I’ve always had a slightly odd relationship with sharp things. Years ago, when I was a kitchen hand in a Middle Eastern restaurant, I spent far too much time obsessively honing the tiny blade on my Swiss Army knife.…

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No matter how far I roam, no matter where I am in the world, something always draws me back to Aotearoa. There’s something about landing at Auckland Airport after crossing oceans, and just as the plane descends, Loyal by…

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So many traumatic things seem to have happened to me in the early morning. As a thirteen-year-old, I remember being woken up in the early hours to the news that my father had passed away. Two years ago, a…

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I like to think of myself as a fairly egalitarian guy and am far more comfortable in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt than I am in a suit. Indeed, since my historical travel has seen me staying…

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The other morning I rolled out of bed at 5am, laced up my running shoes, and headed out in the dark. It wasn’t some heroic act of discipline so much as simple maths: I needed a few extra kilometres…

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A few years back I found myself in a trendy Auckland café, the sort of place where the menus were printed on recycled paper and the barista could talk at length about the provenance of the oat milk. I’d…

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The other day I was talking to someone about their kids, and they remarked upon the fact that their teenage sons were lacking direction and motivation. They seemingly spend much of their time locked away in their bedrooms, playing…

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It’s been close to thirty years now that I’ve jumped out of bed when the haunting fire siren goes up and headed out with our local volunteer brigade. In that time I’ve seen more than my fair share of…

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It was while standing in front of the bathroom mirror the other morning, razor in hand, that I found myself mulling over the curious contradictions of my career. Perhaps it’s a little eccentric to be philosophising while lathered up…

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I’m a big fan of the Stoics, the ancient Greek philosophers who founded Stoicism. Theirs was a practical philosophy that focused on living a virtuous life in accordance with reason and nature. They believed in self-control and most importantly…

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