WORST BLOODY THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU

Hello readers, it's Lynn here aka 'The Old Girl' just dropping in.

I took the liberty of reading through the posts on this blog and on Richard's blog and have concluded that Peter aka The Curmudgeon and Richard aka RBB are like a couple of silly old men who try to outdo each other on writing silly and time-wasting blog posts.

They remind me of Pete and Dud as you can see in this video clip:

Do you see what I mean?

HERE'S WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ... THE HUGE POST*

 

* The inspiration for that joke came from Richard's Bass Bag. No need to thank us.

** HOLD THIS SPACE! **

There will be a huge post forthcoming...

... but I've been busy today playing tennis, arranging a gardening clean up and giving away furniture - very heavy furniture that 3 of us (guys) struggled with to get out of the house and on to a trailer and variously munted our backs, shoulders and knees - in my instance sorted by a hot bath with epsom salts - so posting other than this quick snapshot is out.

Stay posted!*

* Richard might be interested in a TV series on The Pony Express titled 'The Young Riders' on PRIME TV.

OH-OH WHAT A DAY THAT WAS

 

Makes sense to me.

Here are some excerpts of the lyrics that suited my endeavours yesterday:

 

Oh well, I'm dressed up so nice
And I'm doin' my best
And I'm startin' over
I'm startin' over in another place ...

Oh-oh what a day that was

Oh-oh what a day that was
Oh, oh a day that was
Oh-oh that's the way it goes ...

Moving in every direction
And if you feel like you're in a whirlpool
You feel like going home.

I took a full carload of stuff down to Wellington and arrived Saturday morning. On Monday morning I left Wellington and stopped overnight at Ohakune. In hindsight I should have kept going north.

At 7am on Tuesday I left Ohakune and headed off north via Taumarunui and Te Kuiti ... well, that was the plan. The weather was atrocious with driving rain making visibility marginal and the roads treacherous. I don't get New Zealand drivers. At the early hours the dawn light was very dim and made worse by the rain. This didn't stop many fools driving too fast for the conditions and WITHOUT THEIR BLOODY LIGHTS ON!

The road to Taumaranui was littered with small boulders from rock falls but the road from Taumarunui to Te Kuiti was much worse with flooding, slips and more rock falls. It was getting dodgy. Just before Te Kuiti the road was blocked by cars with flashing lights and I thought that there had been an accident. They were road maintenance people who told me that a major slip  a little further along had blocked the main road and that I would have to turn back. It had just happened so as yet there were no diversion signs set out. 

I turned around and drove back to Taumaranui as I knew that just past there was a secondary route to Turangi. I didn't experiment with any of the minor side roads  which was just as well as I later learned that on some of these flooding isolated communities and evacuations were necessary.

I made it to the secondary road which got me to Turangi, having to drive carefully as conditions were getting worse. As it turned out I turned around and retraced my steps just in time as not long afterwards another slip blocked the road nearer to Taumarunui. I might have been stranded in the middle.

The long drive from Turangi to Whangarei, with the added abortive drive to Te Kuiti and back took 10 and a half hours with just a half hour stoop at a supermarket, petrol station and cafe. I could have, in better conditions, driven all the way from Wellington to Whangarei in that time. I think it's the longest continuous drive I've made and I was exhausted last night. The car performed well - good old Toyota and I'll treat it to a check-up before the next drive.

 I will be making another trip in a week or so and, if the weather is good might do the trips in one go without an overnight stop.

STEEL WOOL

Sorry, that image isn't of steel wool but I can see why you might get confused. It's of a Moeran christian careering at full tilt towards oblivion.

Here's the image of steel wool:

For an explanation go to the comments in Riccardo's Basso Bagno blog's latest post (if you dare)

Robert the Moeran christian (it's a very small society) in his latest post said a lot of silly things - I know, I know, you are asking "so what's new" but hey! Stay with me. This latest post from his is a doozy.

Robert said:

"Evidently the local elections have come and gone. Hang on while I get another coffee. Yelling comes from the street "Why are you doing this to me?". Lots of F words. A women is yelling at a young man attired only in shorts (he's doing the swearing) as they walk up the middle of the road. He yells back in the incensed righteous way of drunks. So it goes. The problem with local elections is that we have zero feedback about performance. I believe we need more scrutiny of council members. An independent body that rates their performance or looks into prospective representatives qualifications and past behaviour. That's partly why I didn't vote. The envelope sat in my lounge. No one said when the elections were. So I just left it and left it. Now it has been. I'd just be ticking random people anyway for the afore mentioned reason. K told me that Margaret Cousins (former deputy mayor) was pleased with the new Mayor that was elected. She is kind of conservative in her preferences. That is good. A smallish city like Hutt can't afford 'think big' projects. Another problem is one never knows if projects are local, regional or Government funded. Do I blame our mayor for the ridiculously expensive Eastbourne cycle/walkway or the huge project underway to safeguard Hutt against a 1 in 500 (maybe its 200) year flood?"

In the interests of making you all suffer like Richard, sorry Riccardo, and I had to do by reading his entire blog post I decided to copy and paste entire swathes of this diatribe dialogue. No need to thank me.

I feel that I must point out some key statements in his dia ... dialogue:

"That's partly why I didn't vote. The envelope sat in my lounge. No one said when the elections were. So I just left it and left it. Now it has been. I'd just be ticking random people anyway for the afore mentioned reason. "

OK, there's a lot there and I recognised it when I first read this stuff and the entire post which, believe me, contained a lot of other stuff that needed ranting remonstrating over. The trouble is though that after a tiring drive through bad weather, exacerbated by a couple of glasses of chardonnay (delicious Craggy Range Hawkes Bay Kidnappers) I think I've lost the plot.  I still think that what Robert wrote was nonsense in that, with regard to the local elections, there has been ample information sent out by post, by major news media, by local newspapers and by social media shit like Facebook that I know that Robert subscribes to. The information on the regional electorates has been adequately promulgated. The issues have been discussed in the various media and opportunities to attend local meetings have been provided and lobbied for. I've been to some in my local area.

The information regarding the candidates pedigrees, current activities, intentions and political associations is all available and, to help voters, has been summarised in the documentation that came with the voting papers. The dates of the elections, the timing for getting votes in and the procedures have been spelled out personally and directly to the voters via the mail-outs and ad nauseam through social media, mainstream media and local newspaprs. What more does Robert want? Guidance from the Holy Ghost, Mary or Jesus? Sheesh!

I'll leave it To Riccardo, sorry, Richard to put it more succinctly in his morning post that wasn't fuelled by chardonnay" 

"Actually, Rob didn't vote in the local election. Maybe the task was too difficult?
Here's what they expect you to do:
Get a letter from your letterbox.
Open it.
Check the voting form.
Read about the candidates.
Tick a few boxes.
Put the information in a supplied envelope.
Pop the envelope into a postbox.



Rob and I both live in 'The Hutt' so I had to go through this process too. I knew of a few candidates, but some I had to read about in the included pamphlet. It was all pretty clear, and I completed the task in a short period of time. It certainly didn't take hours, or weeks. I measured the time it took in minutes."

Well said that man. 

"'ALLO, 'ALLO, 'ALLO"

Yes I did arrive safely in Wellington despite the weather turning foul after leaving Foxton. The motorway through Transmission Gully was a nightmare with severely reduced visibility due to driving rain and low cloud. This didn't stop some idiots (in utes) barrelling along at high speeds.

Talking of speed, I received a speeding ticket at Hunterville today. I know that this is a concept that Richard doesn't understand - speeding - but a police officer pulled me over and told me that he 'clocked' me doing 108kph in a 100 kph area, a whopping 8kph over the limit! I didn't tell him that earlier, around the Desert Road area I'd been doing 120kph as I didn't think this would help the situation. I was worried that this could be a fine of hundreds of dollars but an internet search told me that for 10kph or less over the limit the fine is $30. I can live with that which is what the anti speed campaign is all about I guess.

I've successfully unloaded the car and packed the wine and pantry items I brought down, away in the under-stairs storage area. Luckily this apartment has good storage but I wouldn't like to live here long-term. The Old Girl thankfully has come around to my way of thinking that a townhouse or a cottage close to the inner city is preferable to apartment living. We'll see how we get along now that we have the  certainty of the money in the bank even if it means renting for a while (not this apartment) after the lease runs out in March 2026.

I'm a bit tired so we are eating in this evening and I think that The Old Girl has arranged something tomorrow night. I leave early on Monday morning.

I'll ring Richard tomorrow to see how he's fixed (is he broken? -ed) but don't expect he'll be free for a catch up at short notice. I plan to be back down again in a couple of weeks anyway.

"BEST REVIEW THE SITUATION THAT YOU CAUGHT UP INNA ...

... to be a true player, you haft know how to play
If she say "A night" convince her to say "A day"."

Some people lie so often that's a default setting for them.

Have a look at this famous liar making such a hash of it but, because he's a narcissist, thinks that he's getting away with it.

“You know, I haven’t heard the name in so long. I can say this, that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look. Did they reject that?” 
“Well, I’ll take a look at it. I’ll speak to the DOJ, I wouldn’t consider it or not consider — I don’t know anything about it. I will speak to the DOJ.” The fatuous fat fool said.

 

Give us a break. This unfolding disaster is his ''Marilyn Monroe', 'Watergate' or 'Monica Lewinsky' affair that scuppered earlier presidents (although Kennedy was assassinated before his affairs properly came to light that would have led to impeachment). For him to say that he hasn't heard Maxwell's name recently and that he was unaware of her current appeal rejection is just stupid. It's the way that children lie when caught out saying things like "I don't know anything about it" or "it wasn't me".

 

ALL FOR NAUGHT(Y)

I tend to think of the Apple Mac desktop computer I use in the study as new even though it's now 10 years old. I replaced the old Mac back in 2018 when I bought the 'new' refurbished one. It was already 3 years old then.

The old Mac sitting in the naughty corner waiting to be taken to the tip

The 'new' Mac unaware that its poor performance means it will soon go to the naughty corner and worse

The new Mac has been getting slow even though I make sure that old files are trashed and that new software upgrades are kept up to date. The problem isn't in the Mac's hardware performance but in the 'advancements' on apps and software that Apple continuously undertake. These 'improvements' are supposed to be to the users' benefit but I suspect is merely a rort to drive the users (read dupes) into buying new equipment.

I looked up the internet to find out the normal lifespan of computers and was shocked. All of the answers came up something like this:

A desktop computer's lifespan typically ranges from 5 to 7 years, but can extend to 10 years or more with proper maintenance and upgrades, while younger computers can be retired sooner due to software obsolescence or hardware failure. Factors like the quality of components, your usage, maintenance practices, and the ability to upgrade individual parts significantly impact how long a desktop will last.

Bummer!

With our computer that has had "proper maintenance and upgrades" it looks like it's ready to 'buy the farm'.

I haven't told The Old Girl yet but will when we get settled in a permanent place in Wellington and can see what money we have left over and what discretionary finances we have for things like eating and breathing! I think this time I'll buy brand new to give that extra 3 years or so which might mean it lasts before I 'buy the farm'.

"TIME FOR YOU AND TIME FOR ME..."

"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons"

wrote T.S. Eliot in his poem  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

and I know how he felt. I seem to be measuring out my life being kept on hold waiting to talk to some agency on the phone!

New Zealand has a population of 5.3 million. 50 years ago, in 1975 we had a population of just over 3 million. That's a 72% increase, not even near double.

Why then has there been so much change in the standards and quality of service in  this country? 

I remember when it was the norm when needing an answer from your bank, insurance company, IRD, your doctor's surgery or retail stores, to be able to telephone their service or enquiries departments and quickly and efficiently get an answer. Nowadays it's often near impossible to find an email address or a number to call and, when you do you have to go through a convoluted process of pressing buttons for options only to end up being left on hold listening to some god awful music for half an hour. Sheesh!

How did things get so bad so quickly?

MY FAVOURITE SUBJECT AT PRIMARY AND INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL WAS SOCIAL STUDIES

I know that many of the readers don't like television game shows and, to be honest there are many that I cannot stand, particularly the low-brow and noisy ones like Jeopardy, The Price Is Right, Family Feud and Deal or No Deal. These depend on brain dead viewership which, to be fair makes up at least 70% of the population and 100% of these shows loyal followers. Their only competition comes from 'reality' shows like The Kardashians, Real Housewives, Big Brother, Survivor and Sunday-worship type programmes which Robert will be familiar with..

I do like, and watch the better quiz shows like Mastermind, University Challenge, Eggheads, The Chase, Tipping Point and a few others as they arise (and are repeated) and find that, in their one hour format are ideal to watch while I'm doing my (almost) daily exercises on the stepping machine, the rowing machine and/or the exercycle along with some floor exercises and use of free weights. I find it boring sitting on these machines and the quiz programmes seem to make the time go quicker.

I've been recently flabbergasted at the lack of knowledge of contestants on these programmes and wonder why they bother to come on to the shows. I also wonder at what's happened in education over the last 40 years in New Zealand as much as in the UK. The USA is a given. Generally the Americans are ignorant on history, geology, foreign affairs and anything not related to their own patch but, disturbingly, even American history, politics, institutions, law and current affairs have become some kind of soup with the Kardashians, Taylor Swift and Donald Trump sitting on top like scum. Go figure.

Here is an example of ignorance (there are many, many more):

Often, when a contestant gets an answer wrong on a question relating to recent history, politics, music etc. over the last 30 years, they says things like "well, I wasn't born then". OK, then how about questions that everyone else answers on the Renaissance, Beethoven, dinosaurs, the Bible, ancient Egypt and the Roman empire for example. sheesh!

Anyway, I'm staying up to watch the rugby at 10pm. Go the All Blacks!