It is our last night in Auckland. We’re staying with friends where there is a very, very good neighborhood restaurant, El Greco. It’s the restaurant everyone wishes they owned. Delicious, unpretentious, generous. The place is family owned, and you can tell who the owners are as they swirl around, check how you’re going, catch up…

Xabi Alonso, the (former) head coach of Real Madrid, was sacked this week. He lasted six months. This is not a post about football; it’s a meditation on leadership. In the past I have often used the example of “being the coach of Real Madrid” when thinking about leading high performing teams; it will often…

It can feel decadent to have a roast mid week. That’s because it is. But it’s also surprisingly easy, if you’re happy to have it toned down and a bit rustic. Today we threw a leg of lamb in the oven, dropped some sweet potatoes around it, pulled it out and made a quick salad…

The last week or two I have been putting out some rather sparse posts, and then the last two days have been essays. While it would be nicer on paper to have a balance, I think with a busy life, it’s largely inevitable.

So yesterday I described the Surf Carnival, today I am going to share my own experience with Surf Life Saving. Many, many years ago when I was living in Melbourne, I had a buddy from University try to rope me into joing the Anglesea SLSC Surf Boats team. I hadn’t the foggiest of what that…

Walking down the Ruakākā beach today, the three of us saw a Surf Life Saving Carnival in full swing, plus the little nippers nearby being introduced to the world of surf sports. For readers outside the Southern Hemisphere, with few exceptions, all beaches in Australia and New Zealand are patrolled by volunteers called Life Savers,…