I won a local writing competition! Well, I won the ‘all ages’ category. There was also a ‘youth’ category, and the winner of that was the overall winner. So, what I’m really telling you, is that I was beaten by a twelve-year-old.

To make it even better, when asked if he was surprised to win, the overall winner (allegedly) said ‘oh no.’ Ah, such confidence!

The competition was called ‘Write Wainuiomata’. For my overseas readers, Wainuiomata is an area i...