We did the round Taranaki today. Good race – well organised.
Very hot – no wind but got in a good bunch and did a bit of work from Opunake to Eltham.
Did about 4.10 which would knock about 35min off pb.
Get caught up in a few too many discussions when riding – doesn’t help lungs or concentration. But one interesting one about how the Maori Party and the Nats could move back to promoting pies as part of the school diet and cut the training for teachers in PE and at the same time promote stomach stapling. Amongst the cyclists the consensus was that they were nuts.
Update 4.09 – 3rd in old guys age group. Best time in all groups 3.52. The professionals who started later did 3.53.
Mr Mallard… maaaate!! You were a teacher once. The no-pie regime installed by the last progrom was a betty crocker. It got so unhealthy real quick as every mum/aunty/friend dropped off fish and chips & pizzas. Or there was just a endless stream of kids shuffling off down to the pie & chip shop. I do agree that pies are disgusting & a sane family would not feed their sumos it more than once a month.
@Pedrovsky, actually the heathy food in schools worked, there are in fact healthy pies that meet the requirements. You need to check and see if your local school has a heathy food menu still.
So syaing that there was a no-pie regime is wrong, there were still pies in schools under the heathy foods scheme.
Just more hyped up right wing anti so called nani state marketing messages that had the stupid public fooled.
Sorry couldn’t resist, Did Parekura beat you to Taranaki?
“It got so unhealthy real quick as every mum/aunty/friend dropped off fish and chips & pizzas. Or there was just a endless stream of kids shuffling off down to the pie & chip shop”
Yes, but the whole point of the exercise was that the SCHOOL wouldnt be offering the food.
Blowhole – I think it was Gerry.
Banning unhealthy foods in school canteens is only a small part of preventing the long term effects of obesity. The critical one is getting back to our grandparents potato, 3 vege and meat diet. We can modern the dishes up, but we need to up the amount of veges we eat.
Having said that, I’m not sure that banning pies from school canteens had any real effect. Most college age kids nowadays are allowed to leave school grounds at lunchtime to buy lunch.
My school principal and teachers were very supportive of the rules, I remember. In seventh form, when we were allowed to leave school at lunch etc I remember people often made the effort to go and get a salad from New World or sushi or something, which was a lot more effort than just going to the fish n chip shop next to my school. I reckon it worked to the extent that it was able to.
If there are healthy pies available why not introduce a symbol for the wrapper to show those that are, and suggest that schools only have those brands on sale? Result – the boys can still have their pies, but it’s a healthy option.
I think that the adverse reaction is often to the way that some zealots try to interpret it. ‘Why not put a healthy option in the lunchbox, like a delicious tofu burger’. It always comes from the most atypical with the most atypical tastes just gets up ordinary people’s noses. It sound so superior, just like the lady of the manor telling the peasants how to bring up their kids did in earlier eras.
Again it seems to be a lack of understanding of the efficacy of the ‘softly softly’ approach – the zealots seem to think that unless everyone is forced to face the evil that they’re doing (to themselves, their kids, the environment or whatever else is the ‘victim du jour’), publicly recant and made to adopt behaviour they don’t like then it’s a missed opportunity. In fact the opposite is the case – this attitude can lead to a sensible message going unheadeed because of the way it has been put over.
It’s always the extreme examples that are quoted in the media, of course, like the school that banned glad wrap and then proceeded to inspect lunchboxes and send notes home telling parents off where they didn’t do as they’d been told. And when the publicity of such behaviour comes it scares the hell out of parents in a ‘where’s it all going to end?’ sort of way. Not exactly the way to win friends and influence people.
The way to show that the Labour Party isn’t out of touch with the mainstream is to tell the zealots – publicly and in direct language – to back off and get real. Unfortunately the party and its activists often at least appear to line up with them. There are great danagers of being tarred with this particular brush, and the only way to avoid this is to let people know very loudly that you’re with the people and not the zealots. Silence or near silence will be taken as support.
BTW – well done on the ride, Trevor. I’m thinking of giving round ‘Naki a crack next year. You’ve set the bar quite high!
Congratulations. I wonder why the times are recorded and reported however? Wouldn’t it be better for us all not to know who came first, second or third? I hope that you refuse to enter the next race unless a law is passed to ensure no league table of the results are published.
Oh you are a bitter twisted little person Clive.
Not really bitter. I do feel it is unfair to not be able to compare my kids school but that is for another thread. I meant it seriously about the congratulations. It was a good effort.
@ Waterboy.. you’re right little things add up and get misconstrued. Even though I am a slightly right ex-labour in a Mike Moore Trevor de Cleene kind of way even I feel schools should be healthy. I am even in favour of more taxes if we go down a French style gourmet (and healthy) sit down school lunches-for all. As I said ..a 1/2 good idea that played out a clanger. There are thousands of teens whose only memory of Helen Clarke will be ‘stolen pies’. I uttered ‘bloody Helen Clarke’ the other day as I unscrewed yet another useless ecobulb. Well done Trev.. from a fellow cyclist.