I lost my old blog in March of last year. Fortunately, there is the wayback machine — which to my horror, has preserved my thoughts back to 2005, so from Bright and Shiny Thinking, and from Feb. 2008 I was able to pull this back.

I was born in South Auckland, but now I live elsewhere. This is why.

Born Waiuku, Educated Papatoetoe and Auckland University. My 20 minute commute in 1994 was 60 minutes in 2004. I left. Now I walk to work, and get a better ristretto than the Ponsonby ones on the way.

New lane lightens road load – 03 Feb 2008 – Auckland City Council
But the love affair between Aucklanders and cars keeps growing, with an extra 40 vehicles a day travelling on local roads and peak-hour periods extending to almost seven hours a day.

Once confined to 90-minute periods from 7.30am and 5pm, the peaks are now considered to run from 6.30am to 9.30am, beginning again as early as 3.30pm.

Commuters are starting and finishing work earlier in a bid to beat the rush, particularly over the short winter days.

That, combined with parents picking up children from school, means commuters can expect traffic jams from mid-afternoon until 7pm, said Transit Auckland network manager Joseph Flanagan.

Aucklanders of the world leave, you have nothing to lose but traffic jams

The trouble now is that I have to use the car, as son two has music three days a week, and my work has moved from a 20 minute walk to town into the suburbs. But the ristrettos are still really good.

Now, for those of you who wonder about this… I found this video today about my old high school. I watch it with mixed emotions. I’m sad that this is what my suburb has become, and glad I am no longer in the same region, let alone city.