There's something to be said for a wet, cold, stormy weekend. Especially if you have a roaring fire. We haven't had many stay-at-home

Accidents will happen ... no matter what. So it becomes a question of how much we want to invest in limiting the damage. Huge effort

It is unusually quiet, down at the rumour mill. Far as we know, Messrs Mai (Whangarei) and Carter (Far North) will be taking a crack

How flattering of Hillary Clinton to borrow fashion tips from Helen Clark while they both audition for top jobs. It was Prime Minister

Perhaps the days of the modern Olympics are over. Oh, don't get me wrong; I'm one for the grand occasion and I'm certainly one for

Celebrating is something that transcends cultures, demographics and history. No matter when you were born, in what country and even

When it comes to vegetables, schooling and anaesthetics, local is usually better. Not always true for the tendering of council contracts

Harry Potter mania has once again swept across the globe. Billed as the eighth instalment in the series, Harry Potter and the Cursed

Everything we do involves some degree of risk. Cycling to work, crossing the road, going for a run. Mostly, these activities are

They've been the best of times, surely, free of war and famine, well fed and medicated, never needing to bother about things that

Kaitaia teenager Nina Griffiths has an ally in Mike King. And the pair have an ally in this media outlet. The causative factors

You might have felt that political correctness had got as silly as it could get, that it had reached a plateau and settled. Not so

Observation and knowledge of reality are topics that raise all sorts of prickly philosophical questions, chief among them the one

"It is not responsible for newspapers to publish calls for class warfare, extortion and disorder like this. The Northern Advocate

Northland's winter throws up all sorts of oddities on our beaches. In the past month we've had whales, albatrosses and now turtles

I've always bought free-range eggs. I've never thought twice about it. If I'm a bit strapped for cash, I will forgo eggs, rather than

I came across a rather unsettling photograph the other day. It was a picture showing an enormous amount of work being done on 10

Driving through the Hutt Valley I often think of Noel Coward, who dropped the withering comment, "Very flat, Norfolk", into bitchy

What better way to encourage people to recycle than by paying them to do it. That is essentially what Tauranga City Council voted

This week I celebrated yet another birthday. Perhaps celebrated isn't quite the word though I did enjoy a beverage. Or two. You don't

It's hard in today's connected, catalogued world to go off grid and be intrepid. Unless you're prepared to go to some fairly extreme

It's a mind-blowing level of corruption, even for Russia. A report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency has revealed that

The digital enlightenment has arrived and it has brought unto us ... Pokemon? Really? And the point of the game is to loiter round

The primary health hazard arising from smoking has historically been disease and health ailments caused by cigarette smoke. We can

Doris reckons her first reaction to the death sentence passed upon her with a shocking recent cancer diagnosis was to realise she

Oh I do enjoy that fine old saying "where did the time go?" Because it makes basically no sense at all because we don't know where

Sideline abuse is one thing. Being threatened with a knife is a different kettle of angry, angry fish. Or, in the case of Northland

A Whangarei freedom camping bylaw was in danger of heading down the path of elitism, so it's good to see our decision-makers back

Everyone should watch Fox News a few times a year, if only to be reminded of why women have legs. It's certainly not for walking. I

If you weren't alert, you might have missed Maori Language Week. I didn't. I added two new sentences to my Maori arsenal: "One language