Nelson, Scotland...sorry, I mean New Zealand

Christchurch, like Macclesfield, has a compact centre, pubs, curry houses, good MTB routes cyclable directly from town, crags within a 20 minute drive, and environs featuring green fields, sheep and rain.

There the resemblence ends, and the other basic requisites for civilised urban living begin: lots of other types of restaurant, a cinema or two, a theatre or two, trams, an independent CD store that plays music interesting enough for you to ask what's on, lollipop men with Mohicans, etc, etc.

I liked it.

It's bloody miles from anywhere though. I thought I'd scoot up to the north end of S Island for a few days - it's taken me all day to get here. They should print the maps on bigger paper. And in Australia too.



The Followers of Hare Krishna - a What Afterlife Special

A couple of days ago in Melbourne I had lunch with some Hare Krishnas. What happened was, I was walking along the pavement and passed this curry house with a sign up. The sign said 'All you can Eat vegetarian buffet' (except that there were probably a few more random capitals). Being a) hungry and b) a tight wad, I went in. Some shaven-headed gentlemen with painted foreheads orange robes served me with scoops of channa and rice, and beseeched me to come back for more if I wanted. The food was OK, so I did. They also bid me to sit at their table and read their promotional material.

This is what it said. Western Science is based on false dogmas. Scientists say there is no life on the moon, but that is not true, they have just failed to find it. They went looking for a certain type of life, so what do they expect. Everything, including life, is made up of five elements: fire, water, wind, earth and ether. As these elements are everywhere, Life is everywhere. Therefore there is life on the moon.

Therefore Western Science is based on false dogmas.

This section of humanity, who WA calls the Anti-Scientists (but to whom Alexei Sayle may have been referring to some years ago as the Slack-brained Fuckwits), proudly reject objective reasoning and consider it to be a badge of honour to resist logical trains-of-thought.

Characteristic of these people is that they will never test their own assumptions. Also they will give credence to almost anything that is countercultural, no matter how dumb it may be. In surrounding themselves with like minds, they insulate themselves against a world they can't understand, and, fortunately for the rest of us, therefore have almost no influence in. Small enclaves of such tribes exist throughout the West - the Hares, New Agers, travellers, aristic communities in poor Northern towns such as Haworth, etc.

Needless to say, the Hares were very nice people, but no way are they getting my afterlife.

Plus, I've been farting non-stop for days on end.