Kevin Milne: The risks of buying new bathroom scales

Kevin Milne has been weighing himself with the same bathroom scale for years. 

Unfortunately, this trusty scale was looking a bit shabby and out of place in their bathroom, so he and his wife decided it was time for a new one. This had an unforeseen problem. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Kevin Milne is with us this morning. Kevin, have you
had Dmitries before?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
No, I've never heard of it. I left christ Church
in nineteen seventy, so maybe that was before Dimitris got underway.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It was pre Dimitries. Yes, that was pre Dimitri. It
was forty years this weekend, this is the fortieth furday Dimitris.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
So yep. I'm very pleased that I'm not booked in
there for lunch or hoping to wander in there for
lunch after your piece, because of course there'll be a
queue right out the door and down the road.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Honestly, they don't need my piece to advertise them. I'm
not being paid a cent and they don't need it.
There's always a que now, anyway, I think there's always.
But it's one of those places that has just for
it has developed a reputation over many decades for excellence
and for doing, you know, effectively one thing incredibly well,
and to not messing with that in any way, shape

(01:04):
or form, and it's it deserves every bit of love
that it gets. As far as I'm concerned. The reason
it's developed that reputation is because it's so good, you know, yes,
but it's funny.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
I can go there when next time them down there,
I'll refer to my daughter who's now moved down to
christ So.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, I'm sure she'll definitely know about it. Can you
think of any other you know, ferg Burger and Queenstown, right, yeah,
and you know for Dall's and Wellington. Can you think
of other I'm trying to think of other like places
that are kind of synonymous with towns or cities in
New Zealand, you know, other other food places where you go,
Oh well, if you're in if you're in you know, Queenstown,
you got to go Ferburg. If you're in Christius, you've

(01:44):
got to go to Dmitries. I reckon there be a few, so.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, yeah, I if I might just go back beyond
Dmitri's time. There used to be a place down Chrish
It's called Fail's First Cafe, and it had extraordinary tables
where the chairs were sort of made of raw time
and swung swung actually on the tables. These all things
all out right extraordinary. There's still around actually, because you'd

(02:11):
never they'll last forever and collectors in christ surch now
have a failes table and there in their kitchen, and
everybody gets very envious. And but yeah, but but foils
was well, it never failed.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, was it?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
And was it that they primarily serve fish?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, almost totally fish. I don't think they have had
anything else.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, I hear the White Lady. White Lady is a
good example in Auckland, the White Lady caravan. You know
the burgers in Auckland. Yeah, yeah, yep. Anyway, Kevin, speaking
of delicious food this morning, you're thinking about bathroom scales.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yes, I've gone from a dot last week to talking
about I've expanded to bathroom scales. We had these bathroom
scales most of our married life, Jack, and they served
us well for over forty years. I monitor mywake constantly.
I like to give the scales a solid workout. There's

(03:10):
no point in having a display on them that goes
up to one hundred and fifty kgs if you're only
going to take it to fifty. It's like buying an
Asten Martin and driving it like a Corolla. My scales
go from nought to one hundred zero point five of
the second Anyway, until last week, we still used our

(03:31):
old scales, but we decided they had to go. They
just looked shabby. Let the rest of the bathroom down.
I got the job of buying the new ones. It's
hard to peck a set of scales. Actually different prices,
yet they all look the same. You might as well
chuck a bit of money at them, I feel, because
scales are nothing if they're not accurate. So I've bought

(03:53):
a flash set of glass salt of scales designed in
Great Britain. Solar scales have been designed in Britain for
the last three hundred and fifty years, so I knew
they'd be reliable. Anyway, I got the new scales home,
assembled them and decided there and then to make sure
they were working okay. So, knowing my weight, I weighed

(04:15):
myself to find jack that for years I've been four
cages heavier than I thought I was. That's assuming that
my new scales were telling the truth, which regrettably they were.
I confirmed that at the gym, very disappointing. My advice
to listeners is to think carefully before buying new scales.

(04:36):
It might be as rewarding as you expect and it
now occurs to me, why throw out an old set
of scales that's being kind to you? After all? Does
it really matter what your true weight is? Who cares?
All you need to know is if you're putting on
weight or losing it. And my dear old scales had

(04:56):
been accurately telling me that for decades, but in the
kindest possible way.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Jack, Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. Kevin. That's a
devastating moment. Realize that you've been sold a dud number
for however long. You know what it reminds me of it.
It reminds me of the speedometer, and you can and
you know how the speedo is often just a couple
of k's higher than your actual speed. You know, when
you drive past one of those things that tells you
your speed and says, you know, slow down if you

(05:22):
have to that, you know, the kind of in the
street speedometers. Well maybe this is just my experience, but
usually when I drive past that, the in street speedo
says that I'm doing a couple of k's slower than
my in car speedo does. And I'm convinced that my
in car speedo builds in a couple of extra kilometers
per hour grace, just so that if I happen to

(05:45):
accidentally nudge over the speed limit, I don't automatically get pinked.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Somebody told me in the last year or two that
in fact, they are designed to be the speed is
designed to be faster than than in reality.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
No, there you go. So yeah, so there you go.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
But is it real just a conspiracy, I'm I'm I'm
basing that on nothing except for my own theory.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, well I'm basing just on what somebody told me.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
Yeah, but that Yeah, and apparently the idea of it
was to it was basically to help you cut back
on speeding tickets.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, this is you have be inclined to slow down?

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Clear, Yeah, of course, very good. Hey, Thanksgivin. You have
a great weekend. We'll catch you again very soon.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news Talks i'd Be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.