Posts by Joe Wylie
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It is perfectly possible to be a competent reader and not be comfortable signing your own name . . .
I have a copy of my great (to the power of 3) grandmother's signature as a witness from the 1838 marriage register of one of her many sisters. While it appears to have been done very slowly and carefully it's still effectively illegible, and has been annotated with her name in brackets alongside, by a more competent hand. 18 months later, at another sister's wedding, her nerve appears to have failed her and she's opted for a simple X. While I don't know much about her, I reckon that she must have been a real trier.
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all lots believed that words had power.
I do not think they were wrong.Thanks Islander, much appreciated. I'm reminded of the story of how, when the first newspaper was published in the Bay of Islands, local Maori petitioned for an edition to be produced in the language of the country, as they were now "a reading people". What a thrilling time that must have been, when literacy, something we tend to take for granted, held a real revolutionary promise. It's still the early days though, eh?
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. . . geneology which too brings out the ferret of the past.
The most startling aspect of which (for me, though with a little reflection it shouldn't have been) was how many of the ancestors were illiterate. Like, signing marriage, baptism, and birth registers with their mark ('X'), which was then annotated and endorsed by some official or church functionary. Only those who absolutely had to - domestic servants, the occasional sea captain - seemed able to read and write.
The last examples in NZ were from the early 1860s, but in one branch who remained in West Yorkshire it persisted until close to 1900. Despite being described as 'scholar, aged 5' in a census record, a couple of decades later they'd be affixing their mark to some parish register.
Were colonial NZers a relatively literate bunch? One of the most striking things about my own ancestors is that, in the space of a generation, they seem to have gone from being barely literate to amassing their own small libraries, with not a few volumes bearing the stamp of some lending library or similar. Perhaps great-granddad is paying off the overdue fines to the Brunner Miners Institute in the afterlife.
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Narcissistic twats.
That's the word.
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If the council would declare these houses temporarily unhabitable, then this would oblige people's insurance to cover alternative accommodation.
Council ordered all of their own rental tenants out of Avonside two weeks ago today. It was done with only a couple of hours notice, citing the safety of the tenants as the main concern. They've been gradually rehoused since in existing Council rental stock as it becomes available. While some units were badly damaged, others were pretty unscathed, and lack water and/or sewage.
Housing NZ, which has rather a lot of properties in Avonside, seems to only now be taking a detailed interest in the situation of its tenants. Would they, like any other property owner, be legally bound by a council declaration on habitability, or do they enjoy some special exemption?
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Thanks Jolisa, hadn't seen that in years.
Dick Van Dyke's dotard disguise is a triumph, only the legs (and the end credits) give him away.The run-on-the-bank panic sequence is pure Disney, and doesn't appear in Pamela Travers's stories. According to Valerie Lawson's biography of Travers, Mr Banks seems to be an idealised version of her own rather dodgy banker father. Curiously enough it was the 1891 collapse of the Bank of Queensland, prompted by the Bank of England calling in its loans, that left her family in reduced circumstances.
While she was very much involved with the Disney movie at the scriptwriting stage, and wasn't shy about objecting to what she didn't like, the banking sequences seem to have met with her approval.
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. . . some country where they don't do irony ...
Bollard really hates Canadians. It says so in the book.
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I read about that in the paper...
Me too, apparently it's the very one. With all of this damage to our heritage a bit of freshly-minted history won't go amiss. When the bloke next door saw the Somali guy turn up to hook up my broadband & phone he thought for a moment that she might be back and turning her old tricks.
Do you get to repair back to your old riparian idyll if it is repaired?
Doesn't look like it Ian, thanks for your concern. The degree of muntedness there is greater than was first thought, and will take longer to ascertain than I'm able to wait around for. If you're in the area you can see the boarded-up windows, and maybe even my evil twin loading the dregs of the garden onto her scooter.
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bummer.... no internet access for 3 days while shifting meant I missed the change in venue.
never fear, I had a drink for y'all at home later that evening :DMore or less my circumstances & sentiments.
. . . suddenly living in a random suburb . . .
You too? Suddenly Riccarton is inner-city. It's like some kind of afterlife out here - or Mangere Bridge in 1997. Apparently the previous occupant ran a knocking-shop on these premises, and was evicted for her enterprise. Which meant I got to move in (after a repaint, natch). It's an ill wind & all.
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Jeez David, I'm trying to build a case to be allowed back home to Avonside. If they twig that I have somewhere else to go . . .
Seriously, you're too kind. I'm passably comfy in Beckenham at the moment, thanks to the wider whanau, but I miss my stuff etc. And there's you & yours scrabbling in the silt over food parcels. Wasn't that what Lost was largely about? Anyway the multi-grips were a great touch, that Ross Mason's coolness is something else.
There were - probably still are - people at Addington Raceway who were just too scared to go home, and others from places like Bexley and Burwood, with young families, whose homes are literally wrecked. They're pretty well fed, but the first night there weren't enough mattresses. Worst privation is having to take a group bus trip to Hillmorton for showers. Being able to take a nice long one whenever you please is a wonderful wonderful thing.