Off

Off to Dubai, Turkey, Russia.

Won the quiz last night.

Player of the day

A good effort today - almost a try.

Sayonara

Sayonara: Sarah, Joe and the boys are Adelaide bound (work). We of course are also off but we will be coming back.

Madness - again: Microsoft said they are going to release Windows 8 - good grief 4 systems to teach at once now at SeniorNet - XP (they say out of date but still the best around), Vista (a disaster) Win 7 (better but still not XP) and Win 8 due.

I emailed North and South and the emails bounced but I finally found an address.So we shall see what happens.

Talking to somebody else they say that is the norm. You leave and they delete their email. Too bad if you were in the middle of a transaction. Pathetic. They argue that the person leaving should put you onto another address but usually as they are leaving they don't care/have the time.

Quiz: we will struggle once Joe has gone. Came 1st equal and 2nd equal last twice we've been.

Bula

Fiji: We have returned in one bit. Not my style of OE. I like to be doing something; not just lazing about. The weather was great, the people were great and Rugby mad. It was a lot more expensive than we thought and most people at the resort were young as children under 12 stay free.

As it happened Fiji came 2nd in the London 7's when we were there so the local papers were full of Rugby - front page every day.

But - there is always a but. On the last day as we were leaving (at 5.45 in the morning) we were presented with a bill for F$300 for the cost of the shuttle to the resort. We thought it was included but couldn't do much as they had the prize voucher and we had a plane to catch.

Upon our return we see it was covered. So we have emailed North and South - well we have tried - both addresses have bounced so far; so we are still trying.

Further problems: I am having problems getting an email address out of Computershare Australia. The NZ one has an email address in the contact section - the Ozzies don't have one so I emailed the NZ office to try and get one. We shall see what happens.

Plus of course our previous travel problems. Why are all these firms so incompetent?

Well it is all on as I have a lot to do - so this may be the final Blog before before we go.

Travel Agents and the Russians

What a couple of weeks.

Visa: We went into the Russian Embassy to get our Visa. It was closed - but they hadn't bothered to put it on their website.

So we went into the Russian Embassy and the Travel Agent hadn't given us all the forms. It seems you have to account for every day with a voucher saying where you are every day!!

So we went into the Russian Embassy and the Travel Agent hadn't given us all the forms - again.

So we went into the Russian Embassy and the Travel Agent hadn't given us all the forms - again - but this time before we went in we went through the forms and rang her and said we believed some were still missing. She said no they were all there - the problem is that they were in Russian - but of course she was wrong - again.

So with us needing our Passports for our trip to Fiji and them taking 10 working days to action them we ran out of time and we had to pay double the amount to get urgent ones.

Who are the Agents - United Travel Lower Hutt. Will never use them again. Then again we will do our own bookings in future - I think they are all hopeless.

The other point was that when they went out to do the booking the hotel prices they tried to palm us off with were twice what we could get online.

However the Russians are still in the Soviet era - no idea of trying to attract tourists. The Chinese and Vietnamese were fantastic compared to them

Quiz: What a bummer. Bonus question was asked and we put in our answer but as I thought it through I realised the correct answer but of course it was too late. Bugger.

SeniorNet: Attended a Management Concepts day. It was terrific.

Well Fiji here we come. I wonder what can go wrong!

Its all happening

The 'Situation Room' as they watched the attack. Is that AJ at the back? I see they pixelated out the folder on the laptop.


The 'Situation Room" Mad Men (the TV show of advertising in the 1950's) style.

I suppose the number one item is -

Osama: Angela phoned me to watch the TV as they were going to announce that Osama had been killed. Just turned it on a couple of minutes before Obama (not to be confused with Osama!) came out and made his announcement.

No loss. However as usual all the nutters come out. He should have been arrested (in the middle of a night time 40 minutes firefight), they should have done this or that, the Greens as usual are not happy, and Hone (see later) calls him a 'Freedom Fighter" etc.

George Bush didn't have a clue and got sidelined by Iraq. It seems Obama upon becoming President set up a special task force to track Osama down and he did.

Wedding: Watched the Rugby (great win to the Hurricanes over the high flying Reds) then came into the lounge and went onto the Net so it was on in the background but didn't really take much notice.




Hone Harawira: He has left the Maori Party and is to form his own and wants to have a Bye-Election at a cost of half a million dollars for a 21 day sitting period before the next election. It proves he doesn't really care - it is only our money. Nobody should stand against him.

Then again, locally, a Councillor after 8 months has decided to resign and we are going to have a $30,000 Bye-Election. No real reason; just wants to do something else.

Telecommunications: The telecoms companies have been told (but can't be ordered) to drop their mobile rates from 17c to 4 cents. We shall see. Of course no mention of the fact that they have been ripping us off for years.

As for the Internet.

The Government have now passed (under urgency along with the Quake Legislation) the latest incarnation of the so called Anti-Piracy legislation which only highlights the fact that business must move into the 21st Century (from about 1950).

On one side are the giant multi-national corporations on the other, you and me along with the highly motivated uber-geeks.

Government MPs like Katrina Shanks (she said was pretty savvy on computers and went on to prove she wasn't) and Jonathan Young (he compared the internet to Skynet from the Terminator movies) were featured speaking in the Debate - and it was a bit embarrassing.

This is not a debate about computers. It is a debate about content and the way that it is distributed on the internet. Fundamentally, it is a cultural clash. This is about proponents of a new business model battling proponents of an old business model.

The Government's task was to craft a law that balanced

a - the need to maintain an environment where the internet thrives, encourages business growth, transforms our economy and so on, with

b - the traditional property rights of content creators and owners.

Critics argue the damage this bill does to (a) is far too high a price to pay for (b). And, they say, it is protecting a model that is outdated anyway. They call the companies seeking to protect copyright this way dinosaurs and argue they are shooting themselves in the foot by clinging on to old ways.

Plus by saying that you are guilty and have to prove your innocence turns our laws on its head. Why don't they do the same for murder?

Trying to hold back the internet is like trying shovel water up stream with a teaspoon - they haven't got a hope.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day:
This year by coincidence ANZAC Day fell on Easter Monday. It was wet and quite unpleasant but we went with Joe Sarah and the boys plus Mauritz their German student to the 9.30 service. Because of the weather the turnout was low.

Afterwards we went to the Town Hall and had a cup of tea and cakes (getting some of our Rates money back!).

Christine hunted up her father and her Grandfather's medals which she tidied up and Kipp wore them. I see that I am eligible for a service medal having done 3 months CMT (Compulsory Military Training) back in 1962 ( I was at Waiouru when the Cuban Missile Crisis was on) then a further 3 years in the Reserve which meant we went away for 2 weeks every year. I thought it was a waste of money although it probably straightened a few guys out.

People like my better half often ask do I remember my number. Speaking to a friend who also did it he, like me, can rattle his number off with no problem - 362115. Easy.

Looking at the Defence Forces site I see I actually did what was termed National Service - those who did it back in the 1950's were the CMT people. Also I read that I can't apply yet as I am not quite old enough, also I see it started in May 1962 so I was in the Second Intake and finished 10 years later thanks to Norm Kirk's Labour Government who thought it a waste of time and money.

Medals for CMT - this seems a waste of money to me. However, I will think about applying for Kipp and Monty's sake - for what it is worth. We shall see.

In Flanders fields - a poem.

The red or Flanders poppy has been linked with battlefield deaths since the time of the Great War (1914–18). The plant was one of the first to grow and bloom in the mud and soil of Flanders. The connection was made, most famously, by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in his poem 'In Flanders fields'.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

McCrae was a Canadian medical officer who, in May 1915, had conducted the funeral service of a friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres (called Wipers by the English). Distressed at the death and suffering around him, McCrae scribbled the verse in his notebook. In a cemetery nearby, red poppies blew gently in the breeze – a symbol of regeneration and growth in a landscape of blood and destruction.

McCrae threw away the poem, but a fellow officer rescued it and sent it on to the English magazine Punch; 'In Flanders fields' was published on 8 December 1915. Three years later, on 28 January 1918, McCrae was dead.

As he lay dying, he is reported to have said ‘Tell them this, if ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep.’