Hi, I currently live in Australia and am returning home this year. Grew up Southland, lived in Dunedin till I finished high school in 2009. I had meant to stay in Australia for only a year or two as I was just visiting siblings, but my parents in NZ then moved over and that led me to stay as well. The last few years I have unsuccessfully so-far battled mental health issues over the pandemic, which recently ended with me being committed into a hospital for a few months. This was pretty bad as I lost my (casual) job and had no safety net at the time, and being a Kiwi there isn't much help in Aus if you can't work. I've been living off my savings and family since then. 

And that brings me to this post as I plan to take my doctors' advice and try to put a fresh foot forward in NZ since my savings are dried up, I'm out of a job and the ongoing medication changes I'm on makes it difficult to maintain employment anyway. I have a family member in Southland who I will ask to board with for the first few weeks, after that I would like to return to Dunedin and see about renting a room. 

I've got an income protection insurance payout coming soon as I was insured for job loss, this will be just enough to cover my moving experiences and live off for a few months after. Since I left NZ when I was still a teen I have no bank account or IRD number. Are these something I can apply for online and get while still living in Australia? Because I would hate to arrive in New Zealand and only be able to access my funds through international ATM fees until a local bank account is made. 

My other question is my super. I have read that it's possible to transfer Australian super to Kiwisaver simply enough. After that, is there anyway of accessing it before pension age? Is it possible I can meet the early withdrawal criteria? Because from what I've researched I can't get support from WINZ, not right away at least, due to residing in Australia the last 10+ years. So I was considering using some of my Kiwisaver to support myself until I get back on my feet. Thanks for your time.

Vibrant Linux is an app for adjusting colours etc in Linux with NVIDIA graphics. When you load a website you click on a button & it adjusts the display for that site. It then records it, so next time you open the website it adjusts automatically. With INTEL it partly works. It does adjust the display, but does not record it. Still quite useful. Example-In Kodi windows-key + D takes you to the desktop, click on the 'Vibrant Linux" button, then on the Kodi button

It seems that nothing changes for those on the right politically; some appear to still live back in the 1950s. You'd think that by now such repulsive, sexist views might have disappeared but apparently not. 

 They're not doing themselves any favours & will be unlikely to gain many votes from women apart from very, very conservative women.



https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politic...es-its-mps


[b]"OPINION[/b]: ÔÇ£I like my Covid like I like my women. 19. And easy to spread.ÔÇØ

Something called the 'holy fire' Easter ritual. Flowing garments, large crowds in a small space, lighted candles - what could possibly go wrong...


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65289547



"Thousands of Christians filled Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday for an important Orthodox Easter ritual, despite restrictions by Israeli police.
The Holy Fire ceremony drew huge crowds to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli Police control security.
It sits on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried.

Police had limited attendance to 1,800 people inside and 1,200 outside, citing safety reasons.
Church leaders urged Christians to ignore restrictions and criticised the police presence at the event.
The Holy Fire ritual can be traced back centuries and typically takes place amid packed crowds in the holiest site in Christianity. Christian pilgrims from around the world travel for the ceremony, which symbolises Jesus's resurrection.

After hours of anticipation on Saturday, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch emerged from the sealed empty tomb with a lighted candle - an act considered an annual miracle before Orthodox Easter Sunday.
The flames were passed from person to person around the church and with both local Christians and foreign pilgrims who were waiting in the narrow streets nearby.

But for the second year running, church leaders were told that access would be considerably restricted over safety concerns.
"We have also sat with external engineers who have told us there is a limit to the crowd size that is allowed inside of the church and due to these statements by the engineers we are limiting the crowds," police spokesperson Master Sergeant Dean Elsdunne said previously.

Churches reject the claim that restrictions were needed."

I have just completed the restoration of a Granddaughter's laptop. It has been well treated, but was on Windows 7. I replaced the HDD with a SSD, increased the RAM from 4GB to 8GB, and fitted a new battery. The only fault is one worn USB port, it has another two so not a problem. The screen is brilliant, far better than both my modern Lenovo & MSI laptops. I installed Windows 10 Pro v 22H2. Tried Windows 11 but had a driver problem.

An interesting situation occurred caused by fast boot being enabled. I tried to do a backup with Macrium, but no way could I boot from a USB. I couldn't even get into the BIOS, or Boot Menu. This would make it impossible to restore the system if it went pear shaped! I would have to remove the drive, and restore it with another computer. Can anyone suggest a work around for this situation. Of course fast boot was not around when the BIOS was written.
It Boots in 35 seconds without fast boot anyway.

Macron is behaving like a dictator. The hated reforms have been signed into law. Claims that there's no alternative are all very well but you have to wonder if their govt has even considered cutting back on other things instead, since they must be aware that this is likely to cause hardship & may lose them any election in future.



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65279818


"After the Friday ruling of the Constitutional Court, trade unions made an unsuccessful last-ditch appeal to the president not to sign the pension-age increase into law.
The unions pointed out that six concessions that had been added to the reforms were rejected by the court, so what was already unfair was now "even more unbalanced".
Among the reforms struck down by the nine members of the Constitutional Council was a so-called "senior index" aimed at urging companies with more than 1,000 workers to take on employees over 55.



Mr Dussopt has vowed to improve the employment rates of those aged over 50 in an effort to ease concerns about the financial impacts of the raised retirement age.
The authorities had banned demonstrations in front of the Constitutional Council building in Paris until Saturday morning, but crowds of protesters had gathered nearby on Friday and the ruling was met with jeers."



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64986741


"What this crisis goes to show," veteran political commentator Alain Duhamel said recently, "is that there are two Frances out there. They live in completely separate mental worlds, and find it impossible even to communicate."

As the country teeters on the edge of civil unrest, his verdict echoes like a gloomy premonition. France's demons are back, and stalking the land.



The anger and mutual incomprehension over President Emmanuel Macron's proposed reform of the pension age show how dangerously polarised the two factions have become.

The government says pushing back the pension age from 62 to 64 is vital in order to preserve France's much-prized "share-out" system - based on a single fund that workers pay into and pensioners draw out of.

With people living longer, the only alternatives would be to cut the value of pensions, or increase contributions from those in work.

And both those options would be even more unpopular.






Following the president's invocation of the 49:3 procedure, opposition parties have tabled two censure motions against the government which will be debated this week. In theory, if one of them passes that would lead to the fall of the government, and possible early elections."

I wonder if you have heard of Gecko Tape? It is a tape that, as I understand, works in the same way as blue tack but apparently it is better than blue tack. I have had a look around but all I can find is the American retailers but I have been unable to find a retailer in NZ that stocks it. I was wondering if anyone knows of an Auckland retailer that has it for sale.

Thanks for your help.

The fashion queen of the swinging 60s has died at 93



https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023...quant-dies


"Mary Quant, the British designer who made the miniskirt fashionable, has died aged 93.
A statement from her family to the PA news agency said she ÔÇ£died peacefully at home in Surrey, UK this morningÔÇØ.



Her family said she ÔÇ£was one of the most internationally recognised fashion designers of the 20th century and an outstanding innovator of the Swinging SixtiesÔÇØ.
She was at the vanguard of the 60s shift in fashion, one that put youth centre stage for the first time. Her clothes were bright, colourful, comfortable and simple, taking inspiration from subcultures such as the mods as well as school uniforms. While they were not cheap ÔÇô a pinafore dress cost six guineas in 1963, the equivalent of just over ┬ú100 ÔÇô her clothes were more affordable than those made by designer brands.
They appealed to a new generation of young women with jobs, and more disposable income to spend on clothes. The designer summed up the decadeÔÇÖs new mood, writing in her bestselling 1966 autobiography Quant by Quant that ÔÇ£the young were essentially tired of wearing the same as their mothersÔÇØ.
A post on the Twitter account of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which recently hosted an exhibition about QuantÔÇÖs designs, said: ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs impossible to overstate QuantÔÇÖs contribution to fashion. She represented the joyful freedom of 1960s fashion, and provided a new role model for young women. Fashion today owes so much to her trailblazing vision.ÔÇØ

These are the specs of `both laptops I have to gift to my granddaughter!
HP AMD A6-6310  No battery
64 ┬░CMullins 28nm Technology
RAM 15.0GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-12-28)
Motherboard Hewlett-Packard 80CB (Socket FT3b)
Graphics Generic PnP Monitor (1366x768@60Hz)
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon R4 Graphics (HP)    64 °C
Storage 111GB Crucial CT120BX500SSD1 (SATA (SSD))   
Optical Drives hp DVDRW GUB0N

Toshiba L850 Has battery for about an hour
Intel CoreÔäó i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz ├ù 4
3.8 GiB
Hard Drives
Graphics Card
240.1 GB
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Thames [Radeon HD 7500M/ 7600M Series] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

My WhatsApp shortcut icon turned grey, but it still works.

I have restarted my PC, doesn't help. 

How to restore its original colour?