The Saturday Rant
The Saturday Rant is back. Adam is not sure for how long, but for a while at least.Whilst many of the pinpricks of daily existence never went away, Adam just somehow did not get around to railing against them. Having missed one Saturday, then it became 2 and then 3 and so on.
Many of Adam’s commentators have lamented the absence of the rant.
This last week or so though the petty and not so petty annoyances began to grate once more. So here we are again.
So by popular demand and because Adam has been irritated by a number of things recently –The Rant
First up this week
Queen Street – Auckland
From Wednesday to Friday Adam was in Auckland. He was staying at an hotel in the CBD, perforce therefore he had occasion to walk along lower Queen Street.
Is Adam the only person who finds this street tacky and dirty?
Supposedly the street has been improved with some NZ$45 million spent on pavements, trees etc.
Well Adam could not see what $45 million had bought. There certainly seemed no improvement in ambience or general appearance. Certainly he could see no reason to have spent NZ$45 million.
This is the city that seeks to be the ‘Party Central’ for that monstrous waste of public money the Rugby World Cup.
No doubt the event will be supported by the numerous purveyors of T Shirts and kebabs which seem to abound.
Secondly
Hotel Broadband
What is it with hotels in NZ. Why is broadband so ridiculously expensive? Why are the data limits so low?
$33.69 for 50 Mb.
Outrageous. Especially as for the price of a large flat white the local Esquires offered an hour of free wi-fi or 60Mb whichever occurred first. Unfortunately did not find this out until late Friday.
Come the RWC hotels will have to do better. Why the hell do we all put up with this sort of rip-off?
In effect as Esquires offer the WiFi for free, that implies a large ‘profit’ for the hotel or at least for the service provider.
Adam suggests that many in NZ would do well to read Free, the new book, by Chris Anderson – Editor of Wired.
Thirdly
Lighting in Bars
Adam met up with a friend on Wednesday evening in one of the bars in the Viaduct basin. Nothing wrong with the bar except that the lighting was so dim. Reduced lighting one can live with, but lighting so dim that it is quite hard to see, simply stupid.
Cannot see the point of it. Adam likes to be able to clearly see the denomination of the banknotes he is using to pay for drinks.
Fourthly
Newspapers
Has anyone else noticed that the price of the print edition of newspapers creeps up, but the quality of content moves the other way.
The Dominion Post went up by 10 cents a few weeks ago. Yet Adam is sure the number of pages has gone down.
No wonder so many choose to use the internet.
It only seems like yesterday that the print edition of the NZ Herald went up in price, yet their sub-editing and spelling continues to inexorably decline.
How the newspaper owners can justify these continuing price increases is beyond the ken of a simple mind like Adam’s.
Fifth comment today
Spelling and the Use of English
Travelling to Auckland Adam noticed that Air NZ had a general knowledge quiz showing on the video screens. A few minutes before the journey ended a question came up which was about the author of a particular book. Three possible authors were mentioned.
Cannot remember who the other two were, but one option was an author called Charlotte Bront. Charlott Bront indeed, when it was clear from the question and the answer that it was in fact Charlotte Bronte. Both the question and the answer had the incorrect spelling.
Does nobody check these things? Or is the educational standard in NZ now so low that people just do not know that it should be Bronte? Personally, Adam is of the latter view.
Conclusion
That is it for today. Will be back next week with more grumpiness.
Rant… ? perhaps better described as sharp and accurate observations. Please continue Adam, and be assured that you are not a lone voice.
Nice to see Adam ranting again. As far as broadband goes, we avoid hotel connections like the plague, so we try all the available networks, and often find that the coffee shop ones (CafeNet, Tomizone @ Starbucks) work just as well at much better prices. We resent having to pay $35 for 24 hours hotel access.
Echo rant!
Although I live in Auckland I turned my back on the CBD almost a decade ago for the delights of “the city fringe”.
I only go into the city once a month for a meeting or unless some-one has offered to buy me lunch – sadly a rare event now.
The CBD and not just Queen Street is dirty dank and depressing.
There seem to be scores of little superettes and similar enterprises papered with assorted advertising. Even the few places like chancery that once were beacons of hope have lost their lustre becasue of the absence of ongoing maintenance and the fact it leaks.
Newmarket too suffers the same malaise.
God knows what tourists think of it all.
A comment on your third point.
Last week, I was one of four having a meeting at a cafe around 9.30 in the morning.
No one else was in the room yet they had music turned up at full volume so that we couldn’t hear each other speak. We shouldn’t have had to ask for the volume to be turned down.
Where has the common sense in this world gone?
I’m getting to the stage of having time only to sit and read on a Saturday – so appreciate your formate, Adam.
Do please continue. You rant about all the things I would if I was so inclined.
I do appreciate when someone else does my work for me.
Diane
All the $45 million spent on Queen street was apparently poured into the area around the Aotea centre. The rest of Queen street remains as it was before – a dump. I generally avoid the place unless I am going to a show.
If you do hotels more than a couple of times a year, you might like to consider a broadband modem on pay as you go. Vastly cheaper than hotel rates and at least you don’t have to go searching for Esquires.
On Queen Street so why did they dig up the whole of Lower Queen Street for so long.
The new native trees look forlorn and add nothing.
The pavements are dirty.
Someone should be held to account for the disgrace that is Queen Street
I didn’t say they did nothing to lower Queen street, Adam. Just nothing worthwhile…