• 4 Posts
  • 328 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 17th, 2023

help-circle





  • Scotland, hands down. I feel so lucky to be living here. I was only going to stay three years & then go back to New Zealand and settle down. Thirty-five years later I’m still here. I fell in love with the hills - and the freedom to walk on them - the lochs, the ancient ruins. But most of all I fell in love with the people. Their craic, their warmth and craziness, their generosity, their music. I love that you can talk to anyone and you’ll often hear an amazing life story.

    I love things like this: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/anti-deportations-group-issues-guide-24107754

    I love the cultural richness that’s come from successive waves of immigration, from Italy, India & Pakistan, China, Poland and more.

    I love the food. I love haggis and Arbroath smokies and Aberdeen butteries and shortbread and oatcakes and Tunnocks caramel wafers.

    And least I forget, yes, I love the weather.



  • I was on a work trip back in the 80s that took me to one of the northern islands of Vanuatu. Our plane landed on a football field, that’s how remote our destination was. After we set up camp, someone said they’d heard there was a teacher from New Zealand in the nearby village. Well I’m a New Zealander too, so off I went to meet her. Within the first few minutes we had worked out that not only were we originally from the same small town… she was my older brother’s first girlfriend.

    But actually because NZ has a small population and we all travel a lot, it’s not as mad a coincidence as all that. It sometimes feels like we are all just a couple of degrees of separation from each other. “Oh you’re from Oamaru? Do you know XY?” “Not really, but one of my cousins works for his sister, ZY.”













  • This happens with my hearing aids. They cost a small fortune, but the audiologist won’t do anything about it because it’s intermittent - I can never show it happening. “The charging case must be dirty” etc. The manufacturer, Phonak, says any fault reporting must be done through the retailer. It seems to happen mainly when I’ve got something on where I really really need to be able to hear properly, or when I want to use Bluetooth to listen to music.

    AAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHH is putting it mildly. My fury knows no bounds.