Posts by Robyn Gallagher
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Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Sarah Wedde,
The gap between theoretically being able to work 15 hours a week, and finding someone to employ a sick or disabled person for the variable 15
I know a guy who can only work 30 hours a week due to a chronic illness. He's lucky that he has a good job that pays reasonably well, but he's stuck in that job. He's become quite bored with it, can't move laterally because all other employers are looking for a full-time worker, and there's no room for promotion for similar reasons.
I can't imagine it'd be any easier for an unemployed person on the sickness benefit.
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Thinking about where I buy books from, when I was in Auckland I'd wander down the road to Time Out, and in Wellington I go to Unity. Both places have great atmosphere, smart staff and are just nice places to experience.
Whitcoulls has always felt like a variety store with a large book section, rather then a dedicated bookshop. And - like John Birmingham notes in his blog post - Borders used to have an amazing range when they first opened, but now it's the same old vampires, cookbooks, and a gaping hole where the CD department used to be.
While the current Whitcoulls doesn't really do much for me, it's such a strong New Zealand brand that I'd hate to see it die. I hope it can be reborn as a good bookshop/stationer.
But in other news, lately I've been very seriously considering acquiring an e-reader. Buying books - especially the sort that I never reread - is starting to feel wasteful.
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I know the answer, but just wait until my book
That basically equates to the Prime Minister saying he'll only answer a particular question if he's paid to do so. That's pretty unbecoming for a national leader.
It also sounds like he's given up on being PM and is already started to fantasise about life outside of Parliament. That sweet life, where he doesn't have to live in Wellington, and can write books and serve on boards to his heart's content.
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Speaker: What PACE actually does, in reply to Jeremy Eade,
Good post Robyn.
Thanks, dude. As an admirer of your art, that means a lot.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Tim Michie,
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.This poem inspired the Red Hat Society, a funtimes group for older women who literally wear red hats and purple clothes, which seems to miss the point of the poem entirely.
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You know how our Prime Minister's recent comments on the hotness of Liz Hurley made it into the "weird news" sections of international newspapers? Well, the previous thing he said that also became overseas news was his too-much-information confession to having had a vasectomy, uttered during a press conference on early childhood education funding.
As it happens, New Zealand has the highest rate of vasectomies. I wonder why it's come so widespread and, indeed, culturally acceptable here.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Sacha,
Yah, that's how it works. There's now no need for a separate printer version - it will automatically strip the side column, header and images just print the content.
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You know, for all the tales of Starbucks failing in New Zealand, before the first one opened in Auckland in 1998, I wasn't a regular coffee drinker. There was DKD, but I can't remember many local cafes.
After work at Ihug one day, the aforecommented Dylan Reeve and I excitedly drove out to Parnell and had some lattes and stuff and felt all cool. And at the time the K Road Starbucks opened, I was far too terrified to go to the neighbouring Brazil.
For me, Starbucks was a gentle introduction to the world of espresso coffee. I haven't been to Starbucks in ages. It's usually for emergency caffeination purposes - like the desperate morning when I knew the Lower Hutt Starbucks would be a million times better than the awful coffee of the provincially bad place at the mall.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
Don’t underestimate this; SB’s was very resistant to changing anything, so for them to bend to local customs was significant.
My other Starbucks observation - when I was in Australia in 2001, I noticed that the Starbucks cup range was Short, Tall and Grande, whereas in New Zealand it was Tall, Grande and Venti (though Short was available on request). NZ SEZ MOAR COFFEE PLZ!
This matches the way Australian cafes so coffee - if you order a latte, you'll get a neat glass, not a massive bowl.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Stephen Judd,
By 1990 there was Metropolis and that place upstairs at Ward Lane whose name I can never remember either.
Naked Lunch, was the upstairs place. I was too scared to go there, and I was also too scared to go to Metropolis when it was in its original location.
But I got over myself and discovered the OMG world of mochaccinos (hush, I was only 17).