Andrew Dickens Afternoons

Some of New Zealand's most legendary musicians are headlining a variety concert this summer.
The Kiwi Concert Party will take place at Auckland's Villa Maria Winery on January 23, 2021, and promises to be a two-hour entertainment with something for everyone. Tim Finn, Bic Runga, the Topp Twins and the Hātea Kapa Haka group are headlining. Runga, Finn, and the Topps will perform live on stage together and will also perform each other's songs.
Finn says in a statement the concert will be a great way to "shift the mood" of the past year.
"I thought after everything we'd been through together in 2020, a mix of music and comedy would be a great tonic," Finn said. The variety show will also feature singer-songwriter Reb Fountain, who will open the show, plus DJ Manuel Bundy.
"The idea for a Kiwi Concert Party starring Bic Runga, the Topp Twins and myself felt both classic and timely. Add into that mixture the Hātea Kapa Haka group with their amazing vocal harmonies, a musical director of the calibre of Karl Stevens, acclaimed songwriter Reb Fountain and iconic DJ Manuel Bundy and you have a unique and celebratory event. We will share the stage and shift the mood, reminding everybody what a special place NZ is. Have a sing, have a laugh, have a dance and a drop of the doings. See you there!"
Families can bring one child under 12 for free for a picnic style evening in the GA fields. Reserved seating is also available, and each patron will need to hold a full-priced ticket for this area.
Tickets go on sale next Tuesday.
LISTEN TO LYNDA AND JOOLS TOPP TALK WITH ANDREW DICKENS ABOVE

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The stars and stripes have been fluttering all week on the streets of Ballina -- the town of just 10,000 in the west of Ireland where US president-elect Joe Biden's Irish ancestors hail from.
Ten of the former vice president's 16 great-great-grandparents were born in Ireland, according to the Irish for Biden campaign, with Edward Blewitt, Biden's great-great-great-grandfather, providing the Ballina connection.
On Saturday, as CNN projected Biden's White House win, Ballina residents came out to celebrate their distant kin's success.
"I think Ballina has saved the world tonight, because without Ballina, there would be no Joe Biden," Smiler Mitchell, a local publican, told CNN.
Balloons were tied to cars and the crowd sang "The Green and Red of Mayo," a famous ballad about the county where Ballina is situated. One car with a cardboard cut out of Biden in the front seat had a license plate which read, "PENNSYLVANIA BIDEN #1."
In the lead-up to the election, the community held a "Ridin' for Biden" event around the bridges crossing the River Moy with a carousel of cars passing the town's iconic cathedral and finishing in front of a mural of the man himself, erected in the town's main square.
"Ballina has always been an underdog town in the west of Ireland, which has had its own challenges in the past," said local politician Mark Duffy.
"Now we think it's our time to shine and put our best foot forward. We look forward to welcoming as many visitors from across the US and across the political divide."
He noted that the town is in a beautiful part of the world, with lakes, mountains and urban forest in the surrounding area.
Biden still has distant relatives in the town.
Joe Blewitt, a third cousin, who has met the president-elect several times, said his namesake "is totally down to earth."
"He's a family man," Blewitt told CNN by phone.
But Ballina isn't the only Irish town with a Biden connection. On the opposite side of the country -- in Carlingford, County Louth -- a community pipe band was set to premiere an anthem for Biden at noon on Sunday.
Biden's great-grandfather James Finnegan arrived in New York on the Marchioness of Bute ship in 1850 from Carlingford, a coastal town located about 70 miles north of Dublin.
In honor of their most famous son's election win, Carlingford's local parish priest planned to ring the bells of the church with school children and members of the community in attendance.
Paul Allen, the lead organizer of the Irish for Biden campaign, told CNN the town was overjoyed with the result.
"Joe Biden is a quintessential Irish American and it shows what a combination of hard work and determination can do," he said.
The campaign had encouraged Irish people all over the world to phone a relative in America and ask them to vote for Biden.
"The nurse working in Chicago, the firefighter in Boston or the policeman in New York, the construction worker building America; that's the Irish American connection," Allen added.
The Carlingford community hosted Biden in 2016 and in advance of his visit, he wrote a letter which said: "Northeast Pennsylvania will be written on my heart. But Ireland will be written on my soul."
Ireland's Taoiseach, or prime minister, Micheál Martin was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Biden on his victory Saturday.
Back over in Ballina, more celebrations were expected on Sunday.
The town, twinned with Scranton, Pennsylvania, is also home to Ireland's first woman president, Mary Robinson, who was elected 30 years ago to the day on Saturday.
"Her message was one of hope and a light in the window for the diaspora," said politician Mark Duffy. "...30 years later to the day, one of the descendants of our diaspora, who would have left Ballina in such a dark and bleak time for Irish history, has gone on to hold the highest office in the land."
text by Eoin McSweeney,...

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So it’s over.
The power of good and righteousness has finally defeated the evil that has occupied the White House for the past four years.
Well, that’s what some are saying.  The fact of the matter is that little really changed. 
Just like Clinton before him, Biden has won the popular vote, this time with a record number of votes.  But Trump also polled very well. 
Biden got 75.2 million votes, while Trump got 70.8 million. Both men getting more votes than any President ever. 
There is an enormous bloc of Americans who find nothing wrong with Donald Trump and were more than happy to give him another mandate.  This is not a sweeping victory in fact it is a concern for the Democrats, faced with a universally derided President they failed to convince nearly 71 million people that they could do better.
What is their vision?  Biden ran on the ticket that he is not Trump.  Pure and simple.  He said little about Covid and post pandemic recoveries. 
Often people ask how could people vote for Trump. Well, go and ask many of them. They’re not the deplorables that Clinton derided.  They’re not hayseeds or racists or yokels. They’re people who believe in Republican ideals of small government and personal and working freedoms and they saw Trump as the only one embodying that so they voted for him. 
And Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian candidate who pulled 1.7 million votes, may have robbed Trump in states with razor thing advantages to Biden like Georgia and Wisconsin. 
That’s 73 million who didn’t put their trust in Sleepy Joe.
With such a loyalty to a tarnished brand, you have to say that the Republicans must rethink their approach. 
You have to ask why they feel the need to lie and exaggerate and insinuate and use rumour and gossip to try to gain a political advantage. To lie, as Trump did at an industrial level, diminishes everything else that comes out of your mouth 
If Republicans had played with a straight bat, where would they be now? They need a Republican Ardern or Obama. A popular trustworthy mouthpiece. 
But the same has to be said of the Democrats. They need to learn to walk a walk rather than using trash talk.  Nancy Pelosi in particular showed an extraordinary lack of ability to talk to and about the working poor of America. 
She was the embodiment of a champagne socialist.  The Democrats of privilege that goes right back to the Kennedys. 
Watching a coterie of 70 year olds and propagandists bickering on the stumps was a sad watch. America has been a stuck record now for 30 years. It’s time for a new and more innovative generation. 

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What a walloping, and now the recriminations begin for one side and the plans for the successful government start to fall into place. 
Starting with National, this is a disaster and their only hope is to realise how and why they got it so wrong over the past three years. It is all their own fault and they should not shift the blame. 
It started in 2017 when they failed to secure a coalition partner gifting government to Labour. National supporters blame Winston.  But there was little chance after the way the party treated Mr Peters for an extended period of time.  
John Key knew this.  As soon as the Māori Party started to crumble as their kaumatua retired, Mr Key knew he had no friends left so flew the coop. A smart party would have built a bridge to Winston. 
But they didn’t. 
After the shock loss the dithering began.  They lost Stephen Joyce and with him a number of other talents. 
The election of Bridges and Bennett split the party and no Bridges-bridges were built.  Simon believed that the party needed to be a bit more aggressive, totally forgetting that Prime Minister’s need to be likeable or feared and he was neither. 
So another schism. 
The Muller move further diluted the party and more talent left.  Muller’s meltdown was unfortunate and left Judith Collins as the last one standing.   
National’s faithful  somehow saw the 61-year-old who had been discarded in the Key years as a brave new hope to crush the opposition.  But that was not shared by the swinging voters without tribal loyalty. 
Chris Finlayson was damning of National on Sunday.  He called the current party and its politicians arrogant and complacent, infused with a born to rule superiority complex that was unfounded. 
That doesn’t stop National and its final core supporters believing the rest of the country has been bewitched by Jacindamania pixie dust, which is so condescending.   It doesn’t stop them attacking the media. 
To account for the total domination of the party vote by Labour even in rural areas they now speculate that it’s tactical voting to keep the Greens out. 
The fact of the matter is that National was basically unelectable. A disorganised shambles with a confused message.  A party at war with itself as shown by the Denise Lee leaks. 
Up against another party with a multitude of flaws but who did the one big job of the age relatively well. 
I say all this as a National voter in 2017, 2014 and 2011.  This current mob is a shadow of the party I supported in those years and the sooner they realise it and why the better.

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One thing I’ve noticed in long running stories is that people seem to forget that things change. 
Often that change happens within a week.  What is true at the beginning of the day is not the case by sundown, 
I thought this as Dr David Nabarro from the WHO appealed to world leaders yesterday, telling them to stop "using lockdowns as your primary control method" of the coronavirus. 
His main reason is that lockdowns are make the globe’s poor even poorer.  He could have added that it also makes the globe’s sick even sicker as they miss out on ongoing treatment. 
This is a chilling message as many countries, like the UK and Canada, look to re-enter lockdowns due to a re-emergence of outbreaks 
It’s also led to many people claiming that the widespread use of lockdowns in the first place was the wrong thing to do.
Now, that’s not the right way to look at things. Lockdowns should only ever be used when transmission is high.  A short sharp shock to break the back.
What’s changed since the beginning of the year and now is that we have some knowledge about how best to handle new outbreaks, most national and subnational interventions can be much 'lighter' than the full suppressions we have seen at the beginning of the year. 
Things change because things happen.  At the beginning of the outbreak modelling portrayed all sorts of doomsday scenarios.  Those scenarios didn’t occur because we did things and as soon as we did things the parameters moved and the numbers changed. 
I was thinking that at the end of last week when Sharon Zollner, the economist from the ANZ, reported that business confidence was soaring and the economy is doing much better than expected with many sectors doing better than they were in the pre-Covid times. 
How can this be? We were told we were heading to hell in a handcart. Some people were throwing the word “depression” around willy nilly. It’s because we didn’t just sit there.  We changed the way we did things, we changed the things we do.  We adapted. 
I also thought that during last week’s Front Bench when Chris Carter said we’re doing well because there were 9000 new jobs created during Covid. The rest of the panel roared with laughter and asked how can he say that when we lost 40,000 jobs. 
Well, we lost the jobs but we didn’t just sit there and stay unemployed.  We pivoted. We found new jobs.  9000 of them. This is a good sign. Statistics out last week show nearly 30,000 new companies have been registered this year. Again, we’re dealing with the new reality by growing and changing 
Things change. Humans own this planet because we are the best on the planet at adapting. What was true at the beginning of Covid is not true now.  We’re not in a great place but we’ve not arrived in hell in a handcart. The people that tell you we’re rooted are the real fear mongers of the Covid crisis.

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Taking the bar exam is hard enough, but one Illinois woman took it to the next level by having a baby in the middle of the test.
Brianna Hill, a recent graduate of the Loyola University School of Law in Chicago, knew she would be pregnant during her bar exam, but she wasn't expecting a huge curveball in timing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I thought I would only be 28 weeks pregnant when I took the bar," Hill told CNN. "However, due to the pandemic, the test was pushed to October and I was going to be 38 weeks. I joked about taking the test from my hospital bed. Lesson learned!"
The remote version of the test is four 90-minute sections spread out over two days. Hill said the exam is proctored so you have to sit in front of the computer the entire time to make sure you aren't cheating.
"I thought I felt something about 30 minutes into the test and actually thought, 'I really hope my water didn't just break,'" Hill said. "But I couldn't go check and so I finished the first section. As soon as I stood up when I finished, I knew my water had broken."
But even the realization of going into labour didn't stop Hill from accomplishing her goal.
"I took my break, got myself cleaned up, called my husband, midwife, and mom, cried because I was a little panicked, then sat down to take the second part because my midwife told me I had time before I needed to go to the hospital."
Hill said she got to the hospital around 5:30 p.m. and her new baby boy arrived just after 10 p.m.
"The whole time my husband and I were talking about how we wanted me to finish the test and my midwife and nurses were so on board. There just wasn't another option in my mind," Hill said.
So, the next day, hospital staff provided Hill with an empty room to finish the test and put a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. Hill took the rest of the exam in that room and even nursed her baby during breaks.
"I'm so thankful for the support system I had around me. The midwives and nurses were so invested in helping me not only become a mom but also a lawyer," Hill said.
"My husband and law school friends provided me with so much encouragement so I could push through the finish line even under less than ideal circumstances. And my family, especially my sister, just kept reminding me how I could do it even when I wasn't so sure myself."
Hill hasn't received her bar exam results, but she already has a job lined up.

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A seal sanctuary in England made a dating profile for a lonely otter who lost his mate -- and now he's found love again.
Harris, a 10-year-old Asian short-clawed otter at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Cornwall, England, lost his partner Apricot after she died at age 16, according to a press release from the sanctuary.
He was alone for the first time in four years and had appeared to go back to his bachelor ways.
The team created Harris an online dating profile for a fake dating site they dubbed "Fishing for Love," in hopes of finding another otter in need of love and affection.
"I am very attentive, I love a cuddle, and I am a very good listener," the profile said. "I will love you like no otter."
Harris came to the sanctuary in 2016 after being rejected from his family at the Welsh Mountain Zoo.
Tamara Cooper, curator at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary, said there was something about Harris that checked all the boxes for Apricot.
"He was a doting partner to Apricot, so when she passed away a few weeks back he was absolutely lost," Cooper said.
Because otters naturally live in pairs and Harris was such a good partner, the team thought he deserved a second chance at love.
Luckily, there was an otter named Pumpkin at Sea Life Scarborough sanctuary, who had recently lost her own elderly partner named Eric.
"Pumpkin has been extremely lonely so we are delighted that Harris will be coming to join her," said Todd German, the Sea Life Scarborough display curator. "[We] hope his arrival will provide Pumpkin with comfort and companionship."
While the introduction of otters can be a bit nerve-wracking and difficult, the two teams decided to introduce Harris into Pumpkin's habitat so that the male more easily submits to the female.
"We will be very sad to see Harris go as he is such a character," Cooper said. "But we will be keeping in touch regularly to see how him and Pumpkin get on."

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So Auckland waits to go to Level 1 and a return to the semblance of normality we had for 102 days earlier this year. 
But are we all ready. 
A number of scientists and health officials spoke over the weekend saying that they hoped we executed Level 1 better this time than we did last time. Because last time we were hopeless 
The evidence of this was the size of the Auckland cluster that has left our biggest city in limbo until today. 
While the virus managed to sneak through in a way that is still not known, the real concern is how it then spread through the community.  Once lockdown 2.0 began the flouting of gathering rules in churches kept the virus fires burning.
The Auckland cluster in Lockdown 2.0 was the single biggest outbreak this country has had in the pandemic. 
And that’s why the doors were shut and why they are only just being opened. 
So the question is, are we better at Level 1 than we were?
No, we are not.  My supermarket is strict and has a door person so mask wearing and app utilisation is strong. However, this weekend I went to another supermarket in another suburb and was shocked that I was virtually the only one wearing it. And I watched a stream of shoppers keep their phone in their pockets. 
Now I’m not a mask nazi, but I have got quite at home at wearing them when I plunge into crowded social situations.  Not just to keep myself safe but to make others feel more comfortable. What’s the big deal? 
Meanwhile, the Covid App usage has declined immensely over the past month.  When lockdown 2.0 first emerged there was a rush to download the app. 2.4 million people now have it and for a while used it diligently.  Now usage is a fifth of what it was a month ago. Thanks for nothing New Zealand. Again it’s not about you, though it will keep you safer, but it’s more about others. 
If you become a carrier like the schmucks from the Mount Roskill Evangelical Church who were sure it wouldn’t happen to them, then we’d all quite like to know where the hell you’ve been. 
We are actually not too bad at contact tracing.  Recently we tracked spread to a lift button and a rubbish bin.  In America they have no clue how their President came into contact with the virus. 
So why are we slack? We have become immune to the exhortations of the Health Department and the Prime Minister.  Be kind Be safe, Blah blah blah.  It might be nice to see other political leaders join the call.  Judith Collins has a mask in her bag but barely uses it and sees no problem in sticking her fingers in babies mouths. How powerful would it be if Collins and Shaw and Davidson and Peters and Seymour and others actually joined in the messaging?
We seem to believe that we’re immune from the second waves that are spreading through Europe and the Americas as we speak. Good luck.
We deserve the freedom but there is a price.. Use a mask and the App. Please.

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COMMENT:
The Mood of the Boardroom issue is out today in The Herald and this issue more than any other is necessary reading.
Since the start of the Covid campaign in March and the extraordinary economic impact of the lockdown strategy the call has been loud and clear.
What’s the plan?
Firstly how are we going to stimulate businesses to make up for the lost income that closed borders and closed cities bring.
And secondly how will we pay for the amount of corporate welfare that has been doled out to keep affected businesses operating until they’re strong enough to cope again on their own.
With our future so murky the cry has been loud. What is the plan? Where are we going?
And the cry has always been to the government. Which I have always found confusing.
We rail against nanny state and too much government intrusion into our lives until everything goes wrong and then it’s all the government’s liability.
The Mood of the Boardroom is a chance to see what business is really thinking and what they really want.
And they seem just as confused as the rest of us.
They both praise and damn the Covid response. They praise its efficacy and damn it’s cost.
They want more discussion on the plan to take advantage of our Covid free status but I don’t see any barrier to business talking up a plan. Surely while the government provides the welfare to support the victims of the downturn, and that’s what the job subsidy has been, it’s still up to private business for figure out a business plan rather than waiting for a Government to tell them what to do.
When it comes to who would be the best government they are similarly split. Overall they favour National’s ability to run the economy while simultaneous having more confidence in Labour’s Finance spokesperson. They give Grant Robertson a 92 per cent mark in credibility and Paul Goldsmith just a 53 per cent mark. Even more damning is that just 4 per cent are unsure of Robertson’s credibility while a whopping 25 per cent are unsure of Goldsmith.
Inside the 40 page issue there are some concrete proposals which is good. Shouting where is the plan is not a plan and we need business to have a plan.
Perhaps the best idea from the 150 CEOs surveyed is the desire for business to have a seat at the planning table. No matter how skilled a bureaucrat you need the input from the ground at the start of the plan rather than having business rebel against a bad plan at the end of the process.
It would also help some of these super confident masters of the universe in the business world get a grip on just how complex and difficult this battle and its repercussions are.

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We've all experienced the frustration of being stuck on an airplane, so close to the end of the journey, yet forced to wait while some technical problem is sorted out.
But while common sense stops most people from opening the doors ourselves, one passenger in Ukraine apparently decided the best course of action was to pop open the emergency exit and take a stroll on the aircraft's wing.
Cooling off
A minute-long video has emerged of the woman, dressed in a white top and light pink trousers, hanging out on the wing in front of stunned onlookers at Boryspil International Airport in Kiev, before being summoned back on board by the airplane's crew.
The unidentified passenger, who was traveling on a Ukraine International Airlines flight from Antalya, Turkey to the Ukranian capital with her husband and children, was reportedly overheard saying she was "too hot" and needed to cool down.
Her unauthorized walk on the wing of the Boeing 737 has seen her banned from all future UIA flights.
According to a statement from the airline, airport security and police attended the scene, along with doctors, who determined the woman "was not under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs."
The Ukraine airline went on to criticize the passenger for setting an inadequate "parental example," stressing that she may be subject to "an exceptionally high financial penalty in the form of a fine."
A spokesperson for Boryspil International Airport declined to comment on the incident, which took place on August 31.

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