The big question from today’s show was: do you know your neighbour? Spanky spoke with neighbour relations expert Jolyon White about what we can do as humans to bridge that very small gap between properties and social awkwardness, saving the Christchurch City Council 1000’s of unnecessary complaints. Have a listen to the podcast and check out the video too, it just shows how great a party can be when you approach your neighbours, involve them or at the very least let them know what’s up. I guess it’s a respect thing too, but there’s increased security for your fam and house and who doesn’t like meeting new people?
Our USA correspondent Shaun McGirr joined us this morning to talk about that snow they’re having, apparently when it snows in America it’s more interesting than when it does anywhere else in the world. Also covered the future of Obama in office and the Republicans taking over that seat in Massachusetts. Check it out.
Top chef Jonny Schwass spoke to us this morning about killing animals for food. We’re all so used to buying meat prepackaged in those little black styrofoam containers with the cling wrap on top, we all know where the meat comes from right? Its comes from farms that grow these little black packages. If you had to kill a pig, could you? Well it’s not your job is it. In that case, could you watch an animal being slaughtered then eat the meat? I’m not saying you have to do that either, but we need to give thought to the process. This stuff just doesn’t magically appear, it’s flesh that was once muscle on a living, breathing beast. All I’m saying is please don’t eat yourself.
Here’s the story Spanky was talking about at the end of today’s show about that Waitangi Day rugby league game down on Stewart Island, where Maori imports were shipped in especially. Great story. Click here for stuff.co.nz article.
Stewart Island’s forward pack
With the help of cell phones, getting lost in the bush doesn’t present us with quite the same problems as it once did. Obviously there are still areas with no cell reception but for the most part, coverage is pretty good. This morning we spoke with Lindy Kelly, author of ‘Lost in the Bush’ a book about keeping yourself safe in New Zealand’s great outdoors. It’s mainly aimed a kids with a lot of cool illustrations to keep it interesting, and we understand that not all kids have cell phones so a book is the next best thing to help them survive. Only bummer is, you can’t use it to text your mates. Boom!
Oh yeah, thanks to all who got involved with the C4 Golden Bean this morning - the question was something along the lines of what would a good food related name for sports teams. Some gems were The tartan pinenuts - Scottish treefelling team, The Brussels Sprouts - a lawn bowls team everyone hates and The ashburton cabages = local basketball team, but the winning text was The afghan afghans. A cross-country team. Thanks Joe! And congrats, coffee and Sacha Vee, a great combo prize.
Catch you tomorrow when we’ll learn how to walk on walls. It’s the future baby!
We finished off the week with a killer show this morning, seeing as it’s Waitangi Day tomorrow and we’re looking forward to seeing what’s thrown at John Key this year, we had a chat with our BWS Maori Laison officer; Garrick Cooper from the Maori Studies Dept at the Univeristy of Canterbury. We picked his brain about the treaty and what celebrating it means to Maori and Pakeha, how important is the day to him personally and we briefly discuss the tino rangatiratanga. Have a listen yo!
There’s a fantastic new website/blog called the Local Vanguard created by native New Yorker Jenafer Matthews. Jenafer brings a fresh perspective, as she’s seeing the city with new eyes, and that’s what the site’s all about - “an offbeat exploration of local culture and city affairs”. We spoke with Jenafer this morning to find out a little more of her history and what’s behind the site, if you want to contribute, get in touch with her, the contact details are on the site. Check out the interview here:
One man who has influenced and is headed towards changing millions more lives is recently crowned New Zealand of the year; Ray Avery. Ray had it pretty rough growing up but conquered adversity on the streets of England, moved to New Zealand and began inventing stuff. Rather than babble on about his acheievements that acquired his this prestigious award, have a read of the link and listen to this, an interview with a bloody good bloke:
And finally, another Kiwi who’s making waves with his ingenuity is Keith Alexander. This mechanical engineer from the Univeristy of Canterbury has invented a safe alternative to your old school trampolines called the Springfree Trampoline. It’s more aimed at younger bouncers, and has taken top honours in the States after being voted top childrens toy. All this came from a man being told to do by his wife! Well, give or take a few other factors… have a listen to Keith’s remarkable story:
Thank you for joining us all this week, and a big welcome to all our new RDUnited members who most likely signed up at Sounday, keep getting involved and we’ll see if we can’t win you some sweet prizes. Have a great weekend, look after each other if you’re out and about and we’ll catch you back here on RDU 98.5FM, Monday 7:30am - 9:30am.
We’ve probably all told a little white lie at some point in our lives, maybe more so as we get older even, but definitely as a kid, and most likely to get off a day at school! This morning Spanky played the 3rd episode in his Campfire Stories series a story called Telescope which details Pine’s singer/snare player Stephen McCarthy’s experience as a student lying to his parents to get out of going to school. What he gets instead is a lesson about telling fibs and how easily they can escalate.
You may remember last year we spoke to plastic surgeon Howard Klein about an interesting proceedure called Labiaplasty? Well we had Howard on again this morning to talk about something that men are increasingly having done; getting man boob reductions. Some times you can’t diet or exercise off that extra fat so why not have it sucked out! If you know what happens to that fat we’d love to know, currently we’re under the illusion it can be made into soap…
Finally, today we caught up with our Marlborough correspondent, ex RDU host and general all round nice guy Mr. Blair Ensor. Blair scored an interview with Paris Hilton’s Aunty and Uncle while they were in town so we had to find out what they were like and catch up on other D-list celebrity goss. As far as we know, Blair does not have man boobs, but from the picture below you would be forgiven for thinking he might. Have a listen:
And as always on a Thursday, the lovely Maria Walls came into the studio to preview an upcoming film on Sky’s Rialto Channel. Today it was spectacular animated film: PERSEPOLIS and of course you can listen to the podcast preview.
Hump day! Sweeet. We were lucky enough to have a chat with the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Biosecurity; David Carter this morning. He told us all about NAIT which is the National Animal Identification and Tracing project where we’ll basically be able to track meat products back to the farm they came from. It all seems a little strange when the government is looking at cubicle farming, so it’ll be interesting to see which gets more support and goes ahead.
It’s interesting to think about how many of us in Christchurch actually know our neighbours. Or at least well enough to jump the fence and speak our minds if there’s something they’re doing that doesn’t sit well with us. In this ever increasingly mobile society we spend less time socialising in real life vincinities, so it kind of makes sense that the CCC are recieving more complaints (and many of a seemingly insignificant variety) to their customer services division. We spoke with the manager there; David Dally about how much these complaints are increasing, what are some of the weirder ones and what can we do instead of picking up the phone to complain about our neighbours.
Cheerleading is a sport(?) that’s slowly gaining momentum in New Zealand. We spoke with Kimberley Ramsey who is the founder of the All Star Cheerleaders, brunette and previously practiced law. Listen to this because you’re probably wondering if those movies like Bring It On had any effect on New Zealand’s youth - High School Musical can’t really be held responsible for cheerleading can it?
