Monday Sport Blast From The Past
Gordon Llewellyn is a name you have probably never heard off but he played a pivotal role in the birth of the Special Olympics movement in New Zealand.
In 1983, he and three other Hutt athletes – Colin Bailey, Peter Spijkerman and Brent Busby – made history when they attended the Summer Special Olympics in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The trip was organised by Grant Quinn, who later said Gordon Llewellyn proved the perfect poster boy for the Special Olympics movement in New Zealand.
Llewellyn was a larger than life character with a bold personality and a fascination with the TV character Magnum PI.
Years later Quinn recalled the flight over and an announcement that came over the intercom.
"This is your captain speaking … I have a very special passenger with me in the cockpit. His name is Gordon Llewellyn from New Zealand."
Llewellyn quickly took over the microphone and proceeded to entertain the whole plane.
"Next minute Gordon was asking, or should I say demanding, that everybody on board give the team a rousing three cheers to wish the team a successful time in Baton Rouge," recalled Quinn.
The team performed well at the Olympics and athletes returned home heroes, proudly wearing their medals for weeks to make sure nobody missed their success.
Llewellyn died in August 2014 and Quinn gave the eulogy. He told mourners that Llewellyn and the other three Hutt swimmers had changed the public's perception of the intellectually disabled.
They had helped win mainstream acceptance and played a key role in promoting an organisation that now had more than 7000 active members.
Poll: Should we ditch daylight saving? 🕰️
First introduced in New Zealand in 1927 with the passing of the Summer Time Act, it's what we know as 'Daylight Saving' and this year it ends on the first Sunday in April.
While we do get to sleep in this time around, some people would like to scrap the clock tinkering for good.
And why? Some evidence suggests the time changes are bad for our health as they mess with sleep patterns leading to short-term fatigue and affecting mood. Meanwhile the hour change is frustrating for farmers and a nightmare for getting the littlies to sleep. But what's your take?
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41.1% Yes - get rid of the clock changes
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57.2% No, I enjoy it
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1.8% Other - I'll share below
TRUMP AND TRENTHAM
Years ago when Neighbourly use to be a social media discussion outlet, I wrote a few items concerning Trump and got a stopper response from some people along the lines of what has Trump got to do with Trentham, Hutt Valley, Wellington or New Zealand.
Well let's forget about past years since 2015 and concentrate on this year.
Tariffs - people in Trentham and nearby Martinborough who are connected with the wine industry got especially annoyed about having to find new markets in the world and avoid the USA with Trump having unreasonably impose higher tariffs on NZ exports. Of course an about turn cannot be done instantly and some wine exporters here took a tumble.
War - the Trump war with Iran is affecting locals enormously already. Almost everything is expected to go up in price. Our military might yet be involved and just maybe activity at the Trentham Military Camp is on the increase.
Fuel - The NZ Govt is setting itself up to keep the price of petrol and diesel down to a level below unaffordable for the average bloke and blokess. But options remain open for carless days and working from home where possible working weeks. Despite the detractors like retailers and hospitality people in Wellington, working from home will save a huge amount of vehicle fuel. Our public transport services could not cope with severe carless days.
Online Purchases and Freight - big increases in cost of goods from overseas and the cost of air and sea freight charges.
Emigration - NZ and the Wellington region are prime targets for foreigners wanting to come and live here as we are the safest country of size in the world and the world of Trump and his USA are making the world much more at risk and uncertain. Look out for a new wave of housing demand here.
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