xactly one month ago, on 19 July, I spontaneously set myself a little challenge, to see if I could manage to post something to this blog every day for a month. I (and my blog) had been suffering from the perpetual problem of either having lots going on in my life but no time to…
he International Film Festival is on at the moment, so I went last night to see one of the films on offer, Pulp: a Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets, a documentary about Pulp’s last concert, in their home town of Sheffield. As well as being a great documentary (made by a NZ film-maker – it…
ne of my colleagues is part of Generation Zero, an organisation that’s putting the lie to the idea that young people aren’t interested in politics any more. With the elections coming up she’s been getting involved in a lot of the local campaigning, and she mentioned the other day that the Greens were looking for…
‘m going to two different events over the next few days to which I’ve been asked to bring a plate. No, we’re not suffering from some sort of national crockery shortage – “Bring a plate” is a lovely little New Zealand English phrase meaning bring some food to contribute to a shared meal (usually afternoon…
zzzzzz… ok, so I’m not actually that tired, but I couldn’t resist an excuse to use that dropcap 🙂 . I am kind of sleepy though – I was out late-ish last night, and it was a bitterly cold night, so when I got home the house was freezing, which meant (despite the best efforts…
oming up to four years since the first big earthquake, and progress seems so slow in so many parts of the city that there are understandably a lot of frayed nerves around the place. One simple but strangely effective antidote to this has been the All Right? campaign (or rather, series of campaigns), a mental…
ot a phone call out of the blue last night from a former Dunedin bookcrosser, Simon. I didn’t even remember who he was when he introduced himself (and I still can’t remember what his screenname was), but eventually a vague memory formed of a pleasant but shy young man who I’d met a few times…
ne of the projects I’ve been running at work is building a collection of earthquake-related blog posts from various Christchurch bloggers, to help show the way that the earthquakes impacted on everyone’s lives in some way. All part of the archive’s aim of telling the story of the human side of the earthquakes through as…
lmost saw a nasty accident on the way home tonight. On the main road that goes past the university, they’ve erected low concrete barriers to separate the cycle lanes from the road. Some people have been complaining about them, because they’re only kerb height, so it’s easy for cars to hit them if the driver’s…
or those of you with super-fancy robotic sewing machines with computer screens and a million functions, my new sewing machine is going to look positively antique. But I’m very excited by it – it’s so much more advanced than my old one, and will let me do so many exciting things. On the downside, it…