Sometimes your children surprise you. I haven’t heard from eldest son in ages, as he hides in Wellington with his girlfriend, try to save money to return to university by working innumerable hours at an airport café, when he obviously happened upon my blog and commented thus:

Blog more dad, you are the kind of person who's thoughts SHOULD be on the internet =)

Truly eye opening and inspiring stuff.

It was one of those warm fuzzy moments that parents have from time to time. Not that often when they are teenagers it has to be said, but occasionally, just occasionally they surprise you.

I haven’t blogged for a while, normally I need a certain amount of wine to be in the mood and it hasn’t been for the lack of wine that I haven’t sat down at the keyboard, that’s for sure. I just haven’t been in the mood, being totally consumed with the effort of obtaining council consent for the café renovation. It is such a process that if you weren’t totally committed to doing it, you could easily be forgiven for just throwing it in and giving up.

Last week I nearly did give up. What I can’t stand is being second guessed. In the end our consent came down to an engineer in the consent department versus my engineer. My engineer spent 25 minutes on the phone to the council and the council guy wouldn’t see sense, so we just did what he wanted. What cost was involved in that conversation? What benefit was gained, to the extent that the public will be safer, or that the building will be safer? Nothing was gained except the council guy won the pissing contest and he can go home at night feeling very happy that he is still going to earn his $80k.

Meanwhile out here in the real world, we have used the best sub-contractors and tradesmen who are very detailed, we have producer statements coming out our ears (actually what the hell are they?) and we are just getting on with it. It’s not like I am renovating a two story brick building in Bexley is it?

What has happened to our world when no one exercises any judgement or reasonableness anymore? All it would have taken is for someone from the council to have left their cosy office in Upper Riccarton and taken a look. But of course that can’t happen because unless you have consent then no one can do a site visit. Those are the rules.

In these times particularly there has to be some judgement applied. What type of people are we entrusting the future of our city too? These are faceless bureaucrats, enjoying a cosy life without taking any risk. Risk is what makes a person human. To have tried something, whether you win or lose, is life enhancing, and it is the risk takers that employ people, that spend the money in the community and enhance the community around us. I could have just sat on my arse for a year, collected a 7 figure sum from the insurer and gone to Australia.

The aftershocks in mid-June did not help the situation and it seems to have heightened the nervousness within the council staff. I seriously wonder how any new buildings can be built while the aftershocks continue, and even if they subside what will the new building codes look like? I am particularly annoyed about that new building on Barbadoes Street that tilted severely after the 13^th June aftershock.

Everyone was so pleased that the building withstood the quake, no lives were lost and “it did its job”. This is wrong. What is being forgotten is the business inside the building. It is the business that supports multiple incomes, the business that is someone’s dream, the business that has now been shut THREE times by quakes. Architects and engineers take note!

A more quake resilient building might cost more, but it will have lower insurance premiums, and will, in its lifetime, result in less insurance pay-outs over its lifetime, should the unthinkable happen. By the way how many times has the unthinkable happened already!

I still feel very sad about our city, as there are reminders everywhere and some people I know seem to be on the verge of breakdown. I went to the doctor this week and obtained some sleeping pills as I was just becoming very crabby and unreasonable. They work well but they are highly addictive.

So as for the café renovation it is coming on well. See the photos on our Facebook page; we have the Gib up, it needs stopping, then painting, then it’s the floor and then it’s the run home. Feel free to pop in and see progress. We put our brand new front in this week and it is very striking. We are going to put a big orange bear on the top of the verandah (another consent!) so everyone will know exactly where we are.

Next time I write we will be very close to opening so until then, be safe

Rob