It seems that Wellington airport chief executive Steve Fitzgerald thinks that copying the Hollywood sign in Wellington will cement our city as an international tourism landmark.
Image from stuff.co.nz
Not only is this one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever heard, the idea of copying immediately suggests we are not a worthy tourist destination in our own right.
What I would really like to remind people is that this crazy idea that imitation is a good thing comes from the very same people who believe we should put up a couple of pumpkins… oops… I mean, buildings that look like rocks at the airport.
The concept being that they are creative, innovative and unique. In Steve Fitzgerald’s own words:
“Our radical departure from traditional airport design worldwide is entirely deliberate. What is set to become New Zealand’s newest iconic building, The Rock combines functionality and capacity with what will be a memorable visitor experience. It’s edgy and in keeping with our Wild at Heart attitude, reflecting Wellington’s status as a vibrant and daring cultural city…”
Personally I think these are atrocious as well and will be a total embarrassment. That said, at least they are an original embarrassment.
Gail Hyatt writes a great blog she calls “Treasure Hunt”. So called because she’s always looking beneath the surface for what’s hiding there.
First and foremost, can I recommend you go over there, have a poke around and, if you like what you see, subscribe. You’ll be the better for it!
In this very tradition of seeing something else I noticed a phrase in a recent post of hers. The post was entitled “Look At Your Feet” and was about listening to God, knowing that He’s there with you and that you need not be anxious or afraid.
That in itself made it a post worth considering at depth. But there was a phrase within the post that really struck me. You see, in “looking at her feet” she enabled herself to really focus in on the conversation and the person she was meeting. She put it this way:
I just abandoned myself to our time together…
This is something I need to practice. In an earlier post I commented that the name of this blog includes the word “focus” as I need to be better at giving people my full attention.
Well, maybe I need to do better than that, maybe I need to “abandon myself to my time with them?”
Because I’m picking some of our youth up from an event, I’m listening to my precious Crusaders thump the helpless Blues on the radio. My rant? Please please commentators… Give a regular score update. I listened for more than 10 minutes before they even mentioned it!
It looks like the ridiculous right turn rule in New Zealand is going to change. We’re the only country in the world that uses it and it causes so much confusion.
So… well done to the government for at last starting to look at it.
Next on the agenda should be the introduction of a left turn on red rule. It works well elsewhere and helps the flow of traffic.
Note to my American and European friends – We drive on the left hand side of the road over here. So a left turn on red would be our equivalent to your right turn on red rule.
I have just read easily the best response I’ve seen to Tiger Woods recent apology.
Michael Hyatt has published a blog article (please go to his site and make your comments there) and he’s taken a different perspective that I think we should all contemplate.
I’m publishing this here as well as retweeting Michael ’s blog as many of my readers do not use twitter yet I feel this is something that is important for people to read.
Michael’s five point that he comes out with are (and once again it’s important to go to his site to read them because he has dealt with them much more fully):
A video of John Key has been found where he states:
"National is not going to be raising GST. National wants to cut taxes not to raise taxes."
To be fair to John the actual question was:
"… GST could potentially rise to 15% to cover deficits…"
and what the government is doing now is more related to an overall correction of tax anomalies rather than any effort to raise new revenue (at least as far as the GST is concerned).
But it does show that politicians have to be really careful about making definitive statements on the campaign trail.
This is about name suppression in New Zealand. In case you haven’t heard a District Court Judge has ordered permanent name suppression for a prominent Manawatu man who had 300,000 pornographic images (including child pornography) on his computer.
The judge said:
“The punitive consequences are more extensive for you than for others, particularly in light of your position, your achievements and the consequential outcome.”
and that:
“…publication of the man’s identity was not required because none of the thousands of children pictured were New Zealanders.”
And, unsurprisingly, Cam Slater (aka Whale Oil Beef Hooked) has come out swinging. He is, after all on a personal crusade against name suppression and has been willing to risk his freedom by using the methods he’s used.
But Can oversteps the mark when he takes personal pot shots at the judge.
“… this is NOT the first time that Judge Grant Fraser has meddled with the intent of the law. A quick Google reveals a crim hugging, liberal menace to the people of the Manawatu.”
Come on Cam. You must know that nobody is that stupid… not even a judge! Clearly Judge Fraser is on your side. He knows that giving name suppression in this case must force the Government’s hand and new law on name suppression will be rushed through parliament – possibly even before you can get yourself in yet more trouble! (OK – That’s unlikely, but soon nonetheless.)
