Jolisa Gracewood

@nzdodo.bsky.social

2091 Followers 874 Following

Freelance writer & editor, full-time silly sausage. Books, bikes, better places, beastly puns. She/ her/ the cats’ mother. 😽😈🏳️‍⚧️✊ Aspirational af. Based in Tāmaki Makaurau aka New Auck City. Always starting something; feel free to pick up where I leave off.

A screenshot of the excellent new Turnout explorer, showing electoral enrollment rates for the 18-24 age group across Auckland. It’s as low as 30-40% of eligible potential voters in a few areas, notably central Auckland, the southern electorates of Māngere, Ōtahuhu, Manurewa, Takaanini and Papakura, and West Auckland (Henderson and Glendene). Over 50% in most other electorates but still nowhere near as high as it could be. The highest is the Tāmaki electorate, which is still only 60% of eligible young voters.
It’s Charles “Bud” Tingwell, playing QC Lawrence Hammill, in the filmic master-text of political discourse, The Castle (1997). As promised to his hard-battling pro-bono client (and new friend) Daryl Kerrigan, he is “testing” a particular section of the constitution a little better than Daryl’s mate Denis Denuto managed to do.
A graph of voter enrolments from the linked RNZ article. Starkly evident is that the % of enrolled voters aged 18-24 is sinking over time, and has notably dropped since 2023. One bit of good news from the chart: those aged 25-29 are catching up with all other age groups. Text from the article: The enrolment rate for the country's youngest voters has plummeted to 53 percent, sliding for a sixth consecutive election year. The Electoral Commission said it was pushing hard to get numbers up, while politicians have urged young people to get involved. In 2011, 70 percent of 18-24 year olds were enrolled to vote by the end of June. The number has dropped consistently since then, with 60 percent enrolled in 2023 - while the trend is reversed for those in their mid to late twenties. Across all age groups, 89 percent of people are enrolled, which is up on the past two election years. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/868515/things-are-screwed-anyway-why-try-youth-voter-enrolment-rate-plummets
A black and white cat curled into a tight snoozy ball, nose to tail.
An extremely accurate Tardis, sitting on the front lawn of a house I biked past today. No, it wasn’t making the special noise. Because it only does that when it’s on the move, that’s why.
The happy/sad same bus meme, with one person facing the cliff and thinking “CRL opens when”; the other taking in the view and thinking “COOL NEW EEL!” Thing is, the time will pass as it inevitably does, and soon enough we’ll have both - so, might as well enjoy the journey!
Kate Beaton’s “awful velocipedestrienne”, as per her indelible Hark, A Vagrant cartoon (see link). She’s racing along on an early bicycle, natty buttoned boots akimbo, divided skirts flying, hair flying loose from her giant updo with no such thing as a helmet atop it, casually smoking a cheroot. They see her rollin’, they hatin’, etc. http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=331
Scientist hoe-ing into an illegal radish, with the good Japanese kitchen knife. Lock me up your honour, you’ve got me bang to rights and no mistaking!
Behold! Just some of my lemons off two small trees (one fuzzily visible in the background)
Today’s midwinter harvest: one big radish, one small, a miraculous tomato, two yellow beans and five snow peas. What with this and some self-sown arugula, tonight we dine like kings!!
Q. Do you see yourself as a Democrat or a democratic socialist? Because you said “our party,” and obviously you ran as a Democrat. A. I am both. I’m a Democrat and I’m democratic socialist. So much of what makes me proud to be a Democrat is looking at what our party used to stand for. You think about the Four Freedoms, you think F.D.R., you think the New Deal. Those are at the core of what our party’s identity is, and yet it feels like to experience it, you have to read about it. You can’t see it around you anymore. And that isn’t something that I’m willing to accept, and I know that many feel similarly.
My pal the art and architectural photographer Patrick Reynolds going to extreme lengths to get a photo of the spectacular ceiling sculpture (the work of Paraone Luiten-Apirana and Graham Tipene) at Te Waihorotiu station, which is set to open to the public in a few weeks/ months, almost certainly before the end of the year.
A handsome young Sam Neill in his breakout role in Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping Dogs (1977)
A screenshot from the linked story in The Post, "Risk emergency fund to fix roads could run dry after another major event", by Nick James, June 16, 2026 The text reads: "In response to questions from The Post NZTA said the total funding for emergency works was $420 million between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2027. At the time of the board meeting the estimated cost of emergency works for the January storms was $140m. As of the the end of May this year, the total emergency funding spent was $236m, with $86m spent in the 2024/25 financial year and $150m paid out in the 2025/26 financial year (which included $45m from the January storm events). That left the emergency works kitty with $184m of unspent money through to June 30 next year. NZTA said if demand for emergency works exceeded the funding available it could look at reprioritisation of funds within the NLTP and consideration of additional funding subject to Government decisions."
Me, briefly haunting the liminal Time Zone. (A neon-bright game centre, wedged into the base of a forbiddingly stark expanse of otherwise uninterrupted concrete several storeys high. It’s reportedly an artefact of stop-start city planning, as another building was meant to have been built hard up against this one; for now, the unbuilt space consists of a grassy lawn, bisected by a path leading up to… the Time Zone itself. You may well find it marked on ordinary human maps as being an actual place on Hereford Street, Christchurch. And yet it also most surely exists in its own permanent eldritch dimension, a mesmerising portal to who knows where…)
Isaac Newton on the big screen, and Richard Easther gesturing below, in the very grand Great Hall at the Arts Centre.
The famous Chase, a roaming black cat, hanging out in Cathedral Square on a rainy night, looking absolutely splendid. I patted him as much as he asked for, and then one more time to be sure, and he was quite right to give me a warning chomp on my woolly glove.
Prof Richard Easther in the Great Hall at the Arts Centre in Ötautahi Christchurch, commencing a talk on “Scanning the Darkest Skies”
A little black cat posing dramatically on a coloured uplight in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square at night, its face spotlit in a witchy green glow.
PM Luxon in hi viz, flanked by MPs Todd McClay and Candace Kinser, above a headline “We’re out there smacking it.”
A glimpse of the set for the Matariki-inflected Silo Theatre production of the play Constellations: a green-carpeted koru-shaped traverse stage ending in a mirror; the stage lights reflected like stars in the sky.
The fluffy black cat, asleep and stretched out at not quite full extension on a blue blanket on the bed. A handy tape measure estimates him at around 40 inches from tip of tail to furthest paw, and he’s still not even really trying. (One day he may wake up to the fact he’s the largest cat in the room and then god help us; but for now he is the shy and retiring type, easily cowed by his smaller and sturdier sisters.)
Very illuminating Sankey diagram from the linked RNZ article, showing who’s donated which amount of money to which political party in 2026. Whole lot of yellow ribbons flowing towards ACT, at the top of the chart with approximately twice as much arriving in the war chest as National, next down; similar ratio for NZF in third place. So the coalition parties have approximately 76% of the total large donations ($20k or more) so far this year, versus other parties with around 24%
Buster caught red-handed (silver-pawed) monstering poor old Squid, on a high stool. High stakes indeed!
The Bucket Fountain at night, with an orange traffic cone having a swim
The grassy planter at one end of Cuba Mall, where I was lucky enough to see the famous cat Azuki Bean. Alas no cat sighting tonight. But I will always have an eye out, from now until forever.
A handsome fluffy black cat, intent on spotting mice in a grassy planter, around half past eight at night when on Wellington’s iconic Cuba St. A red tag on its red collar reads: “Please send me home & *don’t* feed me”.
Perched on a narrow boundary fence in the morning sun: the big fluffy black cat with his petite sister behind him patiently waiting for the line to clear so she can go exploring. Choo choo!
Screenshot of my camera roll, in which a search for “cats” shows up way too many photos and yet also somehow still not enough.
A juicy sunrise sky, all tangerine and mauve, with the silhouette below of the downtown Auckland skyline, as seen from Point Chevalier.
Leggy lavender bushes in grey pots in a sun-trap corner of the garden, one of which has been vigorously chopped back to encourage new growth. It’s now showing green shoots at the base - hooray! - but also appears to have sprouted an opportunistic little black cat, who’s roundly squeezed herself into a sunny sitting spot on the warm straw mulch. Her haunches don’t *quite* fit inside the pot, but nonetheless she sits.
A screenshot from the linked RNZ story of the most ludicrous spew of words from an elected representative in the NZ Parliament, who knows better than this and is doing it anyway. The text reads: Act leader David Seymour said his party supported [the bill] because people were "sick of pretending". "There are two biological sexes. People don't have to believe that, but they don't have the right to tell other people they're not allowed to say it," he said. "I hear these expressions like 'chest feed'... that is a denial of basic biological reality. It's called breast feeding because we're mammals, because the female of the species have mammary glands, which convert glucose to lactose, which is food for infants."
A photo I snuck of Colin one day in October 2022: a happy old gent relaxing on a lounger on the deck, his tabby stripes glowing in the sun, his beautiful velvety paws arranged just so.
A fuzzy black and white picture showing a fraction of the 800 youths on bikes who showed up for a "mystery bike hike" on 11 March 1940, from the Auckland Domain to Tui Glen Park in Henderson. A distance of roughly 20km on the old roads, over an hour's riding in each direction, no biggie. Today's young people organising mass rideouts from e.g. Manurewa into the city are travelling even further which is even more awesome, in my opinion, and they deserve our curiosity, support and encouragement, plus proper news coverage.
Via Papers Past, a screenshot of an 11 March 1940 article from the New Zealand Herald (Vol. LXXVII, Issue 23602, p9) which describes one of many mass bike rides organised by and for young people in the mid-20th Century. In short: hundreds of youths, just out there living in the moment, not a cellphone or helmet in sight. Here's the text, part 1 of 3: NOVEL SCENE HUNDREDS OF BICYCLES INTEREST IN MYSTERY HIKE PICNIC AT TUI GLEN A sight unique for Auckland was witnessed yesterday, when about 800 cyclists participated in a mystery bicycle hike, organised to celebrate the centenary of cycling and to demonstrate road safety. Both sexes were about equally represented, and the ages of the majority ranged from about 17 to 20 years. They assembled in the Domain and set off under "sealed" instructions to ride over 11 miles of paved highway to Tui Glen, where an enjoyable picnic programme was held. The hike was organised by the Modern Youth Centre, as part of the Pageant of Youth. It succeeded in interesting fewer riders than anticipated [!! YO, in what world is 800 kids a disappointing turnout!!] but in other respects it proved an admirable outing having a commendable principle behind it.
The same pīwakawaka, this time perched on the washing line under the patio roof, yelling about something.
An inquisitive pīwakawaka/ fantail is perched on a rear-view mirror attached to the handlebars of one of the bikes in our bike shed. In the background are a blurry bike or two, a bike helmet or two, an old oil lantern, and the ancestral preserving pan. Just out of shot, one of the cats is trying to work out his escape route - he likes to lurk in the bike shed, but he’s easily spooked, including by bossy birds.
8.30am screenshot of a Newsroom headline: Labour vows to reinstate school boards’ Treaty obligations Subheading reads: “With the election on the horizon, education spokesperson Ginny Andersen promises a less prescriptive approach to teaching, and to restore free school lunches” [the latter half of that subhead previously contained a reference to a possible budget - now removed]
Meola Road looking west towards Point Chevalier, with Meola Reef Reserve (Te Tokanui) on the right, and in the distance just past the raised crossing is the back entrance to MOTAT2, where a myriad of vintage vehicles live. Centre of the frame is the two-way cycleway and new footpath, delivered as rhe “icing on the cake” when then entire road was recently dug down to the foundations and entirely rebuilt - a necessary job, as the whole thing had been constructed on top of wetlands and a rubbish dump, and was sinking under the weight of traffic, with concomitant flooding and drainage issues. Formerly a two-lane road with on-road parking on both sides, Meola became virtually impassable at busy times, not great for a key bus route! And had no safe crossings despite being on a key bus route. Now, as well as new water and power connections underground, it also has safe crossings, new bus shelters, and rain gardens for soaking up heavy rainfalls - as well as a great safe separated cycleway which connects two neighbourhoods to each other, and creates safe access for thousands of kids to schools, and people of all ages to the major sports fields and attractions (not least the Zoo, and the Museum of Transport and Technology). Oh and, the city also built a whole new surface parking lot nearby so people could park off the road. Everyone wins.
A kid rides a bike along the Meola Road cycleway (one parent ahead, one behind, and more people on bikes visible in the distance), as vintage military vehicles drive past on their way back to MOTAT2 after participating in the annual Point Chevalier Anzac Day parade.
Outside our local vet, our black and white cat says “MEOW” from inside her travel carrier, which is securely lashed to the front tray of a Tern NBD e-bike. (Suggestions welcome for what NBD might stand for in this case.)
Two consecutive posts, the first one from Katie Pie with two pictures depicting her black cat in distinct modes (a perfect loaf in the morning, conserving heat; a void circle in the evening, absorbing heat)… followed by a post from the Moby-Dick bot, containing this line from the novel: “one distinct picture on this side, and another distinct picture on that side; while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness.”
A classic Calvin and Hobbes strip by the peerless Bill Watterson, part of a series in which Calvin’s dad is just trying to get ONE NICE PHOTO of his famously ungovernable son… who always manages to make the weirdest face just as the camera goes click. (One of many examples floating round the internet but tbh every good bookshelf should include the collected works of Watterson.)
Same black cat on a blue armchair, her left cheek pressed firmly against the cushion, the rest of her high in the air like a game of Heads Down, Tails Up
Honestly, he’s beautiful, but tonight’s attempt to capture the scruffy fluffy boy cat in all his glory has produced a blurry image of a fuzzy monster with his tongue out. Posed on a nice red rug tho, framed by a turquoise couch and a yellow couch, so, primary colours working hard to redeem the image.
The senior black and white cat assuming a tidy loaf position on the blue rug, paws tucked away most winningly, with bonus owl ears on account of not liking to have her photo taken at this time of night.
A little black cat sprawls on the windowseat, with one round cheek smooshed into the cushion so firmly that she looks pretty much exactly like the melting-face emoji, except made of black velvet.
Black and white Freyja cat with owl ears, telling Squid to be a good kid.
Not a day goes by without a bunch of bikes parked outside the Westmere Butchery (now with new green grocer department!) while locals spend $$ inside. Only one of these bikes is mine.
Parent and child enjoying the new protected bike lanes on Great North Road, early 2026 (when the works were nearly complete - just before the final road markings went in). There’s a school, a church, and the public library on that next bend in the road. Which for those with long memories is also the spot where, famously, a few years ago Mayor Wayne Brown was photographed cycling on the footpath, in an effort to demonstrate his reckons that there was no need for the project. (A few weeks after that photo op, an errant car left the road at that exact spot, and smashed the bus shelter, a tree, and the wall beside the school playground. Concrete cycleway protectors would have limited the damage - and will, now.)
Screenshot from a Stuff video interview with the Westmere butcher: it shows kids running across a raised crossing outside the Westmere Pharmacy – the protected cycleway is out of frame but these kids are clearly feeling a heck of a lot safer than they would have when this was a famously hostile intersection.
A celestial black and white cat, in profile, sitting on a windowsill that looks out onto the garden. Backlit by the afternoon sun, she’s positively sparkling. <cue choir of angels>
A headline from Stuff.co.nz (“Fuel stocks steady as Trump threatens blockade of Strait of Hormuz”) is paired with a highly, uh, editorial, photo choice: it’s Nicola Willis from her first fuel crisis standup at Marsden Point, clad in a light aqua hi-viz and a safety helmet that - in the words of Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada - is “not just blue. It's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean.”
A photo of our TV, showing official US Navy folks gathering on the deck of a ship, ready to collect the Integrity astronauts now they’ve safely splashed down, phew. As per rainbow jersey protocol, the naval bunch are dressed in a range of colours signifying their particular role - yellow, green, blue, purple - just like The Wiggles.
Screenshot of the key text from the linked article. It reads: The commission had heard from people who felt their lives had been unfairly restricted. Commission chair Grant Illingworth, KC, said to Ardern: “It would be remiss of me not to put this question to you: You divided the nation.” Ardern replied: “In what regard? Because if we chose not to have any of that, there would have been those on the vaccinated side who said you took away our freedoms [in the lock-down levels of the alert-level system] even though we were vaccinated.” She was also asked in the same session whether her goal of keeping people together had ever been achievable. “I’d love there to be a case where we had neither. Neither someone who felt somehow excluded by society, and no one who saw an unnecessary loss of life,” she said. “Your [the commission’s] job, I guess, is to find what that sweet spot was. And I’ve thought about it a lot, and I cannot tell you what it was.”
A hot cross bun WITH MARMALADE on it - a revelation! - next to a cup of tea, an everyday miracle.
My dear old e-bike, the Green Goddess - a retrofitted Civia mixte-style frame, with cute bamboo tray, carrier and mudguards, and swept back handlebars. Stolen from this very bike stand, a couple of years ago. I’d give anything to see her again - or at least get my hindquarters back in that perfectly worn-in and well-sprung Brooks B66 saddle!
A map overview of the Te Whau Pathway project - a vision for 15km of safe paths linking Auckland’s two Harbours, along the Whau River. Completed sections are shown in green, sections yet to be funded in orange, and blue is the bit that has just gained funding (but yet to be built). The new boardwalk pictured in my photos and lots of lovely news stories in the last week runs for about 1.3km at the northern end, linking into the path that runs along the NW motorway.
A bold black and white cat licking her lips, after begging a few crumbs from the nice buttery chocolate chip biscuit I’m quietly enjoying with a cup of tea. (She insists she’s earned it, having just supervised me doing a little light gardening… and she’s right, as always!)