Opinion
The Pope takes a dogged look at parenthood
AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON Last week I could have sworn I heard a loud rumbling sound like a chasm opening up in the earth. Put it down to an overactive imagination but it might as well have been the real thing given Pope Francis’ remarks about pets taking the place of children …
Letting go of your adult children is no easy feat
THE FACT OF THE MATTER PAUL HOPKINS It was a Christmas beyond expectation. My youngest son was home, after more than two years, from New York and brought his girlfriend to meet us. A lovely young woman with fine etiquette, good conversation and a great ability to make herself at home with us and win …
Why bother with promises that you just won’t keep
THE FACT OF THE MATTER – 2 PAUL HOPKINS And so Christmas has gone from us, just like we knew it would, and I trust you all had a good and peaceful one. From my window the avenue is still strewn with windows and doors lit up like landing strips, and only God knows the …
Avoiding the pain of painkillers
BY ANDREW MCDONALD HYPNOTHERAPIST SOMETIMES you hear people complaining about the “nanny state” when it comes to medication. Somebody can’t get a pill for this or that and instantly they put the blame on the medical profession and/or the government. There are occasions when there may even be a little substance to their protests. The …
2022 What’s your focus?
BY CLAIR WHITTY The end of the year can be a good time to reflect on the year gone by and think about any changes you would like to make for the year ahead. This could mean doing something new, or it could be something that you want to stop doing, something that you feel …
What Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction shows us
AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON THE conviction of socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in the dying days of last year suggests that the balance in the outcomes of sex crime trials has shifted in favour of abused women and girls. And so in one sense it has. Maxwell faces up to 65 years in jail …
So, what we can expect the New Year to bring?
THE FACT OF THE MATTER PAUL HOPKINS It’s 2022, and is the coronavirus, new strains and all, at long last being put in its place? After an unimaginable and miserable two years, alternating between lockdowns and new outbreaks, are we beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel? Or see the tunnel at …
My mission to discover the truth about Santa
A SEASONAL SHORT STORY BY PAUL HOPKINS I had thought about it for, I guess, the best part of a day, mulled over it, slept on it, my baby brother rabbiting the head off himself in his bed opposite me. My plan was to burrow my way to the back of the huge stand-alone wardrobe …
Get between the covers this Christmas
BY JOHN ELLIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR MONEY sense isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about your behaviour and it’s difficult to teach. Personal finance and business decisions are typically taught using formulae graphs and excel sheets to tell us what you should do. But in reality people don’t make financial decisions logically. Fear, greed, ego, …
Are New Year resolutions a mission impossible?
AS I SEE IT BY MARIANNE HERON FOR several years now the only New Year resolution I have made is not to make one. It’s not that I can’t see the appeal of starting the year full of good intentions. It’s all to do with making a fresh start once the Christmas festivities are over …
