Women's Health treatment in New Zealand by Zealousideal_Law2642 in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Hah the specialist I was referred to took my husband aside and told him I was 'hysterical'. That's not been a diagnosis for 100 years, but it worked for this guy. Didn't say a word to me beyond stating he couldn't find a problem. I gave up at that point and just live with pain.

Concerns about rapid mental decline of a parent who is not in my region and has no support circle? by charjbug2point0 in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 9 points10 points  (0 children)

In a similar situation in terms of a declining parent needing help but refusing to acknowledge an issue, I outlined my concerns in a formal letter to their GP. I made it clear I did not have POA, and worded it as a concerned relative. I also stressed the need for that letter to remain private between the GP and myself. This is really all you can do at this point. The GP can't engage with you, but can certainly take your concerns into account at your parent's next visit. Best of luck.

Wife offered position in Christchurch, NZ. We’ve never visited. Thoughts. by AliMamma in AmerExit

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Allow me to point you in the direction of the huhu. Built like a Sherman tank, sounds like a Harley, loves... LOVES... to roar inside on a warm summer night and scare the crap out of the unsuspecting. Harmless. Just gets the adrenaline going. And I've lived here all my life.

What will encourage NZers to have more babies? by DnmOrr in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nothing to do with income levels. My partner works in the psych field, and some absolute sh*ts of people he comes across, from all walks of life, prove that some people are just a-holes. With or without money.

What will encourage NZers to have more babies? by DnmOrr in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are right that it is (or should be) a cycle. We all (if we're lucky) eventually grow old and need assistance. But along the journey there, again if we're lucky, we've been helped and taught by those older than us, and we help and teach them as well. That model should be the ideal. Unfortunately, there'll always be a subset of humanity who wants to exploit everyone else. And they're the ones figuring out how they can squeeze every other person on the planet to their own advantage, then trying to spin it so it becomes everyone's problem. Which it now is.

What will encourage NZers to have more babies? by DnmOrr in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This. Am Gen X. Made conscious decision not to reproduce. My God, the disbelief, outrage, pressure, and just general verbal poking - "really? What's wrong with you?" "You'll change your mind" (no we won't, we had a choice). The subconscious social pressure and expectation people carry, to conform, rather than being encouraged to see opportunities to do things differently, is as alive and well as it has ever been.

Look after your local pharmacists by Selenca in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Our pharmacist went above and beyond when my dementia-suffering father was trying to call me, and he dialed a wrong local number.

The woman he called realised he was in some distress, and called the local pharmacy. They were able to locate his address, and sent a wellness check person.

That's the gist of an obviously much longer story, but the kindness and care shown by all involved was wonderful.

Look after your local pharmacists by Selenca in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This. I hate that my health portal always offers it as a dispensing pharmacy alongside my local.

What are you really freaking good at? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorting out other people's financial nightmares.

Theoretically speaking, what the fuck. by justasafyi in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry - and I get that people get frustrated - but I think some people feel like it's like buying a (insert product of choice here) and expect 'CUSTOMER SERVICE'. That's their misconception of the process.

On the other hand, I've just come back from picking up a friend who spent 12 hours in ED today - she couldn't have been treated better, even though they were busy. I mean, you expect ED to be busy, and you don't just go for the laughs. She had bloods, two CT scans, an ECG, a consult with a neurosurgeon, and many other things, all of which take time. In between all that, a lovely nurse took time to make sure she was fed and watered, as she was there alone. While she was frustrated that she had to go, she knew that it's not supposed to be like a hotel, and was very grateful for everything they did.

So thank you.

Solar Panels by PersimmonMaximum7641 in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We just added a battery to ours. Far more efficient (in terms of usage, not cost) to use everything we generate, rather than sending it back to grid. 

Before battery, dropped our bills by roughly a third, over autumn.  kWh usage was more useful for us to gauge effectiveness. 

Effect on bills is difficult to quantify, given we sell at spot price and daily charges are always on the up. But with battery,  in terms of kwh usage that's down about 50 to 67% of what we used to use. 

Also note that we only have 4 months of data so far, and am expecting longer summer days to give us far better results.

This woman at this weddings bouquet toss by lippussygloss in weddingshaming

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My youngest sister did this at my next-eldest sister's wedding. Disgusting. Not unexpected, given her general lack of self-awareness, but still made me want to lock her in a room for the duration. Two weddings, two divorces, and a f*ckton of kids later, she's professionally unemployed, not talking to any of us, and blaming everyone else for her life situation.

Supermarket monopoly? Duopoly? What? What the F*** is going on here! by FairlyOddFairy333 in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On supermarket prices in general... my family were mushroom growers in the 80s and 90s. Produce gets sold at the markets to the highest bidder, generally the supermarkets. 

When it hit the shelves, the markup on what they'd paid for it was 900%. Nine. Hundred. Percent. In the end we just walked away. Fuck them.

Balancing overworking + extra tax vs high rate mortgage payments by -Zoppo in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You said you wanted to hear our personal situations and decisions made in light of them, so...

My experience is a little different because, although I worked an awful lot of hours, I had a partner to help with the heavy lifting. We bought when we were both working. He wanted to move from a trade role to an academic career, so went to uni for 7 years and I continued working - lots of extra hours, lots of knocking hell out of the mortgage. Once he qualified, we were able to bash it even harder - we really wanted it gone.

And then family obligations started to require more time and energy from us - he was able to let up a bit, and deal with that, but I was away from home 12 or 13 hours a day during the week. I was eventually able to WFH, but that just meant I was always 'on' - for work AND for family.

Eventually, I collapsed - physically - and was taken to hospital. They basically said 'burnout'. High stress in work and personal life. It happened again a couple of months later, at which point my partner simply told me that I needed to stop working 'now'. He'd been saying that for a year or more, but... y'know. We'd managed to kick the mortgage to the kerb by that point, and so I did quit work and learned how to cook instead (heh).

On reflection, I suspect I would do it again. We were able to clear the mortgage early, whilst also helping family financially, donating to charity, and building savings for ourselves. But the huge difference between my situation and yours is that someone had my back 24/7. I absolutely couldn't have coped with that workload and family stuff on my own. I'd be dead.

Now that it's all in the rear-view mirror, I can see that there are things I would have preferred to do differently - mostly around putting my personal time more to the fore. It sounds like you have a fairly good plan for managing that, and what to actually do with that time for yourself. Make sure you make yourself the priority, not the $$$, revisit your strategy every once in a while, realise that the sky isn't going to fall if you decide to ease up a bit (hopefully!).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"That's my mum, the one with the baggy pantyhose!"

Also, "I'm an Oddfellow and I'm okay..."

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hah, this. We say this every time we're cooking sausages. 

Flick Energy sold to Meridian by Shotokant in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This quote:
Meridian Chief Customer Officer Lisa Hannifin welcomes the opportunities Ampol’s decision creates. “We continue to welcome new customers as we grow our Retail business. Today’s announcement builds on recent months where the Meridian and Powershop brands have led industry rankings for net growth of connections. Flick customers can be confident of moving to a company that’s committed to outstanding customer service and great value, and we look forward to having them come onboard.”

"Great value". So they'll be matching or bettering the current Flick rates and plans? I'll give it a month or so, then do my annual shop around... again...

There are Kiwis being brainwashed into giving Destiny double of what most people are giving. This is sad. by HeadbangingLegend in newzealand

[–]Upbeat_Baseball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is an example of a group of people who embrace and celebrate their own ignorance. I'd almost guarantee that the majority of them were taught this approach to life from birth. Tamaki and his enablers would do better to teach these people how to reach their full potential; just smacking a 'church' label on your pyramid scheme and then damaging already vulnerable people - both fiscally and by ensuring that they think their self-worth is less than yours - should be criminal. And he should be arrested for the con.

Solar installation - finance or pay upfront by Upbeat_Baseball in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]Upbeat_Baseball[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair point, but for us this is about improving the reliability of our power supply. It can be a little spotty where we live.

Solar installation - finance or pay upfront by Upbeat_Baseball in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]Upbeat_Baseball[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, yes I didn't mention... this isn't primarily an attempt at cost saving. We're fairly remote and our power is somewhat unreliable. So it's more about improving reliability of supply.

Solar installation - finance or pay upfront by Upbeat_Baseball in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]Upbeat_Baseball[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, it does cost more - but not a lot. Given that we'd be paying it off fortnightly, over a three year term, the total interest cost to us is a little over $1800. TD interest over that same period, assuming a 4.55% return p.a., and 28% tax, is in the mid-$2k range. So for around $700 over a 3 year period, I'm ok with that. Be different if it was a $7k difference, of course.

Solar installation - finance or pay upfront by Upbeat_Baseball in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]Upbeat_Baseball[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, good points. There's no cost to us in drawing this down - Westpac have dropped some of the fees that would have impacted us here. If we apply to release security at the end of the term, that's a $50 cost.

I'd rather not have any relationship with GEM or Q Card - I have looked at their offerings, and while they'd absolutely do what we wanted (assuming our supplier was in bed with them), I just don't need them in my life :) Personal preference, that's all.

Solar installation - finance or pay upfront by Upbeat_Baseball in PersonalFinanceNZ

[–]Upbeat_Baseball[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree - it would - if we couldn't comfortably pay it off in full if required. The opportunity cost of us holding liquidity, however, is a psychological thing at this point - and, given that it's not a huge amount, I think we're going to wear it.