The Things People Complain About

Alright, I've read of complaints from people who live near New Zealand's premier sporting arena, Eden Park, about crowds, noise and light pollution. I remember residents moving in, and complaining about noise around Western Springs Stadium from the long established speedway and from rock concerts held there, some resident there have even complained about noise from the Auckland Zoo. There's the folk from Alfriston in South Auckland who complain about the noise from the the long established Ardmore Aerodrome and the Warbirds Club who sometimes use the runways there. I have heard 1st hand from complainers at the local pub in Tuakau, when I lived in that rural community, moan about cows mooing and roosters crowing. Here in Opotiki I have heard of complaints about the Voluntary Fire Brigades siren.

But reading the 2nd page of the NZ Herald there is an article that takes the cake. "Once in a while" a serial complainer will ring and moan about the noise from the song of our native Tui bird coming from the Karori wildlife sanctuary. What the !!!!!!! these people need to double glaze their windows, soundproof their walls and ceilings, gap seal cracks in their homes where outside world may leak in and put some earplugs in. What the hell are the administrators of the park supposed to do to help these people? I mean, shutting the birds up and scaring them away goes against the principles of a Wildlife Sanctuary. The whining neighbours of the sanctuary may like to call the Noise Control unit of the Serial Complainers Society or maybe Animal Control, they could possibly confiscate or impound the birds, but to where? You guessed it.... a wildlife sanctuary.

New Zealand's bush, (National Parks and State Forests) are some of the most tranquil places you could hope to spend time in. No road noise, no light pollution, no radio,TV or cell phone reception. What really accentuates that tranquility is haunting echoing song of the Tui, the beautiful song of the bellbird, the sound of the Korero's wings as they stalk you along the tracks, the cry of the Kaka, the shrill night time shrieks of the Kiwi, the Morepork's call at night and the friendly peep-peep of a Fantail inches away.

Here is a site with many of NZ's native bird calls

Rugby Memorabilia

Sadly I have decided to sell a lot of my things to suit my more streamlined lifestyle. For information on these All Blacks memorabilia, go here. Or you can e-mail me at all_blacks@ihug.co.nz

Tragic Beach Accident

This article appeared in the 3rd of January edition of the front page of the NZ Herald.
A young guy (15) had been hooning down a beach on a motorcycle during the day earlier this week and it seems that at night he continued his antics but without headlights on. This guy took out two young teenage girls walking on the beach with his bike killing a 13 year old girl.
The youth riding the bike is no doubt a dickhead with no respect for others and will deserve the manslaughter charge that should follow and I hope the guilt stays with him long after the judicial system has dealt with him.
The NZ Herald seems to be cranking this tragedy up. Two days in a row it has been front page news. It seems that because of this idiots actions the spotlight has gone on everyone who takes a vehicle on the beach.
I can envisage the police installing cameras on beaches and having checkpoint where they will ask people for ID. There certainly will be a clampdown.
The thing is, many people had already complained or cautioned the youth about his behaviour, and the Police had received complaints earlier that day ( uncertain if about same individual ) about vehicles on the beach. Why wasn't something done about the rider? 1stly by a member of the public. If a threat to public safety is apparent, don't you have a duty to stop the threat. I am saying this because of the numerous "I told you so" statements of people who had earlier seen the rider of the motorcycle. If my family was threatened I would act. 2ndly if a complaint was forwarded to the Police, what happened?
The Herald stated several other irrelevant facts, such as the motorcycle was unregistered (an unregistered vehicle still has a sparkplug and wheels) and getting the opinion of a Muriwai serial complainer who complained of " illegal quad bike and custom cars" (whatever the hell they are?). The Herald the published her opinion of a "huge increase of accidents...nothing is being done to prevent offenders riding illegally in these areas" without reporting if that persons claim was true or what the hell "illegal riding" is.
Hysteria, Heralds specialty.
But wait, some sanity and from a councillor no less!
Kitch Cuthbert said the public needed to intervene. He said "we're talking about public safety","people stand idly by". Good on you Kitch! Who wants to have checkpoints on our beaches and what kind of person cannot stand up to a lone teenage tearaway for the sake of his or her family. Come on now we weren't talking Hells Angels here

Number One (the loneliest number)

I've been wondering what to do with this site and have held off until the New Year to decide.
Nearly every day I wander down the the dairy and buy a copy of the New Zealand Herald. It is basically an Auckland paper, but has a national circulation.
Nearly every day I skim throught the headlines and read columns that interest me, pausing in the front section and the world section to do Sudoku and every time I read the Herald I get pissed off (helplessly pissed off) with;
a/ the lack off objectivity and balanced reporting,
b/ the amount of attempted indoctrination of the public and moulding off public opinion,
c/ thier apparent collusion in eroding our freedoms, individuality, and customary lifestyles
c/ not enough Sudoku and the medium Sudoku is harder than the hard Sudoku.
Let me just say that the Herald isn't the only arm of the media that acts like a P.R. company, but they are the one I read most often, so I guess I'll comment on them. I want to stay focussed.
I want to balance things out a little bit, I want to do a bit of indoctrinating, inject a bit of anarchaic-left-handed logic. I hope I dont get in trouble, and I dont mean to offend anyone, it's just the way my head works and if the Herald can publish opinions then I guess I can.