Over the July holidays, the engineer and I travelled to Queensland to celebrate my older son Mike’s 30th birthday. We had decided that my two Melbourne-based sons should join us at Mermaid Beach for a few days to celebrate (as Melbourne would be too cold at this time of the year!) My grandson Kalani turned [...]

Last Thursday I watched the first fifteen from my school Colenso, play the local Havelock North High School team, which included our Rotary exchange student Beto on the wing. I did promise Beto I would cheer for him only when he got the ball and ran with it. It was a difficult decision to make, as [...]

Today I went to my first Duffy Books in Homes assembly at Riverslea school. I have been a participant in grandparent reading at Riverslea School since the beginning of the year. I am able to do this as I don’t start teaching on Fridays until noon. Grandparent reading is a Havelock North Rotary project that [...]

Last weekend, the engineer and I drove 5 hours to New Plymouth to help celebrate a significant birthday of my old university friend, Gillian. She had orginally decided to ignore the birthday and do nothing, against all her friends’ advice. However, once we told her we were making the trip, she and partner, Reeve made [...]

Rotary International have a scheme, abbreviated as GSE (group study exchange) where a team of up to 5 young adults, aged in their late 20s or 30s, visit a country to expand their knowledge in their chosen vocational area. It was Hawkes Bay’s turn to be the last stay for a team of 4 Danes from [...]