I received this from my daughter in response to last week’s blog about self help books. Papa Bain thinks self help books don’t work… I beg to differ. This past year, I’ve had my heart ripped out and chewed on. Other than the obvious recovery techniques of moving to Amsterdam, substance abuse (sorry Dad) and […]
So do self help books really help? As the new year advances faster than seagulls on a sandwich, we are optimistic, if not darn perky about the year ahead. We make resolutions about exercise and diet, desperate to reinvigorate what once never sagged. For us blokes we dream of a thick head of hair and […]
Drownings need not occur, and we all know what the answer is. As we flop like freshly caught snapper into our deck chairs and crack open our newspaper apps, the summer headlines are dominated by drownings. Too many are throwing off their T shirts never to return. The tragedy is that we all know what […]
My top five high highlights of 2015. As 2015 slips like an eel down a muddy bank, it is that time when we reflect on the past before we revel in the possibilities of a new year with the optimism and hope of a dog’s wagging tail. 2015 was a typical year of wars, refugees, […]
Christmas, the day we wish away. After 54 years, last year I experienced my first ever northern hemisphere Christmas. Being married to a Pom, I was constantly told that Christmas in New Zealand was weird, no snow, no open fires, no cosy jumpers, no darkness at 3pm. I was therefore intrigued to see what all […]
Time magazine chose Mrs Merkel, but I don’t agree. Choosing the person of the year can be a difficult task. The problem being that we only know about people who are in the public eye. We don’t know about some clever bugger in the back of Taihape who has found a way to boil an […]
Are our cafés, bars and restaurants too loud? In a number of my opinion pieces I have referred to the issue of noise in cafés, bars and restaurants. Given that the fat man in the red suit will soon be upon us, it is timely that this subject be revisited. From my experience it is […]
Man landed on the moon 46 years ago, yet so much remains unsolved. Landing a man on the moon, is by all accounts extremely difficult. For a kickoff, the moon is quite tiny so you have aim straight – a smidgen to the left or right and there are no more petrol stations for 450 […]
Signs are everywhere, and like tattoos we just don’t know when to stop. Signs. They are everywhere. Well, in New Zealand they are everywhere. Signs clutter our footpaths, signs are splattered over our shops, signs are whale carcasses that lie stranded on our railway sidings. Many countries are worse. Visit India or China. In Africa, […]
Forgot a new flag, its time to get new name. The flag debate is a complete red herring (presumably the flag of Norway). Flags are old school. They represent a time when you needed cloth to identify things. Kings and Popes wore purple robes and funny hats so that you knew they were important. Nowadays […]
