In the editorial to one of our print publications—not yet at liberty to say which—I show a 2004 cover of Lucire featuring Jennifer Siebel inset in the text. It got me thinking how, when I first designed the cover, with Jon Moe’s photograph, I was aiming for a classical timelessness. Now nearly 20 years on—in […]
Tag: Whanganui-a-Tara
Most of HR isn’t about finding the right candidate
A friend in the UK recently told me: I read how companies say they cannot find anyone to fill their roles, and I have a bunch of very talented, highly qualified friends who are out of work who can’t find anything. Having looked into this locally, it’s far from being a strictly UK problem. I […]
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Can’t connect to Wellywifi? You’re not the only one
Above: Trying to log into Wellywifi. If you get the second screen, you’re already doing well. Despite being the person who successfully pushed for our city’s free wifi programme in 2009–10, I note the irony of being the only person (according to Wellington City Libraries staff I have spoken to) who cannot connect to […]
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A farewell to my friend, Denis Wood (and to a stranger, Sir Michael Parkinson)
I was deeply shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of my friend Denis Wood, treasurer of Scots Collegians’ Association, Inc. I’ve been on the Collegians’ executive for over a decade and Denis was always present as our financial guru. He was committed to our Association and our purposes. I’m still processing this news, […]
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Twenty years ago, Lucire and United Nations Environment Programme teamed up for a first
Twenty years ago, the United Nations Environment Programme and Lucire announced their partnership. I look back at how the arrangement came about in 2002–3. At the time, it was unheard of for a mainstream fashion title to make this sort of a commitment to sustainability, but I felt we couldn’t afford not to. Even […]
A new website goes up—and Yandex beats them all
Authentically You, a life and career coaching business in Wellington, New Zealand, has just launched. We’ve had a hand in the design and website development (where it had to be Wordpress and easy to manage), and it’s also been our task to get it on to the search engines. I was very surprised that […]
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Reach out if you need a business mentor

I’ve served with Business Mentors New Zealand for 17 years. It might be time to depart, after my present client. This has always been a voluntary role and bless all those who have given their time, and continue to give their time, to business people around the country. I have made two real friends over […]
Life’s could-have-beens
A Mastodon post about my mayoral campaign policies. No, I didn’t foresee a global pandemic as such (though I certainly was on Twitter perplexed at why the WHO had not declared COVID-19 a global emergency in January 2020), but I did feel there was insufficient resilience in our economy and wanted to advance ideas […]
It’s got a picture of the Queen in it
To the best of my recollection, this is the only photograph of HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh that I shot and own. You’ll have to look closely. In fact, you might not even see them at this resolution. I gave the print to someone at Warehouse Stationery who was […]
The expectation of invisibility
I rewatched Princess of Chaos, the TV drama centred around my friend, Bevan Chuang. I’m proud to have stood by her at the time, because, well, that’s what you do for your friends. I’m not here to revisit any of the happenings that the TV movie deals with—Bevan says it brings her closure so that […]