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.

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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.

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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.

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Private property

Pak'n'Save Westgate, early morning. I chose this store and time so there would be almost no clients. I was alone, filming with my phone. About 20 minutes in, an employee came over and very politely asked me to stop, explaining that it’s private property and that the only way to film there is with confirmation from the store's owner, who is currently unreachable.

I stopped. Then I checked the entrance and, yes - they do in fact prohibit filming.

My inner libertarian is fine with that - any business should be able to operate as it wishes. No one should be forced to serve someone or tolerate something they don’t want on their property. That’s normal, and that’s how it should be. I’m totally fine with it.

But the fact still surprised me - it’s such a strange idea for a store to stop someone from giving them free advertising. They have nothing to hide - their goods and prices are published on their site anyway. But it is what it is.

PS Sorry, the next video is delayed.

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Auckland in spring

Just a picture from today’s bike ride (a zoomable full-size version is in the comments). The pink curving bridge in the centre of the picture is a purpose-built cycle bridge into the CBD, and it’s a real pleasure to ride across it. We also biked all around the city centre - there are quite a few very comfortable cycle lanes. Using them is actually faster than driving through the centre by car.

And just to share - here’s a cycleway map of Auckland. There are plenty of separated cycle lanes, plus you can ride on public roads too. Speed limit is 50 (sometimes even 30 km/h), and drivers are generally used to cyclists and treat them well, so biking can be a surprisingly comfortable and quick way to get around Auckland.

When it’s not raining, of course.

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Parents

A common question in the comments is about parents - is it hard to live far from them? Here is my situation.

Support

I’m lucky. My parents are fully independent and don’t need my support. Instead, they’ve helped me throughout my life - from my upbringing (a liberal atmosphere, complete freedom, discussions rather than punishment), to the financial support they gave when we lived together, and advice afterwards. The older I get, the more I value their advice - they’ve been right far more often than I have.

I only fully understood how much they gave me when I became a parent myself - it’s hard to be the kind of parent they were. I’m doing my best to be a similar parent to my son.

Communication

There’s no problem with communication. We speak regularly online and it feels much the same as when I lived in Russia. We’ve even celebrated some holidays together, gathering relatives from different cities online.

Communication isn’t an issue nowadays and it'll only get better over time. There are worrying attempts to restrict the internet in some countries, but people usually find ways around those limits. Even in heavily restricted places like China, everyone who needs it manages to work around restrictions.

Visits

After obtaining residency, it’s fairly straightforward to get visitor visas for parents for a few months - plenty for a visit. So that’s not a problem. The harder issue is a permanent visa for parents. But that only matters if you plan to bring your parents to live in New Zealand (mine don’t want to).

Another point: when I moved to NZ, I had no support here - no relatives, no friends, zero connections. Now I'm here, and in case of a new emergency, I can be that connection for my family. Managing alone is very difficult - I know that. In case of need, it will be easier for my family because of me.

Stress

Staying alive is quite important. If I died before my parents, their lives would probably be worse than if I were still around. Losing a child is the worst thing anyone can go through. Even just the thought that your child might die or end up in prison at any time, and you couldn't do a thing about it, is hugely stressful.

I'm glad they don't have to grieve my death or worry about my safety - they know I'm fine and so aren't stressed about it.

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Crazy tree

When I looked up this tree on Google, someone had called it "crazy", and I think that’s the perfect name for it. The crazy tree. Gorgeous too, like almost all other trees in New Zealand.

I don’t see them very often. This one, as you can see, is just growing on the side of a car park, like a weed.

Its official name is Juniperus kaizuka or Hollywood Juniper.

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Capitalism

Yesterday I received $364 from the electrical network. Not paid but received. Sounds odd, I know. But in NZ, you can sometimes get not just tax refunds, but also dividends (without investing).

It was hard for me to comprehend - my whole life experience suggested it was impossible. So I looked into the history. Here’s what I learned:

In 1993, the National (centre-right party, the ones now recovering the country after the previous left-wing Labour government) helped establish a trust to own a large part of Auckland's electrical network.

This trust owns about 75% of the network, earns profits from it, and pays annual dividends to eligible residents (those living in the areas it serves).

Why does the trust pay money to people? Because that’s how it was created - it exists to benefit citizens and is not controlled by the government.

That’s how "cruel capitalism" looks in action - privatisation, reducing of government, and in result more money to people.

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Video version of my post on socialisation.

MP3 version of the video above.

The most honest people

A few years ago, researchers visited 355 cities across 40 countries and "lost" 17,303 wallets. They then calculated the return rates in each country to identify the most honest people.

Cash in the wallets was adjusted for each country’s PPP ($13-90), and all contents localised for authenticity. The study took six years and accounted for as many variables as possible to ensure a fair comparison.

The results are shown above. NZ ranked 8th for wallets without money and 3rd for wallets with money - not bad, and consistent with my experience.

Counterintuitively, people in most countries were more likely to return wallets containing money. The researchers suggest this is because people don’t want to see themselves as thieves. Those who didn’t return wallets without money simply saw themselves as lazy, which feels less bad.

PS: Thanks to CEODen for sharing the study. The PDF version in the comments.

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Video version of the post on why the 2022 wave of migrants is returning to Russia.

MP3 version of the video above