New Zealand Conservative

When a person's income is $50,000 per year, and their expenditure is $49,000 per year, the result is happiness. When a person's income is $50,000 per year and their expenditure per year is $51,000 the result is misery.

I have all these vouchers, passed down from generations, that are about to expire. Who would have thought the proviso "valid until the end of the Mayan calendar" would ever be a problem? Anyone need a human sacrificial ceremony at half price? Actually, what's worse is loyalty cards. For the most part, they infuriate me. The reason is quite simple. Every time I make a purchase at a shop which receives my regular custom, they ask if I have my loyalty card so that I get the discount I am entitled to. All fine and good until there were so many loyalty cards in my wallet, I could barely get the wallet in my pocket. So I stripped my wallet back to the bare essentials and loyalty cards went in a small purse that lives inside my laptop bag. So now they never seem to be handy when I need them. So I miss out on earning those loyalty rewards, which rather than inspires loyalty, makes me feel the shop has deliberately engineered the system to make it difficult for me to prove ...

If wandering naked through the Alps has appeal, then the news it has been outlawed in Appenzell may cause you some grief. On the other hand for most of us it is probably a mercy. The strange thing about those who desire to flaunt their bodies in public is that for the most part they don't have bodies worth flaunting - indeed the spectacle of late middle aged men waving their all in the breeze tends to alarm most folks. Either that or reduce them to helpless laughter. So on balance the good people of Appenzell Inner Rhodes have probably done themselves and us a favor by enacting this ban.

More and more people use electronic money to pay the bills. I've noticed people using EFTPOS for a $2 purchase. So I was wondering, how much cash do our readers tend to keep in their wallet? Are you worth holding up for a prompt payment, or will you be tortured for your pin number? I'll kick off a survey in the sidebar, but leave comments here if you feel so inclined.

Just looking at the New Zealand Top 40 charts today, and guess which song is at #1? The video after the jump should give you a clue: yes, it's Phil Collins' song In The Air Tonight. Should I be be surprised really that a Cadbury ad on TV featuring a gorilla playing drums can propel a hit song from 1981 back up the charts? I suppose it's happened with other songs that have featured in TV ads. I guess I was just so used to hearing the song that I figured everyone had heard it. I did wonder when The Warehouse started advertising Phil Collins' Greatest Hits on TV; an old album from 1989 and I wondered why. I guess a new generation hadn't heard it. Enjoy the video anyway (I like when he does that little snarl).

It's Queen's Birthday weekend here in New Zealand. Perhaps because the Queen has so many birthdays every year, she probably wont mind this one being taken over by atheists and liberals. And it has been. It's a weekend where the shops are going to be open from dawn to dusk, discounts and specials on offer like some mid year boxing day sale. No Christians to lament that low paid shop assistants are bring forced to work rather than worship. Barely a murmur from the unions, who have already negotiated penalty rates and time in lieu. Not to mention 4 weeks annual leave, not three as it was a few months ago. Nope, if atheists and liberals wanted their own religious holiday, with freedom to worship on the alter of the cash register, with permission to succumb to the temptation of brunch at a cafe, followed by penance of towels and underwear purchased at 30% discount, then surely, Queens Birthday weekend is their day? Full on shopping, and no-one and no-thing standing in peopl...

There's something very off-putting with persevering with watering my plants by hose (no sprinklers allowed) over the long, hot summer only to be attacked by sandflies every time I go down there to chop off the odd zucchini or tomato. Maybe swathes of concrete around each plant will reduce the number of hiding spots for the little critters. Either that, or I'll have to dress in very thick clothing, including gloves and goggles. When I first sprouted the seeds, I imagined I could just nip down to the vege patch to get something to add to dinner, but I find myself not wanting to because of the bites. Three this time. Three too many, if you ask me.

I had a feeling that not keeping the washing machine lid closed was a bad thing. Today my inability to keep the lid closed created pulverised snail over white sheets. Looks like a quick wash to take advantage of the warm sun before dinner time has backfired. I am officially grossed out right now and need a gin.

One of the real downsides of living out of the city, is that when you do want to go into the city to visit your mother on the last day of a long weekend, you realise that you will most likely be stuck in traffic with all the returning holiday-makers, and then you think, just build the highway (Transmission Gully) already! So, long story short is, the kids have been taken to the pool by their dad, and I'm doing more washing. Probably a good thing, anyway. My older son had run out of socks.

I went and bought some shampoo yesterday from the supermarket. There are a lot of shampoos and conditioners and moisturizers and such. These days I get a fright when I look at the list of chemicals on the back of the bottle. What are they? What do they do? And, more to the point, are they safe? So, I had a nosey around the internet. I found a list HERE of common shampoo ingredients and what they are supposed to do. OK, fair enough, but are they safe? Apparently not all of them are. I found this site with a plethora of articles (check out the one about chloroform in your toothpaste). According to this site and others, a lot of these fragrances, shampoos and health products aren't tested because the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety. To check on your favourite cosmetic or fragrance check out the Skin Deep site - enter the name or the company that produces it and check if it's safe or not. I'm not trying to scaremonger, but it's goo...

I watched Casino Royale again the other day, and one of the things that struck me is how Bond stood up when his female acquaintance left the table. I think it happened twice in the movie. Do you think this is old fashioned and that women still like these kinds of things? Do you do them? What kind of response do you get? Or, if you're a woman, do you like this kind of thing? Sorry that I've started posting with these light kind of topics, but I'm all "smacked out" on discussing that bill for now :)