February 2026 | Grey Power Rotorua

C Bavister

Secretary

February Ramblings

Well! The Christmas decorations, tinsel, and memories are packed away for another year. 11 months to go! The Christmas paper and strange assortments of cardboard have been wheeled out to the kerb in the yellow bin. I remember when we used to iron the wrapping paper and put it away for the next year. Woe betide to anyone who ripped the paper of their presents. Likewise, I am off ham sandwiches for life or least 12 months!

The Grey Power Rotorua Office is once again open three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 11am – 2pm. Volunteers “man” the desk and do their best to answer any questions and enquires. We are looking for volunteers, if you can spare three hours a fortnight, please send us an email or call into the office during open hours. No experience needed.

This year will see changes as usual. Here are some prominent ones. The Government has announced that pay-wave surcharges are to be eliminated for instore purchases. It will be cheaper and easier to get prescriptions and bowel cancer eligibility has been expanded. If we want to build another dwelling out the back up to a certain size, we can do so without resource consent. For those of us who still have a car, registration fees have gone up.

Well, at least it is easy to predict the weather: RAIN.

astghikigityan (edited)

It’s Better to Do It Poorly Than Not to Do It at All:

The Principle of Successful People

We’ve all been there: staring at a task we should be doing, but putting it off because we don’t have the time, energy or clarity to do it “right.” Maybe it’s replying to a message, finishing a project, or even folding washing. If it’s not going to be perfect, what’s the point… right?

Well, according to author and productivity expert Chris Guillebeau, that mindset might be holding us back way more than we realise.

Chris found while writing his book Time Anxiety is something many of us need to hear: The idea of giving 100% to everything you do might sound noble, but it’s often a recipe for burnout, procrastination and getting stuck.

“Doing less than you’re capable of might feel wrong,” he explains. “Especially if you were raised to chase good grades or gold stars. But the most successful people? They often choose to do less or just enough and still win.”

Here’s the radical idea Guillebeau promotes: “It’s better to do it poorly than not at all.” And honestly? It makes sense.

He suggests we stop waiting for the perfect version of our effort and instead start doing things imperfectly but consistently. Not because we’re lazy. But because we’re human and because small, imperfect actions build the momentum that perfectionism steals from us.

The house is a disaster? Set a 10-minute timer. Wipe down the benches, toss the washing in a basket, and be done. That’s enough.

Drowning in unread messages? Hit delete. Start fresh. Focus on today’s messages instead of carrying yesterday’s digital guilt.

Missed a call? No big deal. Send a text. Reconnect when it works. Life happens.

Ever heard of a minimum viable product (MVP)? It’s startup-speak for launching a product that’s imperfect but functional. Rather than waiting until something is flawless, founders put out version 1.0, gather feedback, and improve from there.

Why? Because “perfect” often never arrives, and imperfect but done will always outperform perfect but in progress.

Let’s stop glamorizing perfectionism and start normalising trying. So next time you’re stuck in perfection-paralysis, ask yourself:

The point isn’t to settle, it’s to start.
What’s the smallest thing I can do right now to move forward?
Just do that and let it be enough.
“Done” will always beat “perfect later.”
Every imperfect step forward is still a step in the right direction.

Greenpeace (edited)

4 Tips for Zero Waste Living

We need to shift away from a ‘throwaway’ culture to a circular economy – and the only way to achieve this is for companies and governments to take action. All of us, together, can push them towards a circular design for all products and packaging that will halt excessive waste and single-use products, like plastic bottles.

While we work together towards achieving systemic change, here are four simple tips that can help with becoming more zero-waste for you, your whānau, and your community!

🥙 Tip #1: Tackle Food Waste First

Did you know that food scraps make up about 30% of the average NZ household rubbish bin? That’s a lot!

You can try composting at home and even create your own worm farm. This is one of the most rewarding ways to be zero waste as you can give back to nature at the same time. You can also check with your local council to find out about food scrap options in your area.

👜 Tip #2: Carry Reusables, Always

Keep your reusables with you – foldable bags, a water bottle, a cup, a straw and cutlery. It may seem small, but every time you say no to disposables that’s one less thing in landfill.

🎨 Tip #3: Embrace DIY

From cleaning products to muesli bars, making things yourself cuts waste and often saves money too. Who knows, your amazing homemade products might even inspire your friends to do the same! There are heaps of websites on the internet that can give ideas and help.

📣 Tip #4: Stay Informed, Get Loud

Follow groups and campaigns fighting for waste reduction – and share their work. Don’t underestimate the power of a conversation with whānau, friends, or your local MP.

Your Homework

Copy and paste this checklist into your notes app, email or even write it out and stick it to your fridge. Tick some off over the next couple of weeks. Even if you just do a couple you will be having an impact.

Learn more about composting and worms farms, and decide if it will work for you
Get your reusables sorted
Try a waste cutting DIY solution
Talk with a friend, family member or colleague about reducing waste and share a tip

Your actions matter. They ripple outwards and have a positive effect for all.

Oxford Royale Academy (edited)

F Braun

English - the Hardest Language to Learn in the World?

First up, I am not a native English speaker. However, I have been living in NZ for over 45 years now. You wouldn't think so, but if you hear me speak, you immediately know that. Language learning is not easy for me. I have been told many times that English is the "hardest language to learn". Sorry folks, this is just not the case.

If a language is easy or hard to learn depends what your native language is, how much talent for languages you have and in what environment you learn the language. Also, what is the purpose of the new language. Getting by on a holiday, being fluent, for job specific communication or living in this language environment?

English is easy to learn if you need to get by on a holiday or other short term visit in an English speaking area. One needs to learn comparatively few words and one basic sentence structure - Subject, Verb, Object, Place and Time.

However, English becomes much more difficult to learn once the learner goes past the basics. What are the difficult items?

It just makes no sense: “Overlook” and “oversee” have opposite meanings, while “look” and “see” mean the same thing.
Exceptions to rules: One of the hardest things about English is that although there are rules, there are lots of exceptions to those rules.
Pronunciation: English pronunciation is the cause of much confusion. Words that end in the same combination of letters aren’t necessarily pronounced in the same way. Why is “trough” pronounced “troff”, “rough” pronounced “ruff”, “bough” pronounced “bow” (to rhyme with cow?) and “through” pronounced “throo”?
Emphasis: To make matters even more complex, the way in which you emphasise certain words in a sentence can subtly change its meaning.
Homophones: English is absolutely full of homophones – words that sound the same but have different meanings or spellings. "A bandage is wound around a wound" (“wound”, pronounced “wowned” is the past tense of “wind”, as well as an injury when pronounced “woond”, "wind" pronounced differently means something else of course).
Then we have Synonyms that aren’t necessarily interchangeable, Idioms, Traces of archaic English and Regional dialects.

As we’ve seen, then, English is pretty challenging, but it’s hardly a contender for the World’s Most Difficult Language. Notoriously tricky languages include Finnish, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin. Mandarin’s tone system, for instance, is famously tricky. Finnish is held to be difficult because of its numerous cases; Arabic because, among other things, its script has four different variations for each letter depending on where in the word it sits. Written Japanese differs from spoken Japanese, and there are three different writing systems – including 2,000 to 3,000 kanji characters that must be learned by heart. !Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni group) languages are famous for their click consonants, which are produced by creating suction with the tongue.

It makes English sound easy in comparison, doesn't it?