Living in New Zealand: Summit Road Meanderings
Goldfinches on flax at the top of Major Hornbrook (Click to see options for using the image)
I often walk up to the summit road above Lyttelton, usually to generate cartoon ideas for Arctic Circle or other comics. The views can be glorious, but even when the weather closes in, it is a great place to be.
Except, perhaps, in an earthquake.
I am very risk-averse.
Living in New Zealand: More of My Favourite Bars on London Street (and What I Miss)
Eruption Brewing (Click to see options for using the image)
We are lucky (despite some idiotic actions recently concerning border control and quarantine) that New Zealand is at Level 1. This means all the bars are open normally and Lyttelton has come back to life.
We still miss Billie, but we get our dose of dog going into most of the bars in Lyttelton.
London Street has come back to life apart from those lots that are still empty all these years after the earthquake.
Addendum
I was in Facebook today (6th July), deleting more of my personal photos (a long process) and came across some from 2011. The boyf and I visited Lyttelton a month after the earthquake and his old restaurant (London Street) and Number 6 were still standing. Only just.
FAB Club 3 - The Big Match
Click to see options for using this image
Today is the official launch of FAB Club 3 - The Big Match. It is the third and final book in the series about the Friends Against Bullying club. The first book came out four years ago and it has been fun to develop the characters and tie up all the loose ends: something that never happens in real life.
My niece (now 11) loved the first book and the second one about cyber-bullying. When I asked her what she’d like to see in the third book, she didn’t hesitate to say “romance”! My 8 year old nephew wanted to read about football (those are the only books he loves reading). I had to please them both. At the middle grade level I didn’t have to get too graphic with the romance, thank heavens, but I sure got tired of drawing footballs!
Despite (or because) of the constraints of the storyline, I’m really happy with how the book turned out. All the bullies from the original book have been turned around and all we are left with is an adult bully in this last book. It’s no real spoiler to say that he gets his comeuppance. I only wish that could happen to some of the bullies I see abusing their positions of power now.
FAB Club 3 is online and in bookshops now (Search for ISBN: 978-0-473-50467-0).
Or ask for it at your local library.
Living in New Zealand: We're FREE (to do What We Want, Any Old Time) - Level 1 is Here
Forty Two IS the answer (Click to see options for using the image)
There are no cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand. On Tuesday we moved to Level 1, which means normal life apart from at the borders (where most people coming in have to quarantine for 14 days. Except airline staff, I guess.). People on the boats coming into port aren’t allowed off unless they have been at sea for at least 14 days since leaving a foreign port. Which is most of them.
Getting back to normal is ever so slightly unnerving, as I am sure the virus will be back (how do we keep out something so so small? Humans are prone to error and it only needs a few missteps for the virus to escape into NZ again).
At the same time I am enjoying going back to all the bars and cafes that we love.
Though I’m out being social and not distancing, I’m still washing my hands a lot. And not shaking hands with new people. Which is a really hard habit to break.