Just been outside chatting to one of our neighbours. A 10-year girl who has had two spells in hospital in the past week with some mysterious virus. The new Te Wao Nui children’s hospital In Wellington is a great facility for children and their whānau but she’s had enough of being in there; thank you very much.

Updating OpenStreetMap

I feel somewhat pleased with myself, even though it’s for a small thing I have done in the past.

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Morena world.

It’s dawned bright and clear again in Aotearoa today. Blue skies, no clouds and hardly any wind.

And we haven’t been caught out by the change to daylight saving this morning. Kate is off for her Sunday morning walk with her book club chums.

Hope your day is going well.

We’ve just been talking about how much exercise any of us do. Our daughter, who works in a department store, did over 15,000 steps today. I’ve done 651!

Solar savings

Now that I have added the power company tarrifs into our solar power web system, I am even more obsessed with tracking how much electricity we are producing and saving / selling back to Contact.

“Oh, look. We’ve sold them $0.52 of our power today.”

The app also tells us the CO2 reduction equivalent for various activities. So far we have saved the equivalent of 1,230 km of driving in the car. I don’t know how that is calculated, but I feel smug about it.

First time for foods

I’ve been reminiscing lately about the first time I had a particular food.

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Good morning, world. It looks like another beautiful day In Aotearoa. Let’s see what we can do to make the best of it. 💚💚

Ezra Collective - Dance, No One's Watching

Straight off the plates at Bandcamp; the latest from the Ezra Collective.

Dance, No One’s Watching.

Auto-generated description: A lively jazz band performs on stage while a crowd of people dance energetically in a dimly lit venue.
A lively jazz band - the Ezra Collective - performs on stage while a crowd of people dance energetically in a dimly lit venue.

I hope the folks in the States can batten down the hatches to ride out this awful storm heading their way. It looks massive in the satellite photos online.

Peanut butter fan

My wife and I were talking at lunchtime about how much we like our favourite peanut butter; the crunchy Pic’s butter.

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Well, I’m glad I’m feeling much better today than yesterday. More energy, less pain.

We had some dear friends visit for dinner last night, and I couldn’t be my usual shining wit (no Spoonerisms, please). But it was wonderful to see them after almost a year.

Another government attack on Māori culture and training

Te Pāti Māori warns Govt of ‘million Māori’ wrath over $30m cut to Te Ahu o te Reo Māori programme

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More reductions in health spending - new Dunedin hospital faces downgrade

Adding more fuel to the fire on the health funding issues, the government announced today the new Dunedin hospital is under threat of being built in stages or downgraded to the original design.

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Public meeting on future of Kenepuru A&M service, 6 October Mungavin Hall

The future of the after-hours Accident and Medical Clinic at Kenepuru Community Hospital has been under threat for more than a year. When I worked at Te Whatu Ora Capital and Coast last year, it was one of our bigger issues — how to ensure we could keep 24/7 services available for the whole Porirua community; and for people up the Kāpiti Coast who would use it.

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Ministers bullying on CGT doesn't get good outcome

Given the way the government has put the boot into ANZ chief executive Antonia Watson, for having the temerity to say, “…the time has arrived for a capital gains tax,” is it any surprise that non-politicians (business leaders and economists) tend to keep their heads down to avoid being attacked?

Ministers (PM Christopher Luxon, Finance Minister Nicola Willis, ACT leader David Seymour) simply bullying their way out of a debate on ideological grounds is not the way to get a good outcome.

‘Time has arrived’ for a capital gains tax, says ANZ boss Antonia Watson

It’s good to hear Corin Dann asking hard questions of senior Ministers on Morning Report. Today’s interview with Nicola Willis on a capital gains tax was a good example. Long may he keep it up.

My isolation room in Wellington Hospital

My abode for most of the four days I spent in Wellington Hospital this week.

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Kāinga Ora giveth and taketh away

How do these two announcements line up?

Kāinga Ora set to cut about 300 jobs

AND

$48 million later, Kāinga Ora confirms it may stop Arlington development

On the same day. Surely some of the 330 people destined for the chop could be reassigned to the social housing development in Arlington?