Weekend social 27/09/2013

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, September 27th, 2013 - 40 comments
Categories: weekend social - Tags:

Christmas truce 1914Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever.

No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?

40 comments on “Weekend social 27/09/2013 ”

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  1. ianmac 1
    27 September 2013 at 11:51 am

    Just discovering how useful white vinegar is for removing soap scum in the shower. Spray it on. Give it a rub. Wait. Rinse it off.
    Once it is clean a friend recommends spraying with silicon spray. Stays clean for a long time.

  2. JK 2
    27 September 2013 at 12:25 pm

    That’s a great tip, ianmac. Will try it. And here’s another one – baking soda cleans stainless steel (sinks, stove tops etc) brilliantly. Its inexpensive in a largish pack. Just sprinkle around, damp a cloth and rub, then rinse.

  3. ianmac 3
    27 September 2013 at 12:59 pm

    While I’m at it a few months ago I painted Roundup undiluted (glyphosate) on the stumps of agapanthus after slicing off the green leaves with my crosscut saw. So far there is no sign of regrowth. The roots appear to be rotting in the ground. Considering that agapanthus are hard to get rid of, maybe this is one of the answers.
    (Someone in the Sounds were visited at their bach by either wild pigs or deer and every agapanthus green leaf was eaten down to the top of their roots. Friend or foe?)

    • Ennui 3.1
      27 September 2013 at 2:16 pm

      Rumour has it that without agapanthus Auckland roads would be overcome with slipped banks and snails would become an endangered species: what a fabulous plant!!

      • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1
        27 September 2013 at 3:23 pm

        Can’t recall a lot of such plants out there actually.

      • ianmac 3.1.2
        27 September 2013 at 3:45 pm

        Thats true Ennui. Agapanthus can be helpful. However once planted on our section they spread- everywhere! And they are very difficult to clear when in clusters. I think DOC put out a warning against them when planted in certain spots. Convolvulous have pretty flowers but would you want them in your section?

  4. Rogue Trooper 4
    27 September 2013 at 12:59 pm

    just finished mowing the lawns, and picking up some grass.

  5. Rosie 5
    27 September 2013 at 2:19 pm

    On the topic of tips and tricks heres a big thanks to those with who gave ideas last weekend on sourcing pallets, for the purpose of making a raised herb garden and raised vege garden. We’ve now got some excellent untreated pallets to start the project and will go back this weekend to get more. We’ve got the permission of the depot to return and get more, which is great.

    My tasks this weekend including lawn mowing, weedeating, pallet breaking and hair dye application.

    Enjoy your Monday morning response to adjustments to your sleep/wake cycle as the downside of daylight savings kicks in.

    • bad12 5.1
      27 September 2013 at 4:29 pm

      Rosie, they put pallets together with nail guns and they can be a hard ask to pull apart and still have usable wood after the wrestle,

      i have a huge garden made up from pallets, 12 raised beds in total, to make a usable piece of wood i used a chisel and hammer to lever the pieces of wood slightly up from off of the back of the pallet and then once i could get my wrecking bar in behind took the pieces of wood off in one piece that way,

      Then carefully measure the pallet 1/2 way, or close because you need avoid the nails, and run the skil-saw through it, if there are big gaps in the wood on your two halves of pallet you can split off fillers from the wood you take off of the back,

      Mine are all lined with plastic compost bags, the black plastic rubbish bags when cut open are just as good for lining

      • Rosie 5.1.1
        27 September 2013 at 8:09 pm

        Bad12. Thank you for your advice. I have discussed your skill saw suggestion with Mr Rosie who said “ah that’s exactly what I was planning on”. With the last lot of scrounged pallets (the supply had run dry, hence the search for a steady supply) that we used to put in a mowing edge for a hedge, we used a pry bar to lever the wood off. I then banged out all the nails.

        We just have to either borrow or hire a skill saw.

        You must have a fantastic garden! Well Done!

        • bad12 5.1.1.1
          28 September 2013 at 8:46 am

          Yeah it’s time consuming pulling them apart so as to end up with usable ‘wood’ when the pulling is all done,

          i have a skil-saw you can borrow if you are in Wellington, a wrecking bar as well, not sure how we could arrange contact tho,

          Pallets are great, specially the freebies, 4 halves together make a perfect size garden, there’s a secret to putting them together which is a little hard to explain,

          It involves putting a back on both sets of two halves, so you have 3 sides on each, then cutting and wrapping in plastic a piece of wood that fits on the 4×2 on the bottom of the inside of the open end of both your halves which holds that end open to the same distance as the back you have nailed on, which should leave you with 2, 3 sided boxes which sit flush together,

          Both of your 3 sides should then sit together and another piece of wood is then nailed flat across the top of all 4 ends,(from looking down on them, hey presto fill with soil and it all sits there letting you walk around the whole thing to garden it…

          • Rosie 5.1.1.1.1
            28 September 2013 at 10:03 am

            Hi bad, thats a very generous offer of the loan of your skil saw and I’d like to take you up on it, if I can’t locate on from a friend down the road who I suspect might have one. I guess we can arrange email contact via LPrent releasing email addresses to one another, if that was acceptable. 🙂 Yes, I’m in Wgtn, in the northern suburbs of Ohariu-stan, so no prob to come and collect. Yes, we have a wrecking bar. Thats generally how we garden if we need to plant a tree or shrub into the rock.

            Turns out we are both sick with some fluey symptoms this morning, so plans have been stalled. What you have described above sounds like the sort of path we are taking. Hadn’t thought to finish it off with planks across the top though. Nice idea 🙂

            • bad12 5.1.1.1.1.1
              28 September 2013 at 1:07 pm

              Lol, Rosie, yeah that sounds a good idea, i think you might have got what i said about joining the halves of the pallets together a little wrong tho, it’s a hard one to explain…

              • Rosie …
                28 September 2013 at 4:23 pm

                Lol, true. I haz a misunderstand, and a brain full o’ virus. When it comes to DIY I probably need a video at the best of times. I think we will get there! A friend down the road does indeed have a skil saw, which we can borrow. Thank you kindly for your offer of a loan 🙂

                Happy Harvesting!!

    • Anne 5.2
      27 September 2013 at 10:03 pm

      … daylight savings kicks in.

      Oh shit, shit, shitty shit! I hate DS starting so early. We’ve got that dammed hair-piece to thank for that. Who the hell does he think he is forcing it on to us – cos he wanted it. Add the poncy bow-ties and he’s got to be this country’s No.I prick!

      • greywarbler 5.2.1
        27 September 2013 at 10:16 pm

        Well Anne I have decided I like DS. Already I am waking up an hour early even when wearing a sleeping mask which is a new habit. It’s time as far as I’m concerned – I’ve crumbled and accepted it also that new old-fangled thing of giving way when I’m turning right. Is there no end to these insidious efforts to undermine civilisation as we know it?

        • Anne 5.2.1.1
          28 September 2013 at 8:42 am

          😀
          I like DS but not until the middle of Oct. at the earliest. Seems too drastic at this time because there’s still a bit of winter left.

          I agree re -turning right. What happens you both idle for a few seconds waiting to be sure each other knows what they’re supposed to do then the one turning left moves. Still confuses me and just about everyone else it seems.

          • Rosie 5.2.1.1.1
            28 September 2013 at 10:13 am

            Hi Anne. Yes, you- know -who is responsible for many annoying things including the extension of daylight savings. He does have the outdoor lobby to keep happy. It’s been suggested thats how he got UF back on its feet, through the bribery of outdoorsy groups, so he could be their saviour by blocking changes to the RMA with his one vote. Sorry mods, straying off the No Politics theme of Weekend Social.

            I was wondering the other day what it would be like with no daylight savings and I think I’d maybe like it, except light outdoor evenings can be nice. Maybe I’d miss them. Turns out 6% of people surveyed don’t like it one bit.

            http://www.dia.govt.nz/Daylight-Services-Survey

            • miravox 5.2.1.1.1.1
              28 September 2013 at 10:22 am

              Reckon there would be about 90 percent of people bringing up children under about 8 who don’t like it. However, it seems that surveying people bringing up dairy cows were more important in that survey 😉

  6. NickS 6
    27 September 2013 at 2:30 pm

    Braaaaaains

    Planning on sleeping hardcore this weekend thanks to the rain and getting through Jupiter War by Neal Asher and On The Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds. Just have to resist napping today since had to wake up @5am for the part time job I’m doing at present.

    Also: http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/09/equoid
    Features unicorns, but just not the way you’d usually think.

    • Rogue Trooper 6.1
      27 September 2013 at 2:52 pm

      from what i briefly read, interesting, yet, may be a target market. Almost would’a dozed off me bad self ‘cept for some futuristic product labelled ‘cactus black’. (had been thinking of you). Kind regards.

      • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 6.1.1
        27 September 2013 at 3:38 pm

        What is the way you usually think of unicorns?

        • Rogue Trooper 6.1.1.1
          27 September 2013 at 3:46 pm

          children read about them. Some adults read about them Unicorns and fairies at the bottom of the garden are frequently focii of disdain. There are some great papers being delivered on the significance of archetypal Fairy Tale influences on emerging culture; yet you already knew that. Jesus, on the other hand, read anything, anybody after Nietzsche… and there we find ourselves; it may have been different, yet it returned. (I have faith in you). 😎

  7. bad12 7
    27 September 2013 at 4:38 pm

    My seeds have turned to babies by the 1000, after an initial panic i now have my 200 babies with 20 reserves under lights awaiting mid October when they will take over occupancy of every windowsill in the house,

    The garden has eaten compost all year and has been dug over and re-dug over again, come the first day of November the planting begins in earnest,

    This year, again, the 5 grand tobacco addiction is a freeby,

    Liberation theology…

    • McFlock 7.1
      28 September 2013 at 1:06 am

      after ten years or so of inaction, I’m doing it the natural way – emptying two packets of seeds in a gardenish area and waiting. Seemed to work last time, although there’s always the period where I nurture a little seedling, which turns out to be a thistle just as the main crop comes up 🙂

      • vto 7.1.1
        28 September 2013 at 8:46 am

        I know of many who grow their own baccy now. Don’t know where that leaves the nosybodies who try to stop this most ancient practice.

        • bad12 7.1.1.1
          28 September 2013 at 8:55 am

          Tis legal, you can grow enough tobacco plants to gain a harvest of 15 kilos of processed leaves, i have taken that to mean cut and dried leaves as the law doesn’t expand upon what ‘processed’ is,

          It is tho strictly illegal to trade, sell,or even give away tobacco products in any form although it appears ‘legal to sell the seeds, growing your own does wonders for the budget, and lolz, i give myself the odd chastising for not having got into growing the stuff 30 years ago…

      • bad12 7.1.2
        28 September 2013 at 9:01 am

        Lolz way to a uncertain method for me Mc, i used 6 different varieties of seed this year to have 1000’s of little un’s which have now been carefully separated and whittled down to 200 plus 20 for spares,

        i have the luxury of ‘cloning lights’ from a past venture which work a treat on this and other more normal garden inhabitants…

        • The Al1en 7.1.2.1
          28 September 2013 at 1:23 pm

          http://smokefree.org.nz/face-facts”
          One in two smokers will die from smoking.”

          http://www.cancernz.org.nz/Uploads/IS_TC_smkcost.pdf
          “The cost of smoking-related health care to the
          New Zealand taxpayer is about $250 million.”
          “government loses income and
          other tax revenue from the lower productivity of
          sick smokers, and because dead smokers don’t
          work and don’t pay taxes.”

          No worries mate, you suck it on down. I pay a bit of tax, I got you covered. 😉

          • bad12 7.1.2.1.1
            28 September 2013 at 1:39 pm

            Ha ha ha, yeah yeah, tobacco say the anti-tobacco fanatics kills half of those who use the product,

            How does this occur you may ask???, the anti-tobacco fanatics will point out to you that besides lung cancer which knocks off about 10% of those who use tobacco, heart disease and various other cancers will get the rest to make up the 50%,

            Ha ha ha, guess what kills 49.something % of those who have never been near a cigarette???,

            The answer to that little gem is of course Heart Disease and various other Cancers,

            None of your taxes pay for the treatment of tobacco related illness or death, tobacco taxes have been estimated to be collecting up to a billion dollars a year over and above the cost to the country of tobacco usage…

    • Rosie 7.2
      28 September 2013 at 10:15 am

      Good way of taking back the power from the tobacco companies.

  8. phillip ure 8
    27 September 2013 at 10:51 pm

    something for those who have ‘never got’ elvis..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=d0vXxH1IEmQ

    phillip ure..

  9. Murray Olsen 9
    28 September 2013 at 1:05 am

    I get to write a referee report on one of the most boring articles I’ve ever read, and read a draft of an MSc thesis. I might be able to feed some ducks and plan a trip home. Life is great.

  10. karol 10
    29 September 2013 at 7:53 am

    *yawn* Welcome to summer time – means I start work an hour earlier today.

    Upside is, I finish an hour earlier than in recent months.

    It sure is quiet right now in my hood.