Posts by Hilary Stace
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Hard News: Tooled Up for Food, in reply to Manakura,
I spent many happy hours as a child mincing various foodstuffs for my mother with one of those - my favourite was making the Christmas mince using the gooseberries that grew prolifically around our lawn. Consequently, I have always preferred slightly tart mince pies. This house is full of three generations of stuff and I just had a quick look for it. Opened a hidden cupboard in the bathroom and found instead her pressure cooker. It was used every night to cook the potatoes and only occasionally exploded.
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PS Are you allowed to love cookware and kitchen stuff yet hate cooking?
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What beautiful cookware and in such immaculate condition. Not sure whether anyone watches Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals on Saturday night but he uses a wonderful collection of old pots, chipped plates and dishes and wooden boards with fading paint (and some very nice shiny new stuff).
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I am a great supporter of STV. And elections. If we didn’t have Health Board elections they would be comprised entirely of Tony Ryall’s appointees. Health Board elections were stopped under the last National government’s round of health reforms and the boards were appointed – no local democracy at all (in fact Simon Upton sacked the lot in 1991 with about two weeks’ notice). If you remember it was not a happy time for the heatlh system, with lots of cut backs, user charges, poor wages, skills shortages and big computer disasters. Bringing back elections for some board members was an election promise of the incoming 1999 Labour government. So re democracy – use it or lose it.
I also like STV. STV favours a left block which is likely to be more amorphous – the winner is likely to be people’s general first, second or third choice, rather than the first choice of only a few who have staked all one candidate. If Auckland had STV in 2007John Banks would never have been elected.
DHB elections have a lot of candidates because there are only 20 DHB regions – ie electorates – in the country. FPP requires as much work for the informed voter – you need to read the candidates’ bios and decide who you like. You either tick up to that number (in FPP) or rank (STV). STV is a much fairer consensus building voting system so a little bit more effort required for ranking is not much to ask.
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I don't think it is a good idea to rank everyone. There are some candidates I don't want at all so not ranking them means they don't even get considered. For example, in a ward which is electing three people I might only put a 1 by the only candidate I like and don't rank the others.
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Travelling in the US with a person who uses a wheelchair is fun. At every security point they believe the wheelchair user is faking and try and make them (ie threaten with guns) stand up so they can search under the cushion. (I would suggest that travelling anywhere by plane for a wheelchair user is definitely not fun)
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Just what I needed after a morning at Wellington airport among the delayed crowds including many restless children. Southerly so strong and freezing that the light sticks used to guide the plane to the right parking place were blown from the ground-person's icy fingers. Waves at Lyall Bay looked like geysers.shooting into the air and over the road.
Your post reminded me of travelling on United across the US. They have a random seating policy meaning family members can be placed anywhere on the plane. So you are likely to be seated next to an unrelated toddler while the parents are several rows ahead.
Lucky you being in Norway - when I was there once, in one of those summers when it never gets dark, the only bad thing was the whale meat for sale in the market.
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Thankfully, I'm not in Canterbury but I can relate to plumbing. In Wellington tree roots get in little cracks in sewer pipes, and with the nourishment they soon grow very fat and hairy. Every few months you need to get someone in to do something to clear the pipes enough to flush toilets and not need a plunger to stop the shower from flooding the bathroom, Eventually, they suggest getting another more expensive company with a camera. That person gives you a DVD of the 20 or so metres of pipe buried in concrete under your house and finds the roots and cracks are fortunately in more accessible parts under a deck and deep under the driveway. They spray flourescent marks and suggest someone else to do the work. Several weeks later in a gale force northerly storm that company comes and digs trenches and lays new pipes. The next day the shower empties straight on to the lawn, and the toilet overflows..
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http://www.odi.govt.nz/resources/publications/minister-briefing/
BIMs for Minister for Disability Issues since portfolio created. Readily available on the odi website. What's more they are probably read by a lot of people in the sector. Latest one pdf and word.
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Before you get too celebratory the current workers have apparently all been made redundant when the lab closed last week. If any of the current workers are rehired it will probably not be for several months. If the lab becomes part of the public service,in effect the responsibility of the large and sometimes unwieldy Department of Internal Affairs (and the transfer to it has been problematic in many ways for Archives NZ and the National Library) who knows when and what terms and conditions they will be hired on? So far from a smooth transfer of skills and technology.