Posts by Paul Williams
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I'm loving all the parent-type posts here, they're great fun. This is a lovely story Jolisa, thanks.
Spinal taps; scary stuff. A friend's daughter had two also (the first didn't succeed at doing whatever they do). The parents are still traumatised!
My three and a half year old's discovered jonking too (what do you call a donkey with only three years? A wonkey). Let's hope she's as enthusiastic about her (pending) little sister as your eldest about his brother.
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Reason #137 why PublicAddress is better than wheaties:
The purpose of karakia is to focus the group on the task at hand. It provides a boundary between the kaupapa of the hui and the everyone getting on with the rest of their activities.
The initial karakia focusses the group on the purpose of the hui, and the closing karakia enables the group to de-focus and get on with whatever. Having worked in both Pakeha and Maori work environments, I have found meetings that have karakia are significantly more effective because you don't have the arsing about and small talk that typically brackets a meeting. You know when it starts and when it ends.
The fact that most karakia are Christian is an artefact of colonisation, and there's no reason for a karakia to invoke a deity at all - in terms of it's purpose within the context of a hui.
Thanks Mikaere. Just, thanks.
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Sadly, the denizens don't seem to share your enthusiasm for the new PM's choice of dance partners.
Poor ol'David, his friends are nutters.
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And I think he was doing it out of just being a good sport rather than any political calculation.
<partisan-restraint >That's my sense, from the footage, too and that's admirable. I've long thought him light on experience, I still do, and I think that's a real risk but maybe the up-side is that he's a little less removed from the day to day... even for a bloke who's got squillions of $$. </partisasn-restraint >
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"You just missed a great New Zealand cultural moment," advised the MP for Wellington Central, and I expect he was right.
Fantastic. Key's done damn well. I don't much like his politics, but I do respect the approach he has to people and Big Gay Out mightn't need his validation but it's bloody fantastic to see the PM just getting involved sans attitude.
Have Key behind a wall of black suits, as he's hustled from locked down photo op to a venue where you only get within a mile of the great man if you've lined up for three hours to get through a security barrier?
No, I agree with you Craig, it's good that our elected leaders are pretty informal and approachable. It's bloody annoying though that a couple of clowns think they can rough him up but. I'm with the consensus that he's handled the whole situation pretty well. Kudos.
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Quite simply, I want to be at home, not just in a house and a street and a city, but home in a place where I belong.
I struggle with this most days. For the first two - three years it wasn't an issue, not least of all because, before we had kids, life was pretty fun in Sydney-town. There's plenty of times it still is, plenty. But overall my feelings tend towards wanting to leave. I'll save why we don't for another post but Deborah's brief comments largely sum up my feelings (and best of luck with the heat, we had 40 and 42 degrees over the long weekend).
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Isn't it interesting how clearly fathers' recall these events; the scan's the first direct experience, albeit technologically-enabled. I also vividly remember the first sighting. I have mixed emotions about it though. My anxiety levels were the highest I think they've ever been. A perfectly normal foetus, phew. Immediately after though, the genetic counselling simultaneously allayed some fears and stimulated others: we could have more tests?
As Kyle's said; in the three+ years that followed, those early memories have grown distant as her spine has hardened, lengthened and granted her a degree of independence.
I too remember how quickly the memories of those first nine months were crowded out by new challenges (proper attachment, wrapping for sleep, sleeping or not as the case may be). Still, here we are again... 22 weeks through the process, two scans down, two scans unremarkable (I've quietly given my thanks to all deities). One of which is the 3D scan and shows a wonderful buddha-like face.
My partner and I are sleeping well at the moment. We are because we can and because we know we must for soon we won't.
Thanks David, again a grand piece of writing.
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On a completely unrelated note. I just checked my readouts from my home ventilation system. It is 51.5c in my roof, that's about 125f. I think I will stay out of the loft today. ;-)
Wise. It's 37 degrees in Sydney. It's been hot, though not quite that hot, for three days. Each day I long for a storm or a change to break this overwhelming heat. At night it's been 30ish and too hot to sleep. My youngest hasn't slept through a single night. Make. It. Stop.
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You can't quite tell in the video but I can't see any blinking either
Ha. Careful but, that's your editor your bagging...
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I'm surprised how little Obama's race seems to matter now that he is in the White House. What matters is those first, decisive executive orders.
Agreed. And Obama made only fleeting mention of race himself. It's important, no one can deny this but Hopkins' conclusion is right, a bad president is a bad president...
What I'm finding frustrating though is a growing tendency to dismiss support for Obama as little more that positive discrimination. That's crap.