Tuesday 20 May 2008

Land of the long white crowd

Hi all faithful and fellow blog buddies.

I'm presently in the land of the long white cloud, Aotearoa. I headed back across the ditch at midnight last night - the second time in as many months, to help bury a special friend. Not in the middle of the night under torchlight you understand. He was an important colleague from my days in the Capital, and it was an emotional day of reconnecting with hundreds of fellow mourners at St Peter's on Willis Street, Wellington.

This is a reflective and a rather difficult time. I don't do funerals that often. Truth be known, I don't do funerals full stop. I was chatting to mother today on the phone, and seems to attend one every other week. She turned 87 yesterday.

I should also offer all my readers a heartfelt apology for the absence over the last few weeks, post Council election. I needed time to re-group, take stick, and take time out from the madness post election. I also wanted to allow time for the new Council to settle in.

Needless to say there were and are many things I wanted to burst into print and share my opinion about. I have been shocked at a number of things that this new Council have done already, least of all to follow the mandate that the community gave them for a new direction and a way of doing business.

Secondly, I'm shocked at the way the silly ol ComPost has continued to attack Schier in her new role as Mayor. In eight years or more, I don't recall one article about Kevin Byrne's hair do.

There's a number of things I wish to share about my experiences surrounding the election. Some stories shouldn't be told, but I will all the same. Some skeletons really need to be aired for everyone to hear behind the scenes tales. I'll get around to that over the next week or two.

Anyway, I need to deal with the 12 degree winds in Wellington where I am presently. I fly into the winter that is Christchurch on the 9pm flight this evening. 30 bucks on Virgin. Not bad really. I'll be back to sunny North Queensland at the end of the week.

It's also nice to be back on line. You can be assured, that CairnsBlog and I will, do the best to keep the bastards honest. Or at least accountable.

Kia Ora.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

great to have to you back Mike! And a return to intelliigent community comment from persons like me.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back on air Mike, at last !
From Toby and I , a meow and a hello !!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Michael
I hope your first story is about
" WHY DOES ALAN BLAKE THINK HE IS CONTROL "

Anonymous said...

yeah wots up with Blakey!, has he got plans to become the Robert Mugabe of Cairns??

Anonymous said...

yeah wots up with Blakey!, has he got plans to become the Robert Mugabe of Cairns??

Anonymous said...

Can we also have an in depth look into why Council voted (7/4) not to advertise the position of the CEO?

Anonymous said...

phew Mike, I had thought up all sorts of scary reasons why you weren't on air, buried under some "tall building" on Paradise Palms, marooned on Double Island, taken a job with Cairns Post - what a relief, I thought I was going to have to start writing to the Cairns Post instead of the Blog.

Anonymous said...

Allahu akhbar! Good to hear from you!

Anonymous said...

Is it just me or do others think the 2025draft/plan is the biggest heap of crap EVER published.
There is nothing in there that says anything solid about anything.
Just pages and pages of vague nothingness.
I find myself saying "WTF does that mean" alot.

Anonymous said...

My god.

You people dumbfound me!

One minute you'll whinge that there's no initiative and council isn't doing anything.

Then when someone does stand up to better their division and DO SOMETHING that you all whinge about - he's taking over.

Sometimes I'm ashamed to be Australian.

Tall poppy syndrome and a case of the cronic whinges.

Anonymous said...

That picture of Alan Blake in the Cairns Post showing him crouching in the gutter was priceless. It summed up where Blake and his principals are.....in the gutter. I heard him on the Radio filling in for King Boob with the Mobile Hairpiece fawning over him and you would think it was King Boob talking. He quite clearly believes he is something very special and listening to him you would think he was the Mayor.

Anonymous said...

Great to have you back from whence you have been.

Plenty to tell on the Northern Beaches. Plenty of misconceptions about the misconceptions going on surrounding the Paradise Palms Golf Course redevelopment.
Hope there is room on your blog for the whole Paradise Palms story, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.......

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Michael. Cairnsblog has been such an important development for the Cairns community and the time and effort you have obviously expended getting the site up and running and maintained, is very much appreciated. Sometimes we forget to say a simple thank you.

lillianatyorkeys said...

Yes, well come back Mike - you deserved a good rest after your efforts pre the Council elections. Yes, lots to chat about now. Sorry to hear about the funeral. Hope your week in Aotearoa is otherwise jolly. All good. Lillian at Yorkeys

Anonymous said...

CairnsBlog is back! Onya Mike.
With Boofhead gone, we still need to be vigilant re this new council.
Though one thing that does need to loadly commended: Proposal for cat registration. Long overdue.

Anonymous said...

So about that 2025 plan, Robin Clark is doing a presentation Wednesday 4th June 5.30pm wine & cheese for a 6pm start at Crowther Lecture Theatre JCU. RSVP Sue Kelly 40421456.... Im sure they would love a few bloggers to attend :-)

Anonymous said...

It is hard to understand how Blake has been appointed Chairman of the Cairns Regional Council finance committee.This is a job he held for awhile under the old council,before he resigned from that position.Surely a person should have some formal qualifications before taking on such a role.
We now see Blake taking over the self appointed position of spokesperson for the council.This fellow had eight years on the old council,you could write what he has done in all this time to improve our city on the back of a postage stamp.