Posts by Deborah
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It's like making a contest of breastfeeding, or gargling.
I'm not sure how, neither of those things being bloody hard work.
Ummm... actually, I found breastfeeding bloody hard work. First time round, I was physically exhausted, and second time round, just no could do, given twins, and a couple of other factors.
I think it's one of those things which is easier for some people it is for others. A friend of mine was able to feed her twins for a year, no problems.
But I'm with Daleaway on this - the merit of a lot of fiction is in the eye of the beholder, and it does seem odd to judge one high-quality book against another, especially when even getting onto the Booker list is an indication of merit, whatever that merit might be.
I wonder if a medal system like the wine medal system might be better...
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Yes. I agree.
Hard to say this without sounding tall poppyish, but I wasn't so keen on the book. I found it, well, thin. However I had just read Great Expectations, which is very dense, so perhaps I wasn't in the best space for reading it.
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That would be, "pendants".
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I wasn't trying to make a point at all - I suppose I should hve put one of those emoticon thingmies there.
Though I do prefer the Maori name, because it sounds like the grey warblers' songs. And as a matter of practice, I use the Maori names. My children talk about piwakawaka, tui, kotare and ruru, all of which we see and hear in abundance, thanks to the Karori Sanctuary.
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I'm not so keen on the grey warbler, but I would vote for the riroriro. There's one singing his little heart out right outside my back door now.
The riroriro here have a slightly different tune from the riroriro around my parents' place in Taranaki. Regional accents?
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unless it's all suppressed.
I hope it isn't. This is all quite freaky stuff, whether you are an activist who is worried that you are going to be next, or soemone who is concerned about paramilitary types coming down out of the hills with guns. At the moment, the police are saying 'Trust us', but given their past record, I think they are on notice, and they need to prove that they are worth of trust. They had better be right.
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The Dom Post story also says the group had about 20 members. That's not many to start a revolution with.
My guess is that they thought that once they started, other people would join them. The classic mistake, imagining that many, many more people share your views, because everyone you talk to has similar views, or at least doesn't contradict your views. Of course, if you never talk to anyone outside of our own set, you never get to realise just how narrow your support may be.
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I have always been very impressed by the standard of service at Fuel. When I was employed, my local Fuel staff used to know my name, and what coffee I drank. When I walked through the door, even if they were busy serving 10 other people, they would always catch my eye, raise their eyebrows to confirm that I wanted the usual, give me a quick nod, and get on with it.
And they did this for EVERYONE. That is, as soon as someone approached the counter, they would catch their eye and nod, to make sure the customer knew that they had been seen, and their needs would be attended to. And they even manage to do this at the airport Fuel, where virtually everyone passing by must be a stranger. Fantastic.
But my real favourites are the chaps at the St Paul's cafe, behind the State Services Commission and the Freyberg building. Again, friendly people who knew my standard order, and who always greeted each customer. But best of all, I took my eldest daughter in their one day. She was ill, so we took her out of school for the day. She spent the morning with me in my office, and the afternoon in her daddy's office. Mid-morning, I took her across to St Paul's for a hot chocolate. They asked her name, chatted to her, and when the hot chocolate came, they had written her name across the top, in chocolate sauce. I was so impressed that they took the time to make a young girl smile.
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There's always that yummy beige that the cricketers used to wear...
Purple could be good. In crepe de chine?
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The coffee on Air New Zealand is disgusting. I think it's probably instant.
What's with that? I suppose it's cheaper and easier than brewed, but it's vile. There's a point at which 'budget' becomes a synonym for 'cheap and nasty', and Air NZ have reached it.
Have a cup of tea instead.