Selfies by Trevor Plumbly
On reflection Looking in the mirror’s one thing, but when it comes to describing yourself it can get a bit tricky. Emily provoked this train of thought the other day after her second glass of Shiraz by blurting out, ‘We need to upgrade our bios; Christ I’m still 40 in mine.’ After a re-read, I had to agree. Those scanning that little puff-piece would think that I’m bloody spotless! It comes across like a eulogy in one of those new-age churches, delivered by a celebrant who had never met me. Who the… Read More
Modem installation barriers by Susan Grimsdell
Language barrier Recently my modem played up and, on phoning Orcon, I was told that it needed replacing. Quite magical that they can check it at a distance like that. OK, new modem arrives – just swap it over, what could be simpler than that. I’m not stupid – I can read instructions and follow pictures on a diagram. Well, yes, I can read instructions when they’re in English. What about “plug the small end of the ethernet cable into the port on the filter”. “Ethernet” – which dictionary has that word… Read More
Scooters then and now by Susan Grimsdell
There was a wonderful photo in the Christchurch NZ newspaper a week ago. It showed about a dozen 10-year-old boys in the year 1921 at a primary school in a small Canterbury town, lined up on their home-made wooden scooters, looking deadly serious, several of them with bare feet. The picture tells a story about each of those boys and their scooters. We can be almost certain they had help from a parent or sibling through everything it took to get to the finished scooter. Planning and designing, scrounging timber from around… Read More
You can bank on it! By Trevor Plumbly
Hard cash I wonder where the guy got his inspiration when he announced that ‘money was the root of all evil’? Maybe he’d been mugged or something. Lack of the stuff certainly clouded my childhood: having a few bob was the birth-right of the upper and middle classes, along with decent housing, education, clothing and food, whilst lack of it sentenced the rest of us poor sods to struggle. Growing up like that makes it hard not to be cynical about money; like religion and democracy it’s OK if it’s properly dealt… Read More
verbalberbal 