Posts by Grant McDougall
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Regarding the actual issue at hand...there should simply be a limited pool of dosh made available each year, divided up according to the % of MPs each party has and they have to budget accordingly. When their amount of dosh runs out, too bad, they gotta carry on for the rest of the year paying out of their own pockets.
-
I feel kind of squicky defending Pete Hodgson’s honour (mostly because I don’t think he’s got any)
Well, that shows how little you know about him. Given that's he been Dunedin North MP since 1990 and has always enjoyed one of the biggest majorities in Parliament, his constituents clearly do regard him as having plenty of honour.
He is a very, very well-respected and effective MP for Dunedin North. He has done a lot of very honourable work for the electorate, as it happens.
-
It is a little known fact that in their spare time The Trons are raging petrolheads and all four of them drive a Humber each. This year they entered the Targa rally and kicked arse all over the show. Ham, whose Humber is the best of the four, was the main driver, Swamp was the co-driver and map reader, Fiona is their ace mechanic and can pull any engine apart and re-assemble it in under quarter of an hour, while Wiggolowski is a super-duper repairs technician. Their car racing skill is unassailable: Ham literally puts his metal pedal to the metal pedal, Swamp uses his super-sensitive in-built radar to calculate to the metre how fast to go and when to turn, Fiona can use both her arms and legs to fix a car and Wigglolowski can spruce up both a front and back fender on a Humber even quicker than a roadie can spruce up a Fender guitar. After day's racing they enjoying gobbling up corn fritters and knocking back their mate Phil's home-brew.
-
Well that was quite sweet. I'm actually glad nothing overtly dramatic/tragic happened, and it just ... ended. And with a concluded feel, but not too tidy.
That's pretty much how I feel.
My favourite line: "We are Tool Guys and we are choice".
Great scene when Pascalle told Loretta that she'd turned into Cheryl.
-
They're knocking the series on the head at the right time, well done on its producers, etc, for having the guts to do so.
We know from the pre-season trailer that someone kicks the bucket but Judd or Cheryl are too obvious for it to be either.
As much as I also think Jethro's a terd, it'll be someone less obvious, like Haden, that's my pick. As long as it's not Munter, I'd be ok with anyone else kicking the bucket, but please, not Munter.
-
I'm assuming this is the same Tony Renouf who is a stalwart of the NZ comic scene, and illustrator of Sam the Tram
One and the same.
-
Was Chick's called that when it was a wharfie pub?
It's called Chick's because Chick was the surname of the actual original publican back in the late 1800s. Sorry to burst your bubble, Sasha...
-
Regarding music shops in Dunedin, things aren't perfect, but there's a few shops that people might not be aware of.
Too Tone at Port Chalmers is good for vinyl and new NZ CDs. It's located within Chick's Hotel (now a good venue, not a wharfie pub). It's ran by the very on-to-it Tony Renouf that used to work in the 2nd-hand dept at Echo.
The Player at level 2, 57 Vogel St worth checking out as it has a good vinyl selection, but is also too pricey overall, sadly.
-
Top effort Damian, well done.
(in fact, it was replaced with a succession of boozy weekends in celebration of the early arrival of summer)
Runners will tell you that boozing is actually "carbo replacement". ;) I went out boozing until 4am two days before the 2008 Sydney marathon and cracked it out in 3hr13min. A few years ago, a friend of mine famously put away 24 cans of Speights the night before the Balclutha half and did 1hr18min, unreal.
We crossed the start line at five past. Fortunately the chips tied onto each runner's shoelaces mean everyone has a precise start/finish time to judge their results.
The first few kilometres were spent trying to get past groups of walkers - good on them for giving it a go, but large-bottomed folk waddling six abreast create a fairly major impediment, and there seems to be no "walkers to the left" rule or what-have you.
Time chips are a godsend. Here's a tip: always start amongst the fast runners up the front that way there's less people to dodge around and you'll spend less time being impeded by them.
Half and full-marathon walking has gotten very popular in recent years, but event organisers have been tardy at sorting out the logistics.
They need to stagger when they start (e.g have walkers off 30mins before / after runners). They also really need to marshal walkers and have cones and / or barrier tape in the most narrow parts of the course so that runners aren't impeded.The recent Dunedin half / full marathon also had similiar problems between the 32-35km section, which was cluttered with walkers. I got sick to bloody death at screaming at them to get out of the way, as did many other runners.
I agree, good on them for giving it a go, but they need to realise it's a competitive event, not a social walkabout.
Short of joining a hikoi, the Auckland marathon is the only chance most of us have to tred the bridge, and was a big factor in me doing the race. In running terms though, it also represents a decent hill about 13km into the race
The Sydney half / full marathon starts adjacent to their coathanger, so I know what you're saying, going over a landmark bridge in an event is pretty special, isn't it ?
A "decent hill" ? Pfffft, a mere pimple compared to what we run up in Dunedin...Well done on finishing, that's bloofy good going. I reckon next year, you'll go close to, even under, 1hr50min. No sweat !
-
But while they read like just another corporate-media National party booster rag, I won't be buying.
Joanne Black's husband is a flunky on John Key's staff, so do the maths, as the saying goes.
My main gripe however since Pamela Stirling took over is that it's became a bland "lifestyle" magazine. They can't go two weeks with the words "How to improve / increase your..." on the cover.
The gradually shrinking of the size (word length) of the music review is also, personally speaking, annoying too.