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
United we stand by Trevor Plumbly
Some things need a total rebuild to function in line with their original purpose and I wonder if this isn’t the case with the United Nations. In a time of high global uncertainty, it seems about time for an overhaul. Dreamers and schemers In 1942, 26 countries signed the ‘Declaration by United Nations’ to form a joint war effort against the German, Italian and Japanese forces. This was followed by the signing of a formal charter in 1945. In those days the UN Security Council was all but governed by its five… Read More
A remake too far by Angela Caldin
Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse what with satire and reality colliding in the persons of Donald Trump and Sean Spicer, with the delusional Theresa May hell-bent on confrontation with the EU, at the same time asserting that nurses go to food banks for many complex reasons, and with many observers believing that the end of the world is nigh, my son-in-law informs me that a remake has been made of one of the greatest films of all time: Dirty Dancing. Perfectly unecessary How, I ask myself, can you… Read More
Notes from down under by Trevor Plumbly
New Zealand: the safest place on earth! But that of course carries a cost: sometimes it’s a bit like living in a single room, with the smallest things providing distractions. We don’t have a Donald Trump to keep us amused or an Angela Merkel to keep us focussed, so our pressmen tend to leap at headlines rather than newsworthy comment, such as: rugby player Sonny Bill Williams deciding to tape over a bank logo on his shirt for religious reasons and an academic in Otago seeking funding to run DNA research in… Read More
Nearer my God to thee by Trevor Plumbly
Dear Schoolteachers It is some sixty-odd years since you attempted to shape my mind and I thought my recollection of your efforts might be of interest. Despite your forecasts, I never quite made it as a delinquent; I lacked the stomach for deprivation and, as was the norm in those days, for physical punishment. In an early attempt, I remember standing around a pedal organ with three other snot-nosed street urchins belting out ‘Jesus wants me for a sunbeam’: I became fascinated by the organ stops: they were black and shiny with… Read More
From possums to air space by Angela Caldin
About two weeks ago, I was sitting at a residents’ meeting in leafy Remuera NZ. Top of the agenda was how best to deal with the possum that Stanley at number one had spotted squatting on the fence when he came home from his late shift one dark night. Pests or protected? In Australia, possums are protected wildlife and their removal can only be carried out by licensed commercial possum relocators (a job title to be proud of). By contrast, in New Zealand, possums are considered to be pests as they eat… 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.
