Time with Bill

Wellington waterfront market & People’s Coffee Taranaki St (feat. Prof Dean Knight)

Bill at the Wellington waterfront marketChatting with Dean Knight at People Taranaki St


Delphinium Days

Fabulous exhibition at The Dowse Art Gallery - Derek Jarman “Delphinium Days”.

Exhibition tourPhoto wallBad Queen - “Arse Injected Death Syndrome”“Ganymede”Cononisation


A Complete Unknown

Going to see this movie tonight, and I can’t wait. It sounds wonderful…

Timothée Chalamet hits right notes in Bob Dylan biopic

I think it’s kind of wonderful that someone so determined to cloud the story of his origins would become famous playing a club called the Gaslight but that’s just one aspect of Dylan’s life that continues to delight me.


Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy Book 2)

Finished reading: Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 2) by Robin Hobb 📚

I really enjoyed this sequel to Assassin’s Apprentice. The pace really picked up and the story took a darker turn. The characters kept developing and the final chapter was incredible.


Finished reading: Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman 📚

So wonderfully down to earth and pragmatic. Also well written and funny.


Sundeck journaling 📔

Journal, notebooks, pens and fruit in the shade on a very sunny back garden deck. Lots of rosemary.

Finished reading: Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch 📚

Wonderful pithy epigrams from David Lynch, one of the best creative people we were lucky to have.


Slow Trekking

Two horses on a sandy track surrounded by tī kōuka (Cordyline australis)

Hōkio sunset

Deep orange sunset

Finished reading: Max by Avi Duckor-Jones 📚

Touching story of finding your identity(s), very well crafted. Set in Wellington, NZ and the US. Queer.


Wonderful new local business location - Eva’s Garage - with a cafe, florist, barber, and gift store!

Open now at 3C Eva Street.

Entrance to Eva’s Garage, Eva StEva’s Garage interior Eva’s Garage interior


Finished reading: Marcel Proust by Edmund White 📚

Excellent short biography of Proust by one of our great writers.


Shelly Bay Bakery (at Leeds St) We are so lucky to have this wonderful bakery in our neighbourhood.

View of a bakery

Morning walk - Day 79

View of Wellington harbour View south of Mt Victoria, Wellington


Powerful reminder of the underlying action required to address disasters like the L.A. 2025 fires.

The chronicle of a fire foretold | Rebecca Solnit

no personal preparation can compensate for the lack of the collective preparation that is meaningful international climate action. The current fires are reminders of the costs of forgetting


Excellent review of “The Whale Tattoo”, which I recently read. Agree with everything in this write-up.

The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom review – a powerful new voice of gay working-class life

The Whale Tattoo is a book about trauma, but it’s also about healing, trust and a young man working his way through the gloom like a boat in sea mist. This eloquent, heartfelt debut pulls the reader right beside him, and announces Ransom as a writer of real talent


I was this many days old when I realised that this was the origin of the saying “a day without Lesbians is like a day without sunshine”.

Anita Bryant, singer and anti-gay rights crusader, dies aged 84

“Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”


Finished reading: Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb 📚

One of the best, most complex fantasy stories I’ve read. The characters are complex, varied, and flawed, with mixed and changing motives. The magic elements are subtle and limited; but central to the story. The writing is simple but skilful. And the theme of otherness, outsiders, and strangeness are enduring.


Glorious evening at Hōkio beach.


Finished reading: The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom 📚

It took me a while to get into the book and the story but eventually it just flowed over and into me and by the end I could feel and smell the characters and the story. Loved the ending. A challenging but rewarding read with a gay working class protagonist. Visceral as hell.