Like everyone, I’m appalled and horrified to see the Russian invasion of Ukraine, It’s a world changing event on so many levels. The Psychopath, Putin seems hell bent on achieving the end […]
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Mind How You Go.
Bit of a change from the usual format, I visit my blog less these days of course. I should visit it more now I’ve got rid of my Facebook soapbox, so I […]
Messing With Your Head
Here’s a bit of light relief from the relentless, 24/7 news cycle about Covid and Ukraine. I’m quite interested in space, the universe and the vast, unimaginable scale of it all. I […]
Thoughts and Prayers?
There’s been a large volcanic eruption in Tonga recently and we still don’t know the extent of the damage, but given the extent of the explosion, the damage will be pretty extensive. […]
Messing About In Cars.
I’ve just noticed there’s a bit of a downbeat theme in the last few blog posts as I’ve discussed my views on the All Blacks new sponsor’s and Social Media. I’ve actually […]
Toxic.
Some things you read are so terrible, you think they must be made up, or a conspiracy of some sort. You think, ‘yeah, nah, must be April fools day, because it’s so […]
Anti-Social Network
I’ve chucked in Facebook after it chucked me off one time too many. True story! Facebook kept throwing me off it’s anti-social site for saying the wrong thing to the wrong people, […]
Eastland Roadie.
This is more of a photographic record than an essay on the merits of Eastland, which is the big Eastern most chunk of the North Island jutting out into the Pacific Ocean. […]
My Book is on Amazon
So, I created an ebook and a paperback version of my book and published it on Amazon. If you were inclined to get a copy, that’s where you’ll find it. I’m sure […]
Teaching a Lesson.
It’s occurred to me that I don’t have a lot of time for school teachers. I was contemplating my life, as one does from time to time, wondering how we get to […]
Reasons To Be Cheerful.
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
An interview
I was asked to do an interview by one of those expat blog sites. There are a few of them where people who like to spend their time living overseas can go […]
In the news
When I lived in England I used to be an avid reader of newspapers. I used to watch the news on television every night without fail. Since returning to New Zealand my […]
Misconceptions
Misconceptions often, or even usually, arise out of ignorance and I must confess to my own ignorance. I have no idea at all what people from Asia or the Sub-continent think of […]
Dawn and Dusk
I wrote recently how I was of the opinion that despite the adage, a picture was not in fact worth a thousand words because I felt you generally needed so many […]
Home away from home
Did you know that despite having the perfect platform in this blog, I hardly ever make any strong points about anything important to anyone but me? I don’t even do that very […]
It must be love
That’s not so much a heading as a command. With the recent death of tall glamorous designer L’Wren Scott in the news, it’s hard to miss all the pictures of her alongside […]
Keep it under your hat.
Did you know I almost always wear a hat? This story is not about hats but in my house there is a thing known as the Panama hat cycle. I wear hats […]
The Fencers
I’m not a poet, I don’t write poetry, well hardly ever. It’s outside my comfort zone so I don’t go there, much. However this is quite a cool little story about a […]
A list of things to do
You’ll have noticed I’m not putting much on here anymore. I’m not sure why not, but it may have something to do with the fact that I’m back home in New Zealand […]
Somewhere else
This is a tale that goes nowhere, what’s the point then you may wonder, why does there have to be one? I might respond. It’s kind of like an open discussion, designed […]
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