There must be a different metric system on our roads these days

The new metric system: I’m following the car in front at the correct distance. Cf. the drivers in the other lanes. Now that I live in the northern suburbs, I have to go on the motorway far more frequently. It’s become apparent that New Zealand has had a complete change of measurement system and I […]

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The big move, after 36 years

For reasons unknown to me, May seems to be a quiet month for my blogging. I looked back to 2010 and usually, this is the month I blog less. Maybe it’s the change in seasons, or I find other things to occupy my time.    This year, it’s been far more eventful, as on the […]

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After driving automatic and manual trucks, the manual still wins for me

I rented a couple of trucks over the last few days, and I’m surprised that automatics have taken such a hold in this country.    I’ve written about my preference for manuals elsewhere, and for a regular car, I would consider one with a sequential gearbox. We’re in an era now where the advantages of […]

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The Singer of desktop PCs

I never planned to spend quite this much on computers in the first two months of the year.    The laptop was in dire need of an upgrade, so I had budgeted for it. After getting it, I was impressed, but thought that the desktop PC, which dates from 2012 and upgraded with a Crucial […]

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Capturing a buyer: some advice to Renault New Zealand

On this Pope Gregory Arbitrary Calendar Start Day, I wrote to a contact of mine at Renault New Zealand.    In mid-2018, I joked that, since Renault had no dealers in Wellington (never mind what’s listed on their website—the only people who can see a dealer there are psychic mediums), I could sell them out […]

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A chain of events that led to my Dad being effectively starved today

Above: Dad and I wait for his psychogeriatric ‘re-evaluation’ on November 30, or, treading a path of bullshit. Even in the rest home, Dad remained very protective of the other residents, so much so that there was an incident involving a day care resident in late November that saw the home insist that he be […]

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It takes 10 years (and sometimes 50) for the establishment to wake up

Given the topic of this post, some of you will know exactly why this still, from the 1978 Steve McQueen movie An Enemy of the People, is relevant. If you don’t know, head here.   Admittedly, I was getting far more hits on this blog when I was exposing Facebook and Google for their misdeeds. […]

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Autocade hits 14,000,000 page views, and we start a YouTube channel

Above: Behind the scenes of the Škoda Karoq road test for Autocade. I hadn’t kept track of Autocade’s statistics for a while, and was pleasantly surprised to see it had crossed 14,000,000 page views (in fact, it’s on 14,140,072 at the time of writing). Using some basic mathematics, and assuming it hit 13,000,000 on May […]

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Eighty-three today with Alzheimer’s: a caregiver’s viewpoint

Above: Dementia Wellington’s support has been invaluable. Today my father turned 83.    It’s a tough life that began during the Sino–Japanese War, with his father being away in the army, and his mother and grandmother were left to raise the family on their land in Taishan, China.    In 1949, the Communists seized the […]

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