Everyone says money doesn’t buy happiness, but it clearly has something to do with it. You can’t be very happy if you’re deeply in debt and about to lose your house because you don’t have enough money to make the mortgage payments, for instance. So some money is necessary, but it does have diminishing returns. Once you have all your basic needs met, and have enough to make yourself comfortable and do the things you enjoy, getting more money doesn’t really help an awful lot.

I’m pretty convinced that health has got to be one of the foundations of a good life. Nothing is good when I’m sick, I just want to crawl into bed and die. The only positive I can take from it is that it reminds me to appreciate it when I am healthy. I have a tendency to take not-being-sick for granted, when I think it is something I should be grateful for.

I’ve never been one of those people who get up early. My body clock has gradually shifted around over the years, depending on my work schedule, but rarely has it had me getting up before 9am. At times, I would be waking up around 11am to midday every day.

I'm a person who is struggling with the idea of how to be happy, productive and successful in life. It's not that I'm unhappy with my life right now, it's just that I have a distinct feeling that it could be better.

Two weeks ago, I had two teeth surgically extracted. The teeth in question were my lower right 2nd molar and premolar. About a year or so ago, the molar cracked and I got an abscess beneath those two teeth. I had to get a root canal in each, which was difficult because the roots were twisted and almost entwined. Unfortunately, the root canal treatment failed and I had to have both teeth extracted.

Most majors cities are sited on either an excellent harbour or an easy river crossing. Auckland isn’t called the City of Sails for nothing – our harbour is one of the best in the world. And tsunamis only reinforce this.