HEY YOU! WHERE'S YOUR TATTOO?

At the gym this morning there were two young women working out. They were both attractive but would have been a hell of a lot more attractive if it wasn't for the ugly tattoos that they both had on their upper arms and backs. They may also have had tattoos on their lower backs (tramp stamps) and legs but if they did they were hidden by their clothing.

Why do women think that tattoos are attractive? It's getting to the point where a young woman (or man) without a tattoo or more is an exception. I used to think that small, elegant and professionally done tattoos as opposed to large, clumsy and poorly executed ones were OK. I commented on this on this blog a few years back when I said that I had almost complimented a young woman on my bus for the nice rose tattoo that she had on her breast (just visible). Richard and some other misery-guts accused me of being a dirty old man so I'm glad that I said nothing.

Apart from the fact that tattoos are way overdone as a fashion statement it's a fashion statement that stays and no doubt will be more a source of embarrassment than pride in the future.

Did you see this guy in the news this week?

His name is 'Modboy' and he's on the run from the police in Australia would you believe. I would have thought that he'd be easy to spot. He has a split tongue and has had his eyeballs tattooed in black ink. Now I'm sure that he won't be rocking up for a job as a bank teller or has plans to join the Seventh Day Adventists and go door-knocking but what does he think he's doing? I guess it's his business but he is wanted for violent offending so it seems that he has mental health issues.


Oh well. I'm getting old.

"THE TIME TO HESITATE IS THROUGH ...."

STEP IN TIME

Well yes, that was a bit long but you get the idea.

I needed the chimneys swept before I light the fires this winter. They haven't been done for two years so needed to be done. It's still warm but no doubt it will get really cold soon - old wive's tale Nice Summer, Cold Winter.

I contacted the chimney sweep who I've used before but was unsuccessful. Either he's gone out of business or he's stuck somewhere.

I used the web for searches, Neighbourly and asked around but the only one I found said that they don't service our area. I was seriously thinking of following Robert's advice and using children which would have been a win:win as kids need pocket money but decided against it.

I gave up my searches and decided to do the job myself so bought a flue cleaning brush from Mitre 10.

This has three connecting rods that are fairly rigid but flexible enough to bend to get in the fireplaces and bend to go up the flues.

We have two wood-burners in the house each with their own flues that go up through the 14ft ceilings, through the attic and out to the roof so I needed a brush set with a long reach. One wood-burner is in the main lounge area and the other in the guest lounge area.

Main lounge one kind of like this.

Second lounge one kind of like this.

As The Old Girl is away in Tauranga I decided to do the cleaning away from her beady eyes observation. I fitted the bendy rods together taking care to remember whether the screw was clockwise or anticlockwise to tighten  to make sure that I only twisted the brush in that direction so as not to end up leaving the brush stuck in the flue.

With each fireplace I first cleaned them with a brush and shovel (note to self: as I used the kitchen brush and shovel I'd better clean these properly before she gets home). I then removed the metal baffles above the fireboxes making sure that I remembered the correct location of these. I ran the rods through a plastic bin-liner to catch the soot coming down which was a wise consideration as the soot was very fine and very, very black. I shuddered to think what would have happened if I managed to soot up her carpets, rugs, walls and paintings.

.

Fortunately it all worked OK. The flues weren't too dirty - I got about a fifth of a supermarket bag of soot plus two dead starlings. Yes starlings, poor things. I don't know how they manage to get down the flues as they are capped at the top.

I got up on the roof and checked the flue caps, cleaned around them and made sure that there were no nests there. All is now set to light the fire(s) on the weekend if the weather turns cold as predicted.

I have a lot of nice fire wood in my woodshed. This is left over from last year so will be well seasoned and dry. I only use well seasoned and dry wood so as to reduce emissions. We aren't wimps up here so usually when it's cold I just put on another layer of clothing like a jumper. I calculate that at most, between the two wood-burners I would light a fire a dozen times a year. I don't think that my carbon footprint is anywhere near Sasquatch level.

SIX MONTHS IN A LEAKY BOAT ....

Ha ha ha - did you catch up with this story last week?

LAWYERS FOR NOAH'S ARK ARE SUING FOR RAIN DAMAGE

The irony is perfect and couldn't have been better contrived if you tried.

"It was the brainchild of Ken Ham and his ministry, Answers in Genesis, which also created the Creation Museum. Ham, is a Christian fundamentalist and creationist who argues that the Bible is a historical narrative that is meant to be taken literally.

He believes that dinosaurs lived alongside humans and that the biblical flood created the Grand Canyon. And he maintains that Noah laboured seven decades to construct his vessel and was 600 years old when the storm surged."

I guess he and his ministry took literally Jesus's rejection of 'moneychangers' otherwise they might have got better insurance and a safer 'float' of bonds.

**********

Here are another couple of stories relating to Christian weirdos who made the news last week.

JONESTOWN

and

HEAVEN'S GATE

where  ......  "there is a succession plan in place so the teachings can carry on after the surviving pair are gone, although they are tight-lipped as to exactly what this entails. They are adamant Heaven’s Gate is no longer operational, and they don’t receive new members.

“The group came to an end in 1997,” they say.

“We get people who want to join everyday but we have to tell them no.”

Yet they still distribute the books and the teachings — “we do educate and supply them information, if they request it” — and presumably someone will have to handle the administration that comes with running a cult — even a largely non-operational one.

They will only confirm that, yes, there is a plan for when they pass on so Applewhite’s teachings will continue into the future and beyond.

Maybe a website refresh will be on the cards, too. After all, stranger things have happened."

There are some nutters out there but we knew that didn't we.

NUMBER 5

According to Christian tradition the seven deadly sins are: 

Lust
Gluttony
Greed
Sloth
Wrath
Envy
Pride

Interestingly enough this list doesn't originate in Robert's bible nor from the teachings of his Christ.

The earliest recordings are from Mesopotamia, picked up by the Greeks and modified by the Romans. Old Pope Gregory fine tuned the list in the 6th century and Christian churches picked up on this and included the 'sins' into their sermons to keep the restless population down.

You might find this to be interesting reading:

WHERE DO THE 7 DEADLY SINS COME FROM?

Or not - what do I care (Sloth)?

I commit - if that's a thing - number 5 (Wrath) regularly when reading Robert's blog or his comments on my blog posts when he introduces stupid christian thoughts, ideas and fabrications into his writing. It's never-ending. I shudder to think what he's like to live with. One consolation is that when he's on his knees praying beside the bed he could easily look under it to find books, pens and other useful items that might have fallen there.

MISS 22

Last night we finished watching the TV series of Catch 22 on Freeview.

I was very disappointed in this. How and why the writers, producers and director chose to and managed to ruin a modern classic is well beyond me. Joseph Heller, if he was alive would, I'm sure, have been furious.

They deliberately left out seminal scenes, scenarios and narrative lines with the result that the thread of the story and the 'moral' was lost. Once they'd chopped out all of this essential stuff they padded out the story and the 6 episodes with long rambling sequences that were never in the original book. The endless Milo Minderbinder sequences were, in large, fabricated without properly covering the 'war is profit' theme Heller intended. The long and laborious sequence about Yossarian hiding out with the Italians after nearly having his balls shot off is also fabricated and played for laughs which never come. The sequences while beautifully filmed are a Tarantino-like rip-off of The Godfather.

The series is beautifully filmed and well acted but the music and special effects too loud and annoying and they mask the dialogue which, as anyone who read Catch 22 will know is sharp, satiric and chock full of the ironies of life.

Essential characters are either eliminated or misrepresented. The writers of this crap either didn't read the book properly or don't have the brain-pan ability to interpret it. The narrative line is destroyed by being added to, some parts deleted or chopped about as a time-line. Heller cleverly constructed a circular time-line as part of the book's impact. War is hell of a funny in terms of the ridiculous bureaucracy involved in making it run but essentially war is hell.

I read Catch 22 when I was about 15 and it still resonates with me. The satire and irony still work and I think that I'll read the book again. I remember being disappointed at fist viewing of Mike Nicholls Catch 22 film in 1970  but on later viewings thought it was pretty good and captured Hellers 'war is crazy' theme well. The characters were faithfully rendered and the casting was superb although I always thought that the Colonel Korn and Colonel Cathcart characters had been transposed. The strengths and weaknesses of the characters were handled well though and the meaning of Orr's deliberate crash landings and Arfy's twisted 'frat-boy' logic about rape were put across brilliantly.
Not in this mish-mash though. I'm sure that to viewers who haven't seen the 1970 film or read the original novel these characters were just background.

In summary I feel that the creators of this show didn't catch the meaning of the book at all. They missed it by a mile.  They should be ashamed of themselves. They won't of course and will most likely be awarded for the efforts by the various, in-house awards systems and be given shining reviews by young and under-educated critics. Joseph Heller's dark humour is lost in this with the deadpan acting of the Yossarian character failing to deliver the manic edge that Heller intended - the sane man in a world of madness being seen to be insane by being different - Catch 22.

OK I'M DONE

I started the day a bit slow but then, seeing it was a nice day with no wind I decided to get stuck into the garden.
 I spent some time weeding - granny style - on hands and knees pulling out those annoying little weeds and grass that get in between the brickwork on the drive and peek through the laid gravel. Bastards!

After that I decided that I was going to blitz them and other weeds around the property so got out the spray equipment and loaded it up with 'No 8' an aptly named Newzild poison (probably illegal) that needs to be watered down 100 to 1. This means that in the 16 litre canister I have I needed to put in about 160ml of the weedspray. Bugger that I thought in the best Kiwi tradition and just poured a huge dollop in and mixed it with water. I don't know the strength but do know that it was 'beudy'. I kitted out in gloves and a mask and set to work.

Those weeds never knew what hit them.

I finished off by mowing the lawn and now I'm buggered. The water looks lovely and inviting for a dip but I know that it'll be cold and I'm too much of a wimp to try it. I'll have a warm shower instead.

WELL DONE ..... AND YOU CERTAINLY HAVE BEEN

"This post could be called 'a filler'."


Said Richard in a comment on my last post.

I knew that this would happen as the post was written deliberately to trick him as I knew that he would react like that.

It reminds me of an episode of Open All Hours where Arkwright (Ronnie Barker) deliberately put spelling errors into his on-window signage knowing that it would draw in the Clever Dicks.

Enjoy.

SPECIAL WITH A 'HO'

HEY HO

Here are some things that have been annoying me today.

1. Young people who think that they are the ones who discovered sex

2. Junk mail

3. Spam mail on the computer

4. Leaving tissue in a pocket and putting it in the washing machine

5. Fawning interviews on the radio

6. Having to do the housework because The Old Girl arrives this afternoon

7. Having to do the housework twice as  well because The Old Girl's cousin is also arriving to stay for the weekend.

8. Trying to find a chimney sweep to do the chimneys

8. Robert  - no, sorry, he hasn't written a post yet today.

PUNISHMENT FITTING THE CRIME

Victims relieved after paedophile priest from Dunedin defrocked

                                                                                           - NZ Herald

DEFROCKING   

This is good to see although going by the reports is about 50 years late which of course is typical of the catholic church.

'Defrocking' is a funny word  and is no doubt practised by many a paedophile but in this jokers case - he sexually assaulted young boys - maybe he should be 'depantsed'.

MURDERED RHYMES

Robert's latest post had some of the usual religious nonsense including a preposterous gardening analogy that led to me putting in my comment a link to the Weird Al Jankovic parody of 'Blurred Lines':

WORD CRIMES 

This is funny and sends up the very sexist and frankly obnoxious Robin Thicke's song and video:

BLURRED LINES

It's a pity that the excellent Will Pharrell got himself mixed up in this (in the thick of it?).

While searching for 'Blurred Lines' I found this other parody which is also pretty funny:

BLURRED LINES PARODY

There are other parodies on You Tube which aren't nearly as funny which tells us that you can only stretch a joke so far so I'll leave it there.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Here are some things that have annoyed me recently.


1. Elderly women driving supermarket trolleys.

I put a cartoon on an earlier post which is funny and apt. I get pissed off at the way some people use trolleys in supermarkets and wonder how the hell they manage to drive to the store. How hard is it to push the trolley in a straight line? When poring over the selection why can't they park the trolley close to and parallel to the shelves and not leave it abandoned, at odd angles in the centre of the aisle?

And, not least, why do they have to bang into me or my trolley? I hate to say it but the worst culprits are elderly women.

2. People talking about social media

People talking about social media in terms of it being important and on a par with traditional media really get my goat. Today I listened to a book reviewer on National Radio and she did this but also shortened the term 'social media' to 'social' I wanted to chuck something at the radio. I really did!

3. Trying to contact SPARK about an issue

SPARK is a telecommunications company through which we get Broadband, landline telephone and my mobile telephone connection. I repeat - they are a telecommunications company. Do you think you can contact these buggers easily via e-mail at first instance and secondly by phone? No.

4. Buying a shower cleaner for The Old Girl

The Old Girl instructed me to go to some cleaning store I'd never heard of to buy something she'd seen advertised on TV. It was called Tiger Claw or something and it's supposed to magically clean shower doors and curtains. I found the store which seemed to have been newly opened and was full of all sorts of cleaning crap 'AS ADVERTISED ON TV'. I asked for the item and as we have four showers (2 in the house and two in the apartment) I asked the shop assistant for four of them. He looked really pleased and told me that it would be $348. I nearly fell over as they were $87 each. I told him that at that price I'd just buy one. He showed me how it works. There is a bar of soap and an empty spray bottle in a fancy pack. He said that you rub the glass with the bar of 'special' soap, fill the spray bottle with warm water and spray on the surface ........ that's it. I looked at him sideways but he didn't crack up laughing or confess his sins or anything. What a rort. But at least The Old Girl was pleased.

5. Buying cheap underpants at The Warehouse

I bought two packs (3 per pack) of boxer shorts from the Warehouse. I bought two packs because they were ridiculously cheap. After trying them for a few weeks I've given up on them and chucked them in the bin. They came from China or somewhere where men don't seem to have goolies or private bits bigger than a peanut as the crotch area was so bloody cramped they caused extreme discomfort.

6. Robert

WHY DOESN'T ANYONE LISTEN TO ME?

I'm not an idiot.
I have feelings and a social conscience.
I'm not a christian and certainly not a catholic (even though many efforts were made to make me one).

Why do christians think that they have it all in the area of morality and (their idea) of the right way of doing things? They don't own morality, ethics and the idea of conscience no matter how many biblical based arguments they put up.

Here's an old gripe I had regarding advertising standards:

END OF THE VILENESS

* This post brought to you by Search This Blog function on Blogger

GETTING SERIOUS

A blogger on this blogging circuit goes by many names and currently calls himself Robert. His current blog is named ROBERT'S JOURNEY. To where is anyone's guess. Mine is to'perdition'.

Robert is over 60 years old and was educated in catholic schools in Wellington being taught by nuns, brothers and priests. This was in the 1960s mainly when catholic teaching wasn't very enlightened (not of course to say that it has moved on much since) and centred on a rather odd treatise absurdly named the Catechism. I've written of this in a previous post see: A LITTLE BIT OF NONSENSE.

This 'Catechism' is described on Wikipedia thus:

"A catechism ( /ˈkætəˌkɪzəm/; from Ancient Greek: κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult converts."

Got that?

Good, let's move on.

Robert in addition to his catholic upbringing seems to have re-discovered christianity and catholicism in recent years and has embraced it fully to the point of believing everything that's written in the bible, the catechism and the sermons given at Sunday mass which he attends, not wishing to commit a 'mortal sin' by having a well-earned sleep in.
I'm not sure which local catholic church Robert attends but it is either the one in Petone or in Wainuiomata.
Never mind, both put out similar propaganda and the sermons may well be connected.

Here are some examples of the publications of each on their respective websites:

Wainuiomata

.

Petone

The dates are different so maybe one church website hasn't been updated and they use the same publication as produced by the ministry of propaganda Catholic diocese.

Anyway, Robert, in previous posts has told us that his parish priest comes from The Philippines and has a poor grasp of English whether from being native Philippine or from having lived there for a long time I don't know. Naturally then Robert and he seem to communicate well.
From the snippets I've gathered, this priest has a '1960s' view of catholicism and seems to have influenced Robert in his 'fire and brimstone' type of evangelising. This is certainly evident in Robert's embrace of the 'teachings' in the bible and, more relevant to this particular post, his belief that all abortion is wrong.

I looked on Robert's and Richards blogs for an image of Robert wearing his Southern USA Confederacy outfit but couldn't easily see it - firstly because Robert frequently deletes his posts and blogs and secondly because neither of these old luddites have activated the very useful 'Search this blog' tool on their blog settings.

Why did I want this image? I wanted it because to me, Robert is increasingly becoming like those close-minded Republican individuals in the southern states of USA that are repealing the USA abortion laws at state level with a view to putting pressure on the Supreme Court to repeal the Roe vs Wade legislation giving women the right to choose.

"Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion."

WASHINGTON — In April, Indiana placed a near-total ban on the most common type of second-trimester abortion in the state.
Days later, Ohio passed a bill banning abortion in the very early weeks of pregnancy after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Now on Wednesday, Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama signed a bill effectively banning the procedure altogether, and lawmakers in two more states — Louisiana and Missouri — moved ahead with bills similar to Ohio’s.
States across the country are passing some of the most restrictive abortion legislation in decades, deepening the growing divide between liberal and conservative states and setting up momentous court battles that could profoundly reshape abortion access in America.    - Sabrina Tavernise New York Times

This is very scary especially since there seems to be a rush by the Trump supported GOP to make changes before that idiot and his administration gets booted out in 2020. Here are some examples of how representatives and legislators view abortion and women's rights:



'Consensual rape' and 're-implantation': the times lawmakers 'misspoke' on abortion

(Politicians saying ludicrous things while arguing for extreme abortion restrictions seems to be common).

Arwa mahdawi
The Guardian
Sat 18 May 2019


Senator Clyde Chambliss has claimed that a woman has a chance to end her pregnancy before she knows she’s pregnant. (Photograph: Christopher Aluka Berry/Reuters)

On Friday Missouri became the latest state to enact extreme abortion restrictions, passing a bill that bans abortion after eight weeks. The ban provides no exceptions for rape or incest which, according to the Republican state representative Barry Hovis, is fine because most rape is “consensual” anyway.

Hovis told the Missouri house that most of the rapes he had encountered in his previous role in law enforcement were “date rapes or consensual rapes”. While Hovis noted that these were “all terrible” he also stressed they were very tricky “he-said-she-said” situations. In any case, the lawmaker said, his real point was that, if someone was sexually assaulted they could simply take the morning after pill. Although, to be clear, he wouldn't be very happy about that either.

‘We have to fight’: Alabama's extreme abortion ban sparks wave of activism

After the bill was safely passed, the lawmaker backtracked, explaining he “misspoke”. The Republican is far from the only politician to “misspeak” while arguing for abortion restrictions. Legislators saying ludicrous things while curtailing reproductive rights seems to be a feature of the American political process.

Here is a roundup of some of the more recent examples.

Women should end their pregnancy before they know they are pregnant

Senator Clyde Chambliss was one of the chief architects of the Alabama abortion ban that was passed this week, but don’t take that to mean he knows anything about the subject. “I’m not trained medically so I don’t know the proper medical terminology and timelines,” Chambliss said in his opening statement. “But from what I’ve read, what I’ve been told, there’s some period of time before you can know a woman is pregnant.” He then went on to say that this meant that a woman has a chance to end her pregnancy before she knows she is pregnant. He repeated this nonsense several times.

An egg is only considered human life if it is in a woman
According to the anti-abortion brigade, life begins at conception. It turns out, however, that there are some exceptions. During the debate about the Alabama bill Chambliss was asked why it wouldn’t apply to eggs fertilized in IVF. Chambliss replied, “The egg in the lab doesn’t apply. It’s not in a woman. She’s not pregnant.” Could he make it any more clear that these laws aren’t actually about protecting life, they’re about controlling women?

Miscarriages should probably be investigated as murder

We haven’t finished with Chambliss. Under the Alabama law “attempted abortions” would be punishable by up to 10 years in jail. Chambliss was asked to define what an “attempted abortion” was, and didn’t have a clear answer. Nor could he say how doctors would be able to tell the difference between a miscarriage and an attempted abortion, simply stating that “the burden of proof would be on the prosecution”. Does that mean miscarriages would be investigated by the police? Because that’s what it sounds like.

Doctors should perform scientifically impossible procedures

Ohio Republican John Becker recently introduced a bill banning insurance coverage of abortions with limited exceptions. One of these exceptions being the “re-implantation” of an ectopic pregnancy into the uterus. As doctors were quick to point out, the technology to do this simply doesn’t exist.

Abortion should be painful

It’s not just male lawmakers waging war against women. Earlier this month Kim LaSata, a Michigan state legislator, said abortion should be painful, and women carrying unviable fetuses should be forced to deliver them. “Of course it should be hard, and the procedure should be painful, and you should allow God to take over, and you should deliver that baby, and you should handle the situation,” LaSata said.

Women should swallow tiny cameras for gynecological exams

In 2015 Idaho’s Republican-controlled state house debated a bill that would ban doctors from offering medication abortion services via telemedicine. Republican state representative Vito Barbieri asked a doctor testifying in opposition to the bill if women were able to swallow small cameras for remote gynecological exams. The doctor replied no, because when you swallow something it does not end up in your vagina.

***************

I make this comparison between Robert and these 'bible belt' politicians because Robert has clearly stated that he is prepared to take the bible literally just like that fool Israel Falau has. Robert espouses but doesn't expound silly outtakes from the bible, the catechism and from his church's teachings even though they make no sense, are ridiculously out of date and are downright dangerous to living in the 21st century.

I particularly liked some observations by Richard that how silly can you be to take as literal, advice, teachings and observations on daily life that were written (maybe) 2000 years ago.


.

GOD SAVE US FROM ELDERLY WOMEN DRIVING SUPERMARKET TROLLEYS!

.....


That's all I'm saying.

GOODBYEEEEEEEEEE!

GOODBYE

Richard of RBB said in his second to last post that he was going to give blogging a rest for a while due to "musical performance and practice commitments and language study commitments."
He means 'getting a life' I guess. See:

Of course this only lasted a short while before he posted again but I guess, to be fair, the latest post was about boring musical stuff and he wiped out Robert's comments that were off topic.

The said Robert after a strange absence is back again. His absence was reminiscent of Easter with Christ dying, being buried and rising again.

Yes?


Well, no, it's more like this:

Or this:

THE ORIGINAL TITLE OF THIS POST REMOVED DUE TO ITS SENSITIVE NATURE*

I stumbled upon this 'booklet' while searching for something else:


https://wellington.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/4131#idx7278

"This jubilee booklet was published in 1961 to mark the 50th anniversaries of what were then Wellington's two main primary & intermediate Catholic boy's schools; Marist Brothers' Newtown located between Tasman and King streets, and Marist Brothers' Thorndon in Hawkestone Street. These operated as 'prep' schools for St Patrick's College, then located at the top of Tory Street in Te Aro. Within a decade the landscape of Catholic boys' education began to change. In 1970, Marist Thorndon was closed and relocated to Wilton after the original school was compulsorily acquired and demolished for the construction of the Wellington Urban Motorway. In the 1980s, it became co-educational and renamed Cardinal McKeefry School in honour of Peter McKeefry (1899 - 1973), Archbishop of Wellington from 1954 and the first New Zealand Cardinal to be appointed by the pope in 1969.
Marist Brothers Newtown operated until 1984 when it closed and amalgamated with St Anne's School, also in Newtown. In 1980, St Patrick's College in Te Aro relocated to Kilbirnie; a move prompted by the planned third stage of the Wellington Motorway (from the Terrace Tunnel to the Mt Victoria Tunnel) which was never completed."

There are some interesting photos in it that show Marist Newtown and Marist Thorndon.
In the case of Newtown the 1961 photograph of the playground brings back memories (for me good ones). I attended from 1962 through 1965.

There is a photograph of the Brothers who were there when I attended.

Brother Paulinus second from the left

In the line-up is the psychopathic Brother Paulinus See HERE .



Richard and Robert went to Marist Thorndon which also had its share of psychologically damaged teachers including at least one paedophile.

Brother Benedict in the centre

“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable."

                                                   - From T.S. Eliot Four Quartets 






*FOND(LE) MEMORIES

TESTING PATIENCE 2

Typical conversation between Rod and me on our trip.

I drove good friend Rod down to Auckland today in a repeat performance of the road trip we made a couple of years ago. See:

TESTING PATIENCE

Once again Rod was buying a second hand car and wanted both a lift and a second opinion on the selected possible purchases.

The second  Mitsubishi he bought 2 years ago turned out to be a waste of time and money. He paid $5,500 for it, spent $1,000 on new tyres for it and sold it a couple of months ago for $3000 making it a $3,500 loss. He's nuts!

This time he selected three Toyota Corollas from the Trade Me offerings and scheduled in some test drives.

1. 190,000 kms for a 2011 model. Price $5400 o.n.o. It was a smart looking car with no dings or scratches. The high mileage was due to the fact that it was an ex rental car a fact that Rod didn't like. I told him that rental cars are regularly serviced but he remained unconvinced. He looked under the bonnet and quickly shut it. He was horrified and on questioning him I found out that the engine was dirty. Dirty? Yes, dirty! Apparently Rod believes that a dirty engine is a bad sign. He turned this car down. He's nuts!

2. 160,000 kms for a 2006 model. Price $5,500 o.n.o. Again it was a smart looking car but smelled old and of having had a lot of use. I didn't like it. Rod did like it and was interested in buying it, because, he said, the young woman selling it was nice. He's nuts.

3. 90,000 kms for a 2006 model. Price $6,5000 o.n.o. This is the car that yesterday, sight unseen I told him was the likely best prospect given the low mileage (for its age). The car was in great condition and had been well looked after. NZ first registration and two owners. I said that Rod should buy it and not to ruin the sale by offering too low an offer like he ruined the sale of the first Mitsubishi two years ago. He said that he would offer $6,000 and not budge. He did so and quickly moved to $6,250 when they wouldn't accept his first low offer. He's nuts but I'm glad that he bought this car as it's sound, has lowish mileage and has been well looked after.

Cars 2 and 3 passed the under bonnet test and all three passed the tyre kicking test. Yes, the tyre kicking test

Rod believes in the old urban myth that you have to kick the tyres of a car  when checking it out.

I told you he's nuts.

GUN HO

I'm pissed off at the news coverage of the whinging joker who is complaining at the police raiding his home to collect unlawful firearms.

This idiot bought the gun(s) in question the day after the Christchurch mosque shootings knowing full well that they would soon be banned. His naive submissions to the various news media are fatuous where he claims to have always wanted an AR15 automatic rifle and it was just coincidence. What a cunt.

I'm not happy with the way that Radio NZ and the NZ Herald (where I get my news) and I assume many other outlets are giving this guy airtime and press coverage. I'm even unhappier about that prat David Seymour (ACT) criticising the Police for their actions. I for one am glad that the Police are doing this and helping to keep us safe from trigger-happy nutters.

SILLINESS

Robert continues to blog about religion (catholicism) and to attack any counter-arguments to his blind belief that there is a god who is in charge of one true religion and that anything the bible (interestingly enough a Jewish book) says is his god's word and must be believed.

This of course is just silly but he expounds this and it becomes a source of friction in this blogging community. His (wiser and older) brother Richard reacts to Robert's naive and puerile observations and the two of them have a bit of an on-line barney which sometimes results in Robert deleting all of his posts and sometimes even the whole blog.

It makes me laugh sometimes when Robert on the one hand comes over all christian lovey-dovey with his smarmy 'turn the other cheek' aphorisms and then in another post or comment shows envy at how others live and aggression to people who don't buy into his silly religion. He labels any 'unbeliever '(read normal person) as an atheist and goes to great lengths to try and show that the 'atheists' are deluded.

I don't call myself an atheist largely because the whole business is too silly to bother about. I don't believe in gods and religions so why should I adopt a label that states the opposite.

I'm just a normal person.

THE SECRET ROOM

We spent last week in Napier at The Old Girls's cousin's place. Her cousin and husband were away in Nepal doing the Annapurna trek. We were there to keep an eye on the cousin's 90 y.o. mother who is in a retirement home (a nice one) nearby and to take her on daily excursions. She had a stroke last year and cannot be trusted to live in the house on her own during the day hence the retirement home. The home is a new Ryman Village one and has excellent facilities. I'd be happy to live there (many years in the future hopefully).

The house we were staying in is rented by the cousin but the owner advised them before they left that he was going to put it on the market. While they were trekking they thought about it and decided to make an offer to the owner which was accepted, conditional on them selling a new-build property that they own and were planning to move into soon. This house is the same one we stayed in two Christmases ago (the one where I took a lot of selfies, see: HERE and HERE). It's a large rambling house on 3 levels with a huge tree covered section. I really like it and am pleased that they may end up buying it. The current owner lives overseas and has given them until October to organise their finances. Their offer price was below the CV and the homes.nz valuation so they should end up with a good deal.

I took some photos of it which hopefully shows the rambling nature:

Driveway down to the property

Greenery and trees

More greenery and trees

Pool

Deck

Dining room

Living area

Study

Living area

Main bathroom

  

TV area

Foyer

Spare bedroom

Lounge

Another spare bedroom

Another spare bedroom

Master bedroom at top level

Basement bedroom

The basement area is set up with a large double bedroom that is accessed from the main living area upstairs and has an exit out to the pool area. It has a separate bathroom and laundry where there was another door.

This door led to a storeroom with another hatchway to a large under house cellar and a door to one of the two garages.

Storage area accessed from basement area bathroom

Walkway from storage area

 Now here is where I wanted to lead you. This is what this post is about.

There is a secret room down here that on looking at the house from the outside isn't obvious and, unless you go via the basement living area's bathroom and a passageway you wouldn't discover it.

Secret room at end of walkway

Other view of secret room

 Chris, The Old Girl's cousin's husband has this set up as a hideaway where he plays his guitars and practices his stand-up comedy routines.
The Old Girl when she first saw it said to me "I bet you wish you had a secret room like this Matey".
I of course replied "No, no darling, I'd miss your company" to which she said "yeah right!"

This room would be ideal for Richard and his family of musical instruments and far enough away from Shelley and the main part of the house.