GREY: of, or relating to, people 
 of middle age or above.

URBANIST: Embracing the principles of urbanism including 
sense of place, neighbourhoods and walkability. Oh. And good coffee.

THE LATEST COLUMN : WHAT A SWELL PARTY THAT WAS!

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It’s the morning after the night before. I've woken with a hangover and the weather is awful. The summer sky is a sullen grey and a mean wind is tormenting the trees outside my window. 

Luckily my hangover is of the utterly pleasant kind: instead of nausea and headache I’m feeling an unusual equanimity about life, and all I'm suffering is a severe case of goodwill towards my fellow human beings.                                                                                                                                                                                                        Read more ...

AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF GETTING OLDER ... 

A lifetime seems a pretty roomy place when you’re a kid: plenty of time to enjoy a leisurely childhood, followed by years and years of learning how to do stuff, before Mum cuts off the pocket money and you need to get a job and worry about all the things that grown-ups worry about . 
Read more ...
We were all terribly upbeat in spite of the fact that everything on display - with the possible exception of the “Miracle Chopping Board” and the model train, screamed ill health, infirmity and decline.  
Read More ... 
What stands between us and the half-mad woman who stinks of cat’s pee, we wonder: a fall; the sudden loss of sustaining, life-long friendships; a house fire; an ill-advised investment; or just an unaffordable rise in the cost of rent, power or food?  Read More ...
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Pete - Sick as a Dog

EVEN DOGS DO IT ...

I wrapped the dog in a blanket, lifted him gently into the car, and took him to the vet. Beside him on the seat, I folded a red quilted jacket I bought 30 years ago on a freezing December day in Seoul. If Pete had to be put down, I planned to wrap him in my old warm coat and take him home to bury him.                                      Read more ...
RO CAMBRIDGE
Baby-boomer, 
writer, columnist 
radio producer 
& arts worker.
PETE
Fox Terrier, sun-lover 
and couch surfer
Postings on this site are usually first published as Grey Urbanist columns in the the Nelson Mail.