So it will come as no surprise that I am a miserable old fit that although I have lived in the same house for 25 years have nothing to do with any of my neighbours

Anyway just got home from work and there’s something in my letterbox. It’s a ziplock with a bulb in it from a household in my street

Says hi we are x. We don’t know many of you But we live at y. We’re the 5th generation of our family to live in the house. The house and family have lived through wars, the depression good and bad times and we will get through this.

We’d love to get to know you face to face but in the meantime we’ve set up a WhatsApp group. Put yr details below and we will add you

Here’s a daffodil bulb. If you want plant it by your letterbox and in the spring it will be a sign of hope and solidarity for our little street to remind us what we’ve come through. As we have a massive street party

It’s really nice to hear something like this so I thought I’d share. I’ve even broken the habit of a lifetime and signed up. I must be sick

Really dangerous - just imagine if BOD's vivid had slipped or run through yr kids clothes.

He could have dyed

Really interesting thread. Thanks everyone for sharing. I guess I should do the same.

I've always been a positive sort of person, but I find that being challenged as I get older. I think because shit keeps getting heaped on when I was planning for things to get easier.

My wife developed MS in her early 30's which got pretty bad to the extent she had to give up work and was in a wheelchair by 38. I spent the next 10 years as the sole earner and a pretty much full time carer too. Would get meals ready for her before I went to work Get up in middle of night to hoist her out of bed etc but eventually it got to the stage where she had to go into full time care as I couldn't cope any more on a diet of four hours sleep a night and she was only getting worse. Hadn't had a holiday for ten years and was working 70 hour weeks.

Massive guilt that she is in a home though. visit about 3 x week.

Then I met someone. More guilt. Both towards wife and new partner because she would like to move in together etc and I'm not prepared to go that far.

Job has become deeply unsatisfying but is well rewarded and at my age - basically hanging out for retirement. Life is work, go for a walk in evening drink too much sleep with weekends with new partner.

She has had a really tough last few years. Was made redundant and took six months to find a new job during which time I helped out financially obviously. Got a new job which she doesnt like and which pays much less so continued to support her. She had first grandson who was born with brain damage so got to spend lots of time at Akl Hospital. Fortunately he's now two and seems to be OK. His mother has had three miscarriages this year. Both of my partners other kids have had issues a bit beyond the normal kids I think. which places immense stress on her.

Her parents are now in their 90's with ongoing health issues but fiercely independent but really can't cope living independently but won't go into a retirement home. So our weekends are a non stop merry go round of visiting kids and parents to sort out their various issues.

Two weeks ago partners mother was hospitalised with a stroke from a brain bleed. Her husband is beside himself . It's sweet to see him just wanting to sit and hold her hand for hours on end but not so sweet to find cupboards full of (literally) shitty clothing etc. Mother was recovering well but on Friday had another massive stroke (on her 90th birthday) and is now in a pretty vegetative state. Husbands hoping she'll get better again and they can go home everyone else is hoping for a quick end. Meanwhile partners brother has cancer of esophagus and has had a series of ops and is now on chemo (again).

Partner is rushing into a job she hates (& where they are only paying the wage subsidy) then to hospital etc and is beyond strung out. I'm supporting her to the best of my ability financially and emotionally but it is tough. Effectively what with a couple of grand a month for my wife's care and several thou for partner I am eroding my retirement savings. Which is fine. It has to be done and it's only money, but as I said at outset this was supposed to be the cruisy years. No travel last two years which is how I keep sane and the prospect of having to work a couple of years longer before I do get to retire with the realization that I'm probably only going to be around 200-25 years if I am lucky and probably the last ten of those I will be health compromised so it irks me to lose a couple of the good years.

Honestly Level 4 when I could let go some of the guilt because I wasn't allowed to visit etc was like a holiday. Like others I have worked through and its bloody busy. Fewer staff means I'm covering even more roles. It's working my businesses are doing well which means people have jobs.

It all raeds a little self indulgent but am I happy. Not if I'm honest - except when reading the Grumpy Old Man thread

@Bovidae Pretty much saved me posting.

I too was at the game and it was magnificent sporting occasion. My brother had some sports ears and it was very obvious that while Poite was telling the Lions what they should do there were no repercussions when they totally ignored him.

Everyone agrees we dominated the first half. Gatland clearly got his troops together and said you've played shit - they're bullying you but your still in this and can steal it. Stop trying to play the AB's at their game and slow the game down and wait for the penalties to come. The AB's are over eager and the mistakes will come.
and come they did - right from the kick off. That penalty to get them to within three - you could see the belief grow in the Lions. Then AB's butchered another try and Kaino was (rightly IMO) binned and we lost the plot a bit.

Meanwhile Roundtree? was on the field every stoppage coaching the players chipping away at the ref - it was fucking annoying but quite effective. He, Gatland and Itoje have faces that just cry out to be slapped.

You could see the Lions stealing it becoming more real from about 20 minutes out so the end result was no real surprise - albeit deeply unsatisfying.

As for the ground itself. Monumental experience Worth every cent all 50,000 of them. I've read a bit about how the Lions fans out-passioned our support and we have to learn from them. Well while that is true I think by the 3rd test we Kiwi's had learned and certainly in my part of the ground the Lions were no more vocal than the locals. Every time a Lions chant went up or we felt the AB's needed our support the crowd were up to it. It took many cleansing ales and until about 3am before I got my voice back.

So while it feels like a series lost, we have an opportunity to learn from this. We're not as good as we thought we were, but we're still pretty good and unlike some I think Hansen will take a lot out of this and we will be all the better for it come Japan 2019.

Great night, great test shit result

It gets really tiresome so many threads being hijacked by Trump apologists
1 Hilary has publically stated that she is appalled by Weinstein and he should suffer full consequences of his actions
2 Yeah Hollywood majority is liberal but given the Sec State allegedly called Trump a moron why shouldn't an actor
3 Weinstein's abhorrent behavior doesn't excuse Trumps abhorrent behavior. There's plenty of allegations about him doing more than just grope but he's made to POTUS
4 Although it seems knowledge of Weinstein's behavior was indeed widespread politicians and political parties of all persuasions take money and endorsements from all manner of scumbags. Is it hypocritical to blame one when you have direct knowledge of the other and still cosy up to the second. Definitely but everyone's doing it - unfortunately.
5 The direct knowledge thing is interesting. Don't underestimate peoples ability to ignore stuff that with hindsight is obvious - not because of any benefit they receive - but because the facts are just too heinous for their mind to accept. Unfortunately I have some experience here. A guy once worked in one of my sites. He was an evil paedophile of the worst order. His workmates were defending him rigorously despite evidence to the contrary right up until he confessed because they could not believe someone they worked with and knew was a monster. I'm sure we've all had conversations like "wouldn't surprise me if X was done for Y" but we do nothing about it because we refuse to countenance reality and fall back to thinking he's a bit strange sure but No way. That's before you factor in the power and influence, money and lawyers and shit that Weinstein employed to ensure he could maintain a patina of respectability.

@hooroo Only what is in the media but I do have a few immediate thoughts.

• lt's being touted as a free stadium - but its not going to be free. At a minimum I would anticipate that the private investors would want the land gifted to them. That land being Bledisloe Wharf. I guess that this implicitly accepts that the proposal pre 2011 was never going to work as there was insufficient space

• PoA are in the very early stages of examining alternative sites for the port location, but any relocation is decades away. Losing Bledisloe at this stage is not commercially viable

• More commercial realities. Moving the port (probably to Firth of Thames) will cost shit loads. the cost-offset is the development of the existing port to unlock its land value. Plonking a stadium down wastes this land value effectively making the port relocation more expensive.

• A stadium is a poor use of such a prime site. As I have said before - there's a reason renders of stadia are always night shots with stands brilliantly lit up a people spilling out into the surrounding area. The reality is that during the day every one of them is effectively and blank walled citadel 13 stories high with no activity or street level engagement.

• It appears there has been an attempt to mitigate the above by part sinking it into the harbour. LMFAO way to dramatically increase costs. I can't imagine the millions of litres of water that will continually have to be pumped away but when Britomart was going to be 5 levels deep it was an astronomical figure.

• By all means move the port and develop the land - at some point in the future, but IMO such a development should be a combination of public space and residential. This both by the "private investors" and Goff just screams vanity project. We have a history of doing things like this on the cheap. Just what Akl needs a cheap plastic box right on our foreshore that will become effectively an industrial wasteland for 90% of the time. If there is a real desire to move away from EP then a proper site should be identified and developed. The whole perceived need is actually down to a ham=-fisted attempt to rationalise Akl's sporting venues and gather public support through a smoke and mirrors conceptualisation of something that would turn out far different to the pretty pictures Granny Ferald publishes every 6 mths or so

Unfortunately complacency seems to be hard wired into Kiwi DNA.

People not getting tested when they had symptoms is inexcusable.

Doctors not testing people who had symptoms is inexcusable.

Fuck knuckle retards trying to break out of (and into) isolation is inexcusable.

But the government has to shoulder a massive amount of the blame because there was plenty of evidence even before COVID that there is always a hard core of the population who won't do the right thing and feel laws and regulations don't apply to them.

We all know it so why not plan to counter it.

What is really criminal is the apparent disconnect between the public pronouncements about vigilance, the border is our defence, don't relax your efforts, COVID is a tricky virus, it will come back etc and the lack of action to enforce those blithe utterances.

If the border was our first defence what's the penalty for abandoning your post in the face of the enemy?

@Winger This is precisely why I went long on tinfoil futures in February.

Re "The cure is worse than the virus" that is a very popular assertion on her and trending in the broader population too although still a minority perspective.

However it is far from proven. Nowhere that has adopted a more laissez faire approach than NZ is faring any better. Winger name drops Sweden at every possible opportunity despite the evidence damning his argument but the simple facts (damn facts) is it is way too early to make a call on which is the right approach economically.

We can easily see what doesn't work. Do SFA and pretend there's nothing wrong has failed everywhere. There is the very real possibility that the Go Hard - Go Early approach will turn out to be the right one.

Or it may be that it is proved too draconian, but notwithstanding the current lockdowns (genuine question) where is fairing better economically?

Better is relative. There are a lot of people doing it tough and it's only going to get worse, but travels fucked everywhere. Tourism is goneburger globally. The simple truth is, as Sweden found out, the global economy is so interconnected, there is no way you can say we are not going into lockdown. Effectively your economy shuts down anyway.

I'm fucked off with Labour because they dicked around during the two months of L1 and wasted an opportunity. I am totally over the whole pandemic thing and wish I was sitting sipping a cold beer in Colombo right now as was the plan, but saying we should just let it run its course in NZ is totally impracticable. I also resent people who are selfish and not doing the right thing because they are simply prolonging the agony fore all of us, but I blame the govt for a lot of that as well by encouraging false optimism - followed by despondency - with al the Cindyspeak.

It's a fucking hard one. I can I guess accept prolonged L1. I also expect (always did) further cases but FFS I hope the govt are going to display a greater level of competency next time round.

What I would like to see is L1 robust controls of border and everyone who touches it resident and traveller so that the odd case is immediately contained and we don't have to move out of L1. Do that and I'll happily scan QR codes all day while wearing my mask. I'd wear it all day - in bars and restaurants - everywhere but at home to get as close to normality as possible for as long as possible.

I want great processes and controls not just great soundbites and caring looks.

OK so a month back I went to a business forum with Bill English speaking

It was the day that he had said goodbye to Li Keqiang. He had also been at Paremoremo Prison earlier that day handing out Literacy Awards. Both events coloured some of his comments.

I have written before about the reception that John Key got at similar events. We are all aware that English has a PR issue - being perceived as a bit grey, lacking charisma and personality.

So it was interesting to see hear him speak having not doe so for probably 6-7 years. He's made huge improvements in the way that he comes across.

He got four genuine rounds of laughter in the first minute of talking. Whilst never going to reach the level of comfort speaking as Key with his aw shucks boy next door blokey goofiness the new PM came across pretty damn well I have to say. Certainly (as expected) was a lot better on detail than Key and less able to produce a sound bite but nevertheless it was a pretty polished performance. He'd come across a lot better IMO if he could simply get some inflexion into his voice which is a bit atonal.

Overall he came across as a really effective, competent manager compared with Key's team leader persona.

I took some notes at the time but I'm having some issues recalling what I meant so apologies if this is disjointed.
So in bullet form

• Profit used to be a dirty word but now people understand the link between a sustainable business meaning sustainable jobs
• Talking about the visit of China's premier he said that a kappa haka group had ended their performance by singing a love song in Manadarin which had left Li Keqiang visibly moved. The lesson being that personal touches create relationships
• The world particularly the developing world view of NZ is uniquely positive
• Few countries combine low unemployment, low government debt, surpluses and a stable government
• Only have to look across Tasman to see that. In the next 10 years the choices for Oz amount to what to cut and how to raise taxes
• In the next 5 years NZ has a set of choices - build infrastructure - reduce national debt faster (NZ's currently 20% of GDP - UK's is 90% Japans 200%) - Improve public services - Distribute benefits of growth
• We want to do a mix of all those but we have to decide what sensible choices we are going to make and we need a strong economy in order to be able to make sensible choices
• We are currently experiencing the problems of growth but we should relish and enjoy these problems because as a country we know what its like to not have growth
• In 2000 Super Fund projections had NZ's popn at 4.7 mill in the mid 40's. Now its tipped to make 5 mill in 2022
• In the last decade the number of over 65's working has gone from 11-34%
• 300,000 new jobs have been created in the last 12 mths
• Businesses can expect growth to continue. Since we came out of GFC we have had continuing growth but there are risks
• China - Number one risk is that politicos are not smart enough to make choices. Not everyone in China recognizes there are risks to its financial system and those that do argue about their ability to handle these risks
• Trump is currently fulfilling market expectations but what happens if/when the bubble bursts and he can't square the circle of tax cuts/curb the deficit and massive infrastructure spend
• China is positive about US/Chinese relationship because they believe they are too interdependent and need each other . They will have their political disputes but these will be curbed because not to do so will hurt each other
• US Border taxes are bad for everyone. English thinks in the long run the arguments for free trade and open borders will prevail because they are so logical
  On Infrastructure
• Now has much better relationship with Akl City. Traditionally the relationship consisted of childish warring through press releases but you can see through the signing of things like the Akl Transport alignment Project that the 2 parties are now working together
• Previously all discussions were dominated by the need for the CRL with effectively Akl wanting Wtn to fund it
• There has been a lack of investment in the south and west - which is where the people live
• There needs to be clever thinking about what are the next projects. Govt committed to East-West and Northern Corridor but they're the last of the big roading projects
• Money isn't a constraint As long as the govt is convinced Akl is doiung its bit money will be made available
• Whats needed is a process to shorten the time taken to make decisions
• Both sides now respect the others policies. Govt realizes the complexities of the situation and Council appreciate getting a 2nd opinion
• In terms of housing the key in Akl is to bring on my supply, faster through things like the LVR's, home start, short cuts in the RMA etc
• Demand currently outstrips supply by seven years but there is 1 Billion of govt funding available today If Akl Council can show a project that could make housing happen faster the 4's are there but they don't actually have any projects to bring forward
• Akl has responded to the situation very strongly Currently we have the fastest vgrowth in decades at 25%p.a and the longest housing pipeline. If he could just click his fingers and make it happen he would but everything needs to keep growing
• However we know we can make it work We spent 9% of our GDP on the largest publically funded disaster response in the world and industry responded so we know it can be done
• Govt has to be part of that response Own 1:16 houses (27,000 houses in Akl) and you can't tell the monopoly owner they don't need to respond
• Northcote 200 houses will become 1,000 Tamaki 2,000 will become 8,000 Also substantial investment to come in Mt Roskill & Avondale
• Labour talk about need for 10,000 home p.a. but they opposed both 3 Kings and Tamaki developments
  Effectiveness of Spend - I
• Every week hundreds of thousands of Kiwi's hand over less than $300 in tax. If they were to keep that it would make an enormous difference to their lives. Govt should do the same and treat the tax take with respect
• A lot of what govt does works well but we spend a lot of money with complex family situations and our record their is poor
• If these families fail the reaction of every govt has simply been to spend more money and it hasn't worked. There needs to be more accountability for the programmes success. Those at risk families account for 25% of social spending We need to apply business principles to that investment
• Inmates at Paremoremo cost us $110K p.a and Only 50% of them can read and write by the time they are 15
• We will have spent $1 mill on each at risk kid in the bottom 6% by the time they reach 35
• Some things have improved lowest rate of solo parents since early 80's
• It is important to see a return on investment but most important is to give these people a better life
• We need to get kids to the start of line of NCEA Lvl 2 At the moment 12-15% aren't making it
• You won't read about in the Herald because its not a sad story but that achievement level for Maori and Pacific Island kids has risen from 53-71%.
• For those at most risk we have taken them out of class where they are one of 22 and given them 1-1 tuition and results show it works.
• Spending money doesn't work. Focus makes the difference
• Customers expect a perfect product that never fails This can't be driven by the market or legislation alone has to be both.
• OSH is an example. Companies see legislation as a burden but its necessary to meet customer expectations especially as there were industries with really bad records.
• In that instance govt had to provide more legislation but there are also instances where it can be streamlined. One example is provisional tax which is an opportunity for technology to help by Apr 2018 that will be replaced by real time online tax payments
• English is v confident about NZ over the next 3-5 years. There's a greater degree of confidence and competence showing in the business community. Contacts overseas reminds him of how well we have done. The Chinese Premier knew a lot of detail about us
  Some random points I noted - can't remember context
• Smaller and different is what the public sector struggles with most
• Perception on the left is businesses rip you off and govt should do everything
• Getting authorities to understand time is money is challenging
• Government innovation is seen as an oxymoron
• Govt should support business innovation because they're not going to lead it
• We need to examine multiple pathways because no one can be certain which ones will work
• Turning ideas into commercial reality is the hard part and that's not about money it's about people
• Govt can hand out cash but not good at working out what is innovation
• Govt shouldn't fund hospital schools and prisons it should fund patients, children and problem people
• Finance isn't a constraint Finding solutions is
• Council and govt now geared for growth
• Akl Unitary Plan had a big impact on govt. It could have fallen well short of the govt's aspirations for Akl - but didn't
• Akl did a really good job they're now planning for growth and the message he brings is the govt is willing to invest

Sorry about length of post. English gave more substantive detail in 40 mins than Key did in the 4 or 5 speeches I heard him make.

Few main impressions. English really, really cares. Deride him for his politics and policies but don't doubt that. First PM to ever make the effort to gain a reasonable level of fluency in Te Reo.

He's a bright bastard and very competent and I reckon he's better able to make tough decisions than Key was because he doesn't care about personal popularity. He's an old fashioned conviction politician but with some very modern ideas.

Shame he's been saddled with the scenario of Peters as the king maker because I think he could make an excellent PM, but if that does transpire i think Winston will find English a tougher proposition than Bolger was or Key would've been

@canefan they distribute it out to jab the border workers. For whatever reason they don't use it all. They send out an email saying there is some spare front up if you are interested. This offer is oversubscribed and they run out.

The Ministry said this situation is likely to repeat given they can't totally predict the uptake but that in future they will send out more targeted emails.

That doesn't sound like the lack of a plan to me. It sounds like Plan B but poorly implemented the very first time.

@tim they catch hake in the south island. I have seen it at Sanfords here in Akl. It's a member of the cod family so maybe a cod - or given the cooking method, monkfish?

@antipodean apparently only about 1 -5 covid carriers shed enough viably virus to infect many or even any people.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the super shedders. We don't want one of them gyming it.

What fucks me off is the apologists for this guy. He;'s too young, there could be a language barrier etc. Fuck Right Off. Covid is the most reported even in history and we have been living with it for over 12 months. There is no possibility this fucktard didn't know what he was supposed to do. He simply decided he didn't want to follow the rules.

@canefan I'm told that didn't happen. What happened was they had excess vaccine and sent out an email to GP's and more turned up than there was excess.

@kiwipie Really? I thought I'd double checked.

I normally wait until a few weeks into the season before I get my picks arse about.

@kiwipie I thought I picked Blues and Crusaders?

When Covid first appeared 12 months ago NZ's ICU capacity was 173. By April this increased to 330 and by July 552. I'm not sure what has happened since.

Similarly withy respirators. Don't know current numbers but I do know from a RNZ The Detail podcast that we purchased (medical term) a shitload last year. We also developed a methodology for having one ventilator support multiple patients

@kirwan Hard to justify economically I guess. No cases in Dunedin since April last year. Asking a lot of businesses down there to go through the same pain as Auckland.

People are morons.

I'm with @nzzp with the benevolent dictator thing, only I wouldn't be very benevolent.

Was out dining when notification came through. Was able to watch presser on phone but clearly most tables didn't. As the rumour got around the restaurant it was interesting to see peoples reactions. The staff in particular were devastated as they don't know if they'll be paid but even diners looked crestfallen.

The place completely emptied in about 20 minutes. We kicked on and ended up in a bar on the waterfront that was heaving. I think we were the only two papalagi there. Having read @JK s comments, I'm now wondering how many of the punters might have come in from Papatoetoe for the night....

@nzzp We are not at the back of the queue for vaccine and we haven't gone into L3 every time we have a case. We didn't for the Defence Force cluster or the Northland one.

I'm as fucked off as anyone about being back at L3 but it is a total misrepresentation to say the govt hasn't learned anything in 12 months. They have made plenty of mistakes but how we respond to Covid has evolved. Unfortunately so has the virus. We simply can't instigate the same policies as the likes of Taiwan and Singapore. Kiwi's are far less quiescent. What can be done on those countries can't be replicated here. The yells of police state would be deafening.

I have been thinking about what needs to be done with this selfish prick who has cost us all a large measure of freedom and the economy millions. I can't see any defence for his actions. Personal responsibility FFS. Yeah a 21 yr old is still a kid, but he knew what he was doing was wrong and thought fuck it anyway.

The problem as I see it is people inherently lie and that is a conundrum for the government. Increase punishments for transgressions. People will simply lie or avoid getting tested at all so they don't get found out.

I have been told by a very senior source that Ministry of Health are pretty sure how this latest outbreak got across the border but it can't be proven. Not blaming the woman at the airport as she may not be patient 0 but someone contracted it at the airport and the very high suspicion is they were friendly with someone they wouldn't want their partner to know about. So they lie. More draconian measures simply increases the probability that people will cover up their actions.

We have thousands of exampoles of people not doing the right thing. Just look at the queues to get out of Auckland.

@bovidae I looked up that 1932 Test. Quite remarkable. SA won the toss and batted first and were all out in 90 minutes for 36!
Australia fared better but were still dismissed for 153. Both teams totals were their lowest ever against their opponents.

So SA resumed 117 runs behind and lost one for 5 before play ended.

Saturday was totally washed out, Sunday was a rest day (sabbath) and play didn't resume until 2:15 on the Monday. This time round SA couldn't even last 90 minutes, being skittled for the addition of only 40 more. Bert Ironmonger was unplayable once the sun came out. He had match figures of 11-24. SA's total aggregate of 81 is the lowest in tests for two completed innings. So despite having only scored 153, Oz won by an innings and 72 in only 109.2 overs and due to interruptions less than six hours actual playing time

SA only had one batsman reach double figures in each innings. Apart from these two only their #11 totaled 10 in two innings.