Illustrated Epistle Extract: How to Have a Great Party

June 30, 2021

I celebrated the shortest day by going for a very brief swim in the harbour. It lasted two minutes. You can get very cold in two minutes and even a flask of hot chocolate wasn’t enough to bring the blood back to my fingers for a good hour.

The other thing we did to banish the winter blues was to have a sparkly soirée. 39 people plus a dog fitted into our little house and it was tremendous fun. It’s the biggest party Duncan and I have had and we learned a few things from it.

how to have a midwinter party lights.png

1. Brighten up the house with candles and lots of fairy lights (bought secondhand or borrowed from friends), but make sure your ancient electrics can handle all the lights being turned on at once.

2. Solar powered outside lights are great for decorating the front of the house unless the sun hardly comes out because it has rained all week and the batteries run out of power before the party has started. I had to charge them up inside.

3. Make a note of what food people bring so that you can thank them when you eat it later. I have no idea who made the little caramel tarts but they were delicious.

4. Hide the remote for the smart TV.If it took you weeks to make the perfect Spotify playlist, you don’t want to give control to your friends when they’re drunk.

5. Leave tea, coffee, mugs, sugar, etc out by the kettle before the party starts. You’ll be in no state to make people tea and coffee towards the end and guests will try to do it themselves.

This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out once a month-ish. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

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Illustrated Epistle Extract: To Be or Not to Be a Tomboy

May 3, 2021

I missed much of the 19/20 summer in New Zealand because of building the studio and I decided that I would make the most of the 20/21 season by aiming for

This meant trying to swim, surf, paddle board, or find some other way to immerse myself in salt water for 100 days (not consecutively). I also tried to wear either a skirt or a dress, as I tend to wear jeans, trousers or shorts as they have lots of pockets. And I’m a tomboy. Apparently that isn’t a word we should use these days. But us tomboys ignore woke dictates like that. I cherish the word because it’s how I’ve thought of myself since I was about seven years old. My first professional cartooning job was a topical panel called Tomboy (my drawing style and the internet have changed somewhat in 20 years).

Do you think I’m allowed to own the word, tomboy, the way that black people own the word white people can never say? Hmmmn.

Anyway... I decided to make an effort for summer by wearing more skirts and dresses. Though their pockets are often feeble or non-existent, they are handy when you are changing in and out of swimming togs. Kiwis are prudish when it comes to nudity and you can’t do the Spanish thing and whip everything off and on to change at the beach. Instead it is awkward under-the-towel manoeuvering.

I completed my hundred days this month and now I’m in denial that summer is over. Technically NZ summer ended on 20th March, but the fine weather continued like summer without the wind. It has only been in the last week or so I’ve realised that I need to get a grip. It really isn’t summer any more and I have to knuckle down and get some work done. Maybe after I finish building the deck around the studio. Or after I’ve done my taxes…

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Illustrated Epistle Extract: Cartooning With a Puppy

January 22, 2021

Our personal Christmas was quiet because our Jack Russell puppy kept us close to home and busy.

Molly is adjusting to this new life more quickly than we are. I got behind on my official deadlines (6 weeks ahead for daily cartoons and I was down to 4) because when Molly was in the studio I could only work when she was sleeping. Otherwise she would play with things like electrical cables or want to be OUT in the garden. If I had her on my lap she would walk on the keyboard, or chase my pencil.

I was lamenting this to a friend who told me to just puppy proof the studio already. And make an outdoor run. She was right and an hour or so’s job made the studio a lot safer. This weekend’s job was to put up some chicken wire and waratahs (star pickets/metal stakes) in the garden so that she can go out and play on her own whilst I am working.

Molly is three months old and out the prime age to train according to a book (Dog Zen) a friend lent me.
So far we have

This is an extract of my Illustrated Epistle, which goes out in the middle of the month. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a cartoonist (specifically, mine). I'd love it if you signed up at the bottom of this page, or here:

http://eepurl.com/cCOOeD

Or head to the archive to read more here.

Happy Holidays and a Reason to be Cheerful (Puppy!)

December 23, 2020

I'm not sure how long this will last, given that everyone in New Zealand seems to have forgotten about the pandemic raging around the world, but we are still Covid free here and it is wonderful as we head into the summer holiday season.

It's a bit late for Christmas, but if you know someone who needs cheering up, or you would like to buy a fun book for your e-reader (because it is full colour, the print version is a bit pricey unless you want to REALLY treat yourself), Reasons to be Cheerful could be right up your alley.

Ebook: https://books2read.com/cheerfulreasons

(You can search your favourite bookshop for the print version using the ISBN: 9780473542542)

And finally, we have a wonderful reason to be cheerful in our house this week. We picked up a Jack Russell puppy. Her name is Molly.

Expect to hear more about her once I am back to sleeping normally.

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We hired a kayak from Abel Tasman Kayaks who have been in business since 1986. In 1996 I had tried to kayak with them but they were booked out. For days. But now the international tourists are gone. They’ve had to lay off 25 guides and they are one …

Illustrated Epistle Extract: Kayaking Abel Tasman in a Time of Covid

November 30, 2020

We saw another penguin and a ray, but no dolphins. Maybe they had been laid off because of Covid too… We were on a four day kayak/camping trip and our first night was at Te Pukatea Bay. We shared the beachside campground with two pairs of kayakers, …

The next day we continued north, leaving the day trippers behind. Our campsite for the next two nights was on the beach at Mosquito Bay. Nobody was there. No mosquitoes either. The only things to bother us were wekas. After a lot of pest control, we…

On the morning of a third day we woke to watch a dolphin and a pot of orcas swim past. I hope that the orcas were after the rays in the park. The weather was due to worsen, so we went on a quick paddle, made shorter by the sea becoming noticeably ch…

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Illustrated Epistle Extract: Going Down the Lockdown Levels in Lyttelton, New Zealand

May 25, 2020

We are going down the levels of Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand. When I last wrote we were at Level 4 and most of the country was quite happy to be constrained to their homes or thereabouts. We then spent a couple of weeks at Level 3, with a few more degrees of freedom, including the ability to paddle board (yay, trip to Quail Island!) and for work to restart on our renovation. We have now been at Level 2 for just over a week and things are getting a lot more fun as we have more ability to socialise. I have been around to a couple of people’s houses and met up with my Lyttelton cartoonist friend for a walk yesterday. She was sporting a new hair cut, but that hasn't been high on my list of things to do in Level 2.

Doodle-NZdiary-158.png Trying out bathtubs in level 2

Another important Level 2 activity was to go and see a dog we had only seen on Facebook.

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Perhaps next time we will find the right dog for us.

The most important Level 2 milestone for Lytteltonians is probably the reopening of the bars. We went last Thursday (the first night you could go and just have a drink) and I found it weird, but I guess, like everything else we will get used to it...

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Illustrated Epistle Extract: Lucky to be in Lyttelton for Lockdown

April 22, 2020

I knew Lyttelton was a special place when I arrived here in 2004. Now I thank my lucky stars to be in lockdown in Whakaraupo (Lyttelton Harbour), Aotearoa.

My brother lives in an apartment in Valencia with his wife and young son. They have been in Covid-19 lockdown since mid-March and he has only been allowed out to walk the dog within 200 m of his home. He was super excited to tell us that from the 27th April the Spanish government will allow him out to walk with his son. Up until now, young children have been forced to remain at home all the time.

One of my sisters lives in London with her young family. The spread of the novel coronavirus has been far more extensive in the UK than in New Zealand and she worries that it may be months until it is safe to visit our parents (both in their seventies) in Dorset. And though the village of Briantspuddle is idyllic, Mum and Dad will go batty if they aren't allowed to leave it for much longer. Though I think Mum should try doing yoga classes on Zoom (a bit harder for Dad with lawn bowls).

My other sister lives in a flat in Auckland. Even there it is difficult, as she has to time when she goes out to exercise because of the crowds of people who are in the parks and at beaches.

So I know how lucky I am to be living in Lyttelton. I write this even though the back of our house is missing because lockdown started two weeks into renovations. This means we are cooking in a camp kitchen and our shower is in a toilet on the lawn. But I’m still glad to be here because we have so many more degrees of freedom than if we lived in other places during this pandemic. At Level Four, I could walk in the hills, cycle around the bays, or play dodgy tennis in my bubble. But I am relieved to hear that building work can restart on our renovation as we go to Level Three. And that, if the good weather lasts, I can go back out on my paddle board.

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