Paper Jets

Rose Matafeo knows she can't play the cute young thing forever. "I know I can't . . . I'm tall and I have wide shoulders, that's not very cute." The two-time nominated Billy T Award comedian has come a long way from the frizzy haired, nervous ball of energy who cut her teeth in the Auckland standup scene at just 15. Previous stories on the Grey Lynn comedian of Samoan, Dalmatian and Scottish descent have referred to her nervous habit of playing with her hands and her polite, self-effacing manner. Just a couple of years later, her growing confidence is evident but low key. Sitting in her bedroom in the weatherboard Grey Lynn flat she shares with comedians Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson, the now 22-year-old Matafeo isn't sure how she got here. "I don't know why I started out in comedy, I don't know why I'm still doing it and I don't think I'm funny." Instead, she takes her hat off to other girls pursuing comedy. ...

As he watched her stir her cup of tea, Neville Anderson knew his love of 51 years was back. The Titirangi man had watched helplessly as the life of his once-active, social high school sweetheart ebbed away to Parkinson's disease. Diagnosed 11 years ago, Christine relied on three pills, three hours daily to ease the chronic trembling. But while replenishing the depleted dopamine in her brain, the chemical messenger responsible for movement, there was little for the involuntary jerks or dyskinesia that her body would often make as it reacted to the drugs. At times she could not talk or sit. Sometimes she could barely move, she said. "It's like your body's possessed by a demon." That was last year. Today, Christine Anderson is a completely different woman. The 67-year-old is one of 51 movement disorder patients to have undergone deep-brain stimulation surgery after it became available in New Zealand in 2009. The major surgery allows some patients t...

Having lived all over the world, the owners of 202 Heta Rd had plenty of ideas on what they wanted their new build to look like. With near-dizzying vistas across the forest-clad valleys of Merrilands, a sneak peek of the sea on one side and a mountain backdrop on the other, Belinda and Hamish Brown have finally found home. “We’ve thrown away the boxes the appliances came in,” Belinda confirms. “We’re staying.” It’s a welcome statement for the family of four who has spent the last 15 years in South East Asia. The couple met in London and moved to Brisbane before starting a family in Kuala Lumpur. The latter location was where the family oversaw the New Plymouth build from, something they were surprisingly not rattled about. “We were either naïve, stupid or trusting, I’m not sure which,” Hamish jokes. “We took a lot of faith in the fact that New Plymouth is a town in which reputation is everything.” An appreciation for the natural is evident from first glance. Outside, the house ...

I envy men. Not in the power-grabbing, pants-wearing, pay-raise kind of way - though the latter would be nice. No. It’s the no-fuss lifestyle which sees me turn green when I see my other half showered, spruced and ready for work in minutes while I scramble around with cleanser, concealer, mascara and GHDs for an hour before feeling ‘presentable’. I have heard of women who sneak out of bed early in the morning to apply makeup so their partners don’t catch them - shock horror - looking normal see here . And I remember as a child watching my Mum countless times applying a plethora of makeup products just to head to the supermarket. I may be a little slow to catch on, but I’m finally grasping with both hands the no-makeup trend that swept through Hollywood last year see here . Battling with mild acne for the first part of my teenage years, and then the pockmark scars in the latter part, I always longed for a day when I would feel comfortable sans makeup. I would lo...

Chocolate. The comfort of those in the throws of emotional upheaval; the sneaky under-the-desk classroom treat; the 3pm office pick-me-up; the easy-chair-in-front-of-the-telly snack. New Zealanders' love affair with the gooey brown goodness dates back to the 1880s when biscuit-maker Richard Hudson set up the country's first chocolate factory in Dunedin and soon joined forces with the British firm Cadbury. Back then, chocolate was synonymous with good living - the Cadbury family set up the model town Bourneville in the UK and sold tea, coffee and hot chocolate to keep workers away from the dreaded alcohol - but now the tasty treat is associated most with indulgence. We enjoy milk chocolate, which dominates the market at 70 per cent. But we prefer dark, which holds 20 per cent of the market, to white. So what is it about chocolate that we find so addictive? Here's the science. Chocolate's natural form, the cacao bean, contains the amino acid tryptophan which...

While scandal continues to swirl in Britain over horsemeat discovered fraudulently swapped for beef in ready-made meals, Kiwis are going out of their way to knowingly buy and eat horse. Chopped up and bagged horsemeat intended for pet food is sold in South Auckland's Saturday morning Mangere Market. But people are buying it to eat themselves. Olive Fahamokioa bought an 18kg box worth $50 yesterday, enough to last her extended family of 10 for a month. She let the Sunday Star-Times try some. Our verdict? A rich flavour, sweet and delicate. Quite different from the mundane lamb or beef. After cutting the meat into 600- to 800-gram slabs, Fahamokioa oven-roasted the horse on high at 250 degreesC for more than an hour. She then shredded it and added salt, onions and coconut cream, wrapping it in tinfoil to boil until soft. The result?A popular Pacific dish known as lo'i hosi, which is eaten at community gatherings. Fahamokioa said it's leaner and healthier tha...

Stressed out five-year-olds are being treated with massages and pedicures in a global trend which has psychologists worried. Auckland based Spa Ayurda has seen an increase in child clients popping in for treatments valued up to $60. And elsewhere around the country, preschoolers are having pamper parties which emulate their mothers', complete with manicures and foot spas. Children get stressed just like adults and need to feel good about their bodies, Spa Ayurda owner Rippan Sandhu told the Sunday Star-Times. "Kids are growing at a super fast speed and their lives are full of activities not just at school, but after school too," Sandhu said. "But they don't know how to express stress. They may throw a tantrum or not eat or sleep properly, fight with their siblings or cry and become withdrawn." Spa Ayurda specialises in the Hindu techniques of wellness massage using medicated oils to remove toxins and stress. The spa has seen a steady increase in...