Many years ago, when I lived in Riversdale, I had a falling out with a couple of people I was in business with that resulted in an incredibly difficult and acrimonious situation. Things didn’t work out in my favour and I ended up in dire straits financially with most of what I had tried to build lying broken and ruined around me. My confidence was shot, I felt my reputation was in tatters and for the first time in my life I experienced genuine poverty and hardship. I have worked hard to put the past behind me and I seldom dwell on those particular events now. A couple of days ago those events ..read more

There comes a time in every man’s life, and I use the word man loosely, when you have to do the thing that scares you. I have just recently been presented with an opportunity to have a crack at a stand-up comedy routine, something I have always wanted to try. I’m already terrified at the prospect. It’s well-known that the fear of public speaking is one of the more common fears, right up there with the fear of death or finding out too late in the school showers that two is the more usual number of testicles for a boy and knowing with a sinking feeling you will spend the rest of your school day ..read more

I was talking to a friend the other night, (Yes, I have a friend, and don’t act so surprised, some of the nicest people I know like me) having one of those conversations where both parties dribble on about nothing much and then, for reasons that are now obscured by drink and hard drugs, he mentioned about a time he had gone to the toilet and got stage fright. Now it should be obvious to most of my readers that I am a guy, although I’ll be the first to admit that the physical evidence to back up such a claim could be in short supply on some of the colder winter months, so for the benefit of my ..read more

I was once happy, and carefree and young, and I lived in Aotearoa, under the sun. Where nothing was perfect, but most got along, not all was right, and not all was wrong. And then came a %$^&wit, who was better than thou, with a smart-alecky face and the brains of a cow. And they said “You people are not living proper; your Dr Seuss books have to go in the chopper.” “His books are all racist, and sexist and bad, if you read these books to your kids, well, you’re not a good Dad.” And the gestational parents, who once were called Mum, had to dance to the beat of the tolerance drum. And remo ..read more

We live in a political world. Where peace is not welcome at all It's turned away from the door to wander some more. Or put up against the wall. Those immortal words of Dylan’s are unfortunately as true today as back when he penned them and that is a very sad thing. Time after time we put our political leaders on to pedestals, time after time they fall and fail and history is littered with broken bones and broken promises. Maybe the reason for the broken bones and promises is not because the leaders are flawed, which they obviously are, but because we, the great unwashed are much more flawed ..read more

I was talking to a friend the other night, (Yes, I have a friend, and don’t act so surprised, some of the nicest people I know like me) having one of those conversations where both parties dribble on about nothing much and then, for reasons that are now obscured by drink and hard drugs, he mentioned about a time he had gone to the toilet and got stage fright. Now it should be obvious to most of my readers that I am a guy, although I’ll be the first to admit that the physical evidence to back up such a claim could be in short supply on some of the colder winter months, so for the benefit of my ..read more

I was once happy, and carefree and young, and I lived in Aotearoa, under the sun. Where nothing was perfect, but most got along, not all was right, and not all was wrong. And then came a %$^&wit, who was better than thou, with a smart-alecky face and the brains of a cow. And they said “You people are not living proper; your Dr Seuss books have to go in the chopper.” “His books are all racist, and sexist and bad, if you read these books to your kids, well, you’re not a good Dad.” And the gestational parents, who once were called Mum, had to dance to the beat of the tolerance drum. And remo ..read more

We live in a political world. Where peace is not welcome at all It's turned away from the door to wander some more. Or put up against the wall. Those immortal words of Dylan’s are unfortunately as true today as back when he penned them and that is a very sad thing. Time after time we put our political leaders on to pedestals, time after time they fall and fail and history is littered with broken bones and broken promises. Maybe the reason for the broken bones and promises is not because the leaders are flawed, which they obviously are, but because we, the great unwashed are much more flawed ..read more

So Trelise Cooper named one of her dresses “Trail of Tiers” and has now been forced to apologise for what Professor Joanna Kidman called the “height of total insensitivity”. Interesting. Let’s dig a little. Trail of Tiers- is similar, according the Professor, to the term -Trail of Tears- which is used to describe the forced relocation of 46,000 native Americans between 1830 and 1850 by the United States federal government. Hence the outrage. Professor Kidman found the dress name “very jarring” and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Now it’s a crying shame that I so seldom wear women’s dres ..read more

I was fifteen years old, sitting in my bedroom in our Milton family home. My Mum was mentally unwell and my father was at the start of what would become a mental breakdown. The doorbell rang, my Mum answered the door. It was my father’s solicitor and he enquired how Dad was. Mums answer, which she never realized I could hear was “He wants to go and drown himself. He can’t take anymore!” I was scared beyond belief! Two weeks later I came home from school and found my Dad weeping uncontrollably. Mum was too unwell to know what to do, and my little brother was terrified. I helped Dad into the pa ..read more