Doing my bit for the economy

With a bit of luck we are emerging from what is generally being described as the most severe downturn since the great depression of the 30's. Only time will tell whether the economy is slowly stirring into life or there is more pain to come.

Some indicators both here and abroad seem to indicate that that the worst is over. In the United States, still the engine of the world economy some indicators point to the greenshoots of some kind of recovery. Some pundits have been seeing these for a while now while others have been cheerfully being mowing them down.

There was a spike in activity earlier this year as businesses possibly restocked but activity has been flat over recent months. Plenty of businesses have managed to perform well in the face of adversity but if confidence doesn't improve soon and people don't start buying then they are going to have to start another round of cost cutting.

Many businesses will already have harvested the low hanging fruit or worse still are mortgaged to the hilt and no longer have any wriggle room.

The only way out of this is for us to start spending. Forget about saving or paying off the mortgage we need to spend and spend big if we are going to get out of this hole. If we spend with a bit of confidence then that confidence will spread despite what the experts say and in the words of that great Kiwi scholar Fred Dagg: 'she'll be right.'

I already know how I am going to help economic growth. I am going to buy one of these.

Buying a new bike will help the local economy and the local dealer and of course Husqvarna the manufacturer. I know this sounds a little self serving but it gives me a nice little warm fuzzy feeling that I am doing something for the greater good.

Politically Correct

You only have to watch the television news in this country on a slow day to understand what a quaint self important little backwater we are at times. The self important bit is because we think we have more influence on world affairs and opinion than we could ever hope to have.

Does Japan really care that a bunch of hairy legged cardigan wearers from this country don't want them to kill a few whales? Does China really care about us or are they merely using us to test their theories on how to deal with western democracies?

We are also a pretty boring breed really. A pretty violent boring breed with little respect for the law and other people's property by all accounts.

Low level mindless violence seems to have become so commonplace that it barely rates a mention these days unless the victim is white and photogenic or an animal of some kind.

On the other hand the media delights exposing the poor judgement of some of our more well known sports people-particularly members of the code that the media has a love hate relationship with.

Rugby is the one real area that we have been able to punch above our weight in the international arena. Well to be honest that part of the world that understands rugby -the mostly white parts of the old British empire. Despite widespread reports that soccer is gaining in popularity in this country, a good question to ask at the height of the football world cup rugby is still an important part of our culture.

In the good old days what went on tour stayed on tour. Today things are a lot different and many celebrities in this country, sports stars and others find themselves getting into trouble because whatever they do or have done is a story of some kind that someone can sell, gain their own fleeting seconds of fame, or inflict some pain by publicizing.

Not only do we serious national inferiority issues and seek to attack successful institutions in this country in order to bring them down to a collective level of mediocrity. We have built an industry out of blaming others for our problems. Ok it is not a good look for a well known and recently married sportsman to be found shagging a drunk teenage girl who was by all accounts semi conscious at the time. But you have to ask yourself how did he come to be there and was he entirely to blame considering that the couple had had consensual sex previously? And why did it take her twelve years to work out that this one night was a problem?

Not only do we have an industry built around blaming other people for our troubles and trying to extract as much cash as possible many people seem to think that money grows on trees and the rest of us owe them a living.

I'd love to have a baby every few years if it was physically possible so I could live a life of relative leisure on the DPB but alas not only am I too old but I am the wrong sex.

Maybe I could get a tax payer funded gender re-assignment. Yes we are a quaint wee place and long may it remain so

Bush riding in the rain

Visibility poor, pissing down with rain. Awesome riding and a few spills. A great way to spend an afternoon.

Lessons in life

My OE consisted a stint up in the Islands, Western Samoa as it was called then to be exact. I had visions of eking out a career as a well paid international agricultural consultant and a stint as a volunteer wouldn't do me any harm. That didn't work out as I planned and now it seems that I may have brought back something more than the interesting experience of living and working in a very poor Pacific Nation.

From the first winter I returned to New Zealand I have been afflicted by a form of dermatitis, something that sometimes looked like ring worm or at other times itchy dry and flaking skin. Over the years I have been prescribed all kinds of anti fungal and dermatitis creams and latterly have actually found more relief from over the counter anti histamines than anything else.

While experiencing generally rude health, I have always had this lingering feeling that all was not quite right and wondered if I was carrying around some kind of nasty internal parasite. I exercise regularly and eat reasonably well and get out and charge around on my motorbike. But I always felt that I should feel a lot fitter than I actually did.

At times I have had different series of tests but all of them have indicated pretty good health although now that my knees are knackered I am carry a bit of weight that I can't run off.

The change of seasons always seemed to be the worst time for the dermatitis outbreaks, patches of skin would get dry and itchy and I would rub some cream on them and take anti histamines for a few days and they would go away. In recent years I have hardly noticed the problem.

A few weeks ago what I took to be the annual autumn drying of the skin and the usual itch wouldn't respond to treatment so off to the doctor I went. The same doctor I might add that I have seen for most of the last 15 years or so.

This time he prescribed an oral treatment (terbinafine). The relief from the outward symptoms of the fungus were almost immediate. But it is the other affects that are most interesting. I wouldn't call them side affects, though I guess they are.

I haven't felt as physically good as I do now for as long as I can remember. To quote a cliche I feel like a new man with a lot more energy than I seem to have had for as long as I can remember since starting this course of treatment. The sudden feeling of well being was almost immediate.

The disappointing thing is that on reporting this to my doctor he couldn't come up with a reason why this would be so. I have done some research of my own on what might have been wrong with me but it would be nice to have this confirmed. I guess I had better change my doctor but I will give him another chance.

My doctor like any other professional that society unfairly deems should be perfect is only human. All of us make mistakes and make decisions that in the fullness of time prove to be bad ones. The measure I think is how they or we recover and put these mistakes right.

I also have to admit being the enlightened new age man that I am. That instead of wondering whether something was wrong and being worried that people might begin to see me as some kind of hypochondriac I wished I pushed a little harder when I felt that things were not right.

Jolly Roosta Trail Ride Report

The team from the Kawasaki Sandpit ran the Jolly Roosta trail ride on the first Sunday of May 2010.

This is the third rendition of this event that starts and finishes on Leighton's Farm at the northern end of the Woodhill Forest.

The Jolly Roosta is fast becoming one of those must do events-even if just to see what new sections have been thrown in by Tony B and the team from the Kawasaki Sandpit. In the 3 or 4 years since the team have taken over the Sandpit and started to organise trail rides and races through the forest they have gone from strength to strength in the quality of the rides and organisation.

Tony is a great believer in giving the punters value for money and opens up the trails earlier than other events giving great value for the very competitive entry fee. The tracks opening at 8am 'ish and closing about 3pm and provides something for everyone. Best of all he even appears to groom some of the main trails and while some of the ground gets covered reasonably regularly in different events there is always something new to see.

These rides are sand based events, ride able in any weather but more fun when there has been a bit of rain to compact the sand. Unfortunately Tony isn't a weather god so the open trails were a bit fluffy. But what the hell if you nail it then they are not any problem and most people understand they are what they are.

One of the things I like about these rides especially as I get older, fatter and less fit is that there is something for everyone. There is enough challenging terrain to test the gun riders but if you have a bit of a hangover or aren't the most confident or experienced rider then you can still challenge yourself and have a whole lot of fun.

For most people, including kids on anything but a peewee most of the tracks-including most of the main trail are achievable by anyone with decent fitness and confidence.

Tony also seems to get together plenty of helpful sweep riders and most importantly in these days of get going when you get there rather than a massed briefing, someone to give you the key info as you roll through the start gate. 'At the water tank decide which way you are going to go. If you hit the main trail from there there are no shortcuts back so make sure you have plenty of fuel.!

The ride consisted of one main 50 odd k loop and several shorter loops. The main loop took us out to a lookout after a really neat hill climb that in all my years I can't recall ever having seen.

There weren't too many road sections, for me they seemed to come at just the right time to have a bit of a rest before ducking back into the forest.

I'm going green-one day

I ride a dirtbike for recreation and I am a sometime racer. I like nothing more than riding in the great out doors. The roar of a high performance two stroke engine ringing in my ears and spewing hydrocarbons into the atmosphere and a big knobbly tyre ripping chunks out of the earth. I have even been known to stop at times and appreciate view. We get to get into some really neat places.

Greenies are against people like me enjoying this kind of activity, just as they are against anyone enjoying the great outdoors unless they plant a forest to offset their carbon footprint and live off a diet of nuts and berries.

Riding areas are being closed all the time, not just because some greenie group or council has decided that a block of bush is the only known habitat of some unhitherto unknown species of plant that has to be protected but also because of increasing safety and well being compliance issues. Though sometimes it seems to me that environmental groups just want to close vast areas of the country off to preserve them in their pristine native condition so that nobody can enjoy them.

Of course some people who ride motorbikes don't help the cause by riding where they are not supposed to and damaging fragile ecosystems while their noisy bikes simply annoy people. There are hoons everywhere.

Most of the riding we do is on formed tracks on race tracks, farms and forestry or bush blocks, or single tracks purposely cut through through the trees. Any damage is pretty localised and nothing a bulldozer can't put right.

I am sure that one of the biggest objections to people on dirtbikes is the noise. Even a properly muffled bike multiplied by several hundred riders at a race track or trail makes a lot of noise.

But help is at hand. Electric dirtbikes are being developed around the world and could revolutionalise the sport and open up new riding areas that would normally be closed due to noise issues.

In terms of useability these bikes are nowhere close to the current combustion engined bikes. They aren't as fast for a start. They have limited range and the fact they take a few hours to recharge between rides doesn't make them attractive to most riders yet.

But the time is coming that these bikes will be the equal of a combustion engined bike and we'll be buying them along with generators so that we can charge a spare battery while we carry on riding in places like this block of bush.




That will just give the environmentalists another excuse to stop us-just imagine all the power stations that are going to have to be built to satisfy our lust for green electric powered bikes and cars.

Going to the dogs

One of the things that I can never understand is how people who have pet dogs seem to think that everyone should put up with their constant barking, let alone shitting and pissing all over other people's lawns. How the their rights to have a dog and the dog basically making a nuisance of itself override the rights of other people to have a bit of peace and quiet. Or to walk down the street or through the park without worrying about being mauled by someones pet.

In our street there are several small yappy dogs that will bark from time to time. One in particular gets right up my nose as it's owners tie it up in front of the house where it barks at anything that moves past.

I live in a fairly new subdivision, the houses are plonked on fairly small sections and are all pretty close to the road. Make a lot of noise, have a loud argument or have the stereo turned up full noise and everyone in the street can hear it.

Tie the dog up outside the front door and there are only a few metres to the footpath. Through the long summer evenings that people enjoy walking in it yaps at everybody that strolls past. Don't the owners hear the bloody thing barking. And how do they put up with it? That is what I can never work out.

This is one of the fundamental questions of the age and can be applied to the people who decide around midnight to turn the stereo up as far as it can go or start mowing the lawn at 7pm on a Sunday night. Don't they think about the noise they are making or don't they care?

I know I don't any more. I have DVD full of Sex Pistols songs to play when I get annoyed and I no longer worry about what time I crank my motorbike up when I want to service it or give it a test run.

If you can't beat them, join them and make their lives a misery.

If I had my way I would ban all dogs from residential areas. Not a popular idea I grant as all those people that practice anthropomorphism where their dog is concerned would immediately be up in arms. Maybe they should all just get a life and learn a little bit about respnosibility.

But if we are all going to live in relative harmony with our neighbour's we have all got to learn that we can't always do what we want to and need to think a little about how our actions impact on others. Having a small yappy dog that annoys people is one of those things. So while I might like to I don't respond the way I would like.