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.