Mysteries to me: Trump's presidency, missing socks, the Budget

Chloe Swarbrick was a focus for attention when the Greens announced their MPs list this week.

I have been reflecting on life's mysteries this week. - the full range: from why can't I find a matching pair of socks to how on earth is Donald Trump the president of America?

I reached a new milestone of finding 11 individual socks in one load of washing this week - where are their 11 mates? Is there some secret sock mountain that socks must go on a pilgrimage to? I swear I have bought at least 10 pairs of plain black socks for my children this year, as required for school, yet they remain missing-in-action.

Another mystery is why some people, usually anonymous keyboard warriors, are so mean to others, whether in letters to the editor attacking people they've never met, or trolling online.

An amazing author and blogger, Emily Writes, is taking a break from social media after the constant and wearying snipes got too much. My gesture of support has been to buy her book, Rants in the Dark - strongly recommended for the sleep-deprived parents among us.

Now to Trump - he's an unsolvable mystery. This week he got halfway through writing a tweet, then stopped with "covfefe" - perhaps a typo of the word "coverage" - and Twitter went crazy in the hours before it was eventually deleted.

For the record, the full tweet was: "Despite the constant negative press covfefe."
There are many bigger reasons why I have concerns about Trump's presidency but the #covfefe reaction is at least prompting some light relief.

A more sobering frustration of life is the end - dying.

It's not easy to say it was someone's time to go, even at 99. My boys' great grandmother passed away recently, one week short of her 100th birthday, and even after a long life well lived, it still feels like the family was cheated.

I attended Professor Russell Death's lecture on freshwater in Whanganui this week. He has done well to keep fighting for science in the face of depressing trends, both in nationwide water quality and in Government action or lack thereof.

His presentation was powerful and provoking, providing clear evidence on how the Government has lowered the standards as part of their 2040 swimmability target.

His comments on the likely inevitability of New Zealand facing widespread chlorine treatment of all our drinking water supplies hit home harder with Waverley's E. coli outbreak - I've been drinking bottled or boiled water at work this week.

And the Budget ...

How can National find another $63 million for more irrigation when the message from the community is stop intensifying agriculture - our waterways can't cope.

They did manage to scrape together $1 million for extending iwi-led community clean-up programmes - a tokenistic drop in the bucket.

There were also more funds for tourism infrastructure in the Budget, but not for conservation. This isn't good management.

It's not complicated - there is even an Aesop fable to explain it, The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs. Yes, we need to manage impacts of our increasing visitor numbers, but if we don't take care of what we've got, tourism will end up suffering.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, released a report this week on the state of our threatened species, highlighting that 32 per cent of our birds are in "serious trouble", including the kea, whio (blue duck) and two kiwi species, with many more under pressure.

She suggested a levy on international tourists to help fund more pest control. The Greens have also suggested the same - a "taonga tax".

Something that wasn't a surprise to me this week was seeing Chloe Swarbrick move up the Green Party's list: she is now ranked nine.

Those who were lucky enough to hear her speak in Whanganui recently know she is the real deal. I'm proud to be part of a political party that is backing smart talented young women for Parliament.

Nicola Patrick is a Horizons regional councillor, a Sustainable Whanganui trustee and works for Te Kaahui o Rauru. A mother of two boys, she has a science degree and is a Green Party member.