I thought I’d start a post with a photo taken with family and friends while on holiday, late 1970’s at Auckland zoo. I’m the tallest one, sporting overalls even then). A few weeks back, with some family staying, Kerry had the great idea of visiting the zoo. And I’m afraid to say, it was my only visit since moving here 25 years ago. I dressed for the visit in my overalls, not the same pair), perhaps hoping to have a photo taken just for fun as a nod to my appearance back in the day.

However, it’s been a month of poor health, with an impending nasal operation, fading energy, and with my usually vigorous brain turned to mush, I sloped around the zoo looking every bit a robot.

Still, there was the Writers’ Festival to look forward to the following week, which I attended, donned with mask, and enjoyed some authors speaking. It was especially good to hear from Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, a Booker Prize winner in 2002, who was anything but robotic. Earnest, talkative and with a brilliant mind…

Come Monday I was coughing, and Tuesday I was at the doctor’s, to have it pronounced I had acute Bronchitis and that my operation would be postponed about eight weeks. With pills prescribed, I went home and climbed into bed. I was strangely calm, as there was nothing to do except start preparing for renewed good health. So, propped up in bed, a cup of tea beside me, I started in on the Life of Pi, which I’d picked up from my friend’s bookshop. And I am loving it. Yes, I knew of the hype about the book and the film, but never read the story or saw the film back then. I love the creativity and intelligence of Martel’s writing and wish to glean some of that talent for myself.

And for all I haven’t been fully engaged with my Graphic novel production lately, Life of Pi makes my seventh book read this year. So it seems I’ve proved that even in a tortoise-like robot state, the mind can absorb something.

Books read this year: Mother Mary Comes to me, by Arundhati Roy, published 2025; High Adventure, by Sir Edmund Hillary (2013); Travels with Charley: In search of America by John Steinbeck (1962); The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025); Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua (2011); The Infinite sadness of Small Appliances by Glen Dixon (2026); The Life of Pi, by Jann Martel (2002), plus a small Irish book I forgot the name of.

More about books and writing next time