FNC - If it licks its stitches, it gets the avocado!

Emily Writes

05 Sep 2025 — 6 min read

High as a kite.

It's Friday Night Chats time!

Welcome to Friday Night Chats! I am so happy to have you here. It's been a fairly rubbish week for me with my car's bumper just falling off (I swear it just fell off), and Pipi, my puppy, was desexed. Also, the kids have been sick all week. So it hasn't been a great one. But the weekend is here. We made it. So let's chat!

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It's funny that I didn't start driving until I was like 38, and yet, I am entirely dependent on my car at 40. I travelled everywhere with two babies without a car, but was completely lost without it this week.

I did not like my routines being all out of whack. And the kids were sick too. But worst of all was Pipi. The poor baby was spayed and was high as a kite and all bloated and sore. I've just given her a sponge bath of all things! The life of a dog eh? I keep telling her she's living the dream because when she's at the dog park next, she can go buck wild, but I don't think she understands.

The website is looking good, though. I've been updating everything with Josh's help. I hope you like it! I now have a place to:

The week was saved because I got a meal kit - Yum Jar. At the moment, they are only in Wellington. But they're so good. Zero waste, vegetarian and they pay their employees a living wage at least. Be still my heart! Highly recommend. The Vietnamese Style Edamame Noodle Salad was really yummy.

There's a mega raffle for Palestine happening - check it out.

What are your plans for the weekend? I think now that my big boy Eddie is better, I might check out the World Press Photo Exhibition with him. A while back, we saw the Banksy Exhibition, and we had such great chats about how we felt looking at each piece of art, each photo. It was a great bonding experience.

What I've been reading:

Inside the school refusal crisis: how a mother and her daughters survived a broken system

Assimilation, rebranded for 2025 - The new curriculum presents New Zealanders with a false binary: You can have a “knowledge-rich” curriculum, or you can have other ways of knowing and learning — but not both.

Children's war history lessons at national memorial to end as historians lose jobs

This article is so frustrating: Neurodivergent in an open plan classroom: Sophia quit and Violet hid in a teepee.

1) Not all neurodivergent children are alike. My son's flavour of autism means it's a nightmare for him being in an open-plan classroom. But for a lot of ADHD kids, it can be really fantastic and allows them to move their bodies and be more creative. That's vital.

2) Part of the open-plan classroom way of doing things was (in my opinion) a reaction to a lack of resourcing in our schools. The team of teachers approach is often due to teachers being overwhelmed due to high needs and no funding in their classrooms. But people don't want to talk about that do they!

3) Open plan or not - the answer isn't 'more private schools' and fund 'private schools'. Forcing our disabled kids out of public schools and into for profit schools is an absolute nightmare not a solution!

This article is WILD (content warning for stillbirth and birth trauma and mental illness) and so freakin' grim: The Baby Died. Whose Fault Is It? - When her son died in utero, a venture capitalist went to extremes to punish her surrogate.

I mean this is not something I knew: "Compared to natural conception, carrying a genetically unrelated fetus more than triples the risk of severe, potentially deadly conditions, a statistic surrogates are rarely given". Horrendous.

I have complicated feelings about surrogacy. In that capitalism is revolting and buying two bodies so you can have a boy and a girl at the same time is hideous to me. And also I don't support not paying surrogates either because that's somebody else's body. I dunno. It's bleak.

Great stuff over at The Boiler Room with Chris Schulz - Live Nation talks NZ touring troubles: 'We're starting every offer on our back foot.' and Kids are smashing Rockquest so hard it can't keep up.

I especially loved the piece on Rockquest. My son just competed in Band Quest and along with his band he came fourth and he got the best guitarist award first equal. I'm super proud!

What I'm watching:

GIRL (and men I guess lol) THE WUTHERING HEIGHTS TRAILER. I am here for it. I have been saying two things are needed in cinema - 1) more bodice rippers that are just pure horn 2) more fingering.

Looks like we might get both with this one and for that we are truly blessed.

I don’t know how to do a poll on Ghost so just tell me what you think? Love it? Hate it? I hope Heathcliff does poppers.

I have spent quite a bit of time watching rubbish this week, trapped between sick kids. I watched Unknown Number: The High School Catfish and it's absolutely bonkers. I went into it not knowing about the case and I was very, very shocked.

I also watched Motorheads which is like a YA series about kids who race cars? It was kind of background. And not very good.

Nothing has really grabbed me for a while now with TV. I would like to go to see a movie...The Roses looks good. I mean, I'll watch anything with Olivia Coleman in it:

There’s a new six-part documentary series coming to TVNZ called Dadolescence. It follows five teenage dads in Aotearoa. I’m looking forward to that.

What I'm listening to:

I'm listening to a weird audiobook - The Coin by Yasmin Zaher. Yasmin Zaher is a Palestinian journalist, and this is her debut novel. It won the Dylan Thomas Prize. It's very strange.

RNZ had a feature Celebrating Kate Bush featuring my friend Simon. It's excellent.

I kind of want to go to Electric Avenue but I feel like I'm probably too old for it (and accommodation will be too expensive). I'd be pretty keen to see Split Enz, Kesha, Basement Jaxx, Royel Otis, and I'd love to see Supergroove again. Maybe I just want summer and that's why I want to go to a festival...

Mostly though, I’m listening to Hamilton (unconsensually) and it’s the worst because it’s so fucking catchy. And my son’s current thing is just repeating:

Alexander Hamilton.
My name is Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton.
My name is Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton.
My name is Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton.
My name is Alexander Hamilton.

What’s my name? Omg it’s Alexander fkin Hamilton. 🫠🫠🫠 At this point, Aaron Burr could shoot me and I’d say thank you.