CAPITAL DAY
15 minutes of fame This month, The Dominion Post has taken not to the streets but to the phones and internet, to ask people who might not normally feature in the media a series of random questions.
Judith Bryers Holloway, of Levin, writes books for children and spends time with her four kids, nine grand-kids, and 20 greatgrandkids.
If money were no object, what would you do? I don’t care about money and I have enough to live on, due to the sweetness of my recently deceased, lovely partner who arranged for me to inherit half of his government super. I’m lucky to be able to go on doing what I’ve always done – mainly thinking up stories and resources for children, writing them and getting them illustrated.
Best advice you’ve ever been given? I’ve always followed my own instincts to be as generous as possible, as honest as possible and as brave as possible. Such principles entered my consciousness, in all probability, from reading, and from all sorts of older people in my family, who were a wonderful mix of French, Mori, Norwegian, Irish, and English.
One thing on top of you bucket list, and why? There are four places I’ve never managed to go to which I would still love to visit: Ireland, Russia, Iceland and Cuba. I feel a certain kinship, in my imagination, with the people who live there.
A private show by any musician or band. Who and why? I’d love to have Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Paul Robeson, Satchmo (Louis Armstrong) and Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Inia Te Wiata and my dear cousin, Rhonda Bryers, drop in and satisfy my nostalgia for the music of my ‘‘old days’’. I’d be able to hear every word – even without hearing aids.
Where do you take out-of-towners when they’re visiting? Generally my friends and I are a bit too past it now to go tramping and walking too far, so I drive visitors to look around and admire our landscape with the Tararua Range in the background staring majestically down at the Manawatu¯ Plains, visit our library, Foxton museum, galleries, and beaches.
Best purchase you’ve ever made? A lovely old vintage opera coat in black velvet from an op shop for a few dollars. It always makes me feel like my dear great-aunt Adelaide who came all the way down to Wellington [from Hokianga] to be the First Violinist in the Wellington Symphony Orchestra in the early 1900s.
Last thing you did that scared you? I don’t think I’m ever frightened, except about hideous things I cannot prevent: bush fires, typhoons and hurricanes, earthquakes. I dwell on the horrifying capitalistic pursuit of money and power, the piracy of other countries’ resources, often through the military-industrial complex of such bullying countries as the US, and the crushing of other countries who don’t agree with the US.
NZ food prices – fair, or a rort? The proliferation of great big supermarkets with their deliberate price-rigging to keep the poor suppliers under control makes me sick. It was not the NZ way, originally. It is the way of the 5 per cent of the world’s population who now own 80 per cent of the world’s wealth. Everyone should see the film Capitalism in the 21st Century.
Pavlova or trifle on Christmas? A trifle needs a gourmet approach . . . otherwise it is often just a mess of canned fruit and bought sponge and whipped cream. But a good pav, as long as it’s home-made, deliciously featuring berries and/or passionfruit and whipped cream with a touch of your favourite liqueur, can be really delish.
Piece of technology you would prefer hadn’t been invented? I’ve had to learn to use technology, but it so often goes wrong . . . I’m too dotty, so I very often want to chuck it all in the rubbish. But a computer is so good for editing that I suppose I would fall into despair without its help. Don’t like the idea of reverting to my old typewriter, with a Gestetner for copying.