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
Willy Bags and Mondays Always Get Me Down by Emily Smart
Day 7 (insert dodgy Geordie accent) in the Glasgow-Smart household. It has been the longest week of my life – apart from whenever my mother-in-law stays. I have been ill. You’ve probably heard. As with most aspects of my life, I don’t like to keep things quiet. If I’m suffering, then everyone I know needs to suffer my suffering. So: it all started last Sunday with an innocuous pint with Trevor down the pub. Many of my tales begin with a quiet Sunday afternoon pint with Trevor and end in drunken debauchery… Read More
Animal Crackers by Trevor Plumbly
Roll Up! Strange days indeed down under, with a perfectly healthy elephant waiting in transit for entry to NZ at the same time as an equally healthy female gorilla is battered to death in an enclosure by a ‘dominant male’. You have to wonder what it is about us humans that drives us to transplant animals across the globe and cage them for public entertainment. In Victorian times the practice extended to mental patients as well, and it was common for the upper and middle classes to treat a visit to the… Read More
Words Easily Confused – Dual and Duel by Angela Caldin
Dual is an adjective meaning double, twofold, composed of two parts or having a double character or purpose: They decided that their children should have dual nationality so that they could live in either country later on. He could only conclude that she had a dual personality – at times kind and charming, at others cruel and malicious. Duel is a noun or verb referring to a fight or struggle. It can refer to a prearranged combat between two people often using pistols or swords or to a struggle for domination or… Read More
Me, Annie and Pete by Trevor Plumbly
Me and Annie It was just like last time: a perfectly normal, healthy day until about lunchtime when the old internals decided to bugger things up. It wasn’t an ambulance job this time, just a precautionary tootle up to the doctor’s. I have a ‘lady doctor’ these days; not quite sure if that should be ‘woman doctor’ but all this correctness confuses me a bit: if I said ‘women’s work’ that’d be wrong too, wouldn’t it? Anyway, I’ve never been a ‘blokey’ person and, if I feel a bit off centre, I… Read More
It’s a Mad, Sad World. But Maybe Not. By Angela Caldin
It really is a mad world. That’s the only possible conclusion I can come to. This week in the UK, the prime minister of all people has spoken up in support of the egotist Jeremy Clarkson; Rona Fairhead, a non-executive director of HSBC, has as good as admitted to the Public Accounts Committee that effective governance processes were not in place at the bank, but has not resigned; Ian Duncan Smith continues to extol the virtues of the Universal Credit welfare benefit system while so far only a little over 1% of the… 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.
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