. . . to prepare for an overnight trip to Wellington.
The first is to think about what you need, pack carefully and leave in plenty of time to chat with an elderly aunt when you drop off some food for her en route to the airport.
I did it the other way this morning, packing in a rush, leaving home later than desirable with just enough time to give my aunt the food, have a very quick catch up on her health and run.
Then I got to Dunedin airport to find the flight was delayed for at least an hour.
It’s not the airline’s fault I was disorganised. But given they get a phone number and email address when you book online, how difficult is it to email or text a message to let intending passengers know when there’s more than a short delay?
Not all the the criticism which took the shine of three successive National governments isjustified but there is no doubt the blue brand of the 1990s was tarnished.
1520 Three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.
Her winning story, The Concentrators, is set in Temuka and she describes it as a coming of age story.
This is Sue’s second writing success this year. She has recently had a story published in the latest volume of Random House’s Best New Zealand Fiction.
Sue is a classmate in the writing course I am doing at Aoraki Polytech. The win is also a good reflection on our tutor, Diane Brown.
The plat began life as one of Rob Muldoon’s Think Big projects and has since contributed billions of dollars to the New Zealand economy.
Bay of Plenty Fertiliser, which grew to become the Ballance national fertiliser co-operative, has invested heavily to achieve this output after buying it in 1992 – it had previously been owned by Petrocorp and Fletchers.
In Ballance’s hands the plant has become a significant income stream, a role model for infrastructure spending.
It underwent a major expansion soon after the takeover, boosting production by 30 percent on design, and on a regular basis since then has benefited from a substantial maintenance and capital programme.
In the most recent plant upgrade last November, the co-operative invested $21 million over six weeks to bring the plant up to tip-top condition. It runs 24/7 between the now three-yearly scheduled shutdowns.
While the first million tonnes took 7.5 years to produce, Ballance’s investment has lifted production to the extent that the fifth million tonnes took just 4 years.
Muldoon envisaged the plant would be able to help New Zealand’s balance of payments through exports,but internal demand from New Zealand farmers now absorbs all the plant can produce.
Some early production was exported, but the plant now produces just 40 percent of New Zealand’s total requirements – 260,000 tonnes a year. A further 330,000 tonnes or so is imported.
You’d think that someone who’s been an MP for as long as Jim Anderton would understand the system. But his response to questions from Paul Holmes on Q&A yesterday shows he doesn’t understand the difference between an electorate office and a party leader’s office:
PAUL: . . . The only reason the Progressives still exists, or are going to continue to exist can I suggest to you is that the public pays the party $164,000 of taxpayers money for the Party expenses and you get $13,000 more for being the leader. Isn’t that the only reason for the continuation of the Progressives?
JIM: No, you’re absolutely wrong Paul. The Government or the Parliamentary Services Commission pays no money for the Party, the Progressives pay their own money, and the money that’s paid to me as an Electorate MP and as Leader of the Progressives in parliament is for Parliamentary purposes, that’s for the work that I do, I have 1500 constituents coming through my electorate office each year and we help them sometimes in matters of life and death – and it’s a privilege to do so – and that’s why my electorate office is funded and why my parliamentary office is funded.
His electorate office is funded so he can help his constituents. The party is funded so it can help him and his party which is so close to Labour it makes no difference.
PAUL: But $164,000 for the Progressive Party as long as the Progressive Party continues. That’s the only reason you’re continuing surely?
JIM: That’s rubbish. I continue because people in Sydenham have voted for me for 25 years, I probably hold the Guinness Book of Records for representing the largest number of parties in the same electorate, increasing my majorities most of the time. The people of Sydenham have the right to say that and that’s what they’ve been saying.
He’s got that wrong too. Kiwiblog shows he has increased his majority only once:
The people of Sydenham have the right to say if he’s in parliament or not but the rest of us shouldn’t have to pay extra for him to lead what is in effect a one-man vanity vehicle.
This is more evidence that the 500 members a party needs before it can register is far too few.
1. Which countries formed the South East Asia Treaty Organisation?
2. Who said I suffer fools gladly because I am one of them?
3. Who wrote Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less?
4. What is borborygmi?
5. Which is Europe’s only Budhist replublic? (Honesty requires I give the credit for this to Andrei from NZ Conservative who left this question for me. I had to look up the answer).
UPDATE: Maybe Gravedodger was right and the degree of diffiuclty in yesterday’s quiz was higher because no-one got all the answers correct.
However, Samo gets an electronic bunch of daffodils with a score of 3 8/9 (the missing 1/9 was Bangladesh) plus another 1/2 for a good attempt at Kalmykia.
Scoring after that gets complicated because dealing in ninths for question 1 and halves for attempts at others added to the quandry of whether I take off anything for wrong answers defies me.
Let’s just give an electronic sprig of daphne to Ray, Gravedodger, Lilacsigil and Paul Tremewan who made honorable, and sometimes creative, attempts.
A contemporary illustration of Thespis from The Illustrated London News. 
Arg-é Bam, before the 2003 earthquake.
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