Southerly: Village People
109 Responses
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Sacha, in reply to
I hadn't realised insurance against theft was unobtainable. WTF
it's pretty hard for them to justify that one, surely.
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Happy birthday David - you share the day with our daughter Alice, who's 29 today. I hope the stay in Butlins isn't a long one, it could lose its charm fairly quickly. Happy house moving!
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Sacha, in reply to
Surely at this point we could all agree that there is no free-market solution to this problem.
insisting otherwise is beyond stupid - it's downright insulting.
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Hebe,
Happy yesterday. Your pictures almost resign me to Stalag Linwood.
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Many thanks for all the kind birthday messages! Things are going well at the earthquake village (no resemblance to a Stalag at all); Bob has already joined the local scooter gang.
Perhaps being a gang-member has given him a bad attitude as I'm still trying to get him to sleep. It's been a long day and further messages from me will have to wait until tomorrow, I fear!
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linger, in reply to
insurance against theft was unobtainable. WTF
it’s pretty hard for them to justify that one, surely.* points to the (government-sanctioned) corporate looting *
… looking at the likely premium levels, it could get recursive, too. -
It reminds me of the early days of Twizel (but with trees). Rows of uniform houses, no footpaths ... perhaps it was cooked up by some hangover of the Ministry of Works. I was going to suggest that what Christchurch needs is not CERA, but MW, with their army of yellow trucks and diggers, and whatever faceless bureaucrat looked to Scandinavia for urban planning and insulation.
Sort of relatedly, there seem to be a lot of ads for Pegasus at the moment. Some shots make it seem nice, but mostly it just seems creepy.
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Hebe, in reply to
It reminds me of the early days of Twizel (but with trees).
Hah! That's why I'm resisting going to the village: I spent my first seven years in another dam town, Otematata.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I was going to suggest that what Christchurch needs is not CERA, but MW, with their army of yellow trucks and diggers, and whatever faceless bureaucrat looked to Scandinavia for urban planning and insulation.
You're not the first to muse that Christchurch really needed the old Ministry of Works and its power to command resources. Many of the MoW's old roles have become specialised and may be more suited now to contracted-in machinery like the big blue thing that added the lanes to the Newmarket Viaduct. But imagine how Christchurch might have used the men and machines from our great public works projects.
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Hebe, in reply to
the men and machines from our great public works projects.
Damn; I had a sandpit full of Euclids, scrapers and cranes as a girl.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Damn; I had a sandpit full of Euclids, scrapers and cranes as a girl.
Heh. Fair call.
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Tamsin6, in reply to
Hah! That's why I'm resisting going to the village: I spent my first seven years in another dam town, Otematata.
Ahhh - all kinds of memories of Otematata (and Omarama) from sailing holidays at Benmore long, long ago. And Hakataramea and Kurow for that matter.
You're not the first to muse that Christchurch really needed the old Ministry of Works and its power to command resources. Many of the MoW's old roles have become specialised and may be more suited now to contracted-in machinery like the big blue thing that added the lanes to the Newmarket Viaduct. But imagine how Christchurch might have used the men and machines from our great public works projects.
My father started his traffic engineering career with the MoW in Otago and Southland - he always said it was the best and most thorough grounding anyone could have had. Mum dug out loads of photos from those early days - will have to get her to scan some so I can post them here.
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Ministry Of Works instantly triggered the song. With VERY sincere apologies to One Man and His Dog.
MOW
Jerry and his bods, want to MOW the town down ( rpt)
John Boy came along, wants to MOW the town down (rpt etc)
CERA came along, wants to MOW the town down
Rocks came tumbling down, want to take the town out
Mud came bubbling up, wants to sink the town down
Red stuck everywhere, notes to rip the town out
Sewage everywhere, wants to stink the town out
An Actuary came to town, gunna sell the town out
Portaloo in my street, have to take a dump out
M’house ain’t no more, gotta move m’abode out
Flowers here and there, perfumes and lifts the town up
But in the end it will be One Man and his Dog, who will rebuild the town and return to MOW his lawn. -
James Green, in reply to
But imagine how Christchurch might have used the men and machines from our great public works projects.
Every Christmas, before they knocked off, MoW staff used to line all their machines up in a massed display of strength. My parents have a photograph of it somewhere, and it is a truly impressive sight! Oooh, I found a picture online, only that isn't very many compared to the shot my parents have.
I know I've said this at length elsewhere, but there really is a lot to commend in terms of the layout of Twizel. A town deliberately engineered so that walking or biking was enormously more direct than travelling by car. This was principally achieved by having all the roads in shallow wide loops, with interconnecting greenspace and walkways linking the loops. It's pretty evident in google maps. -
Hebe, in reply to
the shot my parents have.
My family archive has lots and lots from 1961 on at Benmore (when Dad got the Voigtlander camera). Heavy machinery which make Twinkletoes the demolisher look like Lego, and he photographed them all, lovingly. There's a particularly fine slide of my mother standing next to the pride-and-joy Mark I Zephyr next to a Euclid at the base of the dam wall. From the days when blokes built stuff, big stuff: the scale of Benmore was epic and the whole village seemed to be enthralled by it.
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JLM,
I'm trying to work out why I find your picture so appealing, David, and have decided that it's a sort of faux nostalgia I have to guard against. Faux because I now live on an acre two km from a village centre, with a horse paddock in front, and a golf course behind, and cherish that space and distance.
But I've lived cheek by jowl with others and loved it, especially down a private lane when ours kids were growing up, when the sense of community was terrific, and you didn't have to worry about where the kids were because they were always "in the drive" somewhere. And my favourite holidays have been in that tight setting, from a bedroom and kitchen cupboard in a 3 family bach, tenting in DOC camping grounds, staying with a friend in a rural Nova Scotian trailer park, even gods help me two weeks in Coombe Haven Holiday Park in East Sussex.
What is bearable and even enjoyable on a temporary basis is very different longer term, I know, but I worry that it's easier to go and find your own little cave these days, than to learn to co-exist with your close neighbour. I guess my ideal would be something like this and the developers' triumphalism at seemingly winning the density battle in the Auckland spatial plan worries me as a sign of things to come in Christchurch.
None of which has anything to do with your current predicament, just my own obsession with simple living and tiny houses, so apologies. You will love your relocation, I'm sure. Best of luck with it.
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JLM, in reply to
I worry that it’s easier to go and find your own little cave these days, than to learn to co-exist with your close neighbour.
By "your" I meant "our" of course, the generic kiwi person alone response, though typified by my husband which is why we now live happily in the country - with delightful neighbours who we know better than those we had in town.
And I've worked out what I really like about the photo - it's the lack of cars of course, highlighted by the solitary specimen. Is there car-parking somewhere else, or is everyone just away at work?
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BenWilson, in reply to
I worry that it's easier to go and find your own little cave these days, than to learn to co-exist with your close neighbour.
It sure is, these days. I'd love a pocket neighborhood on my street - there's so many kids here, but no really viable place to just hang around, where neighborhood kids are likely to congregate. We'd have to go over to invite them round to our place, and vice versa, which sets up reciprocation expectations that people naturally shy away from. The common space eliminates that, because it's a space you don't have to ask anyone if you can use, and people will just flock there by themselves. But in between all of us is a road, lined with parked cars. It's not safe for children to be on, and my house isn't oriented to look towards it anyway - it's pointed towards the private space at the back.
This is OK for very small children, it's totally fenced off and extensive - I'm happy to let my kids play alone in the back yard. But to meet other children, something my 6 year old needs, I have to organize it, and supervise it. This means it's usually done with pre-existing friends who come over, rather than happening spontaneously with such kids as might form friendships with each other.
There's a park at the end of the street, which is a dead-end. But it's hardly ever got anyone in it. It borders on being creepy, with a small forest, and high fences, so there is no one looking into it. I would not send my children there alone. One of the properties adjacent keeps a vicious looking and sounding dog, which I expect could tear a small child limb from limb, and acts like it wants to every time anyone is in the park. Life in the 'burbs.
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BenWilson, in reply to
I guess my ideal would be something like this and the developers' triumphalism at seemingly winning the density battle in the Auckland spatial plan worries me as a sign of things to come in Christchurch.
It does. What's up with "high rise hell"? I can't actually see anything inherently wrong with high rise living at all - it suits a lot of people. Actually, even low rise would be an improvement on what we have in Auckland - high rise, then one story suburbs. There's some really weird refusal to allow a variety of living styles to co-exist in this city. I really enjoyed living in a low-rise condominium style set up in Melbourne - it's perfect for young people who don't really need much personal space at all, so long as there is plenty of common space. It's something I missed out on totally at University age, to live in a dormitory style set up - perfect if you're spending practically every waking moment either studying, or with friends. But in NZ this considered to be slumming. Our social attitudes seem to lag behind our reality by about 30 years at all times.
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Aidan, in reply to
I know I’ve said this at length elsewhere, but there really is a lot to commend in terms of the layout of Twizel. A town deliberately engineered so that walking or biking was enormously more direct than travelling by car. This was principally achieved by having all the roads in shallow wide loops, with interconnecting greenspace and walkways linking the loops.
Looks spookily like my neck of the woods, Canberra.
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Deborah, in reply to
I used to live in Kaleen in Canberra, just one suburb over from your neck of the woods, Aidan, and it was brilliant for cycling. I could get all the way down to the ANU riding on bike paths all the way, bar the 50 metres it took me to get to one from my home. I hardly ever took the car down to university, because it was just so easy to get on my bike.
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I had no idea that parts of Canberra were like that. Although my quick googling suggests these areas were centrally designed, and around the same era as Twizel. I'd just compare it to other suburban development in New Zealand, with the same type of density, but where it's impossible to get anywhere quickly by bike or walking.
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Oooh, do you have a recipe for your 'everything free' cake? First daughter and possibly second son has similar allergies (although not soy, strangely/luckily) and that cake looks delish.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
What’s up with “high rise hell”? I can’t actually see anything inherently wrong with high rise living at all – it suits a lot of people.
Indeed. Quakes haven’t stopped the Japanese or San Franciscans from living in apartments.
But in NZ this considered to be slumming. Our social attitudes seem to lag behind our reality by about 30 years at all times.
In NZ’s case, I wonder if it’s a lingering hangover from Wakefield’s New Zealand Company, escaping the crowded squalor as Charles Dickens wrote of. The rash of shoeboxes in central Auckland hasn’t helped either. I’ve seen one on Wellington’s Taranaki St, and I hope it’s the last.
So what’s the acid test of cheap & cheerful vs cheap & nasty? I’d wager it’s whether the dwelling is good enough for owner-occupiers, and the prevalence of mixed-use ‘vertical villages’ (retail, commercial and residential).
JLM:
the developers’ triumphalism at seemingly winning the density battle in the Auckland spatial plan worries me as a sign of things to come in Christchurch.
Head-office drift and the abolition of regional development is another factor in Auckland becoming top-heavy. Unless of course, Wellington gets its equivalent of Chek Lap Kok.
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Fooman, in reply to
Oooh, do you have a recipe for your 'everything free' cake? First daughter and possibly second son has similar allergies (although not soy, strangely/luckily) and that cake looks delish.
Look up recipies for Crazy Cake, if you haven't already done so. One of our son's friends was gluten/egg/dairy intolerant, and we would make crazy cake for a treat when they came to a party etc. Potato flour, oil instead of butter, no egg.
FM
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