FOR ME, Christmas came early this year - and what a glorious day it was. With two lifeforms living out of town and working over the

IT'S TIME to reflect on the past 12 months ... Personally, it's been a year of change - shifting back to Whanganui, changing jobs

THE world's population can be divided into pessimists and optimists. Ideas of race, colour, religion, politics are not as relevant

Homelessness in New Zealand has been one of the big stories of the year - despite officialdom's attempts to hide the harsh reality

THE stop-go evacuation of rebel fighters and civilians from Aleppo had begun again as I write, but the reason for the last interruption

Margi Keys, an ESOL teacher and a proofreader, moved to Whanganui from the North Shore in June 2015. She was planning a six-day rafting

Silly season About Chris Cresswell's article in Saturday's (December 17) Chronicle, "Take the 'silly' out of silly season": Amen

AT SOME stage next year, Horizons Regional Council will be undertaking a public review of flood protection in Whanganui. If you live

DEAR Uncle Bill ... Congrats on becoming New Zealand's 39th prime minister. It may only be a brief tenure, though, so here's an

NO TWO WEEKS are ever the same in politics, and the last couple of weeks have certainly proved the point. The unexpected resignation

ONE of the purposes of the media is to find words, music and voice -- figuratively -- to rectify the condition of that ubiquitous

Unfortunately, the paralysis of action can be fostered and manipulated to serve the interests of others.IN THE wake of the United

SAD to say, it comes as no great surprise to learn that Youi has been fined $320,000 on 15 charges of using misleading sales techniques. There

WHEN news came out that Fidel Castro (1926-2016) had died I got a call from my friend Blackie in Auckland. It has been a sad year

Modern shaman Hill-country farming was at a crisis point in 1988. I was in the Mangamahu War Memorial Hall watching punk rockers

Gallery costs I also got a fright Mr Moles (Chronicle letters; December 9) when I read that Whanganui District Council "has agreed

Flood protection Jim Ennis (letters, Dec 6), thank you for raising your concerns about possible repair work to the riverbank near

By Graham Pearson LET'S skip Christmas and all its commercialisation and the need to purchase new "things". Instead let's consider

WITH my Christmas menu locked and loaded, it was time to tackle the masses in the supermarket aisles. Shopping list and unfortunately

THE Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Advocacy, Workforce, and Age Settings) Amendment Act 2016 includes provisions to

Turkeys don't vote for Christmas apparently, and I suspect that Maui's dolphins don't vote for set-net fishing. There's always a

IT'S QUITE a coup for the region to get the Hurricanes-Crusaders clash. It was announced this week that Waverley would be venue for

AS Science Forum Lectures have gone into recess until February I was casting around for ideas for a piece for December. Then I heard

THIS year has seen some amazing leadership in healthy change across the Whanganui Rangitīkei Ruapehu District with examples from

LAST weekend Joseph Parker triumphantly hoisted the WBO heavyweight belt above his head - the new World Champion, he said. The only

I'm having a T-Shirt printed with this logo: "Snow White has left the building and we're left with these little dwarves." In the

Good on them. Good on the families of those poor buggers killed in the Pike River mine disaster. They've been fighting since 2011

DURING the election campaign I took some flak for wearing my shiny business shoes down at the River Traders market, when some other

I AM in the process of moving sheds. I was sorting through my stuff, deciding what to dump and what to keep, when I came across

It had the lustre of Olympic gold; it had the TV cameras; it had the action on the big screen ... It had a sizeable crowd on the