Dirts Diary

Moving on

2011-12-12T22:16:00.000-08:00

As time goes by the pain of my relationship break up is receding and I can start to be a bit more honest about my own feelings. I wasn't all that happy myself and thinking I could have and should have done better in my relationship selections. To cut a long story short I had begun to realize the ex wasn't all that I really wanted out of partner.

As I mull over the events of the last few months before we broke up I guess she felt the same. Where I just accepted the way things were because I thought we had a good life and while the passion had somehow gone from our relationship I thought we were happy together. However, somewhere along the line she had decided to move on.

The hard thing of course in getting over it all and realizing that despite the really dumb and questionable relationship she appears to have got herself into she ain't coming back and I don't really want her to.

But that is not entirely true of course. Despite the fact that I am better off without her and the compromises I thought I had made and her selfishness I still think about her all the time. I am finding it hard to let go while knowing I need to for the sake of my sanity.

And so we move on partly getting over it, partly not when we have fleeting snippets of contact, getting into new relationships. This includes putting to bed any thoughts of a need for chemical help to get it up to enjoy a fulfilling sexual relationship bar a few beers which had been a worry as our sex life hadn't been all that great for some time. Clearly, as it turns out I need more more from a partner than a mechanical and passionless acceptance on her part.

But still the pain is not totally gone, and until it does, the longing, sometimes despair and grief will overshadow any further relationships. The baggage that people talk about. Well we all have baggage, the ghosts of relationships past. In some ways this baggage is character building but it is still a tough time.

Tough too hide from the new lady in my life who has her own baggage. Hopefully time will heal the wounds and to be fair it is really only a few short months since this all went down. But starting over is hard and as old age approaches there is always the fear of growing old alone.

This in part has driven me to start all over again in the hope of finding the perfect or more or less perfect mate but in the back of my mind there is always the fear that she was the one and she has forsaken me and there is no hope.

But I need to look to the future. 2011 was the worst year of my life and I live in hope that 2012 will be much better. Despite my current fit of melancholy it has started off with a hiss and a roar. My Christmas and New Year was much happier than I would have believed possible just a few months ago and may that trend continue.

Online dating - moving on

2011-12-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

My previous post outlined the recent breakup of the key relationship in my life. The hardest thing to come to terms with, and in truth I haven't yet fully come to terms with the fact that it has ended and there is no turning the clock back.

The other thing to deal with is that the ex was already well down the path of moving on when I found out about it all. She had already made plans and they didn't include me despite that fact that she had no intention of moving out or actually leaving until the stars were aligned in her favour.

While I was hoping for reconciliation she was already committing the ultimate deception and it was only by chance that I found out. Lies piled on lies and then you immediately start to question the entire relationship. Had this happened before? Probably despite her denials.

The best bit of advice that I had was to move one and do the stuff I wanted to do. So I did. I think it was a surprise to the ex that I decided to stay in the house. Apart from anything else I couldn't bear the thought of packing up all my gear and moving. I'll have to do it eventually but not yet.

The next thing I did was get the legal side of the separation rolling. I explained that if we did get back together this wouldn't matter but it was clear that this wasn't likely to happen. I don't know what she was thinking or where her head was but she had it in her mind that we could just agree to part and when house prices came back we could sort out our affairs. Don't you trust me? Yeah right. Best to get things sorted as soon as possible before positions harden.First piece of good advice I got from my lawyer.

The next piece of advice I got was to stay away from online dating sites for while. Just chill out and do the stuff you like doing and take things as they come. I have to say that in hindsight that is pretty good advice.

But oops I'd already started and I have had some pretty interesting experiences. I was determined not to rest on my laurels and try new stuff and get out of my comfort zone. I could easily just sit here at home and get bitter and depressed.

So I created a profile and waited for the results. The first few dates were interesting to say the least. It was a bit of a concern to me that I seemed to attract a certain type of woman. They were ok but probably just as needy as I was at the time. Was there something wrong with my profile, was I too honest?

Then there were the women that in the flesh were a bit different to what their profile said. In my mind there is a difference between a little white lie than outright deception. The profiles in themselves are interesting as well. Is there such a thing as a perfect bloke? Some of them have pretty high expectations.No wonder their profiles seem to remain on the site when others disappear never to be seen again.

Then there was the date where we seemed to click and got in like a house on fire until the night she told me that she was allergic to most of the food we had eaten together and that she shouldn't be drinking the wine I had just bought. She said she need to detox for a few months. The detoxing process apparently included me as well because that was the last time I saw or heard from her.

Not even a courtesy I have found someone else which is what I expect happened. I thought that was a bit rude. She was a nice enough woman and I enjoyed our time together but I didn't see myself living with her for the rest of our days. maybe she sensed that.

I now understand how baggage from previous relationships can affect new ones even when you think you are over it or at least think you can hide the impact on your emotions. What amuses me is that sometimes it appears to me that the woman who are telling me that I am still not over the ex are probably carting about more baggage than I am. Why do they start these conversations otherwise? So when people talk about baggage it is just not yours you need to be worried about.

For the I have more or less given up on the idea of online dating for the moment. It is a fun way to meet people and I have done some different things and have some new places to go but it is quite an artificial world to meet a prospective partner but you never know your luck.

The dates so far.

Date one nice Asian lady. We met almost immediately, in fact we met several times but it soon dawned on me that she was in worse shape than I was. In fact I doubt that in her middle forties she had ever had a long term relation ship of more than a few months. I felt sorry for her but not sorry enough to go on seeing her. I am sure that I was probably just what she was looking for but she wasn't right for me in more ways than one. Her colloquial english was poor and she was quite selfish in some ways.

Date two. Nice but weirdly pretentious Russian lady. First date seemed to go fine and we arranged to meet the next day. Texted a couple of times the next day. No response. She might not have been quite what she presented herself as.

Date three.I knew this one was a bit dodgy the first time I spoke to her but thought what the hell lets give it a go. My first impression was confirmed when she suggested that we meet at a local bakery chain cafe. The meeting just confirmed the gut feeling I had developed and her wall eye was the clincher.

Date four. We immediately hit it off and spent quite a bit of time together over the next month or so. This is the lady with the food allergies and the odd pretentious smile and who didn't didn't make contact all of a sudden when things seemed to be going so well. Maybe she was just using me to fill a gap in the same way I was using her and moved onto someone better. I knew she wasn't right for me the first time I went to her apartment and discovered a lap dog in the house. I can't stand having a dog inside. Worse still when she took the thing for a walk she didn't put it on a lead and seemed to think that is was ok for it to roam around and annoy people at will.

Date five. This one was probably the worst of the lot and I couldn't wait to get away. She was just weird and didn't make any attempt to present herself very well.

Date six. The phone has just beeped. A text from her I am guessing. Another very nice lady but very intense. She seemed to think I was the one from the first date and after just a few weeks wants some kind of exclusivity. I am not so sure myself but am keen enough to remove my profile from the dating site to show some kind of commitment. Of all of them she seems to be the most interested in my past life and talks about me not being ready yet. Maybe number four thought this as well but she never said much about it. I suspect that both of them have just as much baggage from previous relationships as I do: if not more. Unbidden the most amazing things pop out at times and like all woman they seem content to construe the most incredible inferences from a simple grunt.

And me, well I have learn't a few things as well.

The Breakup

2011-11-27T22:21:00.000-08:00

The last time I wrote in here I was reasonably secure in my relationship with the other half or so I thought. How wrong I was.

I thought she was away at a weekend with a new special friend, how wrong, well how right I was in some ways. She came home from a weekend with her new girlfriend to tell me that she was unhappy. What I didn't know at that point was that our relationship was effectively over. Being unhappy was her way of telling me that she had already moved on. Clearly in hindsight she hadn't just been with her new girlfriend.

I was unhappy too. I put it down to frustration at work but in hindsight I wasn't happy at the way things were going either but not so unhappy that I wanted to end the relationship. Both of us should have talked about this I guess and it is far too late now.

Then I started to unravel the layers of deceit and lies and the brazenness with which the new relationship had been developing in front of me. Of course the situation was by no means unique but it always feels worse when it happens to you.

She even told me the new guys name so in this age of social media it wasn't hard to find out a few things about him. Despite myself, as this was a really low point in my life, I said to myself. 'What the hell have you done you silly woman.' If you thought that the age difference between Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher was unsustainable as has recently been proved right then this new relationship has no chance and is doomed to fail.

I console myself that at some point in time you can just about guarantee that one of both of them are going to wake up one morning in the not too distant future and go 'what the fuck have I done?'

But then a fifty something woman's hormones and puppy love by some needy emotionally immature man roughly the same age as her kids looking for a shoulder to cry on as his own relationship breaks down probably make them impervious to the simple realities of such a relationship. Once these things get rolling they have an inertia all of their own which is hard to stop.

But for the ex when this happens there is a double whammy as she has chosen to move to the other end of the country and a new job. What is going to happen if and when the relationship fails and she is in a new city with no friends and family close by and potentially nowhere to live?

Unfortunately for the ex, the GFC and a prenup agreement meant that where she might have expected a bit of a windfall to start her new life there wasn't much to share and I have ended up with the house that she loved and a lot of the gear we accumulated together while she packed up her belongings in a few boxes and left with little to show for our life together.

This might be a source of bitterness in the future if it isn't already. I suspect that in some ways a little guilt on her part meant that she settled for a lot less than she should have in terms of what she took with her.

But life moves on for both of us and I still have my toys and I am enjoying them still.

So what to do next? Once the hurt started to fade.Too soon in hindsight, I joined an online dating web site. One part of my planned rehabilitation was to get back in the saddle as it were as soon as possible.Not just to find a new love of my life but to get out and meet new people and do new stuff.

In some respects this has been successful, in others not so.

American Extremism

2011-07-29T00:11:00.000-07:00

Next year I'll be the big 50. When I was growing up WW2 still loomed large in the general consciousness and most men that I came across as a kid that were my age now had been involved in the armed forces.

Also fresh in people's minds was that the British Empire wasn't able to protect us when the Japanese entered the war to make it a truly global cataclysm and stormed across the Pacific headed in this general direction.

Luckily for us Japan miscalculated and bombed Pearl Harbour which led to America entering the war and to cut a long story short provided the industrial might and manpower to vanquish both foes. From that point on we looked to America for leadership in many respects, maybe not because we really wanted to but because they were the big guys in our backyard.

Since WW2 the US has promoted itself as the leader of the free world and gone into bat for us against the red menace and more latterly against Islamic fundamentalists. But somewhere along the line America has lost it's way, and whatever they do on the world stage seems to more about self interest than anything morally altruistic.

And when I say 'they' I really mean that small extremely wealthy and powerful group of corporations and individuals that are pulling the strings in the background. The kind of people that drive an invasion of an oil rich desert nation to secure future oil supplies but badly miscalculate the impact of their actions that cost more than any potential return. There is a bit more involved in running a country than running a corporation, no matter how large and powerful. Despite what the right wing ideologues would have us believe the playing field is never equal.

From and outsiders point of view, this in a nutshell is what is what is wrong with America, something brought into stark relief as we watch the intense partisan debate about the debt ceiling.

There seems to be no middle ground in this debate, extremists on both sides are driving fringe ideologies that in the long term are unsustainable and are self destructive in the name of short term gain. Think the Taliban, think Southern Koran burning Baptists. These people are not representative of their religions-they are completely deluded. Unfortunately they have the ability to inflict widespread hardship and pain on the innocent.

While Americans might think that the debate over their economy is all about them, the rest of us are left to count the cost of bitter ideological battles by the lunatic fringes of the most powerful single economy on the planet. While the American congress and senate fiddle while Washington burns my mortgage rates go up.

The best thing that could happen is that the US 'defaults' on its obligations and collectively the American people revolt against extremist ideology when they next have a chance and vote for more responsible government. Vote for less costly militarism, everyone paying their fair share of the cost of running the economy-and yes that means business paying their fair share and living with some pain when entitlements are cut.

Pigs might fly but not in my lifetime. But in my lifetime I fully expect America to wane as a world military and economic power. I hope I survive the transition

Eating well out West

2011-02-18T22:31:00.000-08:00

We are eating out again and eating well out West. I get a hard time for living out west - some of it from people who live in one of those flash suburbs out East, places like Otara East. People in glass houses should not throw stones I reckon.

Whatever anyone says about the west and the perception that we are all black T shirt wearing bogans or our woman all have hairy legs and wear vegetarian fibre cardies there are actually some pretty decent places to eat and drink out this way.

Historically the wine industry in this part of the world was kick started by Dalmation immigrants once they had retired from the gum fields. The story goes that they couldn't stand the slop the my ancestors were drinking and started to grow grapes. Most likely the guys that started growing grapes around here were too clever to get involved in shagging around with their gumboots getting full of mud in the gumfields in the first place.

Tony's was established almost 30 years ago in Henderson-one of the first if not the first decent eatery in this part of the world. In recognition of the legacy of vineyards in the area Tony's was originally known as Tony's Vineyard Restaurant.

While it is a bit rustic and looking a bit tired Tony's seems to be quite popular with the locals. The reason being they stick to their knotting and and do a decent basic steak meal. The service is ok, though we had to wait a while for our first drink order.

Since the last time were there the menu has been upgraded but the basics of a good big steak remain.

Always a good place for a feed but for some reason last night we both felt a bit rushed though we both left feeling extremely full and satisfied.

Where?

Edsel Street, Henderson

Tony's Vineyard Restaurant

Eating out on Waiheke

2011-02-18T17:03:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we spent a few days on Waiheke Island. It has been years since I had been to the island and even longer since I had stayed so I was looking forward to it.

Waiheke is an interesting place, full of people who think that they are interesting and a playground for the rich, famous and infamous. None of which are we. The real natives of Waiheke must breathe a huge sigh of relief when the best part of the summer is over and they can reclaim their island from the hordes of daily sightseers and holiday makers like us.

But I digress, Waiheke has a reputation for being a trendy greenie type place to be, a more upmarket version of wild west Auckland and far more accessible than Coromandel. While she who must be obeyed (SWMBO) was interested in checking out some of the arty farty stuff and wanted a photo of herself outside the various wineries I was more interested in feeding the inner man and making sure that I had a beer for lunch.

BTW whatever I tell SWMBO I'd really rather be riding!

We sampled a few eating establishments and I guess like anywhere there were some great places to eat that we would certainly return too and others that we would give a wide berth.

To be fair generally the food was great but the service in some of the establishments left a bit to be desired, not quite what I was expecting in an upmarket tourist trap. It is not a good look if you get 'forgotten' and your waitress can't speak english. What is the world coming to when you can't at least be served in a restaurant in your own country by someone who speaks more or less the the same lingo as you?

First stop was the Nourish bar and cafe in Ostend for a late lunch. The food was good and I tried one of the locally produced beers - Baroona. This was a nice we drop but I noticed that it had a use by label for later in the week. I pointed this out to the the waitress and ordered another one to help them run down their old stock.

Later in the day we wandered into Oneroa and had dinner at 151 Ocean View. Why SWMBO took us to a fish restaurant when she doesn't eat fish is beyond me. Their fish of the day was fabulous and the service was great. The sea gulls seemed well behaved and when we went past the next afternoon the deck was full of diners - always a good sign.

We rented a car for one day to get us about the countryside but we didn't make as much use of it as we could have as I had rather a boozy elevenses at Charley Farley's. SWMBO doesn't like driving on narrow gravel roads so we didn't get out to the far end of the island and I wasn't going to drive was I? The old tractor outside is a nice touch and seemed to intrigue some of the tourists.

We did however get far enough to find the Beachfront Bar and Cafe where SWMBO sampled the chicken niblets and was moved to compliment the chef on his prowess. Chicken niblets are her signature Friday night meal but they are not a patch on what came out of the kitchen at the Beachfront Bar and Cafe.

Our last evening meal was at the Vino Vino. We wanted to eat here because we had heard good things about the food. The food was good but what spoilt it a bit for us was that we had asked to sit out on the balcony when we booked only to find when we got there that the balcony had been booked for a 21st birthday party.

VinoVino is certainly the place to be by the clientele. I have never seen such a concentration of man bags in once place and was convinced that there must have been a fancy dress party up the road that most of the diners were off to afterwards. It wasn't that people were dressed in costumes so much but they were wearing the sort of gear that you'd wear to a party at Paris Hilton's Hampton pad.

Once again I helped the establishment get rid of their almost at use by use date Baroona's. The only real problem with this place as the acoustics are terrible-talk about not being able to have a quiet romantic dinner Trev. Especially with some sort of boisterous hen party going happening at the next table.

Finally, we had occasion to eat at a few other places but they are not worth a mention except one. Apart from the fact my bacon and eggs was a bit on the small side the best service by far we received was at the Wai Kitchen. I mention the Wai Kitchen as they have felt the sharp end of a NZ Herald staffer's pen after a bit of a mishap with his dinner. I was also intrigued by his comment about the lack of decent eating places in Oneroa. Clearly he is a lot harder to please than we are.

South Head Trail Ride November 2010

2010-11-26T21:06:00.001-08:00

One of the reasons that I started this blog was to pen stories about the rides I have been on. I have had vague ideas of somehow making money out of the video we take at our rides (with a spectacular lack of success so click on an add to help me out) and a blog of the rides seemed like a good idea to support this scheme.

Problem is that I am long past my prime in terms of my riding ability and while people are quite chuffed to see themselves blasting past me on a You Tube clip they aren't as keen to pay for the pleasure of watching some older dudes cruising around the track and making fools of themselves.

There is also a lot of competition in this area of the new economy. There are plenty of faster riders, and better writers and videographers than me supplying the world with video and copy.

Not to worry, I like writing. If life had worked out differently then I might even have become a a real writer. My grammar and sentence structure would have had to improve. Heaps. I also get a lot of satisfaction out of the short movie clips that I make and I have a small You Tube following that also seemed to like watching them.

It seems a long time ago now but in mid September I bought the WR300 and proceeded to give my knee a good wrench on our first outing. If you have read some of my other posts or watched some of my video clips you'll have seen that I have been out on it again and bought myself a flash pair of knee braces to boot.

I would have done some more riding but for most of the past six weeks I have also struggled to get over a cold which has made life pretty miserable. Not only was walking a mission for a few weeks but I have been feeling bloody grotty as well.

I got pretty run down I think after rooting my knee. A combination of the fact that I couldn't get any sleep because it was so sore, worry that I had really stuffed it properly this time, and that the new bike could possibly sit idle for months in the garage. Also because I manfully and stupidly didn't slow down on the rehab and general fitness work. And work, the work that pays the bills. Despite feeling pretty grotty of course I kept going to work.

But I digress sort of. On one of my better days several weeks ago I went up to the South Head trail ride organised by the team from Endless Dirtbiking.

This was the second ride proper on the new bike and the first with the new braces. I don't count a blat around the bikepark. This would be a decent test for the knee.

The team set out a great ride with some challenging 'expert' sections most of which I avoided for the sake of my knee. There were plenty of new tracks cut through recently cleared or freshly planted pines and some of the more mature trees for the large number of riders that turned up for the ride. I managed a few loops as a sweep and even managed to help rescue a guy who had probably broken his collarbone.

The knee was a bit tender afterwards but I don't think I did anymore damage. I'm now waiting for the meds to kick in to fix my cold that seems to have taken a turn for the worst - then I can unleash the beast on some different terrain.

The King is dead-long live live the king

2010-10-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

Since little Prince Willie Windsor's proposal to his long term girlfriend Katie or whatever her name is was announced earlier this week they have hardly been out of the news which amuses me in a sense. Don't get me wrong, I wish them every happiness which will be a huge ask given the fishbowl that they live in.

Living in a country where Willie's aging grandma is technically the head of state and where a large chunk of the population was born in the motherland (including my own mum I might add) there is always going to be some lingering interest and fascination in the goings on of the royals. Nowhere near as much as in the good old days when I was growing up and we all got a day off to stand on the side of the road and wave as some royal or another whipped past in a motorcade but a fair bit of sentimental interest remains all the same. Scratch the skin of many Kiwis (brown and white) and not too far back down the family tree the blood of Britannia flows.

I am sure that the sales of commemorative tea towels and mugs will go though the roof and we will get blow by blow speculative accounts on how the engagement and wedding will will pan out until the moment something different happens. Despite what my work mates might believe I am not champing at the bit to go online and order my china set or some teaspoons myself .

I can however imagine how mum and other ladies of her ilk are already getting excited about the prospect of sitting down in front of the tele early one morning sometime next year and watching the wedding of the century hugging a colour photo of the happy couple to their withered breasts as tears of joy run down their cheeks. Hopefully it doesn't clash with games in the rugby world cup because then there will be trouble in households around the country.

As you might have guessed I am pretty ambivalent about the wedding myself. I won't be getting excited about it. I also don't really care that a little old lady on the other side of the world is our technical head of state. I am also not at all concerned that the apparently loony Prince of Wales is next in line. I am sure that he is not a bad bloke really. Unfortunately he has inherited a bad habit of dropping the odd clanger and then there was the unfortunate marriage. Well who hasn't made the odd mistake in their lives?

What really amuses me is how our media - lets lump them all in together immediately seek to make capital of the immanent nuptials. It only seems a few weeks ago on a slow news day that the main news outlets were telling us that once the old girl goes good old godzone will immediately become a republic.

Despite what republicans would have us believe most of us don't really care about our form of government or that the Queen of England is our head of state. For years now we have appointed our own Governor Generals and our system of government seems to work ok for us.We are more concerned if we are concerned at all, that whatever their hue our politicians seem to think they are above the law and their partisanship in the face of economic and practical reality.

God help us if we became a republic and adopted a political model similar the that of the US or France-both dysfunctional and pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Long live the king!

Growing old disgracefully

2010-10-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I bought a new bike after agonizing for weeks on how I could justify the expense. What did it for me was a trip to Christchurch in the aftermath of the earthquake. Although I know it intellectually, the fact that a major event beyond any one's ability to control had the ability to profoundly change people's lives and could happen at any time was reinforced by my trip.The earthquake had a profound and traumatic impact on people, even though most of them were not directly impacted by the event. It's not that I have suddenly become completely fatalistic and am going to spend, spend and spend with no thought for tomorrow. But I decided once and for all that there are things that I want to do while I am able because tomorrow I might not be able to, and riding my bike is one of these.

Enter a 2010 Husqvarna WR300. I am sure you will agree-a wonderfully sexy looking machine.

Unfortunately due to a little mishap with a slippery tree root or stump that I hit the wrong way towards the end of my first ride I haven't been riding for a few weeks and won't be back on the bike for a few weeks more. Maybe by the end of the month if all goes well.

The good news is that the bike is ok. The reflex action of sticking my knee out to save myself resulted in a severe strain or hyper extension. I am not really sure what happened but things got a big wrench and I knew I had done some damage to my already dodgy knee. While the swelling took a long time to go down it now looks as though things are settling down finally. While the physio I went to thought that I may have rooted one my cruciate ligaments my doctor thinks that it is ok. Well at least I haven't done any more damage to a knee that sooner or later will need reconditioning. Hopefully a visit to a surgeon this week will confirm that I don't need an immediate operation.

Until I saw my doctor a few days I thought I might have stuffed the knee properly and my brand new bike would be sitting in the garage for a while. To say that I was extremely frustrated was an understatement. Not only because I couldn't ride but because, especially in the first few days I couldn't do much for myself.

To make matters worse I haven't been able to sleep. I am a bit of a fidget so any time I rolled over in bed I would tweak my knee and wake up. And then wouldn't get back to sleep. For hours. To say that I have been grumpy is something of an understatement. This state of affairs was not helped by people at work making fun of me and my walking stick. For someone who considers himself to be more or less in his prime. Well ok in the autumn of his prime, being compared to a fractious stick waving old man was I thought pretty mean on their part and I wasn't happy about it.

For myself and she who must be obeyed the experience is an unhappy glimpse into a possible future where one us, well me probably is partially incapacitated and how much that that will impact on our quality of life. A quality of life that we take for granted.

I guess we'll have to deal with those cards as they are dealt and in the meantime I intend to age disgracefully.

Drilling for oil

2010-07-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

The US government has named BP as the responsible party for the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that has lead to the devastating oil slick spreading around the Gulf of Mexico. The perception is that it BP owns the rights to the Macondo Prospect so it is all their fault. But that is not entirely true.

For the Americans BP is a handy scapegoat. It is a foreign company-only 40% owned by Americans and American investors has a reputation for shoddy health and safety practices, and corner and cost cutting.

It didn't help that the CEO of BP, a man easy to write off as a chinless wonder with a penchant for putting his foot in his mouth tried to downplay the volume of the oil leaking into the Gulf.

In the face of rabid demands for action by the American public politicians are getting in on the act and are turning up the blow torch on BP to stem the leak and clean up the spilled oil that threatens to devastate marine and marshland ecology's in the region and destroy tourism and fishing industries for generations to come. But it is not that easy fix a gusher thousands of meters below the surface of the sea.

And all is not all that it seems in the murky world of oil industry and American politics. Not least that on the one hand America has an insatiable lust for oil but not for the by products of the oil extraction process when things go wrong.

It has also emerged in the last few days that a number of sensor alarms had been turned off on the rig at behest of Transocean staff and after the explosion a blowout protector didn't engage after the explosion. Hardly BP's fault since Transocean owned and largely staffed the rig.

So three months after the oil well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that has allowed millions of litres of crude oil to leak into the sea the truth is starting to come out about who is actually to blame for this environmental catastrophe.

BP must bare a large chunk of the blame for the leak and the cleanup. They are the major shareholder in the consortium drilling the well. Who knows what that will cost them and whether they will even survive in their current form given the cost of cleanup and any fines that will result. But they aren't totally to blame and some other entities are soon going to come under the spotlight.

The interesting thing will be to see whether faced with the obvious lack of regulation of the drilling in the first place, probable corruption by local officials charged with oversight, and failure to to follow safety procedures by Transocean Americans face up to the fact that they only have themselves and their system to blame for the whole mess and the way the aftermath is being handled.

American politics at all levels seems so petty and partisan that it wouldn't be a surprise me that if at some time in the near future the whole country imploded into a number of ideologically pure warring mini states. Something like a continent of lawless nuclear armed Somalia's.

Doing my bit for the economy

2010-07-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

With a bit of luck we are emerging from what is generally being described as the most severe downturn since the great depression of the 30's. Only time will tell whether the economy is slowly stirring into life or there is more pain to come.

Some indicators both here and abroad seem to indicate that that the worst is over. In the United States, still the engine of the world economy some indicators point to the greenshoots of some kind of recovery. Some pundits have been seeing these for a while now while others have been cheerfully being mowing them down.

There was a spike in activity earlier this year as businesses possibly restocked but activity has been flat over recent months. Plenty of businesses have managed to perform well in the face of adversity but if confidence doesn't improve soon and people don't start buying then they are going to have to start another round of cost cutting.

Many businesses will already have harvested the low hanging fruit or worse still are mortgaged to the hilt and no longer have any wriggle room.

The only way out of this is for us to start spending. Forget about saving or paying off the mortgage we need to spend and spend big if we are going to get out of this hole. If we spend with a bit of confidence then that confidence will spread despite what the experts say and in the words of that great Kiwi scholar Fred Dagg: 'she'll be right.'

I already know how I am going to help economic growth. I am going to buy one of these.

Buying a new bike will help the local economy and the local dealer and of course Husqvarna the manufacturer. I know this sounds a little self serving but it gives me a nice little warm fuzzy feeling that I am doing something for the greater good.

Politically Correct

2010-07-13T00:09:00.001-07:00

You only have to watch the television news in this country on a slow day to understand what a quaint self important little backwater we are at times. The self important bit is because we think we have more influence on world affairs and opinion than we could ever hope to have.

Does Japan really care that a bunch of hairy legged cardigan wearers from this country don't want them to kill a few whales? Does China really care about us or are they merely using us to test their theories on how to deal with western democracies?

We are also a pretty boring breed really. A pretty violent boring breed with little respect for the law and other people's property by all accounts.

Low level mindless violence seems to have become so commonplace that it barely rates a mention these days unless the victim is white and photogenic or an animal of some kind.

On the other hand the media delights exposing the poor judgement of some of our more well known sports people-particularly members of the code that the media has a love hate relationship with.

Rugby is the one real area that we have been able to punch above our weight in the international arena. Well to be honest that part of the world that understands rugby -the mostly white parts of the old British empire. Despite widespread reports that soccer is gaining in popularity in this country, a good question to ask at the height of the football world cup rugby is still an important part of our culture.

In the good old days what went on tour stayed on tour. Today things are a lot different and many celebrities in this country, sports stars and others find themselves getting into trouble because whatever they do or have done is a story of some kind that someone can sell, gain their own fleeting seconds of fame, or inflict some pain by publicizing.

Not only do we serious national inferiority issues and seek to attack successful institutions in this country in order to bring them down to a collective level of mediocrity. We have built an industry out of blaming others for our problems. Ok it is not a good look for a well known and recently married sportsman to be found shagging a drunk teenage girl who was by all accounts semi conscious at the time. But you have to ask yourself how did he come to be there and was he entirely to blame considering that the couple had had consensual sex previously? And why did it take her twelve years to work out that this one night was a problem?

Not only do we have an industry built around blaming other people for our troubles and trying to extract as much cash as possible many people seem to think that money grows on trees and the rest of us owe them a living.

I'd love to have a baby every few years if it was physically possible so I could live a life of relative leisure on the DPB but alas not only am I too old but I am the wrong sex.

Maybe I could get a tax payer funded gender re-assignment. Yes we are a quaint wee place and long may it remain so

Bush riding in the rain

2010-06-12T23:34:00.000-07:00

Visibility poor, pissing down with rain. Awesome riding and a few spills. A great way to spend an afternoon.

Lessons in life

2010-06-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

My OE consisted a stint up in the Islands, Western Samoa as it was called then to be exact. I had visions of eking out a career as a well paid international agricultural consultant and a stint as a volunteer wouldn't do me any harm. That didn't work out as I planned and now it seems that I may have brought back something more than the interesting experience of living and working in a very poor Pacific Nation.

From the first winter I returned to New Zealand I have been afflicted by a form of dermatitis, something that sometimes looked like ring worm or at other times itchy dry and flaking skin. Over the years I have been prescribed all kinds of anti fungal and dermatitis creams and latterly have actually found more relief from over the counter anti histamines than anything else.

While experiencing generally rude health, I have always had this lingering feeling that all was not quite right and wondered if I was carrying around some kind of nasty internal parasite. I exercise regularly and eat reasonably well and get out and charge around on my motorbike. But I always felt that I should feel a lot fitter than I actually did.

At times I have had different series of tests but all of them have indicated pretty good health although now that my knees are knackered I am carry a bit of weight that I can't run off.

The change of seasons always seemed to be the worst time for the dermatitis outbreaks, patches of skin would get dry and itchy and I would rub some cream on them and take anti histamines for a few days and they would go away. In recent years I have hardly noticed the problem.

A few weeks ago what I took to be the annual autumn drying of the skin and the usual itch wouldn't respond to treatment so off to the doctor I went. The same doctor I might add that I have seen for most of the last 15 years or so.

This time he prescribed an oral treatment (terbinafine). The relief from the outward symptoms of the fungus were almost immediate. But it is the other affects that are most interesting. I wouldn't call them side affects, though I guess they are.

I haven't felt as physically good as I do now for as long as I can remember. To quote a cliche I feel like a new man with a lot more energy than I seem to have had for as long as I can remember since starting this course of treatment. The sudden feeling of well being was almost immediate.

The disappointing thing is that on reporting this to my doctor he couldn't come up with a reason why this would be so. I have done some research of my own on what might have been wrong with me but it would be nice to have this confirmed. I guess I had better change my doctor but I will give him another chance.

My doctor like any other professional that society unfairly deems should be perfect is only human. All of us make mistakes and make decisions that in the fullness of time prove to be bad ones. The measure I think is how they or we recover and put these mistakes right.

I also have to admit being the enlightened new age man that I am. That instead of wondering whether something was wrong and being worried that people might begin to see me as some kind of hypochondriac I wished I pushed a little harder when I felt that things were not right.

Jolly Roosta Trail Ride Report

2010-05-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

The team from the Kawasaki Sandpit ran the Jolly Roosta trail ride on the first Sunday of May 2010.

This is the third rendition of this event that starts and finishes on Leighton's Farm at the northern end of the Woodhill Forest.

The Jolly Roosta is fast becoming one of those must do events-even if just to see what new sections have been thrown in by Tony B and the team from the Kawasaki Sandpit. In the 3 or 4 years since the team have taken over the Sandpit and started to organise trail rides and races through the forest they have gone from strength to strength in the quality of the rides and organisation.

Tony is a great believer in giving the punters value for money and opens up the trails earlier than other events giving great value for the very competitive entry fee. The tracks opening at 8am 'ish and closing about 3pm and provides something for everyone. Best of all he even appears to groom some of the main trails and while some of the ground gets covered reasonably regularly in different events there is always something new to see.

These rides are sand based events, ride able in any weather but more fun when there has been a bit of rain to compact the sand. Unfortunately Tony isn't a weather god so the open trails were a bit fluffy. But what the hell if you nail it then they are not any problem and most people understand they are what they are.

One of the things I like about these rides especially as I get older, fatter and less fit is that there is something for everyone. There is enough challenging terrain to test the gun riders but if you have a bit of a hangover or aren't the most confident or experienced rider then you can still challenge yourself and have a whole lot of fun.

For most people, including kids on anything but a peewee most of the tracks-including most of the main trail are achievable by anyone with decent fitness and confidence.

Tony also seems to get together plenty of helpful sweep riders and most importantly in these days of get going when you get there rather than a massed briefing, someone to give you the key info as you roll through the start gate. 'At the water tank decide which way you are going to go. If you hit the main trail from there there are no shortcuts back so make sure you have plenty of fuel.!

The ride consisted of one main 50 odd k loop and several shorter loops. The main loop took us out to a lookout after a really neat hill climb that in all my years I can't recall ever having seen.

There weren't too many road sections, for me they seemed to come at just the right time to have a bit of a rest before ducking back into the forest.

I'm going green-one day

2010-03-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

I ride a dirtbike for recreation and I am a sometime racer. I like nothing more than riding in the great out doors. The roar of a high performance two stroke engine ringing in my ears and spewing hydrocarbons into the atmosphere and a big knobbly tyre ripping chunks out of the earth. I have even been known to stop at times and appreciate view. We get to get into some really neat places.

Greenies are against people like me enjoying this kind of activity, just as they are against anyone enjoying the great outdoors unless they plant a forest to offset their carbon footprint and live off a diet of nuts and berries.

Riding areas are being closed all the time, not just because some greenie group or council has decided that a block of bush is the only known habitat of some unhitherto unknown species of plant that has to be protected but also because of increasing safety and well being compliance issues. Though sometimes it seems to me that environmental groups just want to close vast areas of the country off to preserve them in their pristine native condition so that nobody can enjoy them.

Of course some people who ride motorbikes don't help the cause by riding where they are not supposed to and damaging fragile ecosystems while their noisy bikes simply annoy people. There are hoons everywhere.

Most of the riding we do is on formed tracks on race tracks, farms and forestry or bush blocks, or single tracks purposely cut through through the trees. Any damage is pretty localised and nothing a bulldozer can't put right.

I am sure that one of the biggest objections to people on dirtbikes is the noise. Even a properly muffled bike multiplied by several hundred riders at a race track or trail makes a lot of noise.

But help is at hand. Electric dirtbikes are being developed around the world and could revolutionalise the sport and open up new riding areas that would normally be closed due to noise issues.

In terms of useability these bikes are nowhere close to the current combustion engined bikes. They aren't as fast for a start. They have limited range and the fact they take a few hours to recharge between rides doesn't make them attractive to most riders yet.

But the time is coming that these bikes will be the equal of a combustion engined bike and we'll be buying them along with generators so that we can charge a spare battery while we carry on riding in places like this block of bush.

That will just give the environmentalists another excuse to stop us-just imagine all the power stations that are going to have to be built to satisfy our lust for green electric powered bikes and cars.

Going to the dogs

2010-02-24T21:55:00.001-08:00

One of the things that I can never understand is how people who have pet dogs seem to think that everyone should put up with their constant barking, let alone shitting and pissing all over other people's lawns. How the their rights to have a dog and the dog basically making a nuisance of itself override the rights of other people to have a bit of peace and quiet. Or to walk down the street or through the park without worrying about being mauled by someones pet.

In our street there are several small yappy dogs that will bark from time to time. One in particular gets right up my nose as it's owners tie it up in front of the house where it barks at anything that moves past.

I live in a fairly new subdivision, the houses are plonked on fairly small sections and are all pretty close to the road. Make a lot of noise, have a loud argument or have the stereo turned up full noise and everyone in the street can hear it.

Tie the dog up outside the front door and there are only a few metres to the footpath. Through the long summer evenings that people enjoy walking in it yaps at everybody that strolls past. Don't the owners hear the bloody thing barking. And how do they put up with it? That is what I can never work out.

This is one of the fundamental questions of the age and can be applied to the people who decide around midnight to turn the stereo up as far as it can go or start mowing the lawn at 7pm on a Sunday night. Don't they think about the noise they are making or don't they care?

I know I don't any more. I have DVD full of Sex Pistols songs to play when I get annoyed and I no longer worry about what time I crank my motorbike up when I want to service it or give it a test run.

If you can't beat them, join them and make their lives a misery.

If I had my way I would ban all dogs from residential areas. Not a popular idea I grant as all those people that practice anthropomorphism where their dog is concerned would immediately be up in arms. Maybe they should all just get a life and learn a little bit about respnosibility.

But if we are all going to live in relative harmony with our neighbour's we have all got to learn that we can't always do what we want to and need to think a little about how our actions impact on others. Having a small yappy dog that annoys people is one of those things. So while I might like to I don't respond the way I would like.

Motomuck - the miracle cleaner

2010-01-12T23:13:00.000-08:00

Riding a dirtbike is great fun but there will come a time when the bike needs to be cleaned as they tend to get a little dirty.

I don't know about you but I always struggle to get my bike as squeaky clean as it was when it came out of the box or back from the bike shop after a periodic tune up.

No matter how diligent I am I can never seem to get the bike completely clean. Not only do I manage to miss bits of mud, sand or dust entirely and those bits of grease on the swing arm where I was a bit generous with the chain oil. I just cant seem to get the plastics and the shiny bits smear free. It is little wonder that she who must be obeyed always says don't bother when I help out with cleaning duties around the house.

Now I have always been skeptical of miracle cleaners, they either don't work unless you follow extremely detailed instructions and water blast the bike clean first or they strip the bike back to bare metal and consume the plastics.

That is until I discovered Motomuck and turned this..............

the result of a fun day in the forest.......

......into something that closely resembles the trusty steed when it was brand new.

Ok so I have taken a few liberties here but needless to say I am impressed with the product.

Basically once you get home (or maybe the next morning as the bike and any muck needs to be dry) spray Motomuck all over the bike. Wait ten minutes (maybe have a beer)and then wash the bike clean.

Any muck or grease simply washes away, especially from all those hard to get to bits., the engine cases and exhaust system. Hey my bike doesn't look brand new but it isn't far off.

Motomuck has been developed and is marketed by Hiltron Security Systems. Motomuck is a non caustic, non acidic cleaner that won't damage plastics or metal. For more information and ordering information click here.

Places to Ride-The Possum Trapper Trail Ride

2010-01-06T23:03:00.000-08:00

Greg Power has multiple New Zealand Trials and Enduro titles under his belt and through his events company Power Adventures organises anything from training sessions to most recently a three day enduro in the Maramarua forest south of Auckland. Power Adventures also runs a number of trail rides around the place.

The Possum Trapper is an annual trail ride held in the early New Year in the Maramarua Forest. The Maramarua trails are clay based. Wickedly greasy in the wet with slippery roots snaking across the tracks to tip up the unwary and incredibly dusty when it's dry.

The trails are a combination of overgrown access roads and single track through the trees linked by gravel roads in various states of repair.

Greg does his best to provide something for everyone-from the novice to the expert. One of the aims of these rides is to get people involved in riding. The last thing a novice rider wants to encounter is an almost impassible obstacle that exhausts them and puts them off riding. But there is also enough to keep the likes of me and indeed experts happy.

The only real criticism I have is that some of the sure directional arrowing is a bit obscure. We were intent on doing the expert tracks but I'm not sure that we rode them all. A map of the tracks and clear arrowing would be useful.

Contact
Power Adventures
Where?

View Maramarua Forest in a larger map

Places to ride-The Kawasaki Sandpit

2010-01-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

We're quite lucky in this part of the world to have several motocross tracks available and several active clubs and charity groups who organize regular trail rides.

We are also really lucky to have the Sandpit where for $25 a throw a man can blast around to his hearts content.

The Kawasaki Sandpit is an offroad motorcycle park based in Woodhill Forest 40 minutes north west of Auckland along state highway 16 towards Hellensville.

There are some 1000 acres of sand based trails winding through the trees in the forest. The trails ranging from tight single track to full throttle return roads provide something for everyone; from the novice rider to expert.

The park also has a couple of motocross practice tracks and a trials area. The best part about the Sandpit is that even when it is pissing down it is always open. In fact the best time to ride at the park is just after heavy rain which compacts the sand and provides awesome traction.

Set in a pine plantation long dry spells increase the fire danger and at these times recreational users of the forest operate under restrictions or can be forced to close temporarily.

Long dry periods make some of the return tracks quite fluffy and a bit of a challenge for some riders. But there are plenty of tracks to choose from.

The Park is open 5 days a week, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays when the main trails are groomed and open late on Thursdays through the summer.

Contact
The Sandpit

Where?
Woodhill Forest
Molloy Road entrance (off Rimmer Road)
SH16
Helensville

View State Highway 16 diversion in a larger map

Common misconceptions

2009-10-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Billions of us live in a world of instant mass communication where news and new ideas, new technologies and ideologies flow faster than could ever have been imagined just a few short years ago.

I am sure that one of the reasons the world fell into recession so quickly in the last couple of years and why we appear to be coming out of it equally rapidly compared to the Great Depression of the late 20's and 30's is the speed that the bad and now the good news has flowed around the globe. One of the other reasons is surely that global economic power is shifting from the western hemisphere to Asia. India and China in particular have emerged relatively unscathed from the recent economic meltdown caused by American Corporate greed and ignorance.

This communication revolution has good and bad points. The development of news and I use that term loosely has generated a need for instant gratification. If something happens in the world we want to know about it now. As perception is reality then those first images, those first comments and ill informed analysis are the ones that stick-even though in the longer term they are proven to be nothing but bull#$it.

Combined with the ability for all of us to transmit all that we know or imagine to be the truth at the press of a button and beam our random thoughts in living colour to the rest of the world no matter how ill informed the world is being dumbed down by a deluge of half truths, fantasy and misinformation.

Not only has the web and all its offshoots, blogs, tweets, and every organisation that has the nohow to build their own 21st century soap box made all the news that is fit to print available to all it has also made all the news that isn't fit to print available to everyone.

Traditional media organisations that have had the resources to actually investigate what is going on in the world seem to be a dieing breed. Cut off at the knees by falling advertising revenue and falling subscriptions. The web is the way of the future but the traditional print media don't seem to be able to make this work for them yet. Maybe subscriptions are the way to go. People will always pay for quality product even in a world that expects to get most things for free. But the technology to deliver the product electronically to the kitchen table doesn't exist yet.

Papers (of the news type) like books won't die completely until there is an electronic medium that is as convenient and portable as they are. Something that can deal with the rigours of spilt milk and being shoved into a pocket to be read later.

But I'm getting off the track. This blog was supposed to be about popular misconceptions and misdirections in part perpetuated by the modern media. So here we go.

NZ's ACC and motorcycle registration costs

In the last few days the ACC (New Zealand's no fault accident insurance scheme which is funded by things like vehicle registration costs) has announced an increase in registration costs for large motorcycles as the owners of big bikes are over represented in accident statistics. There can be no argument about this as it is true-just as it there can be no argument that most accidents involving motorcycles are caused by four wheeled vehicles. However, people on bicycles are equally as vulnerable and probably as equally represented in accident statistics. A broken cyclist is going to cost the same to put back together as a broken motorcyclist. The difference is motorcycle has to be registered, it's rider licensed and he pays various user charges. A push bike however is green and gets away with anything. But in a user pays world shouldn't they be paying their fair share?

Global warming

The world is warming up based on recent history. But then the world has also been through a recent cooling period. I read recently that the French Revolution was in part caused by famine that was related to a series of wet and cold winters. The world was apparently cooler in medieval times than at the height of the Roman Empire.

I believe that we should do all we can to protect our environment and reduce the impact on mother nature of our activities. We should look for cleaner greener ways of doing things but I don't believe that the activities of mankind are solely to blame for global warming. If we can't predict the weather accurately suggestions that we are the cause of global warming are supposition.

Oil is running out

Oil is the driving force of our economies. It allows people like me to live in the suburbs and drive to work, enjoy motorsport and indirectly provides me with a living. Of course oil is running out -it is a non re-new able resource. But I can't image that it will run out and be priced out of reach for most of us in my life time. (Hopefully I am not wrong). Look at a map of the world or a globe and have a think about where most of today's supplies come from and then see how big the rest of the world is. We just haven't found it all yet. I am sure that not too far down the track someone is bound to come up with some new form of energy that will make the need for oil redundant.

Electric cars, fuel economy and sustainability

I am not sure that the replacement for the internal combustion engine is going to be the hybrid or electric cars being developed today. What is sustainable about building vehicles that need batteries to run? They are more expensive to build and well we're going to need more power stations to generate the electricity to power the batteries.What are they going to run on? Then what do you do about disposing of the batteries when they are exhausted?

And as somebody pointed out to me the other day what is sustainable or green about ditching the older vehicle and buying a new fuel efficient model? Sure it might use less fuel and spit out slightly less CO2 into the air -but what about all the cost of actually producing that new vehicle in comparison to keeping the old one on the road until it is no longer economic to repair?

One for the Volunteers

2009-09-29T02:01:00.000-07:00

The final round of the Kawasaki Sandpit 2 Man series was held in the northern end of Woodhill Forest on Sunday the 27th of September. The series was organised by the team from the Kawasaki Sandpit

Round three ran over slightly different terrain to the first two rounds. Less windy single track and more open energy sapping return roads and fire breaks and for those riders who rode the first lap and the faster second leg riders-a nice big killer bog.

The faster open tracks were for those of us that to put it mildly are age and fitness challenged; pretty tough going.

Don't get me wrong we had a bloody great day. I missed the main bog as by the time I went through on my first leg it had been taped off. I did however have my own little melt down and got well and truly stuck in a drain

It took me a good ten minutes to manhandle my bike out of this drain and I was totally rooted by the time we were both back on dry land. And no I didn't feel guilty about not helping the guy who followed me into the hole and got well and truly bogged just as I had managed to get myself out.

I am not privy to the cost of these events and whether the guys made any money out of the series. I sure as hell hope they didn't have to dig into their own pockets to make sure that the series ran smoothly.

It must have been a huge logistical exercise to put this race on let alone the entire series and the team needs to be commended for their efforts. If they made some money well good on them.

Events like this series are organised by clubs all round the country and rely on a huge pool of volunteers who freely give up their time to help out so that people like me can go out and have a good time.

The team from the Sandpit and a team of volunteers have spent most weekends for the last three or four months setting up the tracks and pruning pine trees. Then there are all those others that turn up on the day to pull bikes out of bogs and tow back the breakdowns.

And when the race is over the course arrows and bunting have to be pulled down, the dead bikes recovered and any repairs put right.

And don't forget the good guys from St Johns who look after all the broken bodies.

It doesn't matter what the sport or event is. Most of the mass participation events in this country wouldn't go ahead without the support of dedicated organizers, administrators, and general dogs bodies who freely give up their time to make these events possible.

So the next time some seemingly over officious administrator or bungling ref at your kids Saturday morning sport gets up your nose remember that without them there wouldn't be a game. Instead of giving them a hard time a thank you wouldn't go amiss.

Obama's Healthcare Plan

2009-08-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a bit of reading up on Obama's Health Care reform plan for a couple of reasons. One because I have become more or less addicted to reading the Drudge report and the report is dead against any health reform. Mind you the the Drudge Report seems to be against any kind of rational reform of the status quo.

The report is an unashamed champion of the lunatic conservative fringe, no unbiased reporting here. The report contains links to vociferous articles opposed not just to Health Reform but anything Obama. Some of the video taken at the so called town hall meetings is as sickening as it is interesting. Not just because you have some fat inbred loser screaming senselessly at a politician brave enough to show up. More because the tactics of opposition are reminiscent of the sort of strong arm thuggish actions that the Mullahs in Iran use against dissent. Or 1930's Germany.

The other reason I find this whole debate so interesting is that I find it difficult to comprehend that the US doesn't have some kind of universal health care for it's population. The most powerful country in the world has a dirty little secret. Well it's not a secret and they have more than one. America cannot ensure that all of it's population has access to decent health care.

An incredible 45 million people don't have health insurance, wastage possibly accounts for up to 30% of medical costs and more interesting still that despite all the money sloshing around in the medical economy doctors are not making enough money. So even if Obama waves his magic wand and there is a new affordable health care system there might not be enough doctors to go round.

If this is the result of a capitalist approach to medical care leave me with the socialist version that I am used to.

The US system appears to be unsustainable with the costs of health care insurance rising faster than wages growth and people simply being unable to afford cover and or being bankrupted after having to fork out for a major illness or accident.

Coming from a country where health care is a basic right for all and where the state run hospitals operate in an environment that also lets people purchase private health care I find it hard to understand that millions of Americans don't have this basic right. If I fall over and break my leg or get sick all is not lost I will taken off to hospital in an ambulance and treated no questions asked. If I have had an accident I will also receive 80% of my wages through a compulsory no fault insurance program that all working people pay into.

The opposition to reform makes a lot out of Obama's plan being anti Capitalist-read anti American and just another example of socialism taking over America by stealth.

But lets face it America doesn't have an economy that runs on pure capitalist principles anyway. Big business and the right wing just use this ideal to get their own way. If America was truly capitalist there would be a couple of big car makers and a few banks that should have gone down the gurgler over the last few months.

It seems to me looking in from afar that Health Reform is crucial for the American economy and the American people. Surely it makes good business sense to make people well as soon as possible and as cheaply as possible, and run health programs to improve the health of all those people with chronic (and to some extent preventable) diseases? And do all this at the best cost?

I guess all this would make sense but the Drug and Insurance companies and the large medical suppliers are more interested in their own profits not of the health of any one or group of individuals. That is free market capitalism.

How to fix the All Blacks.

2009-08-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

If you listen to the three wise men of NZ Rugby the national team has the right game plan but the players are not executing it correctly. Thus explained is one of the worst starts to an international calendar. 6 games and only 3 wins. Yeah right. So who's fault is that? The All Blacks are playing like the Auckland Blues played just before Henry pulled the pin on the team and toddled off to Wales in the late 90's.

A team chock full of talent but unable to turn that talent into consistent wins when it really mattered. The way that Blues team, Wales and now the All Blacks have stuttered and run out steam seems to indicate that the coaching team has run out out of ideas, or they have got stale and the players have got sick of being geed up the same way by the old headmaster and his senior teachers.

The reappointment of the current coaching panel after the last world cup failure (our worst showing ever at a World Cup) and more recently having those appointments extended to the next world cup have polarised the nation. The chasm between the rugby union and the Henry apologists and the rest of us is only going to get wider as the All Blacks' results fail to live up to the high standards we expect.

The first two round of the NPC have been attracting record numbers of live and television viewers. In total contrast to the International team the provincial teams are playing with passion and appear to have a plan of action that the players adhere. The All Blacks and the coaching team would be wise to take some lessons from the local game.

There have been a few upsets and Auckland, the team that given it's pool of potential players should be the overwhelming favorite each time it takes the filed has been tipped over twice. This isn't so suprising as the Auckland Rugby Union appears to be run by the same sort of opportunists that run the national game.

The All Blacks need to be playing with the commitment, passion and structure that the provincial teams are exercising at the moment. The players also need to be playing as often as possible, not coddled in cotton wool after each big game. We need players who are in form not players who were in some sort of form the last time they played which might have been weeks ago. Playing international rugby, well any kind of rugby is tough on the body. But then so are a lot of other sports so I don't hold with the policy of resting players. If they get injured or lose form then pick someone else.

My remedy for their current woes?

Replace the coaching staff immediately. There are plenty of candidates out there who can take the team through to the next World Cup
Make the players play week in week out when games available. Get them out there playing for this clubs and provincial unions wherever possible
Make sure that the start of the provincial season does not clash with the club finals.

My tip for the NPC final. Waikato vs Hawkes Bay. Waikato to win.

Bring back Laurie. South Africa 31 All Blacks 19

2009-08-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

The end of the world is upon us. The All Blacks lose two in a row against the Springboks! A depression has moved onto the country and is unlikely to clear anytime soon.

One of the things that defines us as a country and a people is our love for rugby. It would be fair to argue that rugby is not quite the dominant force that it once was. However there is no doubt that the game still has a huge following with many of us supporting both the national team and our provincial favourites (unfortunately Waikato also lost last night!). Rugby continues to dominate the headlines, our biggest stars are household names across the rugby world, and often move there as well.

Players grace the front of the woman's magazines spilling their guts on their love lives and are pilloried in the news media when things get a bit out of hand after a night out with the boys or they get a speeding ticket. Rugby has an impact on New Zealand like the Tour de France in France, cricket in India, American Football in the US and of course soccer in Europe. Performances at every level are dissected endlessly and if our top teams lose it is almost like the end of the world.

The game was long strictly amateur and the All Blacks were the dominant team of this era. Well most of time. It wasn't until 1956 that the AB's finally won a test series against the old foe, the Springboks on home soil. It would take the fall of apartheid in South Africa and neutral referees before we achieved that goal in South Africa.

The All Blacks were the dominant team of the amateur era because they played and trained like professionals and because they played with a dogged determination and discipline that other teams seemed to lack. For a small unimportant country at the end of the world, outnumbered 30 to one by sheep this was one thing that we could do better than almost anybody else. Even if most of the world didn't know much about this obscure game invented by a bloke called William Ellis who picked up a soccer ball and ran with it at an English public school sometime in the 1860s.

The All Blacks epitomised all that we consider ourselves to be. Tough, uncompromising, innovative. World Champions. Well we used to be. They aren't and we aren't any longer. New Zealand continues as a production line of top rugby pedigree but we haven't won the most important trophy in the game since the inaugural Rugby World cup in 1987. The only time we came close was 1995 in South Africa where we narrowly lost a final with a team that had come down with a dose of food poisoning (or were poisoned).

Many people blame the game becoming fully professional after 1995 for our inability to capture the glory of 1987 and perhaps even 1995. As the years have gone by the aura of the All Blacks has dimmed and the fat wallets of the the Northern hemisphere and Japan have siphoned of some of our best playing and coaching talent. Despite this the All Blacks are still the most successful international rugby team but their inability to win the vital games is giving them a well earned reputation as chokers.

The coach of the 1995 team was a pretty tough task master. Several years ago he came out of retirement to coach a provincial team and the players more or less mutinied over his methods. Looking back this really epitomises what is wrong with Rugby at the highest level and to a large extent this is a reflection on our society. The players thought they knew better but clearly they didn't.

We reward mediocrity in all walks of life either by ignoring it because it reflects badly on ourselves or because we don't want to make a scene. We collectively don't respect authority and have no sense of commitment or discipline and we certainly don't take responsibility for our mistakes. It is all somebody else's fault and we let people get away with it. I also blame the namby pamby cardigan wearers that have influenced generations of people in this country to believe that competition (like trying to win something) and personal discipline are bad things and they don't need to do what they are told by someone in authority if they don't feel like it.

After the last World Cup debacle. You know the story. Rested players when they should have been playing. Started favourites. Lost in the quarter final. Blame the referee for missing a forward pass. Real reason out passioned by the French and once the coaches ran out of ideas the players didn't know what to do. To make matters worse when we had the opportunity to get rid of the coaching panel after the World Cup and appoint someone else the panel was retained. The men that should have been appointed take up overseas contracts and are lost to the local game until at least after the next world cup.

What is wrong with our game at the top level is a lack of leadership, the leadership of the team at the coaching level, their tactics and planning and that of the NZRFU for appointing them and reinforcing their collective failures. Some of the players on the field might be a bit past their use by date last night but barring those that are injured the All Blacks fielded close to their top players -they just didn't seem to know what to do.

Round one of the NPC has shown once again that whatever the loses of talent overseas there is still plenty in the tank. We have the talent to win the next World Cup - the players just need some leadership. Bring back Laurie I say.