davetapson

I've been told that apart from the public having a reduced appetite for buying property at the moment, banks have a reduced appetite for writing bonds. Dunno if that's true, but the source was somebody who should know.

Benoni - R2.9mRamsgate - R1.9m Both are houses on stands. Only thing moving at the moment are units in security complexes.

Yep.

Bugger. Our properties are not selling, need to support aged mother in SA. Don't want to be blocking bank accounts til those all resolved. PS: Local Engen cafe I stop at to get bread and milk at on the way home got robbed last night. An elderly patient my wife treats for free had her old Honda stolen during appt... they're kind of making it easy to leave.

Financial Emigration..?! Seems that if you want to get your RA out etc then you need to do this, and it is apparently cheaper to do while you are still in SA? Downside being that your bank account gets blocked? So, if I get it right, the trade-off is RA's out vs having a working SA bank account? Folks got any views on this?

Slightly off topic, but it is of that little known North North Island... And for old fks like me...

Patches - saw you comment about farmers on DR650's. I suppose that if I put my dreams in my pocket for a moment, that's not a bad option. $5k - $6k second hand...

Geez, sounds like a civilized country for sure... what are the chances of that happening here? Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using Tapatalk

I don't know Husky's at all well - that looks interesting. These little buggers aren't cheap tho. More than I paid for a Polo Vivo a couple years back. I did a fast track licence in the UK - they have the same sort of rules, but if you do a course with a training agency you get 'fast-tracked' straight to 750cc+. I'll never regret it - they taught me a couple tricks that I'm sure have kept me alive both on motor cycle and bike (the most important fo me being that at an intersection, make sure you have made eye contact with anyone who has the potential of flattening you - you then know that they have seen you.) In some ways it seems daft that you have to do a different licence to make it legal to use the last 30cc of your Fe701... but I suppose they have to choose a number. That pdf makes cheerful reading - the takeaway being that the licence types with the least crashes are forbidden/unlicenced/foreign. Maybe cancel the licence application... The age group graph is interesting - seems the mad fkrs who bought bikes in the 80's were crashing all over the place, then took it easy when they had kids, now bought beemers and crashing all over again from 2010 onwards... my age group. Maybe we are just k@k riders...

Had a Skype interview with these guys where I saw this which made me think about this @Patches - is commuting by bike in Auckland a viable proposition..?

Watched one a year or two ago in Nugget St in Jhb. Guy took a phone from the car in front of me, looked at me, saw my windows were closed, wandered off. These guys just banged on the window with a gun. Didn't take a whole lot of persuasion... But then in Nugget Str, anything could happen. Edit: the cops told me that they used to 'work' at Hyde Park, they set a trap and caught them, they were let out on bail and picked up again in Rosebank. I was the second that day, the first 10 mins before me. Same spot.

This thread should have a sub-thread called South Africa - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. I was relieved of my cell phone at gunpoint yesterday evening, in traffic, 50m from my office's entrance in Rosebank - corner Bolton/Oxford. A month before we leave...

Good job mom!!

ETA end August. It's getting real. Cleaning out workshop - chucking stuff is hard.

Zigactly!! I am tempted myself (and that's from someone coming off a souped up KTM300 2-stroke that I could never get to like as much as I figured I should have.) But then I grew up with XT500's... Edit of Edit: Even if a cheap 150 came across my path, I'd consider it. Better to learn on something you can pick up and throw down...

Given that that is my likely future, how unfortunate was the commute...? Also, what is the likelihood of getting IT work in Albany, if you might know about that?

Out of interest, how long does the commute take from GH?

Yeh - part of the problem (if we understand rightly) is that you arrive in Auckland, rent a place, get the kids in local zoned school and unless you are prepared to move schools, you are pretty much stuck in that area... and it's a bit tricky to know what area you'll want to live in without having lived there...

My only advice on this, and take it from where it came, is start with something light. It's much easier to gain confidence on something you don't have to muscle/finesse around. Smaller capacity bikes have plenty of punch these days too. Get something cheap, upgrade when you have a better idea of what you like. (And for something completely personal: 4-strokes FTW...)

Thanks guys, much appreciate it. Is there anything with schools we need to know that might catch us out...?

I lived in London for a number of years - me, I've got no complaints about other people taking me to work... alternatively, self-driving cars - can't wait.

Hello Auckland folk, wonder if you can provide some advice... The missus has an offer in Takapuna. We don't know Auckland, but from what we've heard if you work in Auckland city, and live in the north, park and ride is the only way to go due to traffic congestion on the bridge - so at some level it is immaterial where you live in the north, as long as it is accessible to park and ride. It also seems that as you move north rent gets cheaper. So we're thinking of Mairangi Bay or Browns Bay or somewhere around there on the assumption that the City/Takapuna would be accessible from there. We also need to organise school for 8 yo twins, so that's part of the deal. Are we on the right track?

No mistakes. Just learning what you don't like so that you don't have to do it again. And rather now than in 2, 3, 4, 5 years time. You're an entrepreneurial guy - there nothing you feel like doing on your own - or is that what the H&S thing will be?

Time to speak to Matt to host a bikehub.nz or whatever the local domain is... Someone should go grab the domain name quicksticks.

So has this been mentioned on the this thread yet - one of my mates in the UK sent it to me - has done part of it. http://www.touraotearoa.nz/p/home.html More... http://www.kennett.co.nz/