Posts by David Haywood
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ScottY wrote:
I know many of the haunts you write about in the story, having lived for a time in an especially shitty part of Glen Eden (mind you, in the early ‘80s there were no un-shitty parts). And the Westward Ho was one hell of a rough pub.
I should mention that my only experience of the Westward Ho as a sixteen-year-old was waiting in the car while my friend Carl (who looked older than his age) went inside to buy beer. He almost always managed it, by the way. At sixteen I looked about fourteen (at University that year people kept asking me if I was looking for my mother), so even the Westward Ho would probably have refused to serve me.
Danielle wrote:
Kelston Boys, wasn't it?
Yeah, my friend Carl (again) put it very well when he said that it took him four years to recover for each year that he spent at the school. In other words, a total recovery time of sixteen years. Still, it did wonders for our appreciation of rugby.
Stewart wrote:
You probably changed the intersection when you remembered that the intesection of Gt Nth Rd and Glenview Rd would have been too busy for them to hit the bike & not get slammed for it. By Waikumete Cemetary there it wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
Excellent detective work there, Stewart! Having reacquainted myself with the local geography (via Google maps), I'm almost certain that you're right. In my day, Parrs Cross Road was very quiet and rural with apple orchards on both sides of the road. From the satellite map it looks like it's quite changed now.
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Scott Swank wrote:
I can only say that I am embarrassed that you know who Jim Gibbon is. I would that no one outside of Nevada knew his name, much less outside the states.
Are you kidding? Jim Gibbons is world famous in New Zealand. We have a small political party called ACT who venerate Jim as the ultimate example of a responsible and ethically irreproachable politician.
I'm pretty ecumenical -- though after 5 years in Nevada I'd prefer you avoid the Mormons
Oh, but they have such excellent underwear!
Are there more of this series in the works?
I might post an essay I wrote (just for my own entertainment) about the night I spent in Hawera on the thirtieth anniversary of Ronald Hugh Morrieson's death.
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Cecelia wrote:
A touch of Frank Sargeson? "A Great Day".
Oh how I scoffed when Jolisa Gracewood suggested the same thing. But actually I did read a Sargeson story (part of a collection by NZ authors) that very same summer. Not "A Great Day" but rather "Sale Day". So maybe you both do possess some kind of literary telepathy.
Amusingly though, I'd become confused over who'd written "Sale Day" and somehow thought that it was Katherine Mansfield. This caused no end of confusion when I attempted English at Auckland University shortly afterwards, as I was always saying that I liked the Katherine Mansfield story where the cat was stuffed into the fireplace and burnt alive. People were so surprised to hear that Mansfield had written on such a subject.
Geoff Lealand wrote:
I am now scared to go outdoors!
Just remember that you're alright as long as going outdoors doesn't involve you appearing in West Auckland.
George Darroch wrote:
Your sentences weren't long enough for these fictional characters, of course.
To beat Ian Dalziel to the punch... yes, I suppose that must have been what I was trying to fix with all those semicolons.
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Just thinking wrote:
Good on you David & congrads on the job.
The thought of UC actually employing did stun me a little.No need for congratulations -- it's just a short-term contract, finishing in June. Back to my usual writing after that.
All I'm hearing is the cull of staff & Carrs targeting of Librarians.
There certainly does seem to be a lot of very unhappy academics at Canterbury these days -- at least in the School of Engineering.
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Glenn Pearce wrote:
Was the Video player VHS or BETA?
Originally there was a line of dialogue on just this subject -- but I edited it out because I thought no-one would remember the distinction. I'm quite sure, however, that further investigation would reveal that the video player was originally purchased from Jorgensen's.
Ian MacKay wrote:
Why didn't the lads calculate the likely punishment should they get caught?
That really is a very good question, and something that fascinates me about the type. From an early age I've always thought about the consequences of being caught. But some people just don't. If you can shed any light on why not then I'd be bloody interested to hear it.
Jackie Clark wrote:
I loved that story - it captures so beautifully, and grimly, the mindset of those two kids.
Why thank you, Jackie! It helps if you've just spent four years incarcerated with fucked-up teenagers of this type (Glenn Pearce more-or-less exempted from this statement, of course).
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Scott Swank wrote:
Did you tidy it up much before you put it out?
Yes, quite a bit of tidying. Chopped out several dozen adjectives and adverbs, as well as a whole bunch of semicolons. For some reason I was crazy about semicolons when I was sixteen -- couldn't write a sentence without one. Don't know why I was so rejecting of the full stop.
Also chopped out some extraneous material that linked this piece into the other stories. In fact, I can exclusively reveal that the bloke in the pub, the girl in the burgled house, and the kid on the bike were all featured in other chapters.
Does this make me the only registered user from Las Vegas?
I'm quite sure it makes you the only Reverend registered from Las Vegas (sorry that we have no space in the PA registration form for an official title). I must say that no-one can accuse you of not taking an ongoing interest in the people whose weddings you've performed. I should write a letter commending you for your follow-up service -- although I wouldn't know where to send it. The Pope? The Archbishop of Canterbury? Jim Gibbons?
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An excellent historical question, Danielle... alas I have no idea. I can reveal, however, that the original location of the intersection was given as Glenview and Great North Road. For reasons unknown at this distance (some 24 years) the original location was crossed out, and Parrs Cross and West Coast Road were substituted.
Twenty-four years ago -- God I feel so old!
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Yeah, I hope you aren't too traumatized, Deborah. Although, looking on the bright side, I could have felt moved to post my teenage poetry -- and that, I can assure you, would have caused you much more suffering to read.
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Hey, well done on the Metro column, Emma. Might even persuade me to buy an issue!
Jolisa wrote:
... when I lived in Ithaca, New York, where the... daylight is brutally short.
It takes an amateur astronomer to know this, but actually the absolute latitude of Ithaca is lower than Christchurch.
In other words, the winter days are brutally shorter in Christchurch than Ithaca.
So you can multiply your Ithaca SAD by about 102 per cent to reach how lousy poor Emma is feeling...
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Apparently, several million years of hominid evolution have already spoken on the subject of the ladiez preferred attributes in a bloke.
I'd never really thought about where the species name homo erectus... er... arose.