Tooling up

Having been neglectful of blogging for ages, partly through feeling that I didn't have much to report/comment on, I've decided that it's time to start tooling up for some real blogging pending a three week trip to my homeland, New Zealand, next month (I'll be there, jet lagged, in just two weeks' time). It's exactly fifty years since I left for the wider world, and although I've been back from time to time (most recently 2004), I will be visiting what is in essence a foreign country, as witness yesterday's passing of changes to legislation permitting same sex marriage.  I believe that homosexuality was still illegal when I left NZ, so, as elsewhere of course, the situation has radically changed.

Although I don't harbour homesick thoughts for NZ (although this past winter has made me wonder why I live in the UK!), I must admit when I watched the celebrations in the NZ Parliament yesterday, and heard the singing of Pokarekare Ana, I did have a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. So, there remains a flicker of a flame that belongs in the land of my birth.  We'll see how it survives my visit next month.

Visit:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/04/17/new-zealand-house-of-commons-bursts-into-song-after-legalizing-same-sex-marriage/