I started the day badly with a 6am conversation on Facebook. I made the following remark in relation to a very pleasing announcement that an all weather bus service to the top of Mt Wellington/kunanyi. My comment was as follows:

'Excellent - all-weather, commercially operated and versatile. Probably a lot more affordable too. Cable car rendered redundant in one fell swoop"

So at six in the morning, on a week day when I had to be out the door in fairly short order to do patient transports, I was attacked by some bloke who attempted to suggest that I had made a completely different statement (to the effect it would improve accessibility and render the entire Cable Car Project redundant and who persisted with his argument despite several attempts on my part to cut it short. So I blocked him till I could find the time to attend to his argument.

Off to work  I head and take a particularly unpleasant individual for his two appointments and had to endure politely his reactionary views. Though when we got onto Sikh taxi drivers I felt constrained to politely deflect him 'why, he looks clean and neatly presented' says me.

Back to the office and had to endure a lecture from the boss who takes his responsibilities very seriously, to the point I asked if he had received any complaints about me. He admitted he had and told me a passenger had reported that i had demanded he sit in the back seat as I had my knitting on the front seat! So I pointed out that I had simply suggested that since he was travelling with his wife I had said this to him. What actually happened was that I had arrived, having put my stuff in the back expecting only one passenger, and when he announced his wife was coming too (not actually all that acceptable), I had transferred my stuff to the front to allow them to travel together. When he went to get into the front I had said, Oh, I just moved my stuff to the front so you can travel together and he meekly got in the back. So hardly a refusal, but the boss persisted with telling me how I represent the government when driving etc etc ad nauseum. I am so annoyed, if I could remember his surname I would email my boss to elaborate and suggest in future he simply ask me what happened, but I can't so it will have to wait till the morning when I have another early pickup.

We have three new mainlanders who have moved into the village who have some excellent ideas - one is opening an art gallery, another a shop selling weaving and some of my knitting, and the third also has some interesting plans, so we might even manage to achieve a critical mass to make some progress.

I have also had a chance to meet my preferred candidate for deputy mayor and am very pleased with the meeting - definitely getting my number one vote. My acquaintance who was asked to remove her sign has been stalking me on FB and trying to engage with me - she's a strange girl, and her behaviour is unnerving but I will grin and bear it.

Meanwhile I have a vest to finish, a beanie to knit as a raffle prize for next month and am struggling to get the back yard wrestled into control before the fire season starts (which will be rather early this year). I also have about 20 native tubestock to plant which I can't do till I get some cardboard to suppress the rampant growth in that location. But I expect it will all work out in the long run.