Of course I still love my food!

Just because I had bariatric surgery a few months ago and have dropped about 32Kgs, doesn’t mean that I lost my love of things gastronomic. Nothing has changed except the intake. I still love to cook and dream up recipes and I still enjoy watching anything to do with food or wine on TV.

What has changed is the quantity and type of food that I eat. Even when I cook for friends and family I take great pleasure. Maybe they gain from the experience knowing that what I cook is probably healthier for them, but it would take an expert eye to note the difference.

It looks like the weekend is going to be one where the weather dominates. It is after all, winter in New Zealand the polar blast sweeping the country is not only causing damage and it is also keeping people inside. Even in the north, as in Auckland, we are moaning about the wind and cold rain. So, I need to raise the spirits of those around me. I shall cook an old-fashioned roast chicken but add a twist of flavour.

I am going to roast a corn-fed chicken and stuff it with rosemary, garlic, pepper and butter (under the skin) along with roast parsnips, kumara (sweet potatoes), carrots and potatoes. I shall serve that with brussell sprouts cooked with streaky bacon and pine nuts. Yum---I won’t eat more than I should. That’s easy for me now.

To finish off we will have coffee and the Quinoa cookies I make. (See previous blogs for the recipe)

www.authorneilcoleman.com

Kim.Com saga has many victims now.

The news that backup files, millions of them, have been 'dumped' deleted, call it what you will, is terrible, not just for Kim.Com, but for those who used his services. Apparently he had been asking for time, while his case is still going, but the Dutch 'parent companies' of the servers have decided to dump those files.
I have not been a fan of the 'man' but I am coming to the conclusion that despite some of the 'reportedly' shady aspects to him, he may have done us a favour, something like the other whistle-blowers in the industry who have drawn attention from Governments around the world. Yes, there is a line between some of the possibly illegal  activities and the rights of the rest of us not to be spied on and the need for transparent government actions, but one is left with a distinctly bad taste in the mouth re the actions of heavy handed Government agencies and big business interests. Is Kim.com a modern day Robin Hood or something else? Time will tell, but who is going to get hurt on the meantime?
www.authorneilcoleman.com

Road rage-----nasty!

Road rage comes in all forms and sometimes one is involved whether one likes it or not. I was travelling to work today in a brand new Hyundai Accent (It’s a bit like an I.30). I had asked for a humble older Gezt like the one on which I was having a new cambelt fitted but when I asked for such a car I said that last time I took a courtesy car they gave me one that I ended up buying (a similar model, that is) so please don’t tempt me again! She smiled and before I knew it, there I was travelling in what for me is total luxury. Hell, it even has a TV that I can look at when I am reversing, something much needed by me now. IT has all the ‘bells and whistles’ and I know for sure that I don’t want to give it back---damn! I shall resist the urge because it’s way out of my ball park. They are really naughty at Hyundai, Greenlane, but I am not complaining. They have looked after me for years and always done really good work on my two trusty Hyundai cars.

You can imagine my horror when I pulled up at some lights behind a car and the four female occupants jumped out (the lights were green by now) and started swearing and screaming using all the old favourites, consisting of the MFs and Fs and various other gangster language backed up with the dumb-ass signs they use. I thought---‘OMG----what have I done? I stayed calm and started to worry about the possible damage they might inflict on my beautiful borrowed car. They walked right past me and began haranguing the people behind me. I kept my eyes to the front (yes I am a coward) as things heated up around me.

In the meantime other people started to blast their horns because they were being held up. The lovely well-brought up ‘ladies’ got back in their car and pulled to the side of the road. I watched in my TV screen in the mirror as they threw rubbish at the car following me. Then an occupant of that car leaned out the window, almost falling out and yelled insults at the car by the road, which then started to follow them.

Luckily for me, both cars turned off down a side street to continue their crazy behaviour. I saw a cop car heading in their direction. I hope the cops waste heaps of the time of these crazy road-raged-besotted twits. What a start to the day. I shall enjoy the journey home---oops back to the Hyundai-Greenlane shop to reluctantly give back my beautiful dream car. Oh well, back to reality when I pick up my well-looked after Gezt. It will be good for another 100,000 kls. I am so glad ‘Geztsy’ wasn’t a witness to that sad behaviour.
www.authorneilcoleman.com

My beautiful 'fecked' pergola!

So you just bought a new pergola and you are looking forward to using it during the rain, sort of like an all-weather BBQ space, where you can relax in the shade on a hot summers day, or hide form the rain while entertaining your friends with you BBQ cooking away in the background. It has nice hardy canvas topping and a brushed steel framework. Wonderful----it should last for years, right. Hey---al the main stores sell them and you can pay way over $500 for them. I bought mine and paid someone $100 to put it up. He did a great job and before you say, 'why didn't you do it yourself?' think again. You obviously don't know me. I did not earn the nickname re DIY projects, as 'rip shit and bust' for nothing. I have no skills or interest in pursuing such projects and why not give someone else the job. I am doing society a favour by creating employment and saving myself and others from severe mental health issues by diverting my anger and frustration.
The pergola was wonderful, although it did tend to look a bit like a tent in an urban oasis. I used it for the intended purposes and then some, like drying washing along with the usual social servicing centre aspects.
Everything was fine for a few weeks  until I noticed a tiny rip up at the top along the rim of the framework. I just stuck 'duck tape' on both sides and it seemed to work. But---- the  weather in Auckland is not always like the long hot summer we have just had. The wind finally blew and after a few storms---well, let the picture tell the story. The moral of my sad blog----'''don't get sucked into buying one of these in the belief that they will last.''' Shops like Mitre Ten or Bunning's do not tell you that they should be taken down regularly. I mean---you try and get that top off every time you smell a storm or high winds! You just ain't gonna do it unless you have paid household servants.
I should have spend a bit more and got something way more permanent and of solid construction. Hopefully the new one that my friendly neighbour is going to put up for me will last a great deal longer and look one hell of a lot better. OH, try and take your ripped up fecked pergola back to the place of purchase--- I doubt they will want to give you another one--the same damn thing will happen!

Oh dear, I don't think that was meant to happen! The bloody tops gone!

 

Australians are buying up houses in New Zealand, big time.

We can take several different slants on the latest report that it is Australians buying up New Zealand houses and not Asian people. This must get under Mr Peter’s skin (Leader of New First) because it will take the wind out of his sails and make it harder for him to target that group, come election time. We now know that Australians are snapping up what they believe to be bargain prices, forcing up the prices of course for NZers. So, we cannot blame anyone else other than our cousins from across the ‘ditch.’

With Mr Peters now looking for other targets to help him reach the magic 5% threshold needed for next year’s election, we should take a closer look at the reasons behind this latest piece of information. Is there some sinister plot on the part of Aussies to ‘take over’ NZ simply by making it untenable for ordinary NZers to own houses in their own country.

Maybe they love us so much that they want us all to move on over there so that they can force the price of labour down, thereby having a willing and compliant labour force to do the things they don’t want to do.

Perhaps the Aussies have seen the writing on the wall. They see economic breakdown occurring in their ‘lucky country’ and need a bolt hole to hide in when the proverbial finally hits the fan. Or, is it the prospect of millions of ‘boat people’ descending on the northern and eastern coasts of Australia that is frightening Australians to the extent that are seeking more distant pastures in which to play their Aussie Rules. Trouble is, Kiwis just don’t get it, so imagine the rivalry that will occur on that front!

No, forget economics, xenophobia, sporting nightmares or even climatic disasters! It’s the fear on the part of Julia Gillard supporters that they are going to live under a very different regime after the next Australian Federal elections. The prospect that the Labor (Aussie spelling again, sorry) Party is about to be cast aside to wander in the never land regions of Australian politics for several election cycles is one that Labor voters and politicians cannot stomach. Knowing that the Greens are probably going to be their bigger brother in Parliament and possibly the Senate, it just too much to stomach.

So the great diaspora of Australians has begun. They are setting up nest in New Zealand and no doubt some New Zealanders will seek drier pastures in Australian in the mistaken belief that life will be better for them. The ebb and flow of Trans-Tasman people flow will continue and sheep jokes will only slightly diminish as new New Zealand citizens take offence at the former bastion of humour attempts.

Has anything really changed by these momentous events? Nah, yeah Nah! To those people who are offended by my ‘observations, I sincerely apologise---yeah right!
www.authorneilcoleman.com

What a rotten employer. Is this the future?

It is fair to say that a movement is occurring whereby employees are slowly having their rights eroded. Just take the Private Members Bill in parliament that has the capability of reversing many of the gains workers have fought so hard for over the years. One could almost say that this move is tantamount to stripping workers of the right to collective bargaining. Let’s face it, there is no difference between workers putting up the price of their labour and that of a ‘producer’ raising prices for goods and services. Getting the balance fair and right is the main thrust in worker-employer relationship. What is worrying is the trend towards loss of workers’ conditions of employment.

When one sees the headlines in the NZ Herald today about a boss who made his employee ‘beg for gas’ in order to complete a bread run, one is left wondering how low some bosses can go. That the ERA ordered full and fair compensation is an indication that at least in some quarters there is recognition of fairness and reasonable treatment of workers. Yes, it is on the extreme edge for examples of what can go wrong, but dig deep and I am sure you would find many more examples, especially for those lowly paid workers being exploited by unscrupulous bosses in the restaurant industry.

Let us not throw away the gains made by past generations to improve the lot of workers. We do not want to see a return to times when a worker was seen as merely a means of increasing the wealth of a tiny minority, leaving a vast faceless and subjugated body of workers at the bottom of the heap. Have I just described the ever increasing gap between the rich and poor? Is that feared scenario actually upon us, camouflaged by a drip-down of a weakening welfare state?

Maybe history has come back to bite us in our rear ends. It seems that an uncaring Government is already embarking on a journey that will be very difficult for us to turn away from. At least we have read about a tiny victory. Is the time coming when we will not see such reports? Perhaps they will be buried under countless anti-worker pieces of legislation about to be thrust upon us by an increasingly isolated Government.

We can assume that we are all being spied on!

Given the claims arising from the USA about how the CIA, FBI and God knows what other organisations are spying on the citizens of the USA, then I think it is a taken fact that the rest of us are probably being caught up in the vast net that is now part of everyday life, simply because of the wide use of social media. It is not just governmental organisations that are doing this. Haven’t we known for many years that information is gathered on us each time we hit on particular sites and then that information is used to target us for future ‘sales’ and approaches from businesses wanting our money?

Why would we therefore be surprised that the Governments of most countries are increasingly looking at other aspects of our lives, all in the name of ‘security’ in this modern brave new world? Most of us accept a degree of ‘intrusion,’ just to keep us safe, but it is the inevitability that the State will use this information in ways that we did not predict. Our freedoms will be curtailed and we already know that ‘bad things happen’ to individuals who raise their voices against ‘Governments’ worldwide. The USA is no worse than most other Governments; it is merely better at what it does, because of the vast resources it can bring to the table. I would hate to think what Government secret services are doing in China and many other states, where freedom is but a word bandied around as a precursor for other activities to keep the ordinary citizens meek, mild and non-expressive of ideals that challenge the nation state. The world of computers and social media has unleashed a monster to say the least. OH, for good old fashioned pen, paper and secret phone calls. Has anything really changed? Yes it has, because technology has refurbished the tools Governments need to ‘SPY ON US!’