Writers
Trevor Plumbly
Meet Trevor. He’s had quite a colourful career, from his early days as a pub manager in Tunbridge Wells he went on to become Dunedin’s leading auctioneer. Trevor is a published author and was something of a TV personality in the 1980s as a regular panellist on a show about antiques.
Read Trevor’s Blog
Emily Smart
Emily is very loud, and has really bad taste in cheesy pop music. When not at work flogging goods to the public via advertising and marketing campaigns, she can be found hiding from her partner and children at the local pub. If you’re easily offended or don’t appreciate the constant use of profanities, then you probably shouldn’t read Emily’s posts. You have been warned!
Read Emily’s Blog
Angela Caldin
Angela has had many roles in her life including: schoolgirl, student, daughter, friend, civil servant, wife, lover, mother, manager, magistrate, landlady, teacher, grandmother, blogger, editor and proofreader.
Read Angela’s Blog
The latest
Triumph of hope by Susan Grimsdell
Not long after the world realised that the unbelievable had happened and Donald Trump had become the President of the US, the level of objection was astounding. It included people in state governments; many government employees, governors and mayors; workers in many federal departments; immigrant rights groups; religious groups; as well as one of the biggest demonstrations in history with the Women’s March on 21 January 2017. Women all over the world took to the streets. I was one of them and later, a friend asked me why I had bothered. ‘They… Read More
A blind date by Trevor Plumbly
By the book? Tuesday was to be a busy day: coffee and world correction with the gang, then on to Book Club which is much like any other, except we listen rather than read. We start off in an orderly round robin critique, but the fun starts with the open discussion; thanks to the stamina of Chairperson Janice, this falls short of verbal warfare but lacks nothing in the way of diversity. After dissecting this month’s offering (boring to brilliant), we moved effortlessly on to parrot ownership (honestly!). Never having owned one,… Read More
Angela’s ABCs: words sometimes confused – all together and altogether
All together and altogether are homophones, which means they sound alike, but they have different meanings. I, for one, find it easy to confuse them, so the explanation below is for my benefit as well as anyone else who might be interested. All together, a two-word phrase, means collectively, with each other, everyone doing something all at once or all in one place: We gathered round the piano and sang the folk song all together. (It’s possible to break up this two-word saying as in “We all gathered round… Read More
Fairness by Susan Grimsdell
Dear Readers This week it’s our pleasure to introduce a new blogger to our team who has submitted her debut piece on the fascinating subject of fairness. Here are her thoughts and we hope you enjoy reading them: “It’s not fair” – the clarion call of childhood. From a very early age, humans of all cultures seem to have an inbuilt sense of what’s fair and what’s not. This might seem puzzling from an evolutionary point of view, which you’d assume would lead us to act in our own self-interest, but in most… Read More
Divided we fall by Trevor Plumbly
He ain’t heavy Outside of terrorism, race is about the scariest topic down here. Everybody, it seems, has an axe to grind from the disgruntled to the fearful; few of whom add much to national unity. Colonialism has got a lot to answer for: South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand carry a huge burden of guilt when it comes to native rights, as they should, but surely today’s children are entitled to question why they should be saddled with paying the cost of ancient wrongdoing? Here in New Zealand, it’s a… Read More
The Writers
We’re three Brits who made the big move from the UK to the other side of the world. We love New Zealand, the English language having a good laugh and the occasional moan. Ah, just read our posts and you’ll get the gist.
