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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
People are awesome!
Who knew we loved Lions so much? We knew we loved Polar bears of course, but now we really love Lions, we don’t love Melissa Bachman much even though she helped us […]
The nature of New Zealanders
So here’s a thing. well two things. This is about us, not our nature, but our nature. I’m also going to put a couple of images of the incredible New Zealand scenery […]
Our name is still on the boat!
Well that was pretty devastating. You know what I’m talking about. If you are a kiwi you do. So many New Zealanders got up, stayed in, stayed home, didn’t get to where […]
Some enlightenment
I’m not what you would call a Sci-fi buff, I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a science fiction book but I do like the odd science fiction movie from time to […]
Going for a drive
I’ve been back in New Zealand for just over a month now. For three weeks of that month I went for a bit of a drive, just to have a look around, […]
Just words
‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. That’s a pretty common phrase, as though great imagery is better than great description. While it’s a nice concept, it is almost entirely rubbish. That’s […]
Wisdom
I’m not sure how long this post will stay up for, but it needs to be said. It’s not part of my usual repetoire, but it’s something I need to say and […]
New Zealanders at War
NZ Memorial to the lost in the battle of the Somme I was in the New Zealand Army for a while and take quite an interest in NZ military history. There are […]
The truth about Dragons
This post is primarily intended as an educational resource for young people but clearly the information contained here is useful for adults as well. I think it’s time to unveil my greatest […]
Who knew?
If you look up from this and look around you, you will notice quite quickly that the world about you is not a barren dusty wasteland with self-replicating Amoebas as the only […]
Carrot or stick?
It was the BAFTA’s last night, or the Stephen Fry show depending upon how you look at it. Lots of thespians getting gongs for being fabulous. There was much gushing and eye […]
Waitangi Day
The 6th of February is Waitangi Day in New Zealand. Also known as New Zealand day. It’s sort of our little version of the American 4th of July but with an awful […]
I’m on the phone!
I’ve got one of those smart phone things. Not a silly one which the people who really want an iPhone have, but a proper iPhone and not just any iPhone but the […]
Round Robin
I know I said happy Christmas and all that on my last post but the post wasn’t very christmassy. This is going to be along the lines of a ’round robin’ thing […]
Christmas Shopping tips
Apparently recycling is a good thing to do at Christmas. So I’m doing just that. Spot the 2nd helping! Christmas is coming and while some people might think that it’s all about […]
Signs of the times, Redux!
This is just a nonsense post to keep the pages ticking over or people will think I have run out of ideas. Well I have but lets keep up the illusion I […]
Guest post ‘Droving days’ (by my late father)
If you have read my last post you will know I talked about the importance of recording your own corner of history, writing down what you’ve done for those that come after […]
You are part of history, record it!
This is more of a plea than a post, pay attention! Back in 2009 my father died suddenly. He had a massive heart attack about 5 kilometres into a 110 km bike […]
A Hero
A couple of simple numbers inspired me to write this particular post. They are the numbers 102 and 116. I’m writing it because it is nice to have a positive tale of […]
Driving a statement
It’s all very well having nice pictures of the highlands on my blog but I’m more about words than images. I am in the mood to make some wild generalisations about one […]
Now and then
I wrote a thing recently called formative years about how parents form the opinions of their kids largely by accident. This is an elaboration on that theme in a roundabout sort of […]
Giving thanks
The season of getting together is upon us. Christmas, Thanksgiving and lots of other meals together with friends and family. Many like a grace, a thanks, a recognition of the event […]
Formative years
This is the one I started on holiday a couple of weeks ago but typing a blog post on holiday on an iPad is far from easy and I like an easy […]
Something for supper?
You may recall if you pop here from time to time that I put a post up recently called ‘on food’. If you missed it, go and have a look, it’s just […]
On a Scottish Mountain
I don’t usually do blog posts so close together. I wrote my 100th post yesterday. I actually wanted to write this one for my 100th though. I guess maybe I felt the […]
Mind games
This is my 100th blog post, who would have thought I had so much to say? It was really hard to decide what to write for the 100th post. You sort of […]
Boys will be men.
First things first, I don’t have children because I chose not to. When I was young on the family farm one of my summer jobs was spraying blackberry and gorse with a […]
