I always had decent pencil cases at kindergarten in Hong Kong and then when I started school in New Zealand. Usually they were car-themed but the pièce de résistance was this one, far nicer than what my classmates in my new home country had. While other kids were into Star Wars and things I […]
Tag: Whanganui-a-Tara
On Cantonese, for Te Papa’s Chinese Languages in Aotearoa project
What a real honour to promote my reo! Thank you, Dr Grace Gassin and Te Papa for spearheading the Chinese Languages in Aotearoa project and for this incredible third instalment, where I get to speak and promote Cantonese! Obviously I couldn’t say anything earlier, especially during Chinese Language Week, but I am extremely […]
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On publishing in 2021, as told to Business Desk
Above: Coverage in Business Desk, with me pictured with Lucire fashion and beauty editor Sopheak Seng. Big thanks to Daniel Dunkley, who wrote this piece about me and my publishing work in Business Desk, well worth subscribing to (coincidentally, I spotted an article about my friend and classmate Hamish Edwards today, too). I […]
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What Vodafone’s Super Wifi is really like in practice
While I saw Vodafone’s Super Wifi commercials, I never thought to act on them, since (mistakenly) I thought it was something to do with cellphones. Might have been the gadgets they used in the commercial. But, after talking to Raghu, their sales’ rep in Pune, a city outside of Mumbai that I know well, […]
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I can finally identify with the main character in a New Zealand TV show
While I care much more about when John Simm will grace our screens again (pun intended), it was hard to avoid the reality TV that gets beamed into our living rooms during prime-time. There is the disgusting Married at First Sight Australia, where I am speechless with shock that fellow Scots alumnus John Aiken appears […]
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There goes the neighbourhood
Demolition has commenced on 1–4 Māmari Street, across the road from where I lived for over three decades. I’m not against change and my feelings toward the development have already been recorded here. It was with a tinge of sadness that I saw the demolition crews there and the only wall left standing […]
The colourless world
This is a development proposed for my old street in Rongotai. Since I’ve moved away I haven’t a say in what happens there. I can only make some general remarks. And this post is not written from the Luddite position. It’s the price of progress that as cities grow, we need more housing, and […]
A refreshing piece on diversity in our mainstream media
Two fantastic items in my Tweetstream today, the first from journalist Jehan Casinader, a New Zealander of Sri Lankan heritage, in Stuff. Some highlights: As an ethnic person, you can only enter (and stay in) a predominantly white space – like the media, politics or corporate leadership – if you play by the rules. […]
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From my desk, 1986
Before this gets recycled, I thought I’d scan it as a memento: a 1986 printout off our Riteman dot matrix printer (which I still have, with spare cartridges), hooked up to a Commodore 64. I forget the printer interface. The image isn’t mine: I only imagine that 14-year-old me was claiming copyright over the layout […]
The Grundig parts’ cache time capsule
When Dad was made redundant from Cory-Wright & Salmon, which had purchased his workplace, Turnbull & Jones, he bought all the Grundig equipment and accessories, thinking that he would find it useful. And for a while he did. The odd one he cannibalized, while the parts were used and adapted. Cory-Wright wound up contracting him […]