davetapson

I'd need to dig my bike out from under the sawdust and spiders and try and remember how to ride it. What's that thing they say - you never forget how to fall off a bicycle..? PS: that's one thing they never mention about NZ - spiders. Damn, they're everywhere.

Yep, then Milton. On hindsight, should have done Falcon.

Bullies, centre of the world! Had some others: Chiredzi (more accurately Mkwasine), Pietermartizburg, Oshakati, Capetown, Mtunzini, South Croydon, somewhere else in London that escapes me, Isle of Mull, Capetown, Empangeni, Putney, Wimbledon, Edinburgh, Grantchester, Islington, Chelmsford, Benoni - Auckland... The Zam, one of the worlds finest places... I remember you mentioning Kanyemba in some long ago post, I think to Barry for some reason, and thinking 'yeh, not many know where that is, fewer been there...' Yeah, we lived about three blocks from your burger joint in Morehill Terrace or whatever it was called. Suppose it didn't have enough going for it to overlook the alternatives... it was so-so, not my favourite spot. My wife's family is from there and she wanted to move back to SA to look after her folks - who promptly fought with us and then didn't speak with us for 5 years, so that was a real win

Grew up in Zim, sailing on dams around Bulawayo, then not much until now (hopefully). The Gulf is such a resource it's a pity not to make full use of it, and I like sailing and building boats so it's a win-win. But to answer your question, all over the place but ending up in Benoni for the last 14yrs...!

Yeh - got the email! You shouldn't make offers like that... [emoji38] I've got another boat in mind. Need to finish this one first, then lull the missus into a state of inattention, then sneak another one in. For this one I started on a kayak, then realised that it's never going to get used due to family, better do some family friendly thing, started on the dinghy and only when it was obviously not a kayak did she notice... 'What, you building ANOTHER boat..!?' "Yeh, didn't you notice? Oh, thought you knew..." The next one is going to be hopefully a bespoke John Welsford design - something beefy enough to go camping on the various islands - including Great Barrier. I've asked him to come up with the equivalent of a double-cab bakkie - some accommodation, loadable, fast. He has something he designed for himself that is nearly right - just too fine / un-loadable for my purposes....

Problem is voters like that. Looks good, feels good, put the cross.

Dang! Good job. All the best for healing up...

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You'll get no argument on that from me...

It's so hard to read schools. One person says one thing of a school, one person another. Maybe why the decile thing is so appealing - puts a score on something slippery, but maybe not a score that's particularly effective. At some level the most important thing is 'will my kids find a close friend there' - the rest is pretty inconsequential to their quality of life. Which ironically leads to bigger schools being better, there being a bigger range of kids to select from.

I can't speak for anywhere else, but the schools on the north shore are a real mix, I reckon a lot more immigrant than Kiwi kids. I wouldn't mind moving a bit out of town to get my kids into a more homogenous 'Kiwi' school where there is a real sense of community and every one knows everyone's business. Not gonna happen tho, and maybe immigrant kids will find more in common with immigrant kids.

Sometimes I wonder about us being so decile rating bef*k. When we first arrived here, we visited a Kiwi mate of mine that I worked with in London a good long time ago. Asked her where she sent her kids (this is Northcote, so not a shabby area) and she told me, can't remember which school, and she made a comment about it not being top decile, but that she didn't consider that a problem, or any risk to their education, and had obviously made a choice not based on decile ratings. I haven't resolved this in my own head, so make no suggestion, just the observation. Edit: I have a feeling that the range of quality of education is so varied in SA that we have a real need to get our kids into a 'good' school. In NZ, in a given area that we'd like to live in, I suspect the education provided by schools is much of a muchness, hence why the Kiwi's are so laid back about it - "don't sweat, send them to a school, any school. They'll learn to read and write."

That's exactly what I'm going to do with it... Stable as all hell. https://www.opengoose.com/tuning-and-setup/boat-handling/sailing-in-waves-oz-goose/

If you can't fix it with duct tape, you haven't used enough duct tape...

What I'm working on. Photos all mixed up, not going to try fix order on my phone...

I might take you up on that. I need to laminate a bunch of timber together to make a centre-board and rudder for my dinghy, and I need a thicknesser to plane that down from 30odd mm to 22, so that would make a great start! Going on leave for a week next weekend (skiing/Ruapahu) so likely won't be done for couple weeks. They don't have a cnc machine to cut the foil profile onto it do they...? Edit: Dang, that saw is everything my 15 y.o. bottom-of-the-range Ryobi circular saw is not...

Hey Patches - how long did it take to receive a 'come for your induction' email from the Men's Shed? Is that how it works..?

Discussions, a few years ago... Hey, do you reckon Lance dopes? Well, there are a number of folk desperate to win at all costs. If they are not currently winning, they will dope to win. If there is a current non-doping winner, the likelihood is dopers will start to beat him. If he wants to win, he needs to dope. Ergo, if you are winning, you are likely doping. (For all sports.) Now, politicians. How do you win as a politician - the ability to lie with a straight face and do smelly deals. Proof: best politicians of the last couple decades? Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Both of whom would struggle to not tell an untruth even if they tried. Same story - how do you become a winning politician? You lie with a straighter face and greater fluency than your rivals... (and likely do smellier deals with greater ease...) Question: does that PM/President lie and do smelly deals (that allow them to get to where they are)? The answer is staring you in the face. And lying to you. (Half the problem of course is that the electorate like being lied to, but that's another discussion...)

JA "No, no pressure was put on him to resign..." A: That's in all likelihood an untruth... B: In any case, why not...?! Damn...

Be interesting to know how much tax come from personal tax vs company tax... and I suppose, the contribution made by VAT, which let's face it, is largely just another personal tax.

The interesting thing is how few tax payers there are (2.6M?) and how few earn reasonable bucks... Excerpt: At the other end of the scale, Inland Revenue data shows that in the year to March last year – the last year for which there is complete data – 203,121 people paid tax on annual income of between $100,000 and $150,000. Another 55,108 earnt between $150,000 and $200,000 and 44,419 pulled in more than $200,000. This does not include the very high net wealth individuals with assets of more than $50 million who get their own department at Inland Revenue. While this tally of six-figure earners adds up to more than 300,000 people, it’s not a large proportion of the roughly 2.6 million people in the labour force. The bulk of New Zealanders earn between $40,000 and $80,000, as shown in the chart below. So income of $100,000 probably does meet the requirement for “well-off”

Yeh, The first set of marine ply I got from Plyman - it delaminated, but they replaced it. Then tried to get BS18001 Marine Ply (or whatever it is) from them but couldn't get a response, so got the current lot from Plytech - it's supposed to be Joubert which is supposed to be top notch but the stuff I've got has such loose grain that sanding it is like rubbing a wet dog's hair backwards. I've taken to putting a layer of epoxy on to it and sanding that flat. It's why I'm so glad I got the Festool sander - I'm doing a bunch of sanding I didn't expect to be doing. Why does it have to be so flpn hard? Access to wood piles is what I need. Also keeping an eye open for reclaimed builder yards - should be able to get something from those.

Sounds great. Now I just need to get the wood. I really struggle to get timber here. In Jhb, you could pop down to Country Woods in Woodmead and they had an amazing range of amazing woods. Here you have a really limited choice, and expensive. I need Spruce or Oregon Pine - Spruce? What's that? Oregon, yeah, we have some, but not in the size/lengths you need. Might have some in 3 weeks. BBS Timber is my goto here, but it's selection is pretty ordinary to say the least. Might just get some radiata from Bunnings and trim that to size, but Spruce it is not. And I hate Oregon Pine - hard and splintery. NZ radiata is amazingly ok.

Yeah, better than my handheld circular saw, for sure. Else a band saw with a fence. A jointer would be good to clean up the edges of the beam. Also need a thicknesser to plane down a lamination for centreboard and rudder. Thicknesser could clean up the beam prior to ripping.

Dang! I was reading about these this weekend - read an obituary on the guy who started them up and it lead on from there... I need to rip down a beam of Oregon Pine to make a panels to make a hollow mast and was a bit daunted with having to do it with what I have on hand - possible, but real hacky, and real possibility of it going less than ideally. Then I saw the Mens Shed thing - hoping that they will have what it takes...