Auckland is about to be shafted

The proposal is:
...and the reality...

Super city may not deliver big savings

Better still it looks like it is going to be rammed down our throats without so much as a referendum.

Will there be One Auckland?

The report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance, to be made public today, will recommend a focus on stronger regional government.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10563783

I may need to borrow the following:

• A back hoe
• A concrete cutter, and
• A very large hack saw

If my efforts with these don't work Northlanders may have to consider quarrying or making bricks for a Hadrian type wall near Wellsford.

The residents of the Waikato and places further south may be considering a channel development right about now. To run from the Waikato river at Tuakau to the Firth of Thames.

I'm a cat alone, an only cat

The Bag Lady aka Queen Smudge, of Old cat's guide to scaring your human fame, at the grand age of 19 years 5 months and 2 days ran out of lives on Monday.

She had been in poor health for a while, years in fact but by Sunday she was so frail that a strong breeze could have blown her over. By Monday morning no breeze was needed like many times before off to the vet she went. This time she really did come home in a box. Cheapest trip in a long time I understand.

In case you missed it The Smudge was not my favourite flatmate. In fact the bossy britches was my least favourite flatmate.

My humans of course are very upset but not surprised.

In less than 3 weeks I have gone from having 2 feline flatmates to none.

I think I can handle the extra attention and I love the lack of competition but I have spotted a down side.

It has to do with the neighbours, the feline neighbour to be exact.

Now I have been beating up this wimp of a ball of fluff for months- no problem. Minnie and Smudge would often come out and watch my prowess as I knocked the soprano ponce for six.

Last night however he didn't turn tail and run quite as quickly as usual. It took *shudder* human intervention to make him slink back over the fence.

Could it be he was more scared of my elderly flatmates than he was of me?

It could be very worrying.

Life in the fly lane

It is going to be noisy this weekend.

All week we have be treated to allsorts of aircraft doing strange things over head, usually in groups.

I've been sat up the road watching with my kitten*.

This weekend's airshow at Whenuapai looks like being a few notches above the usual.

http://www.airforce.mil.nz/operations/whats-on/airshows-opendays/whenuapai-open-day.htm

*My kitten is not my biological offspring. I adopted him as a baby, that is why he has two legs and no tail.

So much for the price of fish in Chapman St

A Morrinsville family is about to lose its home of almost 20 years.

Housing New Zealand wants the family out. But the family is refusing to leave, claiming it's being vilified because of gang connections.

The Pairama family have lived at 1 Chapman Street for 18 years. Miriam Pairama's mother was the lease holder since the lease holder from 1988 until she died of cancer last year.

Housing New Zealand are refusing to transfer the lease into Miriam's name.

"Four times she tried to have the tenancy changed but they turned her down, three times she tried to buy the house and they turned her down, and when she got really sick, well I tried and they turned it down," says Miriam. Housing New Zealand says they've offered the family two other homes to live in which have been turned down. They say the family can't continue to live at Chapman Street because they don't deserve to after intimidating and abusing neighbours and noisy partying.

Miriam claims it is because her brother Lester is in a gang: "As far as I look it it's because my family are gang members and what's that got to do with the price of fish?" full story

Are there people out there who do want gang members for neighbours?
No?
Could it be something to do with the intimidation, abuse and noisy parties that seem to follow gang members around like a bad smell?
Or is it that the neighbours fear that the low IQ could be contagious.

What has that got to do with the price of fish? Everything and nothing.
The reason for this eviction is no mystery to your average law abiding citizen.

One good cat down

13 June, 2007

I am not amused
How about this little piece of idiocy from Whangarei.Only 2 cats per household.I protest!Mind you it could be a good opportunity to get rid of that cowardly bully of a Minnie cat or that senile old bag of bones called Smudge..........and as for that ginger next door.........

I am eating those words today. Yesterday one of my flatmates, Minnie cat, my favourite boxing bag with a nasty left hook, very unexpectedly passed away, and not necessarily from old age even though she was 15.

At a guess a fur ball was to blame or heart failure.

I have tried taking my frustrations, gently, on Smudge but she is so old and frail I haven't the heart.

Now I will have to work harder at avoiding being a lap cat and mousing at the compost bins.

I am getting called constantly by the kids. Responding was Minnie's job.

I miss you already you stocky grey tag-a-long.