Australian 'sour grapes' at the success of our white wines.

Australians love to take the piss out of New Zealand. Well it seems that they have gone one step further in that they are saying our New Zealand white wines are just that---piss. What they are failing to admit is that many NZ white wines are outselling the local product. They say that our wines are over rated and that they are nothing more than MacDonald’s wines.

What a hoot. Those narrow minded xenophobic wine makers and merchants are just pissed off (yes same words again) that NZ is a maker of very good wines. My advice---if you can’t hack the heat of the big world of wine making, then get the heck out of the winery.

Come-on mates. Get a sense of balance; not with the wines, cause you already have that. You make great wines; reds and whites. I love to buy your wine but I am not going to go boo hoo, because you outsell us in the world markets. Let the buyers decide, or are you going to do to us what you did re our wonderful apples. I think the heat has got to some of those who make such statements about our beautiful wines. Better still--- come over and sample them in their exotic settings. We shall make you most welcome. Let’s face it----- with the fires and the floods, you all need a break.

Big fish for Melita Dean!-----nice one mate

Do you have a ‘bucket list?’ Have you achieved many of the wishes on it? I have a few, but none of them match up to the ‘achievement ‘of a dear colleague of mine. She has often talked about the ‘big fish;’ I mean really big, not some little plate sized offering. She means Marlin and a big one at that.

Melita has been trying for quite a few years and over that time, I wished her luck, but she always came back empty handed, but not dispirited. Well this past weekend, she hit the Jackpot. Melita hooked a big Marlin, just off the coast from Tairua (not far from Whitianga) on New Zealand’s beautiful Coromandel Peninsula. She had to use a right handed ‘thingumajig’ (see, I know stuff-all about such things) but she’s left-handed. Don’t be surprised if I got that round the wrong way.

For the next hour, Melita fought that fish. It stretched out to 1000 metres and she gradually pulled it in. BY the time she had landed it (without her partner assisting) she and the fish were beat, stuffed and bits in-between------ Then came decision time. Was it to be ‘tag and release’ or take it home? The marlin was so exhausted that she made the decision t to keep it. A butcher from the township will smoke it and we shall all receive the bounty as a result.

Melita’s efforts put her right ‘up there,’ for female big game ‘fisher people’ in NZ. Good one Melita. I shall look at you with entirely different eyes from now on!  Oh, by the way---the Marlin came in at 93 Kilos.

GO MELITA

MELITA AND PROUD HUBBY!

Just wave your card and spend up large--well, not quite.

The very thought of being able to wave my credit card at a terminal and be able to spend up to NZ$80 at any one time is a bit scary; not because I think that I will incur even more debt, but because if my credit card is lot and then picked up by some unsavoury character, I could be out of pocket. Of course my credit card has some sort of insurance on it and as long as I let the company know, I should be fine.

I guess what I am feeling is the old ‘future shock’ syndrome that I well remember teaching kids about in the 1970’s. Maybe I am a belated victim of this terrible affliction; one that will assail me more as I get closer to even more numerous senior moments. The idea that one just needs to wave at a terminal fills me with mistrust.

How can we have confidence in a system that seems so easy to rip off; at least on the surface? If a low-life acquires our cards, they could have some real fun if they acted quickly. I suppose that has happened with the present system too but this development feels like yet another step for the criminally minded entrepreneurs.

One must assume that the banks have done the sums and have an understanding that they will still make huge profits. I am not sure what it is that they know that leads them to this new move, but perhaps the gains for them are more than any expected ‘activity’ that is dishonest. I think I shall make the adjustment and things will go on as normal. One good thing is that I won’t have to line up behind someone even older than me who is trying to remember their pin number; that is after they have managed to find their card in the first place. No doubt the ever improving cameras will be ‘protecting’ us from the worst excesses of these parasites who love to rip us all off.