davetapson

So awesome. We're facing winter in a 70's ( not particularly insulated) house and I'm thinking why are we doing this to ourselves?

Also I learned about getting loans here. Two brokers, get conditional loans with Heartland for 10.5% and 11.65%, The Lending Crowd comes in at 9.06%, no early redemption penalties, can pay in lump sums any time you want. I tell the brokers, their response... "Oh, we can get you that", one comes back with 9.02 (after I had pushed the button on the 9.06 loan). Makes me angry, happy to fleece you, happy to discount against other loans when convenient. Next time I will probably still take The Lending Crowd (peer-to-peer lending, you can invest - have a look) but probably play the brokers off against each other to see what transpires. But that's not really my thing.

I see guys at the mall just leave their helmets hanging on their mirrors. Is this a thing? Or do you have a cheap helmet you use for mirror hanging and a better one for other times?

Curiously enough, I had bought a Polo for my commute Oos Rondt to Sandton/Rosebank/wherever at the time. I'd had it for two years or so and some clown rear ended me on the R21 / N12 off ramp when the traffic backed up turning on to the N12. It felt like a bomb went off - one moment I pulled behind the stopped traffic, next thing "BANG" and my car was flung up in the air. Anyhow, I was only winded, the car was written off. "How fast were you going?" I asked the clown "Only 120kmh" sez he. So, my stationary Polo was rear ended at 120kmh and the worst thing that happened was that my laptop in the boot got a crack in it's casing. Also "I think I'm quite badly hurt" sez he. "And I should care, why?" sez I. The insurance payout on that car paid for a large chunk of my emigration costs.

Had a look at the Husqvarna helmets - the Pilen helmet makes you look like a storm trooper, the Adv helmet looks like it could be noisy? Looks like my venture-hood into hipsterism is going to fail before it starts!

Thanks Wayne.

My German jacket and jeans it sounds like, plus rain suit. Rainsuit can probably live in jacket back pocket.

So there is now a Svartpilen with my name on it at Cyclespot while I sort out a learner's licence to go on top of my (expired) UK bike licence. patches you have a lot to answer for! (Thanks, bud 😉 ) What do I need to know about commuting in NZ, given, I suppose, that unlike SA, it's more likely the weather will kill you than the traffic? Armoured jeans (can you deal with the discomfort for a full days work in them?), armoured, waterproof hoodie, waterproof boots? Rain suit packed somewhere in bike or backpack? I have the hard core stuff, good German brands I used in the UK, but it might be overkill for riding 5km at 50kmh max. And it's annoying to take on and off going to and leaving work. Edit: I had a look at the Katoom - effectively same size engine, but feels twice the size

Kids without family support is hard. In SA we ended up hiring a small village to avoid our twins being the death of us. Here, without that option, I hate to think. With two young kids, you certainly have our respect.

I wonder if it will make a diffs on life insurance policies?

The price on the Husky is not bad $8195 vs $10 745 for a pretty ordinary Honda adv bike... https://shop.botanyhonda.co.nz/collections/all-bikes/products/new-honda-crf300lr-rally DR400 is $11k https://www.suzuki.co.nz/motorcycles/range/adventure It'd be the prudent thing to do.

Hmm. I buy the MT-03 for it's utility, but I'm a sit-up-and-beg kind of guy. Check the repayment for SwartP1el... you'd think Google had been listening. You need to be careful what you Google these days... Hmmm... pretty....

Seems we're going to be going back the office over time. Being a contractor, I don't get office parking so will have to park on the road, at $1/hr. Now, some might think this is a bad thing, but I'm thinking it would be a prudent financial move to put that $40+ a week into an asset such as, hmm, a motorcycle. (Which they don't mind you parking in the office parking as a contractor.) So... $40 x 48 weeks = ~$2k a year, x 3 = $6k. What do we reckon would be good for office commutes at $6k plus a bit extra deposit...? It's not far, (ASB in Corinthian Dr in Albany), could probably walk it at a stretch. Too short to be cycle commute with any benefit (which is why I'd need a motorcycle, obviously.) I've been tinkering with the idea of DR650, but they just don't appeal to me for some reason. Plus why buy ox-wagon tech? If you gonna do that, buy an XT 500 (which does appeal, enormously.) Edit: although I'm also thinking that it might be a good excuse for a touring bike (bicycle) (need luggage rack for laptop bag, y'know) as I have eyes on Tour Aotearoa...)

Ha - Santa tells me he has put a Blue 70 wetsuit in his sack for me... maybe we'll meet up at a race...

When we lived in SA we were so caught up in that rat-race. I think part of it is that life there is not predictable or guaranteed in any way, so you feel the need to be chasing the whole time. When you get to places where life has not changed much for generations, folk are way more chilled - much more dialled in to just living where they are. We notice it in the schools here - they just don't stress. The kid will do what the kid will do. Don't stress. Us saffas are always feeling like we need to push and apply pressure. At the surface, the local kids seem to do just fine. I'll let you know in 6 years time...

If it's herniation, there is some evidence that just strengthening your back can reduce, fix that. I'm skirting with that, and everytime I start getting issues it's because I've got lazy with exercises. You don't escape 30 years of bad posture sitting behind a computer screen. Currently I work standing. It sucks. But beats getting a sore back. Apparently sitting on yoga balls works, but it probably sucks more than standing.

We're more vaccinated than probably anywhere. It's time to let the vaccinations do their job, while the immune effect is still strong.

Soon as you see people looking so earnest talking such crap, you got to roll your eyes. That goes for both sides of all arguments. Thanks for the warning not to waste some of my life following that rabbit hole.

Trust me, you can always feel a touch of the South Pole in the wind... it's just not that far away...

A bit of reversal of jealousy making... Having lived in Nam, I did have a pang or two. I'm calling this relevant to the thread due to Patches and Intern's motorcycle discussions ????

Damn, that was a deal. Hmmm - thanks for those links. The old boat building guy who's course I did recommends Carbatec. His other favourite was https://www.rands.co.nz/ - it's where I picked up the green sander. No thicknessers there. I'd not admit it anywhere else, but that sander is a handful. It was great for knocking back metres sq'd of epoxy that I had to coat some horrible ply with to flatten down a fuzzy surface and for sure earned it's worth there, but for your average diy thing, I'd probably just go pick up a Bosch PEX or something - lighter, easier to handle and plenty of grunt for normal stuff.

"The ol' Festool router..." Cough!! I hope someone has been giving you grief in my absence..! Nice work. For the partitions, you can get a thing called a set square, helps you get things lined up perpendicular like... ???? No, seriously nice work, those joints are ????!! I still haven't thicknessed those mast staves. Had to move house - new house is not as saw-dust friendly as the last house, have kind of vegged. Need to have a meeting with myself and give myself a kick in the arse. Hopefully that summer is coming should provide some motivation. And maybe the Mens Shed to reopen - or it's $700 on a Ryobi thicknesser from Bunnings...

Sorry - check your messages... You're out now, you still in AKL?

Haahaha - we did the same - camping! But, even in the face of earning everlasting scorn, the guy we get coffee from also packages it in pods and we chuck them in the Nespresso. Who do you get your coffee from? Edit: damn, that machine looks like something else.

But, more importantly... So our normal coffee guy is closed because covid, so we're drinking coffee pod stuff we can buy in the supermarket. So far, all flavours have been different grades of horrible compared to normal guy. What's worth drinking in Nesspresso style pods..?