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.