New Years Eve

IT IS NEW YEARS EVE

2008 IS ON ITS WAY

What a sensational year. The highlight was of course Kipp. But we also had a terrific tour of South Africa.

The very first to greet the New Year will be the people of Kahuitara Point on Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands. Kiwis will be the first people to greet 2008 as we are just to the left of the International Date Line. Most New Zealanders think we only have one time zone as the vast majority of us live in the North and South Islands which have the same time zone. We tend to forget about the Chathams, who are 30 minutes ahead and Pitt Island, which is another 15 minutes ahead again. The weather is a little overcast locally so the Police etc will be happy as bad weather tends to dampen the stupidity.

We will have our usual low celebration - that is nothing - although we are having the kids around for tea. The last time we really celebrated a New Year was the millennium changeover.

Eve reminds me of a pathetic Xmas joke - What did Adam say on the day before Xmas. "Its Christmas, Eve" Groan!!!!

The next blog will be another day, another year !

So we will end with some photos of the highlight of the year.

From first day until December 2007

However apart from the picture a couple of hours after Kipp's birth this is a champion

Umbrellas, words and dogs

A couple of days ago we noticed our outside umbrella was missing. It was a large green one with a metal stand that slotted into the outside table. Although it has been windy I couldn't believe it could have blown away. However, Christine thought that was the solution so we had a look over the fence but couldn't see anything. I thought it had been stolen.
She decided to email the neighbourhood through the Neighbourhood Support listing and got a reply from three houses away. I couldn't believe that such a large umbrella with a heavy metal stand could have been uplifted like that and taken such a distance.

She has now been right twice in a week!!! Good grief - what is the world coming to!!!

Am reading Bill Bryson's book "Mother Tongue" about the English language. Words have always interested me - maybe that is why I talk so much. A couple of words that I like that have, unfortunately, fallen into disuse are - slubberdegullion: 17th Century, meaning a slovenly fellow - ugsome: medieval, meaning loathsome. I will try to use them in conversation (if I can remember them) in the next week or two.

We got our dog Rhett 12 months ago this week. Like Kipp, is it amazing how much he has changed in that time - not so much in size as he is only a little bigger - but in looks, having lost his puppy look.

Rhett a year ago and a few weeks ago with Kipp in the hall

It could only happen in .....

CRICKET. India has the better of Australia at the end of day one; the Black Caps won; but the incredible result that could only happen in cricket was the local club championship.

Eastern were 4 down with only 10 runs to score to win against Naenae. The Naenae wicketkeeper asked the Captain if he could have a bowl. Thinking that it couldn't get worse he agreed. Taking the ball he proceeded to bowl them out so that Naenae won by 2 runs!! Not a game Americans (or many woman for that matter) can understand.

Been writing about the weather a bit. It has become so changeable with a sudden turn to cold and wet for a while and as I write sunshine again.

The day after the day before

We survived Xmas Day and it is now Boxing Day. Another holiday here in NZ. To the uninitiated Boxing Day (St. Stephens Day) is celebrated mainly in the UK, Canada, Australia, NZ and various other British Commonwelath countries.

In Oz it usually means the biggest Cricket match of the year at the Melbourne Cricket Gound and this year it is against India. Here it means what is now the biggest shopping day of the year as all the shops cut their prices. However people now realise that this is the day to buy which has meant an upsurge in Gift Vouchers.

The scene above is not us as once again the hot, sunny weather has returned.

Xmas Day we spent at my daughters. The rain only lasted for a short while, although it did turn a bit cold but by the late afternoon it was fine enough for us to take the four dogs for a walk -along with Kipp of course. A very nice day even though I was dismal at the Xmas Quiz.

Lots to eat, presents, Kipp, etc.

I suppose this cartoon sums it up for many.

Merry Xmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It is Christmas day and we have rain. Unbelievable after nearly two months of almost solid sunshine. Finding a couple of Santa pictures that reflect our Southern Hemisphere hot rather than the northern cold is hard.

But .....we always give it a go.

A rocking and rolling Xmas continues

Still a few shakes being felt in Gisborne but thankfully not by us although as they say - a few small ones often is good. Amazingly, I read that this one was five times stronger than the 1987 Edgecumbe quake. Luckily the epicentre was at sea and deeper.


Xmas is almost upon us and the weather is perfect if no rain is what you want. The Charity Raffle I am involved with is going great guns with our sales passing last years on Friday night with 2 1/2 days to go. I would have thought that with the economy slowing and interest rates going up, money would have been tighter this year. Or is it because it is tighter that people gamble more??

I see Tony Blair has converted to catholicism but an interesting side fact I heard was that no British Prime Minister has ever been a Catholic. That seems incredible as we have had our share of the various Christian sects as well as no faiths as evidenced by our current PM. I think we are lucky in that religion plays little or no part in our political set up, unlike the USA where they seem to have more than their fair share of almost religious nuts trying to be President.

Earthquake!!

We really felt the earthquake that hit Gisborne last night.

Originally said to be 6.8 it has now been revised down to 6.6. The incredible statement was on TV1 last night when they advised anybody who was injured not go to the hospital but to contact their GP. Do we need further proof that we are unorganised in many places.

As I understand it only Lower Hutt has a permanent Civil Defence chief - in all the other Local Bodies the Mayor/Chief Executive doubles as the Civil Defence head.

Madness - amatuers doing a job that must be professional.

Electoral Finance Bill

The Bill has now gone through the House.

Interesting that Peter Dunne changed his mind at the last moment. As it happens I support the general principle of knowing who is funding our politicians and how much.

I wouldn't want us to go down the US path where they are open to pressure due to donated money. I don't really understand how the Americans can put up with the "system" they have which is so money driven it is obscene and un-democratic. Then again with an Electoral College that allows a person with less votes to become the President they have a lot to learn about Democracy. So many laws seemed to be passed there due to the influence of $$$$. Bill Clinton said their system would never be clean until they cleaned up the fund raising which most candidates seem to spend most of their time doing instead considering the real problems.

Basically, unless at least both major parties agree no really workable law can be passed as the Opposition will just reverse it when they get into power. The solution should have been a Royal Commision.

What will it look like for Labour if a couple of people are jailed just before the election due to contravention of the law. They will be dog tucker and the law will be shown up once again as an ass.

When the brown stuff hits the fan

The inventor of a worm-driven composting toilet had to prove the worms were not traumatised or stressed by their task before Council bureaucrats would approve the system.
Invented as an alternative to septic tanks, an Auckland Regional Council staff member said they had to get an expert's report on the psychological impact on the worms after she became concerned during a site visit.

"She felt that the worms were being unfairly treated, being expected to deal with human faeces, and that it could affect them in a psychological way," said the inventor. "I said, `Well, what do I do about that?' and she said "you have to have someone with the necessary qualifications to say the worms are happy'."

The ARC was satisfied after a vermiculture consultant reported the worms were in excellent health.
The Senior consents officer for the ARC said their concerns were fair as " it did relate to a valid concern with stress on a proposed worm population from huge fluctuations in flows and thus feed for the worms"

Good Grief Charlie Brown what next - will they be around to check up and if they find the worms are unhappy will they have to go on stress leave!!

Meantime the same Council is happy for their staff to break the law as shown in this photo from the Herald showing a Parking Wardens car incorrectly parked while he was writing tickets.

What have they done to the rain?

Weather - hot, cold, wet, fine - it never seems to satisfy everybody. With no real rain for the past month the weather has been incredible. Problem is of course is that we need some good rain, especially in the storage lakes.

Then again we don't have rain these days, Instead we have -

Precipitation (meteorology), rain, sleet, hail, snow and other forms of water falling from the sky.

What happened to good old fashioned rain - in both senses of the word - that is the word rain instead of precipitation and good old wet stuff for a few days.

In a previous blog I mentioned mistakes - is this the best title of the year ?

Actually it is about -

What drives self-justification. The need to justify our actions and decisions -- especially the wrong ones -- is an unpleasant feeling called "cognitive dissonance."
Cognitive dissonance is a state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent, such as "Smoking is a dumb thing to do because it could kill me" and "I smoke two packs a day."

Dissonance produces mental discomfort; people don't rest easy until they find a way to reduce it. In this example, the easiest way for a smoker to reduce dissonance is by quitting. But if they tried and failed they must reduce dissonance by convincing themselves that smoking isn't really so harmful, or that smoking is worth the risk because it helps relaxation or is a slimming device, after all, obesity is a health risk, too.

One experiment discussed is - In the 1950's a social psychologist and two associates infiltrated a group of people who believed the world would end on 21 December. They wanted to know what would happen to the group when (they hoped!) the prophecy failed. The group's leader promised that the faithful would be picked up by a flying saucer and elevated to safety at midnight on 20 December. Many followers quit their jobs, gave away their homes, and dispersed their savings, waiting for the end. Others waited in fear or resignation in their homes.

The prediction from the psychologist was: Those who had not made a strong commitment to the prophecy -- who awaited the end of the world by themselves at home -- would quietly lose their faith. But those who had given away their possessions and were waiting with the others for the spaceship would increase their belief in the leaders mystical abilities. In fact, they would now do everything they could to get others to join them.

When nothing happened, surprise, surprise - the leader had a new vision.

"The world had been spared, because of the impressive faith of our little band. Mighty is the word of God, and by his word have you been saved"

The group's mood shifted from despair to exhilaration. Many of the group's members began calling the press to report the miracle and later tried to convert others to the cause!!

CRAZY!!

I am so full of Xmas cheer??

There are approximately two billion children in the world. Taking out non-christians etc this reduces the workload to 15% of the total, or 378 million At an average rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is one good child in each. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth. This works out to just over 950 visits per second. Plus he has to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and onto the next house.

Wow - I always knew he was a fast worker!! Probably down on Xmas cheer at the moment with Robbie Deans going. I realise that we have to face up to the professional era but I think the NZRFU have gone backwards as we need new thinking. If we can't win in 2011 at home then.......

Back

Yes "I'm bach" as Arnie would say having got the PC back from our friendly expert. However, it was not without its problems as it continued to close down.

I thought that the same problem - overheating - still existed.

But we have had a little program installed that shows the temperature and that indicated everything was OK. Christine said it must be a software problem with a box ticked to close it down as my monitoring showed it was closing down at a regular intervals after the Screensaver came on. What do women know!! I thought it was the same hardware problem - fool that I am. Further investigation showed what I thought was wrong as I tracked down the problem and changed the setting and everything is all go again.

So she was right. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!

Off Air and a NZRFU fall back plan

We are 'off air' at the moment - that is our desktop PC is in for repairs. However, we do have a fall back plan as we are using the laptop. Plus of course we have backed up our stuff to CD and/or Flash Drive. A laptop is not all they are cracked up to be as I found the mouse and keyboard extremely difficult to use. So we bought a keyboard/mouse to attach which has made it much easier. The cost - $18-00 - what!!!! It seems incredible that probably only 12 months ago it would be at least $100. Also bought a DVD player to put us a bit further into the 21st Century - although as one of my daughters says we still haven't got Caller ID on our phone.

The real question is does the NZRFU have a back up plan if everything goes pear shape over the next two years. If, as seems possible, Robbie goes - Warren Gatland has already gone - then what is the back up plan. If asked they would probably say yes they do have a plan - Yeah Right!!

The charity raffle I am involved in is going better than last year. Is there more money about? I wouldn't have thought so with rising interest rates. Anyway we will see on Xmas Eve what the final outcome is.

Henry - like Lazarus

Like Lazarus - risen from the dead. Graham Henry, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen. How is beyond me - if you fail you go. In my view they failed at the most important hurdle. Another matter is he has been appointed for two years - then what. If the NZRFU decide he isn't the man for the World Cup then the new coach only has a couple of years to get organised for what is now a four year campaign. At least we are are home next time and one would presume the refferee situation will be improved. I hope I am proved wrong.

Ratbags and so cheap

Ratbags - but that is only the most pleasant word anybody could use to describe those who have stolen the medals from Waiouru. The problem will be the usual one if they are caught - nothing will really happen to them. They would have had a terrible upbringing and so it was not their fault or the 'P' made me do it.

We went to Johnsonville the other day then on to Porirua to have lunch. While she looked in one shop there I looked in another. They had "Giant Size Calculators" - about 20cm by 15 cm at $2-58. Yes - $2.58 - how can they be so cheap is beyond me. Anyway I bought two.

Christmas is rushing along with SeniorNet now finished but with lots of functions on as well as the Charity Raffle it is all go. Having a few PC problems which will need looking into.

Poor Cricket - he was a dog not a horse

Poor Cricket - Nicky Watson's dog has been found dead, being washed up on a beach. Prior to this the 'News" that Nicky had lost her chihuahua. was argueably the most important event that happened in New Zealand in the previous 48 hours.

So on TV Ones's Closeup program they went for it. Unfortunately being more of a John Campbell TV3 person I missed the interview with Nicky on TV One which it seems went something like this -

After numerous clips of Nicky nearly falling out of various dresses followed by clips of Nicky wandering around day and night with torch in hand calling out for her little lost pet, the interviewer finally sat down for a little heart-to-heart with Ms Watson. Recounting her tale of woe Nicky, voice strained with overuse and emotion, says, 'I must have called his name a million times', to which the interviewer kindly responds, trying to empathise: 'You're hoarse.' 'No', replies Nicky sadly, 'my dog'.

In amongst the Electoral Reform Act, murders etc this was pure drama!!

Good Grief - The Black Caps had a win

In the best attributes of N Z sport lately the Black Caps in the first one-dayer managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as did the Black Sticks (well draws) and the Phoenix. However in the second match the Black Caps did at last come through. Although I am not a Basketball fan I must admit that the Breakers are doing quite well.

Talking Soccer ( being a Rugby nut could never really call it football) - what a great example David Beckham is. At the airport he stayed until the end and signed every autograph. Nothing seems to be too much trouble. A consummate professional that many others could learn from. He knows where his bread (income) is buttered (that is where the money comes from - the fans).

Talking something more serious I see that the lawyer for the accused (and that is all he is) in the tragic case of Emma Agnew is claiming, as they are all doing now, that all the publicity is destroying his clients right to a fair trial. Rubbish. Juries should know that they only decide on the evidence placed before them. The world is a different place now and technology has changed it so that the likelihood of secrecy in a democracy now is very low if not impossible. We just have to get used to it.