Once again - while gorging on chocolate eggs and hot cross buns - many of us grumbled about the Easter trading ban - which saw most retailers shut shop on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
As usual, many people found themselves a few sizzlers and a couple of beers short for their planned barbies over these days.
But spare a thought for another set of Easter trading ban victims - the tech-deprived - those of us, including this writer, who planned to buy some gadget or bit of software this weekend.
Late last week, I took delivery of a flash new laptop - and carefully planned my weekend to make the best use of my new toy…
Thursday night was set aside for basic setup operations. Friday I would install the copy of Office Ultimate 2007 that’s been gathering dust on my bookshelf for months, and start ripping some CDs to the new machine. Saturday I would continue ripping music, and install and synch a few devices such as a Bluetooth MP3 player, digital camera, etc.
Sunday was set aside for a family barbie. Monday I was going to test my laptop on some hot new games.
As luck would have it the family barbie was moved to Monday at the last minute. Hence I woke on Sunday thinking: So what if it’s sunny? This is going to be my gaming day!
The only problem was I had not yet bought the new games and while chomping hot cross buns on Easter Sunday morning it dawned on me that the stores would be shut.
CONVINCED that some gaming store would be open, I started ringing around furiously - I tried all the retailers I could think of - not even JB Hifi was open!
Panic set in - surely the shopping malls would be open, I thought. Maybe they’ll open at noon, I tried to console myself.
Alas, no luck. I now had two choices - install some of my old games or check out the games that were included on the laptop.
Since my existing collection of games is really quite old - and just not exciting anymore, I decided on the second option, which taught me two things.
One, just because something is included on the PC, it doesn’t mean it’s free. My laptop came with wide selection of ”HP Games„ but after a few free sessions, you have to either buy virtual coins to keep playing or buy the game outright.
Since none of the games seemed worth spending money on, I turned to the standard free Windows games, which led to my second realisation - Minesweeper has really not changed much in 20 years…
Anyway, this obviously did not occupy me for long and I soon turned to another pastime - making up jokes for 6-year olds, like this one:
What does the one Easter egg say to the other Easter egg?
Hollow!
Dear Editor,
Your blog comment renewed the frustration of my own Easter experience. At least I was lucky enough to find a Devonport restaurant that was open on Easter Sunday, amongst a street full of mainly shut-up-for-the-holiday shops. However I was again wrongly charged a cover charge of around 10-15% due to last year's Holidays Act. (The Act covers Friday and Monday, where business owners must pay staff time and a half, and give them a day in lieu). Sunday was not a public holiday, so I was wrongly charged.
However taken enmasse the whole easter situation is a disaster. Not only can tourists add to New Zealand's GDP in peak summer trade but the rush to buy and subsequent queue for groceries at city supermarkets is horrendous.
Please can we have some clear thinking on opening hours for businesses, scalping consumers with illegally enforced taxes, and the place of religious holidays in a multi-cultural society.
If they closed down Time Square in New York, or Oxford Street in London, there would be public riots, the country would loose millions in consumer-driven trade and the shoppers of the world - be they fashion or technology - would end up in rehab. If the French cafe owners enforced a tax on NZ tourists simply for sipping an innocent Orangina on the Champs Elysee there would be stand-up rows. So why does it happen here? (Remember I was in Devonport a primt tourist destination).
Is it because we are scared to face the realities of the new century? Can not enforce or police policy properly? Or maybe it is a way of preserving a good old fashioned holiday for the people of NZ - whatever it is let's have some consistency!
I say bring back the common sense police and let's see this country thriving...clearly there is a job to be done on this.
Posted by: Georgia Tafft | March 25, 2008 3:42 PM