A peculiar jumper
Hadyn Jones co-hosts TVNZ 1’s Fair Go as well as hosting 1 News’ Good Sorts.
The father of three is pictured holding Lucy, the family rabbit, last year – the awkwardly posed photograph is an annual tradition in Jones’ family, which enjoys a bit of festive silliness.
“The one thing the Jones family does seriously is ridiculousness. Each year, we have a ridiculous photo taken. We’ve got matching Hawaiian outfits – our family of five, me my wife and three kids – we’ve got ugly Christmas jerseys…
Last year, we got a pet rabbit called Lucy. Our kids named it, it’s the only thing they’ve ever agreed on. I wanted to call it Barney.
I’m wearing a really ugly Christmas jumper I bought after I’d had too many drinks one night and had the credit card out. It was a “make your own” jersey – it came kind of plain and it had all these snowflakes and stuff you put on, like a crafted delight. Which is great, except I’m a terrible crafter. So I’m standing in front of the Christmas tree, I’m holding the rabbit, and I sent the photo out to all our friends and family to say: “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”
The rabbit’s ear is bent down for some reason – I don’t know if it’s listening to Christmas carols, which my wife likes to play from October… I can confirm it has two ears.
Each year on Fair Go, which I present with Pippa Wetzell, we have a Secret Santa. Luckily or unluckily, I got Pippa. She’s a woman of exquisite taste and her husband said she’s hard to shop for. So I thought, what better than a framed picture of me?
I gave her the picture and wrote on it: “From your on-screen husband” – that’s kind of our joke. The picture has stayed on her desk all year – it hasn’t gone home like special mementos should. I think she just doesn’t want to cause any friction with her real husband. He doesn’t want to come home each night, does he, and see her on-screen husband holding a one-eared rabbit in an ugly Christmas jumper.
Cats have nine lives; this rabbit must have about 10. It poked its bottom through a crack in our fence and a dog bit it. It ran under the house. Have you tried to retrieve a rabbit from under a house? It’s very difficult.
It finally came out after about 12 hours and we took it to the vet at 10 o’clock at night. It was without a tail and had a broken foot, but it was alive. It had two surgeries. That was about six months ago. Now it’s healthy and happy, living sometimes in our house, most of the time under our house, digging tunnels to China.
Fair Go, Monday nights on TVNZ 1, celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2018; 1 News’ Good Sorts is on Sundays on TVNZ 1.