12 Sept2014 2017 27ththSept Jan - 18 3rdthFeb
FIRST ON THE STREET
No No 434 617
LAKES WEEKLY BULLETIN
1 J IN O 17 SI BS D E
www.lwb.co.nz • buy • accommodation • sell • information • jobs • enquiries@lwb.co.nz
All of us who have chosen to live here are striving for a new Utopia of work-life balance. I imagine the whole reason our population has exploded uncomfortably over the past six years is that people don’t need Queenstown jobs anymore. You just move here and plug in to your many devices and whiz work away electronically. Phone calls, emails, the odd commuter flight- job done! You can work the hours that suit you, finish in time to deal with kids after school and sneak off for a ski without pulling a sickie. While there are a myriad of distractions in the home environment, it’s great to be free of office hours and you can actually be quite productive if you are able to focus and compartmentalise. If you just can’t ignore the washing, a shared workspace would be a great option but as far as I can tell, there’s only one in Queenstown. Certainly tempting—it presents pretty good value, with shared costs and flexible options so you can still work to suit you while providing an ‘out’ from the home environment and a bit of networking. If you’re employed remotely you are probably fortunate to have backup— marketing, tech support, colleagues to bounce ideas off. Others who are selfemployed face extra challenges, wholly reliant on self-managed technology for communication and self-promotion. Do-it-yourself-web-building, Facebook, Google, Twitter and emails should all represent this incredible potential for gaining more work—but they are extremely time-consuming. One hurdle can lead to a bigger one and unless each complicated technological hitch is seen through to the end, nothing is achieved.
Katie Church, Todd Barclay, Renee Raymond and Gabby Stevens at Todd Barclay’s leaving drinks at The Bunker on Friday. (Photo: Jodi Walters)
Welcome to Spring at
The need for a speedy internet is increasingly vital. It’s nice to look at a pretty view but even so, it gets unbelievably frustrating if your brain operates faster than the internet—you can almost hear the clicks and clunks of dial-up speed. It’s easy to lose your train of thought while constantly waiting for it to catch up. Government hopefuls could snaffle a few votes if they can commit to fast-tracking the rollout of Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB), with Queenstown’s quickly growing professional workforce needing hyper-efficiency. 2021 is a long time to wait for places like Arrowtown and Lake Hayes Estate. That’s a lot of staring out the window breathing deeply to prevent hurling one’s laptop in exasperation. Ideally, before too long—two years, not four—we’ll have UFB across the district to boost the productivity of the fewer hours we are willing to work. We’ll have more shared workspaces so we can maintain flexibility but still be part of a hub; no rush hour, less traffic congestion. All we need then is a shared pool of techy Y-Gens and Millennials who would like nothing more than to be paid by many to nut out our troublesome devices and social media posts, which in the new world must be released with frightening regularity—essentially paid to be the centre of their universe on our behalf. Now that would be Utopia for everyone.
Enjoy the longer warmer days on our heated waterfront patio.
Lucy Hunt Writers’ Relief
ALL BLACKS V SOUTH AFRICA SATURDAY
Cocktails • Meat & Cheese Boards • Live Music littleblackwood.com Steamer Wharf Queenstown Lakefront
AL RENT IES RT ROPE
P or cover f e back perties id s in See pro list of our full to rent.
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JOHN RAVENS WEATHER Last week John was 91% correct
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High Cloud. Southwesterly
Occasional Showers
Rain Developing. Chance Heavy
Heavy Rain. Gusty Winds
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