Banana Fingers and Fairy Knees

Grandfathers are, on the whole, pretty amazing blokes. Martinborough children’s author Phillip Percy definitely thinks so. “If you are lucky enough to have spent time with your grandfather, you’ll know that the things he does and the way he does them have rubbed off on you as a person”. Classic one-liners, tall stories about when he was a boy, particular (and peculiar) eating habits, and ingenuity are some of the common traits Kiwi granddads have. Phillip has captured a series of classic granddad memories in his latest book Banana Fingers and Fairy Knees.
“Dad, who is chief illustrator of our books, had been bugging me for a while to write another book”, Phillip explains. “He might not have been so encouraging if he’d realised that he would be the inspiration for the main character!” But Phillip’s father (and grandfather of Phillip’s two children), Dale Percy, rose above the anxiety that comes with self-portraiture to produce another book full of wonderful illustrations in his now iconic style. … Continue Reading

Book review

The Big Short
The film ‘The Big Short’ is currently getting excellent reviews, it is taken from the book with the same title written by Michael Lewis. Michael Lewis wrote a best selling book on the 1980s share market crash and being intrigued that the same thing could repeat so soon decided to investigate the 2008 crash. His book Big Short is the result.

The genesis of the problem had been the American government’s scheme to guarantee loans to lower income families to allow them buy a house. The idea being to give the ailing house building industry a boost. On the face of it an excellent idea.
However unscrupulous operators in the major finance companies saw this as being able to loan to people who clearly didn’t have the ability to finance the loan, the government would cover it. Soon there was a huge business in making these so called Sub-prime mortgage loans. That they were bound to fail was disguised by bundling them up and on-selling in a convoluted series of transfers so opaque that the ratings agencies Moodys and S&P could not understand them. The rating agencies rated these as from triple A to B+. … Continue Reading

Community Board

This Summer has proven to be a hot one and the Community Board sponsored a free swim day on Wellington Anniversary weekend, the pool was packed with 115 children and 80 adults enjoying the day.

It was great to see so many not only from our community but also from out of town making the most of the weather, we are pleased that our purchase of the blow up slide has been received with such enthusiasm by our children.

Also while on the swimming note the Community Board also sponsored 30, 10 swim concession cards which with the help of Martinborough School staff were given out to a number of families within the community to use over the Summer months. … Continue Reading