taxing problems at the 3 dollar shop
the $3 Japan shop is struggling with the planned GST increases (GST = VAT for those in the UK).
I do understand the situation and you will remain my favourite shop. mainly for your lovely (and numerous) signs
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September 2010 Archives
the $3 Japan shop is struggling with the planned GST increases (GST = VAT for those in the UK).
I do understand the situation and you will remain my favourite shop. mainly for your lovely (and numerous) signs
ecotoxic
poor fish - he's about to be terrorised by the strange black monster with three grabby arms
7 night smorgasboard
we'll ignore the question of whether it should be smorgasbord rather than smorgasboard. i liked how it was a 7 night one assuming you only eat between the hours of 4.30pm and 9pm each day.
and the shop was only open 6 nights a week ...
camera and barometer
they went to extreme lengths to capture exif data in the days before digital photography
gorgeous ladies
i sold a load of these before i left the UK on ebay. and here are a load of looky-like-ies in a cupboard in a historic house
london as it was
this was in a historic house we visited recently. it's london during the 1800s. i miss london. not enough to want to come back and live there, but i miss the streets, endless adventures and infinite potential.
that's all here too, but less intensively plopped (geographically speaking)
gallery closed on monday
i spotted this sign as i exited the gallery after having had a good look round. ooops.
go in through the window
i like the whizzyness of the sign. if you've got a jet car, this is how you'd arrive at your flat.
milk
the light blue tops slowly advance on the dark blue tops. milk racism is rife
keeping the bollards warm
hug a hoodie bollard here
please use other door
genius sign reuse
a very cool bookshop
a veritable Aladdin's cave of books about Aladdin's caves (and other things)
trees come down
it's been quite windy here of late
big winds bring no friends. especially if you are a tree. the one above was a little teeny tree which probably fell over because someone tripped on it.
and this one clonked to the ground next to me as i walked down the street. that could have had my eye out.
big winds bring no friends. especially if you are a tree. the one above was a little teeny tree which probably fell over because someone tripped on it.
and this one clonked to the ground next to me as i walked down the street. that could have had my eye out.
electioneering
i've enjoyed the kiwi approach to electioneering. and their approach to graffiti.
ancient house
this is an ancient house (by kiwi standards)
daffodil
i forgot to post this back at the end of july when the daffodils started to appear and spring was arriving. but i think they are still out, so here we go. kezia took this picture.
politics - kiwi style
bill boards have popped up all over town to advertise candidates for the local elections. this one caught my eye ...
antiques
in this land of modern living you'll see posh tables outside and posh writing desks outside, and barbeques squeezed in between
telescopic bollard
for when your bollard needs are lofty
pedestrians keep right
i like the little message down the bottom which says 'safety is no accident'. makes me think of this
walking down a new road
hoorah this little walkway has been shut for months as they've been tarting it up. now it looks lovely and open. so i walked down it. nicely.
the sadness of the lady in the window
this mannequin seems rather distracted. i fear the worst
how to avoid mobile driving ban
this chap was zooming along the pavement veering in every direction whilst he talked on the phone. not sure whether that counts as illegal or not. was fun to watch though
how to get ahead
here's a chap carrying a head
strange device in the park
here's a wire controlled mini radio. i had no idea what it was, but it was pointing in the general direction of Auckland's most famous landmark
a bit of googling suggests it's probably an fm radio so no threat to national security. nothing to see here. please move on.
vince's team made my crisps
yesterday's crisps (chippies) were made of waikato spuds by vince's team. much better than an anonymous secret code hidden on the back somewhere. an actual person was involved. and actual spuds. good
jandals on the beach
gone for a swim. probably
defensive sign
this is a great sign and well worth a proper read
bollard and flower pot
the bollards bow down to the might flower pot
bob you rock
did you know new zealand has waterproof money ? a brilliant idea.
and this one even had a little message on - idea if your name was a penguin called bob
chair instructions - recline force
recline force one
inorganic waste collection
auckland has this very cool thing where once or twice a year your street will be nominated for an 'inorganic waste' collection. the weekend before the week you have to put all the rubbish that wouldn't normally be allowed in the rubbish bin (the stuff you'd take to the refuse tip in the UK).
for a few days the streets look completely messy, except they are full of fantastic things. And there are rag and bone type people going round collecting anything which can be repaired or sold or melted down. so by the end of the weekend there really is very little left. it's an excellent scheme.
they are also really clear that anything you put out will end up in a landfill (unless it get taken away by a passing opportunist) so people can think twice about what they put out.
i like the mixture of official and unofficial recycling that goes on. and the glorious mess that exists for a few days.
public telephone cows only
typical, a sheep turns up to a telephone box and it's cows only
these fish available here
this is the fish you can get in the fish 'n' chip shop in kiwiland. and mighty fine they are too.
no pane no (bar)gain
no pane no (bar)gain
exit without warning
i always like to see warning signs which demonstrate the danger they warn against.
a rainy day
lots of rain here at the moment.
dangly fig tree
strange fig tree dangly airbourne roots. excellent.
how i survived swine flu
i went to the doctors today. i booked the appointment on wednesday afternoon when i felt particularly ill and was sick and tired of being ill for the last fortnight. of course i was feeling a lot better by the time i finally got to the doctors on friday afternoon, but i still thought i should go and find out what the score was.
turned out i probably had swine flu. but then so has everyone else round our way (it's only just stopped being winter here) so i'm a bit of a copier.
but i was delighted by the precautions at the doctors. i didn't know i was ill when i arrived so i avoided wearing a mask.
Great signage though. Shame you have to shave your head to wear the mask. fine for blokes, but not ideal for the ladies in the house
a nice night out
two friends took jane and i to see a concert by national superstar (world famous in new zealand) Dave Dobbyn. He was playing an acoustic gig in Auckland Cathedral with the Dukes. All excellent stuff.
a little slice of blighty
this was in a display case in an old house thing we went to visit.
christchurch
it's been a week since the christchurch earthquake and the aftershocks are still going on.
we visited just a few weeks ago and had a great time. i've still got loads of pictures i haven't posted of it, so here are a few.
we went to the cathedral where one of the vicars was dressed as an octopus. you've got to like that in a religious building
and all the buildings were lovely
it's been interesting to watch the various online visualisations and map mashups over the last week. a quick google search for christchurch quake map shows you a few. crowd sourcing and machine mashups are all excellent, but the challenge becomes finding the definitive version.
This one set the bar for visualising the relentlessness of the aftershocks
the new role for authorities in times of crisis is defining the 'official' twitter hashtags and url for the master crowd source google map.
so to all chums, fellow countrymen/women, collagues, students, visitors and anyone else down in christchurch, we wish you all the best and hope things get back to normal as soon as
here are a couple of my faves:
earth quakes over the last 6 months in new zealand (shown over 1 minute)
visualisation of official and crowd sourced data (click up the top to enable the crowd source data)
jandal
the first jandal of spring. summer can't be too far away now.
table rules
what about other people's safety ? and why just sitting, leaning, climbing being banned ?
sugar ship
big ship passing under the big bridge to collect some sugar from the sugar refinery. sweet as bro
smile mart
it's a smile monger (with a new core shopping centre attached)
press button for yard man
like, just press it man.
batman street
my colleague simon found this whilst adventuring in an australian suburb. tremendous stuff.
(amazingly a quick google map search shows there are two separate batman streets in Melbourne)
the penny drops
the obligatory shoe check
netball
we went to watch a netball game on sunday. it was quite excellent. new zealand vs australia. australia won in the last quarter (boo!) but we had a great time. got to hear Opshop (world famous in new zealand) and the prime minister was there as well. few photos above.
national cookery books
Emonds is/was the kiwi delia
wenderholm
it is rather pretty on this wobbly island
downtown graveyard
there's something quite restful about graveyards. i suppose that's the point.
stationary spring
these flowers were sticky taped to my desk but then they died so i put them near the stapler before putting them in the bin. spring has sprung in the southern hemisphere. fact
do not spit
an unofficial official starbucks sign here.
not fallen, just waving
this chap looks like he's giving us a wave whilst lying on the beach. how you doing fella ?
blue and green
(and a bit of yellow-ish)
the inside of a thing
what's this you ask ? it's the inside of an empty one of these
the easiest step to reduce your fuel bill
how would you like to reduce your fuel bill ? simply follow this easy step.
buy a load of helium balloons and fix them to your car. that makes it lighter thus reducing fuel costs. genius.
tin roof (rusted)
not sure if this is a love shack
mens hangi
i wasn't quite able to get back far enough for this to say men hang. but you can see what i was trying to do
[and now we live in new zealand, we realise a 'hangi' is actually a culturally important thing. sometime you have to sit on a photo for a year or so before it makes sense !]
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