Writers
Susan Grimsdell
After retiring from audiology some years ago, Susan’s finding life’s pretty good with lots of time to do what she likes. That includes walking, reading, having coffee with friends, and a bit of activism thrown in. Also, day by day doing her best not to worry too much over the many threats to our gorgeous planet.
Read Susan’s Blog
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
Free range speech by Trevor Plumbly
Nutter mutter An English sports presenter’s been hauled over the coals for offering an opinion, as has the chair of Health NZ. It might be an age thing, but I’m beginning to believe that the freedom to say what you think is taking a dive; between racial sensitivity, gender identity and cultural protection, plus minority ‘add-ons’, it’s getting to be a bit of a minefield. Time was that, within reason, we were left to sort the harmless eccentrics from the dangerous loonies for ourselves, but these days social media aggrandises all misfits… Read More
Repair and restore by Angela Caldin
My mother had a Royal Doulton figurine called The New Bonnet of which she was extremely fond. A young woman dressed in a full pink skirt with a dainty foot peeping out from its folds, shows off her new green bonnet decked with flowers, long ribbons flowing down. She wears a plain white frilled cap with a white stole round her shoulders. She smiles with satisfaction, delighted with her new bonnet, anticipating happily the first time she would wear it. My mum left the statue to my daughter and it travelled… Read More
Future present by Susan Grimsdell
The warnings we get about global warming always talk about the future – “by 2030 there will be….” or “in 5 years’ time sea level will….” But humans are not good at preparing for the future. We are a here and now kind of species. For example, most of us find it impossible to say no to a delicious slice of pizza or piece of cake, even when the old saying fills our mind – “a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips”. Oh what the hell, we say and… Read More
GOBSMACKED! By Trevor Plumbly
Verbal schmerbal I feel a bit hypocritical knocking this one out under ‘Verbalberbal’; let’s face it, as a title it’s not the best use of ‘English as she is spoke’. In hindsight I would have gone for something more biting but tasteful, like ‘Wensleydale’ if you get my drift, but ‘verbal’ came up when whiz words were something of a novelty and now ‘it is what it is’ as they say, and that brings me to my point. The legal and medical fraternity once held a monopoly of evasive language, but since… Read More
Only connect! By Angela Caldin
The full quotation in E M Forster’s Howard’s End goes like this, ‘Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.’ I often think of these lofty and powerful words when I’m pondering about where to position only in a sentence so that the meaning is clear. Some people get really excited about this and insist that only should be placed immediately before the word or phrase it modifies. In this way, ‘He only gave… Read More
The Writers
We’re four 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.
verbalberbal 