Posts by Sam F
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Random holiday request: the ideal summer beer. I have tried the Monteith's Summer Ale many a time but am tiring of the honey-spiciness and require a suitable light refreshing alternative (preferably not at highway-robbery boutique prices, but if it's good enough...). Thoughts?
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This is just my personal inference, but does anyone else spot the irony in a very lengthy post on respect that (I think) pours a ton of charmless scorn onto other posters?
I suppose I can now consider myself educated on the etymology of the word 'respect'. But Mark, the general tone of your post makes me really wonder whether on balance I haven't actually been lessened by the reading thereof.
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Likely off to the remodelled Pt Chevalier Beach this evening. Tide is a bit later than optimal, but with the new sand we are away laughing two hours either side of high water. The bad weather rolls in tomorrow and Tuesday according to MetService (whose three-hourly maps I love to bits), so may think of some indoorsly things to do then - museum trip? A spot of writing (reviews or blog post)?
God, this is luxury.
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Ahh, isn't gin a depressant? I mean the juniper liquor, though the other was probably also depressing for both horses and proletariat.
Victory gin?
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Well, Christmas recap: finished work early on Christmas Eve with strawberries and bubbly, then headed home and out to a dinner with friends to celebrate their daughter's first month - which ran for an epic four hours!
Got home about 10pm, tried to snooze, then headed over to Pt Chev for carol service at quarter past 11, then Christmas Vigil until 1am - returned home exhausted, sleep and then up and at the folks' place again at 12 noon on Christmas Day. Long lunch blending into a long dinner with many, many family friends coming and going.
Had a sleep in on Boxing Day then off to Bethells Te Henga in the afternoon in the glorious surf.
Today seems a bit overcast so might get necessary shopping bits and bobs done before hitting the beach again on Sunday. My break has been glorious so far and I wish all of you the same.
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Am also gliding through the last two hours of work for 2008 - this was a delightful end to the working year. Wasn't prompted by the discussion of the finer points of children's literature in another PAS thread, by any chance? :)
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Oh, that would be very pleasing!
Likewise here...
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Ben, bro, that is the best landing story.
I hope you'll forgive a brief derail here: Gerard Hensley's Final Approaches , which I've only just gotten round to reading, is not only a fine chronicle of life in the foreign service over several decades in NZ, but is also (as the title might suggest) full of hair-raising landings in rickety planes worldwide.
My personal favourite from the book, from the mid-1960s:
The Polynesian Airlines DC3 needed to stop at Aitutaki, which had a long wartime airstrip built by the Americans, to top up its fuel for the long journey to Samoa. Landing at Aitutaki the plane hit heavily, bounced ten feet into the air, came down heavily again and slid crabwise towards the palm trees.
When it came to a halt just short of the trees there was a profound silence in the cabin. All eyes were on the door to the cockpit. It finally opened and the pilot stood there in shorts and an ancient peaked cap. He surveyed his shaken passengers, said jauntily "First landing of the day is always the worst" and marched down the aisle.
When we arrived in Samoa the aircraft was found to have a cracked main spar and Civil Aviation in New Zealand later closed the route as being too far over blue water for two-engined planes.
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Would you please send said Tui to my place, I could do with a morning chorus. I have wood pigeon, all I ever hear from them is the whoop whoop as they swoop at breakneck speed into my trees
What I wouldn't give to have kereru crashing into our trees...
Well, specifically I could give you in exchange the two adolescent tui that keep waking us up mornings - not much whack for singing technique, but they have good powerful voices on them. You're investing in future tui talent, is what I'm saying.
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"Highway Patrol" yellow and blue cars have been on the roads for years. Apparently now though the yellow and blue is going to become standard for all vehicles, replacing the current orange and blue on patrol cars - presumably so it's harder to tell the difference between (say) a high-end Commodore SV6/8, which can pounce on speedsters very effectively, and the standard Commodore Omega patrol car which most anything quicker than average can probably blow the doors off.