WINDOWS 3

Nope, still not this

At least Robert and his wife like my posts on the windows in my house.
With all the windows we have I might be able to stretch this series out for quite a while. It's easy, not requiring a lot of brain-box power which is good as I've overtaxed the poor old thing this week dealing with wine labels in Chinese script.

It also has the added advantage of annoying Richard so a Win:Win situation.

Today's window is the one above the back door.

Sorry about the resolution - thunderstorms up here today

The doorway at the end of the hall is quite nice and features a large main glass panel. Above this is another panel that has a leaf motif etched into it. At each side is a blue panel which when the sun is right floods the hallway with a nice glow.

I found a couple of old photos in my files but neither show the effect I'm talking about.

I'll have to take a pic next time that the hall is full of natural light.

WINDOWS 2

NOT THIS

Due to the unprecedented success of the last Post which featured my bathroom window I thought that I'd bring you some more window features.

When I say unprecedented success there was one architecturally challenged old school teacher who posted derogatory comments. O well, you can't please everyone. I hope that he goes well in his endeavours or, as my dear old grandmother used to say "tell him to go fuck himself!"

Todays window is a portion of the door that leads from the hallway to the lounge.

The door is large and wide with the top 2/3 being glass panelled.
At the top in each corner is a small panel with nice etching.

If there is reader interest I will take a photograph of the entire door.and post it next.

WINDOWS

We live in a nice house.

It's spacious - a 5 bedroom villa although one bedroom is used as a study and another as the snooker room. It has high ceilings, a wide hallway and nice features.

Today though I was reminded of why I liked the place when I first saw it. The midday sun was lighting up the bathroom which faces East towards Mt Manaia.

I remember first walking into the bathroom and being struck by this window feature.

Of course the sun went behind a cloud as I took the photograph....

When signing the purchase agreement later I had to be reminded by The Old Girl as to how many bedrooms the house had but I remembered the bathroom.

TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING

I joined the local Civil Defence group recently and am prepared to assist in every, all, some, a few catastrophes that come our way.

They haven't given me a gun yet but hey-ho, it's early days.

...BUT I DIDN'T SHOOT THE DEPUTY

She can shoot herself (in the foot).

BOB MARLEY - I SHOT THE SHERIFF


I really cannot understand how our Deputy Prime Minister has got to this position. I guess it shows the woeful lack of talent that National have in their cabinet.

Paula Bennett couldn't run the portfolios she previously handled without cocking things up and upsetting stakeholders. How the hell is she going to deputise as Prime Minister?

Yesterday. in the PM's absence she totally floundered when questioned about the NZ Government's responsibility and further intentions in the SAS Afghanistan scandal. She not only couldn't give a proper answer -  and we do expect politicians to waffle a bit - but in her case she sounded like a receptionist  caught out when all the bosses are away. She was like a deer in the headlights.

PAULA BENNETT ON MORNING REPORT

Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennnett says there is nothing that has disturbed her in information she has seen about a book alleging civilians were killed in a New Zealand-led raid in Afghanistan.Ms Bennett told Morning Report the SAS was highly regarded and she had faith in the Defence Force.
"They have said they have investigated, they've said that they were not involved in any deaths of civilians, and I would certainly take their word at that."Asked if there was anything in reports and statements she had seen about the book which disturbed her, she said there was "not at this stage".She said she had no immediate plans to read the book and described Mr Hager as a left-wing conspiracist.

Well, does that give you any confidence in someone charged with running the country in the absence of the Prime Minister?

Former Defence Minister Wayne Mapp, who should know, admitted that there were civilian casualties in the botched raid.

Former Defence Minister concedes civilian casualty in 2010 SAS raid in Afghanistan


I'm all for looking at issues rationally and to not go off half-cocked but in a case like this that has important international legal and political ramifications we must expect our leaders to take things seriously and to have proper investigations in place. Firstly the Prime minister should front up about it and secondly no minister of the Crown should be so arrogant (and close-minded) to say "I have no immediate plans to read the book".

Give us a break ....... oh, that's right, we'll get one when these turkeys get chucked out later this year.

NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING

NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING



What a laugh!

On Sunday we took the kayaks out for a spin. We paddled across to the other side of the bay and had a swim there at a quiet beach.
On the way back I went hell for leather to beat The Old Girl, not stopping all the way.

At our beach I dragged the kayak up to the road and waited for her to arrive. My new double kayak is bloody heavy. When the Old Girl beached I carried her kayak up to the roadside and had a dizzy spell. I had to sit down for a bit to recover. I guess that I'd overdone it on the fast paddle back as I'm a bit under-fit after my bout of shingles over Christmas/New Year.

Once I felt recovered I helped The Old Girl put her kayak away under the house and fitted the wheels to mine and pulled it up the driveway. At the top of the driveway I went dizzy again and sat/laid down for a rest.

At this time friend Rod drove up and parked opposite our driveway. He and his wife were going for a swim. He sighted me sitting/lying down by my kayak and waved. I sort of raised my hand and waved back. I got up after a few minutes and put the kayak away up the back of the house. I then went inside and had a snooze for an hour.

A couple of days later I was talking to Rod and told him that I wouldn't want to be drowning while he was on the beach watching. He'd think I was just waving!

BORN AGAIN

In my post PORN AGAIN a few days ago I talked about the relationship between the easy accessibility of violent, degrading and disturbing pornography across all media and the growth of 'rape culture' amongst young men.


I concluded:

"We can't teach young people about the need for consent and the importance of proper and healthy relationships while the opposite is freely touted in magazines, in film and on the internet porn sites. The slippage in values is something that the current and future generations are seriously going to suffer from. I'm happy that I won't be around in 30 or more years to witness the aftermath of this."

Geremy, aka Robert that born again Christian who lives with the Holy Ghost attributes 'the slippage of values' to lack of belief in the holy bird (in his case a seagull!) and the fact that society isn't applying 'the loving creators' laws thoroughly enough.

See his comments here:

Geremy said...

The slippage of values, or a society's judgement of what is important, will always be a moving target unless it is anchored to laws. God had to give the Hebrews the ten Commandments in the end!

Geremy said...
I was insinuating that morality, (ethics) and Godliness has been abandoned in favour of a selfish egotistical community that worships self instead of the loving creators.

          Geremy said...

Of course it will fly over your head, but why criticize porn while at the same time publishing it?

Geremy said...
1. Morality and ethics isn't dependent on a belief in God.
Answer. You don't have to believe in God but that doesn't mean God was the instigator!
2. Legislation against immorality, illegality and basic wrongs isn't waiting for the go ahead from a mythical episode concerning stone tablets lobbed down from above.
Answer. Exactly. Look at your own post about Trump!
3.Why criticise anything without using examples of what is being criticised?
Answer. I quote your own words. "Typical Christian Bullshit". An example is not required, one standard for atheists another for christians?

I guess that he's entitled to his opinion and in order to present a balanced argument I should follow up on PORN AGAIN with a god-botherers approach to the problem - BORN AGAIN


________________________________________________________________________


BORN AGAIN


Young people become interested in sex. This usually happens at about age 18 especially if they haven't been attending church or saying their nightly prayers. At this age the stories that parents have told them in order to protect them from impure thoughts, about pregnancy resulting from The Holy Ghost touching the mother with a wing tip, are no longer accepted by them. They require more explanation.


It is helpful at this point to remind them that Mary, Blessed Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ was a Virgin. Her pregnancy was by Miraculous Conception with The Archangel Gabriel being sent down by God The Father to 'bless' her. As good Christians they will have no problem in continuing to believe this.

On the subject of sex God has said this on the subject:

1 Thessalonians 4:3 "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication."

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators .... shall inherit the Kingdom of God."

Fornication is defined as voluntary sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person with a person of the opposite sex. The Bible makes it absolutely clear that God is completely unbending on this subject. All sexual relations between men and women not married to each other are taboo, so taboo in fact that the Old Testament solution to the violation was usually stoning. That ought to give us a fair idea of how strongly God feels about the subject.

Jesus took this even further by instructing that even thinking about committing adultery is as bad as actually doing it.
You see, what Jesus knew and was telling us is that lust usually begins in the mind and if we can keep the idea out of our minds we'll have a lot less trouble with our bodies.

"In the Old Testament God's people were forbidden to commit fornication. Then along came Jesus who said we're just as guilty if we wilfully think about committing it. And that means no sex, period. No romantic daydreaming about real or imagined lotharios ready to sweep us off our feet and carry us away from this "wretched life of singleness"; no secret attachment for our doctor, lawyer, minister or our neighbour's husband; no harmless flirtations with the guy at the office.

- Jo Anne Sekowsky A Christian Road Map for Women Travelling Alone. 

So, with good Christian teaching and observance we can avoid sex altogether except within the confines of marriage and for the purpose of procreation. This of course with the blessing of The Holy Ghost who should be with us at all times, even in our beds.

Outside of these parameters sex is fornication and fornication is forbidden.

Lustful thoughts lead to masturbation. While masturbation isn't technically forbidden by the Bible, lustful thoughts are so we have a Catch 22 situation here. It is better to put aside thoughts of masturbation and then the lustful thoughts will go away as well as they will have no outlet. If in doubt think of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. On second thoughts, best to think of the Holy Ghost as some of the depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary are a bit enticing. Better still think of a seagull.

Once we conquer the sinfulness of lust and masturbation we will take away the need for pornography and all of those nasty sites will disappear. There will be no need for governmental legislation. The power of God's Word and the teachings of the Bible will win out as Geremy aka Robert has said:

" God had to give the Hebrews the ten Commandments in the end!"

CRYING ..... OVER U (SA)

Look, regardless of how affected or disaffected you are by USA politics and what's going on over there you probably do sneak a look at the press reports.
There's certainly no shortage of them - real news, 'fake news' (according to Donald Trump), real fake news, left-wing news, right-wing news, amateurs news, funny news - the works.

Under the 'funny news' banner there's actually a lot of good stuff - well written, well researched and well presented and usually from the 'left''.

Below is the latest from Bill Maher.

This is so good. It makes you want to cry.  First because it's funny. Second because this is happening and it will affect us all.

BILL MAHER - TRUMP'S BUDGET

PORN AGAIN

The recent rape culture debate engendered by the on-line behaviour of some Wellington secondary schoolboys underlines some serious problems facing our society.

Interest in sex by young people is nothing new.
Improper behaviour, objectification of women, sexual assault and rape is nothing new.
The immediacy of access to indecent material and the ability to quickly promulgate it is new.

When I was a whippersnapper, becoming interested in sex the pornographic options were severely limited. In the 1960's, in New Zealand there wasn't much in the way of titillating material. Nowadays an advertising billboard or lifestyle magazines in doctors waiting rooms are raunchier than the 'girlie' magazines of the day.

Well-thumbed and traded magazines like Man (Australian) were like gold. These, if ever acquired had to be hidden, preferably away from home in the hideout that most kids of the time had. Ours was a self-built shack in the bushes up the back of our house that contained all sorts of treasures (home-built crossbows, shangeyes, items from the tip), stuff you had to hide from your mother (the jumper you burnt a hole in, fireworks, homework assignments and later, the girlie mags) and things you were building (early versions of skate boards, sleds, trollies, bikes etc).

Novels were always pretty tame or at least the ones we could get hold of. Henry Miller, Anais Nin, D.H. Lawrence, Lawrence Durrell and all of the serious but naughty writers, even if the international bans were lifted were still never on sale,. We had to make do with the suggested titillation in Ian Fleming novels and rubbish like Kyle Onstott (Mandingo series), Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susan. These books fell open at the one or two spots where some sexual activity was badly written about.

Every now and again some kid would turn up with one of those trashy American pulp fiction books that some onanistic sailor had brought in to the country. You know the type. They're probably collectors items now and fetch a lot of money. Our copies, after being passed around so much were ripped, soiled and, after being hidden in the 'shack' damp and mouldy.

'Real' sexual activity took place in the neighbourhood with some of the friendly girls but this was always of the 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' variety. There was no alcohol involved, little touching and, I'm pleased to say, a great deal of awe and respect.

I'm not saying that we were innocent but the times, compared to today certainly offered a lot less than the smorgasbord of pornography available today. Apart from the sheer scale - volume and variety - it is the ease of accessibility that is astounding. Pornographic images, videos, sound recordings, writings and cartoon variants can be found at the click of a button with virtually no age restriction. The formats cover every form of media including interactive video games. I wonder how many parents are unaware of what their kids are accessing on-line.


Now I'm not a wowser - hey, I and my schoolmates 'wanked for the olympics' in our time and we kids were very prurient and would avidly read and pore over whatever we could get our hands on. I bet that Robert even trawled through the bible for the rude bits to get his jollies.
No, it's not the sexy images and titillating stories that are on offer and causing problems, it's the nastiness of the content. There is so much implied (overtly or subtly) violence in pornography that is cancerous. I said in the opening of this post that "Improper behaviour, objectification of women, sexual assault and rape is nothing new" but, today, the pornographic offerings, easily and freely accessible and in so many forms and degrees of awfulness is the 'norm'.

There is no excuse or justification for rape, sexual assault or sexual violence. None. Mealy-mouthed apologies and "well, it happens' shrugs are not good enough. The Wellington jokers and those roast buster guys in Auckland have to be slammed, and slammed hard. What we also have to look at though is the availability and accessibility of the filth in the media and on the internet. OK,OK, I hear you saying that freedom of speech etc. should allow this and that people should be free to make their own choices. I can see that but I can also see an insidious decline in values and a dumbing down of sensitivity. China and India seem to have no problem in shutting down a lot of the more extreme internet offerings. Why can't we?

We can't teach young people about the need for consent and the importance of proper and healthy relationships while the opposite is freely touted in magazines, in film and on the internet porn sites. The slippage in values is something that the current and future generations are seriously going to suffer from. I'm happy that I won't be around in 30 or more years to witness the aftermath of this.

THE CURMUDGEON X RATED

COMING SOON

JESUS H. CHRIST

Here's a trailer for a new god movie that no doubt Robert can put on his must-see list.

I'm sure that Richard's Angry Jesus would approve.



JESUS UNCROSSED

HOONS

I live in a small community where generally people know each other or know of one another.
As such people are usually respectful which is good but there are exceptions.

What I've discovered is that when being annoyed by someone else's driving it's best not to give them the fingers as they might be a neighbour or you might bump into them at the next tennis game or community meeting.

That said though there are road rules that need to be obeyed. To get to our bay from town there's a 25 minute drive with varying speed limits:

50km to 80km
80km to 50km
50km to 80km
80km to 100km
100km to 70km
70km to 100km
100km to 50km
50km to 100km
100km to 50km.

It is annoying when you're stuck behind some old schoolteacher who does 60 or 70 in the 100km areas. Generally these old duffers then go on to continue to do 60 or 70km in the 50km areas. Bastards.

What is of greater concern though are the jerks who tailgate even when you're doing the right speed.
Often these are the tossers on their way to Ocean Beach and in a seemingly big hurry. They ignore the 50KM speed limits where there are schools, children and pets and race along at 70 or 80kms.

At the AGM of the local citizens group this problem will be on the agenda.
What we can do about it without road spikes, road blocks and bazookas though is anyone's guess.

UNDER ATTACK?

"Well said. You must be a born again christian!"

Said Robert after I'd put a cynical comment on his post the other day.

Now I don't know if he was being cynical or sarcastic with this reply but it smacked of that blind Christian earnestness. You know the type.

Anyway I got to thinking today about Christians and especially Catholics and how they will have to go about recruitment in the future. In the past they just sent marginally educated priests from the 'leading' Western countries out to the colonies  and to the 'unexplored' reaches of the world to enlighten the darkies, the asian people, the misguided Muslims and the host of other heathens out there - banging on about their god, making them read an incomprehensible book (even if they could read English) and making them all cover up their naughty parts.






In more recent times though Catholicism and Christianity has been radically declining in the Western world to the point for example that Ireland has been importing Catholic missionaries from the previous darker regions in order to educate the Irish in the faith. I kid you not, look it up.










Robert's reply to my comment scared me. If the Catholic Church is losing its base and finding it hard to compete with the greatly increasing Muslim faith, is it going to go door knocking to bring back lapsed Catholics whether they want to go back or not?










"COME ON OUT WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE

GETTING DRUNK

Most of us do it.

Some of us have clues to it happening.

Robert aka Second Fiddle, Geremy and a few other 'noms du guerre' knows that he's gotten drunk by the incomprehensibility of his posts on his blog .......... hold on ....... I'll rephrase that ..... he knows that he's gotten drunk by the comprehensibility of his posts on his blog. He certainly fights with his older brother Richard on Facebook and, if he's not aware that he's drunk at the time, he learns of it in the morning when he's blocked from said Facebook and goes back to his blog and deletes the posts and in some instances deletes the entire blog.

Richard becomes aware of his having gotten drunk a bit earlier than Robert (more experience I guess - all that Williams & Humbert Dry Sack and Findlater's Dry Fly sherry training at Murray Roberts - and notices that he's been wittering on a bit more than usual, employs more of his alter-egos and puts comments on Robert's blogs denigrating even more of the seemingly endless Prowse clan members.
He generally deletes the posts early the next morning hoping that no-one noticed them in the early hours.

As for me, recently, I've found myself, when getting a bit pissed, singing to myself:

"Hey, have you ever tried

Really reaching out for the other side
I may be climbing on rainbows
But baby here goes"

Obviously when I'm on my own and The Old Girl is in Auckland.

This is a song by Bread circa 1970.

Now, you need to know that my musical tastes encompass British R&B, 1960's British Rock, 1970's British 'supergroups', NYC punk, Blues, Jazz, Classical and Opera but have never included the 1970's and 1980's  romantic drivel like Bread, Barry Manilow, Seals and Croft and all that shit.

In fact I always detested Bread - all that 'I found your diary underneath the tree' stuff wasn't for me.

So.

Where the hell does this 'Make it with you' stuff come from?

Should I be worried?


BREAD - "MAKE IT WITH YOU"

NO CHAIRS BLEW OVER IN THE STORM

I know that Richard will be relieved. He's a bit OCD and gets obsessed about some things so it's good that he won't have to worry about this.

We've had days of being rain and wind lashed. On Thursday we had an all day thunder and lightning storm. The thunderclaps were so strong and so close that they actually shook the foundations of the house. The cat disappeared and I later found her in one of the wardrobes.

Being house-bound I'm suffering from a bit of cabin fever. I've dug out Gravity's Rainbow to read again. It's excellent but can be hard going - just the thing for rainy days.

It seems to have abated at the moment but who knows, it's likely to bucket down again soon. As long as we don't get high winds I don't mind.

The Old Girl arrived back in Auckland from the US this morning. She reports that everything is OK in the apartment which is good. I had visions of the windows having been blown in. She might have to boil the water though according to the news reports. I don't think that Tony's farm's been washed away yet and Mike, even though his nearby streets are under water hasn't been wave boarding yet like some of his neighbours.

Anyway go well ....... oops, sorry I just heard that the storm is making its way south to Wellington.

ABREACTION OF THE LORD OF THE NIGHT

First guy:       "Your problem is, you're paranoid"

Second guy:  "Well, that may be - but it still doesn't stop people from plotting against me behind my back."





I'm re-reading my favourite novel of all time at present.

When I say 'at present' it will really mean for the rest of March as this book is very complex with hundreds of characters. Kind of like Richard (of RBB)'s blogs with his multi-personalities:

And, about as crazy and complicated.


What I like about it is the seamless interweaving of art, music, science and literary allusions into the text and story-line kind of like reading  T.S. Eliot poetry.

Gravity's Rainbow is a very long book. It's set out in four parts generally over the period from November 1944 to September 1945 - the last days of the second world war from the launch of Germany's V2 rockets through to the days after USA's atomic bomb attacks on Japan.

Part One Beyond the Zero has the epigraph of a quotation written by Wernher von Braun:

"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death"

This from the leader of Germany's V2 project which launched 3,000 rockets and directly killed more than 9,000 people.

Part Two Un Perm' au Casino Herman Goering has an epigraph of Merian C. Cooper speaking to Fay Wray (King Kong movie) saying:

 "You will have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood"

Part Three In the Zone has the epigraph taken from The wizard of Oz where Dorothy says:

 "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"


Part Four The Counterforce has the epigraph attributed to Richard Nixon over his involvement in the watergate scandal of:

 "What?"

______________________________________________________________________________

I was going to do a summary of the novel from my reading so far and from my memory of it from earlier reading but I won't be able to do justice to it.

I suggest that you read it and, if you ignore my recommendation take note that it is recognised as the greatest American novel published after the Second World war and Time magazine rated it in the Top 100 all-time greatest novels. Praise indeed but it's is well worth persevering with.

Note: an appreciation of T.S. Eliot rather than S.T. Coleridge poetry may be a prerequisite.

DARK AND STORMY

It's midday and it might as well be late evening here at present.

We've had rain for a day and a half that has been enough to break the official drought. High winds are threatening trees, roofs and sheds and there is a thunder and lightning storm.

"OK so what" I hear you say but this is THE WINTERLESS NORTH! That savvy chap Robert even described it as Paradise in his recent post (actually he can't be all that savvy if he drinks something called The Pine Sauvignon Blanc).

'BOOM' goes the thunder and the house shakes.

'SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH' goes the rain against the windows.

'MEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWW' goes the cat coming in to tell me that it's raining again.

I've noticed over the years that Willow has a pretty good vocabulary and has different sounds that have definite meanings. She has this one particular one she uses when coming indoors from the rain. It's the only time she uses it and I'm sure that she is informing us that it's raining or complaining about it.

SO, WHAT DID YOU DO TODAY?

It's a bit slow up here today.
Even though, on Robert's advice I didn't hire the carpet cleaner, it has still rained like the Great Flood.

I've checked the blogs and sorted out emails but nothing much is happening up here. Richard (of RBB) isn't writing much anymore - certainly not like he used to. In fact, like Robert he's even deleting posts and not long ago deleted his entire blog.

INEVITABLE OUTCOME

END OF THE BEGINNING

I was watching a USA TV series The Shooter where there was an assassination attempt on the USA President. It seems to me that in a fucked up country like The Alternative States of America, that this is always on the cards. The Secret Service seems to be spending outrageous amounts of money, time and resources running about protecting the successive presidents.

The actual times that the president is in public is contrived and could much more easily be staged somewhere safer.

The whole  concept of a president leading the American people has been undermined for generations now and with the latest bozo in the position the platform is definitely shaky.

Real power is in the ruling party and wielding of it isn't in showy flourishes of a pen signing documents but in months of deal making behind the scenes which leads to legislative changes. Whichever party  has the most votes at the end of the day is more important than who is up front in the limelight.

I've thought for a while that what the USA needs is some sort of holographic president or a robot.

I know, I know the USA has got a kind of robot at the moment but he's a flawed one kind of like HAL in 2001 A Space Odyssey or those replicants in Blade Runner who ran amok.

No, to save tax payers money and to get past all the ridiculousness of motorcades, the USA needs to have an indestructible frontman. They could paint it different colours depending on which political party is in power or even have their own one.

I don't see this happening straight away but I predict that within 50 years this is what we will have.
Donald Trump will have certainly accelerated the process.

AUTUMN CLEANING

The Old Girl is still away (in Baltimore and Washington this week) and then, once she gets back to New Zild on Saturday will spend the week in Auckland before coming up here.

This gives me a fortnight to get the house in order. I've been a bit slack recently in regards to housework and really need to get things sorted.
I hate vacuuming and prefer to take a broom to the carpet instead.

I'm thinking though of hiring one of those carpet cleaning machines that you get from supermarkets.

The weather is great at the moment - sunny and warm which will be essential for drying out the carpets once I've shampooed them. Murphy's (Sod's) Law though dictates that as soon as I hire the machine we'll get 40 days and nights of rain.

I wonder if Robert has some sport of special prayer that he could say on my behalf (since I don't subscribe to this mumbo-jumbo). My mother used to put a holy statue - St Joseph I think - in the garden the night before a wedding to ensure that the weather would be good.

GETTING PULLED BACK IN

See here:

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT THEY PULL ME BACK IN

I see that the PM is going to review National Superannuation this year or at least put it back on the agenda.

What is it with these National bastards? Is it because they and their supporters are all so independently fucking wealthy that they think that no-one needs the measly $300 or less a week to live on?

An earlier National Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon (the cunt) was responsible for scrapping the National Super Saving Scheme that would have given security to so many New Zealand families that now find themselves in financial crisis.  See here:

HOW PIGGY MULDOON FUCKED NEW ZEALAND

At least Shonkey, the previous Prime Minister who was also a wealthy arsehole had some sense of social conscience and was on record as saying that he would never take measures to dismantle or change National Superannuation. It doesn't mean that I like him but at least I respect that of him.

All this is now going on in the year that I turn 65 and become eligible for National Superannuation (pension) after a lifetime of working and paying taxes. As Murphy's Law dictates at the time that I was earning the most over the last 50 years, the taxation percentage was the highest. It's only after I stopped earning well that the tax rate dropped for higher earners so I feel that I've contributed plenty to the 'Super' pool.

If there are changes this year then I certainly hope that they happen after August 8th.

I predicted this in august last year.  See here:     PREVIEW

CROCK OF SHIT

I used to dine out at fancy restaurants in New Zealand and around the world.

Most times it was work related - either entertaining customers and clients or being entertained by suppliers and consultants.

A lot of the time it was about currying favour with wine writers and Industry opinion makers.

The rest was The Old Girl and I privately going out to nice restaurants because that was part of our lifestyle.

Nowadays I don't have the relatively high position in the industry that required me to 'entertain' or be 'entertained' and certainly don't have the income to privately finance going out to the flash places.

Am I bovvered?

Frankly no. I can't be bothered. It's all a crock of shit.

I've wasted so many of my life's valuable hours sitting in over-priced, over-decorated and over-produced eating establishments eating stuff that I really didn't like and drinking ridiculously expensive plonk. To cap it off, particularly in overseas restaurants all of this is accompanied by a cluster of fawning service people: the guy who opens the door; the guy who greets you in the entrance; the table master who escorts you to a table; the food waiter; the wine waiter; the person who brings the meals; the person who clears away the plates; the reappearance of the food and wine waiters; and lastly, the farewell by the ponce who greeted you at the door. All these want a share of the expected high tip.

Basically one person could have done the whole bloody lot.

I prefer simple cafes that offer selections of 'small plates' or tapas-style food. A selection of different and interesting dishes served up in sensibly small portions. And, affordable.

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This is why I was interested reading about the story of a cheap and cheerful restaurant in France that was mistakenly awarded a a Michelin star (Michelin stars are like Oscars in the restaurant world and are fiercely fought over and the attribution of one can elevate an eating place into a very sought out venue with the accompanying increased business and profit).

Guide Michelin France in its 2017 publication mistook the Bouche à Oreille (Word of Mouth) in Bourges, a provincial cafe that caters to locals with simple and nutritious meals for about €12.50 with a glass of wine for the fancy-pants and overpriced Bouche à Oreille 180km north, in Boutervilliers near Paris, with carpeted floors, linen tablecloths and dishes including lobster flan, calf’s brain, and a crunchy pear and chocolate, complete with champagne, for at least €48. They gave the coveted Michelin star to the cafe in Bourges.

Bouche à Oreille in Bourges

Bouche à Oreille in Boutervilliers 

Needless to say the small provincial restaurant with a staff of four were 'swamped' according to the owner who was bewildered by the invasion by the hoity-toity brigade who upset his regular clientele.


I particularly liked the comment from the chef at the provincial Bouche à Oreille when asked whether she ever dreamed of earning a Michelin star, said: “No, not at all. I cook with my heart.”


This is a great lesson in the dangers of pretentiousness. It's like going to a fancy place and ordering a Croque Monsieur and paying a big price for it,

Croque-Monsieur

or, going to a simple cafe and ordering a ham and cheese toasted sandwich.

Toasted ham and cheese sandwich

Both if cooked properly are the same thing but the Croque will probably cost about 10 times more.




As I said - What a crock of shit!