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
Reactions to Covid-19 by Susan and Trevor
Susan’s radical view My view of Covid-19 is this: as a 79-year-old, with every heart problem that can be had while still being alive, I am definitely in the high-risk group. However, I would far rather have let the disease rip and let the chips (or me) fall where they may, rather than have the world economy go down the drain, with all the terrible suffering that’s happening. It breaks my poor damaged heart to walk around the city seeing businesses closed, many of them forever, to hear stories of people losing… Read More
Ways that are gone by Trevor Plumbly
Unlike most of the stuff you’re getting recently, this is not about the bloody virus; that will of course become a memory and that’s what I want to chat about. The rear view mirror Following on from ‘Way to go’, I’m wondering about the benefit of allowing memory too much leeway. Some folk often rehash unhappy bits of their lives looking for ‘closure’ (I hate that word). I don’t like revisiting bad news; it’s much easier to forget bits that give me the creeps. No doubt a shrink would have a field… Read More
Self-isolation or a part of the main by Angela Caldin
We went to see our younger daughter in Australia and arrived back in NZ on Tuesday at 2am, just 26 hours too late to avoid self-isolation. So now we are self-isolating for two weeks from 17 to 30 March inclusive. You may very well say it serves us right for being irresponsible enough to risk the journey when it was clear that the coronavirus was spreading fast. And I can’t argue with that, though I am glad to have seen my daughter before the world-wide hatches batten down completely and we are… Read More
Acts of kindness by Susan Grimsdell
A couple of weeks ago two police officers from Hastings showed all of us how to help make society a better place in every way. Shoplifting to feed family They were called to a supermarket where a mother, with three small children in tow, had been caught stealing $50 worth of meat. She at once admitted taking it, and began to cry. She said she’d never done anything like that before, and she only did it because she just didn’t know any other way to get food for the family. The officers… Read More
Way to go! By Trevor Plumbly
I know I bang on about it a bit, but this age thing is starting to get to me. Lots of old fogies tranquilise themselves with verbal crap like ‘You’re only as old as you feel’ in an attempt to ignore the inevitable. Apart from a few odd-bods, for most of us ‘dead is dead’ and I’m OK with that; what’s fascinating to me is how it gets handled these days as opposed to the ‘gently drawn sable curtain’ approach. Dying was a big deal in Victorian times: regardless of your achievements… 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.
