Personal Elsewhere

WASHED AWAY WORLDS AND IMAGES: Saturated stories and wet words

23 Feb 2023 | 2 min read | 1

Many months on and I am still coming to terms with not just what we lost in the January flooding but what is now still in the lock-ups and unavailable to us. Hundreds of records with relevant information, contemporary clippings and reference material are now in large plastic boxes, stacked randomly and quickly. And then there are the things I remember I just had to dump quickly into the... > Read more

THE TRUTH ABOUT TAIWAN: The room I might die in

19 Feb 2023 | 13 min read

In 2001 I traveled to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, on serious Herald business. The background was interesting: the Kuomintang party (KMT) which was mired in corruption (“black gold” in the local parlance) had governed for 50 years but had recently lost the election to the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party). I suggested to my editor someone – me – should go up... > Read more

WINDOWS ON WORLDS: Just point and shoot

12 Feb 2023 | 2 min read

I can't remember when I started doing it, but certainly in 1995 when I first went to Vietnam – the year after it opened itself to foreign tourists – I was taking a photo out the window of every room I stayed in. On a few occasions there hasn't been a window – an underground backpackers in Stockholm, a death-trap dump in Taipei – and certainly there were some views... > Read more

WHEN THE RAIN COMES: Memory and loss

9 Feb 2023 | 4 min read

A lot of people lost some things. Some people lost a lot of things. A few lost everything. We were lucky in many ways, we survived the January floods with our lives and most of our possessions intact. But we lost a lot because my office of 20 years at ground level in our modest townhouse – with a lifetime of accumulated records, books, CDs, DVDs, travel journals and family... > Read more

Rain, The Beatles 1966 (original speed)

NO WAIT AROUND MY NECK: A lanyard in the works

5 Feb 2023 | 2 min read | 1

I can't recall how it started but it probably happened like this: I came home from some event and hung it on a hook in the corner of a room. And the next time was probably much the same, a kind of unthinking action. The result of years of doing that means that in a corner of my office I have about 200 lanyards from various concerts, festivals, events, meetings, exclusive film screenings... > Read more

THE DWARF IN ABBEY ROAD: Opportunity Knox

29 Jan 2023 | 3 min read | 1

In mid-2009 as we were preparing to leave for a trip to London, Liverpool, Scotland and Ireland we got a distressing phone call. It came from Chris Knox's partner Barbara who told us Chris had had a stroke. As soon as he was in a state to see visitors – a couple of days later – we went to the hospital. Chris was paralyzed down the right side (he was right-handed) and had... > Read more

JAPAN 1999. Your man in the Land of the Rising Sun

21 Jan 2023 | 2 min read

At the tail end of the Nineties I approached what was then called the Asia 2000 Foundation for assistance to go to Japan to do . . . Well, in all honesty, whatever came up. I was a senior feature writer at the New Zealand Herald with a decent track record of serious journalism, some award-winning stories and had spent personal time in various parts of South East Asia (and maybe even... > Read more

PORTRAIT OF THE WRITER AS A YOUNG IDIOT: Teachers' College and Harrisongs

15 Jan 2023 | 2 min read

After I was denied re-entry to the University of Auckland for “failure to make satisfactory academic progress” – I only passed Zoology and Botany in two years, the latter on a D Restricted which means “we'll give you a pass but never come back to this subject” – I ended up at North Shore Teachers College. It was only going to be temporary until my papers... > Read more

ON THE ROAD: Notes in bars, coffee shops and cafes

4 Jan 2023 | 3 min read

In the many decades I have travelled I've rarely taken a laptop. My preferred companion has always been the cheap 1B5 exercise book that school kids use. There are many reasons for this: they're light and portable; there's little likelihood someone will steal you book but a laptop makes you a target; you can scribble randomly and draw self-help illustrations as reminders (no need for a... > Read more