Puha and Pakeha We have a new cafe almost next door… And one which definitely celebrates a harmonious diversity of culinary delights! Just the other side of St Columba Church from us (on Surrey Crescent, opposite the end of Richmond Road) is Puha and Pakeha, which offers tapas-style dishes blending ingredients and cooking styles from […]
Tanya has a new knee…
November 18, 2018 by 2 Comments
Tanya had a new knee installed three weeks ago. In Ormiston Hospital- as for her two hip operations – she felt quite at home, in a room with a view, and with the same surgeon, the same favourite lesbian nurse and the same physio. However, a knee op is very different from a hip […]
Women won the right to vote – 125 years ago today, in Aotearoa
September 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
We caught a bus to the city heart at 6.30am this morning, 19 September, the 125th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in Aotearoa, for a 7am ceremony in Aotea Square. We were all welcomed by the wāhine toa of Ngāti Whātua Orākei on the steps of the Aotea Centre, with Sharon […]
Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori
September 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
A change of heart and mind is sweeping Aotearoa… Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori (Maori language week), usually the time for a few token efforts by Pakeha journalists and newsreaders, has become a nation-wide celebration. In Wellington, Auckland, Manukau, Rotorua and Gisborne, parades of thousands took to the streets. We joined ‘Hikoia […]
Founding Day at AGGS
September 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
On Friday 7 September Charmaine was acknowledged at the annual Founding Day ceremony at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School. She has gifted her two medals (for the Suffrage Centennial commemoration in 1993, and for the CNZM awarded in 2002) to the school because, as she told the assembled gathering, it was working with staff and […]
Going West…
September 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Going West: a Festival of people and language, held annually in Titirangi in West Auckland, this year featured many women and acknowledged te reo Maori throughout the programme. We loved the Friday night opening session with Serie Barford’s poems, Paula Morris’s oratory, and one of our favourite singers, Moana Maniapoto. Some highlights…. The Saturday […]
Whakaalofa lahi atu…on The Rock…
August 19, 2018 by 3 Comments
Niue is a tiny emerald island set in the deep blue and grey of the vast Pacific Ocean. “The Rock”, as it’s called by Niueans in Aotearoa, is a coral atoll twice raised by underwater volcanic action, and now encircled by a 64km coastal road. The coast is indented with coves and chasms, and just […]
STOP PRESS!!
August 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
If you have a chance, do go and see the play Burn Her! by Sam Brooks. This is political drama at its best- surprising, thought-provoking, humorous and tragic all in one, posing really hard questions about the behaviour of the press, of PR people and of politicians. And it could happen here….perhaps it already has? […]
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