Island Life by David Slack

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Island Life: One sleep to go

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  • Riddley Walker,

    yeah Che, that's not what they mean by 'a cup of tea and a lie down'.

    AKL • Since Feb 2007 • 890 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    sigh... where were you emma, old friend.

    a raleigh-20 riding gf would have been just my cup of tea.

    Probably being introduced to the works of Robert Heinlein by a scruffy-looking bf who used to wear out the soles of his nomads because his cobbled-together bicycle had no brakes.

    But that was 1987, so possibly 'in primary school'.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    at the age we're talking about i think a cup of tea was about all i could have stretched to.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • 81stcolumn,

    How I got into soooo much trouble on xmas day. I got a plastic golf set that year, my mate over the road gets the Chopper it was a Reeeed one. Dash across road to beg a ride. I trade some food and I’m off pedalling like fury new owner now left on the pavement. Cue sound effects urrrrrgh ah (car engine noise) change gear stick from 1 to 2 more frenzied urrrrrrgh looking down at gear stick changes…more frenzied urghhhhhhh pedalling fast….holding on with one hand….CRUNCH….I run into the neighbours new car….the chopper is undamaged the car is dented…the laughter can be heard down the street; followed by my desperate scampering feet trying to outrun my Dad who is very red and very very mad………..This image has prevented me from buying a red bike or a red car ever since. I guess childhood is strange like that.

    Anyone remember Clark’s Grand Prix ?

    Lego – so much safer….

    Nawthshaw • Since Nov 2006 • 790 posts Report Reply

  • Riddley Walker,

    hehe, nice story 81st

    AKL • Since Feb 2007 • 890 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    3140: I had the red with silver Panther. I was always envious of my friend though. His was blue and silver and...waitforit...foot pegs! That, was sweet!

    Though mine did have a vinyl thing that domed up over the joint where the handlebars meet the frame. It had a very cool Panther logo on it.

    And I had Nomads too. Only got Docs later in college. Funnily enough I bought some dress black shoes a year or so back. They had square toes and a seam ridge around the top, took them home where the GF said "why'd you buy Nomads?"

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    And why haven't nomads come back into fashion?, along with black puffy nylon bomber jackets?

    Strangely, I just got myself a black puffy nylon bomber jacket the other day; a fiver from the sallies. As much to do with my nostalgic fetish for NZ manufacturing as anything else. No heat can escape it. I can't bring myself to wear it in public, due to a sneaking suspicion that I'll look like a dork. I think it's cool, but when it comes to fashion that's no huge endorsement.

    Hadyn,
    In those days I was covetous of my mate's Diamondback; with its totally chrome frame it was a work of art, and had footpegs AND 360 handlebars.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    Footpegs? This is clearly some technical innovation that passed me by...

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Footpegs let you do "tricks". They were pegs that stuck out from the axel of the rear and (but not always) front wheels.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    Gotcha. Sounds dangerous if you're riding two abreast.

    (heh heh I said "abreast".)

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Are you some sort of commie? Don't you know that there's a clear bright line between "good" smacking and "bad" smacking, and that parents who practice "good" smacking never, ever lose the plot and veer into "bad" smacking? Why, they're practically different species.

    Duncan Garner on TV3 just called John Key's light smacking amendment, "good", "smart" and "commonsense".

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Anne M,

    I remember getting my first bike (the despised Raleigh 20) on my 9th birthday. I was so happy I cried. Wheels = freedom!
    I rode that thing until my future husband ran it (and me) into the side of a bridge. I think it went to the tip after that - pity, we owe it a happy retirement.

    Children have been pretty silent over s59 (hell, they're pretty silent
    on most political issues - and who can blame them? When you're a kid,
    there are usually far more important issues, like playing with not-Lego
    :) , but it would be nice to see what the people most affected think about it.

    I just polled the 8.5 year old (never been smacked) in my household who thinks that a) parents shouldn't smack, because it'll just make kids scared of them and the parents can use it as an excuse for beating b) that there should be a law against it, and c) that light smacking is OK - her definition of light being something that doesn't make the child cry.

    Hmmmm. Some contradictions there ...

    Happy Birthday to Mary-Margaret!

    Since Nov 2006 • 104 posts Report Reply

  • Deborah,

    Ther have been some reports of children saying they prefer smacking, because it's over and done with, and they can just get on with things.

    "Don't throw me into the briar patch, Brer Fox", anyone?

    In our house, we prefer the sitting chair. Children who have misbehaved are required to sit still on a chair, without talking, in the middle of the family room for varying periods of time (the worst sinner ever got 10 minutes) and reflect on the error of their ways. Any talking or getting out of the chair results in the clock being reset to the original time. Occasionally, the girls get an early release for good behaviour. It also has the handy side effect of making everyone calm down. And, it's over and done with quickly.

    BTW, anyone else notice that the Catholic Church has come out today saying that it's okay to hit children in a press release speciously titled, "Children are Precious gifts"? It seems that the rights of the family override the rights of children. That's probably the same sort of family where violence against women used to be tacitly condoned too. Let's reinforce the top down authoritarian approach to being a Christian!

    Back to a much more entertaining topic, my brothers and I drove my mother crazy riding round and round and round the house on our bikes. And we scared her half to death riding our skateboards down the drive, and down the steep street towards one of the busier roads in town. Fantastic fun.

    What about old fashioned blocks? We had a big box of them, and we spend hours building towns and houses and castles, and setting them all up like dominoes so we could push the first one and listen to the clack-clack-clack as they tumbled down (we called them 'machine-guns'). Not so cool as Raleigh 20s and the like, but wonderful fun. My girls have a big box of them too, and they spend hours and hours building castles, and stables for their herd of "My Little Ponies", and creating designs with the different colours and shapes. I have yet to introduce them to the joys of machines guns - this winter, perhaps.

    New Lynn • Since Nov 2006 • 1447 posts Report Reply

  • David Slack,

    Anne and the others who wished her a happy birthday: MM was chuffed, and thanks you very much for your kind wishes.

    I/S: she thinks "there should be a law that tells grownups they can't smack kids."

    Also, Lynley came up with the name: it was the Junior Engineering Set.

    My younger brothers had one and it is still going strong. My kids all loved it and it lived at Gran's house until she died in 2004.

    The brother who loved it the most as a child has it at his place now.

    Oh, it's all coming back. What made the set so good was that it included a little battery-powered motor with a spindle that you could rig up to a wheel or a propellor, or a great flying arm. Brilliant.

    Lynley and I concurred - if it's not on the market, they really should relaunch it.

    Devonport • Since Nov 2006 • 599 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    In our house, we prefer the sitting chair.

    Is there any another kind?

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • hamishm,

    The chair of a standing committee?

    Since Nov 2006 • 357 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    the standing chair of a sitting committee.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Deborah,

    In our house, we prefer the sitting chair.

    Is there any another kind?

    That's one of the interesting things about children. You can tell them virtually anything, and they will believe you. Including that unless they are smacked, their souls will be in peril.

    New Lynn • Since Nov 2006 • 1447 posts Report Reply

  • Riddley Walker,

    Duncan Garner on TV3 just called John Key's light smacking amendment, "good", "smart" and "commonsense".

    would that be the Duncan Garner that actually thought George Bush was complimenting him on his dress sense?

    AKL • Since Feb 2007 • 890 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell,

    Yeah, it's curious and touching and lovely and sometimes quite scary. I snuck in and replaced a missing first tooth with cash the other day... and the 6-year-old burst into tears and cried "who took my tooth!" until she saw the money and little floating flower in the glass of water. Now she really does think it was the tooth fairy, and how do I tell her!
    But sometimes I like to kid around with them, and you can just completely make stuff up, and their little faces kind've crunch up with effort- and then they believe it. Really believe it. Like marshmallows are the easter bunny's poos. Or the moon wasn't always there, until this giant got lonely one night- whatever. Sometimes I can't understand how intelligent grown-ups can believe in stuff like god and heaven, and then I think of the little faces in Sunday school....

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Riddley Walker,

    their little faces kind've crunch up with effort

    yes exactly, it's amazing how sometimes with kids you can almost see the effort of the cogs whirring around.

    AKL • Since Feb 2007 • 890 posts Report Reply

  • Deborah,

    Now she really does think it was the tooth fairy, and how do I tell her!

    I finally got fed up with the Easter bunny stories (I'm sure there was no huge Easter bunny hype when I was a child), and told the girls that there was no Easter bunny, and that in our family, we get a few Easter eggs as a treat and we share them on Easter Sunday.

    They were okay with that - I think they had always thought there was something dubious about a bunny with eggs.

    But on the long drive home after the Easter break, one of my five year olds obviously spent lot of time thinking, and thinking, and thinking. As we were driving out of Wanganui, in a nice demonstration of inference, half worried and half puzzled, she said, "Mum, if the Easter bunny is really just your parents, then maybe Santa Claus isn't true, and it's really just your parents."

    Oh dear. There goes the last magical Christmas.

    New Lynn • Since Nov 2006 • 1447 posts Report Reply

  • Yamis,

    Hey, I teach teenagers (sixth form) who don't know what a continent is, think Africa is a country, wonder how come maps aren't blurry because the earth is spinning so fast that it must make the earth blurry for when they are drawn, wonder what is on the back of the world map (as though there is a whole part of the world we don't know about), have no idea whatsoever of how we have day and night, that the earth orbits the sun, and wonder where the moon goes during the day. These are common things not just the odd student and it's a mid decile school.

    I could tell some of them that we are building a bridge to the US, or a flying fox from Mt Cook to Christchurch and they would believe me.

    It's all in WHO is telling them the story and HOW STRAIGHT you can keep your face.

    And those preachers on TV can keep pretty straight faces.

    Since Nov 2006 • 903 posts Report Reply

  • Yamis,

    Oh yeah, and a teaching friend had a year 9 or 10 student the other day who was adament that rabbits DO lay eggs as do dogs. I swear I'm not lying.

    Since Nov 2006 • 903 posts Report Reply

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