Speaking in tongues
For a few months, every couple of years since I was 20, I follow a predictable chain of events. I get enthusiastic, or the guilt climbs to a point where I cannot ignore it anymore, and I resolve to...
Okay Oktay
Just horsing around
Just horsing around
Childhood memories are a patchwork; random snatches of scenes mostly hidden, but suddenly surfacing when jolted to consciousness by the smell of sunscreen, or the feeling of flannelette sheet...
Food that time forgot
Food that time forgot
Leaving lockdown has been a slow emerging from a world that seemed to stop, writes Kate Oktay.
Quality bogan absurdity
Quality bogan absurdity
Predictably enough, the world’s top distraction during these extraordinary times has been a one-season, seven-episode, meth-fuelled, lion-pitted ode to craziness, writes Kate Oktay.
Wanting not to waste
Wanting not to waste
Everyone has something that makes them quite annoying to live with. A tiny, wee thing that even you, the person with the least objective opinion in the world, can admit must be mildly irritating,...
Wanting not to waste
Wanting not to waste
Everyone has something that makes them quite annoying to live with. A tiny, wee thing that even you, the person with the least objective opinion in the world, can admit must be mildly irritating,...
Thanks but no thanks
Thanks but no thanks
Sometimes it's more about what you don't do. . . writes Kate Oktay.
Generational anxiety
Generational anxiety
Lately, there have been a lot of awkward conversations, both real and imagined, writes Kate Oktay.
Soaring like a turkey
Soaring like a turkey
Because I am a bad person, I go overboard with Christmas celebrations, in the hopes that I will make a clear point to my small daughter that my own holiday celebrations are much more fun than my...
The thoughts that count
The thoughts that count
OK, I know that it is not OK to talk about Christmas now, writes columnist Kate Oktay.
Kate Oktay: It has not grown on me
It has not grown on me
Kate Oktay always imagined she'd love gardening. The reality is somewhat different.
A whiff of crisis and patchouli
A whiff of crisis and patchouli
Every few decades, a generation sees the need for change, and society jolts forth,. writes Kate Oktay.
Happy Father's Day
Happy Father's Day
For those of you in the part of the Venn diagram that means (1) Father’s Day is news to you, and (2) you know someone who may have expected you to remember, I’m truly sorry for the terror that is now settling in your heart.
Doing our (little) bit
Doing our (little) bit
Living in NZ, especially, I suspect, in a small community, when you are middle-aged, is a long succession of attending community meetings to plan fundraising initiatives, writes Kate Oktay.
Kate Oktay: A queue in place of a cure
A queue in place of a cure
I was going to write something more cheerful this week. Something positive, and upbeat, and joyful. But then my daughter got sick and I had to go to the urgent doctors, writes Kate Oktay.
A column in six parts
A column in six parts
There are only so many articles you can write about cats, muses columnist Kate Oktay.
Column: Are photos with resumes ok?
Can't say - but you know who you are
Is it ever okay for a company to ask prospective employees for a photo when applying for a job, Kate Oktay wonders.
Humming a panicky tune
Humming a panicky tune
As your reward for finishing reading (and - shudder - in fact, even thinking) about climate change in the last column, here is a list of things that should cheer you up, writes Kate Oktay.
Meanwhile, back in the real world
Meanwhile, back in the real world
The incessant need for constant growth at the expense of the place we live is almost impressively insane, writes Kate Oktay.
A few of my favourites
A few of my favourites
After reading the summary for the UN report on animal extinction, I got as sad and upset as the time I read the summary for the UN report on climate change, writes columnist Kate Oktay.