Digital NZ (follow-up)

Just got a letter from Chorus, an internet infrastructure company in Auckland (and across New Zealand), stating that they’ve just upgraded the network to work faster.

I checked my tariff with my provider (there are dozens of providers, but they all ultimately operate through Chorus) - and yes, my tariff’s speed is now faster. Then I tested the actual speed - it really is faster.

The price is the same. No other changes. Just a letter informing me that my internet is now faster - and that’s it.

They say they’ve boosted speeds for 2 million New Zealanders. So if you’re in NZ and on a 50–300 Mbps fibre plan, check your speed.

(Russian)

Winter in the house

That is what people mean by "cold NZ houses". It's winter here now, and we're at the beginning of the coldest part of the season - July and August.

The picture shows the early morning temperature in our house. It's about 8°C outside. No heaters were on overnight, so this is probably the lowest temperature you'll get inside during winter. It matches my video about the climate in NZ.

I think it's fine. A few hours later, it warms up to 18-20°C. I wear a sherpa hoodie at home (also shown in the video) and feel comfortable.

The consistently high temperature in my Moscow apartment was a bigger problem. For good sleep, it’s important to keep the room below 20°C, but that was hard to achieve in Moscow. In winter, even with all the radiators turned off and the windows slightly open, the temperature stayed at 22-25°C. Too hot for proper sleep. It was almost an unsolvable problem.

In NZ, I can be more flexible.

PS: Humidity is controlled by a dehumidifier and always ideal.

(Russian)

Video version of my post "Motherland gave you"

MP3 version of the video above

A Different Kind of Power

Just a quick update on crime in NZ. As I mentioned in my first video, there used to be a lot of ram raids here - that’s when someone steals a car, crashes it into a shop, and loots whatever they can. It was mostly done by young offenders. In that video, I said I hoped things might improve once the left-wing government was gone.

The left-wing Labour Party was voted out in 2023, and now we have a chance to see how things are starting to change.

Here are the latest ram raid stats:
2022 - 714
2023 - 495
2024 - 209
2025 - 45 so far

Pretty decent progress, if you ask me.

One more thing – former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, a left-wing activist who served as Prime Minister until 2023 and under whom crime rates rose, recently presented a book titled A Different Kind of Power (pictured above). I think the title fits perfectly. Her kind of power was definitely different – a good example of how not to govern.

(Russian)

Seagulls

Did you know that seagulls are absolute beasts? I used to think they were just cool birds living by the sea. Their chirping gave the city a relaxed, sunny vibe, and I really liked it.

My impression of them changed after I saw them in action. Turns out, they dominate everything around them.

Especially pigeons. If a group of pigeons finds something on the street, there's usually a seagull nearby that jumps right into the crowd of pigeons, kicks them out, and takes their food.

And it's not just bullying - they kill pigeons! My wife and son once saw a seagull attacking a pigeon so it couldn’t fly away. The seagull started to rip it apart. They decided not to watch the action any further, but it was pretty clear how it would end.

So now you know too - seagulls are real brutal badasses.

(Russian)

A slight shift from the channel’s main focus - this new video isn’t about NZ, but about nutrition, fitness, and a healthy lifestyle.

I’m not changing the channel’s direction - future content will remain centred on NZ, Russia, politics, and such.

MP3 version of the video above

Time perception

Have you ever felt time slowing down during a holiday? Two weeks of holidays can feel like two months of everyday life - sometimes even longer.

And the older you get, the faster time flies. In childhood, summer holidays felt like an entire life - huge and endless. As a teenager, time moves a little faster. By middle age, time speeds up drastically. Weeks blur into days, months into weeks, years into months - faster and faster. Sometimes you think you saw a film last year, but it was actually five years ago. Time compresses.

In my opinion, this happens because the older we get, the less we have to learn and the fewer new impressions we encounter. In childhood, we have a whole new world to discover. In our teens, we’ve learned something, but far from everything. By mid-life, we already know most things about life. The brain switches from “discovery” mode to “routine” mode. We live in patterns: work, family, friends, hobbies. Life becomes repetition. The brain relaxes, and time speeds up.

Travelling is one of the few ways people break this cycle. I think that's the main reason people like travelling - it forces the brain back into discovery mode: planning trips, booking tickets, navigating new cities, figuring out how things work there. The majority do it for a few weeks per year. So ~90% of the year they live in “routine” mode and just 10% in “discovery” mode. Not much.

I think you already know where I am going with this. Yes - immigration is exactly the “discovery” mode. Just much longer than any holiday - it slows time for at least the first 2-3 years, and then time gradually speeds up again as you integrate into a new society and establish a set of new patterns.

My first three years as an immigrant have felt like ten years of ordinary life in Russia, perhaps even more. It’s been a constant stream of new experiences - new countries, a new education, new connections, new jobs, new homes, new neighbours, new cities, new traditions, a new climate, new landscapes, and a new language environment. Everything around me was new.

Time slowed down again, almost like in childhood. The brain started to work hard again, creating new patterns and making new connections.

It feels like a huge, wonderful holiday full of new experiences. It’s not easy to process, but that’s exactly the point - if it were easy, the brain wouldn’t be sufficiently stressed to slow down time. To slow it down, you need to break patterns and step out of your comfort zone. Push your brain into stress - just like in childhood, when you had to learn the whole world from scratch.

There are probably other ways to achieve this, but immigration is definitely one of the best. It was also one of the reasons for moving - a few extra years of “perceived” life is a nice bonus.

(Russian)