FNC - Happy Galentines!

Emily Writes

13 Feb 2026 — 7 min read

Kia ora! It's Friday Night Chats time! It's Galentine's Day! It's been a week of real ups and downs so I'm happy to be here with you. I find so much joy in this community and I feel like a really lucky duck tbh! So let's chat!

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Right from the get-go, I need to share some news. My dear friend, and regular Emily Writes Weekly columnist, Helen Gilby, has been diagnosed with cancer.

Helen's most recent column - On living longer after loss than before it - outlined how she suddenly lost the love of her life Simon, when her children were just 22 months-old and four-years-old.

As you know, Helen is a solo mum. She gives so much to her community and she shows up for people she doesn't even know. Just the other week she was making meals for a mama whose child is in hospital. That's our Helen.

So, I've organised a way for us to help Helen and her children. This will allow Helen to get some help caring for her little ones while she gets surgery and chemotherapy. And hopefully will allow her the chance to focus on fighting cancer instead of trying to find money to live.

I know times are tough so if you can't donate that's totally understandable, sharing is huge help too and I'm hoping to set up a meal train for Helen for anyone living in Ōtautahi.

Helen is a fighter, and I know she feels all of the love around her. She still has her wicked sense of humour, and she won't be alone in this fight. I'm sure she will read the comments here so feel free to send her a message of support.

Don’t worry we made the sign together! He hasn’t talked to another kid for like a year and a half but fingers crossed one day he will talk to a kid again!

My boy was at school this week! So exciting! We are starting slow, just four short days a week. I'm so incredibly proud of him and so incredibly grateful to his teachers and teacher aides and the school principal. And the children in his class are being so lovely toward him (even though he mostly just screams when they look at him!).

I am going to organise a fundraiser for the school because they're so amazing and they pay for teacher aides out of their school budget so they can take on disabled kids. They were the only ones who welcomed our beautiful boy. I will forever be grateful to them for that. So if you're in Te Whanganui a Tara, pencil in 22 March for a nice afternoon of music to benefit this amazing school.

If you wanna help on the day or you know a really great musician who wants to volunteer hit me up - emily@emilywrites.co.nz.

What I'm watching:

I saw the Lucy Letby doco on Netflix - I don't think it's worth watching. It's very sensationalised and so incredibly gross to use AI recreations. I don't know what to think about the Lucy Letby case, to be honest. I know how quickly things can change in ICU. And just the Occam's razor of it all makes me believe that an under-staffed and under-resourced hospital unit causing the deaths of babies is more likely than the most prolific woman serial killer of all time killing dozens and dozens of babies without motive and with nobody seeing anything. That just doesn't seem likely to me. And male doctors blaming women nurses for deaths due to overstretched medical units that they're responsible for does seem plausible. But I don't know...

What always got me was the insulin...But then I read this - and the expert is a bioengineering professor at the University of Canterbury who is one of the world’s foremost experts on the effect of insulin on pre-term babies.

Lord of the Flies on TVNZ+ looks good as well, but I haven't watched anything really.

I have been absolutely exhausted by the anxiety of my boy being at school. I am hoping next week I will have more energy to focus.

We did watch the new Muppets special on Disney+ like five times in a row. I really recommend it.

I obviously desperately want to see Wuthering Heights!

This is a very good list too!

What I'm reading:

I've been reading The Fall by Tal Bauer, which is honestly so good (but also very long for a smutty book). Tal writes so beautifully. I also don't think it needs to be as long as it is, but I will be finishing it!!!

I will tell you the synopsis if you don't make fun of me. It's a reverse-amnesia hockey MM romance, lol. Ok, maybe you can make fun of me.

And this machine kills fascists.

If you read one thing this week I think it should be this:

What I'm listening to:

Guess who is going to a Heated Rivalry themed club night tonight! It's me! It starts at 11pm, which is an absolute horror. I mean, not to sound like the oldest person in the world, but that's going to ruin my sleep schedule.

But I'm excited. I'm going with two friends, and I'm going to dance my booty off. I also love the music from Heated Rivalry, so I'm very excited!

What are you listening to? Watching? Reading?

What are your plans for the weekend? Thanks for being here with me! I will report back on

Arohanui, Emily.