Author: Fee Writes

Fee Writes

Broken Glass – A WTF Moment

Heard a snippet on the news the other day that there’s a bit of a problem with shoddy glass coming into this country.

Like this is major glass we’re talking about used for double glazing, around pools and balustrades on decks etc.

It appears that the processed and toughened glass coming in from overseas doesn’t come up to our safety standards. Some of the safety stickers are bogus and it’s not until the glass breaks that you get to know that it’s one of the imported shoddy ones.

Well, I sure wouldn’t want to be leaning on the balcony balustrade on the 9th floor hotel suite in downtown Wellington, (note I wrote Wellington not Auckland), when it broke, thank you very much.

We’ve got glass companies here – we have rigorous testing of our toughened glass and all have to meet our safety standards. These companies are suffering because of the imports. So why do we have to import? Hang on … wait a mo … here it comes … my catch phrase –
it’s all about the money.

Oh – and I’ve since discovered this, I’ve found out it is not a new problem!

On a brighter note – the day is treating me well.

Source: Radio NZ

Images source: Viridian Glass NZ Quality & Safe

Fee Writes

Rants

Well Done Bayfair.

I trotted out for a cafe styled coffee yesterday – just because I could!

Nah, actually had to post some letters, you know those handwritten things you put into envelopes, address, stamp and seal. Thank goodness you no longer use the tongue to stick down the stamp or get a paper cut while licking the flap. Anyhoo, the nearest post box was at the Bayfair Mall. Do you believe that? Postboxes now are sooooo far away – in fact where I work there is no post box within walking distance, none at the Frazer Cove shopping centre, one has to actually go to the Post Office which would be around a couple of kilometers (or about a mile & half) away.

But I’m rambling. I guess you’re still wondering why on earth I’d say “Well Done” to Bayfair when I loathe shopping malls. And, I guess you probably can’t quite make out exactly what the featured image above is all about.

Going into the car parking building and heading towards the entrance I noticed an area had been taken over by, what I hoped, wasn’t a payment station. On closer inspection, I saw that Bayfair has taken the energy to power into the future by installing an electric car charging station. (chat to yourself about how good that sentence was). Talk about embracing a sustainable future – will we see solar panels on the rooftops – perhaps rooftop veggie/herb gardens for all to share? But I mustn’t be flippant – whoever is the Manager there, I applaud his initiative especially as this is Tauranga and not one of the major cities.

Speaking of parking buildings I called into my favourite parking building, (Council owned), in the middle of town … one where if you’re under 1/2 an hour is free and one where there are real people taking your money at the toll both – this meant that occasionally if I was flush, I’d pay a couple of dollars for the person behind. That’s called paying it forward even though it is really paying it behind – oh, go on, have a chuckle. To my surprise when I got there a woman came over to tell me to “take your ticket with you” – “why” I asked, “Because you will pay at the entrance when you come back”.

And when I came back, I saw the kiosk with another woman standing there ‘helping’ and ‘teaching’ people how to use it. So I had to say something, didn’t I! “So sad to see this, a bit of a backward step on the part of the Council,” I said, “I really liked talking to the people taking the money”. The lady’s response was to agree. She also thought it sucked, (her word). But what hurt the most was when I asked – “did the booth people get other jobs or were they made redundant?” – “Made redundant” was the response and then she topped it off by saying “and I’ve only got another week, then that’s me gone too”.

Ahhh, progress, sometimes progress is not for the good of the people …. no, wait, let me dig out my catchphrase – it’s all about the money

To leave you on a brighter note – I did see a couple of pirates at Bayfair.

Fee Writes

Environment | Rants | WTF

Really?

Came across this yesterday “Report Warns More Needs To Be Done To Address Climate Change“ so here’s my take on it.

N.Z. will never step up and face the fact that we have a major problem with our emissions. Not only into the air but into the ground as well – a stunning example is a toxic lake in Canterbury that has already killed about 30 sheep and now it has been declared as unsafe for humans – “dangerous” was the word used. A couple of teaspoons could easily kill a small child.

Now, smack me around the head with a rotten leek if I’m wrong in saying that the cause of this algae bloom (which is not a new thing) is too much nitrogen and phosphorus – and where does that originate from? My thinking is – agriculture – and, because our agriculture has intensified over the past few years, so has the algae bloom (in more areas than just Canterbury).

Unfortunately, Canterbury is in a state of drought which has exacerbated the problem. And, blow me down, they are getting rid of water via Big Business who bottle it up and ship it off overseas.

But, getting back to climate change and this government’s approach. (you’ll get used to the fact that I digress a lot – but, hey, I always get back onto topic). And that approach is, that we don’t really have to actually DO anything, just buy carbon credits …. and dodgy ones at that! Wow, we really do have a “she’ll be right” attitude.

When Paula Bennet (our Climate Change Minister) was asked whether the government would cancel any of the 122.2 million tonnes of these dodgy credits, she said “not ruling it out, but it’s not my focus right now” – translation: “Nope not going to do a thing, and we’ll find something else to get you excited about – like the Olympics – and then it will be forgotten”

And just to finish off … Our government, who prattles on about our sustainable energy, has allowed Genesis Energy to extend the date of the closure of the two fossil fuel plants at Huntly, which were supposed to have been shut down in 2018 – guess what? they are now going to be staying open until 2022 – so much for making New Zealand electricity greener!

government shit — Note the clean shovel – no-one wants to start shovelling.

Oh, well, in the quagmire of politics one has to wade through the shit to find the gems…

Unfortunately for N.Z., there are no gems with this Government – only shit and we really are bogged down. Mind you, I seriously question the alternative parties and their abilities with shovels.

Fee Writes

Random

Change Of Address

A nice, easy house-sit this time with slightly different “pets” to look after.

Well, fingers are crossed that it will all be smooth sailing and there’ll be no hiccups.

I’m back in the burbs. Different burbs this time. These ones are older …. wiser? …. maybe, but I doubt it. Burbs are burbs wherever located. But these ones are “tree-lined” “established” “ even now possibly some of the homes could be “great potential for renovation” – now I’m being facetious, it’s not really like that. Although some I passed on my walk last evening were questionable.

I had met the lovely couple whose house it is but I had a final meeting with them a couple of days before the move which had one incident worth telling you about.

It had been several weeks since I had been to this particular place. Now I had written down the details, you know, name, address, phone etc. Rather than totally rely on my “getting older” memory, I decided to put the address into my Google maps so I could get the right street. I had an idea of the basic layout of where to go, just not the exact location of the street except that it was some-where off a particular road.

Not looking at the map properly, I just clicked the navigate and headed off. For those who know Tauranga – my destination was Papamoa.
So over the causeway and onto the motorway – no problem. I knew I had to take the first exist.

First mistake – listening to an interview on the radio – overshot the exit. No problem, get off at the next one, up, over, down, back onto motorway and get ready to exit again. GPS lady telling me to “go straight for 2 Kms” – mistake #2 listening to her – overshot the exit again. Crap.

Now she told me to take a left at the end round-about … and that was when it hit me that there was something not quite right about where GPS lady was taking me.
This motorway is nothing like the ones in Florida (nod to my friend, Bobbi ), heck, not even like the motorways in Auckland, as there is pretty much no traffic which makes this is a motorway so easy that one tends to lose focus. But it was third time lucky.

Again I was reminded that something was goofy with the GPS when I wanted to “take the first exit from the roundabout” and not the 2nd as I was being instructed to do. So, once off the ramp I pulled over to check it out.
Yup, I’d put in the right street – “Close street” but it was taking me to Papamoa Beach road. C’mon, Google, this is an old suburb – you should have maps.

It was at this point I decided to pull up an actual street map, zoom in and see if I could find it. I had an idea where it was and then suddenly there it was – Peachtree Close (street name changed for obvious reasons, but the “close” is correct)! As soon as I saw it, I recognized the name. Duh, all this time I hadn’t had the actual name recorded in my diary only the type of street!!!!
See, not used to the jargon of the burbs!

Give me an apartment above a cafe, in the village/city any day.

Which brings me to my apartment goal. Yes, I’m still on track – still not quite at the first step yet, but should be there in about three weeks – had to delve into the savings for Trev (car), but all good.

Fee Writes

Health | Rants

Let Me Grab My SoapBox

Last year Dr Lance O’Sullivan, 2014 New Zealander of the year, came out saying that the Welfare Benefit should be cut from parents who do not vaccinate their children.

Note: I am a huge admirer of this young Doctor and the work he has done in the far North, however, I disagree with his argument on this issue as pointed out below.

Regardless whether you are for or against or in the middle on vaccinations – to me this is a violation of rights. It appals me that both the USA and Australia have laws now that make vaccination compulsory for all children, the pregnant mother and grandparents etc. I sincerely hope N.Z. will not follow suit, although it is highly likely that they will as they will be lobbied by well-meaning but misguided doctors and money-hungry drug companies.

But back to the parents on benefits. On further reading from this doctor (and others), it appears that it is mainly the children from the lower socioeconomic group who get any of the diseases far worse than those from other groups. In other words, the poor kid’s whooping cough is far worse than the rich kid’s one. (Generalization, but you get the picture).

In my opinion, it is because the poorer areas do not have the ability to provide healthy, nutritious foods that help to build the immune system.
Show me a solo mum on a benefit who is able to buy organic food? Or, for that matter, even a family who are not on benefits but are still struggling to balance the money coming in with the money that has to go out – and that’s a good majority of New Zealanders.

What is cheaper – McDonald’s or a homemade burger made with organically, nutritious ingredients?

Where’s the education on sugar?
Processed foods, which appear to be cheaper, are riddled with sugar which is known (researched and documented) to feed cancer cells, promote tooth decay and damage the immune system.

Note: there are many “rich” kids whose nutrition is also sorely lacking.

It’s not the Doctor’s fault … I realise that doctors are only doing what they believe is the right thing going by evidence presented in medical journals and told to them by drug companies. It’s documented that a lot of what is written for those journals are slanted and biased and quite often not even written by the name that is assigned to the article.

Doctors do not receive any, well, maybe a few hours if they’re lucky, tuition on nutrition at any of the medical schools. They receive far more teaching on drugs, hence the reason they poo-hoo any ideas that food and natural remedies may be far better medicine than any of the chemicals drug companies bring out.

Go back in history to who really started the monopoly of the drug companies – Carnegie and Rockefeller … Rockefeller in particular. See, he made heaps of money with oil but then started looking for ways to use it. He came up with the idea of using coal tar (a petroleum derivative) and made drugs which affect the human mind, body and nervous system. Hey, an excellent way of masking or stopping symptoms, but not a cure.

To keep this history lesson short – Carnegie (and other industrial giants) came up with a plan and between them, they managed to get all the natural practitioners ousted (e.g. herbalists, homoeopaths etc) and “standardise” the teaching and clinics for their own gains. Rockefeller wanted to control the whole medical field, using the only remedies allowed, patented synthetic drugs. And he got it.

It’s a fascinating history and worth reading about because it gives a much clearer understanding of how Big Pharma has so much power and has influenced the way we have been brainwashed into this style of medicine.

I believe that modern doctors should not be taking the Hippocratic oath at all …. it’s hypocritical. They DO NOT follow the teachings of Hippocrates whose famous quote is:

“Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food”.

and one more to end on….

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”

Whether one agrees with vaccinations is not the issue here. It is using threatening and bullying tactics that I don’t believe in and certainly hope it never comes to that here in N.Z.

Author: Fee Writes

Broken Glass – A WTF Moment

Heard a snippet on the news the other day that there’s a bit of a problem with shoddy glass coming into this country.

Well Done Bayfair.

I trotted out for a cafe styled coffee yesterday – just because I could!

Really?

Came across this yesterday “Report Warns More Needs To Be Done To Address Climate Change“ so here’s my take on it.

Change Of Address

A nice, easy house-sit this time with slightly different “pets” to look after.

Let Me Grab My SoapBox

Last year Dr Lance O’Sullivan, 2014 New Zealander of the year, came out saying that the Welfare Benefit should be cut from parents who do not vaccinate their children.

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