ANZUA, New Zealand, new rats, financial cuts (personal and national), bannings..

The ANZUA conference in Christchurch went well. Discovered that there is a conservative side to them, mainly based in Sydney and Adelaide. The New Zealanders (Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, Blenheim, Nelson) seem to be the real cutting edge. An interesting public presentation on "great ape" intelligence was given on "All Heretics Day" by Drs Debbie and Roger Fouts, who, whilst I am very sympathetic to their point of view, seemed to overstate the case a little. The following day, another public lecture was given by Dr. Debra Haffner on religion and sexual morality. Haffner is a former President of SIECUS and is now a Unitarian-Univeralist minister. Her comments (about the anti-sexual emancipation attitude of mainstream religion) was a bit like shooting fish in a barrel from my perspective and she really didn't address the institutional factors. One other speaker worthy of note was Tim Barnett, the member for Christchurch Central and the main force behind laws for same-sex civil unions and prostitution law reform. His topic, on effective lobbying, was very useful and even a seasoned political operator such as myself picked up a few ideas.

Following a few days in Christchurch, which included my now standard visits to the art centre and the botanical gardens, caseopaya and I also took the opportunity to get a bit of a view of Lylleton and the Banks Penisula from a gondola-high vantage point. Douglas Adams once remarked that New Zealand has the sort of landscape that makes you want to spontaneously applaud nature, and he's not wrong. From Christchurch we went up the east coast to the picturesque port town of Picton to ferry across. In an effort to be contrary to expectations, the Cook Straight was flat and peaceful. Upon reaching Wellington quite late, beagl and kimeros acted as our hosts for the next couple of days and they are certainly deserving of high praise providing excellent conversation, drinks and games of five hundred. I also predict a future business relationship ;-) As usual, the Wellington Museaum of City and Sea was up to its superb standard, with an excellent exhibition of microscopic photographs, which certainly double as modern art.

From Wellington, which poured with rain, wind, cold and magnificant views, it was the long road through the Wairarapa region (including Masterton, home of 20,000 humans 3,000.000 sheep) to Palmerston North, home of my estranged family. Mama was in fine spirits having sorted out her finances and is now operating her own real estate business and driving a BMW sports car. She's one classy lady ;-) After Palmerston North we took the long road through Wanganui and the national park a journey which included interruptions and blockages from herds of sheep, cattle, a couple of pigs, wild goats and an eagle. After that it was through the central plateau, with the dominant view of the active volcano Mt Ruapehu and staying overnight in the town next to that incredible Lake Taupo. Finally, it was Auckland, a highlight being caseopaya's birthday dinner and staying at the old railway station and then home again.

One great concern was condition of our pet rat, Monte. He'd been thoroughly depressed after Harlequin died and it seemed that he'd given up on any enthusiasm for life. I seriously entertained the possibility that he would not survive the nine days at the rat-sitter. Instead he was bright and active on our return. It seems that the company of 150 or so other rats cheered the old fella up a bit. So we picked up two young ones so he can mentor them in the skills of being a rat in St Kilda. True to the theme, they are named Rogue and Vagabond.

One downside on my return is discovering that my largest client is going through some rough financial waters, so my work for them is on ice. This is a great pity as I was deriving about 1/2 my income from them. I can either look at as losing over $600 pw or gaining 25 hours pw of time. Oh well, such is the life of a self-employed contractor. At least it has given me the opportunity to update - after almost two months! - my own website and patch up a few others. One part I'm particularly keen on building is the games section and the retro - both mostly empty, but the draft version is filling up fast!

Whilst not wanting to push my own recent circumstances onto others, the economy is on the way down and underemployment is beginning to look like the norm and consumer confidence dives. A situation not helped by governments that just don't invest in infrastructure. My prediction? By the end of 2005, the Australian economy will be in serious trouble. There will be a collapse in land prices, interest rates will be significantly higher, unemployment up, our current account deficit will be bigger and household debt will be at its highest level ever. You read it here first.

Oh, and I caused a stir on convert_me recently. All because I actually want, for the first time, to interact in a newsgroup which doesn't collapse into schoolyard name-calling. So far my complaints have led to the banning of a evangelical Christian who swore that the bible foretold the future (and didn't take kindly to me suggesting that metaphors are not literals), a fundamentalist atheist who was simply rude and abusive and now, the strangest of breeds, a fundamentalist secular humanist!