What a year…

Well, what a year it’s been.  Now it’s Christmas time 2020.

Who would have thought we’d have a year like this; it has affected everyone in different ways. Friends and families have been separated and the future has been very unclear. It’s been impossible to make plans for overseas travel, vacations, friends coming to visit for the America’s Cup – who could have known this year would turn out like this?
Like so many people, I had made definite plans for the summer in the anticipation that great friends from the States would arrive to stand on North Head and witness the America’s Cup races once again in my own back yard. My plans of cooking lamb racks on the barbecue, with fresh salads made from my vegetable garden, washed down with Man O' War red wine and conversing endlessly into the late evenings, retelling the stories we’ve all heard a hundred times with friends I have known for 40 years, all these plans evaporated into the abyss.  
All the plans of going to Russell in the Bay of Islands with the same friends, sitting outside the Duke of Marlborough on a balmy evening having a beer, long walks on Long Beach, Elliots’ Bay, and Bland Bay, and retelling the stories we’ve all heard a hundred times before, laughing. All again, disappearing into the abyss. The thought of maybe getting locked up again for the summer hardly bears thinking about.
As Bob Dylan said, “How does it feel, how does it feel, to be without a home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone”. That’s how I feel at the moment, no direction. It’s all very well getting up and going to work every day, which I do, but it’s nice to be able to look forward to something and have some plans for another adventure, like the trip to France I was planning to watch my dear friend Miranda Meron start the Vendee Globe Yacht Race, which is a non-stop unassisted solo race around the world, in a 60 foot racing machine called a yacht.  
I had plans to visit my nephew Jake, in Brisbane, whose wife has been stuck in America for 10 months, unable to return to Australia for various reasons, mostly lockdown. What a mixed up world we are living in.  
Congratulations to Simon Watts on winning the North Shore seat for National at the last general  election. Simon’s ticket was “Simon will get it done”, unlike previous MPs who actually got very little done for the North Shore. Mind you, they were very busy in Government with their own Cabinet portfolios. So, I think now with Simon sitting on the Opposition benches, he will have time to look at local issues for us.  
It is incredible the construction going on at the moment in Lake Road, with new housing developments on the main road and going into adjoining side streets. We also have the Ryman Village in Ngataringa Bay and the Ngati Whatua housing development. All of this without, seemingly, any plans for the accompanying infrastructure. May be there is a bigger picture here that I have missed.
Here’s one for you, the cold reality of construction in the New Zealand way. Five years ago we were doing a large Government-funded school project with a large construction company here in Auckland.  Suddenly the construction company went into receivership, leaving our company with a $400,000 shortfall. This was for Government-funded work, remember. So now, after five years of receivership investigations, we got paid out just over $17,000 for the debt. The Government ended up getting the school finished but the whole exercise left dozens of contractors millions of dollars out of pocket. How the hell does that happen?
I am so sick of the endless Watercare ads on the radio, congratulating us on saving water. I have never heard so much rubbish in my life, a crowd of people cheering Aucklanders saving water. I, for one, have not stopped using water on my garden, in order to save the thousands of dollars worth of plants I have. Luckily we have had rain, which will be going into our reservoirs. I will not be told in a patronising tone how to save water, when the current situation is due almost entirely to the complete failure of Watercare to maintain and increase water storage facilities. I believe that of the millions of dollars the Auckland Council receives in rates, the core services of water, roads and paths, parks maintenance and rubbish should be paid for first, and a certain percentage of the rates set aside for these services. This is before any Council vanity projects. Like anyone on a budget, money should be divided into the need to have and then the nice to have. All of this going on just makes your head spin.
I’m going to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and time spent with your nearest and dearest enjoying the summer break.  Let’s put this year behind us, and look forward to a better year in 2021.  We have a lot to look forward to. 


By: , Gundry's Grumbles

Issue 116 December 2020