Sunday, October 25, 2009

Thank the gods for lazy carpenters

It’s a long weekend here in New Zealand, it’s our Labour weekend and we have Monday off.

The origins of our Labour Day are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in our very newly founded colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter Samuel Parnell's refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesmen to also only work for eight hours a day and, in October 1840, a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea.

Because it’s our first long weekend in 4 months and it’s spring, everyone goes mental trying to get out of town.  Last night the news was full of traffTraffic Jamic jams north and south of Auckland yesterday. The standing joke (among Australians particularly) is that the closest we get to a traffic jam here in NZ is fighting our way through sheep on the roads though of course we do actually have real traffic jams as well.

To demonstrate my point, here’s a cool photo taken by a chap by the name of Murray Douglas which shows traffic in Auckland. dog_in_traffic

Anyway I’m very pleased to be back online without being at Rory’s mercy. Especially pleased that my warranty covered a new hard drive so it cost me nothing. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do which I will endeavour to make a start on later today. Right now I’ll finish watching the Kiwi-Kangaroo rugby league test which is underway in England. We’re in the final quarter now and the Kiwis are ahead – go the mighty Kiwis!

*EDIT* The game was a draw :-(

10 comments:

  1. Glad you're back in the blog-o-sphere, Lou.
    Missed your posts!

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  2. Happy Labor Day to you. Glad you back and feeling better. The sheep are so cute.

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  3. Hello Lou, many greetins from Germany.I wish you nice a sunday....
    Cali

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  4. Glad to have you back, it's been sort of quiet :) Lol at the sheep. Seriously, sheep must be one of the dumbest animals alive. Chewing machines without brains, that's my (amateur) opinion.

    Love
    D

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  5. Does this mean you are not working the corner any more? Good then it is free.
    Great that your warranty still covered it. I returned my camera once 3 days short of my extended warranty expiration date. Whew. Close one.

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  6. Hey all, it's great to be back. Welcome Cali. The corner's all yours again Lori :-)

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  7. YAY! happy belated holiday to you, Lou! glad to hear you're up and running again!

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  8. Hey Lou, just catching up and a late happy holiday to you. One burnig question though, is this dog driving illegally?

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  9. Yeah good point jj, it does look weird seeing how we sit on the right. That driver must cop an earful of slobber.

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  10. Thanks all for the good wishes. Welcome from NZ Cali - visit again soon :-)

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