Tuesday 26 August 2014

I DON'T LIKE JOHN KEY BUT..........

There's no need to attack him in the way that some idiots are currently doing.

Sure he's a slimy, untrustworthy snake of a man who embarrasses himself and the country whenever he mangles the English language but for some strange reason half the population seem to like him (poor deluded fools).


So even though I neither like nor trust him I am appalled at those scrotes who've released a song threatening to kill him.

        "I'm gonna kill the Prime Minister cos we all down here suffering and that             ************ ain't do nothing."

They haven't got the guts to admit that it's a violent political attack and hide behind the fact that it's 'just a song'. Yeah right.

In the same song they say they'd like to f### the PM's daughter ....

              "One of these days, I'm going to f*** your daughter."



Well.... perhaps a bit of decorum is called for.




The other scrote is this zeppelin that's recently blown onto our shores.




Man, what a fat fool. His most recent smirking and preening interviews were like a 10 year old trying to be clever. His reminiscences of his juvenile hacking while in Germany and his almost giggling announcement that he'll get the dodgy Julian Assange to aid in his expose of Key really shows his character. How the f### he can appeal to  a few percent of the population is beyond me. I think we're breeding a nation of idiots

BUSINESSWEAR

Not this



More like this













I'm working from home in my new job which certainly has its advantages dress wise.

Apartment living is great in the winter because high rise buildings tend to have good ambient temperature and apartments generally don't need extra warming especially on a sunny day when the sun shines through the windows. This means that I can amble around wearing very, very light clothing knowing that no-one is going to look in a window or come knocking on the door (secure entrance from the street means visitors have to call to be let in).

I only have to dress 'proper' if I have a meeting in the city somewhere.

You have to be careful though if answering a call on Skype or Facetime when the setting is to video.


Sunday 24 August 2014

LONG DISTANCE LOVE




Yes, I know the sentiment is different but I've always liked this Little Feat song. So. Why 'Long distance love?
 The Old Girl left for Toronto last night. She has another year there to fulfil her two year contract. I'm staying on here in NZ as I've taken on a new job.

 I've 'had' long distance love before.

 The first circumstance was through a relationship break up with a young woman in Wellington - she took up with a (former) friend of mine. I left Wellington in 1981 but still had feelings for her and we had an on/off relationship until late 1986, her in Wellington and me in Auckland. She went with me to Scotland in 1985 to attend my sister's wedding.

 The second was with another Wellington woman. I had known her in a circle of friends but we became involved in 1984, again in an on/off relationship until 1988 when I met The Old Girl.

 I had other girlfriends in Auckland during these years but I can't say that the relationships were as intense as the long distance ones. We seemed to be forever planning trips to Auckland or to Wellington or arranging to meet in the middle or go away on holiday together. Such fun!

 Since 1988 The Old Girl and I have been together except for a 3 month stint she did in Scotland and last year when she went to Toronto a month before I did. As experienced travellers though our respective jobs took us away from each other for a few weeks at a time - me to Australia, UK, USA and Europe and her to Australia, Philipines, China, Vietnam and other South East Asian countries.

Nowadays telecommunications are so good that we can always talk to each other. I don't think there's ever been a day when either of us has been away that we haven't telephoned. We'll use SKYPE or Facetime.
Ha! A funny thing just happened as I was editing this - a Skype video call came through and it was The Old Girl who had just got to our Toronto apartment (note to self: keep clothes on in case she or someone else calls).




 This will be the longest separation however and will be hard but she will be coming home at Christmas which is only 4 months away (120 sleeps) and then, when returning will only be away for another 5 months after that. Also, as my job will involve travel we are hoping to meet up in NYC, London or even Toronto during this period. We discussed all this in length and decided that as I hadn't found a job in Toronto and was basically going spare doing nothing it was best to take this NZ job. The job is good, pays well and has benefits.; We are mature enough to admit that sometimes in life you just have to 'suck it up' and get on with it. After 26 years and a commitment to spending the rest of our days together, one year isn't going to make much difference.

Wednesday 20 August 2014

A to B

I'm buying a car to leave up North to use when I go up there by bus.
The bus trip is actually quite pleasant and only takes two and a half hours which is about half an hour more than by car.
It is cheaper too when there's just me as about $45 return is cheaper than petrol.

The car I'm buying is a Toyota IST 2004.
That's right a Toyota IST. I'd never heard of it before either. It's actually a bit of an old lady's car but, for what I want it for it will do nicely.


I'm buying it from the tenants in our house so know that it's well looked after and, if something goes wrong I know where they are!
Actually, I'm also buying it from them as a favour as they are good tenants and need the money to put towards a camper van.

This got me thinking of the cars I've owned over the years. I've had company cars for over 30 years and these have been much better but I won't list those.

The first car I owned was a 1948 Austin 8. This sounds really old but as I bought it in 1970 it was only 22 years old. There are a lot of older cars on the road today.



I bought the car when I was in the 7th form at college. It cost $80 which was a lot of money then. I used it during my final school year before I went to university.
It was a neat old car that had leather seats and doors that opened out opposite to the way doors usually do. It had some idiosyncrasies like: needing to be hand cranked to start it sometimes; having virtually no brakes and having to use blocks of wood when parked; having to reverse up hills when the petrol tank was low as the fuel pump wouldn't function properly.

It was fun though and I sold it at the end of the year to friend Tony who coveted it.
Going against the trends for motor vehicle buying and selling I sold it for $100 a 25% increase on what I bought it for.
Tony liked the car and used it for a couple of years. He also abused it and once peed in it I think. Richard of RBB no doubt will have the details.

Keeping with the theme of usury I bought the car back from Tony for $60. 40% less than I sold it to him for. Net profits over the two transactions - $40.
I sold it to my brother for $60 - hey he was my brother (and besides the car smelled of pee) and he converted it into a 'beach buggy' for driving up the river beds over Cape Palliser way.



The second car I bought seemed like a real doozy. It was a 1962 Triumph Herald (remember this was 1970 and I had been driving an old Austin 8).



I bought it for $400 from a car dealer on Christmas Eve. Late. So late in fact that the State Insurance office was closed (no internet transactions in those days). Of course the worst happened and on Christmas day I crashed it. Into a parked car. I spent the rest of that year paying off the damages to the car I crashed into and had nothing to spend on mending my Herald. I bent and twisted the metal as best I could. I replaced broken lights. I tied down the strange lift-up front end that Triumph Heralds had with ropes which would have to be anchored to the drivers and passenger doors. It would have been a nightmare in an emergency.

All good.

But ........

I crashed this car again, this time crossing the Porirua motorway and bashing into a bank on the other side

And ......

A truck reversed into it while it was parked in an alley.

The car from the two frontal crashes and one rear one developed a lopsided crabbing motion.
This was spotted by a traffic cop and I was ordered off the road. This was before the days of pink-stickering. The cop just said "we know where you live and don't want to ever see you driving it again".
I complied. I sold it for $200. I told the guy that bought it that it had been ordered off the road. "No worries" he said "I'm just driving up to see my girlfriend. In Napier! I don't know if he made it.

The third car I bought was a 1962 Hillman Super Minx.


 It cost $500 and was a great car that I kept for 5 years. I drove it up and down the country - North and south Island and it just kept going (pretty fast too). It never really gave me much problem but good friend Mike, who was about as good with cars and things mechanical as Britney Spiers is with quantum physics, managed to mangle the bonnet and burn out the brakes on two separate occasions.

The fourth car I bought was another Hillman Super Minx. This was a 1965 model station wagon.



 I bought this in 1977 while still owning the 1964 Super Minx. Gasp! Two cars although admittedly the other had stopped working by then. I still sold it for $200 though. This is a reflection of the times where import quotas and high tariffs meant that cars were hard to import. The newer model cost me a whopping $600. It was a good car and served me well. It got severely smashed up in Adelaide Road outside Murray Roberts when hit by a truck but good old State Insurance fixed it up again. they very rarely wrote off cars back then.

In 1979 I bought my fifth car. This was a 1971 Ford Escort. It was flash (well flash for me) and cost a thousand bucks.



 I had no problems with this car and sold it in Auckland in 1981 when I got my first company car.

I didn't buy another car until 2008 being my sixth car (we had bought cars for The Old Girl) who on seeing this brand new 2008 Peugeot 206 sports version immediately appropriated it and gave me her Rover.



I didn't mind really as the Rover 620ti was a superb car.



 I'd had it from new in 1998 as a company car and drove it for 3 years until the company, as per the car replacement policy of the time, gave me a new Passat. Two years later we saw it advertised for sale and bought it. We sold it last year before going to Canada.

Now, the Toyota IST will be the seventh car I've bought for myself. It's hardly the Maserati I'd always promised myself but, for cheap running around up North it'll do. I'll be getting a new company car next week for Auckland so can't complain.

Tuesday 19 August 2014

AUCKLAND INFLATION

We are negotiating to buy another property in Auckland.

We need it.

It is essential and there really isn't an alternative.

It's pretty small - about 8 square metres.

This is it.



It's going to cost us $48,000.

Yes, you read that $48,000. For a carpark. In the basement below where we live.
Believe it or not this is a good deal as similar parks are going for over $60k in the same area. If we were living down country there are some places where $48,000 could get us a quarter acre and a 140 square metre house!



Maybe we can put a wee shack on it and either rent it out or live in it ourselves.


GETTING AWAY

Being exhausted after working for two weeks I needed a break.
Hey, I'm sounding like a schoolteacher.

We went up North with some friends.

Our house is still rented out and will be for at least another year but I wanted to catch up with the tenants (nice people), check on the new roof and also check up on my cat. All of importance in the reverse order.




Willow my cat is happy and healthy.
The roof looks really good ( some kind of zinc) and the house and garden are in tip-top condition.
Alan, the friend who drove us up had the cheek to say " these people keep things better than the previous tenants". Cheeky sod.

We used my sister's holiday bach which is a few bays along from our house. She gave me the keys and said to use it whenever I like so I think I'll do that every other weekend over the next year.




The 'Bach' is pretty nice. They built it about 10 years ago.

Everything is set up and it's just a matter of arriving and turning the hot water on.

The view is pretty good being a different side of Mount Manaia which we see from our house


The weather wasn't too bad for winter. Admittedly we've just come from minus 20 to 39 degrees Toronto winter but, it was still warm enough to use the outdoor pizza oven.





Interestingly the shower in the bathroom isn't working even though the bath is.


Luckily there is an outdoor shower. I can't imagine Richard using it though. He'd be worried about the  cows in the fields seeing his willy.




The indoor toilet is functional though.

I'm buying a small car from the tenants which I'll leave in a carpark in Whangarei. I can then hop on a bus for the weekends when I want to go up North.






I'd like to say everything is hunky dory but firstly The Old Girl is off back to Toronto on Saturday for another year and secondly today she learnt that her cousin in Napier was a hit by a truck while cycling. She has two broken legs and a broken pelvis. The Old Girl is off to spend time with her before she heads off for Canada.

Life huh!