Forty-three years ago (September 16, 1976), we arrived in this country. As we flew from Sydney and into Wellington, my Dad pointed out the houses below to me. ‘See, those are the sorts of houses New Zealanders live in,’ he said. I thought it was odd they lived in two-storey homes and not apartment […]
Tag: family
The big move, after 36 years
For reasons unknown to me, May seems to be a quiet month for my blogging. I looked back to 2010 and usually, this is the month I blog less. Maybe it’s the change in seasons, or I find other things to occupy my time. This year, it’s been far more eventful, as on the […]
Capturing a buyer: some advice to Renault New Zealand
On this Pope Gregory Arbitrary Calendar Start Day, I wrote to a contact of mine at Renault New Zealand. In mid-2018, I joked that, since Renault had no dealers in Wellington (never mind what’s listed on their website—the only people who can see a dealer there are psychic mediums), I could sell them out […]
Read More… from Capturing a buyer: some advice to Renault New Zealand
They only found one set of dentures, so how’s my Dad supposed to eat these solids?
You’d think that after the Bupa nurse said Dad’s dentures were found, that would be the end of it. I headed there this afternoon to discover that they only found his upper set. The lower ones are missing. Again, no one there thought of putting him on soft or purée food till my […]
Read More… from They only found one set of dentures, so how’s my Dad supposed to eat these solids?
A chain of events that led to my Dad being effectively starved today
Above: Dad and I wait for his psychogeriatric ‘re-evaluation’ on November 30, or, treading a path of bullshit. Even in the rest home, Dad remained very protective of the other residents, so much so that there was an incident involving a day care resident in late November that saw the home insist that he be […]
Read More… from A chain of events that led to my Dad being effectively starved today
Eighty-three today with Alzheimer’s: a caregiver’s viewpoint
Above: Dementia Wellington’s support has been invaluable. Today my father turned 83. It’s a tough life that began during the Sino–Japanese War, with his father being away in the army, and his mother and grandmother were left to raise the family on their land in Taishan, China. In 1949, the Communists seized the […]
Read More… from Eighty-three today with Alzheimer’s: a caregiver’s viewpoint
Just another Christmas for a staff nurse
My late mother was a nurse. Before she was a midwife at Wellington Women’s Hospital, she was a staff nurse in wards 21 and 26 at Wellington Hospital. From what I remember, ward 21 was first, which meant she was working there some time between 1976 and 1978. This is a letter that she […]
The maternity ward of the early 1980s was a very different place
Virginia McMillan/Creative Commons Now the PM and her partner, Clarke Gayford, have shown off their daughter to the world (video at the end of this post), it reminded me of my own experiences in the maternity ward many years ago. I’m not a parent at the time of writing: I’m talking about the 1980s […]
Read More… from The maternity ward of the early 1980s was a very different place
From one school shooting survivor to others
On February 14, 2008, my cousin Paul’s son Harold was shot and injured at a school shooting at Northern Illinois University. From memory, it was the fifth that week. Today, he wrote a letter to survivors and students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., who endured their day of horror on February […]
Parts of Japan are decimated, and I think back to my grandfather
My grandfather, Col. Tung Wan Yan, of the Chinese Constitutional Army, had a very interesting war. He was on a Japanese hit-list and was hiding in trees when some soldiers opened fire on him with automatic weapons. By some miracle, he escaped unharmed. It’s one of the close calls he had in China […]
Read More… from Parts of Japan are decimated, and I think back to my grandfather