New Tyres

After eight days of back and forth with the supplier I finally received my new tyres on Friday.

And it was well worth the wait. I took them out for a ride on Saturday and right away I could feel the difference. My back tyre had been almost completely bald and was not holding pressure, making me think I was riding on a flat but the new tyre felt great.

Additionally I hadn't realised how much the wear on my tyres had affected their grip on the road, leading me to think I might need new brake leads. But with the new tyres the grip was incredible and I noticed a real improvement in my cornering and felt my brakes working much more.

Only three more training weekends until Taupo! Plus my first 140km ride on Saturday.

Blu & Exile

My brother put me onto these guys just the other day and it is excellent. It is hip-hop of the highest quality and is also perfect to chuck on and listen to on a hot afternoon.

Taxing Parking

Stuff reports:

Employers who give their staff free car parks will have to pay tax on them as the Government moves to tighten the tax rules on perks used as tradeoffs for salary.

It's great to see the government acting on good advice. The only pity is the short-sightedness of the Labour party.

Labour's revenue spokesman David Clark rubbished the change, saying it was a desperate attempt to help the Government meet its Budget target. It amounted to "trying to get blood out of a car park".

But I guess when you're in opposition whether a government policy is a good idea or not is irrelevant.

R-Money

Just came across the best nickname for Mitt Romney in the comments section of a Vice article. Introducing:

R-Money!!!

The NZ Herald

Would simply reporting the news be so terrible?? Spaces at a memorial service are not a competition.

Based on our respective populations and the numbers that served at Gallipoli we are getting a disproportionate share already.

New Years Eve

So September is about to turn into October which means there is only three months left until New Year's Eve and the New Year. Now the New Year is a time for "rebirth", "reawakenings" and resolutions, but New Year's Eve is a chance for a massive blowout before all that.

The problem with New Year's Eve is that it is built up to such a massive degree that people expect it to be the night of the year (the equivalent of ten awesome Saturday night's in one) and it often just turns into another average Saturday night.

There are exceptions of course, NYE 2010 which I spent in Budapest was fours days of absolute mayhem and it was awesome (The image above is from the Sparty we went to).

So the question is how do you have a blowout New Year's eve or at least dampen the expectations that come with it?

The great thing is that this year you don't have to worry. Last year La De Da was a wet, muddy and miserable experience and to top off the horrible weather the headline act was absolute pants, despite the fact they have a video that tugs at the heart strings of scarfie memories and talk that they were awesome live (they weren't). In January of this year there was no chance I was going back to La De Da. But...

But they have managed to redeem themselves. This year the headline act for La De Da will be Shapeshifter. Shapeshifter (for those that don't know) are New Zealand's premier live band, they don't do concerts they do earth-shattering out of body experiences. With Shapeshifter bringing in the New Year at La De Da it is guaranteed to be an epic (and hence elusive) New Year's.

De La Soul are also dropping by but more exciting are likely to be Dub FX (who were one of the highlights of last year) and the Wellington rapper Tommy Ill and band Brockaflowersaurus Rex and The Blueberry Biscuit.

The Naked Truth

Jonathan Jones has a fantastic piece on the Kate Middleton topless photographs scandal.

The best bit is:

The real distress the Closer photographs have caused the royal family is not personal, or private, but political. They undermine the fabrication of royal power. In a year when the British have reinvigorated their archaic cult, these pictures revealed the naked truth that royals are just like everyone else. The royal titters in the Pacific suggest that to anyone who joins the Windsor family, that idea is so difficult to comprehend, it's funny.