Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: My Mum and other good things

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  • Peter Darlington,

    Okay, drawing a very long bow and wanting to spread some Friday musical love. Lily Allen has just announced she's going to be a mum, congrat's to her. She's also just released a version of "Just be good to me" with Professor Green which I rather like. Green's style is quite reminiscent of a young Eminem (if he came from Hackney rather than Detroit) and I've always loved the Beats International tune. So, here's one for all the Mums, be good to them.

    Just Be Good To Green

    And if you quite liked that but needed more filth, the Camo & Krooked mix is well tasty. Enjoy.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    So, here's one for all the Mums, be good to them

    Like Jaquie Brown! This'd better not stop a new series of the Jaquie Brown Diaries though, or there'll be trouble!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Darlington,

    Like Jaquie Brown! This'd better not stop a new series of the Jaquie Brown Diaries though, or there'll be trouble!

    Indeed, Hopefully it'll be the basis of the next Jaquie Brown series.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    spill

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    This is inspiring and makes me teary-eyed …

    Hell, you should try viewing it as a long offshore (and I hate the phrase but what the hell..) Kiwi. Misty eyed doesn't come close.

    And I loved the story about your mum, Russell. Time and distance really makes me treasure my parents more and more as the years go on.

    I've always loved the Beats International tune

    I've always been a sucker for the rocksteadyied out dub mix on the flip of the 12"

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    Are there *any* hotels in NZ with free wifi?

    I had it as part of a deal last year at the Metropolis in Ak.

    But mostly, in my experience, no and they seem to be bemused when asked. Which always comes as a shock after the hotels of Asia where overwhelmingly now it's a gratis service (Singapore excepted, there I've found it's often charged unless you ask before check in and mostly then they relent on the charges).

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Darlington,

    I've always been a sucker for the rocksteadyied out dub mix on the flip of the 12"

    Yeh, big fan of that too.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Bruce Thorpe,

    Happy birthday to your mum, Russell.
    Being of similar vintage I was taken back to demonstrations of rhythmic gymnastics by visitors to Auckland Grammar with the vaulting horses and tumbling mats stacked to the side, and wondering not for the first or last time, if I was the only person at the school who saw things the way I saw them.
    But the shots of Wellington streets made me realise how little people run in crowded places anymore. In those times, I was an Aucklander, there were commuters sprinting for buses, trams and trains and most athletic of all the ferry catchers, often with hats, coats and gladstone bags, racing down the wharves and leaping aboard with a ritualistic disregard of gangways.

    Hokianga • Since May 2007 • 52 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    What amazes me is that hotel internet in NZ is generally roughly on a par for price to the public WiFi service I encountered on the Solomon Islands in January. And that's a country that has a really limited pipe to the rest of the world.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    On the way to the Coast, we spent a night in Wellington, at City Life (nice room, remind me to ask not to be near the breakfast kitchen on Level 5 next time) – and were confronted by the ongoing scandal that is New Zealand hotel internet service.

    The best I've paid is $5 for 24hrs unlimited wireless internet - yeah, it wasn't the fastest in the world, but, hey, unlimited. At the very nice Hanmer Inn Motel in Hamner Springs, go figure. The hotel I stayed at in Wellington had *no* internet in many rooms - WTF - and was 10c/MB over ethernet for those that did.

    So when booking places for the upcoming move to the US, I determined to make damn sure that everywhere I booked had free wifi. It turned out to be incredibly easy, because pretty much everywhere I looked at did - including the fairly rural motel. One can only hope that state of affairs will emerge here.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    To the good Mums of the world - all joy

    Yeah verily!

    My mum, at 85, has just turned over her first grand selling off stuff on TradeMe...
    not as draughty as the markets these days!
    - she started bric-a-bracing back at Mollett Street Market and Atlantis Market in the Sq (Chch), surviving Androidss (who also had a stall there) still ask after her...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Jake Pollock,

    @Lucy I would watch out for the wifi in American hotels though. Most of it is fine, but the one I was in in Chattanooga last weekend used a service that loaded some kind of toolbar onto my browser that acted a lot like adware. Trying to deal with it after an 11 hour drive home was annoying, to say the least.

    Raumati South • Since Nov 2006 • 489 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    There was free wifi at the Hotel So in Christchurch, but someone told me that's just gone bankcrupt...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    but someone told me that's just gone bankcrupt...

    Not proper bankrupt, "owned by Dave Henderson" bankrupt.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    Not proper bankrupt, "owned by Dave Henderson" bankrupt.

    Shame, they made a pretty good margarita (although that might have been the company I was with) and the bed was mighty comfy.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Cecelia,

    I was an Aucklander, there were commuters sprinting for buses, trams and trains and most athletic of all the ferry catchers, often with hats, coats and gladstone bags, racing down the wharves and leaping aboard with a ritualistic disregard of gangways.

    Same. We could teach these young'uns a thing or two.

    Hibiscus Coast • Since Apr 2008 • 559 posts Report Reply

  • Phil Lyth,

    leaping aboard with a ritualistic disregard of gangways.

    Memories of long ago and far away. A week-long family holiday in hte vicinity of Little Oneroa would start with the ferry to Waiheke. Baroona, Kestrel, and the others. One memorable night there was a harvest moon that was simply huge.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2009 • 458 posts Report Reply

  • Cecelia,

    We lived in Campbell's Bay and Dad worked on the wharves. He got the bus to Bayswater and then the ferry. He carried his lunch in a gladstone bag (I can still see that bag) and wore formal clothes because he didn't want people to know he was a wharfie.

    Hibiscus Coast • Since Apr 2008 • 559 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    @Lucy I would watch out for the wifi in American hotels though. Most of it is fine, but the one I was in in Chattanooga last weekend used a service that loaded some kind of toolbar onto my browser that acted a lot like adware. Trying to deal with it after an 11 hour drive home was annoying, to say the least.

    Duly noted, although I will have my very own computer security expert travelling with me, so it will be a very brave piece of adware that decides to take us on.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    A very lovely post.

    On the subject of extortionate internet - if you were misled about what the charges, would be then that's illegal under the Fair Trading Act. If they showed you the fine print, then they've got wiggle room. But there are no easy remedies. Probably easier just to lower their reputation by showing how disporportionate their charges are.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    just released a version of "Just be good to me" with Professor Green which I rather like

    Oh, am I alone in finding it meh? I totally adore the Beats International track (it made my 'top 40 songs of the 90s' compilation I did for a friend a few years back, and there was some stiff competition to get on that list, let me tell you) and I find the new one sorely missing 'tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty/you're listening to the boy from the big bad city/this is jam hot'.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Darlington,

    Oh, am I alone in finding it meh? I totally adore the Beats International track (it made my 'top 40 songs of the 90s' compilation I did for a friend a few years back, and there was some stiff competition to get on that list, let me tell you) and I find the new one sorely missing 'tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty/you're listening to the boy from the big bad city/this is jam hot'.

    Maybe, I see it as a totally different tune, bit of a throwaway and I quite like the Prof Green on the mic.

    Having said that, the Camo mix is the one I properly like. Just referencing the single.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Ashby,

    @BruceThorpe

    I hear you as someone not shy about breaking out into a run. I did get some funny looks the other week when the bus was late getting into the hospital which made me late for my platelet donation. So on getting off I ran, not flat out but not jogging either, for the front doors. I probably had a big grin on my face as it felt so good. I was probably marked down as a new dad or something.

    We really, really do not realise how absolutely and utterly sedentary we have become. That Rhythm and Movement clip made the clip back in the '40s yet the street scene showed slim people running in daily life. If they were worried back then, then shouldn't we be really, really concerned?

    I run but that is often the only exercise I get. Otherwise I am sitting down at a computer, at a desk reading or writing. I get up only to get a drink or food, then I sit down to consume it. We hardly walk anywhere any more so many of us have cars, or we take the bus/train. We have labour saving devices galore and pre prepared meals mean even cooking is a matter of pressing a button then sitting down until a beep tells you it is ready.

    Yet, as Rhythm and Movement pointed out, exercise can make you feel great. I spent 53min thrashing myself up my hill circuit last night and when I got back I felt absolutely fantastic. I don't feel like that after every run, that one was nice because the rain meant I didn't sweat buckets for a change. But moving your body really does do you good.

    Dundee, Scotland • Since May 2007 • 425 posts Report Reply

  • Bruce Wurr,

    hi Russell, do you know of a link to the nutters club that would work overseas? Would love to be able to see it.

    Auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 97 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    We really, really do not realise how absolutely and utterly sedentary we have become.

    Other than on PAS, that is. Here we have a guy who likes to remind us of that fact with a certain regularity.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

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