Posts by Tamsin6
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Hard News: Walking upright again, in reply to Sacha,
Sorry about not linking, I posted hurriedly while still at work, noticed I had originally not even said where I saw the article and managed to edit to correct that. By the time the kids were in bed and I was online again, the article was a different version so didn't add a link.
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Hard News: Walking upright again, in reply to Hebe,
My understanding is that the demo notice went out on the same day the dean and bishop held a press conference detailing their possible strategies. They are in the process of deciding what will happen and how they will pay for it, and trying (unlike Mr Brownlee) to be sensitive to the wider Christchurch community. In other words, preparing them for the likelihood that a big chunk of the building will have to come down, and that it won't be the same when, or if, it goes back up. How helpful is it then, to jump all over the issue with great big steel-cap deconstruction boots, before anyone has really had a chance to assimilate the news? It is already in hand, why the notice? Because Mr Brownlee is a prick basically. IMHO of course.
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I have just read an article in The Press online, saying that the Cathedral has been issued with a demolition notice. OMFG.
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said the order would not force the cathedral into demolition.
"We certainly haven't pushed that position, but it is severely damaged," he said.
"I believe it was the right decision and it is not easy to say that."
The 10-day demolition notice was issued only after the church had already announced it would partially demolish the cathedral, he said. He confirmed the notice was for full "deconstruction", despite the church's proposal for partial demolition."I would say it's a precautionary thing ... It's very unstable."
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I swam from that beach at Christmas, first time in NZ for nearly 5 years. Left with so many happy memories of the girls playing in the sand, exploring, just enjoying a gorgeous sunny beach Christmas holiday. Now my friend is making food to take down to the volunteers and my mum is knitting pj's for the penguins to stop them ingesting oil. Not happy. Not happy at all. Nice to see the owners were recently flush enough to pay a dividend to their shareholders, so maybe they will stump up the cash. Not holding my breath though.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Just as a matter of interest, have you ever read The Stepford Wives? It's not about what you seem to think it is.
Hmmmm. I know it's only Wikipedia, so might not be as authoritative as it could be, but:
The label "Stepford wife" is usually applied to a woman who seems to conform blindly to an old-fashioned subservient role in relationship to her husband, compared to other, presumably more independent women. It can also be used to criticise any person, male or female, who submits meekly to authority and/or abuse; or even to describe someone who lives in a robotic, conformist manner without giving offense to anyone. The word "Stepford" can also be used as an adjective ("He's a real Stepford employee"), or a noun ("My home town is a Stepford"),[5] denoting servility or blind conformity, or a seemingly perfect society hiding a dark secret.
So, National having a conformist and robotic outward persona, while secretly hiding a darker side...not a particularly controversial view surely?
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to Russell Brown,
I lost the ability to tell the difference when I lived in London -- and gained the ability to tell a North Dublin accent from a South Dublin one.
That really is impressive. I am married to an Irishman and still struggle to tell a Kerryman from a Dub even, let alone south Dub vs north. Though I can hear there is a difference. Subtleties in Irish accents fascinate me, as I think I would struggle to hear the regional differences in NZ the same way they can be distiguished in a similar size population in Ireland.
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Well, sort of. “Moving back to New Zealand” is not exactly the same thing as “going home,” is it?
Very much identify with every single thing in this post. But I'm still so, so envious. A friend has just moved back home with her two children, and eldest daughter was already in the swing of the barefoot to school thing on her first day.
Hope all your moving goes well, and wishing like crazy that one day it will be me wondering how to negotiate the time-slippage.
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Hard News: Complaint and culture, in reply to Emma Hart,
Plus very much 1 -
I have had the opposite experience from what is mostly described here - when my perfectly normal and lovely and quite large baby was born, and latched on within a few minutes of birth by C-section, courtesy of help from fantastic midwife, I had no idea that by midnight that same night I would have been abused and accused of trying to starve my baby to death for refusing to allow the nurse to bottle feed her. 3 heelprick tests for my baby later, and confined to bed and unable to reach or lift my baby myself, I finally was browbeaten into agreeing. My baby threw up all of it, aspirated some of it, later was found to have intolerance to dairy protein, and the whole incredibly exhausting and traumatic experience because they couldn't be arsed helping me to breastfeed. I was an inconvenience, unsupported, unaided, and with no way to help myself. I was absolutely determined to continue, and I managed it despite what amounted to actual opposition from nursing staff. My experience, and that of some of my contemporaries led to changes in the way breastfeeding support was provided by Whipps Cross, though things are still very far from perfect there. I am therefore always faintly disbelieving of those who were pressured to breastfeed - I would have killed for some persistence on my behalf from others - it was much, much, much harder to continue to breastfeed than it would have been to stop. It was still hard with number 2, this time because of bleeding nipples - it is very disturbing to watch your infant regurgitating indigestible blood ingested with mother's milk. Thank god for Lansinoh and a brilliant health visitor. Good support and advice make all the difference - not pressure. -
Up Front: Something For Your Snow Day, in reply to Megan Wegan,
Sadly, Tamsin isn't me either. I completely wish I was though - not for the drunken slapper thing though Megan. HAving said that, I wish I could think of lines like that when I needed them....
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Maybe I'll feel more like asking why later, but right now I'm too extremely angry. I can't be doing with asking why when they are looting my local shopping centre, and burning buses outside my friends flat. I will continue to ask where the parents are - because that is a major part of what is going on. How are there so many young people able to be out all night looting without any questions asked at home? What is life like at home? Why isn't there some wider parental authority that can keep these children (and many of them are children) at home? Where is the empathy of an entire generation, who can't see that their younger brothers and sisters are going to be stopped and searched with ever increasing frequency because of what they are doing now for kicks?
I was asking this last year when they were chasing each other round the streets with fireworks 'for jokes' and beating each other up in the local park 'for fun' and so on and so on and so on. Now is not the time for why - now is the time for stopping it before the police use the plastic bullets they were rumoured everywhere to be considering. I've seen and heard the interviews with looters - they are basically saying variations of 'we're sticking it to the man, because we can' which makes me sick with despair. So yes - conjecture - how else can you begin to frame the questions?