HERALD'S BLOGGER OF WEEK

Apparently we are the Herald on Sundays Blogger of the Week with our stuff on the Whaling issue. Thanks for that. However if one more person rings or txts or emails that our spelling is crap we shall be very annoyed. We know we cant spell. The late Garry Ward's wife Mary Mountier even gave me a book to improve the level of grammar on the blog.

Interestingly, in our past, we have won prizes for our spelling excellence. As we got older it just got worser.

Anyway thanks for the congrats and all that...

BEST OF 2009

2009 has been a mixed bag.

We have new mates and we lost some good mates

We stopped blogging for a while then we started back up again .

We have a new job.

The son and heir is passing his helicopter exams and Ma and Pa have been hitched for 50 years.

So who is the best of the best for 2009.

Okay we think that the speaker deserved the best slot for his transformation of the running of the House. No argument there.

Best Minister? Probably Gerry Brownlie. He has made some ballsy calls on the energy front. His decisions have the potential to change the economic face of NZ. We are not sure that ordinary NZers have yet grasped the potential.

Judith Collins has to come a close second. She has police in her steely grip and we are the better for it.

Best Journalist? We reckon there are a few who for different reasons have done a bloody good job this year. Fran O'Sullivan, Ian Templeton, Rob Hosking are all up there .

Then who is the best columnists? Well its Hooton for starters. His columns are must reads and incite the mandarins and spinners alike. And he just gets it right.

Best blogger? Cactus on business is hard to beat. Bernard Hickey is pretty good and Kiwiblog on policy and oogling.. No- one does online girly oogling like D P Farrar.

Whale has to be noted for his fearlessness. He has a touch of the crazies but he is the Rottweiler of the right wing blogs and Gotcha is starting to do some good work ...

We have to pay tribute to Brent Wheeler who had made us think so hard about some economic issues that it makes our brain hurt.

Best paper? NZ Herald is our first read of the day. NBR is next and we dip into it quite a lot and Stuff is good but it seems to have lost the race against the Herald. And we always read TransTasman.

Best Labour politician? Well that's gotta be - we actually no one has really stood out. Grant Robertson is probably the exception. Most of the female Labour politicians are old school, social manipulators not empowerers.

Best Maori politician? Tariana Turia. First and last. However we think that Ururoa Flavell is starting to get some cred.

ACT- Well the jury is out on that for us.

To more urbane issues.

The Best coffee in Wellington is served at Mixed business on the Terrace.

The best wine bar is still Beaujolais and it still serves some of the finest lunch food around.

Best Restaurant is Zicos, followed by Arbitrageur who are happy to accommodate our rolling lunches with a continuously changing cast.

Best venue is Dockside but the food aint what it used to be.

Best new place - Ortegas fish shack and bar.

Best urban bar - D4.

Best wine list - Wine Loft.

Best Beer - Montieths Pilsener.

GARRY'S GOOD SEND OFF.

Yesterday we went to the funeral of Garry Ralph Ward. It wasn't so much a funeral as an ocassion. You see Garry and a few mates like Thorpey and Quinny had been to a funeral of a mate about ten years ago and were bored ridged after a lengthy rambling very religious service. So all three went home and wrote their services.
So the instructions for Garry's funeral were specific. It wasnt to be boring, he named some of the music he wanted and the people he wanted to speak.

Anyway, there were poignant moments of sadness, large doses of humour, and the odd revelation and just like Wardy it was never ever boring - not even for a second.

Garry was a good kiwi bloke who had an impact on many many peoples lives. He heart was firmly captured by his family and his passions were broadcasting and sport. He got to live his dream on so many levels and he lived each day to the full and included many in his good life.

After the service at the Old St Pauls, we all departed to the Sports Cafe as per Garry's instructions. It was what all funerals should be , a few moments to reflect the loss of a loved one from our lives followed by a celebratory look at the impact they had on us all , and finally a few beers and wines to lubricate everyones memories and tell some more yarns.

So in the next few days we will probably sit down and plan our funeral. And we promise, it wont be a long service, we will demand humour and like Garrys it will be a bloody interesting and enjoyable and memorable occasion.

GARRY WARD

Gary Ward passed away today - He was a friend, one of the nations finest broadcasters, funny, generous and a good bastard.

We will miss his wit and wisdom.. We reckon he will be sitting up above somewhere, chuckling at his mates having a bit of a wake today at Zicos. He will probably have a mike in his hand giving a commentary to those he now rests with.

Go in Peace Garry Ralph.

ITS NOT GOOD ENGLISH

We know that a few sub editors would love to get hold of Busted Blonde and strangle her for showing the English language such disrespect. We knew that our disregard of the apostrophe irks some of our senior readers and they are not too fond of our bad language either.
But we have decided that we might try and clean up our act a bit after we got a signed copy of Your Joking by Mary Mountier, the lovely wife of the irascible Garry Ward.

It really is a very good, well written mini tome on punctuation.

It was given to us by Spaz, who is a bit of a pedant which is odd because he is an Aussie.

So we are taking the hint. We are going to try and get our apostrophe's right now.