Link love (Powered by stops and starts)

Have I ever mentioned how much I love you guys? Because I do. I really do.

Remember my refried beans dilemma? Well, who knew a little bit of fat could make so much difference? Lard was indeed the magic ingredient. Now we just need to play around with the spices.

Blogging has brought me so many things, but this ranks up there among the best.

Blast from the past

This time last year we were arriving in London (which I found a lot more to my liking than I’d anticipated), having made our way south to north in Vietnam and returning briefly to Bangkok where we couchsurfed (floorsurfed) for the first time.

This week’s links

A million times yes to this: Adjusting today’s financial advice to include unemployment

Maybe one day… How to travel the Maldives on $60 a day

It’s true – even us introverts can cherish those fleeting travel friendships struck up on the road

A lovely tribute to the late Gerry Goffin, half of the Carole King songwriting powerhouse

The Toast brilliantly analyses Baby One More Time, which is still my favourite Britney song ever  (never figured out the ‘hit me’ part – is it like blackjack – ie let’s go one more round?)

The Atlantic examines why we sleep together. Fascinating. (I think I do tend to sleep better alone but I’m a snuggler and hate falling asleep/waking up alone)

Proof that I live in quite possibly the most beautiful country on earth

And my weekly Auckland housing-related link (via economist Tony Alexander)

There is talk that the Reserve Bank could consider putting extra credit controls in place in order to try and stem inflation sourced from the housing market… limiting how much someone could borrow to a multiple of their household income…

If the restrictions were harsh enough house prices could even be pushed lower, though that is not highly likely given that the overwhelming impact of credit restrictions will be felt by the group of people who have already been shut out of the market to a big degree by the maximum loan to value rules – young first home buyers.

Is this something about which we in the lower, middle, and upper middle classes, and those silly enough to self-identify in New Zealand as in the upper classes, will feel greatly worried about? Heck no. We have already bought lots of investment properties over the past few years …

While we will tut tut about how difficult it is for a young person to buy a property these days our incomes will rise and we will, yet again, feel happy that we ignored the many doomsters and kept buying properties the past two decades.

Sorry young folk, but much as you may feel the future belongs to you and your smartphone tapping ways, for now the wealth and the power belongs to us – the Baby Boomers.