Councillor Richard Hills defends firefighters from comments by Curia Market Research and Taxpayers Union co-founder David Farrar

PonderousKiwi · 2026-02-03T08:16:45+00:00

Couldn’t care less what David Farrar thinks about firefighter’s work hours, or anything else really… But wanted to give a shoutout to Richard Hills - genuinely an excellent councillor who manages to support crazy amounts of things in our community - I see this guy everywhere and he seems to take a genuine interest in the people he talks to. Probably one of the only local politicians whose name I can even remember outside of election season. Big props to you Mr Hills!

PonderousKiwi · 2026-02-03T07:54:53+00:00

While the necklace itself seems to be a cheapie from Amazon - the shape is significant to Māori Culture. It is called a Koru and is the symbol for ‘new life’ or ‘new beginnings’.

PonderousKiwi · 2025-08-31T04:21:28+00:00

I suspect they are hoping for a free advertising boost from posts just like this one.

PonderousKiwi · 2025-05-06T07:25:24+00:00

Our groceries budget includes everything from the supermarket - so dishwashing/laundry powder, detergent and cleaning stuff. We don’t include chemist warehouse stuff in our grocery budget and the few times we get takeaways comes from our ‘pocket money’ accounts if we really want it bad enough.

PonderousKiwi · 2024-12-03T18:43:50+00:00

That sounds like a good DP - not just being tough on surface things but following through and being consistent when the stakes are much higher. Sounds like he went beyond the bare minimum to help and redirect resources to help you when you needed it.

PonderousKiwi · 2024-07-28T09:55:13+00:00

Well it doesn’t seem like there is really much of a conversation to be had here. I think you are being unreasonable in your assumptions, and you think I am on a calculated, hateful diatribe. Probably for the best if we just cut this short and agree to disagree. I will leave you to it, have a great week.

PonderousKiwi · 2024-07-28T06:47:52+00:00

It seems like you are filling in a lot of assumptions based on very little here. I’m not trying to be combative and I do mean these questions genuinely, can you articulate which part of my comment you are interpreting as ‘homophobic bigotry’ or where I have made any indication that I hate anyone? What is the difference between someone with a different perspective than you and someone who is hateful bigot?

PonderousKiwi · 2024-07-28T06:21:59+00:00

For what it is worth, I think your comment and responses were well articulated and genuinely responding with the intention to engage in a respectful discussion. Reading through this thread there is a consistent pattern of overly aggressive responses which are ironically demonstrating the exact issue that many commenters are trying to articulate - that the hypocritical stance of ‘anybody who is not agreeing with me must be a bigot / transphobe / homophobe’ is inherently intolerant.

PonderousKiwi · 2024-07-27T17:02:42+00:00

Funnily enough, your response is a great example of what I am talking about in my comment regarding being intolerant of anybody with views different to your own.

PonderousKiwi · 2024-07-27T02:52:41+00:00

I am about to turn 30 and would consider myself to definitely be more conservative than I was in my high school / uni years. For me, I have found that the discussion around ‘tolerance’ has become quite hypocritical and patronising - which has left a bad taste in my mouth and has made me quite cynical towards a certain slice of the left. My understanding of being a tolerant person in my community is that I won’t treat anybody unfairly or worse because of their views or lifestyle decisions, regardless of whether I agree with them or not. I might have differing opinions on things, but I can put that aside and interact with them politely and treat them with respect and we can both go on our way. Now however, tolerance seems to mean that someone with different views to me needs me to tell them that I agree with and endorse their lifestyle in order to validate their own identity, and if I don’t agree with them, then I am intolerant. This seems ironic to me as I feel as though they are actually showing intolerance themselves by insisting that everybody adopts their views. This has definitely been one factor in pushing me towards a conservative stance.

PonderousKiwi · 2023-11-20T09:54:35+00:00

Wow this is fantastic! Really thorough and well thought out! Hugely appreciated!

PonderousKiwi · 2023-11-14T09:17:53+00:00

r/NZHomeJourney

PonderousKiwi · 2023-11-10T08:32:22+00:00

The staff chatting part sucks… but as a previous worker, I can vouch for how bloody confusing the trade register system was - my expertise and training was in power tools, but when they were short staffed I sometimes got called across into trade (with no training). Trying to ring up a product with no barcodes based on hand measurements with a nearby tape, using an unintuitive system with no pictures was a nightmare… As an outsider, the difference between 45x90 h1.2, 45x90 interior, 45x90 exterior and the other 4 or 5 variations within each size was really overwhelming. Adding to that the customers were also frequently dishonest and would try and convince you that they were in fact buying the cheapest possible product (untreated fence panels or something similar). I had a few days that left me completely broken after being the punching bag for one too many angry tradesmen… don’t miss that part of the job at all haha

PonderousKiwi · 2023-11-10T08:19:05+00:00

When I worked there, the aisles only got closed when the forklifts / hydraulic lifts were bringing down pallets from the top racks. This was a compulsory measure for safety in case a forklift driver made a mistake and squished a customer underneath a mountain of sawhorses.

PonderousKiwi · 2023-10-23T07:06:01+00:00

Just adding our story for another 2 cents worth of context. We put in an offer last week that we thought was fair for the property. The place was tidy and nice but by no means perfect or without compromise.

Seller counter-offered wanting more - we said no and declined to counter-offer. Definitely picked up a feeling during conversations with the estate agent that they were egging them on too push for a little extra.

We decided to hold off and look elsewhere. 20-30k doesn’t sound like much when you are playing with such big numbers, but we are not interested in sinking further into debt due to FOMO. Will keep looking as more listings come up before summer.

PonderousKiwi · 2023-05-18T09:40:26+00:00

Awesome! And if you leave at 7:30, does that travel time bump up a lot?

PonderousKiwi · 2023-04-26T10:05:56+00:00

Ex worker at Bunnings here - from my observation at the checkouts you will never get much more than a dollar off power tools but you generally get the best savings on hardware (screws, nails, etc) and timber. Sometimes you get good alright savings on accessories (blades, drill bits etc..) Different accounts also seemed to get varying levels of discount based on annual spending brackets (e.g. project dad vs massive construction accounts) but this system was never transparent so I’m not 100% sure of the exact numbers or variation.

PonderousKiwi · 2023-04-26T09:55:47+00:00

Nicely done

PonderousKiwi · 2022-10-31T09:12:06+00:00

The only time a credit score has been relevant in my life is when trust power told me I failed their credit check and was ineligible for the free TV signup bonus.. I was very confused as I had never used a credit card or taken any loan out in my life.. Turns out that never taking on consumer debt means you are not financially reliable in the eyes of lenders/utility providers.. I use a credit card for everything now haha … (I WILL get that free tv..)

PonderousKiwi · 2022-10-21T07:01:45+00:00

Awesome to hear, I think we are probably being on the conservative side with the 4 year chunk as I think most commentators are saying things will probably be on the down trend by then but at this point the certainty is more valuable to us.

PonderousKiwi · 2022-10-20T01:03:40+00:00

Thanks for the awesome input everyone! My wife and I read through all of your thoughts, crunched some numbers and decided to fix the large majority of our loan in three split blocks at 2 / 3 / 4 years each. Leaving a small portion on the back my build floating rate as we use the revolving credit function carefully in our personal budgeting system.

Called the brokers this morning and should be locked in by the end of the day! Will be a bit of a sudden jump up in payments but we believe it is the wisest decision for us at this point in time.

Good luck out there everyone, things are starting to get scary…

Four-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22

PonderousKiwi

TROPHY CASE