – but my great great grandmother was one of?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgLcv1mQZBg

I think we need to start a thematic 'violently killing your partner' playlist for him.

What a great idea. It'd have half of Robert Cray's catalogue on it. In fact, now that I think about it, his 'Smoking Gun' and Maroon Five's 'Wake Up Call' are pretty much the same?

One of the peculiarities of "first-four-ship-worship" is that they were comparatively late in the play – . . .

It's a wankfest on stilts. After all, there were over a thousand honkies of all persuasions established in the Canterbury area when the first of the "first" dropped anchor.

I heard some time after my own brief stint in the flat southern city that in Christchurch it's what school you went to, in Welli it's the suburb you live in and in Auckland it's your job. Or your car, or something?

It's a wankfest on stilts.

You can consider that phrase stolen.

And obviously I missed some stuff this morning in a haze of caffeine deprivation.

When I moved from Christchurch to Wellington after University, and sailed in on the ferry, on my own, needing to find a job and a?

oh, Ruby, don't take your love to town ... didn't someone remake it recently

Wellington Int'l Ukulele Orchestra – my two girls (1 and 5) love that song. And while it's not quite a murder ballad, their absolute favourite song is "Zvezda Rok-n-rolla" by Leningrad, as covered by the [[http://www.klezmer.co.nz|Klezmer?

Sumner road strewn with the wrecks of runaway drays, and drink-addled solid citizens paying five pounds apiece for imported thrushes and blackbirds,

I seem to recall that Chch had a phenomenal number of madames and bordellos back in the goldrush days, when the panners and miners came to town for?

tho' hell should bar the way

He means The Strip.

I heard some time after my own brief stint in the flat southern city that in Christchurch it's what school you went to, in Welli it's the suburb you live in and in Auckland it's your job. Or your car, or something like that.

One version I heard in the?

In Chch, the question sort of gets thrown down the way someone with flair and class might throw down a gauntlet. Reaction will be based on the answer.

Ugh. I don't suppose innocently answering "Canterbury" works?

So Bob's ditched the uke for the banjo? That's totally bad-ass.

In Chch, the question sort of gets thrown down the way someone with flair and class might throw down a gauntlet. Reaction will be based on the answer.

Surely one just lies depending on the reaction you want to provoke.

For this audience...I spent many a happy year fagging at?

For this audience...I spent many a happy year fagging at "His Royal Highness' High for Incredibly Rich and Boorish Boys".

I see no problem with lying. You just run the risk of someone in your audience also having gone to St Andrew's.

You just run the risk of someone in your audience also having gone to St Andrew's.

Good ice hockey school.

I seem to recall that Chch had a phenomenal number of madames and bordellos back in the goldrush days, when the panners and miners came to town for a bit of r & r.

It still does.

Surely one just lies depending on the reaction you want to provoke.

I got?

I see no problem with lying. You just run the risk of someone in your audience also having gone to St Andrew's.

[Waves]

After over two decades in Chch starting with my time there I still don't grok the whole schools thing. Perhaps fortunately it has yet to arise in?

St Andrew's

School or University? by the sounds of it, they probably both cater to the same crowd (I know nothing of NZ schools).

Truth be told (you decide), I spent my teenage years being dragged through the UK's Comprehensive system which, funnily enough, also suited boorish boys.

One of the peculiarities of "first-four-ship-worship" is that they were comparatively late in the play – people had stopped counting ship numbers in Wellington by then

It is rather curious. Though they started arriving over a decade before Ch Ch's first four ships, most Wellingtonians only think of Tory, Oriental,?

School or University? by the sounds of it, they probably both cater to the same crowd (I know nothing of NZ schools).

Someone, possibly Robert or Megan, might be able to explain to me why Chch has both St Andrew's (College) and Christ's, because for humour purposes they do both?

Someone, possibly Robert or Megan, might be able to explain to me why Chch has both St Andrew's (College) and Christ's, because for humour purposes they do both seem to fill the same role, and I've never been able to work out what the difference is.

I think Christ's is?

Not that that would happen, cough, but it would be a shame not to make a dime out of the situation.

I think Christ's is nominally Anglican, and St Andrew's is Presbyterian/Scots. St Bede's is for the Mickey Doolans, as they say.

Ah, thank you. Now I know Christ's ranks higher than StAC.

Christchurch likes to see itself as upstanding, but it always seems to have had a deviant underbelly. Bill?

I think Christ's is nominally Anglican, and St Andrew's is Presbyterian/Scots. St Bede's is for the Mickey Doolans, as they say.

Yep.

And it is the same with the sister schools. Rangi Ruru is Presbyterian, St Margaret's is Anglican. I guess Villa is St Bede's sister school?

Oh, right, blame?

Chch NZ's safest large city

The stats can certainly be misleading if the widespread perception of risk is enough to keep people away from experiencing reportable?

Maybe I'm oblivious but in my 17 or so years living in Christchurch I can count on my fingers the number of times I've felt threatened or unnerved.

Yeah, me too. It's certainly lower than the number of times I've said 'well, I live here, and that really isn't my?