I’m going to take a moment to be particularly geo/ego-centric and talk about my voting options in the upcoming local body elections in Auckland (9th October).

I live in Hillcrest, North Shore.  This puts me in the North Shore Ward and the Kaipatiki Local Board.  (To find this information for yourself, hit this page (if you live in an ‘a’ house (or ‘ b’ or ‘c’) then you will need to start your address with a number e.g. 2 41 Smith’s Street)).

North Shore Ward

The candidates for the North Shore Ward are (two will be elected):

Steve Ashby (no web presence)
Mary-Anne Benson-Cooper (no web presence)
Joel Cayford (North Shore & ARC Councillor, described below)
Chris Darby (North Shore City Councillor, Standing for ShoreVoice)
Harry Fong (no web presence)
Grant Gillon (Councillor, MP etc, has a strong web presence but a horrible website)
Ann Hartley (ex Mayor, ex Labour MP)
Vivienne Keohane (Councillor. Says “I oppose Grandiose plans for Auckland.  I support another Harbour Crossing…” something comes to mind about cake and eating it.)
Ken McKay (no web presence)
Jan O’Connor (current Councillor, is listed on google as an Andrew Williams supporter…)
Christine Rankin (Is arguably the most famous of these names, but struggles to get her policies up front (in fact I couldn’t find a site for her campaign)
George Wood (ex-Mayor of North Shore)

As I typed that list out, I was surprised by the number of strong candidates.  In fact, one could argue, that it’s a stronger list than the mayoral list.

I’m not really supposed to express any favouritism towards any candidates, but I feel so strongly towards one of them, Joel Cayford that I can’t help it.  In my penultimate year at school (6th form certificate at the time) I had to do a geography project on the topic of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment system.  I was supposed to interview someone, but instead I emailed a list of questions to Joel who was a North Shore City Councillor at the time.  To my surprise he responded in detail and I was able to use the material successfully in my project.  That’s the sort of thing that tells you a lot about a person and he’ll have my vote whenever he wants it in the future.

There are a bunch of other big names in there; Ann Hartley (ex-Labour MP and North Shore Mayor), Christine Rankin and George Wood (another ex North Shore Mayor).

Kaipatiki Local Board

These are the candidates for my local board (eight will be elected):

Alan Spilhaus
Vivienne Keohane
Steve Ashby
Harry Fong
Grant Gillon
Ann Hartley
Martin Lawes
David Thornton
Gary Thornton
Jennifer Yorke
John Gillon
Keith Salmon
Lindsay Waugh
Chris Marshall
Nigel Armstrong
Trevor Courtier
James Doleman
Richard Hills
Barry Holton
Nick Kearney
Chris Waterman

Again, this looks like a strong list, with a bit of spillover from the list above.  Some names certainly jump out at me, but you might have to talk to me offline to get my views on who to vote for.

Posted in Life's happenings, Super City | | No Comments »

I would like to apologise in advance for recording the events of last night which our friends may not want in the public arena, but it has to be recorded for posterity and to be read with mirth in twenty years time.

Last night we had our homegroup over for dinner and ‘hanging out’ (that seems like something teenagers do, not parents with kids…).

These days there are quite a few kids at these sorts of things and so there were three kids in Liv’s bedroom, all under two.  Needless to say, Liv was thrilled (as was Thomas, one of her friends).

Liv’s Parents (us): “Yeah, they were having a party in there.”

Thomas’s Parents: “Yeah, Thomas even took his pants off.”

SILENCE

All: Lols…

And just a word for Thomas, don’t expect me to be laughing in twenty years time.

Posted in Kids, Life's happenings | | 1 Comment »

U2 have announced a second show (as expected) on Friday the 26th of November.  Tickets go on sale at 9am on September the 9th (Thursday).

Follow U2Auckland on twitter for all the latest news about the upcoming U2 concert.

So you’ll all have heard that U2 are coming back to New Zealand’s shores in November for a one off (yeah right) concert.

Since I’m getting quite a few hits to my older posts from people looking for info on this gig, I thought I would list all the stuff we know in one place.

- [First] Concert will be at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium on November 25th
- Tickets will go on sale on the 3rd of September (9am) Update: from Ticketek
- Jay-Z will be the support act for Australia and New Zealand

Ticket Prices:

TICKET LIMIT: 8 tickets per transaction.

Ticket Prices (Updated only names):
P1 Seating: $299.90
P2 Seating: $229.90
P3 Seating: $174.90
P4 Seating: $109.90
P5 Standing: $99.90
P6 RED ZONE: $349.50
P7 Seating: $39.90

Transaction fees apply (up to $18).

More details: Ticketek

Stadium Layout:

Frequently Asked Questions:

What time does the concert start?
4:30pm

Are cameras allowed?
Non-professional equipment is allowed (not sure how they define ‘professional)

Posted in Current Events, Life's happenings, Music | | 1 Comment »

Kiwibank this morning followed all the other leading banks in increasing their floating rates by 0.25% from 5.90% to 6.15%.

They also cut their mid-long term rates with a hefty cut to the two year rate.

I personally subscribe to the philosophy of ‘spreading your eggs’ by having a combination of two fixed periods pieces and a floating revolving credit account.  My first fixed period is due to expire in November so I can see myself picking up a 2 year fixed rate for that amount just to keep that mix of fixed and floating.

Posted in Life's happenings | | No Comments »