Well the ratbags award for this week must go to those two spannerhead MPs who’ve been caught abusing their Parliamentary privileges.  While these two clowns go swanning around the planet with their significant others, their cronies back in NZ are plotting to wind back benefits because they were incapable of appointing competent senior staff into ACC…

Personally, I don’t have a problem with Hone Harawira taking a day off during an official visit IF he had already completed the business planned for that day – I do have a mega-problem with the tone and content of the email he send to his mate, Buddy, to justify his jaunt to Paris. Then again, ‘good mate’ Buddy probably isn’t clear of the firing line either – the email he was sent was a personal one and I think he has some nerve trying cling to the moral high ground after releasing his mate’s inopportune email to the media…should Hone Harawira be fired as an MP? Nah, only if you want to make rank dumbness an offence in which case you would probably have to get rid of the lot of them and start over…

Rodney Hide, on the other hand, should seriously consider handing in his ministerial platinum card and returning to Dancing with the Stars (except it just got axed) – clearly he is a better tapdancer than he is an minister…for someone who has made his name as a perk-buster to be perk-busted himself and then to whine about not being a martyr when everyone else is doing it, clearly invalidates any credibility he might once have had. But as has already come out, so long as he can at least keep the (easily-led) people of Epsom happy, he is pretty safe…

Not a ratbag…

Well not this time anyway, porn king, Steve Crow was fronted on Close Up over his apparent bullying of some defenceless veterans at the New Plymouth RSA – interesting what comes out when the ‘bully’ has a chance to rebut the allegations – he’s actually the guy putting the money INTO the RSA and dragging it out of debt – but with that comes change, and a couple of grumpy old buggers don’t want to. Mark Sainsbury would have had a bit more credibility himself tonight if he had admitted he might have got it wrong and focused a little more on the FACTs. Mark, maybe YOU should be on this week’s ratbag list for not getting your FACTS right…

Many of these RSA’s and similar clubs are run like little fiefdoms instead of the businesses that they really are and need to be in order to sustain themselves…yes, I mourned as well when the Invercargill Garrison Club had to increase its prices from a dollar a jug but some things have to be done in order to survive. I’m a strong supporter of RSAs and the role they play although I’m not sure whether we are better or worse off in that they are not the powerful political beast that Aussie’s RSL is…

The Week In Review

It’s been quite a week or so hence the lack of daily posts…I spent a couple of great days in Wellington last week and caught up with some people I hadn’t seen for a awhile and gained some valuable insights into how things in this system do or do not work; got introduced to an interesting business plan that I think has some real potential; and got to spend an unproductive but very satisfying half an hour at Modelcrafts and Hobbies – one of the things that I do really miss not being in Wellington. Mr Regan was unable to tempt me with the inbound Airfix 1/24 Mosquito but if he had had the Trumpeter Swordfish on the shelf I would probably been in trouble when I got home. I did invest in yet another jar of German Grey for Dora and some Vallejo Russian Green for the B-4…

Arrived home to find we had the twins for the weekend – always lots of fun and enjoyment but it means that nothing else is going to happen while they are here…took them to the Taumarunui Guy Fawkes display on Saturday night which was all lots of fun until the fireworks started and then we had to beat a hasty retreat because all the noise was just a little too much…dropped them back at home just as their Dad was coming back from a quick excursion down the river with a couple of trout. I took a pic to send to the US CALL guys so they have something to look forward to if they get down to Australia and NZ next year…the twin’s dad made it his mission in life to show fishermen from the Northern Hemisphere (where he believes there are no ‘real’ trout), what a real trout is, so I think they’ll have a guaranteed guide when they come down under…

And last but definitely not least, the vege garden has passed its first milestone and various heads and shoots are starting to come out of the ground. We were a bit worried as it has been pretty dry for the last week or so and when you rely on tank water, you sometimes tends to get a bit stingy with the watering at this time of years – 20,000 litres sounds like heaps but…

Planning for summer projects is already under way and the vege garden is already down for a lift so that when we put in the front deck, the height above the ground from any point along the edges will be less than a metre. If we get that done this summer, coupled with more tidying up and new gardens it will have been a good summer…