by Alice Bulmer | Feb 5, 2016 | Becoming Alice, New Zealand culture, Tools of resilience
Today is my 55th birthday. It’s also Waitangi Day, the New Zealand holiday that commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Waitangi Day is the closest thing we have to a national holiday. But for a whole bunch of reasons, it’s a day when many New...
by Alice Bulmer | Feb 1, 2016 | Becoming Alice, Music
The bass player is the unsung heart of a great band. They’re standing there on stage with a huge bass guitar, and an even bigger amplifier, but hardly anybody notices what they are playing. The impact of the bass is almost subliminal. Listening to recorded music, most...
by Alice Bulmer | Jan 29, 2016 | Becoming Alice, Ecology, Family skeletons
My mother, Susan Bulmer, has a bat named after her. Bulmer’s Fruit Bat, Aproteles bulmerae. It’s a giant fruit bat from the remote highlands of New Guinea. And it used to be extinct, but probably isn’t. As a young woman, before she was tied down with children,...
by Alice Bulmer | Jan 22, 2016 | Becoming Alice, Ecology, Food, Tools of resilience
This is about my philosophy of eating. I believe food should be beautiful, delicious, interesting, creative, fun and social. Too many of us are giving away our power by not paying enough attention to what we eat and how we’re eating it. Food isn’t just fuel for our...
by Alice Bulmer | Jan 21, 2016 | Becoming Alice, Family skeletons, Music, Tools of resilience
How can music improve the lives of people with dementia? Every couple of weeks I drive to Auckland to make music with my mother, Sue. It’s fun and joyful for both of us. My mother has dementia. It has been gradually progressing over the last five years – maybe longer...
by Alice Bulmer | Oct 30, 2015 | Becoming Alice, Ecology, Family skeletons, Music, Storytelling, Tools of resilience
Saturday afternoon is my favourite time of the week. My ukulele group meets at 4pm. We drink a glass of wine, play ukulele and have fun. For two hours, nothing else matters. Our nine members have a wide range of musical experience – some have been playing for six...
