Banking on the future

An expression you hear a lot is that “things are not as good as they were in my day” I suppose our generation use it particularly to our offspring when we want to express our frustration about the way things are, compared to the way things were. The truth is of course we look back at the past through rose tinted glasses; we filter out the bad aspects and only remember the good bits. “My day” is a euphemism for the good parts of the past. I...

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Not for the faint-hearted

Last week I had a game of golf. Please note I said “had a game” I didn’t say I “played a game.” That would be elevating the experience to a level I never reached. A satirist once wrote that they called the game “golf” because all the other four letter words were used up. I can empathise with the sentiment. You are probably asking why someone, with my countless years of experience dodging fruitless exercise, would suddenly take up golf....

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On tattoos, taxes and teachers

My geography teacher at school told us that New Zealand was a blessed place because of its equi-distance between the equator and the Antarctic. This meant a temperate climate that was the envy of the world because we could grow lush pastures to feed our livestock, but our temperatures didn’t get too cold for them to need housing in the winter. As a result we managed to produce cheap meat and even though our markets were at the uttermost...

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Ageing maleness is not a pretty sight

It was a revelation to recently discover what a disgraceful employer I must have been. At one stage, at the height of my business venturing, I owned a bacon factory, three butcher’s shops and a smallgoods factory. Later on I managed real estate company and concluded my career as the half-owner of a sign factory. Over that period, spanning some fifty odd years, I employed a large number of members of the ‘fairer sex’ (hang on, am I even...

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Paying back the piper

My first thought when I heard Metiria Turei’s bold confession about her transgressions as a solo mum was Jesus’ exhortation to the mob surrounding the woman caught in the act of adultery: ‘let anyone who is without sin among you cast the first stone.’ For instance didn’t Bill English once have to pay back a $32,000 housing allowance he had wrongly claimed on his million-dollar-plus Karori home? Regrettably, for most people cheating...

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