symondrake.com | Monthly Archive

Archive for July, 2008

Symon Drake… Ghostbuster (heh)

By Symon ⋅ July 15, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments

Hilarious if you ask me. My ‘Mair Park Ghost’ post was spied by the Whangarei Leader (another local newspaper) a few weeks back, and I was interviewed the other day. I’m actually a bit over the whole ghost thing now, and was not looking foward to reading stuff which had been taken a little out [...]

Ghost mystery solved… or is it?

By Symon ⋅ July 15, 2008 ⋅ 2 comments

I posted a story the other week about ‘The Mair Park Ghost’. In 1961, someone dressed up in an ornate costume scared ‘courters’ witless who visited the park at night, including my mum and dad. Read the post here: The Mair Park Ghost. DW and I thought it would be an entertaining read for the [...]

The best shoes… ever

By Symon ⋅ July 14, 2008 ⋅ 7 comments

And now for something completely different. I would like to tell the world that Chuck Taylors are the best shoes… ever. I’m not the only one to think so either. Trusty Wikipedia says that they are the most popular shoe in history. The shoes were first produced in 1917 as the “All-Star,” Converse’s attempt to [...]

The house, the hand and the horror

By Symon ⋅ July 7, 2008 ⋅ 5 comments

I used to love visiting the ‘Grange’ during my childhood. The Grange was a huge old villa, owned by the Salvation Army and operated as a girls home until it was demolished in the late 80′s. My ‘Aunty’ Janice worked there, and I was frequently mothered by all the girls at the home whenever Aunty [...]

I’m scared of spiders

By Symon ⋅ July 6, 2008 ⋅ 5 comments

When I was really young, I wasn’t scared of spiders… in fact, I used to play with them. We then moved to Auckland and it was there that I witnessed an event which would change my view of spiders indefinitely… from being fluffy friends to being fanged freaks. One day an Avondale Spider (minding its [...]

NZ Phantom Lion: The plot thickens

By Symon ⋅ July 2, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments

Since Carl Swanson’s story (Click here for related post) was published, more people are claiming that they have seen a large cat roaming the countryside around Kaiwaka, NZ. The NZ Herald reveals that Kaiwaka Chief fire officer John Bowmar, Quarry boss Scott Parker, and a local minister (all upstanding members of the community) have reportedly [...]

Alien Big Cats in NZ

By Symon ⋅ July 1, 2008 ⋅ 3 comments

Alien Big Cat (ABCs) are alive and well in New Zealand and the sightings of them are becoming many and frequent. Now, before you really think I’m crazy (more than usual anyway), let me educate you as to what Alien Big Cats are. Alien Big Cats (ABCs, Phantom Cats, Mystery Cats) don’t have anything to [...]