We have been experiencing very strong winds these past few days, or to put it more precisely, equinoxal gales.
As a result of these events our newly installed clothesline has developed the unpleasant habit of lifting like a jet foil, disengaging its support arm and lowering itself against the fence. Ours is not called the Supafold for nothing!
While this is technically not supposed to be able to happen it has done so nevertheless, the last time coming down on my wife's shoulder and leaving quite a graze.
The Hills clothesline has been the dominant brand in New Zealand for many years but in recent times the solid steel has been replaced by a much lighter weight of metal and there has also been a significant increase in the amount of plastic used. This means that the frames are no longer rigid and flex alarmingly.
It doesn't help that these lines are no longer manufactured in Australia as, with most products nowadays, they bear a stamp "made in China".
Today the clothesline installer paid us a visit, the obligatory half an hour late as all New Zealand tradesmen seem to be.
He was clearly skeptical that the wind would actually blow a clothesline down but after we had introduced to our neighbour whose wife had been cracked on the head in a similar rig malfunction, he got the message.
We shall be replacing our retractable support arms with the fixed variety.
During the course of our conversation it transpired that the installer had lived in Bali for several years before returning to New Zealand. The topic of Indonesia inevitably led to comments on the rife corruption in that country.
I was also reminded how Singapore is experiencing yet
another serious cloud of haze pollution from Sumatra, as bad as that which we endured in 2006.
Despite all of the previous promises by the Indonesian government, expensive dinners and friendly ASEAN handshakes the reality is that Indonesia goes its own sweet way, burning off land whenever it feels like it.
Neignbourly considerations do not enter into the Indonesian equation and money given by Singapore in the past to monitor haze and educate farmers has made little or no difference. I would suggest that the majority of farmers probably never even saw a dollar of the aid money.
