Posts by barnaclebarnes
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Russell Brown,
Every person I know that has partaken in the hospitality offerings of North Wharf has had a terrible experience. Every one.
Yep - That is standard for pretty much any waterfront restaurant around the world. Overpriced decidedly average or worse food. Lets hope they can get things right soon. And please Auckland Fish Market can you put some cone holders in your outdoor seating so you can keep the Fish 'n Chips cones upright.
-
Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Russell Brown,
Ah - I missed the three sessions bit when I read the press release the other day.
Time vs. Amount is a hard one. When you think about it you take your phone out of your pocket, check Twitter, put it away, rinse and repeat a few times. The phone will (may?) keep the wifi connection open so when you go to find out the next bar you want to go to you have run out of your 30 minutes. On the other hand at 100MB you might be just a little cautious of posting lots of photos which would add more buzz to the media stream around the event.
-
I think they have the wi-fi news wrong: it’s not “discounted”, it’s free for eight weeks, thanks to the sponsorship of Localist and the network of Tomizone.
It is not free and it is not discounted...It is free in certain hotspots for up to 30 minutes per device per day. If you ask me this is just weird. You use data, not time so why not limit it to say 100MB a day like they do in other free wifi spots (I think Wellington's Trade Me WiFi works like this).
Apparently there were a lot of debates inside council about whether the WiFi should be made completely free for the duration of the cup but they decided to spend the money elsewhere. In my opinion this was the wrong thing to do - Free WiFi would have done more to give the city a great name with the tourists than the equivilent money spent on advertising. The flow on effect in word of mouth advertising would have been great.
In any case it was good to hear they had the debate and it was looked at seriously and not as an afterthought.
-
Shame about Public Address Radio. I never once listened to it on Radio Live but have had it my podcast feed for years. It always gave me something to listen to on the bus into work and there have been some great interviews and music over the years.
It will be missed.
-
Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to izogi,
Sorry if I’m missing something obvious, but is there any clarity over what happens when the sum of someone’s essential bills get higher than their welfare allowance?
No idea. It is bloody hard to live on the benefit (I did it myself for a few months). The whole package is of course hair brained but parts of it may be of use to people. In our instance with the flats I think it did come down to a budgeting issue and not a case of not having enough money if they did pay the rent. I know my mum spent a lot of time with our tenants working through their budget but it was a a case of if the cash for the rent stayed in the pocket for a few days it would simply be spent on 'stuff'. $2 here and $5 there and $3 dollars somewhere else and all of sudden you have spent 5-10 percent of your benefit. Hats off to people who do manage on a benefit as it ain't easy.
-
Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to Sue,
The vast silent (law abiding) majority of beneficiaries, pay their bills, don't get into trouble and try to get work, or get well.
And long may that continue.
the answer is to get to find out why people can't seem to pay their bills. If it was simply due to lack of budgeting well that would be easy to resolve.
Lack of budgeting is _not_ easy to resolve. It is a hard problem even for people with a lot of money. Just look at credit card debt in this country.
Anyway I wasn't mandating that rent comes out of people's benefit but I was suggesting that there is more support for it. If the landlord/tenant/WINZ agreed that it was the best approach in their particular case then why not? I think it is a great way of budgeting. Just like money coming out for Kiwisaver for my retirement. I know I'm not going to save as much myself and having it come out of my pay is a bloody good idea in my book.
-
I don't actually have a problem with:
... some essential costs, like rent and power
We used to have a block of 6 rental units where a large majority of the tenants were on benefits and getting the rent paid could be tough. I myself find it a lot easier to have bills set up on direct debit than having to manually pay them. It is a good budgeting mindset to get into. I fact I would like to see some more support for getting bills paid directly out of the benefit not just for teens.
I'm not so sure about any of the other measures though - They just don't seem to be the right approach.
-
That surprises me. Jackie Johnson on Nine to Noon this morning was very reassuring:
Interview with Jackie Johnson on Nine to Noon
Maybe you should get in touch with Radio NZ and offer an interview with your experiences?
Note: I'm not sure if Tower are part of the IAG brand (they have lots of brands in NZ) -
Hard News: Asking for a Contribution, in reply to Rowan Crawford,
+1 for Flattr. I haven't signed up yet but Public Address having Flattr buttons might tip me over the edge and make me subscribe.
-
Protip for those working in the fringe suburbs. Generator has drop in rates that are $23/week. It is a really nice space and spending a couple of afternoons a week in there seems like a great plan. I'm currently only 1 day a week at home but spent a bunch of time in the last working from home. My thought pretty much echo what everyone else says:
* Get a good chair (I've got a Aeron - 10 year warranty, super comfy)
* Get out of the house - Just make sure you have at least one errand to run each day, even if it is just posting a letter.
* Don't put off the work you really should be doing. Make those calls that you know you need to make.
* Enjoy it.Glen