Posts by Paul Williams
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Hard News: Auckland, so much enormity to…, in reply to recordari,
Great shot recordari, Eden Park is looking very fine. Was their ever thought given to covering it or would that have been a completely new stadium?
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Up Front: It's Not Sex, and It's Not Education, in reply to Nat,
I recently heard the acronym RPI or "Root Potential Inquiry". This is more to do with intonation than specific language. It turns the comment "how are you", which would otherwise mean "how's your day been", into "quick, let's get the kids to bed".
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Up Front: It's Not Sex, and It's Not Education, in reply to Nat,
Either that or have a photo of Murray McCully handy.
And I thought you'd say John Howard or Tony Abbott, you assimilation seems to be progressing!
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Frustratingly, I can't watch the full footage on the NZHerald site as it detects I'm viewing from outside NZ (other footage I can watch, just not this).
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Hard News: Auckland, so much enormity to…, in reply to LegBreak,
LegBreak, agreed. McCaw would've been honoured by Hobbs being the person to award him the cap. Hobbes is a bloke whose All Black playing days mightn't even be his best years such is contribution to the game.
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Hard News: Auckland, so much enormity to…, in reply to Sacha,
I actually don't know Sacha, I'd hope so. Hobbs was also critical in the period immediately after the 1995 RWC and personally convinced many All Blacks to stay with the NZRFU rather than sign with Murdoch's alternative (as chronicled in Peter Fitzsimons' The Rugby War)
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Hard News: Auckland, so much enormity to…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yeah, they'd be the predictable bunch of wankers hanging at the usual site. Clark mightn't have been a fan of union but she understood it's importance to others and was entirely behind the Cup bid. Incidentally, Hobbs giving McCaw his 100th cap was a major tear jerker.
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Hard News: Auckland, so much enormity to…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Actually, he's just mad keen on League (and remember Helen was patron of Mt Albert for as long as I can remember so certainly no late commer).
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Yes, public service are often brilliant, make no mistake about that. I suspect that if Sir Mad or Michael Lock’s partner had called DIA this morning (wonder if the Locks still had to register the birth?), they would have been helped
There's a clear line between, doing everything you can to help people out and favouring one person over another. I don't advocate the latter.
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Hard News: Auckland, so much enormity to…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
The DIA will do an expedited passport for a fee. That seems fair enough, rather than trying to corrupt a politician to get one.
My circumstances were different again. We'd neglected to register her birth so we needed to do that first before an application could be lodged. Fortunately, the Embassy staff rushed everything well beyond the usual business practice and processed the registration and then the application (for which we did pay the additional fee) inside, from memory, ten days.
"Corrupting" a politician wasn't ever an option, asking my local MP to potentially help in awkward personal circumstances was my back-up option. One of the things all MPs do is to advocate on behalf of their constituents, public servants expect this and, save breaching the law or codes of conduct, will always try to deliver service.