Alden Bates' Weblog

*plays taps*

Recently, a bunch of workers moved in to work on the building next door to where I work. Between the two buildings is a driveway and our parking places. The building wasn't in the best of shape so I had been thinking it was about time it had some work done on it.

However there were signs all wasn't well. At one point a builder was throwing bits of wood off the second floor onto a trailer parked in the driveway mere feet from our cars. Words were had and they stopped. Next thing, the builder was at it again, though this time another of the builders was standing between the trailer and cars, presumably to stop anything hitting them. None of the builders, I should add, were wearing hardhats or visibility clothing.

After more checking by my boss, it turned out that they didn't actually have the building consents required by the council. Cue the Man from the Council with a Cease and Desist order.

Not that it actually stopped them working. They just did it when no one was looking.

I suspect they weren't too happy about the whole thing. Last Tuesday they decided to repaint their cargo container which they were using for a site office. This involved using an industrial-strength grinder on it. Since my car was parked about ten feet away from it, I came out after work and found it covered in a layer of paint and/or metal sandings. I've been parking elsewhere since...

More news as it (hopefully doesn't) come to hand.

I was walking back to work from a shop this afternoon when a random passerby asked "Are you into feijoas?" and opened his bag to show off a plastic bag full of them. At that point I was starting to wonder if I'd stepped into a bizarre Twilight Zone where fejoas were illegal street drugs and was going to ask if they were pure. Instead I opted to say "Uh, no thanks" and walk on before he started pushing oranges or something. Surreal!

Cannon Point walkway has a sign at the bottom of it which is misspelled - leading to one of the few times you can say "It's not canon!" and normal people won't look at you funny.

...I'll get my coat. :)

Yeah, only a week late...

Photos and commentary in the extended portion of this post (to save bandwidth!)

Continue reading "Wellington Armageddon 2007 pictures"

The liquor store down the road from work recently renamed itself from "The Mill" to "liquor.co". Looks like whoever put up the sign on the side of their building may have been sampling their wares beforehand:

I hadn't noticed before, but they put the "u" up backwards...

I had to take my real camera today, because:

OK, I get they're happy about winning a people's choice award, but I dunno really if using the ol' hammer and sickle along with hordes of identical red-and-black clad "workers" is all that appropriate. What's next? The Burger Führer?

... the footpath is for people, not cars.

There was about 6 inches of clearance each side. What a thoughtful and considerate parking job. You'd expect better from the AA really...

The River Road runs parallel to the Hutt River and bypasses Upper Hutt; I use it to drive to work every day. About 1/3 of the way up the River Road it crosses the river which requires a bridge (oddly enough). On either side of the bridge there are two fairly sharp bends which require traffic to slow to about 75kph and, as you might expect, there's been more than one accident there.

A couple of months back the city councilTransit NZ resealed one of the corners, and put a couple of "slippery when wet" signs up. So the resealing has acutally made the road surface more dangerous than it was before? WTF? Shouldn't they be trying to improve the road? Where is the logic?!

I bought a new phone from Bond and Bond on the weekend. It has a camera, WAP, polyphonic ring tones, etc, etc, and so what better way to celebrate than by posting some blurry phonecam pictures of construction?!

Lower Hutt Mitre 10 MegaHarvey Normans, by Melling Bridge. They just started recently.

Pak n Save, which I photographed before, and which is opening the middle of next week.

Not hugely great picturewise, but OK for taking random photos of silly things.

I noticed my local Subway (Maybe I should make a category... tetrap.local.subway) has signs up proclaiming "New Satay Chicken". New? But they've had satay chicken as long as I've been going there! Asking about it illicited an odd look and "The satay chicken is new" so perhaps they've just changed the recipe?

Slightly more alarming is the "For a limited time" phrase. Does that mean satay chicken will disappear from the menu once the limited time is up? Oh noes!

The Lower Hutt Warehouse reopened in its location in the Westfield Queensgate mall today... I foolishly tried to shop there and only just escaped with my life!

Metaphorically speaking, of course. The place was packed! Sadly they didn't have the item I was after (A Megadeth CD my brother wants for Christmas).

I went into Burger King today (shush, I walked around town for 30 minutes first) to get lunch, and noticed they had a "Caution, Wet floor" sign out, with a neat translation in Spanish underneath the English text. That would make perfect sense in the US, where the nearest Spanish-speaking country is Mexico, but not really in New Zealand, where the nearest Spanish-speaking country is, uh, Mexico (or more likely a South American country). I guess it's cheaper just to print off one design.

Now I'm sure I noticed this before and had a conversation with someone online about it, but my memory sucks, so I don't remember.

And massacring the English language today:

Ow. Their draw's are a huge drawer card.

I don't usually post about political stuff, but since there's an impending general election, and also a leader's debate on TV1 tonight, I thought I'd review what I can remember about each of New Zealand's political parties and their election promises...

Labour: Currently in Government - have done well barring a few scandals such as PM Helen Clark claiming not to be able to tell when the car she's in is travelling at 150 kph. Promising tax cuts for some low earners (doesn't affect me) but not going to reduce the petrol tax because "it would encourage people to use more petrol". Better stop work on Auckland's motorway then, because it will encourage people to drive faster.

National: the main opposition, lead by Don Brash. Promises tax cuts for everyone, though the Labour party disputes this is affordable. Wants to abolish the Maori seats, and close of Treaty of Waitangi claims fairly soon. Has been accused by the Labour party of having the aid of the US Republican party. Also most recently linked to a cult.

Smaller parties:

The Greens: the environmentalist vote. Would have coalition with Labour next time, probably. Would probably get more votes if Nandor tidied himself up a bit.

Progressives: lead by Jim Anderton. Currently in a coalition government with Labour. Have a lower public profile than men's netball.

ACT: lead by Rodney Hide. Would form a coalition with National after the election and believes National needs them to form a government, but currently aren't polling too well.

NZ First: lead by Winston Peters. Likely to have the most seats of the minor parties next time, but Winston says he's not going to form a coalition with anyone.

United Future: lead by Peter Dunne. Also likely to shack up with National next time.

Maori Party: lead by Tariana Turia. Focuses on Maori issues, and would like to form a coalition with Labour, but Helen Clark isn't keen.

So, not that much then.