Paul Hickey: Number's up for the landline phone

The landline phone call isn't as important as it used to be in our household. Photo / File

Once upon a time, the home phone was a staple form of communication.

If you didn't want to wait days or weeks for letters, the phone was it. Organising get-togethers, calling mates to help with homework, gas-bagging with friends and the phone calls to wish family happy birthday.

I do sometimes wonder why we still have the good old landline telephone. For a select few, I suppose it could still be the main form of communication, but it has certainly been superseded by the mobile phone, then texting and, more recently, the various forms of instant social media chats.

Nowadays when the home phone rings, my wife, Katie, and I look at each other, daring the other to make the first move to answer what is 99 per cent likely to be someone trying to sell us some form of home heating, maybe various subscriptions, or even offering to help fix our computer.

In fact, I actually like the Windows help centre calls. I love playing along and letting them think they've got one hooked. Good fun. So our home phone is pretty much redundant. I suppose the downside of ditching it would mean maybe those phone callers turn into door knockers in the future, and that could be even worse.

At least we can just hang up the phone.

We all saw what those idiots did last week in Wellington. Imagine shutting your home's front door on those Greenpeace people. They would likely just take up residence on your balcony and wave flags at you through your window.

I would sure as hell like some swifter action than letting them sit there for hours illegally.

It does continue to amaze me why our authorities continue to play the soft hand to these weirdo groups.

Interesting to read last week's new story that says us Kiwis are the least likely on the planet to believe global warming theories. In other words, we're the least gullible on the planet. Go NZ.

I'm sure I've mentioned a number of times how much I love to eat burgers. There are some good ones around, with the obvious ones being Burger Fuel and the Create Your Taste at McDonald's pretty good locally. But last weekend I went to a place called Velvet Burger in Fort St, Auckland. OMG. If you get the chance, do it.

Speaking of food, The Hits has organised another cooking demonstration at Rotorua Central featuring Masterchef NZ winners, and almost locals Kasey and Karena Bird. It's on tomorrow from 11am, with the girls cooking up an Asian beef salad and a naughty banana split dessert. I can't work out how a banana split can be naughty, because they are always nice for me. Find out tomorrow, I suppose.

Paul Hickey is the host of the locally based 9am-3pm show on The Hits Rotorua 97.5FM. Follow on Twitter @paulhickeynz or at The Hits Rotorua on Facebook.