“Night Glow” at Claudelands Event Centre, Hamilton for Balloons over Waikato…

Didn’t have a ticket (They’re Free to grab, but very limited in number), was passing through The Tron, so walked up and took some photos through the fence.

I haven’t been able to get my desire to travel (overseas for leisure) back since COVID-19 – Essentially the desire to do so completely disappeared over the COVID lock downs and it never recovered.

In a nutshell, the potential enjoyment derived in my mind / grey matter doesn’t yet exceed the potential hassle / stress / cost at the moment. Given that it’s now been 5 years and the itch still hasn’t returned, I think it would be fair to say it may not return for a very long time (at least not to the same level as it was prior to COVID-19)

If there is a “purpose” to the travel, be in for work, volunteering, or other opportunity (that is not purely for leisure), then perhaps I can tack on a “leisure” component afterwards, but until that comes, will leave it be.

Going to be pulling back further on my personal casual use of the internet and personal consumer tech devices during my evenings and weekend.

Celestrial Dragon photo at the Latern Festival in Manukau Sports Bowl.

Given the way things are heading, financial and economic inequality will almost certainly continue to grow relatively unchecked. To be blunt and direct, I feel in the longer term we will possibly eventually see a societal structure that is more akin to some form of neo fedualism (for the lack of a less alarmist way to put it).

The ordinary people I sense these days are increasingly occupied with just financially surviving and providing for their families first and formost. I can’t see people finding the time and energy to organize to try and mitigate against the current tradjectory. (Be it through public policy deliberations, engaging in civics, and taking the time to talk with politicians in person come election time)

The ordinary folk are often so exhausted, they end up just consuming entertainment from the higher ups along with engaging with conspicious consumption as an analgesic to the malaise. In a way, we are being fed a steady diet of bread and circuses.

In addition, the fact that Donald Trump, a convicted felon, has been voted in for a second term is pretty much a stark warning that things are not well under the hood. A warning I feel the majority of us will no doubt ignore. I understand people want change, and want to bring down the establishment, but I feel Trump is very much a part of the establishment and the US people having now voted him in, will only exascerbate the growing issues faced by ordinary people.

In fact, I would like to engage with any Trump supporter in order to better understand their reasoning (and to learn more). It’s entirely possible I’ve missed things.

Karangahake Gorge Tunnel Photo. The Rail Tunnel loopRail Tunnel loop is one I’ve done plenty of times as a wind down walk after a bigger hike.

The situation I feared almost two decades ago has materialized.

Facebook has begun and is already replacing having a website for a lot of businesses. Often when I do a search for a business, I find they now only have a Facebook page. The issue with this is that it effectively forces people to get a Facebook account to look at their page. (Scroll a handful of posts and FB now demands you login or create an account)

I will admit to buying shares in Facebook (now Meta Platforms Inc.) as a psychological analgesic to try and take the edge off of my high disdain towards the company. The stock price has now since quadrupled.

Despite my attempts to set up alternative self hosted platforms for friends to use (this site, peak.nz originally being one of them) to try and stop Face-borg taking over in this fashion, this was ultimately in vain. In hindsight and upon blunt reflection, I stood no chance.

The old web is dead. 15 years ago I was panned for being “Oh so pessimistic” for suggesting what has now eventuated today.

Admittedly, I really dislike the “new” Internet and have responded by drastically cutting down my personal use of it

Quick shot of the still waters of Auckland Viaduct Harbour

Takapuna Winter Lights Festival…

Traffic was jammed up for about a 2 km radius. Lucky I took the bus this time.

Picture of southern lights

Lanterns hanging from the trees

Update 5th February 2024: Have now tested negative. Apart from sleeping for much longer and a dry cough, symptoms are largely gone. Overall, for me, felt like a longer acting but milder version of the flu.

Symptoms initially appeared mid last week sometime but daily Rapid Antigen testing only began showing positive 4-5 days after symptoms first appeared.

So far symptoms have been rather mild (so far). More like a mild / low grade influenza with mild fever for only a day and a tickly / itchy throat for the rest of it,

That said, it’s appears to affect everyone differently and quite vastly so. Have had APAC Development team members at work being knocked out for weeks at a time.

Full moon photo from Auckland’s night sky…

Early spring clean. Photo of product packaging that I dug out from the closet.

Issue is, some of this packaging is so elaborate and fancy inside the box, that you don’t want to throw it away. It does make me wish there was a practical way to send such packaging back to the manufacturer to reuse.

For me personally, a return to full price adult fares is a deal breaker and will likely result in a substantial drop in my utilization of Auckland Public Transport. Half price fares did compel me to at least try out public transport to get around Auckland predominantly during the weekends (including picking up groceries at Pak n’ Save Glen Innes).

That said, it was a shit show of cancelled services, missed connections, helping out fellow public transport users who were lost, avoiding the derranged, taking two hours to get to your destintation when a car could do it in a third or even a quarter of the time. Frankly, I felt like a second class citizen and that the powers to be really couldn’t give a toss about Public Transport users.

My place of employment (East Tamaki) is poorly served by public transit so I don’t have the opportunity to use public transport regularly (even though I have longed for decades for being able to do so) and subsequently it doesn’t make sense for me to buy a monthly pass. I have to join the throngs of other single occupant cars to make the 16 km journey (32 km return) to and from work as the only pragmatic balance between cost, personal safety, and time.

Will be going back to using my car more in the weekend, even accounting for the 30c tax and excise being added back on. A bus fare of $2.37 for one way one zone travel just isn’t compelling for me in many situations. More so for short journeys that cross a zone boundary. That said exceptions where Public transport could still work for me…

• $4.20 to get into the CBD, with a $8.40 round trip, Cheaper than driving (single occupant) and paying for parking. That said, I don’t find myself needing to go into the CBD very often at all.
• Travel from the end of one zone to the other end (e.g Eastern Suburbs to New Lynn), typically using Bus 75 and hopping on the Western Line trains at Newmarket. The Same journey in an ICE car would probably be $6-8 one way  inclusive of wear and tear