So, my last blog.  Thank you to those of you, a surprisingly large number, who have expressed disappointment that there is only blog left.  To those of you who suggested I write a book, you are both sadists and masochists; sadists due to the pain writing a book would inflict on me and masochists due to the pain reading an entire book of mine would inflict on you!

After completing the Hawkes Bay half marathon, I decided to see a running coach. Yes, it might have been better to do those things in reverse order but it still was useful for the next one(s). Somewhat ironically it seemed to me, I was told I was training too hard. I had done my research to ensure I was properly fuelled during the training programme and hadn’t felt I was overdoing it at all. So how could I be training too hard?

On Saturday 26 August, I ran the Hawke’s Bay half marathon!  I am not seeking praise from anyone else; I am reminding myself to celebrate the achievement. 

I clearly remember during the Covid lockdowns not being able to run for more than one or two kilometres without having achilles tendon pain.  During this time, I told myself and anyone with the misfortune to be locked down with me that I would just love to be able to run 5 km a couple of days during the week and 10km on the weekend. 

Isaac Newton used this phrase to describe his success as based on the ideas and work of others before him.  I am immensely grateful to the courageous, persistent, pioneering women who entered the legal profession before me.  These women helped to make my own career path available to me and much easier for the steps they had already taken.

Ethel Benjamin was the first woman in Australasia to be admitted to Law School.  She went to Otago Law School in 1893, the year New Zealand women gained the right to vote in parliamentary elections but could not yet be admitted to the practice of law.  She was the only female out of about 14 students.  Many of Ethel’s subjects were self-taught, especially in the later years of her degree, because the Law School had very few lecturers.

I know many parents say it. I have no doubt that the greatest thing in my life is my children. I was going to say my greatest achievement but now they are 23 and nearly 21 years old, the achievement is more theirs than mine.

My daughter, Sam, has been hassling me to be mentioned in a blog, especially since her brother Josh got a mention. So, I thought I would go one step further and invite her to join me in writing one. I was interested to see what might spring from different generational perspectives.

You are inviting 10 people to a dinner party. Six of them are people you don’t personally know. They may be famous people or other people whose lives you regard as particularly notable or intriguing in some way. They may be alive or dead and may come from any field of human endeavour. Four of them are people you have personally known. All of them are people you greatly admire.

Sergio “Checo” Perez is a Formula 1 Race Car Driver, who races for the Red Bull team. In the two 2023 F1 races prior to the Melbourne Grand Prix, just before Easter, Checo placed second and first. At the Melbourne Grand Prix, he started at the very back of the 20 cars in the race. A qualifying session is held the day before the race to determine each driver’s start position for the race itself. The driver that drives the fastest lap in qualifying starts at the front and the slowest starts at the back of the 20 cars that race. Checo crashed out in Q1 due to problems with his Red Bull car and was, well and truly, at the back.

Emily was a very capable lawyer in a big Auckland law firm, that I had worked with on occasions. A colleague, who had started at the firm at a similar time to Emily but who was a year or two her senior, had just been made partner. Emily was wondering whether she should be making a partnership her goal and setting her mind to achieving it. All the indications she had received from the firm suggested that it was an achievable goal, although obviously not without some intention and hard work on Emily’s part. Except Emily was wondering if she even wanted that to be her goal.