Another blast from the past

Quite literally.

The Right Bag

The revolver story

Our very own Darwin Awards recipient.

Seatbelt subterfuge kills driver - News - Dominion Post

Wellington

This was part of a series of posts for the Wellingtonista.

SunnyO: Stand the hell back, I'm gonna post it!

Healthy diets

SunnyO: Test the Nation

'That could turn a gay man straight!'

Did you catch the first episode of this year's Hayley Holt Show? I did. And appropriately enough, I have nothing intelligent to say about it.

But giving Hayley a good run in the hot blonde dancer stakes is Nerida Jantti (I don't get this - she used to be Nerida Lister, then shacked up & bred with Shane Cortese... so now somehow she's Nerida Jantti?). Have you noticed her pointy ears? She's got this whole elf thing (if elves dressed like strippers) going on. I like it.

As for the Slebs themselves... here's where google becomes my enemy... how come Geeling Ng looks so old?

And as Jane Bowron pointed out in a piece I can't find online, now the dancers are more famous than the Slebs.

Anyway... no politicians this year. Pity. And somehow they made Miriama Smith look like a front row forward wearing a cocktail dress. How do they do that?

'That could turn a gay man straight!' | DANCING WITH THE STARS | TV ONE | tvnz.co.nz

Ironically named "Lifestyle Village" proposed near SunnyO

SunnyO is in a zone designated "Rural". However, it is quite near to residential land & State Highway 1.

A local developer has applied for consent to take 3.6 hectares of Otaki Maori Racing Club land & turn it into 56 "lifetyle" units (plus one manager's residence), to be sold to people over 50 years old (i'm not quite sure about the reasoning for this).

3.6 Ha & 57 units? Do the math. Nice "lifestyle".

The developer, Mr R Ker, and his surveyor, Mark Edgar of Cuttriss Consultants insist that the land is residential (smoke & mirrors - it is zoned Rural & in any case, their proposal flouts residential rules!) & they believe they should be able to inflict 57 ticky tacky units on a shoebox of land, in a rural cul de sac which currently serves olive plantations, a racecourse, a stud farm & SunnyO.

Radio New Zealand National - Checkpoint

Mr Ker can be heard in the clip above insisting that local residents (such as me) are over reacting or some such, given (repeat the lie often enough...) the land is residential.

Mr Ker, it is not, and you know it, and locals do not want high density residential developments on the front doorstep of what is clearly, a country lane.

Cripes, we're not even on town water! No-one in the street is. And I don't fancy the run off from 56 ticky tacky units (and one manager's residence) polluting my drinking water!

The Kapiti Coast District Council began promisingly enough, by criticising the proposal for attempting to set a precedent of annexing productive arable rural land for dreadful subdivisions. But they seem to be backing down, implying tacit approval for the project should certtain information be supplied.

It should be turned down flat. The land will probably be needed for growing biofuel in a few years. Or food.

But anyway, as Peter Campbell said (neighbour & first person interviewed on checkpoint) in his submission, this proposal fails to meet any of the rules governing rural land use (and most rules governing residential land use), why are we wasting our time with it?

The truth hurts.

SunnyO: O!: True Wellywood Story - Hairy Maclary

Llew vs Beast

Quite enjoying this :)

SunnyO: It's a rat-trap baby...

When we had sheep.

SunnyO: The Sheep - just slightly less than 2 years ago

Dog stuff.

SunnyO: Magpie Lawn

Teh clip show continues...

SunnyO: A big black dog moment.

SunnyO: October 02

I'm going to post this one too, purely because it explains the mixed tense throughout these posts (lazy editing).

SunnyO: October 02

Sunny O Begins

Bit busy at the moment with various bits & pieces, so let's take a trip down memory lane & repost some notable SunnyO moments from the past!

Starting with my second post ever (the first wasn't very consequential).

How things have changed...

SunnyO: Project Sunny O

Great Mysteries of Our Time #69

Why is Tony's Tyre Service fronted by a guy called Steve?

Wheel Alignment New Zealand, Mag Wheels New Zealand : About Us

Mislaid the camera...

Which is by way of an apology for no photos to post.

We were within a few minutes of seeing the twister that came from Kapiti Island to Raumati, even crossing State Highway 1!! We wondered what was causing the hold up.

And man, if we'd seen it I'd have been mightily miffed that I've mislaid the camera.

In other news, we also missed the tragic mid air collison between a chopper & a light plane. It all happened on K Coast this weekend.

I spent the weekend mowing & digging. As is my lot it seems sometimes. The orchard got mowed & sprayed for weeds - that took half a day! Nuts are already beginning to drop from some of the trees, harvest isn't until July at the earliest.

I also dug up two olive trees that had been planted in a bad spot & replaced them with two weeping pears. Mrs Llew turned the ground underneath these trees from patchy lawn to lily beds, bordered with boxed hedge. (Less to mow :)

I've also been watching a large branch that started to fall from a very tall tree (sounded like machine gun fire) & now hangs over the sleepout & compost bins. One day soon I believe I will find about 2 years worth of firewood sitting on or near the compost. It's a bit high up to think about helping it along.

And I tested my new, improved orchard hook. It looks like a bought one. Except I don't believe anyone makes them to sell. Basically, it's a telescopic pole which extends from 2.5 to 5 metres. I got the telescoping pipes from Ulrich Aluminium, and drilled holes at intervals so that I can insert a pin to hold it in place. I drilled far too many holes at first until I decided it only needs to extend to 2 or three lengths, not dozens of lengths at several centimetres' intervals. So I wound duct tape around my extra holes & it looks like a purpose made handle!

I'd have taken a photo.

And the chestnut & apple trees, including those of the crab variety are groaning under the weight of fruit - I don't think I've ever seen such big chestnuts & they're nowhere near ripe yet. (And as I noted to Mrs Llew yesterday, the chestnut tree itself is a young 'un at 10 metres tall... we can expect it to at least triple in size as the years pass. (then I'll need a 30 metre telescoping orchard hook).

But most impressive of all was the small punnet of home grown strawberries we ate on Saturday. Best of the season. And... I snipped heaps of runners off them & planted them out (some had taken root all by themselves & I just snipped their lifelines). Lots & lots of new, free strawberry plants.

What's newsworthy about this?

Precious Porsche bent out of shape - Stuff.co.nz

How many similar accidents take place every day? Is it just because this is a porsche & we can have a chortle at the hapless "rich pricks" who might own & drive one?

OK, a couple of years ago some guy took a porsche for a spin & drove it over some rocks into the sea near Shelly Bay - that WAS amusing, because the driver wasn't the owner of the car & somehow, (don't ask me why) that made it funny.

But I dunno about this one, go see a porsche with a dent in the front wing, ha ha!! No, that doesn't really do it for me.

Summer snaps

These were taken at the Annual Waikawa Beach Boat Day. It's a lovely (if somewhat god foresaken in parts) spot. Each year, since time began (at least my mid 30 something nephew remembers taking part in this more than 25 years ago), the residents of the sleepy little beach community at Waikawa gather at the river mouth & hold a series of races. Very serious some of them are too. Must have been a couple of thousand people there, a PA system set up for the race officials, a sausage sizzle, and hundreds of picnickers. It was good fun.