Tommy Tui’s Journey
News
The following is an article that appeared in Wellington’s Dominion Post newspaper:
‘Years’ of author's life stolen
An author had “four years of [his] life” stolen when thieves broke into his house and took the only record of vital parts of his next book.
The thieves made off with about $12,000 worth of Taffy Parry’s posessions on Thursday, including his computer and hard drive containing the latest version and photos for his second book Tommy Tui Smiles for Miles … Mr Parry, of Plimmerton, said he had lost 16,000 images, including those from his published book Tommy Tui’s Journey.
He said he was ‘absolutely pissed off’. “The people can’t actually understand how much they are affecting other people, for the $300 they get in the pub for the TV. The tragedy of it is there’s other people like me who have their work at home, and this kind of thing happens to them.”
Mr Parry said the loss of his books and images was much more devastating than the theft of material goods. “Electronic equiment itself is nothing, we pay insurance and high premiums to cover ourselves. They have taken part of my life, fours years of my life. It’s such an awful shame to think [the photos] can never be replaced, it happens once in a lifetime. “Images are little treasures that will never be repeated again.”
The theft occured while Mr Parry was walking his neighbour’s dog between 1pm and 3pm. He arrived home and found two fridges in his garage had been cleaned out, before discovering the rest of his house had suffered the same fate.
“I immediately knew what had happened. You feel sick in your stomach that there are people like this in the world.”
His neighbour had been burgled the day before. “You’d think they wouldn’t have the audacity to come here the next day … it’s totally irrational to me, I would be too terrified. It shows you the mentality these kinds of people have.”
Constable Damian Parker said police had a few leads in the case, and an increased number of burglaries in Plimmerton were connected. “They more than likely are linked and there’s [an officer] specifically working that area at this stage.” He said police were on the lookout for a dark vehicle and were appealing for anyone with information to contact the Porirua station.
Feed the birds sugar water
Would you like to help Tommy Tui and his friends during the cold winter months? It is so very easy and you will meet many of Tommy Tui’s friends who will no doubt reward you with a lovely song. You never know — they might take up permanent residency in your garden and start nesting come the mating season.
How to attract them:
Take 3 dessert spoons of white sugar to a cup of water and dissolve it by shaking in a jar. I generally make about 3 cupfulls at a time and then pour it into a trough.
Some people also suggest adding 2–3 teaspoons of vanilla Complan to the mixture, but whatever you decide the tuis are bound to find it.
Important:
Remember to clean the trough well and to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards.
Good luck and tweet tweet. — Taffy
Tommy in Africa
Fifty copies of Tommy Tui’s Journey were included in a recent donation of books to Busoco School in Buwunga, Uganda.
Here is a quote from a letter received from the school:
“The 10 tonnes of books from New Zealand have safely arrived in Uganda! The container with the jet boat and books was freighted from Mombassa to Jinja near the Adrift river base and the books were then bought to our home in Kampala on our rafting truck. The Kiwi crew in Jinja had an interesting and long day with customs, who agreed that books didn’t attract duty … but novels did … and wanted to open and empty all 400 boxes to check for novels. To cut a long story short it was sorted by nightfall after much box opening and chat agreed that novels were indeed books.
“…Busoco School had closed for the school year when the books arrived, but I did take out two big boxes to the Busoco students in Sowe village on Sowe island today. We ran a school registration day and our first medical clinic which was sponsored by some of the proceeds from the Arrowtown School PTA school fair. Yeeha! We took out 5 medical staff from Hope clinic in Kampala and 5 friends to help register, and the children read and read and read, and then read some more! It was truly fabulous to watch! THANK YOU!
“…On behalf of the gorgeous children of Buwunga and Sowe, and the many other children in Uganda who will one day benefit from the books from New Zealand, thank you once again! The smiles today were just so so wonderful, and they will be followed by so many more!”