Posts by Tony Parker
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Living outside the main centres limits one's options but it hasn't been to bad a year.
Culture: Saw the NZSO for the first time this year. (Lhaws opinion of them just increases his twatcockness). Also made the trip to Welly for the Masters and Brian Brake exhibitions at Te Papa
Gigs: Neko Case and Calexico earlier in the year did it for me. Playing bass for HB Band Devils' Elbow for a while and supporting the Eastern was fun on a personal level.
Music: Some new, some old rediscovered-Stornoway, Dylan LeBlanc, Mumford and Sons, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Squeeze, Bruce-The Promise, Neil-Le Noise, Phoenix Foundation, The Eastern, Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Peter Case, Lloyd Cole, Campbell and Lanagen.....I could go on. Interestingly I've bought more vinyl this year than I have over the past 10 years probably.
TV: Premier League Review every Monday night!!! -
Cracker: Dig This!, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
I do use a mixture of onion, garlic and neem soap to combat some pests on our fruit trees but it's not strong enough for the psilid. I confess to using a chemical this year on my toms and spuds as they were starting out and they seem fine at the moment. Didn't want another season of no spuds and rubbish tomatoes.
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General cyclist education would be a good thing, but it should take place in schools rather than testing stations.
We do a little bit in our school in conjunction with the police education officer but like a lot of things we should be doing in schools its all matter of fitting it into an increasingly crowded curriculum. It’s interesting to note that the police recommendation is that no one under the age of 10 should be riding a bike on the road and it has been noticable over the years that the number of children biking to school has dropped off by a large number, unlike in our day as kids where we biked everywhere and I think it’s led to a generation or two of children who have less skill as bike riders and less safety knowledge when they do get on a bike.
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Cracker: Dig This!, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Yeah they aren't nice and the garden centres can only recommend fairly toxic pesticides to counter them which is not really the way I like to garden.
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Just a question for the gardeners out there. Have any of you been affected recently by the psilid bug that gets into tomatoes and spuds and have you found an organic way of dealing with it? Decimated my toms and spuds last year.
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If you have the room a couple of courgette plants are great. You can have a steady supply all through the summer. Just don’t let them turn into marrows. A row of carrots is good too even though they are a cheap vegetable in the shops/vege stalls. Anything you grow always tastes better.
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<quote<A wonderful statement of humanity and parenthood I thought. Recommended reading for a time when being upset is OK</quote>
There is also a letter from Nyan's mother in the latest NZ Gardener magazine that talks about him as her gardening companion for the 4 years of his life. Fills me with admiration for his parents and their beliefs in a world full of Garth MCVicars.
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gotta say Ryall on the telly tonight, made me rather angry
He pissed me off too when he said this decision by the schools to boycott sending in their targets to the MOE was going to jeopardise the children's education. It's not going to change what's happening in the classroom and is just another example of the emotional blackmail Tolley and friends deal in when it comes to education.
Great post Jackie. You eloquently said what we in education know and deal with every day. Some family members who are of the catholic persuasion seem to think the only valid family unit is the one with 2 parents yet in my (long) time as a teacher I could point out solo parents doing a great job with fantastic kids you just love to have in your class while there are "nuclear family" kids who present big problems in the classroom. It has a lot to do with assumptions and expectations and unfortunately we do still have teachers who continue to maintain these assumptions.
These attitudes also manifest themselves in the way some parents make their schooling choices often bypassing the lower decile school close by for the higher one further away because they percieve that their children will get a better education there. Often it's a choice based on predjudice and a wish to mix with the right people and it's happening to my school at the moment to the detriment of our school roll.
Oh well better get off to school then. -
Yep. Ronnie was the heart and soul of The Faces.
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I kinda like that people like Weller, Costello, and, yes, even Paul McCartney don't do that
I'd put Neil Young (even if some of his recent stuff has been less than stellar) and Richard Thompson on that list too. Probably Robert Plant at the moment too.