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What's a recent challenge you've faced? How did you overcome it?
Jim | Ōtara
"I had quite a traumatic childhood. My sister drowned in the Whanganui River at five or six, and I wasn’t there to help her. A little while after, my father was killed in a motorbike accident. My mother followed within a year. I was barely a teenager. My mother died of stomach cancer, a horrible and painful death.
Then, we were in the hands of the Public Trust. Fortunately, as it turned out for me and my brother, I loved school. I stayed until the seventh form in the college house in Purnell Street. I became the head boy of the place, and ran it, when I’m looking back, as a dictator.
I started the network in Ōtara. It morphed into an action group, and it’s morphed again into a group of seven trustees of which I have been elected recently, quite recently to Chairman. To get the job, I guess you have to put in an apprenticeship, in my case of 25 years.
I think Ōtara community is the best community in Auckland. Certainly one of the best in New Zealand. I think nobody really appreciates Ōtara. The reason for that is they’re scared of the place. They don’t know it as I do. If they did, they would celebrate its diversity, its richness and its benefit to the wider community in New Zealand."
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What's the best way to keep grocery shopping bills down?
We are still feeling the pinch and the weekly shop is no different. So we are after your cost-saving tips please, neighbours!
What’s the best way you've found to cut down on your grocery bill? Share below (and hear tips from others!)
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How much are you paying for your bin tags?
With bin tags on the way out, we want to hear how much you are still spending on them.
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