A profoundely sad and utterly senseless murder of a student from the US occurred at a bus stop in Meadowbank (nearby where I live). I fear that this may not be the last case of random and senseless violence like this we hear. Melbourne over in Australia I now learn is currently experiencing a youth crime wave and quite often what happens over there I feel fairly often ends up happening here. I feel helpless admittedly and reinforces my anxiety I’ve penned about earlier.

Commonwealth Securities (CommSec) have emailed me (and purportedly other NZ resident customers as well) to advise they are closing our accounts.

The world is changing, people are changing. I don’t necessarily agree with (nor understand) the way the world is currently headed, but other than continuing to express my views and concerns to elect representatives, “chewing the fat” with friends and family over the challenges facing society, participating in public consultations held by any government agency, discussing civics in a broader setting and continuing to partake in civic discourse, I otherwise feel powerless to effect any change as an individual.

In a way, it feels like some sort of generalized regression or devolution is slowly creeping in to the human species, but can’t put my finger on the root of it. Closer to home, It just seems some kind of ‘strangeness’ is happening. E.g. Everytime I head out, chances are very good that I will witness at least one incident of people losing their shit in a public freakout. People obviously under the influence smashing things, public shouting matches between groups of people, physical assault along with other public disorder incidents. In truth, it is beginning to feel like scenes out of a zombie movie at times as obvious drug use continues to increasingly grip society.

As my uncle said to me, you can’t save the world and you know what? He is 100% right. Going to be hunkering down, closing up a bit, sticking to my knitting as it were, and focussing more on taking care of the people who matter the most in my life. (Engaging Some sort of self defense mode as it were).

I’ve tried (and I shall continue to try – through continuing to engage in the civic process), but the reality is, there’s little else I can do and anything I do in the overall scheme of things has little impact on the prevailing.

I’m also anticipating in due course, I will probably eventually stop updating this site entirely. I’m seeing little point in continuing to write and spell out my thoughts here.

So I’ve discovered that I’m sugar alcohol (Artificial sweetener) intolerent. Seems this applies to almost any Artificial sweetener including sorbitol, xylitol, aspartame, and others I’ve so far tried. Even a small dose will mess with my system – Ends up giving me flu like symptoms such as headaches, nausea, including joint, muscle and body ache, Diarrhea (Though without the respiratory ailments typical of influenza or COVID).

Used to be able to declare that I had no specific dietary requirements or restrictions when asked (on a form or otherwise). These days are obviously now gone for me with the use of sugar alcohols becoming more prevalent and I just now have to take care to check the ingredients of anything I buy and consume.

“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.

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

Plug in the USB adapter with your mouse into your Android’s phone’s USB port, power it off and then on again. Hopefully mouse will now be recognised and chances are you will be able to use your mouse to recover what you need from your Android device.

Applies to (my father’s) Oppo Reno8 5G lite

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.

From a purely residential property investment perspective (as opposed to buying to live in), the numbers I feel simply don’t make for a compelling case for buying as an investment in Hamilton City (Waikato, NZ) at this present time. Current interest rate settings with low rent yields along with the quality of housing stock make this proposition challenging.

If you need to invest in property, I feel better value could be found in other areas such as Pukekohe (satellite town to Auckland) and the larger urban centres in Canterbury and will be redirecting my search to those areas as of February 2025, have since purchased a rental in the Pukekohe area. Bear in mind that we are also in the midst of a nationwide rental glut.

Some of the issues I’ve found with Hamilton is that large areas of Hamilton have been marked as potential flood zones. Much of the land appears to be built on relatively soft ground and the majority of houses have various issues including (but not limited to) the need to spend tens of thousands to get it up to Healthy Homes standards.

Other issues encountered during my search is that the rent appraisals given by different agencies across the city appear to be about 5-10% above the current market (for new tenancies).

With all that said, I wish to emphasize that this is from the raw perspective of investing. If you are planning to buy a place in Hamilton to move in to (as an owner occupier), then it will obviously be quite a different story and would strongly advise not letting the above dissuade people making the move to Hamilton.

Hamilton city from a living perspective I feel is generally good with the river, the world renown and highly regarded Hamilton gardens, commnunity gully restoration initiatives along with many pockets of Hamilton having exceptionally strong neighbourly community relations / vibe (unlike Auckland). Not to mention access to a full range of amenities as you would expect to find in cities.

Hamilton City Council have also been exceptionally responsive to any enquiries I’ve had. Particulary around obtaining property information files and other related documentation.

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

Personal opinion only as a retail investor and an ordinary member of the public.

First learned of this company, Smart Parking Ltd while trawling through the ASX company listings.

This is a company that appears to predominantly generates revenue off of identifying contractual breaches of parking conditions at various business’ private car parking (retailers, shopping centres, etc) remotely via video / CCTV and then issuing the registered owner or keeper of the infringing vehicle a “Parking Breach Notice” (PBNs) with the view of hoping the recipient will pay up without challenging it.

Disclosure / Personal analysis:

Have “pilot bought” stock (Buying an initial parcel of shares with the view of adding to the Long position) into this company to help take the edge off of my personal moral indignation towards this company (similar to what I did with Facebook, now Meta Inc. a few years ago admittedly – as a counteracting mental analgesic).

This action is based off knowing how toothless the Consumer Watchdog Agencies can be on both sides of the Tasman and globally along with the public never seemingly bothering to kick up enough fuss (nor bothering to understand the rights available to them under relevant consumer / trading laws), as such, I don’t hold much hope of meaningful action being taken to curtail this company’s activities.

While I’ve never received a PBN from this company or others like them, I have gone and reported this company (in vain admittedly) to the Commerce Commission with a screenshot of the investor presentation where they seem to promote how many PBN’s they are able to issue as their key revenue strategy, but I only expect to hear crickets frankly (I reported this company prior to buying shares).

Known trading names:
Smart Parking Ltd., Smart Parking Technology, Smart Compliance Management, Smart Comply.

Takapuna Winter Lights Festival…

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

Personal opinion only as an ordinary consumer and occasional traveller.

I don’t believe there is a car rental ombudsman as such in Australia. There is the Australian Car Rental Conciliation Service run by AFIA (Australian Finance Industry association) which may be an option to take before lodging the issue with xCAT in your state or territory and prior to taking it to court.

AFIA I understand is an industry membership body and the Australian Car Rental Conciliation Service I understand assesses things according to their own “code of conduct” which may or may not necessarily align with Australian Consumer Law in all areas.

Read the ACCC PDF in relation to “Fair Trading in the car rental sector” to understand the rights and remedies available to car hirers under Australian Consumer Law.

It is also important to note car rental hire agreements do not override Australian Consumer Law provisions.

As an aside and to be honest, the car rental industry in Australia I feel in my opinion overall has not been overly upfront with some of their conduct. Some of these less than honest business tactics I feel are more pronounced with some of the independent franchises for some reason.

It is also important to understand that Car rental agents as friendly and helpful as they may appear are not your friends. Many of them are trained up as salespeople (coerced by management along with being offered monthly bonus incentives) to upsell extras to hirers and again the upselling aspect appears to be more pronounced with certain outlets run by independent franchises. It is important to carefully check the hire agreements to ensure they haven’t snuck on any unwanted adds ons.

Car rental horror stories examples (with a happy end for the car hirer concerned)…

• Post on Whirlpool – A case of a hirer involved with an at fault traffic accident where the car rental company tried to wiggle out of their responsibilities.

• Post on Reddit – SIXT Australia expensive windsheild replacement.

I’ve even had my own spat (though a lot more benign than the two examples above) with a large Dandenong based independent car rental franchisee (formerly Thrifty, now Sixt) whom I caught sticking on charges that were clearly outside of the written hire agreement and who I also caught writing their own 5 star testimonials.

Some of the stories regarding SIXT Australia I feel are pretty disappointing considering the network crows about being a division of the NRMA Motoring and Services group (I have my own thoughts about the NRMA brand and believe they’re now a far cry from their hay days having simply turned into another for profit focussed corporate these days, but that is for another post)

The Issue is that quite a few companies “try things on” in order to turn a profit (and hope people don’t challenge it or take it further) and rental car companies in Australia are no exception.

Many car rental companies I feel try to cut their headline pricing in order to get customers through the door and then attempt to turn a profit through upselling extra and at times with other less than upfront antics (suspicious damage claims). I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that quite a few car rental places turn most of their profit through damage repair fees, selling extra “peace of mind” add ons and other ancillary revenues as opposed to the actual hiring out of a vehicle.

Picture of southern lights

 

Lanterns hanging from the trees