Alex Hallatt 2/6/19 Alex Hallatt 2/6/19

Living in New Zealand: Things to do on Waitangi Day: Weaving Māori Baskets

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Waitangi Day (6th February) celebrates the day when Māori and Pakeha signed the treaty of Waitangi. The agreement was flawed, but at least here there was motivation from white (mainly British) settlers to treat the local caretakers of the land more equitably than they had in other places of the world (notably our neighbour, Australia). Normally, like other public holidays, I work, but today I did something different.

I made a basket for potatoes from harakeke (flax). I met up with a great bunch of other women in Lyttelton and we learned from Jackie, Trixi and Catherine, who have been learning themselves. I’m inspired to try more, as we have whakariki (mountain flax) growing in the garden.

The finished basket needs to dry and is weighted with bricks

Alex Hallatt 2/5/19 Alex Hallatt 2/5/19

Reasons to Be Cheerful - The Benefits of a Social Media-Free February

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I confess that I have been reading The Luminaries (a book about 19th-century New Zealand written in the language of the same) since Christmas, but until now I have only been able to handle a chapter a day. It's a very dense book and at 830 pages long, I was worried that I would never finish it. Or understand it if I did. I'll be glad to finish it and get on to something lighter for a while.

But yes, spending less time on Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram means that I have more time to focus on my Deep Work and I have more time in the evenings to read. It also means that I don't have the anxiety that comes with not posting to Facebook and not checking for any posts I may have missed. I know I'm missing everything, but strangely I feel a lot calmer about it than when I was checking it every day. If you don't know what you're missing you have a lot less FOMO.

Alex Hallatt 2/5/19 Alex Hallatt 2/5/19

Living in New Zealand: Why Having Cats is Different to Owning Dogs

When I was a kid, I had a cat, Tac. I loved that cat and I was very upset when she died in my first year of university. But I grew up in England and having a cat in New Zealand is very different. The bird life has not evolved with this predator (or any mammalian predator) and cats kill native birds in countless numbers.

Yes , dogs can kill native birds too. But there are a lot more bylaws here regarding dogs than there are for cats. Dogs have to be registered and are expected to be kept in at night. In most places in New Zealand they are not allowed to roam free and have to be kept under the control of the owners. When we had a dog, he always walked close to us, But he used to be terrorised by a local cat was allowed to walk wherever she wanted.

That was pretty funny. It's not funny what cats do to the native birds when they're allowed to roam free and kill at will. So when I saw this book on a recent trip to the library, I felt I had to leave a note.