Richard 'wrote' a song about cycle lanes in Wellington. This was spurred by a recent post where I ranted on the new bus and cycle lanes that Wellington Council has installed for no better reason than to piss off out of town visitors.
He also took a shot, on a post, at bicycle lanes. I agree with him there. You only see a few bicycles using them, with the loss of many carparks and now narrow roads.
Maybe there's a song in all that?
Am E7
So, you head on out to visit a shop.
Dm Am
All you need is somewhere to stop.
Dm Am
Ah, what a pain!
C D7 E7
All I see is bloody bike lanes!
It's a good effort.
As I can't write music I've chosen to borrow M.C. Hammer's 'U Can't Touch This' song music as seen here:
Changed lyrics to this music could be:
[Chorus]
You can't stop there
You can't drive here
You can't even look here
You can't go anywhere
[Verse 1] Why, why, why does the council hit me so hard? Makes me say "Oh my, what bastards" Thank you NOT for messin' with me who has to find a place to be
It doesn't feel good, when you're from out of town
If you've been watching the news recently you will have seen lots of poor decisions made by NZ First and not all of them have been made by Shane Jones. Winston Peters is still capable of, no, not 'still capable' - he's still capable of making a balls-up and bringing New Zealand into disrepute.
New Zealand has often punched above its weight on the world stage with influence on the outcome of two world wars and the worthy and recognised anti-nuclear stands presented by prime ministers Norman Kirk and David Lange. Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern have also worthily carried the flag with Ardern's response to the Christchurch mosque shootings and her handling of the COVID pandemic being world class (although many idiots still cannot recognise this).
All too often though we've been let down on the world stage by the likes of John Key who prostrated himself before a very unfunny American comedy show presenter (David Letterman) making the excellent Flight of the Conchords TV series so much more relevant.
Winston Peters has been lurking on the fringes for the last half a century - not fortunately, as prime minister - but in senior enough (as unbelievable as that may seem - thank you not MMP) positions to put him 'on the world stage'.
You might have noticed over the last few days that Winston Peters refused to sign the Foreign Ministers’ letter condemning illegal Israeli settlements.
This is a retrograde step for New Zealand’s foreign policy and has Winston Peters’ name all over it - well, all except for his signature on the bloody LETTER. This LETTER was signed by 21 foreign ministers and condemned Israel’s approval for a new illegal Israel settlement in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.
The signatories include the foreign ministers from three of the 'five eyes' countries – Australian, Canada and the UK with very noticeably USA and New Zealand not being included. Other countries are Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
Well done Winston.
'NOT' (as that comedically-challenged guy from Whytheheckdoesitmatter would say).
In past years New Zealand has condemned illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories and in 2016 co-sponsored United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 which said Israeli settlements had “no legal validity” and constituted “a flagrant violation under international law”. Now Peters, by not signing FOR US AS NEW ZEALANDERS is sucking up to USA in the worst possible way.
Shame on Winston Peters and shame on Chris Luxon who has abrogated his responsibility in this matter to the squeaky wheel in his cabinet and is allowing a minister who leads a party that only has a minimal percentage (6%) approval from New Zealand voters to 'wag the dog' (sorry about the mixed metaphors).
He said, "It's still the Greatest Story" I said, "Man I'd like to stay But I'm bound for glory I'm on my way My ride's here..."
Yesterday, in my post on the unfairness of Wellington City Council giving me a traffic ticket I complained in the comment section thus:
"Wellington streets have become a joke. It's as if the council doesn't want cars on the streets at all and prefer bloody cyclists on them and on footpaths along with those bloody scootery things. Sheesh!"
This is an observation I've made and Richard agreed with me but I thought that I'd check to see if others also agree.
"Central Wellington is a maze of traffic cones as many inner-city streets are realigned to remove parking to allow for cycleways and bus lanes. This overlooks the reality that Wellington’s topography means most of the streets are narrower than elsewhere. Making them narrower still is neither practical, nor safe for either cyclists or motorists. But that inconvenient reality seems to matter little to the Council with its avowedly anti-car and pro-cycling and public transport approach".
- Peter Dunne May 25, 2024 Wellington Scoop
Believe me, there are many more like that (The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ takes pride in presenting balanced and reasonable opinions in our reporting).
Look, I was once a cyclist myself and I do sympathise with them as riding on city roads can be dangerous but ... maybe it's time for them to give it away (now).
One positive I suppose is that the council is deterring old bangers like this cluttering up our streets.
Here's my reply to Wellington City Council after receiving a letter saying they WILL NOT waive the driving ticket I received:
Here's the letter they sent me:
Arseholes!
I should have reminded them that me and Sir Frank Kitts are old mates. OK, OK, I know that he died many years ago but he did invite my brother and me to morning tea at his council office back in the 1960s.
The Curmudgeons got together to celebrate Richard's birthday today.
The more observant reader will notice that there are 48 young Curmudgeons but as yet only 28 officially posting Curmudgeons (29 if Richard as the newly approved Curmudgeon bothers to post).
This means that there are 20 more Curmudgeons waiting in the wings ready to create blogs and bring you posts.
I, and friends and family are continuously gobsmacked at how a convicted criminal can get re-elected as president of USA when coverage of his trials for many different crimes have been in the public eye for so long. Here are just some of them:
It beggars belief that so many Republican voters in America turn a blind eye to those and the many, many allegations of rape, sexual assault, theft, dishonesty, collusion, racketeering and illegal associations with Russia and other authoritarian countries that have and are continually being made.
What's wrong with those people?
Oh, right - vested interest, greed, racism, white supremacy, anti gun control. christianity, ignorance and downright stupidity comes strongly in to play.
But is that enough?
No, that's why Trump has surrounded himself with sycophants, enablers and equally corrupt and egregious people as himself. There has been a deliberate campaign to stack the departments of justice, intelligence, education, homeland security, immigration and many others with like-minded people who are not only controlling the narrative but who are quite openly erasing history and trying to change the future. There has been so much damage done in 7 months that it will take decades after Trump and his minions have gone to undo and to mend.
Have a read of this and see if you recognise signs of this in America.
Numb-nuts Trump just ran the worst and most ineffective meeting with a foreign leader that any USA president ever - going back to George Washington - has been involved in.
Despite his bluster and arrogance Trump must know how weak he is at negotiating, especially in his pathetic tariff and trade dealing over the last few months. It's been downright embarrassing to witness.
Before he went to Alaska, Trump had his weaselly press secretary Karoline Leavitt making wimpy statements to downplay the likely outcome of the talks. She talked of the meeting as a “listening exercise” which is quite a departure from all the shit that she's spouted in the past amplifying Trump's braggadocio.
Trump is a braggart and a blowhard but Putin, for all his faults isn't. He's a killer and for decades has got his own way running roughshod over friends and enemies alike and rarely says things that he hasn't followed through on.
Trump is a baby when compared to Putin. He's vain yet delicate being easily upset and having his fragile ego bruised. This makes him easy to manipulate and Putin, like a skilled puppet master knows just how and when to pull the strings. Putin flatters and Trump preens. Putin promises friendship and solutions and Trump comes away thinking that Putin is powerful and clever and himself, being his friend, equally powerful and very smart. And all this is on the world stage. The lasting memories are often of images of Putin's crocodile smile and Trump's imbecilic smirk.
We need to watch this space but to me, this latest USA/Russia 'summit' means that it's all downhill from now on.
The previous post was titled 'HURRY UP AND WAIT' and this is appropriate in a way to this post and the current house selling situation.
On Monday morning I received a text from our real estate agent saying asking if prospective buyers could come around at midday. I said OK (as I would be away doing Jury duty) and then raced around making sure that everything was tidy and the house presentable before I left.
On Tuesday morning I had another text from the real estate agent saying that the viewers liked the house and wanted to have another look that morning. I said OK as I would be away at tennis and, because the previous evening I'd made a mess of the kitchen cooking a chicken curry and had also left my clothes and other items scattered around the house, had to hurry and make the place presentable again.
That afternoon the real estate agent contacted me and the old girl to say that the prospective buyers would be talking to their bank about finance and would need to get a building inspection done and a rental appraisal made. All good.
That was Tuesday. It's now Thursday. I've hurried now I have to wait.
I hurried back from Wellington to get to jury service on Monday.
On Monday I left the house early to get to town, find a carpark and get to the court on time. Once there all 100 of the call-up pool were hurried along to the jury room to wait. And wait. And wait.
After a long wait an announcement was made of two upcoming trials - one for a duration of 3 weeks and one for 1 week. The details of these cases were made known and, eventually, names were called out for potential jurors for the first case. Many were rejected i.e. challenged by the defence and prosecuting lawyers or were excused by the judge on application. It took a long time.
The remaining pool was then, after a long break, hurried along to the second courtroom to .... wait while the court personnel got things ready, the accused brought in. the judge to arrive and for charges to be read out. The second ballot was then made with the accompanying challenges and excusals.
The last of the pool was then hurried along to another waiting area to ... you guessed it ... to wait. After a while an usher told everyone to go home but to check on-line or phone in that evening to see if they were needed the next day. I went home and in the evening checked to see if I was needed the next day. I wasn't but had to phone in or check on-line to see if I would be needed for the rest of the week. No-one was and the remaining jury pool was thanked and excused.
The exercise was convoluted and in need of some streamlining but I guess that tradition is involved and the Justice Department is wary of making changes. I have no real complaints though as a large pool is needed in order to select good jury panels (12 each) after objections and excusals. To be honest, I was glad to have not been selected as both cases were sexual assault and rape cases which can be dire to sift through the evidence. The first, the three week one was the most dire involving hundreds of charges of rape, coercion, brutality and assault over many years. It's a high profile case and is being reported on in the media. The second case, the one week one involves sexual assault and rape of a minor along with illegal drug use and coercion. This one, also dire is likely to be a 'he said/she said' one that a dithering jury could fail to reach a verdict on. I'll watch this in the news.
I can 'watch this in the news' as I wasn't selected so wasn't sworn in which would mean I would not be allowed to read about it or to search the internet. I watched the selected jury stand and each were asked to swear an oath or make an affirmation. The ones who 'swore' had to hold a bible in their hand. About 9 of them did so with the others sensibly leaving the bible where it was and made an affirmation that they would uphold the truth, not look up the internet etc. It was interesting and I wonder how much longer this silly 'god stuff' can last in modern society.
I looked through some old photographs (digitilised) and found this one which reminded me of a post of Richard's many years ago before he started deleting his blogs. It was in Richard's Bass Bag version one I think which has disappeared into the ether.
In this photo is me and my older sister Sharyn in the foreground with her doll; my older brother Terry in the middle; my aunty Bridie at the back. Mid to late 1950s.
"If only I knew Richard and Chris back in those days - I could have brought my ball along to play with them since Robert got in a huff and took his home with him".
The Lotto ad currently screening on TV has evocative music in the background. It's 'Return to Innocence' by Enigma. I like it.
*******************************
Returning to Wellington is and is going to be interesting. There is so much that is still familiar to me in this city and so many memories jump out at me.
This Cuba Street apartment we are living in overlooks Wellington city to the north, east and west. Looking north there is a big and very ugly building that spans Taranaki Street to Egmont Street (it is right next to the old apartment building in Egmont Street we rented in 2020). It is mainly student and cheap housing. It is sited on the old Hope Gibbons building site where, on 29th July 1952 a major fire destroyed most of the building and millions of government papers that were stored there. This prompted the government to later create the National Archives.
In the early 1950s my parents lived in a small wooden, 3 story 'apartment building' in Taranaki Street right next to the Hope Gibbons building. They had to be evacuated during the fire but returned later. They lived there through the time of my birth (St Helen's hospital in Newtown) while my father was building the family house in Vogeltown which we moved into when I was about 1 year old.
Peter:"Is this it?" Terry: "Dunno. I can't see under this hat." Sharyn: "Dumb boys!"
After 17 years in Vogeltown my parents moved back to Taranaki Street to an apartment at the top of a building that housed the administrative offices of the Wellington Catholic Diocese. Dad took over from a family friend as caretaker of the building and a 4 bedroom apartment (we called them flats back in the day) came with the position. He continued working his plastering business as well.
It's funny to think that we could end up buying or renting an apartment in Taranaki Street - stranger things have happened serendipity wise.
It's a great day and I've been out and about enjoying the sunshine with no chill factor winds.
After a walk about town I took a bus ride on a route I've never been on before - Number 24 Miramar Heights.
I wanted to view suburbs and properties on the way. From the railway station this route went through the inner city to Courtenay Place and then followed the road around Oriental Bay to Evans Bay. From there it went past the airport to Miramar but turned left after the Miramar cutting and went up to Mount Crawford. In all my years living in Wellington I've never taken this road, either literally or figuratively as it leads to Mount Crawford prison. The views across Wellington harbour to the city and across the harbour entrance to Eastbourne and Cape Palliser are stunning. Here would be a great place to build or buy a house.
The bus route meandered around extremely narrow and windy roads necessitating other vehicles to reverse or drive up onto the footpath at times and encircled the flat area of Miramar. At one point it went past Totara Road in the hills where I had a girlfriend named Helen in the 7th form at school. See: SOX
I stopped off at the Miramar shops where WETA and Peter Jackson's cinema are. There are lots of cafes and bakeries (soon to do a starve with the huge layoff of staff at WETA Studios) and I had lunch there.
I spied a lot of desirable apartments along Oriental Parade but it may be that we won't be in the market for an apartment. Recent research I've done suggests that purchasing an apartment in Wellington is not financially viable due to low capital growth, the length of time it takes to on-sell and the excessively high body corporate fees, on top of rates, due to high earthquake insurance. All this on top of the physical risks in an earthquake. Purchasing a townhouse would be a better option.
Fortunately The Old Girl is coming to this conclusion as well and, living in an inner city apartment for the next few months will likely strengthen that view. Apartment living can be noisy, too hot or too cold, prone to evacuation with fire drills and false alarms, logistically difficult to bring things in and take things out like furniture, shopping and rubbish etc. You can see by this that I'm in favour of buying a townhouse. The problem is though that there are more apartments than townhouses in the inner city/waterfront area where we want to live. We will just have to wait until an opportunity arises so may well keep renting for a while next year.
If, in time a suitable townhouse isn't available, we may opt to rent an apartment in the longterm rather than buy one. We can leave the house sale money in the bank to earn interest (assuming that we ever sell the house), rent a better apartment than we could probably buy, not have to pay body corporate fees and leave the worry about lift repair, structural issues, earthquake rating issues and other council imposed restrictions to the landlord.
Frog has turned up after having been missing for a few months.
The Old Girl had put him away in a box when packing things in the house - IN A BOX!
She asked me to bring that box of household ornaments down to Wellington with me.
I was worried when I couldn't find him as he's been a faithful companion for years. See: HERE
I'm taking him back uo north so that he can, once again, sit and keep watch over the house. Hey! He doesn't require batteries and has a longer track record than the ARLO security cameras I use.
The Old Girl showed me around her office on Sunday. It's in the new BNZ building on Waterloo Quay.
This is a very new, very smart and superior building - much superior to the previous BNZ building located on the Wellington waterfront and was known as ‘Harbour Quays’.
Harbour Quays - BNZ's previous building
Owned by Centre Port, this building was a '5-star green building', but, following the November 2016 Kaikoura/Wellington earthquake, the building was abandoned and later demolished.
Hopefully this new building won't suffer the same fate. The new earthquake-proof regulations means that this building is supported by base isolation and a structural steel diagrid.
Example of the interior columns that can be seen everywhere inside.
There are great views across the waterfront and harbour which makes for good workplace ergonomics.
I liked this feature which is like a phone booth that employees can use when making private or personal calls There are several of these scattered through the shared, open-plan office set up.
The Old Girl sits in here when calling me.
I can see why she decided that she'd like to see out her working life before retirement in this office.
Staff have just been informed that there will soon be a company-wide directive ordering everyone to work out of the various offices throughout the country (and the world). In 2020 due to COVID work from home was approved for many employees.
It's a nice day and the view across the city is sparkling.
Zooming in I can see Richard's place and maybe even Robert's place over beyond some island or other.
We'll venture out soon - shopping - but I expect it to be chilly so will wear some of the warm gear I brought with me. At least two layers I guess. We will visit The Old Girl's cousin (two streets away) for dinner this evening. I plan to have at least three glasses of wine (primitivo and merlot) so didn't have anything last night.
Tomorrow, with luck we will catch up with that old guy from Why?doesitmatter? and his lovely wife Shelley. If they can get away from grandparent duties I guess. Maybe they go to Mass on Sunday mornings.
Anyway, I'll leave you with this (I don't want it).
... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Last night we had dinner with an old friend who has been undergoing chemotherapy for an invasive medical condition. He's doing OK and the treatment is working but there are side effects.
During dinner our conversation turned to aging and health. We swapped stories about our own ailments and how many, well all really, of our friends and associates are experiencing aches, pains, ailments and worse. Getting old sucks.
The Old Girl said that over the next year she will be considering another hip replacement and cataract surgery.
I've had the cataract and lens replacement surgery myself but fortunately my hips and knees are functional. It's my ticker that's the problem with me. AF - atrial fibrillation, a heart condition characterised by an irregular and often rapid heartbeat. I have been hospitalised because of this and take daily medication to try to keep it in check. Exercise is also helpful.
It is what it is though and we all have to make the best of what we've got. 'Dealt' if you believe in fate or 'blessed with' if you believe in Robert's god. On that point, what sort of useless or mean god designed us to crap out after only 70 or 80 years? It must be like those bastard manufacturing companies who have planned obsolescence in their products so that consumers are forced into early replacement
