In 1 week we move to our new house on the sunny side of town!

This is the view from the park in front of our new street, looking down towards the lake and Wanaka town centre.

Today was the first time here that it really felt like summer was coming – certainly a change from 2 back to back winters…

“A weak currency arises from a weak economy which in turn is the result of a weak Government.” Gordon Brown, during the Pounds devaluation after it was withdrawn from the ERM (before he made it to power by default)

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”, Ludwig Von Mises

Buddha’s second noble truth: The cause of suffering is desire.

September spring storms have been hammering NZ all month (think April showers in the northern hemisphere only more potent) and with the temperature yoyoing up and down, its been doing weird things to the mountains…

Yes the trick looks pretty ugly (not to mention Ulrik himself) but its the 1st ever 1640 stomped on film and that is still progression…

More ulrik-badertcher Snowboarding >>

Lake Wanaka is a bit of a small town bubble sometimes so we went to Lake Hawea for a change which is another huge lake covering 141 km² and is about 20 minutes away from Wanaka.

I find the textures on beaches amazingly hypnotic, (mainly cos I want to know how the hell the patterns formed like that?) to the point where I wasted long periods of time crawling around in the sand taking macro photos of different textures, with Flo getting very bored.

I then tried to wake her up by taking her biking in the woods. She is pretty accomplished on the roads after years of cycling in London, but her offroad skills still need a little bit of work…

I spent ages explaining how to lean back and ride around a banked corner and then got her to try. She got a little heavy on the front brake and nose wheelied out of the corner towards where I was waiting, at which point she tried to grab me to slow down. Instead of actually slowing down she closelined me around the neck, lifting me off my feet, and I went off the side of the trail backwards in to the woods with her and both bikes on top of me…

Other than me destroying yet another phone, we both survived with only a few cuts and bruises, so now we have a new challenge for the summer… Next time we will have padding, full face helmets and I will be standing much further back though.

No photos of the biking for obvious reasons, but here are lots of beach/texture photos to bore people with…

Queenstown birthday road trip…5 star hotel pressie from Flo…epic scenery…great food…perfect weather…happy days…

We went for a walk up to Diamond Lake…the sun was out but the wind was howling around, tearing up trees and flinging great clouds of dust in the air…

Everything is changing from winter to spring, but I have never seen it happen in september before: the rivers and streams are swollen, the blossom is coming out, grass is growing, the sheep are in lambing season, the mountains are slushy and people are moving on.

There is also the unsettling need for a new place to live, worthwhile work and some commendable purpose.

Its all very fluid and transient…

For my birthday this year, I’d like some stability please.

The boys have been digging trails in the woods…

Mikey hitting the stepup…

As I have stated before I try not to post about the economy, but those that know me know I am a gold investment believer. Well, september is the traditional time of year for Gold to do well and already the price has rocketed to just under $1000, a level it has stumbled on before.

Combined with the multitude of problems in the USEconomy, many believe it will charge through this barrier soon. Others will have you believe that everything is fine in the world economy and a recovery is just around the corner (i.e that it is fine to stick with fiat currencies backed by nothing but hot air rather than real money like Gold.)

I just dont buy in to that, when none of the problems that caused the “crisis” this time last year have actually been resolved, but with the levels of misinformation (like those pointed out in the article below) riding at an all time high at the moment, who really knows?

Only time will tell…

PROPAGANDA VS REALITY

Just today, typical rubbish commentary came from the New York Stock Exchange floor. As preface, note that over 75% of all NYSE trading volume is traced to Wall Street program trading. Their handy high speed, high frequency trading, also known as insider trading that taps into stock trade orders before they hit the exchange, now dominates the majority of trading activity. If that does not qualify as brokerage pit masturbation, what does??? The commentary went like this to explain the gold price runup, which is still early and still not significant yet in its jump. The charlatans on the NYSE explain the gold price moves up as technically based (therefore not real), as owing to the weak USDollar (not true in the last couple weeks at all), as a safe haven (intriguing if an epiphany is in progress), and as the result of light volume leading to high volatility (the ultimate in lame excuses). The Wall Street gang has really lost a lot of credibility. Why anyone even listens to them is a good question. When they run out of advertisement revenue to spend, we will be forced to listen to them less. Then they will use USGovt budgets to fund their statements in advertisements on financial networks. Ooops! They already do, from the USDept Treasury, when they were given control in 1992, and have commandeered it ever since.

Full article here