ALL FOR UNION WITH AUSSIE

We practice what we preach. We live with an aussie. At times a testy union but mutally beneficial as most good unions are.

We think it is both logical and inevitable that we end up joined up with our trans Tasman kissing cousins.

Economically it makes good sense and if we think that on the world stage we are big enough to be heard above the noise - we are dreaming. The rest of the world already thinks we are just a state of Aussie .

So we are happy for the grand union - but they can keep their ants and snakes.

RANDOM BITS

Cactus likes the Rock.

Arbitrageur is where grown ups gather.

Why is the whole town buzzing over speculation on Chris Carters spending as a Minister? Is that why Labour went soft on Heatley and Brownlie ?

And isn't Beaujolais Duck parfait the best pate in town?

And Ian Templetons wife is a beautiful lady even if he isnt a Sir.....

THE ROCK ROCKS

Now, while we know that the Aussie Rock is not the most romantic bugger in the universe, occasionally he surprises. We got the second book in the Millennium Trilogy " The girl who played with fire. That was pretty good. We also got a card. It wasn't silly or schmaltzy - it was just right. It was all about being together forever. And it was propped up on a vase of roses on the bench.

They were our roses but the Rock had to walk down the drive and pick them, as they are the only roses on the whole place - and doesn't do walking for no good reason - he is a very purpose driven walker so there was a lot of effort and thought went into it and we reckon a sprinkle of the L word.

We are blessed...

FEATHER DUSTER CHOOKS

We have 5 little silkie banties at the Block. They are the property of the Rocks daughter. ( Pebbles)
They are very cute and love her like a mum. One got sick after it accidently got wet one dark and stormy night and she kept it warm until it came right.

They are pretty stupid but cute nonetheless.
and we reckon when they start laying Eggs they will be good for the diet because the eggs will be tiny..

And hell, there aint no way you can kill them. It would just be sad.

So they will be for show and entertainment only..

However we will be invresting in some big kick arse chooks to kill for the pot soon

Hopefully the silkies wont be too traumatised.

RUTH PRETTY WE HATE YOU

Damn.

Last year we baked our very amazing Grand Marnier Australian Women's Weekly Xmas Cake . It was eaten to resounding applause of our mates and family. A cobber also baked a whisky Xmas cake - again it was eaten with gusto and received very high praise - well done Blondini. And some other mates bought with them a perfectly formed Ruth Pretty cake - it was left till last as it was sealed in cellophane and came in a very swanky box.

In the last two weeks the Aussie Rock has polished off about 2 kgs of Christmas cake - half the Grand Marnier Cake, the remaining Whisky Cake and the Ruth Pretty cake. Aussies are fine purveyors of Xmas cake. Yip - you guessed it, Ruth Pretty's cake - pictured left, prissy, perfectly round, perfectly formed and perfectly delicious, apparently was declared by the Rock to the best by a country mile. And in Aussie that's a bloody long way.

Thing is - the Rock ate the whole damn thing - every last crumb - all by his gutsy self. So no one else can do the comparisons. All we know is that our guests over Xmas loved ours and Blondinis cakes and declared them very fine examples of spectacularly good cakes.

Now considering that he knew there would be a huge risk in never having Busted Blonde bake him another Xmas cake, the Rock was very very brave and we know that he is honest to a fault. So Ruth Pretty's perfectly formed cake must be something spectacular.

And here's the kicker - the bloody cow has a secret recipe for it. She is onto a winner and she knows it. We hate that.

And will we bake our famous and much loved Gran Marnier Cake next year? Nah the Rock can buy his bloody own from Ruth. Sometimes honesty doesn't pay....

RARE LAMB

Kiwiblog's, fine author Farrar came a calling over Xmas and supped and ate for the day with friends and family. He has exposed some interesting myths on BustedBlonde here

And he appeared to enjoy the action at the Rangitumau Lilliputian aerodrome.

However is is much more of a crackberry head than BB as this picture shows!

However, he got one thing wrong.. The lamb he ate had been killed a couple of days prior. The one that was slaughtered while he was with us, ( and he didn't look) was destined for the son and heir.

Son learned from his grandfather how to kill and dress the carcass which was hung high in the tree overnight to harden up.

Farrar was good company and we did a bit of plotting and planning for 2010. So watch this space.

ITS URGENT - REALLY.

The Aussie Rock says this is funny... He is right it is..

BITS AND BOBS

We have been enjoying some wild and wicked weather in Tauranga where the Aussie Rock has a bit of a bach near the beach at the Mount.

When it was fine it was splendid but the torrential rain out did the sunbeams today. For all that Tauranga and the Mount are wonderful places to visit.

We are now back in Wellington and are off to Zico's with Spaz and his angel wife.

So we have had a quick scoot round the blogs and MacDoctor has the funniest post on Sue Bradfords departure from the Greens. We agree with his sentiments entirely.

And the Australian is breathless in their admiration for Key's decision to appear on Letterman. We initially thought it was dumb. But as someone who has lived in the USA pointed out, Key's self effacing corniness would have gone down a treat there. Its their sort of humour. However we also agree with Fran O'Sullivan - we cannot lose sight of the serious stuff either. Perhaps an armchair interview on Close Up, or even the Sunday programme to talk about the serious stuff and why it matters to New Zealanders. It would be good to give it some context that a quick flick on the 6pm news cant give.


And are we the only person who is going to fess up and say they dont understand what the hell John Key's comments about having the loosest slot machines really means?

BEWDY!

While we are doing out bit for closer economic relationships by sleeping every nite with a South Australian, we are delighted to see that it will soon be quick as - to visit Aussie.

And of course it will be easier for Aussies to visit us and that's good for tourism. It will also mean some savings at the border - and that's a good thing for both our economies. We have more in common than we have differences.

However we never ever want NZ to adopt the famed Aussie delicacy and culinary icon - the pie floater.

Barffff....

CRIME AND COMPASSION

Today we got our car back. The story started on the 25^th of February when our car was allegedly stolen by a man with Mongrel mob connections called Customline Ford, from the Masterton Railway Station. He is the son of one of Wairarapa’s own, Little Man Ford. The name is not their original name. It was changed by deed poll to reflect the family’s love of Ford cars. Little Man is dead.

We had been leaving the car at the station from Monday to Friday, as we thought that a 18 year old faded green Ford Station wagon might not have had much attraction to any would be car thief. When we discovered the car was stolen we asked for some assistance from the train drivers. They were very helpful. They gave us the number of the local police and the number of the person in Wellington who administered the security cameras.

We rang the police , gave them all the details and they said they would post out an event number. They said that they could not email the event number that it could only be posted.

We dealt with Constable A. In the meantime the Aussie Rock, (my partner) got hold of the security guy and the next day we got our first break. The security footage clearly showed the thief. However he said he could not release it until he was asked to by the police. We rang the police back and told them that the security footage. Constable A said she would sort it out and get the footage. A week went by and we heard nothing . We rang again. We were told Constable A was not there and were put on to Constable B she picked up the file and then a couple of days later informed us they recognised the thief. She alledged his name was Customline and they were looking for him. He was very well known to them.

Anyway a couple of days later we got a notice from Land Transport that the car had changed ownership. The Rock checked with LTNZ and discovered that the car had indeed been reregistered a day after it was stolen. They would not tell us who it was, unless we went into the office and again said that they would release that information to the police. We rang the police and told them of the new development and they rang back to say that the car had been reregistered to someone at a Lower Hutt address who was also well known to them. They then informed us that the file was on its way to Lower Hutt - it took a couple of days to be transferred to the Lower Hutt CIB.

We were informed that the police were already keeping an eye on the property as it was in the Farmers Cres area, which was a MOB enclave and some of the residents had been issued with eviction notices from the Housing corporation. We were told that once they spotted the car they would have to get some reinforcements to take the car back because it was not something that one of two police could do on their own considering the tensions around the evictions.

Another week passed. We called into the Masterton Police Station and talked to Constable B where she reiterated that as yet they had not sighted the car. I asked her how likely it was that we would sse the car again. She did not rate our chances highly , explaining that normally when cars like ours were stolen they ended up in a Chop Shop within a few days or they were moved around all round the country. I suggested that I knew someone with strong Mob connections and that I was sure he could track the car down. She said that could be worth considering.

That night The Rock arrived home with two things - the name of the person the car was registered to – Barry Kahui and a newspaper story about Kahui who was on home invasion charges. And was appearing Thursday 2^nd April.

I rang my mate. Within hours he had talked to Barry who reckoned that the car had been sold to him as a repo and he had spent $1300 on it. He wanted some compensation for the money he had spent on the Mag wheels and a few other things. We resisted.

Our friend genuinely believed that this guy had been told some bullshit by the Customline. It was akin to your cousin ripping you off.

Anyway he gave the cellphone number of Barry and we texted him.

Then over the next two days there was an extraordinary dialogue as we came to an agreement about the car. As soon as he realised that the car was hot and we could prove it was hot and the police knew, Barry wanted shot of it. He had bought it to transport his 6 kids. He had put Mag wheels on it. And put speakers in it.

I was ready to call it quits. Years of dealing with gang members means that I know how difficult and dangerous it can be getting to a point of resolution. However the Rock is a stubborn bugger and wanted to follow through – so he talked to Barry direct. Soon they came to an understanding. The car was in a car park in Farmers crescent with the wheels off. We could pick it up. But the deal was that once we put wheels back on it could be driven away.

So yesterday the Rock and a mate went to Farmers crescent. The car was now missing a new battery. they went and got new rims and tyres and put them on, only to find the fuel line had been cut. So it was towed to a garage and its being repaired. Now while they spent an hour getting the car sorted , the Rock got to know the Mob, who were in full regalia. Some came up and yarned. They wanted to know what he owned. They were trying to work out why he wanted his old banger back. It was simple, the car has family history and has been around for a long time. He was pretty annoyed that the deal that the car be in drivable condition, was not kept. But Barry had put the car in the car park on the Wednesday night so who knows who stole the battery.

The Rock says he saw a mother and a father who cared for there children , who looked after them with affection and concern as they played on the asphalt. While I reminded him that all he saw was a snapshot – he said he knew that, but he also knew good parenting when he saw it. He talked to some Mobsters who were bemused that this quiet man would go to such lengths to get an old car with no wheels back.He quietly informed them that he had come to get the car because it was his.

A copper arrived minutes after the Rock had towed the car away. They rang me to say that Barry had told them we had collected the car. Her sounded surprised that we had repossessed it.He informed me they were there to get it back.

Bit late I said, not without a trace of sarcasm.

I also asked the copper, if it was true, as Barry had said, that the police had seen him drive the car during the past three weeks and had done nothing , the copper said to his knowledge that was not the case.

So whats the upshot?

Well, Customline is likely to be in for a bit of grief. The Lower Hutt Mob made it very clear that they felt they had been ripped off.

The police while helpful at all times have very crap processes. If someone deals with a file it seems no-one else knows what the details are.

And someone needs to do something about the interface between the police and LTNZ. We do feel let down by the police process but not by the police.

Anyway we will be requesting the entire file from the police to see what decisions were made and when. We aren’t out to get any individuals because they have treated us with respect the whole way through.

But we are following through because, you see, this didn’t pass the granny test. That’s the test you apply that means if you were a granny what would happen. If it was a granny instead of the Aussie Rock, she would have never seen her car again. And the mongrel mob would have learned that crime does pay and has no consequences.

And that does not do our society any favours.

So what happens now? Well we have the car back and its going to a new home and in a cul de sac in Lower Hutt, life goes on.

IN THE PROVINCES

We finished our pickle making endeavours today - 20 pints later. Half piccalilli and and half bread and butter. We will have to buy lots of cheese to accompany the pickles and any guests will duly leave with a jar of BB's finest. We went to the Masterton boot sale this morning - its a regular Sunday market of all sorts of goodies. Its not just top end foodie stuff like the one on the Saturday - this one has junk, cheap veg, plants, books and crap.

Today we bought a dozen home made melt in your mouth chockie chippie bikkies for $2 from a lovely old lady who has got to be about 80. She does a mean raspberry jam and her red pepper jelly ( all for $2 dollars ) are staples in the pantry.

We also bought 10 jute and hessian sacks for various reasons, some honey comb and a brand new mat for $10.

Now we also support the local economy as much as possible and that includes buying the inky fingers version of the delightfully parochial Wairarapa Times Age.

However, the Aussie Rock burst out laughing when he read the headline for the Saturday paper -
It screamed "ALL EVIDENCE POINTS TO BAIN"

We had just spent some time saying that we reckoned all evidence pointed to the father Robin Bain.

The Times Age taking a dollar each way perhaps?

Then we burst out laughing this morning when we spied a delivery vehicle for Liquorking
On the top of the front windscreen it read "LIQUOR, SHE WILL LOVE IT !"

Of that we have no doubt.

LOVE BUG

BB got chockies for Valentines Day . The Aussie Rock likes milk chocolate - he bought BB's favourite Dark chocolate - true love.