Hard News: When the Weather is the News
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The only good thing about the snow is seeing the joy that people further North have had with its arrival
Down here not so much joy apart from the first glimpse out the window
The other good news from a Whitebaits point of view is although the season has started not may people will be bothering them -
Lilith __, in reply to
Also, if someone can make the RZHHA a Facebook page, we could all “like” it. The media loves causes with FB groups!
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Lilith __, in reply to
The other good news from a Whitebaits point of view is although the season has started not may people will be bothering them
ROTFL!
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
Meanwhile, workers at KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks get told “you have no job when it snows”.
My first thought was: well, someone tell Restaurant Brands that’s not how it works. But then I read the article. KFC workers are instead being told: if the store is open, and you don’t turn up, and you can't show you were prevented from coming in and you choose not to take leave, then you don’t get paid.
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Danielle, in reply to
The precipitation forecast maps suggest it’ll kick in sometime around midday.
Ah, winner. Just the time I thought about heading out to replace my oh-so-fortuitously empty gas bottle.
I probably DO need a working stove at some point today, though...
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recordari, in reply to
That’s a fine idea, and one I suspected David might baulk at. But he cannot stop you buying a book from him:
Great idea. The Hidden Talent of Albert Otter will do nicely. Order has been sent.
If words could become kilojoules,
I'd write you a thesis and post it down.
Then you could set fire to it and warm your hands.Arohanui.
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3410,
you don't turn up, you don't get paid.
Unless you can't turn up, in which case you do get paid - "on a case-by-case basis".
Note that some Restaurant Brands workers were told yesterday that they would not be paid due to the shop being closed for snow. Head office has apparently "clarified" their position today.
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We had a magical evening, watching the snow fall and playing in it. It started snowing properly around 4pm, and by 5.30pm, enough had settled on the ground for my girls to head outside and make a snow-woman. (Their word, not mine: I'm raising a fine brood of feminists here.) I couldn't get any decent photos last night - too dark - but she was still there this morning.
The girls have been complaining for a very long time that they have never seen snow. I had been planning to take them up Mt Taranaki these last holidays, until the wretched scheduling of the school holidays due to the bloody Rugby World Cup wrecked that possibility.
First time that snow has fallen in the square in Palmerston North for over 80 years. I think that snow here must be as rare as snow in Auckland.
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Hebe,
The biggest snowflakes I've ever seen came down about half hour ago. Day 2: Yelled at the children, bitched at the man. Not a very glamorous PA-level of discourse. Snow 60cm deep here near the base of the Port Hills; drifts deeper. Feeling beleaguered until I read David's post; sick young children and the property thing. You poor buggers. There MUST be a creative solution in there somewhere; I'm thinking on it. Land in the city is the general trend of thought; advertising privately and doing a deal with a green zone but munted house person who wants to escape? The services would be on to the site; planning shouldn't be a big bother, but you'd probably have to settle for a smaller section (a lot can be done with 600sq m or so if house is sited right).
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Che Tibby, in reply to
must send you some snaps of chef du plunge.
in Newlands, Suburb to the Stars (TM) we were woken 1/2 doz times in the night by great sheets of part-thawed hail sloughing off and crashing to the ground.
this morning the driveway was one great sheet of ice. had to battle along the clear guttering past a swathe of agapantha carrying a 20kg preschooler and a mountain of gear. then, walk all the way down the hill (on the grass) to get to the bus service.
bit tired of snowpocalypse now.
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Sacha, in reply to
Auckland has it tough
Had enough of that provincial attitude elsewhere, thanks. Did you seriously hear Aucklanders expressing anything other than joy at the rareness of yesterday's weather? Of course we're not silly enough to compare that novel dusting with the genuinely difficult conditions further south. Many of us have lived elsewhere, and we all know people who are.
As always on PA, I am very touched by people's kindness.
Long may it continue. Thinking of all of you (if warm thoughts help).
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
The baby did an enormous poo
Now that's why I love reading PAS, really. It's the connection with the ordinary things that gives the extraordinary context.
I hated having a cold home when I was a student and am known for keeping our home very toasty, the idea of spending so much energy and getting a measly 15 C is horrifying. I'd retreat into one room and bar all the doors and windows with mountains of blankets.
You have my sympathy David and I so hope someone in power sees fit to make intelligent and compassionate exceptions to the blanket decisions made so far.
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With the heatpump at full crack we have the lounge all the way up to 18C though with four people shut in here the odds of someone just walking out into the snow are increasing rapidly. I am studiously ignoring the children and their father (who is attempting to do actual work) sniping at each other. Our driveway shovelling equipment is at school where we left it after last weekend's working bee. I think we shall bundle up and go for a stomp around the block shortly just for the sake of not being in here.
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http://www.mtruapehu.com/winter/whakapapa-report/
Kids are going to be called in sick on Friday.
It's an ill wind that blows no good. -
Che Tibby, in reply to
we put in a wood burner last year.
at the time it was way more money that i was happy with. but now? i would gladly spend every cent all over again if needed.
i was smug fit to burst sunday/monday.
anyone able to afford the cost should do the same.
</studiously doesn't look at david for fear of being overcome with guilt at own good fortune>
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David, all the love in the world to you and Jen. It's a hard hard road, this bloody post earthquake thing. On the up side, I'm glad that Bob managed to neatly deposit his vomit. Very thoughtful.
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Andre Alessi, in reply to
Meanwhile, workers at KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks get told “you have no job when it snows”.
Business continuity planning in New Zealand in regards to staff support tends to be along the lines of "What can we get away with?" It won't just be the big companies trying this, but they are the ones that should get most of the flack for it.
If a company hears that a staff member can't make it to work via their normal travel methods, the company should be offering to arrange transport, not penalising the workers.
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Gareth Ward, in reply to
double glazing (that's the rules now) and insulation top and bottom. It does work
And what REALLY works is north-facing glass and a concrete floor (thermal mass). Our windows are old single-glazed factory windows and I can see light through some of the gaps in the doors on the southern side, but I got through yesterday with a cold wearing a t-shirt with just a standard 8-bar heater in a big (50sqm) room. And that heater was off for good chunks of the day.
But yes, that was positively-balmy 8deg Auckland. -
Gareth Ward, in reply to
RZHHA
There's a Wu-Tang joke in there somewhere...
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I almost literally barked with joy on spotting the snowflakes out our Parnell window yesterday, like some kind of crazed puppy; "SNOW! SNOW!! SNOW!!!" I yipped quite unconsciously.
Today I have all kinds of sad / nostalgic family feelings; I think one of my earliest childhood memories was hearing my Nana and my Dad discussing snow on the Rimutakas ("What's a Rimutaka, Daddy? Daddy? Daddddyyyy..."), and I deeply regret that my dear Dad didn't get to see snow in Auckland in his lifetime.
Me, though, I did -- and I feel, as I said, like a puppy. A 41-year-old puppy with three kids and a headache, but I saw it snow in Parnell.
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Jackie Clark, in reply to
With every story you and your wonderful siblings tell about your father, his magic spreads into the world. Keep telling them.
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Thermal inversion...
the mercury never climbed beyond a terrifying 8.2º Celsius.
Luxury!
Huddled in kitchen trying to keep me and three cats warm, and hoping the buses will start running again so I can visit my very ill mum in the hospital, roads no good for little town cars...
and I may be getting to ill to visit, nasty cough developing, which I either got from freezing house last night or caught at hospital earlier in week...
2º at the moment, may get to 6º if we are lucky...
Chchch just keeps on giving.... -
Rich of Observationz, in reply to
Woodburners are banned in Christchurch, right? Too much of a smog problem..
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Emma Hart, in reply to
Woodburners are banned in Christchurch, right? Too much of a smog problem..
"Clean air approved" logburners are still okay, but you can't install new ones unless there was already a non-approved fire/logburner you're replacing. This was such a Big Deal real estate agents would always mention it when we were looking at houses. "Now, you'll notice there's a fireplace..."
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Lucy Stewart, in reply to
With the heatpump at full crack we have the lounge all the way up to 18C though with four people shut in here the odds of someone just walking out into the snow are increasing rapidly.
During the snow in ‘06 (such as it was) we had about three flats’ worth of students crammed into our heat pump-enabled living room. One lot came from a flat where you couldn’t get it above 15C or so with blankets hung on the walls and two heaters going on a normal winter day. Biggest problem was finding enough powerpoints for all the laptops. If the Internet had gone down, I think there might actually have been bloodshed.
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