Without a hitch 👍

Is a poodle cross a good choice for a guard dog, if your neighbourhood is embroiled in light to medium crime? Today’s story answers the hard questions. A tale of posh pets, local delinquency, and a fear of snobbery. Support the show

Today’s episode is about the  outdoors and space : how we seek out the outdoors as a reset for our troubles; and how we negotiate physical space with our fellow humans, harmoniously or otherwise. Features: Pride, fancy boots and mangoes – when a forest walk, far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, goes awry Neutrinos, a haunting road trip and getting frazzled – a foray into the science (my ve...

Today’s episode is the fourth in the Notes from a small house  series – short tales of life in and around a small house chock full of animals, people and stuff.  The theme is habits – the patterns we find ourselves falling into, and the patterns we notice in others, including the good, the bad, and the strange. Features: Choosing your preferred parent – kids reveal the truth Witnessing the fitness...

Today’s episode is the third in the Notes from a small house series – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals.  The theme is misaligned perceptions – how something perfectly reasonable to one may be anathema to another. Features: A smashed face, and what to do about those teeth Old cows, barbecues and vegetarianism Rabbits in the home, and everywhere, for eter...

Today’s episode is the second in the Notes from a small house series – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. Features: Reverse sibling psychology Photodynamic face-melting therapy Artificial intelligence muttering to itself in the next room Things kids say to imply they don’t like their dinner and certainly won’t be eating it Support the show

Today’s episode is the first in a series called Notes from a small house – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. Features: Inexact questions Kids being lawyers An avalanche of artwork A forlorn-looking dog who can’t make up his mind Things kids announce just as you’re rushing out the door for school at 8:59am Support the show

Today’s episode is the second part of a two-part series on language , looking at phrases we use all the time, but which on closer examination are a bit weird, misleading or funny. Features: Bears, hares and wondering where – notes on the hilarious linguistic laziness of Kiwi English Stars, lasers and taxi cabs – the glorious (and mixed) metaphors of workplace language An examination of idioms and...

Today’s episode is about language  and working out what things mean – generally by saying the wrong things first, and then looking back on them to either laugh or cringe. Features: Blurts and faux pas – when you don’t know what the right thing to say is until you’ve already said the wrong one Demonstrating how irony works to your secondary school students by living ironically A rendezvous with a s...

Today’s episode is about hitchhiking , and that choice you have to make when someone pulls over to give you a ride: Should I trust this person? Listen to four tales where this was a difficult question to answer. Note: Contains R-rated language and themes. Features:  A paranoid fellow wielding a machete and asking where I live Looking for love in the wrong places, by a driver obsessed with porn and...

Today’s episode is about work . It chronicles a series of jobs that I thought were terrible at the time, although perhaps I should have given them more of a chance. I was young, and didn’t yet have much of a work ethic. Features:  Riding the zeitgeist and cleaning toilets – epiphanies while working the nightshift Kiwifruit, Viagra and the gift of rain – trying and failing to develop a work ethic A...

Today’s episode is about teaching , including what it’s like to be a teacher, plus the impression we might form of our own teachers. Features: A story of teaching in Japan and trying to melt the ice with difficult colleagues The performance of teaching gone wrong, plus trying to balance pet and family life in the background Burning out and leaving the teaching profession, including the responses o...

Today’s episode is about names – the names we choose for ourselves, and how we might “make a name for ourselves”. Features: The story behind the name “Without a hitch” A troupe of guys all called John, how I distinguished between them, and my attempts to make a name for myself amongst “the Johns” The hilarious and odd pet names we decided against, after a democratic process to decide on a name for...

Today’s episode is about school and a little about hard luck – negotiating the slings and arrows of a boarding school in the nineties, and finding the humour in all of it. Features: Some background notes on what school is really for The story of a duckling, a Vauxhall Viva, and the deep irony of trying to do the right thing but making things much, much worse An examination of a really, really big...

Today’s theme is impressions . What feelings or impressions do you get when you first meet someone, or experience something for the first time? What things stay with you, and what effect do they have on you? Features a housesitter called Digby and a comprehensive list of flatting horrors. Support the show