Cold and business as usual in Nuttown, NZ

Still very cold here. Guess it won't be really warm again till sometime in September. Not much to talk about either, everyone seems mainly concerned with staying warm and dry.
     Yet another controversy about the Council, the Mayor and his wife are taking a ratepayer-paid tour of Christchurch's sister cities around the globe. The Mayor says the Council asked him to go, of course he says he doesn't want to have a free holiday with all expenses paid at all, let alone get the missus a free holiday too, but hey, they have to go, it's part of his job. Whether it's part of her job is another interesting point. (Whether she is really a woman is also much discussed, but that's another story. I feel there is also a story about nepotism and corruption, but our "free" press is too scared to investigate in case they are sued for libel. NZ has some of the harshest libel laws in the world; practically anyone can sue if they feel even slighty miffed at their portrayal in print) The happy couple are slated to visit eight locations around the world, and this is being spun as a way for Christchurch to get publicity and overseas investment dollars. Yeah, right.
       Local businessmen are going to build a temporary accomodation "suburb" to house all the workers who will be coming for the rebuild (whenever it finally gets underway). Why they can't build temporary accomodation for the presently homeless is an interesting question, but then, life in Nuttown (or Dysfunctionville) is full of interesting questions at the moment.
      Personally experienced a bizarre moment last night. Our sewers are being remotely viewed for breakages caused by earth movement. For some reason, some of this work must be done at night, so last night was full of heavy machinery trundling up and down. The "bizarro" thing was that I received a flyer in the mail that apologised for the disturbance, and instructed me to wrap my toilet aperture in cling-film to minimize the effects of "blow-back". Yes, you can just imagine it, can't you? You can even smell it. So at 11.00 at night here I am, applying cling-film to the toilet, thinking "this is truly WEIRD". Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would be doing this with my life - overseas travel, career success, great fame as an artist, yes, but cling-filming my toilet, no!  Just hope it wasn't some jerkoff's idea of a joke. Do I feel like a dolt? Yes, but the fear of having to clean up other people's faeces is stronger. Ewwwww.