Insight

Kids have a weird way of bringing you back to reality. Just when you think you’ve done something quite well, or mastered a tiny bit of parenting, they either ‘roast’ you, or prove you wrong. This happened to me while I was “teaching” during lockdown. I was continually reminded by…

Captain’s Log: Star date May 4, 2020 It’s been 45 days since I’ve been trapped in this prison with these small alien creatures. All they seem to do is eat and say, ‘I’m bored’, 16 hours a day. They bicker between themselves on whose turn it is to pick the…

with Kat Barcenilla   You’re only a day away. “Don’t forget,” my mum would say. “You’re only a day away.” This comforting reminder has become my personal mantra at times of loneliness, sadness, difficulties and despair. I recall it when I am feeling the utmost of homesickness feels. Usually it’s…

with Shaun Vining As I sit here in self isolation – not because of Covid-19 but I’m hiding from the kids, I’m reminded, that my wife and I chose to have four children. Luckily I like them and for the most part they are pretty good kids. However, if I…

The Macpherson Diaries A few years ago I wrote about my Spontaneous Adventure Car Kit, or SACK, if you please. A bag that stays in my car and has all the bits and pieces that you need for a spontaneous adventure, so that you don’t have to go home and…

Most of you would have heard over the last year about my brother, Blair Vining, whose battle with cancer, (and the government) moved a nation to sign his petition to get a cancer agency set up in New Zealand. His tireless efforts, despite being in chronic pain, really moved me…

with Kat Barcenilla   A formal catch up without the formalities Wake, work, eat, sleep, repeat. Times it by five. Pepper it with some after-work activities, a social evening or two, daily exercise and family commitments. Book-end these days with a couple of sunny stretches of freedom. Life is a…