Category: General

New Zealand’s next Governor General has been announced as Jerry Mateparae, he will succeed Sir Anand Satyanand at the end of his term in August this year. Mateparae is the current chief of New Zealand defence, and was announced by John Key last year to be the next head of the Government Communications Security Bureau – who are, basically, spooks. He appears to have never taken up that post (it sounds like he did take up that role, a month ago), but it doesn’t matter because one of his previous role was even more bad ass, you see something not many people have been talking about is that Jerry Mateparae is a former member of New Zealand’s most elite military unit, the NZ Special Air Service. It’s easy to tell, as you can see in the picture below he wears the Winged Parachute on his right shoulder, which is one of the crests of the unit.

Where have we seen that before? Well let’s just have a look at the right shoulder of Willie Apiata, VC.

I reckon it’s official, New Zealand is shortly to have the most badassed Governor General to be found anywhere in the Commonwealth. And I think we can all get behind that, don’t you?

 

— UPDATE 2:45pm —

It was suggested on twitter that this Winged Parachute merely denotes that the wearer is parachute qualified, I believe that this badge is the “ordinary” NZ Defence Force parachute badge:

While this one is a special pattern, for NZ SAS members only:

I do not wish to pretend to have a great deal of knowledge in this area, but I believe this to be correct.

Be careful you don’t look into my eyes lest you lose your mind.

I rigged up a tiny video camera to a cheap parafoil kite and flew it at Bastion Point, the video is pretty difficult to watch (lots of jerky movement doesn’t make for a restful viewing experience), but there are some fun stills to be found. Here you see the shortcomings of the sensor, add a bit of sudden movement and it bends the horizon and starts rolling Bastion Point and the Hauraki Gulf up, Inception style.

And here in a slightly different mounting location, showing the complexity of the string rig that keeps the foil together. That’s Selena on the left, and your fearless hero with arms outspread like an anteater on the right.

Built to protect the access rights between blocks of land that the new Northern Tollway slices through, slightly controversial as it cost a couple of million dollars of public money and you can only get over it with a key, but isn’t it just the loveliest thing?

It’s so wonderfully slender, the asymmetry is very odd looking.

It’s the Hillcrest Rd bridge, I don’t know who calls i the Pukeko Bridge, but some news articles assure me that’s a name some know it by, and it suits those long spindly legs.

Gorgeous.

A perfect Christmas example of the traditional New Zealand pavlova. People who make a pav with anything other than strawberries have a tenuous claim of being a Real New Zealander. Kiwifruit on a pav is an abomination, people who perpetrate that foolish act deserve no better than death.

Probably the greatest gift I’ve received in 15 years, somehow Trouble managed to find a scarlet & white Adidas Firebird tracksuit. I’d tried to track one down several times and had no joy, and had no idea she’d even considered looking.

This tracksuit fucking rocks.

You have no idea how happy it makes me.

The turkey (and the meal displayed here) wasn’t Christmas dinner, but a meal I don’t usually celebrate – Christmas Eve dinner. The stuffing was completely outrageous, almost certainly the best I’ve tasted. And bonus, I made it.

I won’t tell you exactly how to make it, this isn’t a recipe post, but it starts with about two thirds of a cup of turkey fat, bacon fat, olive oil, butter, a little lemon zest & juice, and some parsley. A good cupped of mushrooms, and a couple of onions are sauteed, then about a cup of fresh parsley and 8 or 10 leafs of fresh sage, all mixed up then a whole pile of fresh breadcrumbs, 8 cups or more, then chuck it into the oven in a roasting dish for 20 or 30 minutes.

Amazing texture, incredible flavour, and unbelievably rich.

Here we find Anna Nicole in her natural habitat — she’s a 6KG Crozier’s free range turkey, which should apparently serve ~16, we had her at a meal for just 4, and then three other meals. This is a lot of turkey. Perhaps you can’t quite tell the scale, but that’s a very large roasting dish she completely fills.

As is appropriate for the season, Anna Nicole is wearing a tailored blanket of Freedom Farms free range bacon, stuffed with onions, lemons, and garlic bulbs, and liberally basted with butter & olive oil.

If you think you can see a woman’s face in amongst the vegetables, you’re not alone. I think this turkey may have been haunted.

(Naming? Obvious. She’s a dead bird with huge breasts.)