{"id":459,"date":"2018-09-25T00:52:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T00:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/?p=459"},"modified":"2019-03-29T23:21:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T23:21:23","slug":"exotic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/25\/exotic\/","title":{"rendered":"Exotic"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know a surgeon from Guernsey (sounds like the start of a limerick: \u201cthere was a young man from Guernsey…\u201d not sure what would come next though? Bit tough to rhyme…). \u00a0I thought that sounded like an idyllic, romantic place to live – I\u2019ve seen the potato peel movie, and Dawsey Adams is definitely the best looking pig farmer I\u2019ve ever seen – but apparently this surgeon couldn\u2019t wait to grow up and leave. He reckons it\u2019s more like Levin than the charming place that\u2019s portrayed on screen. Not that I want to knock Levin, birthplace of Carlos Spencer and I believe once the winner of New Zealand\u2019s Top Town (can\u2019t confirm that, google not being helpful today). Levin (meant to be pronounced \u00a0\u201cLe – veen\u201d although I can\u2019t imagine a living soul who does so) is \u201cdated and dowdy and needs to get it\u2019s mojo back\u201d, according to a councillor interviewed by Stuff back in May (ouch! Don\u2019t give up your day job Mr Councillor!). Plans to revitalize the town include: renaming it (like no one\u2019s going to see through\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>in five minutes); and pretending it\u2019s a dormer suburb for Wellington (pffft).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know a surgeon from Guernsey (sounds like the start of a limerick:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sa8Ukf-exotic","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11353,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/19\/levin-a-and-p-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":0},"title":"Levin A and P show","author":"Interloper11","date":"January 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"They say that how you spend your days is how you spend your life, so I was pleased not to waste the entirety of yesterday moaning about life\u2019s imperfections, but rather to take a family day trip to one of New Zealand\u2019s most iconic activities: a local A and P\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/IMG_1330-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5497,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/27\/whether\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":1},"title":"Whether","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve always had trouble focusing on the weather report on the radio, even when I really want to listen to it. I think it\u2019s a hangover from my childhood, when I would never be interested in what they had to say. These days I try to pay attention, but I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10452,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/25\/the-best-weekend-of-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":2},"title":"The best weekend of my life","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The best weekend of my life in which I nearly died multiple times, that is. I haven\u2019t written much in the last week as I\u2019ve been busy at school. I\u2019ll write more of my impressions later but at this point I will say that it\u2019s true that French people dip\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/IMG_8793-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10410,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/09\/the-unexpected-friday-dramas-continue\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":3},"title":"The unexpected Friday dramas continue","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I don\u2019t do orthopaedics very often, but I knew my surgeon had an Asian name. As I arrived this morning, I spotted a confident looking Asian man who looked vaguely familiar, and so I asked him if he was my surgeon. He just looked witheringly at me, said \u201cNo\u201d, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5458,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/15\/earworm\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":4},"title":"Earworm","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been humming \u201cDo you know the way to San Jose?\u201d to myself since my last jigsaw puzzle session. It was a big hit for Dionne Warwick back in the late sixties, another of Burt Bacharach\u2019s ouvre of fabulousness. I say \u2018humming to myself\u2019 but actually I\u2019ve been catching myself\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/D812148E-18AE-4709-B506-C39826E9961C-298x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11988,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/24\/tranquility\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":5},"title":"Tranquility","author":"Interloper11","date":"July 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It turns out my surgeon today has another reason that he\u2019s feeling more relaxed these days: he\u2019s installed a sauna at his house. This is both more achievable for me (than popping down to the cafe between cases), but also tragically less so (financial, also persuading my other half). He\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}