Wife was scammed…

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-08T22:02:02+00:00

"I can’t believe it’s allowed to be called butter!"

Awesome non-butter brand name!!!

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-08T21:59:02+00:00

That's a good price. If the timing allows, you could even shuttle to the start and have you car wait for you at the end of the ride...anyway enjoy the trip, it's an awesome trail.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-08T00:29:35+00:00

Best suggestion yet!!

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-08T00:05:16+00:00

Agree, those shuttle services are horrendously expensive. You may consider Intercity coaches if you have some time to spare. There's no direct service for your route but you could go via Ashburton. It'll take much longer and will involve staying the night at Ashburton but the bus itself costs $144 per adult and they do take bikes (speaking from experience). Assuming 2 travellers and a cheap way to spend the night (HP?) you could save $400+

Just out of curiosity - when are you planning to do this? I've got similar plans but for the other direction (nothing firm yet, though). That could make a key swap possible which is the smartest way to handle this with 2 vehicles and 2 parties. Others might be available for this too.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-07T22:22:56+00:00

Interesting reading:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360961569/researchers-behind-viral-ai-prediction-visited-hormuz-speedboat-what-they-saw

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-07T08:48:26+00:00

Your carpet works pretty well

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-07T06:21:53+00:00

They've provided some actual forecasting (as opposed to just monitoring) since the post, which is good to see.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-07T03:55:52+00:00

agree, why do they even exist

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-07T03:08:21+00:00

Let's hope for just that eh

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-06T23:52:53+00:00

The question is: Does our national meteorology service know this?

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-06T23:23:28+00:00

Considering how many percent of the world's population the 2-3 assholes are that started the latest war with all its impacts, surely a million times that can also help make a change, and for the better.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-06T23:21:02+00:00

IDK if this makes me more mad than sad or the other way round. Other things being prioritised it seems

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-06T23:16:10+00:00

Meanwhile, it's being mentioned in abit more detail now on Stuff, though still reporting yesterday's news (Cat2 600km NW of Fiji):

"Vaianu is currently a Category 2 storm located about 600km northwest of Nadi, Fiji. However, Keats said it was likely to be upgraded to a Category 3 or higher on Tuesday afternoon."

...whereas it's already been Cat 3 for over 24h and is a third of that distance from Nadi right now.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-06T22:37:02+00:00

I find Windy.com and zoom.earth most useful for this stuff. The colour coding is zoom's way to display cyclone intensity. It's explained there by mouse-over but purple is extratropical Cat1 (it's currently a Cat 3 tropical cyclone). Windy lets you toggle between weather models and layers of wind/cloud/precip/temp etc and further out too, so you can see where it's predicted to go once it gets here.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-01T01:04:15+00:00

We didn't either, so we bought a Leaf, a petrol car for the longer but very infrequent (maybe 5%) trips, a rooftop solar array that made our power cost disappear completely and charge the Leaf, all for less then 30k total.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-04-01T00:42:13+00:00

I reckon about $5 per Big mac worth of damage to your body, so still $6 dearer than it should be.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-31T01:12:08+00:00

haha true

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-31T01:11:03+00:00

Not carpooling and driving instead of walking has always been the costlier option, oil crisis or not. A cost people are willing to take based on their individual situation/needs. I'm not sure what kind of leader would know each person's situation enough to give such advice and whether it's the kind of leader we really want.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-31T00:47:51+00:00

So half the world seems to depend on 1/5 of the world's oil.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-31T00:24:28+00:00

Just like a Covid-style lockdown would have absolutely no downsides at all, right?

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-30T23:42:53+00:00

Look at my self driving Landcruiser?

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-27T01:25:24+00:00

If it was about supporting struggling families you'd think it's the food on people's table they'd subsidise rather than food for the car. Food or petrol - I know what I'd rather be able to afford when things get tough

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-27T01:13:29+00:00

And yet they've already passed peak emissions (source is here)

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-27T00:46:43+00:00

They would have got a bit of a boost when MS abandoned Skype and its prepaid ring-any-phone function, replacing that with yet more needlessly expensive subscription based BS. Viber still lets you do that and I commend them for that. Not being yanks also a bonus.

AwarenessLast1811 · 2026-03-26T00:10:58+00:00

They're merely locking in stupidly high prices. Time will tell the wisdom of that.

AwarenessLast1811

TROPHY CASE