iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 18h

I used to swear by cages and cleats until I discovered quality flats. Beautifully machining (like old skool XT!) Shimano's legendary cup/cone bearings, and grip like they were magnetic. Super-rare pedals for life. Until some c**t stole the bike.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 19h

Controversial take, but after quite a few visits, and extensive multi year internal monologue, Toulouse>Bordeaux>Paris

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 19h

Realised I’m wearing this cap in the Victor Hugo market and mentally preparing to be hit up by some Aussie tourist Rando

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 19h

In Toulouse there are a lot of men with the build of rugby front rowers. In no way does this discourage them from air kissing both cheeks when they meet on the street.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 19h

Breakfast with my Toulouse people. Well worth the brief pedal across town.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 19h

And used my revolut card instead. This time I got €100 for €100. At the time I transferred Kiwi dollars into euros the exchange rate was just over 50 Euro cents. And Revolut is free.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 19h

It’s impossible to overstress the importance of having a bank account in euros when you’re travelling around Europe. I just absentmindedly put my ANZ card into an ATM to withdraw €100. the fee was €12, which gave an effective exchange rate of 44 euro cents to the dollar. I quickly cancelled…

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

OMFG this is one hell of a Napoli must be half a tin of anchovies on this thing

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Dinner tonight is pizza, bought from a joint round the corner from the port, made by an Italian. Actual food pics to follow.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Also you can buy a liveable entry level apartment for under $400,000, everywhere is walkable cyclable, there’s like 14 universities, and they’re just building their third metro line but yeah NO NEW TAXES!!!

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Literally no one’s going to think “ If I have to pay 60c tax I won’t visit Toulouse”.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I am staying at the port in Toulouse, which collects a NZ 60c bed tax from visitors. THIS IS NORMAL IN EVERY PARTY OF THE WORLD. So why are we having these never ending agonising debates about implementing stuff like this in NZ?

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Just stating the obvious, but with three political polls released in the past few days that have predicted three very different results, they can't all be right. #nzpol

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Great interview. Well moderated too. Amazing it ran for 11 minutes: that’s War & Peace scale for TV in 2026

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This. The Mowbrays hail from Cambridge, not that you'd ever know it. Total and complete radio silence on giving anything back to the region they grew up in. At this stage, grateful residents would settle for their fingernail clippings but...

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Not seeing mention of how absolutely terrible job S Brown is doing as campaign manager for the Nats. This what comes from entrusting the job to a guy whose ministerial comms have been 1 dimensional - at best! The voting public can only stand so much of NINE NEW TAXES/ NO NEW TAXES and it's showing.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Blatantly targeting the sympathy vote with this one. Contains bonus unrelated pics and vids that are quite good. mrjeffhowell.substack.com/p/sore-me?r=...

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Oops I was looking at the wrong pic. That’s central Toulouse, at Port Saint Sauveur.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I’ll believe it when I see it. We’ve had lightning but honestly everything is so dry it’s ridiculous. I reckon it hasn’t rained for months.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

30 bucks a night buys this spot (and use of the bathrooms)

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Crazy moment on the canal this afternoon. No idea how this started, but everything is dry as hay, and it was blowing a gale so all the right ingredients for a brushfire.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Back on the road and a mere 24km to Toulouse. The canal from here is boring AF unfortunately.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Wasn’t totally happy with the throttle travel, so I had an hour of two of this parlaver this morning. Seems to be working perfectly now (Jeff reaches across to touch a random piece of wood)

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Good morning Aotearoa! There’s a story behind this pic, which I will retail in my next Substack post. Suffice to say I got coffee this morning regardless of the obstacles in my way

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Sorry but I’m gonna keep posting stuff like this until someone stops me.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Well into autumn now here, but plenty of this nonsense still going on. That’s a sealed towpath that runs all the way from Toulouse to Bordeaux. Car free, and smooth as silk.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I’d be very interested in the takes from Bernard Hickey and Ganesh Nana as to the net cost of fair pay once that extra money is recycled through the local economy (& taxed & retaxed and so on). But that’s not the kind of column you’re going to see on a New Zealand news site, unfortunately #nzpol

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Look I’m genuinely concerned for your health right now, and hope you ditch this respiratory thing ASAP, but boy you write well when you’re sick and angry!

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

New Substack dropping soon to describe that bad shit and more detail LOL

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Fingers crossed it’s going to be one of those days when nature says “maybe we pushed that guy bit hard yesterday with bad shit - let’s give him one today to remind him why he bought his boat in the first place…”.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Walking along the market streets of Huadong agonising over the choice of duck rice, steamed dumplings, or some Portuguese tarts and realising this is China, so why not have them all for lunch?

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Compulsory reviewing of the first three seasons of Borgen.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Now on the final leg, which is a bus. If you live in Auckland and don’t use public transport to get to the airport, you really should.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

What a stunning evening to be flying out of Tāmaki! Also these suburban trains are pretty damn good.

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Please please please can we also have this in Kirikiriroa? Postal voting is like a lobotomy for local democracy.

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