LEVEL Two.
It's the signal we've broken the back of Covid-19.
Normality - or what we remember as normality - is returning, albeit in a measured way and many in the community especially our front-line medical staff can be justifiably proud of the way they've fronted up.
We'll look back on the past two months with a mixture of pride, frustration and, for many, sadness and there's no doubt it will change the way we live our lives.
Hopefully the positives of effectively communicating with those around us especially our neighbours; keeping relatively fit and undertaking some attitudinal realignments will outweigh the negatives.
But there will be extremely challenging times ahead for the community. It will be interesting to see how we address them.
In the days before ATMs we'd all queue up at the bank to - that's right - cash a cheque. Fridays were the worst days because with the impending weekend it was imperative there was cash in the wallet. So for much of your half hour lunch-break you'd line up at the local bank.
Mind you the sporting clubs up and down the country (or the friendly grocer or the TAB) were also wonderful "cashers of cheques" primarily on Saturdays after all the proceeds of Friday's withdrawals had been spent. Remember most places weren't open on Sundays either.
Of course, many establishments refused to take cheques, so if you ran out of cash - bad luck.
For businesses the task of manually writing out the details of every cheque into a ledger and then depositing them at the bank was downright tedious. I experienced that twice in my illustrious work career in the eighties. Firstly with the Northland Harbour Board and secondly with Rothmans. Given the fact I couldn't balance my own cheque book my tenure as a up and coming financial controller with both outfits was brief.
So to all you young people who might have a few problems with your banking app ... spare a thought for those of us who battled with our cheque books.
So what will be the next piece of our lives to go the way of a roll of film (pictured for those who don't know what it is), fax machines and cheques?
Answers on a postcard. Mind you ...
GIVEN the red-carding of Radio Sport it was astonishing to see how quickly Trackside Radio was scratched.
Surely there was a great opportunity for the network to storm down the home straight and win the radio sport and racing battle in what had become a one-horse-race.
Clearly a lack of strategic vision, where cost-cutting has taken precedence over common sense, has robbed sports and racing fans of an engaging platform.
Trackside Radio - which broadcast across New Zealand - paid around $30,000 a month for the frequencies which seems a bargain when you've got a captive audience but unfortunately, for fans, listening to a network that had much to offer is no longer an option.
