Miraz Jordan

Another annual eye test completed with my favourite optometrist. She tells me I'm not a danger to the public. 😆 My left eye has lost a few letters and the cataract's in a tricky place, but otherwise all good and no need for new lenses.

As our eyes age our lenses yellow a bit — I didn't know that. 👀

In a random cafe on Lambton Quay in Wellington while I wait for Deb to finish work so we can drive home. Tracey Chapman's Talkin Bout a Revolution is playing.

I asked for honey with my Sencha Green tea but apparently here at Belen they're vegan, so I have sugar instead.

All good.

A tiny bit of exaggeration there, Apple Mail … I hope! If not, I'm in trouble. 😆

Maybe 50,000 people at yesterday's hikoi — Was the hīkoi New Zealand’s largest-ever protest? | The Spinoff:

Experienced protest crowd counter Grace Millar put the number at 50,500 people who “went past the end of Lambton Quay… Not including people at parliament, cenotaph… or those linking the streets“.

LOL, local dogs lose access to rubbish bags for rummaging.

WE APOLOGISE TO KAPITI'S DOGS IN ADVANCE
Kerbside collections just got safer, cleaner and easier with the introduction of our integrated wheelie bin system.

The hikoi is ramping up at Parliament. Here's a live feed. About an hour till everything really kicks off. Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrives at Parliament to protest Treaty Principles Bill | 19 November 2024 | RNZ - YouTube.

Or also: Hīkoi mō te Tiriti - YouTube.

Here's one way Aotearoa has changed in the last decade or more: increasingly Te Reo Māori forms an essential part of the language spoken here. I love it!

The hikoi is being led by all the kaihaka groups who led the various marches.
Each region produced their own ropu to lead the hikoi, and now all of them have arrived in Wellington.
They bring with them the mauri of their rohe.

Source.

Big day today with Hīkoi Mō Te Tiriti 2024 reaching parliament. Tens of thousands are expected:

12pm: Activation at Paremata (Parliament Grounds)

Deb has left an hour earlier than usual today to be sure of reaching Wellington in time to see her first client.

Outdoor table at The Herb Garden cafe in Ashhurst, Palmerston North. A moment’s inattention is risky. 🤣

We've had our EV for a whole year now and need to take it in for a service and possible software updates.

When we first bought it we were nervous and the experience of driving it was quite different from a petrol car.

Now we're just used to it and enjoy the ease of driving and the low running cost.

Not quite exactly the first strawberry of the season from the tunnelhouse, but the first I had all to myself, and not half eaten by the slaters / birds that got to it first. 🍓

Former PM Jenny Shipley is on the other end of the political spectrum from me, but her comment is spot on — Treaty Principles Bill 'inviting civil war':

"[The Treaty of Waitangi] is a relationship we committed to where we would try and find a way to govern forward. We would respect each other's land and interests rights, and we would try and be citizens together - and actually, we are making outstanding progress, and this sort of malicious, politically motivated, fundraising-motivated attempt to politicise the Treaty in a new way should raise people's voices, because it is not in New Zealand's immediate interest.

OK, rhetorical TV world question: if the victim's hands are tied in front of them why don't they take the gag out of their mouth? 📺

Those, like me, frustrated at not seeing the actual haka I mentioned yesterday, can see it on YouTube. Stirring!

The stuffed shirt on the parliamentary front bench they confront is the instigator of the awful Treaty Principles Bill.

Anne writes some seriously good stuff, like this: In praise of creating crap:

The value of creativity is not in the quality of what you create. The value is in the act of creativity itself. The value is in the energy you spend, and the fact that you spend that energy bringing something into being rather than tearing something (or someone) apart. …

Being creative is part of being human. It’s how you know you’re alive. And it’s how you contribute. How you influence. How you have some input about the civilization we’re currently building.

I love that this can happen in our NZ Parliament! Watch: Haka interrupts vote for the Treaty Principles Bill | RNZ News (2.5 minutes):

A haka led by Te Pāti Māori interrupted voting for the Treaty Principles Bill this afternoon.

ACT's Treaty Principles Bill is a disgrace!