Five-minute quiz
Look, isn’t if kind of amazing to find ourselves now three days over the hump of 2018, right here in a new year that’s only 12 months off that magic sounding 2020 when, we can but assume, all things will be AOK. In the meantime, 2019 does hold promise.
We are not selling it short in favour of 2020, just looking ahead to the fun of writing out cheques and things with those magic sounding numbers.
What we have new, now, is good, a fresh start, time we all stopped being so afeared of everything from draughts (himself opened an envelope yesterday and swore three people said there’s a draught somewhere), to traffic and climate change, new schools, illness, job losses, children independent, we too dependent, failings in the system –all things we can deal with.
Stress, fear and such anxiety ought not be features of small-city people living with a big city vibe led by a Mayor Tim, now a knight of the realm a big boost for us all, along with the national recognition now accorded Southland Times columnist noted naturalist Paul Gay who gently nudges us towards the small and beautiful things which make the south a magical place.
Don’t frown through the honours list for names that might not be there. Try again in six months’ time when the Queen’s Birthday List is revealed.
Meantime let’s rejoice that some of our own have made it into the top echelon, their being there reflecting well on the society that daily nurtures and nourishes them.
Sir Timothy rightly says the honour falls on his family too.
Shadbolt is a name held in high regard throughout New Zealand, notably in the field of literature and our city Mayor is not the first to bring such an honour to its ranks.
While Tim’s father was killed in a Fleet Air Arm accident many years ago, the elderly Mrs Shadbolt moved south to be with her son, delighting members of Invercargill’s Dutch community as she shared their Dutch heritage, its language and culture.
As they always say, wouldn’t his mother be pleased had she but lived to see her son knighted. Pleased and proud she would assuredly have been as, indeed, mother-like, she always was.
Wishing you all health and happiness in the New Year, for our country the wish is for peace and plenty. Plenty to cover, too, such as threatened strikes, but with peace to follow their settlement. 1. What explorer recorded in his diary on December 13, 1642, that he had seen ‘‘a large land, uplifted high’’?
2. On what New Zealand radio network would you hear Kate Hawkesby?
3. Susan Sarandon won an Academy Award for best actress for her role in what 1995 prison movie?
4. In what country did the political terms ‘‘Left’’ and ‘‘Right’’ originate?
5. Complete the next line from the theme song of the TV series Disneyland: ‘‘When you wish upon a star . . .’’ 6. The Ganges River flows into what bay?
7. In what sport do teams from Europe and the US compete for a trophy named after the English businessman Samuel Ryder?
8. What European country was once called the Austrian Netherlands?
9. In what decade did John Paul II become the first non-Italian pope in four centuries?
10. In American slang, what is a gumshoe? “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” Isaiah 65:17