In 2024, I had my standard bout of surgery, in this case, a new left hip. I already have an artificial right hip, a metal left knee, and a ‘piano wire’ joined Achilles tendon. This new surgery was scheduled for six months ago but, being sick of taking pills, I’d made the unilateral decision to […]
Tag: family
I Love Travel!
This weird life of mine! It feels as though I’ve been a few times round the block which is a bit crazy considering I was eighteen years old before I ever climbed onto a plane – Ōtautahi to Whanganui-a-Tara in 1963, a return trip for my girlfriend’s sister’s wedding – and fifty-two before I left […]
Maiden Tāmaki
I’m not sure whether I’ve been clear enough in my statements about my health. Mostly it’s great, sometimes it’s not. There are two reasons why, at least some of the time, my body is not quite not right. These are: My excuse is that we didn’t know how to train, but the truth is, I’ve never […]
Hogmanay 2025
When I was a kid, New Year’s Eve was a bit of a thing. I didn’t know then but where we lived was the wrong side of the tracks and brutally working class. It was post-war, the dawning of the 1950s, and everyone on our street lived in a state house. Most of the families […]
I’ve hated this woman.
I’ve hated this woman. I’ve not loved her at full capacity. I’ve fed her lies & told her she wasn’t good enough and have allowed others to tell her she wasn’t good enough. I’ve allowed her to be broken. I’ve allowed others to treat her disrespectfully. I’ve allowed her to run through brick walls & […]
‘Are you a girl who used to be a boy’, then the follow up ‘are you Finn’s Mum?’
Rāhui Day 29 (31): Shit, it’s those odd numbers again. Oh well, just have to live through them, I guess. Hard to believe it a month since I sat in one of those uncomfortable plastic chairs at Maungakiekie and watched my Cushla coaching, our Finn shooting arrows, and George Corbett trying to strangle me. I […]
A tight-lipped, shudder of cultural inconvenience.
Rāhui Day 30 (32): Spent much of the day trying to find something to commemorate in lives sacrificed to the gods of money, nationalism, and ego. The ANZAC Days of my childhood were not the jingoistic memorialising of tidied up carnage that they are today, the knowing was still too raw and real. Some men […]
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 […]
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 […]
dykiegirl 