Posts by Bevan Shortridge
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Hard News: You know what ..., in reply to Hilary Stace,
John Campbell had an interesting but too short interview with Jon Stevenson (who is becoming a bit like our local Robert Fisk) who likened OBL to the head of a franchise like McDonalds, and that the franchises still remain
Sounds like Rich Hall at the Comedy Store regarding a bucket of chicken.
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Hide has resigned as leader. Brash coup positive for ACT, for NZ. Apparently.
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When out of the district I used to say I was from the Bay of Islands. However, that became awkward as people automatically assumed I lived right next to a beach (the problem with having "Bay" as a region/district name; it's not all coastal) when we were mostly inland.
So I eventually switched to saying I was from Northland instead. If there was further enquiry (generally the person had been to "Northland") I then had to go through a succession of areas south from where I was from until I said a town/area name they might recognise. So from Northland (grew up in Pakaraka (inland), and before that the Waikino Peninsula. A bit further on from Kawakawa in both cases.
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Hard News: Getting dressed for the party, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
the train lines during RWC games will be switched so that both lines from Kingsland will run to Britomart, and both lines from Morningside will run west. This will be in place after the game finishes. So this means both platforms at Kingsland will be used to carry fans away from the area and hightail it to Britomart and thence to that cloud that will invariably leak like a sieve
Many thanks for wearing your ER hat. I had *thought*(or rather, hoped) something like that would happen for the RWC. I had worrisome visions of a crammed overbridge.
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Hard News: Getting dressed for the party, in reply to Russell Brown,
Glad I missed that one. But I can see the Warriors moving to Eden Park, even though it's well away from their real support base, because it's such a well-set venue.
I really hope the Warriors don't move to Eden Park, even if (for me anyway) Eden Park is a lot closer/easier to get to for Warriors games than Mt Smart. I went to the Four Nations and the recent Warriors game there. I was reasonably "close", apparently, both times but was so much further away from the game. The atmosphere is quite different at Eden Park as well. A different crowd. Didn't encourage me to want to go back.
They also need to sort their cashier/food bit out. I arrived earlyish both times (i.e. before games) but after the gates had opened and decided to purchase food before I took seat. First time the cashiers were just setting up so I thought, well, OK, trial run. However, for the second game I went to there were no cashiers there to take my money (food yes, cashiers no). Ended up paying for food at the bar (which did have someone serving).
I also wondered about the train platform for going back to the City, which is on the opposite rail line to the train going west which is next to Eden Park. This means having to use the overbridge to get to the train going to central Auckland. I thought if they were expecting a lot to go back to a "party central" hub after the match, or to accommodation in the city, then making them go via the overbridge to get back to the platform for the city seemed a bit awkward. Or will more people be going west than to the city afterwards?
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Field Theory: An important message for…,
A while ago I listened to a netball test on the radio. I just automatically assumed that as it was a test between NZ and Australia that it would be on Sky, which I didn't have access to. Found out the next morning I could have watched it free to air after all...
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Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt,
And here I was getting ready for the spam beginning "I am the former president of Egypt and I need assistance to transfer money out of the country..."
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…,
Since no-one seems to have posted it yet, more on Venti. From "Role Models":
(EDIT - linking may or may not work - how does one embed now?)
(EDIT - Oh never mind, same as before then) -
Hard News: Sunday in Super City,
Re: Eden Park open day. I liked the comment made by one performer on stage there that it was "good to have a chance to sit in the seats, before you can't afford them." Got the biggest laugh.
I took the train to Eden Park (first time on train to Eden Park, second time to Eden Park, ever) and I was glad to see that the way to get to Eden Park is well sign posted at the station. An obvious thing to have, perhaps - but try taking the train to Penrose, get off, and find out which direction to walk to get to Mt Smart stadium. No signage at the station there at all for the stadium. It confuses tourists no end.
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Joe wrote:
how many of the ancestors were illiterate. Like, signing marriage, baptism, and birth registers with their mark ('X'), which was then annotated and endorsed by some official or church functionary
Two of My great (x4) grandfathers witnessed land transactions in the Hokianga in the 1830s and both had "his mark" next to their names. Someone evidently wrote down their names for them, but there was a problem in that the person would write down what they thought they had heard. That was fine for John Baker. Not so good for Hewen/Hugh surnamed Manall/ Manhall/ Munhaul/ Munhall. His children varied the spelling as well. They could write, though. Hugh's son had his will in Maori and in English by 1858. Has caused problems trying to track the family with the multiple variants.