We’ve only had the pizza delivery for a couple of months. We’re told we’re lucky to have that. Before that our only quick choice was drive-thru McDs, and that’s only been here 2-3 years! We’ve got really good fish ‘n’ chips, but so has everywhere in NZ if you know which takeaway to choose.

As for cooking, a proper cook wouldn’t call it cooking, and you don’t get much choice when you live alone. 🙂

Ah, pausing while listening is a great tactic. I’m so old school I always think only of note-taking.

And I was going to ask what was better than an excuse to order pizza, until you described your only choice. That’s a crime! Your entire area should rise up in arms and demand decent pizza!

I’m impressed that you cook, though. I pretty much stopped when the kids got old enough to forage for themselves…

The US concluded secret negotiations on what may turn out to be the worst trade agreement in decades, the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and now faces an uphill battle for ratification, as all the leading Democratic presidential candidates and many of the Republicans have weighed in against it. The problem is not so much with the agreement’s trade provisions, but with the “investment” chapter, which severely constrains environmental, health, and safety regulation, and even financial regulations with significant macroeconomic impacts.

In particular, the chapter gives foreign investors the right to sue governments in private international tribunals when they believe government regulations contravene the TPP’s terms (inscribed on more than 6,000 pages). In the past, such tribunals have interpreted the requirement that foreign investors receive “fair and equitable treatment” as grounds for striking down new government regulations – even if they are non-discriminatory and are adopted simply to protect citizens from newly discovered egregious harms.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/10/in-2016-better-trade-agreements-trans-pacific-partnership

Cheers Mark. I’ve got to say I’m also quite shocked at how many USians can’t see through candidates that don’t actually say anything. Although I don’t agree with their policies, from a Republican point of view they do have some good candidates; they’re mostly the ones who are languishing in the polls or who have dropped out already. I expect people like Trump, Cruz, and Carson to get some support, but for them to have about 70% of the GOP vote between them is quite horrific. All I can say is maybe Kasich and Christie will get some support in the early primaries (they’re both working hard and gaining ground in those states) and this will give their national campaigns a boost.

Thanks Paxton. That was the parallel I meant – that they’re both anti-establishment. I don’t see any other parallel between Sanders and the GOP candidates.

Thanks Diane. You probably have to be a bit weird (like me) to enjoy these things, and since I’m watching it anyway, it’s easy enough to just pause the DVR when I want to write something.

The big problem is really due to the timing of the things in NZ, I don’t get dinner cooked. For the last GOP one I ended up ordering Pizza. There’s only one venue that delivers any type of food in my very small town, the bases of their pizzas are horrible, and you have to order a minimum amount which lasts me 4-5 meals. I normally love pizza, but not the only one I can order here!

I was slightly more prepared this time, so I could stop for dinner, but there’s another GOP debate this week on a channel we get in NZ, so I’m going to have to sort something out again. For me, it’s not the cooking that’s the problem, it’s thinking of something to cook. I hate that bit.

Cheers Ken. I appreciate your support.