Editorial | History | Old Covers

Kia Ora and welcome back to the new look Woodley!


We've had a wee name change and a bit of a spruce up but still the same old same old - Lemon.

Alot has changed for everyone since we were last online, but if you have a wee moment, this is my spiel: -

Market forces late in 2002 forced the Woodley on the road in an effort to find suitable funding to keep the failing lemon (and the Woodley family) afloat. It was whilst doing so that I lost the previous www.thewoodlytimes.com domain name to unscrupulous pirates trying to make a buck out of the name (and more specifically the url address which they thought they could sell back at a profit).

Thankfully, a Growling Jarpie appeared from heaven, and we are now back online due to his kind heart and generous nature. His name is Jonathan Butler and he is one of the most moaning and whinging Capetonians you'll ever meet, but one with a heart of pure gold. In one stroke he enabled the failing ezine to receive financial support from one of Europe's' leading financial institutions - and to them (and to him) the Woodley family owe a huge debt of gratitude.

It was whilst on assignment in London for this financial institution I willingly put myself in a situation where I knew that I would be deprived of witnessing the birth of my second child, purely for the sake of the family and financial gain. Understandably at the time, it caused many moments of anguish and despair. Thankfully, the staff at the financial institution found about about my plight and on December 21st 2002, two angels sent from the Growling Jarpie (Sally Crossman and Shareen Mitchell) enabled me to fly home to New Zealand and 10 hours upon arriving, the Queen Bee of The Woodley, Pippa (I've waited long enough) Woodley decided to release wee Benjamin John McLeod Woodley into this world with a relieved Editor there as a witness. Fantastic.

Queen Bee and Benjamin

As a result, I would like to dedicate this issue to Benjamin, his Angels and to the grand poobah of Woodleys, my father Lt Colonel Woodley (a.k.a le Combover, Swifty Swoopster, Sid, former lightweight boxer and an auditionalist for the Welsh Boys choir). Sid has been ill for some time at his bunker in Kapiti and I look forward to introducing him to his new grandson when he is fully recovered.

All in all, this further enhances to me the fact that The Woodley is purely a celebration of life; and you must take a step backwards sometimes to realise not so much how short it is (because we all know that), but that it is the people around you and the love that you can gain (and share) from them that makes it worthwhile.

I hope something within this edition will put a smile on your dial as that's all it's meant for. Take it easy and remember the old saying from the legendary Greek Philosopher Karlos Korompadopolopolous: -

"You can do all your sleeping when you're dead".

Ed Woodley and Mick