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New Years Day has not always been regarded as the first day of the New Year. Many years ago the New Year began on March 25th.
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You obviously are very anti religion. That puts you up against organisations that are in the majority of the world's population. Just because you have no time for church going does not mean that...

Ha! Ha! Yes. I have heard that one as well. Used to take the occasional "maori day" off myself. I was REALLY sick! (Sick of work.):rolleyes:

You would not be allowed to call it that these days....

At least it means something to someone - it's a day off, a long weekend. That will give them time to go somewhere for a break, so it's not a total loss.:rolleyes:

Ah, now I know what you mean. I did not know they were called that. I wondered if that was another name for jiggers. Do they still use jiggers?

I think that you are right. It is tokenism.

But your "soon be as many Chinese as maori" is not as correct. They are Asian and not necessarily of Chinese origin. Taiwan is one small example.
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Why are they making such a fuss? They are treating it as if it is something new. But we have known about the pleiades cluster (also known as the seven sisters) for aeons. I don't see why we need all...

What are hi-rails and where did you see them?

Another question for those wise ones out there: All trains have a red flashing, warning (?) light on the last carriage. Why is that? It's not as if there is any other train anywhere near the rear of...

We rode the Eurostar from London to the Gare du Nord in Paris (about 20 years ago) via the Channel Tunnel - 300kph - 2½ hours. And like the TGV (as psycik says) the Eurostar is very smooth. It is...

They had a luggage compartment at the rear. I think that they carried small parcels as well. Certainly they delivered newspapers. I travelled between Ward (80km south of Blenheim) to boarding school...

And talking about that sort of thing, the following is what I learnt from a programme I watch - NASA's Unexplained Files:

The universe that we see when we look out to its furthest horizons...

I could not care less what you think of me. Your opinion is not at all important. To me you are a nobody. You do not count at all. Why should I worry what you think? I do not. So say what you...

You obviously did not read all of my post. I stated that 'I am not anti Yank as you may think - I am pro Kiwi. There's a big difference."

And have you noticed? Nothing has an affect anymore, neither is anything affected. They all have an impact. Everything is impacted upon. The Yank influence once more? What is happening to Kiwi...

That's TVNZ's pronunciation, but in the 58 years that I have been in Auckland it has always been pronounced as it is written: "why ti matter."

And, in any case, I have been led to understand that...

[QUOTE=piroska;1316874]Aha.
My brother has that often.
We have found his laptop shows sound/mic as 2 hw entries, even though it really isn't. Swapping to the other fixes it./QUOTE]

I don't know...

I am wondering if there is some sort of mark to show which part of a word is to be emphasised. For example, the French use the cedilla, the acute, the circumflex, the grave and the trema to indicate...

I am having an intermittent sound problem on my LENOVO laptop when I have joined a Zoom or Messenger session. I can be talking as usual when my mic and speakers stop. Yesterday, for example, I was on...

No. They do not have expansion gaps these days as they used to. Apparently the pre stressed rails eliminate the need for expansion gaps. I'm waiting for someone to tell me why that is.

I have another question for you clever train enthusiasts:

As you know, the railways now have welded rails. I understand to make that possible the rails are pre stressed.

Firstly, I don't know...

There are 7 billion people in the world, a world which is that big that you could fit everyone in the state of Texas with more than 92.9 square metres per person.

Texas is approximately 678,052 sq...

I have found out since that it is, sort of, that the bigger planes have it and the small ones don't. Apparently the overseas planes have it but the local planes do not.

The fog is thick over Auckland this morning so no planes are landing at Mangere.

But I remember reading about a landing system that was invented in WW2 to enable planes to land in zero visibility...

The Paris Catacombs.

More than 200 miles of tunnels sit just under the City of Lights—some lined to the ceiling with skulls and bones:
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