William Le Couteur's Blog

I'm 65

2011-08-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

Oh well, it had to happen sometime! It seems far more significant to me because I am now able to receive the "NZ Super". Which if you are working, gets trimmed back. Which is fine as far as I'm concerned. Like every other country in the world it seems that NZ is spending more than it is earning, so any savings made by the government must be looked on as a good thing.

Seems to me that this idea that countries are able to borrow money is a dangerous idea. If I were in the business of writing a constitution for a country, I would make it mandatory that no borrowing of money was to be done.

What we are seeing now in the world is the sad results of this policy.

I have just checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt

and the New Zealand debt is $219,589,000,000, which is $50, 260 each person. Which seems high compared to other countries. For instance, expressed as a % of GDP, ours is 127%!

Which is strange, because in the USA they are wringing their hands, and saying the end of the world is nigh at only 99%.

There are a lot of ifs and buts though-this is external debt, somewhere like the USA, only about a third of United States public debt is external.

Seems a bit strange- our unemployment rate is 6%, USA it is supposedly 9%.

What a day!

2010-11-23T23:34:00.000-08:00

Every so often I get to do something that afterwards I just know I will remember.

Today was one of those. Not the work part though!

I had taken my running gear to work with the idea of doing a 6km run at lunchtime, by myself or maybe with one of my workmates who seems to be getting more obsessed with this fitness stuff.

(Me obsessed with fitness??Maybe.)

Last week I had done the run from work (NZ Sugar Ltd) to a place called Kendall bay. I had taken my swimming gear and a towel. That was a good day, except for a little incident that "messed it up" . When I got to the beach, while I saw nobody there, I thought to go behind some bushes to get changed. Following a beaten path into the bullrushes I thought to stop and think to myself that this is the sort of place people use for a toilet and backed out a bit, and got changed. After a very nice swim I returned and when I went to put my running shoes on I realised I had stood in something nasty. It had to get washed off, but it still lingered to I had to wash them thoroughly when I got home.

Which took the gloss off that particular day.

Anyway, today, my workmate suggested we go there. Then he said he would try and rustle up some more people, and he managed to get two more.

It is a really nice walk (we did not run much) along the tops of the cliffs in the bush as you can see from the photo above. When we got there we had a nice swim in our running gear.

After winter in Auckland where it did rain every day, this is surely paradise.

Badminton trip away

2010-08-17T12:12:00.001-07:00

This is the view from the deck:

Recently, I had to play tow Veteran's ties in Whangerei, which is a city about 160km north of Auckland, which is where I live.

It involves a day's playing of badminton with other silly old folks. We won one and lost one. Oh well, cie la vie.

To grab the opportunity, we decided on a four day weekend, staying at a place called Tutukaka, which is about 30 minutes from Whangerei. We stayed at Pacific Rendesvous Motel.

On the Sunday we did the trip to Russel and back, which seemed a lot longer and windier than it did on the map!

Big deal:I moved my computer.

2010-08-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Yay! Moved my computer from the garage (freezing cold and drafty!) to Rose's "sewing room"

I have moved her one too, so we are now sitting in the same room when computing. That is, me doing this sort of thing and her doing Runescape. I'm not sure if Runescape is a good or bad thing. On the plus side, it allows contact with other people and a certain amount of brain exercised might be involved! On the negative side I cannot see where you actually accomplish anything.

Running: does not seem to be getting easier-in fact it seems just as hard as ever.

Where I work has just been bought out by a Singaporean firm- It should be fairly interesting in about 3weeks time to see what changes this might bring.

Body Revolution

2010-04-28T00:55:00.000-07:00

Here it is: at the end of a 6 week course of exercise and diet called "Body Revolution", I have just celebrated by having 2 glasses of wine and an icecream!

This program was put on by the company I'm working for - even me as a lowly contractor! All that was involved was 2 gym sessions per week and advice on diet. I started out at about 100.7kg and now I am 97.7kg (with shoes and shorts and tee shirt!). That makes a 3kg loss.

I suppose I should be happy with that, but one of the other guys did 5kg. The sessions were quite high intensity-I'm still yet to do more than 4 pressups so I maybe I should continue the torture. The diet was essentially, eat more vege, eat more at the beginning of the day, less at the end. He recommended no alcohol, or tea or coffee. I attempted to follow that plan but occasionally fell off the rails.

You got a diary to record what you ate, how much you exercised and what your weight was at a weekly weigh in.

I have in the past considered going on some sort of diet, but this time I think I have really made an effort, and have some good results. I think that more fatties should try this technique: all you have to do is go to the green grocers and buy a bag of carrots and a bag of tomatoes at the beginning of the week. Chuck in some bananas, mandarins or whatever and you are set for morning teas. The plan is to keep yourself fed so that when lunch rolls round you are not too hungry and will not need to pig out.

Lunch might be buying 1/4 chicken and having this with a tomato.

Normally I used to have porridge every morning, but now I'm trying the following for two people:

1 carrot grated
2 sticks of celery
1 pear
1 tomato
1 orange
yogurt
pumpkin seeds/pine nuts and whatever

The sweetness of the orange lifts the whole mix and it just tastes great.

Have this for breakfast (with just warm water-no coffee), and you will start the day feeling terrific.

Running and all that

2009-11-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

Well it's over. The Adidas Half Marathon that is.

I had been training for that event since June. I believe that I had adopted a sensible graduated approach to my training, but strange things happen. For instance, when I started, I had a really sore right ankle joint and the left knee was a bit dodgy. You would have thought running would have made these things worse. In fact, the opposite appears to have happened, they are ok and other things have come to take their place.

About a month ago I managed to run 21k more or less continuously. Just to prove I could do it twice, I tried again the following weekend. I only managed 13K-due to some ligament that runs from the knee to the top of the leg complaining bitterly.

Just to be clever (?) I decided to buy a new pair of running shoes the day before the race. I checked them out by running around the block in them. Great! Like running on air compared to the old ones, which were just sneakers.

Race day. Up at 3.45am to get the ferry across to Devenport, for a 6.45am start. Met up with the other NZSugar runners Steve, Anthony, Kevin, Lynn and Graeme. This is a seven thousand person event, and I was sanwiched somewhere in the middle. The first K was good, great pace, then whatever kicked in and hordes of people started passing me.

At about 8k I realised the obvious:you should not wear new running shoes on a long run. The muscles in my feet started complaining, and did not finish till the finish line. It was a process of run/walk/run.

I made my goal, which was to get to the start of the harbour bridge before 8.45am-that's when they were going to close it and any slow ones would get put on a bus.

It was walking fron there on. It was quite worrying:being passed by older and sometimes heavier persons than myself, who seemed to have a tremendous walking speed. Just after the bridge I was passed by Patrick, who had walked the whole race. Still, he is 6'3" and weighs in around 76kg and has long legs.

At the finish, I threw down a hot dog and beer and sat down in the kids playing area to wait for Rose, my wife to come and pick me up. She did wait, but at the children's kindergarten 100m up the road. In the end, tired of her not showing up, I got a taxi, but just as we went past the Franklin Rd supermarket, I spied Rose just driving out. A frantic stop and much arm waving sorted us all out.

The rest of the day was spent in recovery on the couch. Maybe I can have my life back now, please?

Blackbirds

2009-09-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how prevalant blackbirds are throughout the world, but here in New Zealand, we have plenty. We even have a native version called the Tui (This is a native Maori name).
He looks just like a large blackbird, with a small tuft of white feathers on his neck front.

Why am I talking about blackbirds? Well, to the 2 people who read this blog, I hope to get them thinking about these great birds. Great? Maybe it is just a personal preference: The other birds just don't seem to have that special something blackbirds have.

These are quite well worth noticing: the more you look, the more you appreciate them.
For instance, the song-20 seconds or so of tweet-tweet then it stops for a while, then starts up again. But notice that the songs are never the same! It is almost as if he is thinking of the next bit, before he sings it. I understand the deep black ones are male the slightly greyer ones are female.

It's spring time here, and I've noticed these little guys indulging in risky behaviour- flying out in front of cars (mine) seems to be a favourite.

On my run the other day, I noticed one take off and fly under a tree and through a gap in a fence. Which makes me wonder: when was the last time I ever noticed a blackbird get a flight wrong? Answer: none.

It seems some are more tame than others-I'm not sure why. In our area they will let you get within about 5 metres then they are off. In Mt Eden, another suburb of Auckland, I was within 2 metres.

When the heat of summer does get here, I notice they make themselves scarce. I presume they go to the bush area that we have close by-it makes sense because there is shelter from the hot sun and there is a creek nearby to drink from.

I'm 63!

2009-08-16T01:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday me! This birthday has been a bit strange as for the last 9 months or so I have thought of my age as 63. Not 62 as actual.

I have just partaken (not competed as such, although it was a competition) in the Auckland Badminton Assn's Masters/Vets Tournament. Any dreams of glory in the singles were quickly eliminated by my first game. There were only 6 entries in the over 55 open age group, but a few of these seemed to be operating at the B grade level. (I'm officially a D). Which made it rather tough for me, but I did try.

The doubles were equally disasterous. At the end, I was a little bit stuffed to put it mildly.
This is a day later and I am only just getting back to normal, just need a new ankle and knee, then I'll be fine.

I did have this silly idea that the running 4.5km on Mon/Wed/Fri and 10km on Sundays would make me Mr Fit. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to be holding true as my badminton seems on a downward spiral. Time to give it up?

I have booked myself in with a badminton coach, something I've always wanted to do.

The funny part is that if I take it easy on my 4.5km run (ie about 50mins), I get back feeling fine and ok for energy. If I try to do the same trip in 40mins the result is a near heart attack at the end of the run. So I'm going to take it a bit easy.

We had a running guru come to work and tell us how to run. Unfortunately I only got 15mins of his presentation, but he was saying interesting things like: You have to stress your body, but just as importantly, give it time to recover. You also have to build up your training in waves, not just in a straight line graph. Apparently he has seen many such people as me training for a half marathon, who with incorrect training, end up injuring themselves. Not a good outlook if I keep up the present course.

Running

2009-06-26T01:23:00.000-07:00

It is winter here in NZ and I have put away my bike for the winter. I just cannot face the cold, not to mention the almost continuous rain here in Auckland at this time of year. Maybe I am exagerrating a bit about the "continuous". About 3 months ago, one of the keen ones at work got some of us to commit to doing a half marathon on Nov 1st. My only running was during badminton, so apart from my walking, it appeared that I needed to get going, gradually.

My last try at jogging was in 1978, but this coincided with a slipped disc, so "certain people" decided I should give up the jogging. Hence the bike riding, which leaves a winter gap, so I always arrive at the start of summer at a low level of fitness.

The place where I work provides a free gym on the premises, so for the last 3 weeks I have done 20 minutes on the cross trainer and 1.5km on the running machine. The last few times I have upped the running part to 2.5km.

Just stir things up, today I ran on the road about 4.3km and nothing got broken. Not at a fast pace though!

Halfway through, it started to rain, but it was not cold, and seemed almost enjoyable.

The phot at the top shows where I ran to.

On the other side of Christmas

2009-02-06T20:38:00.000-08:00

My tomatoes are looking a bit wonky-I have been watering them, but I have an idea that I should have sprayed them with something.

All this gardening stuff brings home just how much land is needed for each of us to be fed.

Oakley Creek

2009-01-15T01:34:00.000-08:00

I'm on holiday...not that it feels like a proper one, as I cannot afford to go away.

I suppose we could have gone camping, but we thought we would have one at home, and go out for lunch ocassionaly.

I've been cycling to St Heliers and back every other day, but the weight refuses to budge.

We do a walk along Oakley creek sometimes, check out the photos. Hard to believe there is such a large waterfall in suburban Auckland, about 200m from a road that carries about 20,000

cars per day!

They were going to put the motorway through all this, but the plan now is to put it underground.

Back to work on Monday 19th Jan. Ouch.

Thank goodness it's all over...now the fun begins!

2008-11-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

Western Springs-Auckland City
The garden progress......spuds and tomatoes

Here are some of the beans with yet more tomatoes and some coriander and parsely.

In case you had not noticed, I have installed a site counter on this page. This is because I was wondering if I had any visitors at all!

It is made by a firm called Statcounter, which is free to use and I have been using it on my other Autocad blog, where it seems to be working OK. It works by somehow linking to their site, all I did was go to my Layout page and choose "Add a Gadget", then cut and paste the code they provided into the window.

Went tramping last weekend and wore a hat which prevented me from seeing the tree branch coming, so ended up with a scraped head. Further disasters awaited in the form of three lady trampers who I thought had gone up another track so I thought it was safe for me to go skinny dipping in the nice bush pool....but no, they came back! Luckily for me and them the water was not that clear and they were not that close. (Usual smart remark from friends who came with me was " It's alright, they would'nt see much" were of no help-they said the water was too cold for that sort of thing.)

So now we have a nice shiny new government. Time will tell, but seeing how the DOW is going, I might just get the spade out tomorrow and dig up even more of my lawn and plant some silverbeet and any other winter veg that can be planted.

Time to Make Your Mind Up, Swinging Voters!

2008-11-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I have made my mind up....I did have some money in Hanover Finance, which, while it has not officially gone, has disappeared in a moratorium on repayments. This has been a major part of swinging my vote: The purpose of a government (at least from a constituent's point of view), is to LOOK AFTER it's citizens. They have not done.

As far as preventing finance companies from falling over, the present Labour government has done spectacularly badly in my view.

That said, I would imagine National would have done just as badly.

In the last few weeks, I have witnessed an apparent desire on the part of National NOT to be the government---well at least they should have locked one of their members in a chicken coop for the duration of the election!

It is all a bit deja vu, Helen promised 9 years ago to cut government spending, now John Key looks like coming in saying the same thing.

I've now taken up gardening-seems like a skill that may be in demand in the coming year.

The general election is soon

2008-10-04T01:34:00.000-07:00

Being a not too busy Saturday, I thought I would have a bash at checking the policies of the major parties. Yawn.... Does everyone else have this problem? You go to the party's site, pick on just two areas of policy and fall asleep almost instantly.

What should I expect? Life must be tough for the spin doctors who put all this stuff up for the us to read: How to make what they have done sound like a lot.

It would be nice to be able to check out a site that puts it all into 2 x A4 pages....Is life this simple? No.

So I will probably be like the rest of the swinging voters and vote for John Key because a) he's someone different, and b) he must know a thing or two about money, and that might be extremely relevant right about now. All this is embarassing to admit.

Someone has lent me Ian Wishart's book "Absolute Power", which is about Helen Clark, the prime minister. In it, he makes the point that Labour came to power on a platform of cutting Governmental spending:In fact, they appear to have increased it.

Listening to the radio on Thursday, I heard a man (not a politician) who seemed to tell it like it is: We are a tiny nation, and our standard of living is going backwards compared to Australia.

Governments, Labour and National have both had a turn, so I don't think things will change much, no matter who gets in. (In economic terms-antismacking, that's another bundle!).

Nothing will change, unless someone in the National Party wakes up one morning and has a rush of blood to the head as follows: What we need is a plan, a ten year plan that copes with all sorts of variables-chief among these would be: how to escape economic harm from events overseas, and how to cope with the worlds expectations on climate change- assuming that there is such a thing.

I remember years ago suggesting to my father that we should be economically independent from the rest of the world. He countered that "trade was the life blood of any country", and that we would all be extremely poor should this happen. If you think about it, we are very dependent on second hand cars from Japan, medicines from USA, machinery from Germany and so on.

Imagining a country of 4 million coping with car production, medicines and so on seems far-fetched. Having said that, I hope we are not about to pay the price for dependance on the outside world.

Politics-Election 2008

2008-09-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

In my attempt to evaluate as fairly as possible, I have decided to check out the various party's web sites to see what the differences are. I am declaring here and now that I am a swinging voter.
Take tax cuts:
I went to Labour's site and found this:
"Labour’s tax cuts are responsible and fair to workers. We focused on the lowest rate so all New Zealanders benefit. Labour will do the right thing for workers, families, and the economy.
Labour’s personal tax plan will result in:
A new low tax rate of 12.5 per cent A lifting of the 21 per cent threshold by $10,500 to $20,000 A lifting of the 33 per cent threshold by $4,500 to $42,500 A lifting of the 39 per cent threshold by $20,000 to $80,000 And advancing boosts to working for families on 1 October 2008 By the third year of our tax cut programme, we will deliver $50 a week or more to around 50 per cent of all households.
A Kiwi family on the average household income of $72,000 – split two thirds/one third between two parents – with two children at primary school is almost $43 a week better off on 1 October this year – that’s equivalent to a 3.6 per cent increase in take home pay.
By full implementation of the tax package in 2011, that Kiwi family is almost $85 a week better off – the equivalent to a 7.5 per cent increase in their take home pay."

Then I checked out National's site and had difficulty finding their policy, but in one of the speeches I did find:
"One, we will institute an ongoing programme of personal tax reduction that will encourage hard work and help keep our workforce in New Zealand. This sensible, step-by-step tax programme is, I believe, even more important given the current economic conditions."

I recall someone in National promising $50/week tax cuts, but could not readily find this on National's site.

From the above, it seems to me that Labour's policy is more defined and out in the open.

If National do give a $50 tax cut, on top of the above Labour introduced cuts, then I would imagine a lot of people giving that some thought.

For myself, I would like more tax cuts, but this has to be balanced by the idea that if they cut taxes, this may result in a lower quality of defence/education etc.

Politics

2008-09-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

In New Zealand, we have our general elections coming up this November, so a bit of political comment might be in order.

I still do not know who I am going to vote for, but I have read a bit on John Key, the National Party leader and he seems to be better than his predecessors. Other than that, I have only a vague idea of how National's policies differ from Labour's.

I feel quite guilty, as here I am, 62 years in NZ and only a vague idea of what is going on in the political arena, in spite of listening to the radio and finding out all the dirt that the journalists can dig up on the MPs. Maybe policy just does not interest the public?

My political thoughts are quite basic: Why do we have government? Answer: To look after the people.

Take a simple issue such as smoking: If we look after most of the people, what about the poor old cigarette manufacturers/tobacco farmers? Right away it appears to a grey area. But if we were using our heads in this case, we would say: Tough luck, go do something else.

This does not seem to be happening...hmmm....wonder why!

Then there is the idea of freedom of action: Why should we not smoke if we want to?

I get a feeling that in 50 years time, maybe everyone will be so educated that the idea of smoking and drinking alcohol would be looked on as doing something strange.

Anyway, where am I going with this? Well, a Constitution would be a good start. Ian Wishart tried to get that one off the ground, but it never flew.

My goal this election is to:
1. Check on Labour's promises previous to the last election.
2. Find out what the main differences are in the policies.

My feeling is that people are ready for a change, and that National will get in.

The Sewing Room is Finished!

2008-08-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

Here it is, end of August, finished at last:

Many thanks to Robbie, who was a great help!

A change of job

2008-06-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

I have been laid off from Nucon Ltd and am now working back at NZ Sugar Ltd. It feels quite homely to be back at NZSugar as I have been back and forwards from there about 4 or 5 times since 1998. At the moment I do not know how long I will be here.

I am doing the compressed air schematic. You would think this would be fairly straightforward, but this is an old plant and water pipes look just like air pipes!

I'm curious and a bit apprehensive about the Nucon project I left behind (a food factory in Indonesia).

To see the NZSugar site you can go http://www.NZSugar.co.nz

What Happens When You are Tired and it is Foggy....

2008-05-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Don't know why I am posting this....maybe I am too embarassed to tell it in person. Maybe I am just getting the details out of the way so I don't have to keep repeating them.

On Friday 17th May I was wending my way to work on my bike, then upon nearly going out of Cornwall Park, I somehow fell off my bike. I can remember that it was in the park. I say somehow because I cannot remember what happened. All I can remember is waking up lying on the road and having some sort of conversation with about 3 people. They told me later that I introduced myself 3 times....so god knows what other drivel they had to put up with!

Looking at my helmet I realised I had been knocked out. Two of the people were a retired couple, and they offered to take me to their house and wait there while Rose my wife came and picked me up.

He went and got his car, and I was taken to their house and Rose was called, who came and took me to Auckland Hospital A and E.

There I was diagnosed as OK. (Apart from a slight headache, which is normal.) So here I am 24 hours later with still a headache, but only mild.
I have several "battle scars", scrapes to the hands and the right knee, but nothing serious. I felt not too bad after it, but today can feel sore muscles in the arms and so on.

It is recommended that you do not hit your head again for the next three weeks, so I am giving up cycling for that period.

All a bit scary really, when they hand you a sheet saying "Watch this person for 24 hours...if they are hard to wake up, call 111..."

Can only think it was caused by a combination of factors-I was tired, I had already cycled to work 3 days, it was foggy, I had a few personal problems on my mind. I am going to go back to the scene to check if there is any obvious cause for the accident.

The nightmare continues....

2008-05-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

Please excuse my crap efforts at brightening the pics!

Well, here we are and it is Sunday 4th May 2008. The renovations are still not finished, although they are closer. I have had a prelining check...ok...a bracing panels only check....ok.....now just a fight to the finish.

At a rate of 3 bits of gib/weekend, this is rocketing along!

This has all been a bit of a pain: I want my weekends back!

My Bike Trip to Work

2008-03-06T23:52:00.001-08:00

Yuck.....7.15am and I am on my way to work-it takes about an hour.
This is Waterview Park-My first port of call just out from home.This is my bike, an Apollo Vispo. The original nice wheels I wrecked, so these are just cheapies to replace them. I have had to get the bottom crank replaced and a new chain, so I must have done some k's. (It is about 15km to work.)This is the "cliff" in Liverpool St near One Tree Hill. I always like to stop there to remind myself that we are just a very minor grain in the history of the earth and I always wonder just how old the layers of sediment are.
I know that this biking thing is mad (dangerous)--maybe that is why I do it. There are some fitness benefits, but the summer does not seem to last very long and I slip backwards in fitness in the winter. I also have to run a fine line between overdoing it, as I seem to get very tired.
This is the top of Golf Rd, just where I join the road around One Tree Hill. I usually stop and gasp for breath about here for a minute. But it is good to know it is all down hill to work from around here.This is the road around the bottom of One Tree Hill- On a nice morning, it is the highlight of the day with the fresh oak trees, animals and fields. Here we are on the way home---this is a house in Sandringham where I like to stop and have a drink of water. I really like this house. It has a brilliant front yard with a cat that sleeps on the front step.

More Building Renovations Progress

2008-02-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

Well....how can I possibly have taken 4 hours to nail on 6 boards?

Maybe the answer lies in the fact that a lot of things went wrong...but here it all is - ready for the building inspector next Friday....

Trip to Langs Beach

2008-02-13T21:11:00.000-08:00

This is Langs Beach, it is about 1 and a half hours north of Auckland.

The creek forms a lagoon in the foreground.