I’m taken back to my second year at high school by the memory of a Wilfred Owen poem I want to share with you. My English teacher at the time (Mr Howes) was a quiet spoken, well traveled man that lived on the high school grounds as a hostel master at the all boys school I attended. I was only a day boy but I could tell this was a man dedicated to his profession, [...]

I know it’s not the Queens actual birthday but I’m sure she would be proud that I worked my socks off during the NZ national holiday today. Among the more diverse things that happened – the purchase of a new oven, the painting of a window, lawns and the forgettable grappling with an automated checkout at the local supermarket. If you could jump back in time 100 years and explain the day to your forefathers [...]

It’s Sunday so something a little different with thanks to family ties that alerted me to this rather neat clip from BBC1 Meet Theo Jansen who is the process of creating ‘animals’ that will live long after he has departed this world – or at least that is his hope! Theo’s work reminds me of Len Lye and many visits to the Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth during my youth.

Visiting a local hardware store today I had the distinct feeling sales must have been slow. Why? The staff to customer ratio was unbelievably good – it was a case of walk in to any aisle and have someone pounce on you and ask if they could help. Now don’t get me wrong, too much of that can make me very grumpy very quickly but in this instance I was looking for help and across three aisles I [...]