Posts by Jolisa
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A winter garden of yesteryear...
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Welcome back dear good Dr Haywood! Write anything, whenever you can, and we will read it. It really is that simple. With love from another errant-blogger-in-the-wilderness.
Also:
As I type I can hear him saying that a funeral isn’t really what he wanted as a birthday present.
You've still got it.
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Hard News: Paths where we actually ride, in reply to Russell Brown,
There's definitely a plan for a connection from New Lynn to Waterview - along the railway line. Consultation imminent, I hear!
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The definitive ambivalent Christmas tune. Happy lyrics, plangent chords.
(For all the Charlie Browns in the world)
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"Christmas time is here, by golly; disapproval would be folly..." Can't beat Tom Lehrer for festive spirit:
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This one goes out to my sister <3
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"Here it is once again - the dark horse for this year's Christmas number one..."
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quaxing - the act of going shopping on a bike or by public transport. Etymology here.
Closely followed by hosking.
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Hard News: Change for the Better, in reply to Jeanette King,
Those magenta wheels - so cool! And Claire & baby so pretty in pink :-)
I love Sam's description of the over-the-top colour choice, too... this thing is getting noticed all over the world. It's such a massive gesture of cheeky chutzpah and vote of confidence in a new way of doing things. So great to see the providers of infrastructure coming to the party in such a big way.
It's also testament to the persistence of a small but strong band of people who've spoken up and worked quietly behind the scenes for years, not just for this project (go Max, Super Cycleway Man!) but on all sorts of improvements for people on bikes that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
At the risk of sounding like an advocate (which I am!), if you like the sound of what Bike Auckland does – whether it's the epic events like the First Hoon, or the behind-the-scenes consulting, or both – do keep an eye on the website for more news about what's happening in your corner of the city.
We welcome any kind of feedback and support, and LOVE to connect with "bike champs" in every part of town to help push things along. You can also sign up for the occasional newsletter, or even become a paid-up supporter if you're feeling generous (ooh, and, if you join by Wednesday, i.e. tomorrow night, you might win a wicked yellow bike to ride on that mad magenta pathway).
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Hard News: The Message, in reply to Russell Brown,
Funnily enough, the far edge of the light-coloured corner of single house zone is the last of Pt Chev to be built on, and features a whole bunch of massive Brady Bunch 70s houses. A mint little enclave of gold glass and nifty balconies and endless elbow room.
A time capsule as redolent as the increasingly extinct back yard with a shed for the mower, twelve different well-loved fruit trees, and an arrow-straight concrete path leading to the Hills hoist.
I know change is coming and all, but I cannot help feeling a pang about the bungalow "bird" streets of Pt Chev, esp the ends closer to Gt North Rd. Some really great uninterrupted stretches of 1920s-1940s houses there, which are at the perilous point where they're not deemed impressive enough right now to preserve en masse, and yet when they're gone, they're gone for good. A decade or so from now we might really shake our heads at this one.
Or not. I speak as a deeply conflicted town-house-dwelling beneficiary of someone else's decision to bowl the sweet old family bungalow and whack up three two-storey units , so... :-/
I know 3-storey apartment blocks are coming, for sure... and for many owners of intact single dwellings, it will be a sweet, sweet, retirement-consolidating payday. Good design controls would help avoid the concrete-block version of sausage-apartments, as seen (or as averted one's eyes from) in e.g. Mt Eden.
I guess my point, if I have one, is not that apartments can't be a boon for suburban vintage neighbourhoods and those who would love to live there; more that everyone, both those who live in apartments and those who look at them, deserves beauty and thoughtfulness. And at least a tiny patch of grass to stand on in bare feet, and plant a passionfruit vine. And a swimming pool in the courtyard. If I wrote the rules :-)
