Blog 16 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - To the late great Johnny Fay and Mrs. Smith and Ann
I was in the sauna at the Olympic pool on Wednesday with my 67-year-old friend Nina, who used to be a Chinese ballet dancer. She is still...
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Juliet's Ashes
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Aug 253 min read
Blog 15 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - The Dating Game Rejoinder
Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will break you with its yearning. You...
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Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Aug 114 min read
Blog 14 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - The Dating Game
One day, love will come in the form of somebody who wants to give more than take, and you will know why love is rare. My future...
132 views0 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Jul 243 min read
Blog 13 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - The School Holidays
On day one of the school holidays, I threw off my cloak of invisibility and became a superhero, a guardian of two living treasures flown...
85 views3 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Jul 123 min read
Blog 12 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - My new dog
I am innocently going to Roger’s garden centre in Mangere to buy some plants for my new gardener, Manu, who is parking his caravan...
109 views4 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Jul 63 min read
Blog 11 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - Expired Rego
I am sitting innocently in my car parked on High Street, talking to Gigi, when a ticket inspector with a big hat turns and looks at my...
112 views1 comment
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Jun 243 min read
Blog 10 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - Jamie goes to waterpolo
"I never lose; I either win or I learn." Charley, Gus, and I went to watch Jamie play water polo at the AUT Millennium Pool, where...
113 views0 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Jun 13 min read
Blog 9 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - A bad egg.
I was walking down Hakanoa Street with a canopy and a carpet of autumn, that close bosom friend of the maturing sun. Suddenly the beauty...
118 views11 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Feb 235 min read
Blog 8 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - Going to church.
To be sane, I must be mad. What I would be, I am not. JKB In Countdown the other day, I stole some blueberries. They were lying in the...
135 views2 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Feb 54 min read
Blog 7 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - Laugh and the world laughs with you.
Last summer, I nearly died, so this summer could only have been an improvement. Every day, as I swam under the smiling sun in the green,...
178 views4 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Jan 103 min read
Blog 6 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - Happy Birthday 2024
On New Year’s Eve, my friend Lil and I drove through the torrential rain to Pakiri to see the new year in with sister Damaris (Adie)...
115 views1 comment
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Jan 23 min read
Blog 5 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - Let it be.
Last Christmas, I had all six of my children with me, as well as most of their children. I worked myself to the bone to create a...
94 views1 comment
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Dec 23, 20234 min read
Blog 4 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - The Hokitika Way
Daughter Frankie, her daughter Olive, and I are going to Blenheim, then Hokitika as her 2-week stay in Auckland and Leigh draws to a...
95 views1 comment
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Dec 3, 20235 min read
Blog 3 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - Don't touch the horse!
Frankie and her baby Olive, nearly two, have come to stay with me at my little cottage in Leigh. They live in Blenheim, where Frankie...
97 views2 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Nov 26, 20233 min read
Blog 2 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - Watching the Rugby World Cup Final with my boys
It is hard to watch a grown man fail to kick a ball between two posts and thus seal the fate of mighty warriors while the General looks...
92 views2 comments
Charles Ogilvie-Lee
Nov 19, 20234 min read
Blog 1 - From a Villa in Grey Lynn - The Heart of the Matter
I received rather alarming news on my return from Paris, saying my arteries are more calcified than 99 out of 100 women aged between 65...
108 views10 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Nov 8, 202310 min read
Blog 20. Paris, it's a wrap!
Montmartre I went to Montmartre and stood in the church on top of the hill, which I had gazed at so many evenings while Maryse blew her...
87 views5 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Sep 21, 20239 min read
Blog 19 - Saying goodbye to Maryse.
By loving Maryse, I fell in love with Paris. She was an old enchantress who stalked her prey with charm, played with them for a while,...
95 views2 comments
Charles Ogilvie-Lee
Sep 9, 20238 min read
Blog 18 - Escaping Paris! My trip to Sete!
My ex-husband, who wasn't my ex then, and my three younger children lived in the small coastal fishing village of Sete in the south of...
101 views4 comments
Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee
Jun 28, 20235 min read
Sugar lumps with Maryse.
I fell in love with Maryse with the kind of love you feel for an innocent creature who loves and seeks love, understanding only that...
112 views1 comment
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