Monthly Archive for September, 2007

Page 3 of 3

clean pure water

Published on September 5, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

when you come to wellington you only need to buy one bottle of water. free refills that are as good or better are available for free – from the tap.

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with big mountain ranges surrounding wellington there is plenty of great water for now, but the council website discusses plans and options to accommodate growth:

New water efficiency options

We are also investigating whether new water efficiency measures could put off the need to build a major new water source, and what that might involve. Metering of households is one such measure.

cracked me up. i totally believe in all resources being metered so consumers have visibility to their costs – but it was just another example of how unspoiled nz still is. so much clean water that it is not worth metering.

the tighthead prop passes to the number 8 for an easy try

Published on September 4, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

no way to exaggerate how big rugby is here. the national team is the all blacks and they are currently in france in prep for the rugby world cup that starts in 3 days, 43 minutes and 51 seconds – but you knew that, right? non-stop coverage of the team’s every move and we’re still days away from the first match.

in addition to the national team (the all blacks), you also have the super 14 (wellington’s team is the lions), the air new zealand cup (a round robin tournament with the super 14 teams) and the heartland championship with smaller regional teams – and that is just rugby union. rugby league is a variation with a whole different set of teams. one of the big rugby leagues is “national rugby league“, composed mostly of australian teams. the nz team is the warriors and they play other teams like the south sidney rabbitohs and the sidney roosters. so no shortage of rugby on the telly.

one of the traditions of the all blacks is to perform the haka – a mãori traditional dance – before each international match.

see it in action here.

800Px-Allblackhaka

mastercard is currently running an ad that plays on the national loyalty to the all blacks.

how did the blind chicken cross the road?

Published on September 2, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

so how do you help the blind safely cross the road? the crosswalks throughout new zealand all have the same clever activation switch. when it’s not safe to cross the switch chirps and physically vibrates every couple of seconds. this solves the problem that i have always pondered – how do the blind find the braille sign that says “mens” or “womens” outside the restroom? when it’s safe to cross there is a shaking-a-rock-in-can sound and the switch vibrates rapidly. if it’s a bonus cycle (all lights red, safe to cross in any direction) then a buzzer is added to the mix.

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homeless

Published on September 1, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

well, not technically i guess since we still have the cabin in vt, but the house in the framingham closed today. jackie and gromit will now be moving from shelter to soup kitchen.

sadly the closing was not as smooth as it could have been – but the good news is that we expected as much so were mentally prepared. as i mentioned in an earlier post one of the things that made selling my woodshop kit easy was how grateful and excited everyone was about their items. all the sales were also nice and easy. i’ll just say that the home sale was not the same.

gromit is probably having the toughest time. he has always been nervous, and he really doesn’t like change. unfortunately almost every day for the last month something that was part of his world disappeared. the vermont cabin got all packed up, then the framingham couch & ottoman (his favourite places), then most of the the rest of the house, i disappeared, the movers came back for the bed, and finally they were out on the streets. when gromit was in vt after the house was all packed he just lied on the bedroom floor where the bed used to be (he favourite vt hangout).

i expect he’ll be better once they hit the road and start staying at places with furniture and folks to give him plenty of attention.

here he is at a residence inn post closing.

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“i know i’m supposed to lie down and this is my bed, but i’m so nervous i won’t close my eyes…”