Rāhui Day 28 (30): a 13 hour working day. Cushla took me for a wee walk. I behaved … for the most part. Walking sticks are useful (reminder to self: not with Mr Bridges). Coffee in the sun on the lawn watching some pretty classy shooting. Media given $50m and bitched that it wasn’t enough. […]
Tag: books
Being a survivor – The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care
Kāti rā, ā te tākiritanga mai o te ata, ā te huanga ake o te awatea, kia tau he māramatanga, kia ū ko te pai, kia mau ko te tika. Koinei ko te tangi a te ngākau e Rongo, tūturu ōwhiti whakamaua kia tina, tina! Hui e, tāiki e! (And so, as dawn rises, and […]
University of Auckland IDEA Brain Study
We had a couple of young wāhine come to our door and ask whether there were any ancient people, antiquaries almost, geriatrics, in the whare. Cushla said yes, as apparently, I qualify. The two young wāhine were academics from the University of Auckland who introduced me to a major study that was being undertaken through the University […]
RymanHealth ‘Senior New Zealander of the Year’
In early December, I was contacted by the people who run the New Zealander of the Year Awards and informed that I was, once again, a semi-finalist (top 10) for Senior New Zealander of the Year yet again. I must admit I was really chuffed as it’s a nice acknowledgement of the work I do […]
The All Blacks v The Wallabies
Early in the year, Cadbury ran a promotion celebrating volunteers. This involved submitting the name, a brief CV, and a photograph of the person you were recommending as a top volunteer and Cadbury would turn this into a cute, animated cartoon video featuring that person. This seemed like fun, so I submitted details for both […]
Friendships – old and gone
It’s been an odd year for friendships. I’ve reconnected with people I went to primary school with over seventy years ago, and I’m constantly astonished at the longevity for some of my friendships. I guess the other natural result of a prolonged existence is that, on quite a regular basis, one or other of my […]
Alex Reed. Who?
Many years ago, I met a young actor named Alexander Reed. Actually, that’s not true, I didn’t. In those days he was a handsome, youthful, acting-obsessed fellow called Aleksander Ristov and we ‘did theatre’ together. Shakespeare, all sorts of stuff. His dream was to go to New York and to become Al Pacino. Instead, he […]
Edinburgh Comes Home
I’ve been to Edinburgh, but I don’t remember that much about it. It wasn’t that memorable. Grey clouds, and rain. I stayed in quite a nice hotel, small, and a bit classy. I had a nice first floor room that overlooked a rather elegant street. None of this was planned. The hotel just happened to […]
I Want to be Happy ~ a theatre review
On the surface, I Want to be Happy is the simple story of a guinea pig and a laboratory researcher. It’s not, of course, it’s written by Carl Bland so it’s much more. Paul (Joel Tobeck) is doing ‘research’ on Binka the guinea pig (we don’t find out what this involves) while going through a difficult relationship […]
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