It was sympathy tinged with a large dose of irritation and a little violence.
There was no reason for the stoppage. Its battery had recently been replaced.
I pushed its various baffling buttons in a less than gentle fashion.
I jabbed at its face incessantly like a demented woodpecker. Nothing.
Was it the watch’s silent protest about the new year?
I got that. Time standing still would be preferable to being on board the back-to-the-future time machine of the current government.
Incidentally, did anyone else play that fun Christmas party game, "Name something good this government has done", aimed at rellies and hangers-on who may have admitted to voting for the coalition lot?
We did. Nothing is out of bounds at a Murchison Christmas. (Let’s not mention the trouble the Auckland-dwelling sister and I got into for not following the instructions about what to include in the festive fruit salad, though we swear we did not receive said directions from the Queen of Cookery.)
There was silence at the time. The young people may have been pretending not to hear.
Nobody shouted about their wealth as a result of the tax cuts. The truck drivers among us did not wax lyrical about big spending on roads either, possibly because they work in that forgotten land, the South Island. No-one mentioned feeling safer.
By the next day only one of the coalition voters had come up with something, which was, as I suspected it would be, the announcement about the end of greyhound racing.
I pointed out that had been a long time coming and governments of both stripes could take credit for it.
But back to the watch debacle. When I was muttering darkly about it, it occurred to me anger had dominated much of my 2024.
Anger at the short-sighted climate change denialism of the government with its accompanying crazy spending decisions, its money wasting shilly-shallying around the Dunedin hospital rebuild, its pandering to big business in ways too many to list, its wilful ignorance of sensible or scientific advice on almost any subject, and its casual attitude towards stirring up social unrest.
Close to home, I experienced pointless anger and sadness about bad things happening to good people I know and love.
There were highlights; catching up with wider whanau, and the Old School Mate from Feilding, and fun with my five grandchildren (offset with fears about government policies which will do nothing to improve their futures).
My two loyal readers may remember my mid-year delight at the introduction of the green-topped wheelie bin which liberated me from compost queen pretensions. But that has been sullied by the realisation a sneaky change in government policy will mean many people in other parts of the country are unlikely to experience my weekly bin-filling thrill.
In case you missed it, in the week before Christmas, the Ministry for the Environment announced, on its website, the government would be scrapping mandatory requirements for council household recycling services and household food scraps collection in all urban areas, data reporting for private household recycling providers, and a performance standard for household recycling and food scraps diversion.
The reason given for this backtrack on Labour’s 2022 policies was to reduce additional costs on councils, and to allow more choice around the timing for introducing any new services.
Oh please. Given the choice between spending and doing nothing, the latter is the choice that will be made because councils will be trying to keep rates down, particularly in an election year.
Since the government is so keen on councils doing the basics properly, isn’t waste collection, reduction, recycling and disposal a basic? I could scream.
The suggestion councils can get support for the introduction of recycling and food scraps collection through the Waste Minimisation Fund seems hollow when the size of that fund has been reduced.
Among other backtracks, the government has got rid of this year’s deadline for phasing out all polystyrene food and drink packaging not covered by previous phase-outs, with no indication of when another decision will be made on this.
Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds issued no official statement on any of this when the information appeared on the ministry’s website.
It is hard not to see the handling of this as a cynical attempt to avoid proper scrutiny of yet another environment-bashing government policy. So much for my hope of leaving my anger in 2024.
The good news is, by the end of January 1, my watch burst into life again. If it is ready to bravely face whatever the year might bring, maybe it’s time for me to do the same.
• Elspeth McLean is a Dunedin writer.
