The birds are singing the bees are buzzing the ants are working the ducks are quacking the leaves are crunching the trees are swaying the...

Two Christmases ago, I nearly died as adhesions tried to strangle my bowel. They tried again this Christmas, but these ones were phantom...

Fleur Adcock one of New Zealand’s greatest poets died at the end of last year (10 October 2024). She was my mother’s oldest friend and...

"The approach of Christmas brings harassment and dread to many excellent people. They have to buy a cartload of presents, and they never...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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...

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,...

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)...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...