FNC - The Christmas countdown

Emily Writes

19 Dec 2025 — 9 min read

Kia ora friends! It's Friday Night Chats time. It's so lovely to be together while we count down to Christmas. It's been such a sad and hard week - a gut wrenching week for many - so I'm glad we can come together. Let's just be together and have a chat. Arohanui.

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Let's start with some good news eh? This week, the High Court granted an injunction against the puberty blocker ban.

Also, good news for parents whose kids are finishing primary school or intermediate - you get to delete the rubbish app your kid's school insists on using that is different to the rubbish app your other kid's school insists on using!

Oh the immense joy I felt from deleting the awful, useless app that my son's intermediate had! Bring back sending emails like normal people.

I didn't have a great week after injuring my knee. Thankfully, I saw a physio who said I haven't broken or torn anything, so I'll be fine. It made me feel so much empathy toward people with chronic pain conditions. Being in pain all day was exhausting, and I was so ratty. I was really impatient with everyone and I cried a lot. I'm on the mend now!

Eddie won the award for service at school. I could not be prouder. I would never usually share a uniform pic but he’s finished at this school now and I’m just so proud!

A very fun thing to read this week is: The 20 Worst Things On The Internet In 2025. It's from my favourite newsletter Garbage Day.

As you read this, my bestie and I will be on a wee road trip with the kids to give my husband a break. He's shattered and held the fort when I took a break the other day. The Emily Writes Weekly schedule will be ????? I don't know haha. It depends on whether the kids give me time to write in the next week?

We might do hungover Boxing Day chats??? What would you like during this time? Best of lists? Opinion pieces? Nothing?

What I'm reading:

The new edition of literary journal Turbine Kapohau is out! You can read it online.

And I've read lots of other random and interesting things:

This is a very good piece on the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack and how it’s being used by the worst people in the world to spread hatred, justify the genocide and censor people:

Obviously, I’m obsessed with the Vanity Fair articles AND PHOTOS about the Trump administration. Absolutely wild!!

Haunted by sharks - After a series of deadly shark attacks, the Indian Ocean island of Réunion became a hub of shark attack science.

More good reads:

I helped Dr Jehad Malaka (who is a guest writer at Emily Writes Weekly) set up a newsletter! Please subscribe and share.

What I'm watching:

I don't want to admit this, but I found out there's a series online called The Princes' First Love, and it's like TikTok TV? I don't know what else to call it - some episodes are only two minutes long. It's about a prince and a cute guy. I may just watch all 72 episodes. Please don't judge me.

I'm also gonna watch Alexander Skarsgård & Stellan Skarsgård on Actors on Actors for similar reasons.

Other than that, nothing has caught my attention other than Heated Rivalry.

The Pit returns on January 8. Exciting! Here's the trailer for season 2.

And this looks great:

What I'm listening to:

I listened to the Elon Musk episode of If Books Could Kill which was fascinating. I thought the episode Everyone is wrong about the Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Scandal episode of Taylor Lorenz's Power User was very interesting.

I have just started a podcast called Snowball. It's an ABC podcast about a New Zealander who fell for a con-artist. I'm not even half-way through the first episode but it sounds interesting. And it has that good dry Kiwi humour throughout.

I've been trying to listen to uplifting music because it's been such a sad week. So, here’s a wholesome song to get you through this difficult week ❤️

I thought I'd hyperlink some of the events and activists mentioned in the lyrics because their stories are inspiring. 'Ho' could mean either Gwyneth Ho or Denise Ho. They're both incredible and are both imprisoned right now for standing against fascism.

A cotton field, a silver mine
Johannesburg to Palestine
broken treaties, dreams deprived
We kept the little flame alive
Bobby Seale to Bobby Sands
A picket held in frozen hands
we sat down on I-95
to keep the little flame alive
A hundred years, a hundred more
We throw our weight against the door
Even if we don’t survive
we keep the little flame alive
ford the river, cross the sea
a slave, a rat, a refugee
strap the child to your side
keep the little flame alive
Ho, Guevara, Connolly
we hid them in the scullery
secrets whispered by the wives
keep the little flame alive
spears to sixteen-pounder guns
we knew a change was gonna come
Bread and roses, Nine to Five
keep the little flame alive
Tulsa, Ludlow, Wounded Knee
They buried us, but we were seeds
singing from the grave, we rise
to keep the little flame alive
remember when they shot Joe Hill?
he spoke his last and final will
good luck to all of you, don’t cry
but keep the little flame alive

I made this video for you of some videos sent to me from the families we support in Gaza. This is the little flame ❤️

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What are you watching? Reading? Listening to?

I hope you have a lovely break if you're having one. And if you're not - I hope you have a break coming up. If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you enjoy it, and it's peaceful. I have no words to express how grateful I am to all of you. I truly am so so lucky to do this mahi - and it's all because of you.

Arohanui Emily x

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