Wally's tales

We have a class of people amongst that certainly are different, they don’t follow normal patterns of behaviour, and are inclined to reject our way of thinking, as weak. Through our eyes they seem to live dangerously, and tempt fate. They also consider themselves bulletproof, and amongst their other negative traits, one thing that is noticeable, they never bother to insure their property. However when they do get caught out, which they do. They are not slow in calling for a handouts. I can remember many years ago, my brother being annoyed when being asked to contribute to a financial list, assisting someone living his area, who hadn’t bothered to insure their home. They had suffered a fire, and needed money for a fresh start.

If you don’t give, you are a miserable sod, and lacking in empathy. But then again, why should you dig into your own slender resources, to keep on helping these lame ducks? When you yourself have had to go without something, to buy your insurance. These people are always with us, and sure as sure, they are always busy making their own bad luck. Everyday we have here, the picture of some unfortunate featured in the Press, they are broke, destitute, and their home has been destroyed by the earthquakes, of course they are uninsured. You have to feel sorry for them. But how do you protect these people from their own folly?

Our current system is that our earthquake insurance, is linked to the Fire Insurance premium. Payment is automatic when you pay your fire premium, and insurance companies therefore, are only the collecting agency. So if you don’t have fire insurance, you don’t have any earthquake cover either. We are very lucky to have this facility where you can insure land. I think too, we are unique in the world with this. However unique or not, in one area I heard in an interview, that there are unfortunately 50 completely uninsured families that have surfaced so far, and have made themselves known to the authorities. Up until recently the premium for this service was a very small sum.

As a country we have another area of concern, we have hundreds, possibly thousands of people driving on our roads uninsured. Should they have an accident, and they are at fault. They can now be sued by the other party or their insurance company. When it comes to the recovery their damage costs. Murphy’s law seems to prevail here too. It is always a Mercedes or a BMW that they collide with, never an old clapped out banger. These folk generally also seem to have a very casual attitude to other driving requirements. No Warrant of Fitness, Drivers licence, or Registration for their car, so immediately, these social misfits are in even more trouble with the law.

I wonder sometimes what’s missing with these people, and perhaps they need to be taught at school a course called ‘common sense’. The sort of things that your Granny thought you should know, before you went out alone into the wide world. Some graduates from colleges today, are ill prepared for what life will throw at them, too many come under the heading of being, complete bunnies.

Helping the unfortunate sometimes has another twist, that’s often played on unsuspecting fellow travellers. Too many times in group travel, someone pops up with the story that he has been robbed, they have taken of all his money, now his holiday is ruined. He has saved for many years to enjoy this break, and the thieves have taken his camera too. Of course he isn’t insured. At this point, up jumps a companion. ‘let’s take up an collection to help this poor soul, this will ease his pain’. In my case I’m too cynical to swallow that nonsense. If it’s travellers cheques lost, the Bank will ‘Stop” payment and replace same.

The Government has just announced that they are now prepared to buy whole suburbs(Up to 5,000 homes) and push them over. They will pay out on the 2007 valuations for the land, and then it’s up to their insurance company to pick up the tab after the Earthquake commission pays out their maximum of $100,000 for each home. This act will create an interesting situation, as some when this formula is applied, they will find by the time they buy new land, they are deeply in debt. It gets worse for some who have a replacement policy, the company will only pay out enough to repair the home. The fact that it’s sitting on condemned land is not their problem.

We live in interesting times.

A few years ago, we didn’t know that such a thing as a Asian warehouse even existed, and that you could actually buy such exotic foods over the counter, such as Soy sauce, Nuoc Nam fish sauce, black beans. Once we got the taste of these Asian condiments, we were hooked, and then to keep up our supply, we resorted to carrying large flagons of soy sauce and whatever, to bring it back with us whenever we travelled off shore. Now we have several Asian supply stores actually in our own City

Someone once said to me, ‘You are barmy‘,‘I wouldn’t eat all that foreign muck’.I had a quiet smile as I watched him slosh on black Worcester sauce onto his pie. Just as well that he hadn’t read the label on the bottle saying, that it contained ground up anchovies, which is also the main ingredient of Asian fish sauce.

The availability of Asian ingredients is something that has proliferated from a small corner in a Supermarket to speciality stores now, selling nothing but Indian, Chinese, Japanese, foods. The choice is endless, and even includes frozen foods. All this seems to have taken place over the past fifteen years or so. There was a problem earlier, as a lot of what was on sale, was a complete mystery to the average New Zealander, not knowing what exactly was in many items on display. So unless you were familiar with the contents of any tin or packet, you didn’t buy. Now all that is changed, everything has an English label. And as well a full description of what it is, and how to use it. As well, I have found the staff in these stores very helpful.

Many years ago when we lived in Port Chalmers, and sometimes in the fungi season we drove out to Heyward’s Point which was often shrouded in fog. These conditions at times produced huge crops of field mushrooms. The kids joined in when we went out gathering. On one visit we soon had bushels of prime fresh mushrooms. These were the days when it wasn’t possible to walk into a greengrocer and buy the cultivated ones we enjoy today. However I had seen overseas, Japanese dried mushrooms, Shitake, and Kikurage being sold in stores. So I decided that if they could dry mushrooms, so could I.

The wife had just taken possession of a new clothes dryer, and it was her pride and joy and it freed her from the drudgery of the endless battle of drying clothes. Here was the perfect instrument to dry my mushrooms. This was an early model, where you hung your clothes onto racks, and a huge fan blew hot air through.

I quickly filled it to the brim with mushrooms, and set it going. It would seem and I now know that mushrooms are 95% water. By the time I discovered this fact back then, I had already flooded out the wash house, and made an awful mess of the dryer with the mushroom spray. I was confronted by an angry wife with armfuls of wet napkins, demanding that I immediately clean the machine, and the washhouse, or I would be busy doing her washing as well. Some days you really should stay in bed.

There is a lot of debate going on, whether or not Christchurch City Business Area should be relocated, or just left where it is. Of course, if you don’t know what all this is about, or even why.’Well it’s where most of the City’s property damage took place’. This is what’s now known, and designated as the ‘Red Zone’, it’s also situated in the shadow of the ‘Grand Chancellor Hotel’,it’s some seventeen stories high, and it’s badly endangered. What’s more, it now has has a very noticeable tilt. This area is strictly ‘Off Limits’ to the public, and will stay that way until it’s pulled down, and the danger removed. Every aftershock moves it, just a little more, but it stubbornly stays put. So now unfortunately they will have to pay to pull the damn thing down. For this task, it will cost really big money. The sum of ten million has been mentioned. I’ll bet too, that they now wish that one of the last series of earthquakes had knocked it over. Because after the last big shock, they poured tons upon tons of cement into the ground floor to stabilise it temporarily. Unfortunately, now they are having to pay as I said Millions, and they also have a time frame of six months to knock it down, and cart away the debris. Of course, not forgetting all the tons of cement, they had earlier put into the ground floor.

Lyttleton Harbour Board decided this was too good an opportunity to miss, so to take advantage of all this free spoil from the City demolition, and carry out some necessary reclamation. They offered to take all of the clean fill. Of course they ran slap bang into yet another official, declaring for this operation, they now required planning permission, which under the old rules would take months or even years to obtain. He was very quickly sorted out and pushed aside. I now see again, dozens of heavy trucks headed out that way again. Possibly they could put him on point duty.

I don’t know if the authorities have noticed or not, or just turning a blind eye to it all, but the local businessmen are busy working out things for themselves. They are all busy relocating and many have decided to work at home. The suburbs are now festooned with hundreds of advertising signs. These are all professionally done, so the sign writers must be enjoying a boom. They are located outside every other residential home. These all belong to former CBD Accountants, Hairdressers, Dentists, locksmiths, and even Jewellers. These are the same guys. who made up the working fabric of our city. In fact you name it, and you will find any and all of these people, all now working from home. In fact they haven’t much choice with their new venues, to carry out their occupations, which is now in a lounge, bathroom, shed, or even a garage.

If you had tried to do this six months ago without a permit, or even without a change of use, and planning permission, it would have been safer to kick over a beehive. Councils over the years have slowly wrapped themselves in more than enough regulations, that up until today, you required an lawyer to hold your hand, and the ‘patience of Job’, to work through. Today people are in no mood to be mucked about any more with petite officialdom. These folk could even find themselves, ‘hog tied’, and hung out to dry, all wrapped up in their own Red Tape should try to stop it.

One strange effect the earthquake has had with me is now when I’m travelling across town, I often take a wrong turning, because landmarks I have used in the past, but probably not realising it, have suddenly been pulled down or just disappeared. This can happen overnight. So its easy to miss a critical turn. Some streets where there were large sections of office blocks or housing have also been damaged and pulled down. This makes some streets you don’t use often seem unfamiliar, and places you are seeking, suddenly become hard to recognise.

We have another problem if you need to travel across town on a regular basis, it matters not if you go around the outskirts, or take your chances and take your normal route, but just be prepared to run into many diversions by repair work being carried out.

I’m still living with Beth and Roger and will be until my home is made liveable again. You may not know that I have had to move out of my home because of earthquake damage. Yet compared to what others have had to put up with, my damage is minimal. Our current generation has lived until this spate of earth quakes, the good life. They have lived in a time of plenty, and never had to front up and fight a War, or cope with being hungry, or a general depression with no work. What a rude wake up call mother nature has dealt them this time here in Christchurch.

With the continuing after shocks amounting to thousands, ( The newspaper reports 7,500 and counting) the damage is on going. What once were small cracks on my home’s brickwork, are now much bigger cracks. We have had several deadlines now, possibly seven or eight to report property damage. Don’t get me wrong, what we have experienced compared to what has happened to some here we have got off lightly. We still have water, power and sewerage. My home requires a little shoring up to make it safe to live in again. My only complaint is it would be nice, if the earthquake and War Damage people, would answer my letters, or even talk to me, or even give me a time frame of when they might call. At my age, I may never live see these people. It would seem that earthquake commission have bitten off more than they can chew. I’m starting to think, ‘Have we got the right people in charge?’

Anyway in my new life which has enabled me to increase my bonding with Beth and her family and enjoy the day to day living with a family again. A couple weeks ago, the grandson returned from school with a note. Kids today are the same as yesterday, they are always conveying to homes teacher’s notes. Some bring good news, and some bad. This note was neither, but only to advise that the School had an outbreak of head lice. Ugh!

As it turned out later, this was bad news. Schools have been a pool of lice infestation since I was a student, and probably a lot longer. As well back then, we didn’t have the aids to clean up after an attack we have now. There were a lot of ‘Granny’s’ remedies still in use back then, doing not an awful lot of good either, as well being a little rough on the patients. Nit combs, and such things as olive oil, kerosene, Lysol, were the main weapons of attack. My mother was at her wits end when our family all became infected. Because as fast as she cleared up our heads, we just as quickly became reinfected. In desperation, we were all packed off to our grandparents. They soon cleaned us up and rid us of the little ‘besties’.

However on our return home, we immediately became reinfected. We soon discovered that it was our baby sitter who was our families, ‘Typhoid Mary’. My parents both worked nights, so we always had a baby sitter. Having found the culprit we had no need to look for any other pool of infestation. My mother quickly took the young lady under her wing. She came from a very poor home that didn’t run to the luxury of an bathroom. Furthermore they didn’t even have running water inside their house. She later thanked my mother for what she taught her about basic personal hygiene.

However I digress, the other morning as grandson was departing for school. Pausing at the door Beth happened to look a little more closely at his head. To her horror she saw that he had a head full of lice. School was not for him that day. It was off to the medical centre and chemists.

I also looked on the Web for Head Lice, and found that there were pages and pages of cures. Some were strange. Like application of Mayonnaise, about 50 of these but it didn’t mention the brand. Listerine mouth wash, and the old standby, a nit comb. However they returned back from the chemists with about three bottles of different lotions, and a electronic nit comb, that zapped any and every louse it came in contact with. We will have to wait a little longer to find out if it’s as good as it’s accompanying burp said it would be.

Naturally Rhys was going to pass his infection around. So we all had to undergo an humiliating immediate close family inspection. Unfortunately Beth failed her inspection. She was going to attend a work dinner that night, and before departing plastered her hair down with a chemist’s recommendation. On arrival someone complimented her on her coiffure’. She didn’t try to lie to conceal the truth, but told the naked truth.

As a young boy growing up in a Sea Port, with a cousin and my brother, we spent most of our free time together. As well, we were all about the same age. It was good too, as together we were quick, and able to exploit all that was on offer. Especially the activities that interested young boys, that we could and did enjoy. For a start, the Dock area was fenced off, but the gates were always open, so we were free to come and go as we wished. All other wharf areas and the fishing steps were wide open as well, so we could wander anywhere we pleased.

If we could time it right, it was good to be present when ever a ship entered one of the docks. Then we waited until the water was lowered to about only six inches deep, then it was time to move down onto the bottom of the dock, and get after the fish that managed to get themselves trapped when the vessel moved in. Now they were there for the taking. Occasionally we actually caught a sea run salmon, but mullet and red cod were the most common catch. Often even the odd octopus turned up, but back then I didn’t know that you could eat such fare. Many meals that ended up on our table came from this source.

Another activity that we kept a close eye on was the pilot Launch. It was also moored in the dock area. The Skipper Mr Marris, and Engineer Mr Thompson were both happy to give kids a ride, providing we could get the timing right. Whenever they were putting out to sea to meet a ship, placing the pilot on board, or retrieving him from a vessel when it was safely at sea. This exchange took place a few miles off the Harbour entrance. Not always could we fit all our arrangements in with their work day. Goodness we had school to attend, so very often it was a no go, especially when two movements were taking place. Sometimes the launch would often tie up at Aramoana to wait on the second vessel, to save steaming back to Port Chalmers.

We knew as much as any Harbour Board employee about shipping movements. We kept in close touch with the pier Master. Whenever we met up with him, and our wandering brought us in contact. We would quickly catch up with all the projected shipping movements. We also wanted to know about the Tug’s movements, at the time it was based at Port Chalmers too. Captain Scoullay was in command of this vessel, he was generous too, and often allowed us on board his tug for short trips. I was fascinated with the power of this steam tug. When on board I often hung over the scuttles peering down into engine room, which took up half of the below deck space, and the boiler the other half. I was fascinated by the heat that came from below, the smell of hot oil, all projected the latent power of the huge engine. Capt. Scoullay had another attraction too. He owned a beautiful sailing dinghy, and a slip around at ‘Back Beach’. The prevalent winds either seemed to blow up, or down the harbour, the Capt. was fond of sailing across to Portobella and back. Both of these trips were on what is called a ‘broad reach,’ which is the most powerful, and fastest sailing angle for any sail boat. I don’t know if we got taken along on many occasions as ballast or kindness, but regardless, we didn’t need any urging to climb aboard, it was an exciting ride.

Late afternoon when the fishing fleet were returning to unload their catch, we could be found handy to take their lines, and tie them up. Should it have been a good day, there were a lot of ‘freebies’ available. Undersized soles that couldn’t be sold, or thrown back, by the time they were retrieved from the ‘cod end’ of their net, they were already dead. A dozen of these threaded onto a wire and lugged home, were a very welcome and tasty addition to the dinner table.

One of our adventures stands out. Uncle Duncan McKenzie was in Port as the Chief Officer of a Union Company vessel. It initially had called at Port Chalmers, but was to be relocated to Dunedin to load cargo. We had permission to travel with her and wonderfully, we were to dine on board while on route. We departed as soon as the tide was in full flood. When we came to the narrow passage between Goat and Quarantine Islands, the current would have been running about 8 knots. Uncle Duncan’s station was on the forecastle, and as we approached the narrow gap, I said to Duncan. ‘Could you tell the Captain, He is travelling too slow to maintain steerage, and he is making his turn too wide’. ‘Continue, and we will run aground’.’How would you know that?’ Reply, ‘I sail over here often with Capt. Scoullay’ ‘Where we are heading, there is a sand bank right in our path’. ‘I should know, as it also gives us problems at low tide’. Well it happened, and while we waited for the vessel to refloat, we dined on fine linen with silver service, and in resplendent style. No one at the table referred to the sand bank that we were stuck on.

I haven’t mentioned our milk run activity, this took place on weekends. We started out on this caper very early in the mornings, around 5am or 6am. I should say too, that the whole household was woken by our alarm clock, which by the way, we had put into a four gallon kerosene tin to make more noise, and to ensure we woke. This and the clatter we made departing, was something the rest of our family hated with a passion and didn’t enjoy. They let it be known, they wanted an uninterrupted ‘sleep in’.

We were unpaid in this exercise, but we had another agenda. We were all teaching ourselves to drive in their vehicle. Another interest was that we also liked to make a visit to Stephenson & Cook’s moulding shop to watch the molten pour of cast iron, whenever they lit up their blast Furnaces. There was an awful lot for small boys to do in our town. We were very lucky indeed.

What a difference today. For a start, everything is fenced off. Little boys of today don’t enjoy the freedom that we had, and they are the poorer for it. I’m not sure who or what they are protecting? or are they are just endeavouring to keep terrorists out? But I’m sure we would have found a way through.

Gambling has never been a problem with me. Sure I like the odd flutter, as does everyone, but I’m always well aware that the odds are stacked against me right from the start, and if I keep playing, the tables, slots, or horses, will win in the end. It must, as everyone, including the Government is busy skimming. We have lived ten years now in Christchurch, and I’m yet to make my initial inspection of their Casino. We have often intended to make a visit, but to date have never got around to it.

I find too that these establishments are full of sad people. But this doesn’t stop us when on visits to Australia, and joining a Sports Club while over there. Where else can you eat so well, and cheaply? It doesn’t seem to have got through to the average punter, that the bank upon bank of slot machines are not there, solely for their amusement. These slots coupled with liquor sales, are there to subsidise all the clubs other activities. And they do this very nicely. I said earlier, that I find anywhere that there is gambling, for some they become a very unhappy place. You would think with all the hype, they should be happy places. But there you will find many people with a gambling addiction, and it effects them every bit as bad as alcoholism. One of the things that forms my opinion is the sight of people buying pot after pot, all filled with coin, to feed it mindlessly through the slots. They seem to be completely mesmerised by the process, and oblivious to everything else in their surroundings, only machine they are playing commands their attention. These people are completely hooked, and require help.

I can’t stop myself wondering, Why are these people so stupid? And is their families food money, rent, or whatever that’s being poured down into the slot. Don’t they know they can’t possibly win?

The Australian Government has an embryonic bill waiting in the wings to get passed that has sent a shiver of fear down gambling establishment’s spine. Broadly the thrust of the Bill is that the Club or Establishment must declare up front just how much each punter is prepared to and allowed to lose. In the past people have gambled away colossal sums of an employer’s and families money, with no possibility of ever recovering any. So I can see from where the Government is coming from.

So far I have only been speaking about coin machines but the heavy gambler goes for the more traditional and sophisticated games. With these games your money is turned into tokens or chips before the start of any game such as Roulette or Blackjack. Poker too has always been popular, but luck seems to be a more necessary requirement, as well as any skill you can bring to the table. You can’t be too clever gambling, or wining too often either. If you have the ability to ‘card count’ playing Blackjack, the establishment will soon deny you access to their tables. You need to remember their motto. ‘Never give the sucker an even break.’

Our whole society is riddled with games of chance from simple club raffles to lotto probably the largest. Every factory always seems to have someone running ‘Rat’ doubles. These if you don’t know what these are, they are based usually on two premium races on a card. These are set out together on two sides. If there are twelve horses in each race you have 144 choices. Fine if you get in early as the odds are good, but the ‘Book’ usually makes sure the favourites are sold or taken by the time the mug gets a chance to make his pick. The book pays out the same price no matter who wins.

In the services gambling was rife. On a troop ship we came in contact with Americans and cheats. They introduced us to ‘Crap’ which was played with dice. They always seemed to win until we discovered their ‘Honey Dice’ These dice were partiality filled with clear honey and were a great aid to making a point. We retaliated by teaching them to play Crown and Anchor. This time we only played with two dice, so they learnt a lesson too.

I occasionally buy a lotto ticket and I know I have as about the same chance of winning as being struck by lightening. I’m allowed to dream how I would go about spending my windfall.

Years ago many things were very different than they are today. One simple item that quickly jumps to mind and that’s matches. One very popular make of the time, was manufactured at a factory in Dunedin situated at Forbury Corner. They were the Wax Vesta, and their main component was made from a wax taper, and this alone, made them one of a best sellers, particularly with the ‘Roll Your Own Brigade’. As soon as they had rolled their cigarette and lit up, they then waxed the tip of the cigarette with the still burning wax match. By this action it ensured that the tissue paper was waxed, and it meant that it didn’t stick to their lips. I don’t know why they suddenly sold up the business and closed it down, as it was very popular item. Perhaps it was the action of an competitor.

Many smokers rolled their own, mainly because of the high price of ‘tailor made’ so it was cheaper to roll your own. The skill required to roll your own was something most, soon mastered. This technique has now been passed down now to the hemp or marijuana smokers. I’ve never had that much to do with drug smokers, but from what I’ve observed on TV. Marijuana when rolled into a ‘joint’ seems to consist of a very dry loose type of material, and the contents it seems would fall out if the ends were not twisted to contain it. Maybe I’m old fogey, but to the best of my knowledge I have never yet even smelt a joint, or if I have, I’m unable to identify it as such. However I have observed it growing in a neighbours garden.

I have A private opinion too, that when Basil Spence the English Architect responsible for the design of the Bee Hive design for parliament. And when asked to come up with a concept design, he was playing with a box of Bryant and May matches, which features as it’s logo a Bee Hive, and he just happened to look down. Anyway that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The roll your own brigade had a wealth of gadgets produced over time to assist in the production of their cigarettes. During the War when I picked up the smoking habit, I wasn’t much interested in rolling cigarettes as I could buy packs of 20 cigarettes for only 5 cents a pack. The tobacconist shops, a rare item today. but yes we had tobacconist shops back then, and they also sold a wealth of material relating to the habit of smoking. One gadget was like a pen that broke, open to take the loose tobacco and filter if required. The tissue paper was like a sleeve that slid over making a perfect cigarette. Another I remember was like a roller blind. Just perfect if you were even a little inept. One other observation was that the sale of tobacco always seemed to be coupled with Hairdressers, and Barbers. Getting a haircut could be a prolonged affair with the barber stopping the haircutting every so often, to attend to his cigarette sales.

I never mastered the cowboy trick of striking a match on the backside of my jeans. That was until I got to America and discovered that their matches had a special ignition tip. However the height of cowboy achievement, was to roll a cigarette from a bag of Bull Durham which was held in your teeth. While this operation took place mounted on his horse (only 5 Cents a bag, tissues included) all this was carried out with only one hand.

I was born too late to experience Snuff. Possibly some speciality shops still sold it, but I never found it, or tried it. One tobacco habit that has persisted even to this day and that’s chewing tobacco. You won’t get lung cancer from this habit, but I wouldn’t rule out the damage it could do to your mouth and throat. Possibly it’s affiliation with baseball which all the players have adopted.

Chewing tobacco or a wad, was still practised widely when I was a boy, and there was permanent evidence of this when travelling by rail, especially in smoking carriages. Several Brass or copper Spittoons were fitted flush to the floor. Of course there were always spittoons available in Bars and Billiard Rooms.

If there was ever a section of our traffic that has a death wish, for certain it’s our cyclists. I know I have written about this before, and their behaviour has not altered one iota. Now with winter weather and darkness coming earlier, in fact the cyclists too are part of the evening homeward rush. Would you believe, many haven’t even changed their dress mode and are still riding around in dark clothing, head down, bum up. Sometimes even two or three abreast.

They must also have a very powerful lobby too. Where else in the world would you find a council or local authority that builds at great cost a two lane highways running eachway. Then sets out and paints off a metre on so each side, turning it back into a single lane. This absolutely crazy, it must now be the most expensive highway in the world, and it’s not doing what it was designed for.,By default it’s now a dedicated cycle lane for the cyclists to practice their racing and anti social techniques, alongside the highway that cost millions. All this to give the occasional cyclist room to ride to work, hidden amongst these riders there are some who think they all involved in a ‘Southern Tour de France’ race. Note that I said, the occasional cyclist, that’s all that there is ever on the roads at any given time

Also many cyclists do not bother to wear high visibility clothing that’s available, it’s cheap too, all designed to make them highly visible, in the Winters bad and poor lighting conditions. This is all it takes to perhaps save their lives. As I said In the main they tend to wear normal street wear, when dressed in dark clothing it makes these riders ten times as hard to see.. Many carry no lights at all, and those that do, it’s only a token two candle power, flashing a red light under the saddle. High visibility or reflective clothing is a must, if only to give the motorist a sporting chance of spotting them, but this is only worn by the odd cyclist. Many however are more concerned to be seen to be wearing more fashionable clothing

We live on a large steep hill about three to four kilometres top to bottom. My cycling friends treat this too as a race track They hurtle down this road overtaking everything. I would estimate that their speed is around 80KPH. The day is not far off when I will be picking one who has misjudged his speed out of my radiator grill

Rod an Hills live in the Selwyn District, as do Roger and Beth. Being a farming district, most kids from this district are ‘Bus Kids’. A child out Rod’s way was killed by a passing motorist while alighting from a School Bus. His Grandfather then formed a trust to supply every Selwyn kid who rides on a bus, with a high visibility vest. It’s design is not unlike what you see the South American Indians wearing. A poncho I think it’s called. Simply an oblong of high visibility yellow material.. Hole in the middle for the head to pop through. Ties at the side and stripes of reflective material front and back. Normally a kid wouldn’t be seen dead in something like this, but seeing everyone is wearing one it’s not a problem. Granddads are of some use after all.

These days the centre of the city is full of high visibility vests and has been so for six months. Most belong to Civil Defence and initially their main task seemed to be keep people away from their businesses to protect them from getting hurt. In most cases I disagree with this stance. Most if not all people are naturally cautious, and they only want to retrieve vital components of their business. Keeping people out of the CBD may have worked well for Civil Defence, but they failed miserably when it came to keeping out thieves, who it would seem were able to wander at will around the rich pickings that were there to the taking. Civil Defence have moved on and now handed over control to CERA. Perhaps they are gifted with a little more common sense. Certainly they couldn’t be worse.

I wonder if if the area is so unsafe? If this is so why have they over the past months given a stream of celebrities, all decked out in high visibility vests and hard hats, guided tours through the worst hit areas? At the same time keeping the owners of the properties locked out.

Is it any wonder business folk from the CBD are annoyed,