The Sevens – it’s all about the rugby…
not.
Wellington is in the swing of a full-on party this weekend for the Rugby Sevens. We have escaped for the weekend to get away from the noise, as it’s really just not our thing, but this is clearly a weekend for stunning costumes and a lot of drinking.
Some of the costumes are a bit -umm- pathetic, but many of them are stunning, and the result of clearly a lot of work and thought (and alcohol?). Good on the Lego Guys – my personal favorite!
It’s worth going to see at some point while you are in New Zealand, but whatever you do when visiting or moving here, don’t be in Wellington City on Sevens weekend unless you are prepared for the non-stop party and drinking. It will just make you miserable and you will get on people’s nerves. We were in the city for this last year, and while I wasn’t a part of the event myself, I certainly didn’t see any of the problems that many people complained about. Yes, its noisy, yes people get very drunk. But mostly people are just having a damn good time. It’s a really good atmosphere, but it’s also a good weekend to escape if you really aren’t going to like it.
“Occupy Wellington” Finally leaves the Civic Square
To be fair – Occupy Wellington actually left the square ages ago, after the “protest” was pretty much hijacked by people who were homeless, and had their own agendas. There have been accusations of violence and threats which tore the original protest apart and they left and went “somewhere”. Leaving one “full time protester” Benjamin Easton, who doesn’t have a job because he believes that protesting on behalf of the people of Wellington is a full time job for which we should happily pay him via taxes and benefits. The rest of the people left there were reported to be homeless people. But eventually, the council found it’s balls and has removed them. Why it took them so long is a question that has so far not been aswered.
The comments in the Dom Post over the past months have shown time and again that the 99% refuse to be represented by these people, which generally ended up with some of them accusing those of us who do not support them of being blinded by the massive “conspiracy”, and just being too stupid to know we are being lied to.
The “protesters” also believe that the Bill of Rights gave them the right to camp and protest. It doesn’t. It worries me how many people in New Zealand think the bill of rights has any power. Humph. It doesn’t give me the right to pass on information and advice – even though it says it does. Its as useless and a paper condom.
For me, I have never had any time for the Occupy protests in New Zealand, which seem to have absolutely no idea what they were going on about, and every week there was a new “protest of the moment”. The sad thing is that the Occupy Movement is something I had respect for. Some of the things that the American Occupiers have been doing are worth looking at and respecting.
But New Zealand isn’t America, and we have not had the same issues. Here the protests has been more about green / socialist politics. Not about the banks throwing people out of houses after conning them into taking out mortgages they couldn’t possibly afford, and then leaving the homes empty. We don’t have banks taking walloping bonuses while bankrupting businesses and homeowners. We do have an issue with Council bosses taking huge pay rises while forcing people to pay higher rates bills at a time when there is no extra money. But the “protestors” did nothing about that. The people did.
And for me – the worst thing is that despite the overwhelming “green” political stance, they have destroyed a wonderful green area in the city. Their “right” to protest outweighed the rights of everyone in Wellington to sit out on the City to the Sea Bridge and enjoy the view and turned a beautiful area into a square of mud. Not very environmentally conscious.
At least now I can go back to walking over the City to the Sea Bridge. The last time I did it was pretty intimidating, so I have avoided it ever since and walk around.
Amazon now charging postage to New Zealand. Boo Hiss.
Argghhhhhhhhhhhh.
The “trial” that they were doing which gave us free postage to New Zealand if we spent over £25 has ended. With bugger all notice. Which is really stupid, because I would have put a bloody great big order if they had given me some notice.
Now though, they will have to wait till I can afford to buy a load of books and the postage.
Or we de-camp to Book Depository, which a lot of people already use because they always have free postage to New Zealand, and similar prices to Amazon.
Funnily enough in the weekend Dom Post there is an article about “The Battle of the High Street”. (Not online I’m afraid). In it the owner of Unity Books in Wellington notes that
customers who buy books from Internet giant Amazon are often only saving the equivalent of a cup of coffee.
To which I can only say that this is utter hogwash. We regularly save half the cost of what it would have if we bought in a shop if not more. When I can buy a Novel for $12 at amazon, or pay $25 in an NZ shop, how exactly does that saving equate to a cup of coffee? Even with the increase in coffee prices.
And the more expensive the book, the bigger the savings. Hubby received a copy of Dilbert 2.0 for Christmas last year. It cost £50 from Amazon (just over $100). It costs over $300 here. That’s a lot of damn coffees.
A recent and topical example would be the Art Of The Hobbit.
- $70 in most New Zealand bookshops.
- $60 if you go to the Bargain Basement Whitcoulls Shop on Featheston St (ooh – let me get me coat!)
- $45 (£23.33 with shipping) at Amazon.
- $37.97 at Book Depository with free shipping (they price in NZD)
- $37.83 at Fishpond (a NZ company, but shipped in from the UK).
The difference between the cheapest and most expensive:
- $32.17.
That’s about 8 coffees worth saved by skipping the high st and buying online.
Either way – even with the postage – it was always cheaper to buy from Amazon than from a New Zealand company. It still is. But we will give Book Depository a go and see how that works out. I still will not pay New Zealand prices for books.
Vintage Hairstyling in Wellington @ Wildilocks
If you love vintage style – clothes, make-up, hair – then you need to check out Emily Belle at Wildilocks on Cuba St.
Wildilocks are also based in Perth and Melbourne if you are interested, and will be doing the hair for a photoshoot for Illamasqua makeup – the stuff I spent a small fortune on while I was in Melbourne recently.
I picked up a deal on the Treat Me website, so got what I consider to be a bloody good deal, but having now tried it – this is one deal that will actually lead to more spending. Bad for my sanity allowance, but I guess good for Wildilocks. Now I am still going to Calibre for my haircuts, but Emily knows her stuff when it comes to vintage. We had a lovely chat (when I wasn’t dozing off because I find having my hair done quite relaxing). Not only that, but while the Wildilocks site has some How to Tutorials, Emily has her own on You Tube at MissEmilyBelle.
Anyway, from the back and sides (my photos really didnt come out that well) – here is what I ended up with:
I already had the outfit – a dress purchased off Trade Me from Artman. Ive just bought a wide red belt and bolero jacket from Pagani to do with it. Cos I am not as slim as the dummy in this picture and I need some help lol.
Either way – it was a fabulous treat, and we topped it off with dinner at Arbitrageur – becuase we felt like it!
Wow! The internet works
Filed under: Cost of living, Hubby's Views, Only in New Zealand
It’s been an interesting experience dealing with different internet service providers here in Wellington. Capital city, you’d think you could get a decent internet connection. We’ll skip the whole two pieces of wet string connecting NZ to the rest of the world, and Ultra Fast Broadband that the Govt is pumping Billions of Dollars into – ultra fast to where? Jeez, I’d go for an internet connection that doesn’t need resetting multiple times a day.
So it was with some trepidation that we decided to watch X-Men: First Class through iSky. This is the Sky thingy that allows you to watch movies and other box office stuff, through your internet connection. In this enlightened age, our ISP wont even charge us for the data downloaded, it’s gratis!!
Now, normally if we try watching a few minutes of something on YouTube (not breaching any copyright there naturally), we have to let the video stream down and then watch it. Rather than watch it there and then. It’s an inconvenience, but ho hum. You can hear the cogs whirring.
Two hours of a movie via the internet?? It seemed to be asking a bit much. Hamsters can’t run that fast!
So it was with some incredulity and surprise that we watched the whole thing, with some pauses for a coffee break, without a hitch. No pausing, no buffering, no glitches, no having to refresh the browser etc. While the download clearly didn’t like fast on screen action, with the picture jumping around a bit, it still worked.
Which got me thinking. Clearly it’s possible to provide a decent internet service capable of delivering 2Gb+ of data within two hours. So why did it take me over eight hours the other week to upload 3Gb of data? Why can’t the internet service be this reliable the rest of the time? We’re already paying for the internet connection, why is it we have to pay for extra content before we get a decent service?
Or perhaps it’s that the internet is being swamped by so many people watching (paid for and copyright respected) content, that the rest of us plebs have to make do with the left over bit of wet string.
And oh the irony. We finished watching the movie, went to check email, and the connection died.
Time for another reset. Should have kept the movie streaming…
Twilight at the waterfront
Sometimes you just need to take a walk.
Sad weekend for Wellington and the Wairarapa :(
This is a hard blog to write. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to blog about this at all.
On Saturday morning, there was a ballooning accident in Carterton and 11 people died.
Hot Air Ballooning over the Wairarapa is one of the many things I hope to do someday. We have done it from Christchurch when we came here on our Honeymoon – and have beautiful memories of it. And watching the balloons from our house, or on the way to the train station in the morning is a stunning sight.
Hy heart goes out to the people left heartbroken by this.
I am not linking to any news stories about this as I have found them to be quite revolting in their need to be as sensationalist as possible. The reporting has literally turned my stomach.
Scary quake in Wellington last night.
There we were – quietly watching TV and we got the first rumble of an Earthquake. Then it got worse with a loud bang and some pretty severe shaking. It was enough to get us up off the sofa and heading for the table to dive under it.
It turned out to be a 5.7 Magnitude quake our in the Cook Straight between Wellington and Picton – a lot nearer Picton.
Now we are quite used to quakes here in Wellington, but that’s the worst one we have felt in the 7 years we have been here- and it caused one helluv an adrenaline rush. Because it takes about 10 minutes for the information about a quake to show up on Geonet or the online Quake Drums, we had no idea where it originated. So I was straight on the phone to the family in the Waiararapa to make sure it hadn’t been worse out there. FaceBook went into instant overload – everyone wondering where the quake was, and hoping it wasn’t Christchurch (given the jolt we had – it would have been another devastating one if it had hit the city).
We experienced no damage – which is as far as I am aware a sign of a well designed building. Its supposed to shake. Essentially the building is built in such as way that it moves with the quake -rather than trying to withstand it. Not a single glass fell of the shelf.
Others were not so lucky with damage and falling objects being reported in the comments on the Dom Post, and the swanky new Meridian Offices on the waterfront having the Louvres on the outside of the building damaged.
Obviously – people seem to be a lot more wary and worried these days because of the situation in Christchurch. We have seen close up just what a bad quake can do – and I certainly found myself wondering last night if this was our “big one” – in the few seconds it took to decide to head for the table. I think the situation is actually being made worse by the sheer number of quake related stories we are reading. Not the stories about Christchurch – I mean articles about just how many building in Wellington are unsafe – not up to current building codes. How many need millions of dollars of earthquake strengthening work, and how little help is available to owners to get it done.
Just this week, it was reported that the Justice Department had closed several courthouses (including Masterton) because they had engineering reports that said they were not safe in the event of a quake. There are plenty of building in this city that are still occupied – and yet prone to significant damage if a big one hits. It’s hard not be a bit jumpy in the city – wondering if the cafe you are sitting in is going to stay standing up. Odd that the only building damage mentioned from last night was not in fact the old unstrengthened buildings, but the new modern green Meridian office.
Wellington Council steals Christmas – bah humbug.
Today (yes – it is still not quite the middle of November) is the Wellington Santa Parade. It seems that train rides into the city have traditionally been free for Children. Not Any more.
The Grinch’s in charge of the council have cut the free rides because:
“Because Greater Wellington pays KiwiRail to provide train services, regional ratepayers are effectively subsidising children’s train travel on that day.”
The Christmas parade was just one of hundreds of events that took place in Wellington each year, many of which were targeted at children, and it was unfair to offer cheap transport to just one.
“We don’t believe that’s a fair or justifiable use of ratepayers’ money, particularly when they’re already paying so much for rail. And there are already substantial concessions for children travelling on public transport – they pay half the adult fare.”
What a load of miserable gits. Sorry but is this really going to make such a huge difference to the vast amount of my rates that these councillors waste on a daily basis?
Bah Humbug! I hope Santa blows a huge raspberry towards the council offices on his way past.
Blowing up the damn Wellywood sign.
Despite a great deal of opposition – and the CEO “leaving”, Wellington International Airport are set on throwing thier weight around and forcing the city to have a Sign on the Miramar Hill mucking up a perfectly fine view.
Having faced derision and condemnation for trying to stick a “Wellywood” sign on the hill – rather than let it drop they have said “Well – you tell us what you want on the hill then”.
The new CEO then threw out some insults telling Wellington that our idea were all boring (Wellywood being really original in their warped minds I guess), and a “panel” were put together to choose 5 of the best ideas for us to vote on.
Only there is no option for “Leave the damn hill alone you tossers”
So there is still no way to stop the Airport doing what the hell they want.
Ok – it’s their land. But I really despise the way they have behaved. They have been incredibly abusive to the people of this city – they have insulted us, called us names and behaved like a bunch of power crazy madmen in forcing something that it still seems most people do not want.
Creating a vote is just a cynical attempt to try and justify what they will do anyway.
But as long as the Airport insists on riding roughshod over us – there will be people lining up to take the piss out of them:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Pa2H5ubbKDI
Avalon’s Guide On Facebook
-
