Blog Roundup: Budget, weather, insulation, soft toys and birds

I unpacked our headless Wallace and Gromit alarm clock and sat looking at it. I thought that people would probably think we were mad bringing this 12000 miles

A QUICK look at what the blogs have been saying in the last couple of weeks. First up is Slightly Intrepid's look at the history of Sparrows in New Zealand. Many of the UK's birds ended up with NZ populations but the sparrow is the most noticeable, wherever you go.

As with so many of the actions of the colonial acclimatisation societies in New Zealand, the introduction of the house sparrow proved to have far-reaching consequences for the native flora and fauna.

The Dim Post kicked off a heated debate about Kiwi housing and the role of government in forcing owners to better insulate their properties.

Why have people have been living in this house for 80 to 90 years with no insulation and no proper heating? And why is almost every house in New Zealand like that? I guess it seems normal until you spend a few years living overseas and realise that the rest of the developed world spends winter in relative comfort inside insulated, centrally heated homes.

And the weather has not been far from anyone's thoughts these last two weeks. Chez Lee has a great video of the storms hitting the Wellington coast and The Domestic Executive (TDE) has a few photos of the snow covered hills near her home. There's more weather like this to come since, as TDE points out, "Winter does not officially start until 1st June."

Over at The Brunt's Big Move, the ongoing story of a family of Brits moving to NZ, a shipment from the UK has arrived... full of toys. It's situation I understand only too well since my own guitar was left to gather dust back in the UK to make room for piles of Early Learning Centre plastic.

I unpacked our headless "Wallace and Gromit" alarm clock and sat looking at it. I thought that people would probably think we were mad bringing this 12000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

To go with yesterday's Pictorial Factoids on Wellington, the Wellington Daily Photo has a good shot of the BNZ tower which is now the State Insurance Tower and will probably next year be renamed the "To Let" tower.

The BNZ Centre is the second tallest building in Wellington, New Zealand, after the Majestic Centre. It is located at 1 Willis Street. It was the tallest building in New Zealand from 1983 until 1986.

To end with, I can't avoid the NZ budget from yesterday. The political pundits are not so much unimpressed as bored, but if you've a mind it's worth taking a look at the Kiwi Prime Minister's blog - not that he writes it himself (though this ones's a video) I'm sure, but it does remind you that politicians are supposed to be part of the community as well. Something that is far more apparent in NZ than it is in the UK.

Anyway, John Keys on the budget is right here. Don't fall asleep.

Comments

[Domestic Executive]

Was that a typo on the esteemed Capital daily rag? Whichever, totally right!

[William Knight]

I don't know about the Dom Post, but any spotted typos here are gratefully corrected.

[Sarah]

Ha, ha! I read that 'Dim Post' too - thinking - was that a typo or was it conveying another message?!

Hope you're enjoying the past few days of calm weather. We were drunk with happiness at the sight of sun and blue sky yesterday (as were many other people!).

[William Knight]

Thanks, Sarah. Yes the calm, sunny weather was a blessing. And yet, we had snow up here yesterday - we're in Kelburn, just 100m elevation or so.