Posts by Mark Easterbrook
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I only caught the last 10 minutes, but found Biden surprisingly likeable, thoughtful, and down to earth.
Palin just sounded horribly insincere.
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I did, in fact, just laugh out loud into my beer o'clock beer.
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Another one - good retail service is a rare commodity, but I've had brilliant service from Barkers (in general) and their St Lukes store (in particular).
Just a couple of examples:
- A t-shirt I had bought about 2 months earlier developed some holes due to a fault in the way it was sewn. I'd worn and washed it several times. I went in to the store, and they agreed to replace it immediately. I left the store, and 40 minutes later they rung me to say the replacement had arrived - and it was a Sunday.
- I'm a big guy, and was looking for a 3XL jacket. They had nothing in store, so they had one of every style of 3XL jacket sent over from their warehouse, so I could try them - AND said it didn't matter at all if I didn't find one I wanted, they just liked being able to help.
- I went in 2 months after my last visit, went to try on a shirt, and had the sales assistant say "you tried that one on last time, remember, and you didn't like it." He was right.
They just come across as people who actually give a shit about making it a pleasant experience to shop with them. They also know WHY it's worth it - in the last couple of years, I've spent more money in that one store than I have on clothes in general in the last 10 years.
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AA Insurance Claims centre over in Albany. When I dropped my dented car off, they offered to taxi me back to work in Ponsonby, at their cost, even though it cost twice as much as the rate they charge you to hire a courtesy car for a couple of days.
Then, when my car was ready, they were going to send a cab to pick me up to collect it. While on the phone, the lovely lady at AA said "Oh, you're probably too busy for that. I'll send your car over on a tow truck." 40 minutes later, tow truck pulls up outside my workplace and drops off my freshly panel-beaten car.
Top notch, and all done with a smile, right down to the towie.
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Back when I was at Uni and trawling for potential scholarships, I found one that was for something like "children of members of the New Zealand Defence Force seeking to study Agriculture at Lincoln University".
Damn rurally-minded Army brats. Always gettin' the preferentialz.
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As Dean Barker puts it: "The first target for reform should be the outrageous salaries drawn by the top executives at financial firms. The crew that lost tens of billions at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and the rest have received tens of millions, possibly even hundreds of millions, in compensation for their "work" over the last few years."
That's pretty astute for a man best known for his sailing.
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
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I'm reviving my off-target prediction from last election: Labour falls a little short of National, but Helen and the resurgent Greens have make-up sex and put together a good solid little coalition.
Followed by MUCH wailing and gnashing of teeth by the Clark-haters.
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Given the success of OpShop and Elemeno P at these awards is it now official that you need your songs to be picked up by some dreadful ad to win an award?
No, because then SJD would be getting the gongs after being on the (not dreadful) ads for Buy NZ Made and Monteiths.
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Wave goodbye to Maurice Williamson.
He was a little too exuberant. -
I think National's trying to serve up a fishy tasting turducken.
Take a large helping of bull, stuff it with a turkey, which in turn is stuffed with a tern, which in turn is stuffed with interns recording the stuffing of a lame duck.
Is it home time yet?