Posts by Christopher Dempsey
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: The Crazy Gang Nation, in reply to Idiot Savant,
Councils determine their own boundaries, subject to the oversight of the Local Government Commission. In Auckland’s case, I think the LGC did it.
Wearing ER hat, Local Govt Commission determines boundaries with input from Councils. The Commission is required to pay attention to population dynamics (which is why a census is important) and to achieve some kind of parity between wards. For Auckland, there are roughly 10k residents for every Local Board member.
For the Super City the previous legacy Councils all submitted about which wards should be created where, but it is the Local Govt Commission that draws the boundaries and makes the final ruling.
Doffing said hat.
-
Oh, and my other hack is to turn broccoli into pesto, by blanching it, then blending it with lemon rinds and almonds and olive oil. I find it much more palatable in really small pieces and will eat a lot of it this way.
Thanks. Made this tonight - very yummy.
I’ve done that with some of the lemons from my own tree and I like the pleasantly rustic look they give to my kitchen shelf but I have to ask – how does one actually use a preserved lemon?
OMG, it's delish! Trick is to think of it as condiment. A quarter chopped into an Italian style tomato sauce. Or put one stuffed inside a chicken, then roasted. Or chopped through stuffing. Chop a little through stewed apple, or stewed rhubarb. Anywhere you need a small hit of that lovely sour flavour..
For relatively low-tech but great coffee-grinding, a hand grinder is the bee’s knees.
Agree - I have a Zassenhaus, in German mill that a friend bought back from Germany for me some years ago. I make my morning coffee grinding my beans. A lovely little morning ritual, and I get lovely coffee.
My hack: plant some herbs in pots. A mix of herbs - sage, thyme, marjoram, Italian parsley, basil etc. Then come summer time, lunchtime or light dinner, crush garlic, chop roughly, warm up in good olive oil, while that's gently warming up, put on pasta and then go pick a big handful of herbs. Chop these up, and when the garlic is softened to your hearts delight, throw in the herbs. Saute for a minute or so, then mix through your favourite pasta (spaghetti, or spirals or what have you) and serve up. Top with grated parmesan. Pour glass of nice white wine. Delish.
-
I see it as the material 'memorialisation' of a particular event in history. People take this horrific event (long since cleaned up and therefore made invisible), and make it material, fashioning it into cakes, or Lego towers, or a shirt. WWI and II was done with memorials, and the Titanic with stamps. It's a natural reaction in my view, but I'm no psychologist to explain the underlying cultural impulses that give rise to this behaviour.
-
Then there was this tantalising piece of satire that disappeared...leaving just this behind on my reader:
"An unnamed source has anonymously reported on “rumours” of a “relationship” between Conservative Party leader Colin Craig and his defamation lawyer.
A customer at a well-known Christchurch bar says he is “in denial” about a conversation overheard from a nearby table.
“Two journalists, a member of parliament, several former Christchurch mayors, two writers, and a popular satirist were having a drink,” says the customer. “Then one of the party made a comment that I interpreted as casting aspersions on the relationship between Conservative Party leader Colin Craig and his defamation lawyer.”
“I'M ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN IT WAS SATIRE”
The customer, who…" -
Hard News: Dressing for the Road, in reply to FletcherB,
Meanwhile, Tony Abbott shows just how bad a man can look in lycra.
Unexpectedly pointing his party in a more leftward direction?
Really no different from oh, say women in 'uniform' at Olympic beach volleyball. It's not a bad look at all. Not at all. Indeed, a fine look.
-
So that’s me. What does everyone else do? I’m genuinely interested, because I have to write a column about this in the next few days and I want to presume from a sample of greater than one. So please, share with the group …
Hopefully you can share the column back here, be interesting to see...
-
Hard News: Dressing for the Road, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Essential detail in avoiding sweating: I never wear a bag on my back. The panniers have been a really good purchase.
Yes, panniers are part of my rig too. And avoiding back sweat was a factor in deciding to buy them.
I bought panniers after about 6 months of using backpacks when I first got my bike. All I got was a sweaty back no matter what I did. Panniers are great and I’m never going back. I have 4 now; 2 Deuter round town panniers, and 2 Ortlieb touring panniers.
Probably will get a 5th one – an Arkel Commuter bag as the Deuter/Ortlieb panniers are not really suited to commuting purposes.
James - most reputable pannier manufacturers make products that stay on rear racks, so I'm not sure what the problem is that you are having.
-
Hard News: Dressing for the Road, in reply to Gareth Ward,
Question for you urban cycley types – how realistic are the three-speed hubs in Auckland? Linus Roadsters etc look lovely but the price differences to go from single-speed (not me)/3-speed up to 8-speed shifters seems kinda not insignificant…
Julian at Nextbikes has three speed bikes for hire, so if you really wanted to know, hire one for the afternoon. And remember, there is no law that requires you to stay on your bike going uphill. You are allowed to walk hills if you want to.
-
The best NZ gear I’ve seen is probably the Icebreaker cycling line. Very very nice and – at the outlet stores – incredibly good value. If I wasn’t flat broke I’d have bought the whole store when I visited last.
They did make 3/4 bike shorts which I tried for ages to find, no luck so managed to snaffle the last of the normal shorts. They don't make shorts anymore sadly, just these shorts made from thin material that pretend to be bike shorts.
-
Regular commuter here. It all depends.
Around town, whatever I happen to be wearing, as my commute or ride is rarely more than 8k. Normal clothes as in normal jeans/trousers etc, and normal shirts etc as appropriate for the weather. Normal shoes. Tuck trou/jeans into socks.
If I ride past say 6k or so, for example to my sister's or brother's (each 10k away), I wear normal clothes, but take with me a clean new shirt, plus facecloth to do a torso wash at my destination and some smelly stuff (Obsession by CK).
If it is a very hot day regardless of distance I will take a new clean t-shirt or shirt, plus facecloth (there's always a bathroom around) and Obsession by CK.
I have a rain jacket, bought from Macpac, which is great, but it is actually a tramping rain jacket. It keeps out the wind and rain and keeps me warm. I've since discovered Ground Effect website and I realised I should have bought a rain jacket from them. I am thinking of getting some rain trousers from Ground Effect because my thighs do get wet if I am caught in a rain shower, but given Auckland's rain showers are showery I find I can usually time things to I don't get too wet.
When I go cycle touring I wear merino cycle shorts, and merino tops. I have two tops - a cycling top and a t-shirt. My Christmas New Year tour saw me wearing cotton t-shirts. Never again. They got heavy with sweat and you could only wear once before having to wash them. I switched to merino tops when I got back to Auckland.
The cycling shorts are very comfortable, and the merino tends to keep me warm when its cold and cool when its warm. Plus it doesn't stink, and you can easily wash it in the sink and it'll dry off reasonably ok overnight.
Shoes for cycle touring are Keen sandals (brilliant, from Bivoac), and closed 'urban tramping' shoes (from Macpac), which are bulky, but means I have closed shoes for cold weather.
As a sort of aside, I'd be interested to know what the crowd and the council think of bike lanes which go between sidewalk and parked cars. Seems a lot safer to put more visible parked cars between cyclists and motorists.
*wearing my elected rep hat* I have asked officers to look at doing this as to me it makes more sense, but I have received non-committal answers. I'll keep on pushing - I think the traffic engineers are wedded to the current 'footpath, parked car, cycle lane, general traffic' set up, and I'm not entirely sure why. Having said that, I understand the point about passenger doors, but I think I would prefer to be thrown onto the footpath, rather than into the path of a following car. *doffing said hat*