Sunday 23rd August

Called into work this morning to post the previous one, and to see if the painter wanted to get into the office and paint, but he’s still waiting for more paint so won’t be doing it till tomorrow or later in the week. Bloody nuisance, we’ve got all the desks in a huddle in the middle of the room, filing cabinets, shelves all stacked around our desks.

Weather is crappy today, overcast with rain, still hot and sticky though. Shopped at Kukum Fish Market this morning, and spent the rest of the day baking and preparing meals for the week. I’ve got 3 loaves of herb and garlic bread done, and 20 spring rolls, 20 curry and rice rolls, and I’m making sushi for work tomorrow. Plus a container of fresh pawpaw/banana/pineapple chunks to have with yoghurt for breakfast.

Finally found Alan Carlins IPCC Report that was rejected by the IPCC. Well worth reading, it punches big holes in the Global Warming theory, its no wonder the IPCC didn’t publish it.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/27/released-the-censored-epa-document-final-report/ Scroll down the page a bit, read Alans comments first, he was given 5 days to prepare the report, which is why there are pieces missing or not fully explained.

It is a big file, in Adobe pdf, but worth reading. Someone has finally admitted it is probably a natural phenomenon, linked to sunspots, ENSO and ADO, La Nina, El Nino and several other cycles rather than CO2/greenhouse gas etc. The biggest worry in it is the failure of sun spot cycle 24 to start, if it doesn’t start soon we’re looking at 20 – 30 years of cold temperatures to equal the late 1800’s, but it’s part of the normal 30/60 year cycle.

A few parts of the report point out the increase in wheat/crop productivity since 1970, which as I’ve always argued, is due to the CO2 increase from 290ppm to 385ppm. If we could get up to 400 ppm or higher to 600ppm that is optimum CO2 levels for increased crop production, plus the plants have better drought resistance. Still, getting anyone to admit they’ve been wrong with so much money at stake isn’t easy. Plus the IPCC and all it’s followers will be out of a job. Not that that matters, they’ve been taking funds that could have been better spent on improving peoples lives instead of fear mongering and setting up a huge carbon trading ponzi scheme. As well as trying to condem every developing nation to 3rd world status forever.

Which is one of the reasons I walked away from the Green Party. Their basic manifesto accepts millions of deaths from starvation to get population figures down. No wonder they jumped headfirst into the AGW religion. Just another way to stop poor countries developing.
Welcome to my soapbox forum.

Finally bought some cassava today as well. You get it instead of potato chips with fish here, and it reminds me of sweet parsnip, with a bit of kumara (sweet potato) added. Stringy centre thread though, it can be like dental floss if you don’t know it’s there. It’s really nice steamed, or fried. In a curry with coconut milk, basically anywhere you want a sweetish starch vegetable.

I’ve got 4 rolls of sushi setting, one for me, one for Tiffany, and it depends on whoever else turns up at work tomorrow. We might get through all four rolls once it’s cut up. I bought a tin of Black and Gold Salmon, it’s the cheapest tinned salmon in Wings, $28, and it is definitely the salmon that John West reject. I was expecting pinkish fillet of salmon, it turned out to be a grey colour, more like mullet than salmon. If you close your eyes, and don’t smell it, it is almost not quite salmon, once you look at it it is definitely not salmon. I suppose it is, the label calls it tinned salmon chunks in brine, but it isn’t something I’d be putting out for a dinner party. I’ve had cats that would have refused to eat it. My dogs would have loved it though.


I may have put a bit too much wasabi in, I was munching the trimmings and it cleared my sinus out really quickly.

I’m working my way through my Tantrix Puzzle again, up to 13 tiles today, in an hour or so. Once I get them all done I’ll post pics of the solutions. Fitting the last piece is always a pain when it starts getting big, matching all the colours as well as the loop.

http://www.tantrix.co.nz/

Rose sent me another book, Breath, by Tim Winton. Australian writer, it’s a sort of boy learns how to surf from an older guru type book. That doesn’t do it justice, it is bloody good to read, it reminded me of growing up in Auckland and going out to the West Coast beaches like Piha and Karekare surfing and fishing. Or up to Te Ari Point. It was always dangerous, which I suppose made it all that more enticing. When I think about some of the places I used to go diving, waiting for the change of tide so you had ½ an hour or so of slack water before the rip started up, getting caught in the tidal surge and having to walk back a couple of miles along the sand at Whatipu after being carried way up the beach. Fishing off the rocks at Karekare and getting swamped by waves, losing rods and gear to the tide surge. It’s a bloody wonder I’m still alive.

I’d love another VW Camper, I know they are not the cheapest vehicle to maintain, but I’ve always had fun in them, plus getting cheap accommodation where ever I’ve gone. And a 9’8” surf board on top looks good as well. I’m too old to be working hard on a short board, a floating pavement is fine.

I cleaned out my little express maker today, finally. The seal was all clogged with coffee grounds and it was leaking everywhere instead of building up pressure. Its had a good workout since then today. It has lasted a while, I got it in Byron Bay at the Blues Fest a few years ago, and have been using it camping ever since. It was fun at the Gathering with it, 6am in the morning and the smell of expresso drifting across the tents. I always had a few comments from the neighbours.

This is turning into a proper Sunday night ramble, disjointed snippets of memory jotted down at random. That’s what you get when you spend time going through photo albums looking at all the old pics. I must have scanned over 1,000 photos onto disc before I left, with the intention of compiling them into some sort of sequence and writing about them all. 6 months here and I’ve finally got around to looking through some of the discs, so with luck I may get started soon. I did do a family history cd while I was in Ireland, and sent it to Damian and Hayden. And Stef. Pics of everyone growing up, and all the pics I have of me growing up, with even older family pics of Great-grandparents and the original house in Clare.