Labouring
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
1M ago
In endeavours to obtain a Code Compliance Certificate for my house, men spent time in January under my deck reshaping the ground and applying hard fill to comply with the requirements of the Building Consent. It was a  week of those 28 degree days, full sun, and not a lot of breeze. All I could ..read more
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Flying
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
7M ago
The first flight I recall going on was Christchurch to Auckland, visiting Grandma with Mum when I was about 4. I’m not sure why I got to go but I did, and it wasn’t the only time I flew to Auckland just with Mum. I remember there being a Viscount aeroplane and based on Wikipedia ..read more
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A walk in the park
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
9M ago
It’s quite a different city from when I left four decades ago, and coming back – settling in the city for part of the week and some weekends – has felt both easy and foreign. Christchurch is largely built on the flat, and walking through the three Hagley Parks and one Botanic Gardens today, I ..read more
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A princely tale of gratitude
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
1y ago
When sixty of us 17 and 18 year olds gathered at the Police College in Trentham, Upper Hutt in January 1981 it’s probable that none of us really knew why we were doing it, or where it might take us. We had been selected from a pool of applicants and as the country was in ..read more
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Whānau time
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
1y ago
It started when Thomas my eldest son arrived at the Airport after four and a half years in Europe. Walking into the terminal I told myself that I was good, I had been good during his departure, then cancelled trips due to Covid and then Cancer. But I felt it. “Are you okay Dad?”, not ..read more
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Just like riding a ski
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
1y ago
I’ve been fortunate enough to see if I could ski again after a bit of chop and change in one of my legs a couple of years ago. No one was more surprised than me when I gave it a go at Coronet Peak a few weeks ago, and I managed a few runs, backed ..read more
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Going back in time with a prince
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
1y ago
There were sixty of us teenagers, 17-18 years old, apparently selected from a pool of 1000 applicants to be members of what was to be HRH Prince of Wales 25th Cadet Wing of police trainees. I don’t recall in advance knowing that our patron was to be the the Prince of Wales or, as it ..read more
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Feedback Season
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
1y ago
For many organisations including mine, it’s “year end” at 30 June, meaning lots of work to close out financial performance measures and work out how well we did as humans. Assessments are made against goals – how did you get away with that for an objective?! – and we try as best as we can ..read more
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10th decade
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
2y ago
Aunty Rewa was born in October 1906 in the gold mining town of Waihi on the southern end of the Coromandel. Her parents William and Letitia, both Pākehā, had a Māori nanny and asked her to name the new baby. And Rewa entered the family. When my mother was born she was named after Aunty ..read more
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Those rocks are smaller than you think
Stephen Drain
by Stephen Drain
2y ago
Coming to the end of The Obstacle is the Way I was surprised when the author announced that I was now a philosopher in Stoicism. Although the title of the book is perhaps an obvious clue as to what follows, I hadn’t framed my approach this way. But I found much of the book confirmatory ..read more
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