Trial

I have decided to trial changing this blog to a Wordpress site. This trial will take place for a month and then I will decide whether to stay with Blogger or change to Wordpress permanently. My other Blogger sites will continue to run as normal until further notice.

Here is the new link: http://summersailor.wordpress.com/. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think about the change on the new site.

Billboards and Opening Addresses

As usual in election year thousands of political billboards have shot up all over the country. It is interesting to see how different parties promote themselves. Some billboards have the party leader's full name, some with the key policies of the party and some with a reason why they should be elected.

Some stand out. The Green party with their Vote for Me signs are particularly good. They make you think about what your vote could affect. The Act Party signs also stand out. Their key Law and Order policy of "Three Strikes and Your In", with the bright background, springs into your vision as you stop at the traffic lights. The Kiwi Party boards also stand apart with the picture of all the party candidates showing a strong sense of unity within the team. This is something that is absent from other billboards. The majority of billboards only show the name and/or face of the leader or the candidate but the Kiwi Party picture shows the whole team. If they work together as a team they could have a chance of making it into Parliament.


Another interesting subject is the opening Party Addresses on TV One last Friday and Saturday nights. I think that the smaller parties should be given more time than the major parties as everyone knows about National and Labour and they get enough time on the news to talk up their policies anyway. This would give the smaller parties more of a opportunity to promote their policies seeing as they are not allowed to spend as much on election advertising.


It will also be interesting to see how the TV One Election Debate between Helen Clark and John Key goes tonight. Helen Clark is hopefully going to have a hard time defending some of the decisions her government has made over the past few years. They are even being forced to back down on plans to limit how much water we can have coming out of our shower heads. This Government is starting to go too far into limiting what we can and can't do. They have pushed through the Anti-Smacking Law ( which will hopefully be overturned next year by referendum), the Electoral Finance Bill and other silly laws that hinder them.

GOOOOOOOOOOOO National!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Election '08

This years election is certainly shaping up to be a cracker. With Winston Peters donation saga playing out rather prominently, the economy sliding, Michael Cullen announcing for the first time as finance minister that the Government books are in the red and leaving National with no money for the big tax cuts it has been promising.

But so far it looks like it is Nationals election to lose. Labour lacks so much of its own policy that it resorts to releasing the oppositions. It is trying to dig up information to shame John Key and the public just aren't liking it at all. Helen Clark says the election will come down to who the voting public of New Zealand trusts. Trust, Helen Clark knew that Owen Glenn had donated to Winston Peters for months and yet chose not to tell the public of New Zealand. Helen Clark is a lady desperate to keep her grasp on power and it will be interesting to see if she succeeds.

If Labour decide to campaign on the issue of who will be more qualified to lead New Zealand through a recession it will be a serious mistake. John Key is a successful merchant banker who has experience in that area. However the only qualification Helen Clark has is being a politician who has lead this country through the broad sunlight uplands of big surpluses.

I would appreciate if you would vote on my poll as to who you would trust with the leadership of your country.

Friends

Tonight we had some good friends over for the last time before they go traveling off round the world for a year. We have spent some wonderful times together over the past few years. From hot and spicy noodles to swimming in the rain at Lake Rotoiti. Here are some pictures of some of these times:

The Warriors Match

Last Friday night D took us to the Warriors NRL finals match vs the Sydney Roosters at Mt Smart. The match was an extremely exciting spectacle with the Warriors winning 30 - 13. They were losing at half time: 13 -6 but came back strongly in the second

Earlier in the night the Junior Warriors had beaten the Junior Penrith Panthers very convincingly.

The Warriors now head to Sydney to play the Manly Sea Eagles in Week Three of the Finals Series.

I Sea the Dinner

Well actually an after dinner snack with some still left over in the fridge! Our very kind neighbours gave us this wonderful crayfish a couple of nights ago. When he was given to us he was still alive. Isn't it amazing what God created to supply man with food.

On a political note I reckon that Winston Peters has done himself, his party and Aunty Helen no favors by creating this whole donations debacle. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months. It looks like he is going to drag the government and his party down with him come election time (whenever that may be).

Long time, No post !!!

It is amazing how long it is since I last posted, time has flown by. I have added a few pics below showing some of what I have been up to.

My Birthday Party: Going to D's School Gym and playing a few different sports with a few friends for an afternoon before getting pizzas on the way home before watching a movie.
My actual birthday: Four days before the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
New life on the farm: Including the small visitors shown here.

Farming !!!!!!!!!!

A couple of weekends ago I got to look after the farm and be the interim Farm Manager while the Farmer was away. With some help from D, A3, E10 and S7 I milked four cows twice a day and fed some calves, pigs, rabbits and the farmer's cat. I really enjoyed it!!! D took these pics:

trailing away........

I just started a new blog last night after going for a tramp in the rain. It is a place where I will be reviewing, rating and commenting about tracks we have tramped, gear and other things to do with the great outdoors.

I Hereby declare Tracks and Trails for a Kiwi Tramper officially open for public viewing.

A tiny, tiny bit of Organisation is advancing. To your stations men!!!!

Yes, well, not quite as dramatic as that, but it's happening!!! The other day while at The Warehouse M bought me a filing folder. This means that I can now put all the pieces of paper (well, most of them anyway) that sit in and float around my room, into one place where I can always find them when I need to.

The Pumpkin Patch - Nature in the Garden - Part Two

A couple of months ago there were some self-seeded little plants in our main family garden, two of which I was allowed to transplant into a patch that I dug under our playhut. We think they are either Pumpkin or Cucumber plants. Meanwhile another one of those self-seeded plants has grown in the main garden and there is a little pumpkin on it which hopefully soon will be a wonderful dinner for our family.

Nature in the Garden - Part One

This morning when us three biggies came home from the farm M asked A2 to show us the "juicy caterpillar" as A2 called it while taking us. Once we got there, sure enough, there was a very "juicy caterpillar" on one of the two Swan Plants in E10's garden!!!

The Holidays !!!!!!!!!!

We came home a couple of days ago from our Christmas Break and Holidays (sigh). We had a wonderful time in the beautiful summer weather while in Tauranga for Christmas before heading to Lake Rotoiti in the beautiful Rotorua Lakes District, on Boxing Day. We enjoyed helping cook and eat a Hangi for Christmas dinner, playing cricket in two venues, with two different cousins, swimming in a river, lakes and at Ohope, in the sea, sailing, tramping up a ridge we didn't know you could get up, riding on 'biscuits' behind various kind people's motor boats, camping outside the bach, trying to kill a possum that was making a large racket at night above our tents, picking and eating plums and doing heaps of other fun things together. Here are some pics: