On a hot, wind-still, summer evening, the park by the river is the perfect place to be. When you are only just two, this perfection poses a few dilemmas. Climbing and running and jumping, your very favourite things to do, make your shoes and sunhat fall off, and somehow turn the hat inside out. And […]
Beside a small gravel carpark next to State Highway 1 on the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand, huddled in a small v between the shoulders of two hills, is a remnant of ancient kohekohe forest and sub-tropical bush. It is crammed with palms, vines, and ferns. Most people in the area know it as Nikau…
You know that feeling when your fingers are itching to pick up a pen, or rattle across the keyboard, pouring another creation onto the page? Ideas trip over themselves in your mind and words dance. You’ve carved out a generous slice of interruption-free time. Your favourite music plays in the background. You’ve plenty of water […]
Back in another century, when I still had all my milk teeth, the concept of the year 2000 loomed large in my imagination. And not just mine. It dominated schoolyard games and conversations. We knew we would all be so old by then… 34! We were certain bikes and cars would be relegated to the…
Public buildings, hotels, office buildings etc. in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, England, Estonia, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, Scotland, Taiwan, and the USA are lighting up for October 7th. To most people, the date means nothing. Yet it’s a significant day to thousands of people around the globe. International Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day.
280 characters doesn’t seem much, to tell a story with any impact or punch. Fifty words, give or take a few. But right now on Twitter, there are hundreds, thousands of tweets telling stories packing a huge punch. Horrific stories, brave stories, grief-filled stories. Stories of abandonment and cruelty. Stories of shocking and unforgivable injustices. […]
If only pain were as easy to measure as, say, volume. As height, or weight, or speed. Medical professionals try to quantify it. How bad is your pain on a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being the worst pain you can imagine? Most health professionals I have come across also add ‘childbirth counts as […]
