Alden Bates' Weblog

The liquor store down the road from work recently renamed itself from "The Mill" to "liquor.co". Looks like whoever put up the sign on the side of their building may have been sampling their wares beforehand:

I hadn't noticed before, but they put the "u" up backwards...

I had to take my real camera today, because:

OK, I get they're happy about winning a people's choice award, but I dunno really if using the ol' hammer and sickle along with hordes of identical red-and-black clad "workers" is all that appropriate. What's next? The Burger Führer?

... the footpath is for people, not cars.

There was about 6 inches of clearance each side. What a thoughtful and considerate parking job. You'd expect better from the AA really...

The River Road runs parallel to the Hutt River and bypasses Upper Hutt; I use it to drive to work every day. About 1/3 of the way up the River Road it crosses the river which requires a bridge (oddly enough). On either side of the bridge there are two fairly sharp bends which require traffic to slow to about 75kph and, as you might expect, there's been more than one accident there.

A couple of months back the city councilTransit NZ resealed one of the corners, and put a couple of "slippery when wet" signs up. So the resealing has acutally made the road surface more dangerous than it was before? WTF? Shouldn't they be trying to improve the road? Where is the logic?!

I bought a new phone from Bond and Bond on the weekend. It has a camera, WAP, polyphonic ring tones, etc, etc, and so what better way to celebrate than by posting some blurry phonecam pictures of construction?!

Lower Hutt Mitre 10 Mega, by Melling Bridge. They just started recently.

Pak n Save, which I photographed before, and which is opening the middle of next week.

Not hugely great picturewise, but OK for taking random photos of silly things.

I noticed my local Subway (Maybe I should make a category... tetrap.local.subway) has signs up proclaiming "New Satay Chicken". New? But they've had satay chicken as long as I've been going there! Asking about it illicited an odd look and "The satay chicken is new" so perhaps they've just changed the recipe?

Slightly more alarming is the "For a limited time" phrase. Does that mean satay chicken will disappear from the menu once the limited time is up? Oh noes!

The Lower Hutt Warehouse reopened in its location in the Westfield Queensgate mall today... I foolishly tried to shop there and only just escaped with my life!

Metaphorically speaking, of course. The place was packed! Sadly they didn't have the item I was after (A Megadeth CD my brother wants for Christmas).

I went into Burger King today (shush, I walked around town for 30 minutes first) to get lunch, and noticed they had a "Caution, Wet floor" sign out, with a neat translation in Spanish underneath the English text. That would make perfect sense in the US, where the nearest Spanish-speaking country is Mexico, but not really in New Zealand, where the nearest Spanish-speaking country is, uh, Mexico (or more likely a South American country). I guess it's cheaper just to print off one design.

Now I'm sure I noticed this before and had a conversation with someone online about it, but my memory sucks, so I don't remember.

And massacring the English language today:

Ow. Their draw's are a huge drawer card.

I don't usually post about political stuff, but since there's an impending general election, and also a leader's debate on TV1 tonight, I thought I'd review what I can remember about each of New Zealand's political parties and their election promises...

Labour: Currently in Government - have done well barring a few scandals such as PM Helen Clark claiming not to be able to tell when the car she's in is travelling at 150 kph. Promising tax cuts for some low earners (doesn't affect me) but not going to reduce the petrol tax because "it would encourage people to use more petrol". Better stop work on Auckland's motorway then, because it will encourage people to drive faster.

National: the main opposition, lead by Don Brash. Promises tax cuts for everyone, though the Labour party disputes this is affordable. Wants to abolish the Maori seats, and close of Treaty of Waitangi claims fairly soon. Has been accused by the Labour party of having the aid of the US Republican party. Also most recently linked to a cult.

Smaller parties:

The Greens: the environmentalist vote. Would have coalition with Labour next time, probably. Would probably get more votes if Nandor tidied himself up a bit.

Progressives: lead by Jim Anderton. Currently in a coalition government with Labour. Have a lower public profile than men's netball.

ACT: lead by Rodney Hide. Would form a coalition with National after the election and believes National needs them to form a government, but currently aren't polling too well.

NZ First: lead by Winston Peters. Likely to have the most seats of the minor parties next time, but Winston says he's not going to form a coalition with anyone.

United Future: lead by Peter Dunne. Also likely to shack up with National next time.

Maori Party: lead by Tariana Turia. Focuses on Maori issues, and would like to form a coalition with Labour, but Helen Clark isn't keen.

So, not that much then.