Posts by Paul Williams
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Lilith __,
Lilith, perhaps I've finally acclimatised to Sydney after 8 years... actually, I know I haven't since I regularly curse the heat in the Summer!
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Sacha, thanks for doing what I should've and read the Orsman story directly... from my perspective, it follows then that there's a strong case for investing in swimming lessons (and public pools will likely be essential to ensure equitable participation) so that kids swim to a standard sufficient to reduce drownings. The public and economic benefit of that is clear.
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Odd. I was a teenager during the '80s.
I certainly remember when a pay-gate was installed at Papatoetoe and, on reflection, entry must have been twenty cents or such - a coin or combination of coins anyway. Perhaps Manurewa was free. I wasn't particularly disagreeing with you but thought a small charge was levied and was, then, affordable.
Perhaps someone knows to what extent public primary schools still have pools and provide swimming lessons as part of the normal curriculum?
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Nick Kearney,
Finally, yes, I am a parent. One who works and who has paid for swimming lessons for my daughter. If something is going to be free, it might be cheaper to offer free lessons to children under, say, 9 or 10, rather than free access. It might be cheaper for parents to pay for access to the pool, but for the lessons to be "free". After all, it's the lessons our children need, not access per se.
You make a good point. There's strong public interest and benefit in the population being able to swim. Swimming lessons were provided by my public primary school but not my integrated High School. My parents arrranged/paid for me to have swimming lessons at the Manurewa and Papatoetoe public pools and later, as a teenager, I paid the small (heavily subsidised) entry fee to go to the pools and hang out with my mates.
Investing in these publc facilities is justifiable on many bases, including developing healthy, engaged and attractive communities, the kinds of communities that encourage people to remain in NZ to enjoy high standards of living.
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I lived in Manurewa for the first 11 years of my life, and found the concept of paying to go to a council-owned swimming pool when we moved to Hamilton to be completely absurd. I understood that places like Waiwera cost, but the Hamilton pools have the council logo plastered all over. Council pools were free, right?
I might be a little older than you Matthew, but I too grew up in South Auckland, Papatoetoe, the council pool there wasn't free although entry was very cheap, a dollar or less in the early '80s I think. Still you point is entirely valid, council facilities ought to be as cheap as possible to encourage maximum use.
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This is nonsense in various ways. There are hundreds of public swimming pools and coastal baths in and around, say, Sydney.
Indeed, it is ridiculous to suggest pools are the preserve of cold climate towns and besides, as a displaced kiwi in Sydney, even I'd say Auckland's actually pretty cool, at least comparatively.
Where I live in Sydney, the inner west, there's been significant development/redevelopment/investment in public pools. Off the top of my head, four public pools have been developed or completely refurbished within 5 kilometre of my home. That said, the entry to the new pool in Enmore (apparently one of the most ecologically sustainable aquatic centres in Australia) costs $6 per adult.
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Hard News: We are all twatcocks now…, in reply to BenWilson,
Don't forget "Cracking on" and "Cracking the shits". Which have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.
Indeed, or a near neighbour; "cacking oneself"... lots of scatological humour.
Perhaps, but subject them to twenty-five minutes of your best vein-popping, lung-busting impersonation of a drunk rabid drop bear with Tourettes? They'll break just like a little girl.
Are you happy to leave that to our collective imagination or would you like to elaborate?
Is it definitely "died" and not "dyed"? Because the latter could be a sheep-farming metaphor.
And given that the Australian standard put down of NZers relates to sheep... but no, it is "died".
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Where I am, I ground my whole class to a halt by referring to oxygen levels in the Archaean as "pretty bloody low". I'm not even touching twatcock in public. (Well. For aspects of public that are not the Internet.)
Australians are far far less prudish.
Still, I found it fascinating to discover, in the first few years after I moved to Australia, how many phrases are primarily kiwi ones. "Dog tucker" doesn't translate, neither does "packing a sad".
I also took some time to learn local slang; "died in the arse" remains a favourite and simply means to fail but usually after looking promising (like so many NZ cricket matches for instance)... "rat fuck" is another and means to betray... as I said, they're not prudish at all.
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Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to Sacha,
See what Scotch does?
Here, I've poured you another one :)
Indeed. I only wish I was similarly so perspicacious after a dram!
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Hard News: We are all twatcocks now…, in reply to Jackie Clark,
I will say it again - how old are we, people? If you want to let it rip, profaity wise, feel free to do so. You are in Australia, after all, which is, is it not, the home of much sweary goings-on.
Indeed, but they've got their own profanity and it's heavily gendered in my experience: you are a cunt (or as Kim would say a "chunt") or a cock, nothing ambipudendral about it.