Every country has its shadow side, dark secrets, embarrassing problems and PR nightmares that governments attempt to sweep under the rug and hush-up. Here are New Zealand’s. I’m doing this so that people who have this idealised, naïve view of New Zealand as some sort of Utopia actually come here knowing what to really expect,…
Continue reading ➞ The Pros and Cons of Moving to Aotearoa New Zealand 2021 Edition
As though she was speaking about the boogeyman, Easter Bunny or Santa. I am baffled as this is a normally intelligent, coherent and sane person who gives sound advice to me. She (along with everyone else) has been living in a place (Melbourne, Australia) which has been under one of the world's most harsh lock-downs…
Continue reading ➞ A friend of mine told me that she doesn’t believe in COVID yesterday….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b6h4hYBSgM [I will write a poem about a place that I've been each week with music to match] Neist Point on the Isle of Skye Swirling batons of time Erasing thoughts and hushing life and death On a clear day you can see all the way to Iceland it's said In any case there to…
Continue reading ➞ Words and Music: Stases & Neist Point on the Isle of Skye
Soundtrack for story - Hear playlist I saw your name on a wall. I paused and couldn't look away. It was a busy day in our cathedral to capitalism, our hive of activity where there was a lot of people milling around but mostly they were seated, with headsets on like train drivers of the…
I've been doing it regularly as usual and making each post high quality. I've been getting the same amount of traffic but hardly no likes or comments. I know you all aren't ignoring me, because on Twitter I seem to get a lot of feedback from people saying that they like these posts. Anyway if…
Continue reading ➞ Weirdly…I am getting almost no likes on my posts nowadays?!
Many years ago, I went hiking in Ireland in Glendalough I saw some magical landscapes. Ireland has a beautiful soft light in the summer. The diffused sunlight is speckled with clouds that pass over the vast valleys and mountain-sides. It's possible to sit there all day and just watch the way the light travels over…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Among the Irish Faeries and Norse Gods
Napier is one of the sunniest and most lovely places in New Zealand. The Bear and I love to explore this region on a regular basis by bike, the area is almost completely flat. The wide open spaces seem to stretch out forever. Although the ocean is tumultuous and not safe for swimming, there is…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Napier’s remote beaches and wineries by bike
Here is the cream of the crop for mind-blowing food (now available again) in Wellington
Oeskiki is an annual buddhist festival held on the 13th of October that commemorates the death of Nichiren in 1282. He was a revered buddhist teacher who lived during the Kamakura period, about 700 years ago. Although celebrated throughout Japan, the main Oeshiki festival is held at Ikegami Honmonji Temple located in the Ota ward…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Oeshiki Festival of Light, Ikegami Tokyo
Around ten years ago, I had the best trip of my life when I went to the Isle of Skye, Scotland with the Polish bear. We cozied up in the most comfortable little croft in all of the Scottish isles. Located in Borreraig, the farthest point of the Isle of Skye and as far away…
"Happiness is in the quiet, ordinary things. A table, a chair, a book with a paper-knife stuck between the pages. And the petal falling from the rose, and the light flickering as we sit silent." Virginia Woolf, The Waves Time Moves Slow by Bad Bad Good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgPQ2J_uM3A “Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness…
Some of these renders by Algorithmia were really wonderful, others were a bit wonky, but hey it's alright for zero effort at all on my part. Here are the before and afters of some of my family's black and white photos. Have a go at it yourself and let me know what you think of…
Despite all of the media beat-up around Corona Virus, the Lantern Festival to celebrate Chinese New Year went ahead on Wellington's waterfront the other night. It was really beautiful, bustling full of people and one of those sacred and special Wellington evenings where there was virtually no wind and all was peaceful, balmy and summery.…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Wellington’s Chinese New Year Lantern Festival
Some books help you as a teenager to move beyond the claustrophobic and limited world you were born into. We can't help where we were born or who our family is. However, when we are young, if we read the right books, we may just be able to transcend challenging beginnings and see the world…
Continue reading ➞ Mind-expanding books that opened up the world to me as a teenager #Booktag
Arashiyama is a charming little town just on the outskirts of Kyoto that features a lot of highly regarded UNESCO Heritage sites such as the Kinkaku-Ji temple. Although we found that surprisingly the most enjoyable activity was simply floating along the river in an old wooden boat and being guided by two funny guys, along…
Continue reading ➞ Kyoto river boat ride adventure by Content Catnip TV
Watch my video of the journey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxaRIuTae8U Wellington is unusual and amazing in that you can walk along the beach for 10 km and go from being in the middle of the city to being in a really remote and wind-swept marine sanctuary. There aren't many other places in the world you can do that.…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Wellington from city to wild coasts
I have a confession to make. I have not one boss but 4, all working in completely different areas of a very large charitable organisation. Three out of the four of my managers are smooth operators who actually grease the way forward for me to glide through with the lofty strategic marketing solutions. However one…
Continue reading ➞ How do you handle a boss who doesn’t believe in you or trust you?
At least 7 years ago now, I WWOOFED in Andalucia, helping out with cleaning and cooking at an Andalucian B&B villa just outside of Vejer De La Frontera.The work was far from easy although I did happen to live in a mountainside cabin (cheap fibro, but yet still my own for a wee while). I loved the location and the cabin.
Waiting in transit, Tokyo Copyright © Content Catnip 2018 http://www.contentcatnip.com Everyone is always in transit and a great metaphor for life is that we can only ever trust in the constant flux of change. Forget about the serenity of temples, impermanence is ever-present in JR stations, subway stations and airports. There is something magnetic about…
Continue reading ➞ Every picture tells a story: In transit in the JR station
I filmed our recent road trip. The track you are hearing is Halcyon&On&On by Orbital, a rave-era classic I love and it always makes me feel uplifted and happy and ready to embrace life with an open heart and open hands. I superimposed some of my interesting oil, glitter and water experimentations over the top…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: The Eastern Cape by Content Catnip
Many of us are introverts but are in denial about this and trying fervently to be extroverted, pushing ourselves to exhaustion trying to make small talk about bullshit that doesn't matter, often dealing with obnoxious people who have loud voices and often (but not always) boring and generic thoughts on the world. Here's a list…
Continue reading ➞ Seven reasons why it’s great to be an introvert and having introverted friends
Himeji Castle was the first place in Japan to become a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993, after this there were dozens of others named. It’s actually the largest and arguably most impressive castle in in Japan and has 83 buildings. It takes hours to walk around inside of it, like a medieval Disneyland, it's…
I had my mind bombarded by a lot of great music and a lot of crappy music growing up. This was thanks to Rage (an Australian version of MTV). Also my dad had a massive vinyl collection that was filled with some great albums - Led Zeppelin and Kate Bush, as well as some really…
Continue reading ➞ A crate-digger’s guide to embarrasingly cringey music: 70’s and 80’s edition
This list is inspired by Anthony Fantano AKA The Needle Drop's list of the most cringe-worthy songs that he loved as a teenager. In case you don't know of his channel, Anthony normally reviews amazing music both new and old in a really interesting way.
Tenryū-ji is a temple and gardens founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1339. It's purpose at the time was to venerate Gautama Buddha. It's considered as one of Kyoto's so-called Five Mountains. In 1994, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tenryuji dates from the Muromachi period in Japan's 14th-16th century. Among its many…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: Tenryu-ji temple and gardens Arashiyama Kyoto
Ueno markets are tucked into a unique pocket of Tokyo filled with interesting characters selling unusual goods. It's a world within a world. The funky music you are hearing is by 70's British funk band Cymande, the track is called Dove. It gives the video a lovely vintage feel. I don't own copyright to the…
People seldom visit the Eastern Cape of the North Island because of its complete isolation from the rest of the country’s bustling travel routes. It’s quiet in terms of other cars – there are none, except for the occasional local farmer and logging truck ferrying wood from forests to the port in Gisborne. It’s an…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: A roadtrip through the remote Eastern Cape of New Zealand
I've been doing this for over five years or longer. Every single week, three times per week, for more than five years. Holy shit it's a long time. It makes me think, why has there been this longevity? What has kept me doing this all of this time? It's got to do with me just…
Continue reading ➞ Why I write my blog…why do you write yours?
As a teenager I was incredibly precocious at times, spouting big words to make myself feel older and more worldly in high school. Later on, as my vocabulary developed at University, I dropped these intellectual bombs into conversations to make myself feel better in the company of people more middle class and posh than I was.
Nara has had sacred significance long into the ancient mists of time in Japan. Long before Tokyo and Kyoto became the capital of Japan, Nara reigned as the most important city in Japan, its capital from 710-784 AD, before this mantle was passed on to Kyoto. By decree of the emperor of Japan in 724AD,…
Continue reading ➞ Travel: A curious history of Nara’s holy deer
