In Singapore a bog standard bottle of NZ vino costs NZD40-50 and that classic NZ bubbles, Lindauer Brut, will set you back NZD45 a pop. (How I recall NZD10.95 on special at Pak N Save for that one!!) A standard 300ml of beer will set you back NZD15 and a jug will often cost more than NZD40-50 depending on when you buy it (happy hour prices you might pick one up for NZD25).

You can buy alcohol (incl spirits) in the supermarkets but the cost of it is prohibitive (doesn't seem to stop us tho') so you don't tend to see too many drunk teenagers/20 somethings.

That said I am not sure price control is the answer.

One more element of Radio NZ's performance warrants mention: the internet. No other broadcaster has responded to the shift online as well as Radio NZ has under the guidance of Richard Hulse.

Thank goodness. Now living in Singapore live RNZ News (and other stuff) keeps up informed and in touch with home........keep it coming please and thank you Richard Hulse.

I like that Juha linked to the Homepage Hall of Shame from his blog on ... Stuff.

Just wish our NZ news home pages would think about PDA/Blackberry users and follow the model of the BBC. I can, and do, read the BBC website on my Blackberry having selected the PDA version. FREE OF CHARGE (ie the BBC doesn't make me pay unlike Granny H)!!

Stuff and NZ Herald just have loads and loads of links and advertising at the beginning and an annoying slow download speed - anyone discovered a better way of reading them on the small screen?

GST works, is fair and doesn't have a building full of civil servants to worry about the exceptions (look at the UK and Australia).

One of the issues I have is would the 'saved' GST get spent on 'better quality' food as appears to be the argument for exempting it - I think not. Not when milk costs more than Coke; cheese costs more than pies. Fruit and veg are climbing in price - regardless of the GST component.

Biggest issue for me on this one is the conversation Innes Ashe had with Sean on Morning Report this morning about the Working for Families programme not working for the 180,000 kids living in poverty. If your parents aren't working you don't get access to these extra funds. She cited the example of a working man with a wife at home looking after their 3 year old and getting $60 extra a week via the WFF initiative. When he was struck down with cancer and the wife remained home to nurse him and look after the child, they lost that money. Doesn't make sense to me.

Doubt it Steve. Most of the high achievers with credit cards that I know who have depression issues are too embarrassed to admit they have an issue that needs addresssing.

2005 was my annus horibilis <sp?> as too many men I knew in my wider circle of friends and colleagues, all in their 40s, most married with kids, couldn't face life any more and took their own lives.

It's those they leave behind who have the hardest time as most times no-one really knows why and always ask what they could have done/said differently. The wife/partner and kids are the ones I feel the most for. Depression is a silent killer of relationships as well as lives.

All credit to Russell and his neighbours.

So I wasn't the only one beaten up at school for sounding funny - phew, that's a relief!! I arrived as an 11 year old from the vallies with the whole sing-songy Welsh accent and got relentlessly bullied for it. I now have what friends call an IBM accent (I've Been Moved) as no-one can quite pick it - a melange of English, Kiwi and a touch of Welsh when visiting Mum and Dad!! People in Oz think I am English; people in the UK sometimes mistake me for Sth African -eh?.

I'm 44 and have always pronounced fear, fair and fare differently and my kids tease me for it. But then I also talk of yog-urt not yo-gut, and vit-a-mins not vite-a-mins.

Owen Glenn is making donations across the globe. One small Welsh rugby club thinks he's pretty ok... Floodlights gift for rugby game.

BTW what's up with the Herald online at present - getting gibberish the past few days and all the formatting's up the creek.

we should be hearing more about this next week at the National Digital Forum in Wellington - brilliantly timed to clash with the Digital Future Summit being held in Auckland at the same time...

Looking at the programmes of both it would appear that the Auckland event is aimed at the decision makers within business and government whereas the Wellington event seems to be aimed at those working at the coalface.

I wonder which will have more clout as far as actually making things happen?

Which brings me to: My Hobbyhorse: I would dearly love to see a modest contestable fund to which individuals could apply to have a work digitised by the archive that holds it.

Archives and libraries spend forever debating what to digitise. No one seems to grasp the fact that not every decision has to be top-down, and that part of what is digitised (and, ideally, made freely available thereafter) should be things that members of the public have a use for.

Forgive my ignorance, but isn't this what the govt's digital strategy all about? Hasn't $24 Mln been set aside for digitising and isn't the National Library meant to be driving this?

I agree, why can't individuals or groups have access to some of these funds to apply to an entity for digitisation project funding a la the NZ on Air funding for TV programmes.