It’s ANZAC Day in New Zealand, which tends to make one reflective, contemplative. When I’m reflecting and contemplating, I tend to go ‘big picture’ quite quickly, extrapolating from a single point. In […]
Reasons To Be Cheerful.
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Chapter Nineteen. The Parcel.
Chapter 19 This is the final chapter of the book. Hemi hacked his basic, alright, he excelled at it. He was fortunate, as Guy had told him what to expect, also, Hemi […]
Chapter Eighteen. Fencing with Mr A.
Chapter 18 Fencing with Guy’s dad was a different kettle of fish to the gentle rolling country Hemi had been used to fencing on. Guy’s dad was a high-country fencer. The really […]
Chapter Seventeen. Making Plans.
Chapter 17 Guy and Hemi had grown apart as their lives diverged, but they’d grown up together, talked about loads of stuff when they were boys. They had shared the same interests, […]
Chapter Sixteen. Like Starsky and Hutch.
Chapter 16 Hemi didn’t end up at the freezing works. The father of one of his teammates in the 1st XV worked for the local council’s roading division, they were always after […]
Chapter Fifteen. Basic Training.
Chapter 15 Guy joined the army after his last summer holiday with some mates from School up in Taupo. When making their way home across the desert road, Guy was confronted with his future. […]
Chapter Fourteen. Finishing School.
Chapter 14 Guy didn’t know what happened to Hemi when he left school; they lost contact. He assumed he’d have gone to work in the freezing works with his mum. Guy did okay in […]
Chapter Thirteen. Prize Giving.
Chapter 13 Hemi did ride with the gang again, he couldn’t say no. He learned to say no soon enough when his dad found out about him riding with the bros again. Word gets […]
Chapter Twelve. Gang Associate.
Chapter 12 A few weeks after his encounter with the Bros, Hemi and a mate were walking in town at lunch time. School kids often went downtown in the lunch hour. You had […]
Chapter Eleven. Changes.
Chapter 11 While Guy was away at school, his home got sold again. The farm owner had decided to sell the farm and the guy who was buying it was going to […]
Chapter Ten. Good Fulla’s
Chapter 10 By now, the Bros had a joint being passed round and were knocking back the ‘crate piss’. Hemi had caved in and accepted a beer off them. There was no way […]
Chapter Nine. Being Forgotten.
Chapter 9 Hemi enjoyed his footy. Luckily, because his mum worked at the freezing works on the other side of town, he could get to practice during the week. Footy practice was […]
Chapter Eight. The Crossing.
Chapter 8 Soon enough, the town boundary appeared and Hemi and his mother were cruising down the main street. Hemi enjoyed watching the Charger’s reflection in the shop windows, thinking, man, this […]
Chapter Seven. Driving to Town
Chapter 7 One of the down sides of living so far out in the sticks, is how much of a mission it is to get your supplies. Sure, you can grab groceries […]
Chapter Six. Hemi Finds His Place.
Chapter 6 Hemi set off for his first class. The environment at his school was completely different to Guy’s though, half the size, co-ed, less rigid, friendlier. This was a small-town high […]
Chapter Five. School Daze
Chapter 5 Hemi got off the bus as quickly as he could, not daring to glance back in case the stink sheila tried to talk to him out here on the footpath. […]
Chapter Four. The Hostel
Chapter 4 While Hemi was having his school bus conundrum, Guy was standing at the gates to the boarding school hostel. Richard had already gone after a parting piece of encouragement: ‘You […]
Chapter Three. The School Bus
Chapter 3 Hemi didn’t get to go to boarding school. He didn’t know anything about where Guy had gone to school. Only that he had gone away. Hemi was going to the […]
Chapter Two. The Wrong Place
Chapter 2 That summer was the last time they spent any meaningful time together as boys. They had to go off and grow up. That’s the problem with being boys, young mates—sooner […]
The Far End of a Long Road.
So, I finished my ‘novel’ after about ten years of prevarication since I started it. I can’t get anyone to publish it though because I don’t know enough about editing and my […]
Finished It!
Happy New Year, welcome to 2021. If you read my blog, you’ll be aware I’ve been trying to get around to starting to finish my book for years. Expert procrastination. But I […]
The Roads Less Travelled
This will be a post with more pictures than words. There’s been a bit of an illness out and about in the world in 2020 putting paid to most people’s travel plans. […]
Crossroads of disgrace
The crossroads of disgrace. Most people are disgusted by Trump declaring war on US citizens, who had his militia fire rubber bullets and smoke grenades upon peaceful protestors, including members of the […]
Brexit’s Cabbie
The British have just had a general election. One of the worst possible people ever to hold a position of power was elected, over the other worst possible person to be in […]
The Olive Tree
I’m glad I started my blog all those years ago, it was a kind of therapy for me to jot down my views, memories, observations and so on, after the sudden death […]
Sunday Morning. 17.03.2019
It’s 7:30am on a Sunday Morning, Sunday 17th of March 2019 in New Zealand. Two days after an Australian White Supremacist terrorist murdered 49 innocent people in a Christchurch Mosque. Another has died […]
Collusion Illusion
Here’s a thing, you know when you get so caught up in one story, that you lose sight of the bigger story? The story we’ve got caught up in is a daily […]
Are We Sitting Comfortably?
It’s 4pm on a sunny Tuesday, January 1st 2019. Amazing to think just a few short years ago, or nearly twenty years in fact, yesterday, we were all concerned about aeroplanes falling out […]
Surprising New Zealand
Let’s talk about New Zealand again! My wife and I love a road trip, we have just finished one around the central South Island, a short 4-day epic. There are images from […]
The Day After Poetry Day
I’m not really a Poet, although I occasionally turn to Poetry when I feel the need, or I might win a T-Shirt. I was advised I should put my random and rare […]
Retail Therapy
The title is ironic, if you really did need therapy for anything in New Zealand; one of the worst things you could do is go shopping. I was watching the television news […]
Eating Out
There’s an awful lot of, mostly awful, advertising on New Zealand television. Much of it the sort of thing you’d see on QVC in other countries. One of the most common phrases […]
Superlatives And Other Things
If I had a dream job, it would be working with words and pictures, improbably as a roving blogger and photographer for Tourism New Zealand. I’m not greedy; they could just pay […]
The Deep South
This should probably go on my photography blog, but there is a bit more explaining to do than on the usual photography post so I’ll wheel out the words blog for this […]
20 Tips For Surviving Driving In New Zealand
It seems an awful lot more people are visiting, or moving to New Zealand these days. Either because of Brexit, or Trump, or cheap airfares and new aeroplanes, which can fly further. […]
The Living Is Easy
We have an iconic New Zealand comic character from the 1970’s called Fred Dagg. We were big fans in my home when I was growing up. Fred Dagg was an archetypal Kiwi […]
Democracy, it’s not for everyone
I’m reminded of the lyrics to the Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. Although the recent cover of that classic by The Disturbed is by far the better version ‘Hello […]
Road Trip
This can be a travel post of sorts. Well it’s not even of sorts; it’s a travel post. I went for a drive. I know I don’t write much anymore. Not sure […]
What were they thinking?
In England they put blue plaques on the outside walls of places important or at least significant people used to live. ‘Orson Wells lived here once’ sort of thing. A friend posted […]
Because You’re Worth It
I can’t actually remember what caused me to start thinking about this or why. Maybe one just has a moment of quiet reflection when we get to a certain age, an examination […]
More pictures, less words
I know the wordiness has become less and there is more photography. I actually get more joy from photography than writing. I think this is because I’m better at it, I don’t […]
Taking pictures
I know I usually string words together for the sake of amusement, entertainment, information or occasionally even inspiration, but I haven’t been feeling particularly wordy lately. What I have been doing a […]
Driving south in the North Island
I’ll get straight to the point for once. I said once upon a time that only two towns in New Zealand were worth making a special trip for. Russell and Queenstown. I’d […]
A River runs through it
This is a bit of a travel post. I’m going to talk about a place plenty of people on their New Zealand holidays travel through, but not many travel to. I’d venture […]
2014. A summary
It’s the week before Christmas and all through the house…etc etc. It’s a funny Christmas, this one. I don’t think I’ve ever felt less Christmassy. I think it’s the dramatically disrupted year […]
Our ‘other’ stuff
Look, it’s me again! I’m like a bus, or something. A British bus, not a New Zealand one. The adage in London is that buses don’t appear at all for a while […]
Winner!
I know, I know, there was another post on here for a while, I took it down. Varied reasons, none of which matter all that much. I will be putting more stuff […]
That’s what friends are for…
I’m back! I was left to my own devices for a bit and had too much time to think. I’ve been brewing this for a few days, wasn’t sure whether to post […]
It’s all good
Well this feels a vaguely odd; it’s a bit like getting a beloved but neglected toy down from a shelf when you are feeling nostalgic. It’s only been 6 weeks since I […]
An open letter to the internet
Hi Internet, you remember me? We’ve known each other for about 20 years now. I remember when we first met; you were very young at the time. You were pretty shy I […]
