In 2008 I shaved my shoulder length hair off to raise money for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Research Trust.  I decided to do it after a conversation with my kids about the importance of standing up for what you believe in.  Having just told them that if they believed strongly enough in something they should be prepared to take action for it, they promptly asked what I was prepared to stand up for.  In 2007 I had written two articles for Annah Stretton's PINK magazine about Herceptin and had been moved by not only the women I'd interviewed but by the people campaigning for the drug to be subsidised in New Zealand: from oncologists to politicians to lawyers to housewives.  I thought about it for a while then found myself saying I was prepared to shave my head to raise money for research to find a cure. The kids - unsurprisingly - were horrified.  They had coped when I had collected money for Pink Ribbon Day dressed as a pink fairy but a bald pink fairy?  Anyway I did it - hoping to raise $200 - in the end we raised over $2,000.

Some time ago – late 2007 or early 2008 if I remember rightly – I was sent a copy of Seth Godin’s ‘The Dip’ to review.  Now life being what it is, and the actual book being what it is (which is small), ‘The Dip’ sort of got pushed to the bottom of the pile of things to do.