When it comes to immigration, New Zealand is strangely torn: on one hand the government is happy about every professional who is plugging the personnel deficits in the public services (doctors, engineers) and welcoming thousands of seasonal farm workers, but an Iranian asylum seeker whose employer and workmates vouchsafe for his excellent work ethic is supposed to be deported. Weird, ay?

Ali Panah left Iran 5 years ago and converted in South Korea to Christianity before applying for asylum here in NZ. After his Asylum was refused he was imprisoned and to protest his deportation he started a hungerstrike 2 months ago he just stopped.

Now, my query: If this guy has been paying his taxes for the benefit of the state while he was working why not just give him a work permit and save the money the legal proceedings and extradition process is going to cost? Even if the whole Christianity stunt is a fake, at least NZ has another hard worker and tax payer.

Problem solved.

Last week I wanted to get out of the fifth circle of hell, er, Germany for 3 days to get some fresh air, so I took the best girlfriend ever to one of my favourite destinations in this world: Aberdaron, a small village on the end of the Llyn peninsul in Wales is one of the most pleasant places to have a nice, quiet weekend. What I didn’t know was: it was still Summer Holidays and it was the Bank Holiday weekend. So, it was neither quiet nor isolated, but full of burned tourists from that land in the east the Welsh hate with deep conviction. I give you a hint: it’s not Germany. Anyway the weather was nevertheless perfect, and after we compensated the fact that all restaurants were full with two pints of lager and a packet of crisps each (well, we DID pass Runcorn earlier) on the beach, we spent the next day hiking on my favourite track.

Next day we drove north and checked out some of the larger dwellings in North Wales, being quite surprised by Bangor and its rather nice university.

Next morning back via the hilariously named John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, with an Easyjet flight leaving at 07:10, made easier thanks to the nice people at the Holiday Inn Express at the Airport.

….and I don’t know why, but Easyjet is so much nicer to fly than Ryanair. Maybe it’s the colour, or maybe because the cabin personnel was actually trained to smile.