Brian Holden: Signing off for the last time

Brian Holden with a copy of his 604 columns. Photo / Supplied

Today is the final appearance of And Another Thing. After nearly 12 years, the time has arrived to close the laptop and call it a day. Another holiday sounds like a great idea, now that I have more time on my hands. All options are being considered and, as I flick back through my files, I see that a total of 604 columns containing my 20 cents worth have been published.

Only one week's column failed to make its way to the subeditor's desk during that time. It happened while the And Another Thing team was overseas and, in its place, the editor used a story about the Queen, so I was flattered. The editorial staff have been pretty tolerant I must say, feeling the need to rein me in only a couple of times due to the "overly sensitive content", resulting in a paragraph or two having to be hastily rewritten.

With the space and time I have left, I'll share a few highlights:

Being a traveller, a fair few of my columns have been sent from the other side of the world and, in the early days, access to on-line facilities was available only in cafes and public libraries. In some places, these were hard to find and when you eventually did, you had to wait ages for a computer to become available. And the connections were so sloooow. Nowadays it's just a matter of finding a Wi-Fi spot, and away you go.

What shall I write about? Sometimes the deadline to submit my words of wisdom would arrive without having written anything - not as much as a sentence. A frantic search through news articles to find something to write about, was launched. Always at the 11th hour something would crop up. It's gutting though when you see another columnist in the same paper writing a story on the same topic, with no time to do anything about it.

Or like the time when a local busking musician had his beloved saxophone nicked - or so we thought. On the heels of the Daily Post story, I posted comments, slagging off about the low life, constantly on a mission to thieve other people's stuff. I suggested that the scumbag who nicked the instrument, if caught, should be lined up and shot. It so turned out that the saxophone had been packed away into a friend's car and wasn't stolen after all. With the printing presses about to roll, there was a mad scramble to change the story and retract the abuse given to the thief who didn't actually exist.

I recall experiences good and bad, and ones I'd rather forget, like the time my nosiness took over when "inspecting" flood damage. My car was all but marooned and I had to get to dry land by the skin of my teeth. Then there was the incident where a moment's inattention had me drifting off the Broadlands road to shred two near new tyres plus a wheel. It was only my AA card that allowed me to summons a tow truck to come to the rescue.

A very special thanks to you, the readers for your encouraging comments over the years. You didn't always agree, but then that's the way it is. I've learned to take the good with the bad and I'm a better person for it. At the end of the day, we all like a good argument and, of course, between you and me - a little gossip. All will not be forgotten with a CD containing all the files - with lots of extra pictures - given to the archival section of the public library - And Another Thing will be frozen in time you can say.

Also discontinued are my regular summaries of the local weather, but I will continue to operate my local weather station collecting data.

I'm sure there will still be plenty of good news and interesting articles in the Rotorua Daily Post that has served the community so well over the years. The writing of my column will be hard to let go. Goodbye for now. It has been a pleasure.