Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Rodney on the Road

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  • Paul Campbell,

    people forget that we used to have a lot of smaller cities and boroughs - they were the norm - requirement for a city was 20,000 people or a cathedral (points for anyone who knows the only place that didn't first qualify on population - the answer was required general knowledge when I was in primary school)

    I grew up in a borough of maybe 2000 people - we had a police station a school, a fire station, a post office, a part time town hall, a part time borough council, a train station, a plunket rooms, a handful of churches, 3 stores, a petrol station, a butcher - now days Ravensbourne is a tiny part of Dunedin and most of those amenities are long gone - on the other hand all the roads are sealed now and there's a sewerage system

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    . . . or a cathedral (points for anyone who knows the only place that didn't first qualify on population - the answer was required general knowledge when I was in primary school)

    Nelson. What do I win?

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Islander,

    Should. I grew up in places (North New Brighton! Oamaru! Moeraki!) where there were churches, close-by copshops, and not-to-distant surgeries.

    There were NO fastfood places (except in Oamaru - excellent Chinese, and an indifferent fishnchip. O, and the dire pub/hotel meals...where males could get a pienchips.Or something.) No piecarts in the immediate areas-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report

  • Paul Campbell,

    Joe: yes you do

    Actually we might have had a chip shop too - my parents didn't do that much - I think I went out to a sit down dinner with my family once before I left home (my uncle's 21st - he really did get a key). Cars and supermarkets have made a big difference to the way we conduct our lives.

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    Lived one minute walk from this beauty. No cathedral, but lots of spirit.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Islander,

    Truly Sacha? You luckyone!

    I would love for someone to curate our iconic SMALL telltale foodie buildings- as paintings/whatever thereof. I've got the poems (as have others.) From "the Shanty by the way" they've occurred in song -

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report

  • Paul Campbell,

    I wonder if it had to be an Anglican cathedral, or would a catholic one do?

    (Dunedin got its cathedral by stealth - the good Presbyterians who ran the town didn't go in for cathedrals and were surprised one day to suddenly discover one being built in the Octagon)

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    Ae. Corn on cob for one cent.

    Fresh kaimoana one minute walk the other way. Had so much it put me off for years.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • BenWilson,

    I grew up in a small town called Auckland which was gradually swallowed up by the surrounding cities. Which was fine by me.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    Corn on cob for one cent.
    Fresh kaimoana one minute walk the other way. Had so much it put me off for years.

    Ah, nostalgia.
    That much fish & chips (spreads arms wide} for 25c.
    And as the bigger kids used to sing, when I were a young 'un:

    In a shoemaker's shop
    You could buy a brand new cock
    And a pair of tits
    For twelve and six

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Paul Campbell,

    As a kid the bus to town was 4d (3c) - a movie was 9d (7c) - I got 6d (5c) a week pocket money - 1d mixed sweets gave me maybe a bag of 10.

    On the other hand in primary school we had to be able to do calculations in LSD, tons/pounds/ounces, miles/furlongs/yards/feet/inches - no calculators, long division ruled - why on earth we didn't shift to the metric system when the french did I have no idea (goddamned Nelson, if he'd lost the world would have been a better place)

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Islander,

    First church is always Known
    in Otepoti eh?
    That sterness by the leviathan
    that may stir ancient Knox
    and cause a city sway-
    or not- the ancient current
    Otago
    goes it's holy wholly oldoldly way

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report

  • Graeme Edgeler,

    (... Nelson, if he'd lost the world would have been a better place)

    Not Wellington?

    Or Alexander I?

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    goes it's holy wholly oldoldly way

    kia ora

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Islander,

    kia ora ai msi ano e Sacha

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report

  • vangam,

    "So, let me get this right: Rodney is flying around the world to tell people at free lunches (which, of course, do not exist) about ideas which he holds dear but are not Government policy; all at public expense.

    I wonder if a Taypayer Bill of Rights would deal with this sort of thing."


    I assume he also earns a fee for this 'speaking tour'? Talk about a gravy train...

    And isnt John Key in Nth America at the same time?

    Rangiora • Since Jun 2007 • 103 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    I assume he also earns a fee for this 'speaking tour'

    Doubt it, personally. An adoring audience would be payment enough.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Also, the US is, according to the NZ Herald: "Ready for the John Key show".

    I was over there last week, and I did notice this.

    People would ask in the street "Hey, you're from that Noo Zeeland. Whaddabout that Donkeey, eh?". LAX has been decorated with banners welcoming him during the brief transit to DC. Pork fat b based non-dairy-creamer has been supplanted by the genuine Fonterra article. Incoming Kiwis would be spared the cavity search, even if they did look a bit hippy. Or brown. Or muslim.

    Truly, NZ has arrived on the US stage. They even have the Flight of the Conchords on high rotate on at least one cable access channel. It's only accessible on Air NZ flights and in the Koru lounge at LAX, but hey, it's telly and it's in America!

    You still can't get drinkable coffee in 47 of the lower 48 states, though.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    Would London-dwellers find it worth going for the (free?) lunch?

    I wont and I know I am not alone on this.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report

  • Ben Austin,

    I would like to go to this, sadly there is no way I can free-up Thursday midday so quickly. Oh well, the free lunch shall be another's prize.

    It is my view that the current state of the media/political nexus here is that everyone is desperately trying to find ways to build coherent programmes (or headlines) of public sector funding cuts, as such, people like R Hide may be lionised if they offer ideas of some kind.

    Would not suprise me in the slightist if we see some name checking for NZ/Hide/Act in the UK over the next couple of weeks as a result of this meeting

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report

  • Peter Ashby,

    The Dunedin merger was equivalent in scale to the Auckland's. It was one thing to extend the boundary to include all the peninsula, and even Port Chalmers. The reasoning for swallowing Mosgiel and most of the rest of the Taeiri Plains was getting dodgy, that was before the boundary went all the way out over the Rock and Pillars to encompass Middlemarch for goodness sake.

    We had just bought a house in the old St. Kilda Borough down by the beach only about 3months before the amalgamation (we didn't bother to change our DCC Library cards). I could see the logic of Dundedin amalgamating with St. Kilda, it was indeed past time. But Middlemarch? It was and remains a nonsense.

    I don't see why they couldn't have borrowed London's governance structure. That would even have allowed the election of a super mayor but kept the local representation intact while enabling the sort of regional cooperation supposedly needed. This is instead all about Empire Building and ideological purity and damn the consequences.

    Dundee, Scotland • Since May 2007 • 425 posts Report

  • Amy Gale,

    Nelson. What do I win?

    A ticket to the Wearable Art show with cake afterwards at Chez Eelco?

    tha Ith • Since May 2007 • 471 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    The Dunedin merger was equivalent in scale to the Auckland's

    For some sense of the word "scale". Surrounding areas are part of a sustainable city region, to encompass environmental buffers and supplies of water and food.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    A ticket to the Wearable Art show with cake afterwards at Chez Eelco?

    Very sweet of you, though it'd require time travel since Wearable Art got snapped up by Wellington. In which case I might opt to go all the way back to Eelco's lonely predecessor, the Piccolo Paradiso, just to check if those fake rum & cokes (with a shot of rum-flavoured milkshake syrup} were really that bad.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Matthew Poole,

    The Dunedin merger was equivalent in scale to the Auckland's.

    What Sacha said. Dunedin now, merged and grown, has a greater population than any of the three districts (Franklin, Papakura, Rodney) within Auckland Region, but is distinctly smaller than any of the four cities. It's not even a third of Auckland City, and only marginally more than a third of Manukau City.
    If you're meaning by land area, then you're about halfway there. According to Wikipedia, Auckland region's land area is 6,059 sq km while Dunedin's is 3,314 sq km.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report

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