Posts by BenWilson
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Field Theory: Straight for the throat, in reply to Russell Brown,
I was slightly stunned to pay a total $2.50 for our parking.
Nice one! Is that likely to continue? Downtown is the primo location, definitely, much though I enjoyed the walk through Wynyard, with it's numerous stealthy little spots :-). Downtown is usually $8, and I didn't want to even go near it due to the closure of Quay St.
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Field Theory: Straight for the throat, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
And, big ups to the stadium crowd. Ireland won there too .
They won party central too, with ease...it helped that everyone who wasn't Ozzie was going for them.
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Field Theory: Straight for the throat, in reply to Russell Brown,
But really, in rugby terms, best World Cup ever.
Yes, it's been great to watch so far. I concur with the ease of access, too. I parked in Wynyard Quarter for free, no driving around required. It's worth a look before paying for Downtown, as walking through the quarter, and then the Viaduct makes a good reccy.
The Irish victory is a windfall for the All Blacks, and for the Northern Hemisphere, it is likely to pit Australia vs South Africa in the quarters. ABs vs the winner, given they beat the pool B runner up (probably Scotland or Argentina).
Ireland vs probably Samoa for the first quarter, which I expect will be a huge game. Probably England vs France for the second quarter. So a damned good chance the first semifinal will be Euro vs Euro. I hope it will be France vs Samoa, though. But if Ireland can pull out more games like last night, they'll deserve their spot in the semis, and I rate their chances against both England and France.
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Field Theory: Straight for the throat, in reply to chris,
15-6! What a result
The outburst of cheering in The Cloud when the Irish seized the lead was tremendous. Post game, Quay St streamed exuberant Irish fans towards Danny Doolan's. A richly deserved win, Oz had no answers...
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Speaker: Party Central, structures and silos, in reply to Sacha,
You'd think. Interesting when you read John Armstrong fawningly second-guessing McCully's reactions and motivations from within the Thorndon bubble.
I don't know what the Thorndon bubble is. I'm happy to just agree or disagree with Armstrong on what he writes without caring to psychoanalyze him. I've often agreed. At the moment, not so much.
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Speaker: Party Central, structures and silos, in reply to Sacha,
I'm never sure why people from the left - and especially the organised political opposition - want to buy into that and perpetuate the myth of Key by focusing attention on him.
Good point. The best strategy for dealing with National might be to ignore Key altogether. To neither ask nor answer any questions to or from him, addressing them always to the people who are technically responsible for everything, the ministers. And the questions should probably not come from Goff either, since he lacks charisma, but rather from the shadow of each minister.
In sporting terms, this is a full court press. It's what you do against a weak team, especially if they have a small number of strong players. This leads to a "bunny" scenario, where every player gets a chance to stand off against a weak player and make mincemeat out of them.
It might also solve the issue of the inevitable leadership crisis that Labour will face when they lose this year, if there have been some strong performances by other characters.
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Melbourne's sporting precinct is awesome, but it's worth acknowledging that it's in a city with 4 times the population of Auckland. The train system is well developed, and serves that area with 2 stops, one of which is Richmond Station, with ten platforms, designed as a major commuter hub/exchange. Many was the time I commuted through it, and saved 5-10 mins here or there, just by getting off one train and getting onto another, so frequent were the trips through there, serving the vast sprawling Eastern suburbs, as it pumped millions of people into the city every day. To serve the sporting precinct is almost an afterthought to what it does every working day.
Auckland's rail is hell and gone from this setup. Even if it were twice as developed, and we had a city loop, it would still be less than half as developed as Melbourne.
Also, huge numbers of people live within walking distance of that precinct, since inner suburban low rise is deep there, and it's not very far from the city centre. A large portion of any crowd to there has actually walked. And Melb is by no means devoid of the automobile, with colossal development of motorway networks.
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Add to this the fact most people are content to drift along at 30kmp/h regardless and it becomes a frustrating experience
Just biff your watch on the ground and get with the program.
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Hard News: The Minister's Brain Has Exploded, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yes, it was an intentional dry run, to explore before I commit any effort to assembling people to meet there. Much fairer would be to go there during any game involving England or Australia. I'm not prepared to risk it for an All Blacks game, simply because that is something there will most certainly be a private party for, that I would much rather attend.
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Hard News: The Minister's Brain Has Exploded, in reply to BenWilson,
When I took this shot, the tune "da de dah dum dah" came to mind unwilling. The solitary cup on the ground blew across like a tumbleweed. The mysterious warm and open door in the corner, flanked by two police had all the trappings of Solla Sollew. On the banks of the beautiful Waitamata. Waahoo! Where they never have troubles...at least very few. I wonder how many people felt this way on Friday, having tussled through the tunnel of birds, to arrive and find the key slapping Slippard is the only trouble they have? But go down the street to Boola Boo Ball, where they never have troubles...no troubles at all.
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