Posts by jb
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If it takes someone of this couple's obvious intelligence and determination to persevere through 700 hours worth of red tape to achieve this, how the hell are lesser mortals who'll roll over when they get stonewalled by the jobsworths manage?
And I find it quite outrageous that the head of CERA is blissfully unaware of the issue. Doesn't he have someone monitoring social media to find what's trending/where people are hurting/ what's not working and giving him daily summaries with proposed solutions? Doesn't he have Use Cases defined, quantiified and monitored (as in "Land red-stickered, house transportable, match with land somewhere" Not having a database of potentionally available land 18 months after the initial event beggars belief.
At least he didn't "reach out" to David.... -
Muse: Postcard from Cologne: Willst Du…, in reply to Islander,
May dire things happen to her
54. Menopausal. Doomed to writing worthless pulp fiction.
Is that nothing? -
Sarah Lark
Born Christiane Gohl 1958 in Bochum.
Aka Ricarda Jordan and Elisabeth Rotenberg. Studied history and literature (Ph.D) Worked as a journalist, advertising copywriter and tour guide. Which is how she fell in lurv with NZ "magically drawn to its magical countryside" (that's what it says here, anyway) and started writing historical romantic novels based there. Writes horsey books for children and young adults. Lives in Spain, operates a small stud farm.
Goodreads.com lists 7 titles (6 DE, 1 ES), average review 3.82)
Interview on Histo-Couch.de titled " I know what makes women dream..."
Read a Google translation here http://bit.ly/IKMcyb if you must. ("The Maori Wars weren't really "**wars**" - 16 dead on one side, 4 on the other...")
As Thomas Goodfellow writes: the German public laps this sort of stuff up. There's still a strong belief in Clean/Green New Zealand, a pathological yearning for the unspoiled and more TV shows underpinning that than you can shake a stick at.
Some very good travel documentaries on the regional public broadcasting - alive and well, I get 6 via cable - channels, an appalling (from a tourism marketing perspective) one a few years back on ZDF/TV2 (Mongrel Mob wedding in Waikato and boy-racers in Christchurch?) plus the usual cruise ship series (day trip by coach from Auckland takes in Rotorua, Southern Alps, Mt Taranaki., Napier and White Island...) and "heiress meets dream man and decides NOT to sell the (boiling mud pools among the kauris) land" stuff.Plus
Not the Spanish Inquisition...! Trailer for her latest book for the Spanish market (Spoiler: be prepared for the Titanic to loom into view (0:10) in 1852)
...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DsBwrUZX64 -
Would someone PLEASE point North and South’s design team to this article…they’re still in the 1980s..
Lunch at the Suter in Nelson. iPhone 4, low-ish light.
More here: http://youmustbefromaway.com/category/yum/
For SERIOUSLY good amateur food photography: http://diekuechenschabe.blogspot.de/ -
"All Songs Considered" is what public radio should be (and in this case, is) delivering. Despite being underfunded. Despite constant attacks by conservative politicians to reduce its funding even further.
How do they do it?
With sponsorship from local companies, major corporations and private citizens.
First thing I do when I hire a car in the States is to head for the 90 (+/- 2) MHz region on the dial. -
Mouth of the Waimea estuary from Mapua Wharf, 6 June 2011, 09:47, iPhone 4.
A monochrome day -
@ bulbul
Keith should perhaps have used the SarcMark, but that said, I haven't noticed an significant ageism undertow on this site.
If you REALLY want to read some serious beat-ups of baby boomers, head on over to interest.co.nz - the last time I looked, Bernard was proposing asset confiscation and concentration camps... [SarcMark] -
An exceptionally fine analysis.
I live on the outskirts of a city in Western Europe with a 200,000 population, total debt of close to €1bn, annual deficit around €120m.
To its credit, the newly elected council is struggling to cut the annual deficit by increasing taxes/rates and cutting expenditure against a chorus of wailing and gnashing of teeth by the affected parties i.e everyone.
(Dog owners protest marches, anyone...?)
I proposed to the Finance Senator that he outline the core services that the city could afford to provide by staying within its budget (only cuts, no increase in revenue) and – in a next step – to outline the core services affordable with a budget that actually started paying off debt.
And then ask people to pick the ones that they want to pay for on top.
Political suicide, of course, which is why he’s not going to do it, but maybe someone would like to demonstrate the impact of the National-ACT cap on core services in New Zealand.
Hospitals? Only open 9-5 M-F
Roads? No new ones, no repairs either.
Slips blocked a road? Stays blocked.
ACC? An excess of $1000 per incident.
Welfare? You’d be joking.
An artist’s impression of Auckland/Wellington after 10 years of the proposed region would be an eyeopener.. -
I think that's true not only because the All Blacks are historically world-beaters at what they do, but because their success embodies a combination of virtues that speak to national character.
No, it's a lot to do with massaging the Small Person syndrome, as in "We make the best wine in the world" when a 3rd tier winery wins Best of Show in a minor competition or "Our dollar was the best-performing currency on the global market last week" as if it's some heroic achievement to boast about. (No, it's other people clipping the ticket and it's not about more than cheaper holidays and cut-price Chinese tat at The Warehouse. It's about the ability to compete in the international marketplace and create jobs for New Zealanders. Seriously.)
Love the game, the current All Black line-up is one of the most enjoyable to watch. Even if I have to wait until I can get the games via BitTorrent. And even if I have to listen to the boofheads on Maori TV, because it's the only version available.
Just don't call me a fucking grousing liberal just because I don't agree that physicality in itself is something to aspire to.
Off to therapy to watch the "It's OK to not like things" clip
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There are a number of reasons, but it comes down to 4 factors:
Greed
Wishful thinking
Discretionary time
Discretionary spendingThere’s significant aversion to the gold rush mentality that’s latent in the psyche of a big segment of NZ society: the “I have more staff so I have to put the price up” $8 latte ( Nooo, you have more staff, because you have more customers so your costs are higher but so is your turnover…), the “we’ll let the place for $5000 a week” myopics who drive the potential market to look for alternatives (has anyone researched year-on-year camper van rentals? ) and it was ALWAYS going to be on the cards that people who travel 20000km aren’t just going to hang around Eden Park for 4 weeks. They’ll want to see the country and if you do the maths, a camper van’s the best alternative.
True story: I know someone in Nelson who was looking to invest $30k to bring their house up to a decent standard, let it out for the duration and “OF COURSE the rental cottages will be TOTALLY booked out.”
Last time I looked (during the group games), there was gaping availability, interspersed with a sprinkling of bookings. Same with other accommodation.
Just how many Italians (where rugby’s a marginal sport) were going to make the trip?Assume that leisure time is finite. If you’re going to watch a game on a big screen somewhere, you won’t be able to clone yourself and go out for a meal.
If you’ve spent your discretionary income on tickets or merchandise, you won’t be able to clone your money for a meal either.
The Brit's who are here are deleveraging their debt, the Eurozone visitors are being cautious and with the current NZ$ strength, New Zealand is EXPENSIVE.
