Oamaru to Christchurch, Saturday morning flight. You should really not be tall or broad (or have a fear of small planes):

This Beechcraft 3200 from Air National (btw: not the “Spirit of Waitaki“) seats 17 people. Scary. Nevertheless always an enjoyable ride (if it decides to be there). So now I made it to the home of the Jaffa Auckland. Just found out that World Party will be the opening act for Steely Dan. How spiffing! The views from the Hyatt Regency are brillant as usual:

Always nice to be in urban spaces again, even if it’s the location you dare not to speak about Auckland.

Yesterday evening the best girlfriend and me where in an ecstatic mood: we had booked a rather luxurious little dig in Auckland, had tickets to see Steely Dan tonight and, thanks to the proximity to Oamaru Airport, could work until 45 minutes before departure and still easily catch our plane to Christchurch, which would connect us to a Airbus to Ork City Auckland. The two ladies at the check in where in a splendid mood and confirmed that everything was going swimmingly and punctual. We ventured outside to see the plane land and as expected heard the hum of the two turboprops above us, just to hear them vanish again. ‘Low Cloud’, We’re not talking about fog. We’re talking about clouds. Sigh.

The cheerful baggage handler just shrugged and yelled ‘she’s not coming down, bro’ before dispatching our luggage back to us. So went to have a brillant meal at our favourite restaurant, bought a nice bottle of Merlot and transferred the hotel experience back home (with rabbits thrown in for good measure).

Today we make another attempt at getting to the most ugly urban space outside Port Morseby Auckland by taking the next scheduled flight in 2 hours.

There’s clouds in the sky. Wish us luck.

Good riddance.

Meet Karlchen (f) and Friedhelm (m). These two have been living pretty comfortable lives in their enormous apartment on our lawn for the last two years, but in the neverending quest to make their lives even more exciting, stimulating and fun, we here at Messaged from the Outhouse decided to enlarge their sphere of influence and build a door into their cage, so they can roam freely around the garden. Problem is, that I never had a jigsaw in my hand. Ever. But first the design:

I am sure that Isaia Toeava, All Black 1064, never would have imagined that his likeness will make a great template for my door. Please note the Anthrosophy – inspired edges. Anyway, next up the gig with the jigsaw:

Not quite as intended, but near enough. Next up the exclusive, colour coordinated hinges.

Excellent handywork that. Note the cool Dremel thingie that smoothed the edges and removed all the splinters. Now all it needed was a lock and we could try it out.

A critical customer, but not too unhappy. Although…

Uh Oh. Karlchen ready to charge the hapless cameraman. Maybe it was the colour of the hinges?

The MP for Otago did what felt right: with an interest  in banning potentially harmful substances like BZP she raised the issue of the dangerous drug dihydrogen monoxide that seems to be ubiquitous here in New Zealand (and indeed the world) with the Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton, the minister in charge of New Zealand’s illegal drug policy, after a constituent sent her a letter making her aware of this terrible substance. On the other hand, H2O is a really useful molecule. It keeps people from dying all around the globe. I am sure she agrees that there’s a conflict of interest.

Mrs Jacqui Dean,  according to her website the “quintessential people person”, used to be the presenter of the television programme ‘Play School’ and “studied education at tertiary level”.

Chemistry or Biology must have been lesser priorities. But that’s ok if one knows one’s limitations. Nevertheless then I would employ a parliamentary secretary that can use such a useful knowledge commodity like the ‘intarweb’.

Turns out, even National MPs are human. What an astonishing find.