So what's been happening while I've been on leave..?
We see that air travel with Aussie Airlines continues to be disrupted with volcanic ash, however the good news is that Winter appears to have finally arrived and this will allow hoards adventure tourists to travel in order to exercise their skiing prowess.
It's never a positive experience for a motelier when one of their guests goes feral. We see that a guest staying at the Dalma Court Motel in West Auckland had a man that was known to a female motel guest, force his way into her unit and ended up hiding in the motel's roof cavity when police arrived.
After a two hour standoff the villain was apprehended and later charged with unlawful entry to the premises and some drug-related charges.
In testament to the motel industry seriously requiring the services of a PR consultant, I note that various regional motel branches are hitting the MSM with ad-hoc comments about the prospect of trade around the Rugby World Cup period.
Under the dramatic headline, "World Cup looks a fizzer for motels," Hamilton moteliers are openly stating that they "might actually do worse this year because of the tournament."
Interestingly the Waikato Motel Association's bizarre agreement amongst its members of setting a tariff that is unable to be increased by more than 50 per cent has again been openly reported.
Bay of Plenty accommodation providers have also provided sound-bites in the MSM under the heading "Hoteliers wary of hiking prices" that gave an uninspiring forecast of lacklustre trade over the RWC that will reflect modest tariff increases.
In a sad story that would invoke rage amongst my fellow motelier brethren, Unruly Teens Cause Motel Chaos exposed uncouth Invercargill teenagers causing accommodation providers in Queenstown much angst by vandalising property and disturbing the quiet enjoyment of hapless guests.
By way of comparison, the stupidity and arrogance of youth was again on display in West Virginia, USA when it was reported that suspects between the ages of 16 and 23 were arrested, after photos of them destroying a motel room and spa area at a South Charleston motel were posted on the Twitter social networking website. Two of the "men" have been charged with felonies and four have been released from jail on bond. Meanwhile back in NZ, we trust that the Invergcargill youths after causing havoc and wrecking private property have recovered from their mild slap with a moistened bus ticket....
And finally, it is common knowledge that if taxi drivers and barbers were swept into political power, the world would be a better place. The modern version of this commonly held belief is that self-opinionated bloggers could also run the country a lot better than those vested in power. So I was delighted when popular blogger, Cathy Odgers (Cactus Kate) finally put an end to speculation and announced that she will be putting her name forward to be a candidate for the ACT party at this year's election.
I hope that Cactus will be putting some cred back into a party that has been punching well below its weight for some time. This blog will be naturally swinging behind Cactus and wishing her well...
