Patricia Langford - some writings and travels

                                              The Christmas Tree (Ghosts of Christmas Past)       "Please, Mum, can we have a Christmas tree?" pleaded Stephen, holding up the battered crêpe-paper streamer and lop-sided gold star he had made at school that day. At least these innocent offerings were more welcome than months of raging bouts tonsillitis recently bought home from school during Steven’s first term, and readily acquired by both this little sisters as well. Kay was hot and harassed and struggling to regain anything any vestige of Christmas spirit. She glanced around the jumbled holiday batch, belonging to her Uncle George, it had already been cluttered and fully furnished, before she squeezed in the entire contents of her previous home. Two bedrooms were in accessible due to duplicate beds, chairs, chest of drawers and spare clothing in ca...

2006 saw Patricia in Egypt:

                                                             Identity Crisis............June 2016      I do not respond well to being called a Kiwi – it puzzles me how this moniker could have attained such over-use. Typical New Zealanders are disappearing as rapidly as Kiwi birds these days and I am struggling to retain my identity. I think the farcical flag debate of recent times highlights the threat of being engulfed by severe Kiwi-itis. Every time someone suggested we add a Kiwi to our flag, I shuddered at the prospect of transforming our national emblem emblem into a design for public transport upholstery fabric or nursery motive. We are...

In 2002 Patricia toured the United Kingdom: England, Wales, Scotland, and her ancestral home - Ireland.

                                                                    Road Trip                        August 2017   I was 19, naive and nervously anticipating my first ever road trip – by 150 cc Lambretta motor- scooter – Auckland to Bluff and back, with side excursions to Mount Cook, Queenstown and hopefully, Milford Sound. I was the proud owner of a sleek blue and grey Italian crafted steed, secondhand, of course, but as good as new to me. I joined the Auckland motorscooter club and promptly affixed their blue and yellow transf...

In 2001 Patricia flew to Japan, then boarded the Trans-Siberian Express for an overland journey to Moscow - where she visited a shell-collecting contact. After a short time in England she returned to NZ.  Below: "All Aboard!"

The Beer Bottle Collection       When my younger brother and I were growing up in Devonport, and regularly exploring and fossicking on our beloved Narrow Neck Beach, we collected beer bottles, large, brown, clinking, conspicuous bottles – worth pocket money! We developed Scrooge McDuck dollars signs in our eyes as we regularly traipsed home with the weekend collects. Lazy yachties and boaties offshore, bobbing around in the Rangitoto Channel, carelessly tossed the empties overboard, which stood in the water like little bobbing soldiers until they gently came to rest on Narrow Neck sands, joining the discards from late night beach revellers.        My brother's family friends visiting regularly, to admire the growing pyramid of backyard bottles, clinking benignly in the sunlight, and regular tallies showed we were winners. Regular bottle-trucks came to relieve our back garden, and the welcome shillings in pennies mounted up. I recall those pre...