“Are you in the Christmas mood yet?” the bloke serving me at the supermarket yesterday asked.
“Well, I pulled my first cracker last night,” I said before adding that Prime Minister John Key had been pulling the other end.
“How come?” the bloke’s son who was helping his father, asked.
I explained that I’d been invited, as the National Party’s Southern Regional chair, to attend the Canterbury Westland Region’s Christmas Party. The crackers had been on the tables, the PM had picked one up and invited me to pull the other end.
I did and an appropriately blue hat fell out.
“Cool,” the son replied.
It was, I agreed, a cracker of a night.
Friends who had come with us went home to a phone call from their son who is working in London. When told they’d just met the P.M. and shared a table with a Cabinet Minister, he laughed and said, only in New Zealand could that happen so easily.
Homepaddock 
You shameless name-dropper 😉
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This will get Robert Guyton going. Surprised he has not responded earlier- perhaps he is off kissing a tree or two?
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“You shameless name-dropper ”
Guilty as charged – but only the very best names 🙂
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Lost for words Richard.
Lost for words.
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Dutifully impressed, Rg.
Perhaps ’tis the season.
Can you keep it up for 3 more weeks?
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Robert,
As the Scottish would say:
Yer bum’s oot the windae – You’re talking rubbish.–as always.
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Fred – done.
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HP.
Something that I came across the other day..
Please pass onto JK. as IMNSHO we are on the same track as Ireland ( substitute Finance Companies for the German ).
BAILING OUT THE IRISH
It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers’ Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub. The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him “services” on credit. The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the bailout package works.
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Adam – versions of that story have been around for years and there is a lot of truth in it.
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I have been around almost as many years as that story HP.
It is the Banks that are producing ” The Money “..
And we are still bailing them out of their Cock ups !!..
” When will they ever learn ” Comes to mind..
Grist for Communnists …. ( spelling ).
Why is JK and his government giving Guarantees ??…
Following the Irish answer ??..
Time for JK and his party to wake up and deal to the problem…
30 Months interest free and nothing to pay for 15 months…
Debt… Debt.. Debt…
I am sure that you can remember that one had to have a deposit !!.. Usually a minimum of 10%..
No Money.. No Deal..
I really do treble HP. at the thought of what is over the horizon..
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Tremble..
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IS the government still giving guarantees Adam? It has to honour those already given but I didn’t think any new ones were being approved.
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