My new ebike

My old ebike, a Merida Power Cycle, was manufactured c. 2003. I bought it used in 2015 for US $350.  Thankfully someone had replaced the 17-pound lead acid battery with a lithium battery, but it didn't provide much power and was speed limited to 15mph (24km/h). I referred to it as "The Beast" not because it was tough or heavy, but merely getting it uphill was a beast. However, it did get me to and from work for three years so I can't complain.

When I changed jobs, though, I knew The Beast was not up to it. (The old job was a 90m/300 foot climb; the new job was a 200m/650 foot climb, with several sections over 7% grade.) A friend had been complaining for several years about buying a road ebike when he really wanted a mountain ebike, so I made him an offer on the road ebike and he took it.

The new bike was also speed limited to 25km/h, but my friend had installed a "badass box" which effectively disabled the speed limit. (This is actually legal in New Zealand as they restrict ebikes by power, not speed.)

On the first day cycling in to work, I was coming down a steep hill and discovered the rear brakes did not work! Thankfully I was able to bring it to a stop before rolling out into cross-traffic. The next day it went to the shop where they found a leak in the hydraulic brakes. 

I also fitted a rack and some mud guards, but the rear mud guard was rubbing against the tire so I wrapped a bungee cord around it. This turned out to be a huge mistake: The bungee cord was now rubbing against the tire and it snapped when I was coming down a large hill, wrapped itself around the hub and froze the wheel! I snaked and skidded halfway down the hill. It was a miracle I didn't come off the bike. 

And then a week ago, I was cycling into work and someone made a right turn, straight into me. They were looking for parking and just not paying attention. I was going downhill so even with my brakes, I couldn't avoid them. Thankfully they were turning slowly and, although I came off the bike, it was another miracle I walked away with just a few bruises. I just had to buy a new helmet (I got a bright orange one) and I ruined my shirt (somehow I got oil across it).

Hopefully I won't have any more adventures on this bike.

P.S. Unrelated, I was cleaning out the garage and had two bikes that hadn't been used in years: My wife's beloved Marin she'd brought from Scotland, and my beloved Brompton folding cycle I'd brought from London. I made a pact with her that I'd sell mine if she sold hers. However, hers had a lot of rust and she opted to donate it to a group that fixes old bikes and provides them to poor families. I put mine on Trademe (equivalent of eBay) and it sold for more than I paid for my ebike! I really hated parting with it, but hopefully the new owner will love it as much as I did. 

I ended a toxic relationship today

Imagine if we treated personal relationships the same way we treated professional ones: We'd interview five people for an hour, maybe two, and if one of them was interested we'd make an open-ended commitment. At some point we'd feel unappreciated and try to find a new relationship without telling the current one. If we were successful, we'd tell our current relationship we were leaving...in a month.

And we'd all be okay with this and think it was perfectly normal.

But let's face it, it's crazy. It's inefficient, there's no security, it's unrewarding. 

Now imagine if we treated professional relationships the same way we treated personal ones: We'd meet with lots of companies, we'd have a good idea of what we were looking for, we'd understand what they offered and when we found a good fit we'd make a long-term commitment. Both sides would work to support each other, to learn and grow from one another. Not every relationship would work out, of course, but you wouldn't start the relationship with the expectation that it would fail in a couple of years. 

Of course, given that work relationships start out in such a dysfunctional way, it's no wonder so many become toxic. I resigned today because my work relationship was taking a lot from me and not giving me anything in return. The company wasn't listening to me, it refused to change, it couldn't even acknowledge the issues that I've been complaining about for over a year. Maybe it was just so wrapped up in its own problems, it didn't have any time for me. Maybe it never really cared about me, and I've just been fooling myself from the start. 

Unfortunately, I don't know if the place I'm going is any better. I talked to them for two hours. They seemed OK, but they're just replacing someone who left, so who's fault was that? It doesn't matter; what's important is they're giving me more money. It's not like I'm making a commitment; if I don't like it, I will leave.

I used to think dating apps were superficial--a few photos, a couple lines of text, no real depth--but it turns out that's what people like; they'd rather meet up and see if there is chemistry before trying to figure out the rest. Google "Tinder for jobs" and you'll see lots of people have created similar apps, but where does it go from there? Do they invite you to come work for them for a day or two (with pay) to see if you're compatible? Do you slowly work your way up to being "exclusive"? Do you eventually become committed after showing mutual respect, shared values and the desire to build a future together?

I don't know if any of this would work, but it can't be worst than the current situation. As for me, check back in 18-24 months so see if I'm happy, or I'm actively looking. 

Jimmie Rodgers, R.I.P.

I just learned another musical icon passed away January 21 this year. Every year, the family would drive from Los Angeles to Tucson, Arizona, to celebrate Thanksgiving with my mother's aunt. It's an 8-hour drive under the best of circumstances, but of course the traffic leaving LA on a long weekend, and returning after, was always a nightmare. My father would get off from work Wednesday afternoon, pack the car (and three kids), drive all night and arrive Thursday morning. My father would then crash and wake up about 3pm, just in time for dinner.

I'm sure we were little shits during the drive, but oddly I just have fond memories of those trips. Things I loved:

• My great-aunt Irene, who was a real firecracker.
• The food was fantastic (especially the turkey sandwiches on white bread with cranberry sauce the next day)
• Driving past the Cabazon Dinosaurs, which were always closed.
• Driving through the desert. To this day, I love the desert.
• My father's DIY roof racks (before roof racks were popular).

Things I didn't like:

• My great-aunt's dogs. This was before asthma relievers, and I would lie awake all-night struggling to breathe. I often ended up at the hospital for a shot of adrenalin. Imagine drinking a dozen cups of coffee and you'll have a rough idea of how much fun that was.
  
• My great-aunt's clock, which chimed every 15 minutes. As my brother and I slept in the lounge, this was maddening. When I grew up I learned there was a simple lever that would silence the clock.
• My great-aunt's corset, which hung on the back of the bathroom door for as long as I knew her. I later learned she was a can-can dancer in her youth, and that was obviously a memento from that time.
  
• My great-uncle, my great-aunt's brother, who lived next door and was very unfriendly. After my great-aunt died, and he was on his own, I still visited him at Thanksgiving each year, but never liked him.
  
• Tucson. The entire town was a retirement community, and anything that might have been interesting was closed for Thanksgiving apart from the cinema. In November it was always cold and wet (although one year it snowed).
• Doctor Demento always played Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. You could only hear this in Los Angeles and I always wanted to leave early enough to catch this, but we never did. When I was 16 and had my license, I volunteered to drive the entire way, and refused to stop the entire way, but still missed it. (I was an adult before I finally heard it, and it was absolutely worth the wait. I even travelled to Carnegie Hall, in New York City, just to hear Arlo Guthrie play it live.)
  

But what I remember most about these trips was my father had a set of tape cassettes that he only played on these trips. Music from Roger Miller, Johnny Horton, Bing Crosby and Jimmie Rodgers, that clearly shaped my musical tastes. When I grew up, it was easy to find CDs with all the other music but Jimmie Rodgers had disappeared. (It did not help that he shared the same name as another singer from the 1920's/1930's.) I was able to record my father's albums, and eventually was able to find CDs, so I'm still able to enjoy such maudlin classics like "It's Over," "Their Hearts were full of Spring," and my favourite, "Waltzing Matilda" with the wonderful lyrics:

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
"You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me."
Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag
"You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me."
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me,
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag
"You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me."
Down came the squatter mounted on his thorough-bred
Up came the troopers one, two, three
"Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me."

From Wikipedia: "The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot (waltzing) with one's belongings in a "matilda" (swag) slung over one's back. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", making tea in a billy (metal bucket) at a bush camp and capturing a stray jumbuck (sheep) to eat. [Tucker means food.] When the jumbuck's owner, a squatter (landowner), and three troopers (mounted policemen) pursue the swagman for theft, he declares "You'll never catch me alive!" and commits suicide by drowning himself in a nearby billabong (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site."

My great-uncle passed away in 2000 and my last trip to Tucson was in 2001, which I wrote about here.

P.S. I hope I don't have to keep doing these, but Alex Hassilev, the last surviving member of the original Limeliters, is 89, so expect another tribute soon...

Chris Barber, R.I.P.

I've mentioned Chris Barber on the blog several times, but I don't think I ever discussed the significance. He formed the "Chris Barber Band" in 1954, at the age of 24. They played "New Orleans Jazz" and their first record had a hit with "Rock Island Line" (https://youtu.be/CublT5vFS2o) that made Lonnie Donnegan famous. (Lonnie went on to popularise "skiffle" music which inspired a generation of Brits to pick up guitars, including Paul Mccartney and John Lennon.)

In 1959, Chris Barber had another hit with "Petite Fleur"  (https://youtu.be/dRFjEko04U0) which went to #3 in the UK and #5 in the US. After that, the band started touring in the US. The musical circuit at the time included a stop in Hartford, Connecticut, where my Uncle George lived. He loved their sound (and was a bit infatuated with their lead singer - and Chris Barber's wife - Ottilie Patterson) and even had the band back to his house one night.

Jump ahead almost 50 years and I had just moved to the UK and my uncle was telling me about Chris Barber. I googled him and discovered that, not only was he still performing, but he was playing in London that week! I bought a ticket and fell in love with their sound just as much as my uncle had. Afterwards, I met Chris Barber and told him the story. I think he was happy to have someone under 70 in the audience.

After that, I saw him whenever he was in London. He was almost 80 when I met him and still maintained a grueling touring schedule, playing a lot in Germany and Asia, as well as the UK. I last saw him in 2013, before I moved to New Zealand.

I haven't thought about him in ages but I googled him this morning to discover he'd passed away four days ago, at the age of 90. Wikipedia said he retired in 2019 and that he was suffering from dementia. He'd been given an OBE in 1991 and published his autobiography ("Jazz Me Blues") in 2014.

As an aside, Pat Halcox played trumpet for the Chris Barber Band since it formed in 1954 until he retired in 2008, a partnership that lasted 54 years. The first time I saw Chris Barber I got to see Pat play, and the last time I saw Chris Barber he told the audience Pat had passed away.

Chris Barber was a legend, and a wonderful link to my uncle who passed away in 2012. I feel privileged I got to hear him play, and lucky to have a number of his CDs in my collection. (I think one of them might be signed.)

You can read more about Chris Barber here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56270163

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/03/chris-barber-obituary

You can buy his CDs at https://www.chrisbarber.net and (should the pandemic ever end) the Chris Barber Band continues to play and tour. 

City slogans

Wellington's motto is "Absolutely Positively Wellington." While sitting behind a bus one day, I got to thinking: How stupid is that? When your town motto is really just the name of the town, you have a serious identity problem. (And a grammar problem, as well.) So I looked into it and discovered it's been the town motto for *30 years*!

I found a news article that explained that, following the stock market crash of 1987, newspapers were having trouble selling advertising because the news was so gloomy. They hired Saatchi & Saatchi, the marketing company, who published feel-good stories about locals doing well using the tagline "Absolutely Positively Wellington." It was very successful, and in 1991 Wellington adopted the tagline as their motto.

Then I looked around and realised that it could be a lot worse.

Auckland hired Saatchi & Saatchi to do something similar; they came up with "Auckland A." In 2008, Auckland spent $1.8 million rebranding to "Big Little City." (I suggest they just adopt their nickname, "City of Sails.")

In 2017, Invercargill adopted the city slogan: "Dream Big". This replaced the earlier slogan, "Friendly." Before that, it was "Where Dreams Come True" and "City Of Water And Light." (What does that even mean??)

In 1988, Dunedin's motto was  "It's All Right Here," which might look fine in print but was pronounced, "It's alright here." In 2008, before an international cricket test match, the city used the slogan, "It's All White Here." If you're a cricket fan, you'd know the New Zealand team is called the "All Whites" (after the all-white uniform) but if you're not a cricket fan, you'd think Dunedin is very racist.

In 2001 they changed their slogan to the enigmatic, "I Am Dunedin" and last year they changed it to, "A Pretty Good Plan D" which I'm not even going to comment on.

A sample of other meaningless town slogans in New Zealand:

• Ashburton - "Whatever it takes"
• Canterbury - "Of course you Canterbury"
• Christchurch - Was "Fresh Every Day" before becoming the "Garden City"
• Dannevirke - named after a Viking-age fortification line in Denmark, the slogan "Take A Liking To A Viking" was clever but sounds pretty needy.
• Featherston - After trying "Wake Up Featherston," they changed it in 1999 to "Try Featherston, it will blow you away." Now the "Welcome to Featherston" sign just says: "If you lived here, you'd be home by now."
• Foxton - "The Fox Town of New Zealand"
• Gore - "A little bit wild, a little bit out there"
• Hamilton - It started with the innocuous "Where It's Happening" but in the 1990s they changed it to "More Than You Expect" and then "City of the Future."
  
• Hawke's Bay - "Everything under the Sun"
• Hutt Valley - "Right Up My Hutt Valley" was adopted in 1995 to try and draw Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt closer. It did not go down well; Lower Hutt then adopted the slogan "We've Got the Lot" in 1999 while Upper Hutt became, "A great place to live."
• Manawatu - "Young heart, easy living"
• Matamata: 'You matter in Matamata'
• Naseby - "2000ft Above Worry Level" (This was adopted as a book title in 2020.)
  
• Tauranga - "Tempt me Tauranga"
• Te Puke - "Stop and taste Te Puke" (Te Puke is known for growing kiwifruit.)
  
• Timaru - Was "Touch, taste, feel" before being changed to "Feel the heartbeat"
• Tuatapere - "New Zealand's Sausage Capital"
• Wairoa - "The Way New Zealand Used to Be"

The funniest unofficial slogan must be Porirua. In 2012, then Mayor Nick Leggett started referring to Porirua as "P-town," seemingly unaware that meth was called "P" in New Zealand. (I don't know why.)

P.S. In 2014, Lonely Planet called Wellington, "The Coolest Little Capital in the World." That seems like a much better slogan to me.

Birth of a holiday

The delightful "Nightmare before Christmas" starts with the poem, "Now you've probably wondered where holidays come from. If you haven't I'd say it's time you begun."

Of course, they come from ritual and custom, but are made official by government. In the US, in 1870, Congress designated four federal holidays:

• New Year's Day
• Independence Day
• Christmas Day
• Thanksgiving Day*

These originally only applied to federal workers in Washington DC, but in 1885 extended to all federal employees. Six more were added over the next 113 years:

• George Washington's Birthday (1879)**
• Memorial Day (1888, originally called "Decoration Day")
• Labor Day (1894)
• Veterans Day (1938, originally called Armistice Day)
• Columbus Day (1968)
• Martin Luther King Jr. day (1983)***

Most US businesses do not provide paid time off for Washington's Birthday, Veterans Day, Columbus Day or Martin Luther King Jr. day, so most Americans only get 6 holidays per year.

In the UK, during the industrial revolution, holidays weren't just local, they were dictated by the factories -- when they shut down, everyone went on holiday. The Bank of England, however, had to be open every weekday for the government to function. In 1871 the UK defined the first "bank holidays" and in true "United Kingdom" fashion, they were different. In England, Wales and Ireland these were:

• Good Friday
• Easter Monday (Easter being the first weekend after the full moon which occurs on or after 21 March)
• Whit Monday (The day after Whitsun Sunday, the seventh Sunday after Easter, which often marked the beginning of the summer)
• The first Monday in August
• Christmas
• Boxing Day (aka St Stephen's day, the day after Christmas)

Scotland, being more puritanical, did not approve of religious holidays -- in fact, in 1640 Scotland made the celebration of "Yule vacations" (i.e. Christmas) illegal and New Year's Eve (Hogmanay) became the main midwinter holiday. As a result, Scotland did not get Easter Monday, Whit Monday or Boxing Day but got New Year's Day and the first Monday in May instead. (Christmas and Good Friday were still considered public holidays in Scotland.)

In 1971, the UK replaced Whit Monday with "Spring Bank Holiday" on the last Monday in May, and the holidays are the same across England and Scotland: New Year's Day; Good Friday; Easter Monday, the first and last Mondays of May; Summer Bank Holiday****; Christmas Day; and Boxing Day. Scotland also takes 2 January and St Andrew's Day off, while Northern Ireland takes off St Patrick's day and the Battle of the Boyne*****.

More than that, though, is that businesses have to abide by these holidays so most people in England and Wales get 8 holidays per year while Scotland and Northern Irelance get 10. The British government can also change the dates or declare extra bank holidays and they have done so four times in the past 20 years: In 2002 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II; in 2011 to celebrate the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton; and in 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II; and they have already announced an extra holiday in 2022 to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

New Zealand, as a member of the British Empire until 1947 (or 1986 or 2003, depending on how you define "independence") inherited the UK bank holidays (plus 2 January) but eventually replaced the "spring/summer bank holidays" with:

• Labour Day (1999)
• Sovereign's Birthday (1952)
• ANZAC (1966)
• Waitangi Day (1976)

The Holidays Act 1981 set out these dates plus established an "anniversary" holiday for each region (Wellington gets 22 January, Auckland gets 29 January, etc.) so in total they get 11 holidays.

Except now New Zealand has 12.

Matariki****** is the Māori name for the Pleiades star cluster, also known as Seven Sisters or Subaru in Japanese. In the Southern hemisphere, Matariki rises above the horizon in late June/early July and Māori mark it as the new year. It was a time of celebration and there have been efforts to make it a national holiday since 2009. Jacinda Arden pledged to make it official if re-elected and has just made good on her promise, although she did delay its implementation by one year to avoid any economic impact after Covid-19, so it won't be celebrated until 24 June 2022. (She needn't have worried: Stats NZ reported today that New Zealand's unemployment rate, which was expected to rise to 6% because of covid-19, fell to under 5%.)

So there you go: A new holiday is born, in case you needed another reason to wish you were in New Zealand.

* Thanksgiving had been informally celebrated since 1650. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a "national thanksgiving day" as the last Thursday in November. In 1939, in the middle of the Great Depression, November had five Thursdays and retailers were concerned because (then as now) many Americans didn't start Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving. To appease them, Franklin Roosevelt moved it up a week. In 1941 it was set as the fourth Thursday in November.

** In 1968 George Washington's birthday was moved from 22 February to the third Monday in February in order to create a three-day weekend. Contrary to popular opinion, it was never renamed "President's Day" and makes no reference to Abraham Lincoln (whose birthday happens to be 12 February).

*** Washington's birthday was the first federal holiday to celebrate the life of an individual; Martin Luther King Jr. day was the second. Reagan signed it into law in 1983 and it first took effect in 1986. However, some States did not enact it until 2000, and today Alabama and Mississippi celebrate "Robert E. Lee Day" on the same day!

**** Originally celebrated in England on the first Monday of August and not celebrated in Scotland at all, England now celebrates the "summer bank holiday" on the last Monday in August while Scotland celebrates it on the first Monday in August!

***** Do not go to Northern Ireland for the Battle of the Boyne holiday, better known as "The Twelfth." It's ugly.

****** Matariki is a shortened version of Ngā mata o te ariki o Tāwhirimātea, or 'the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea,' the god of weather.