The Sun
Friday April 21, 2017
Pen pals for over 60 years
inbrief
By Celeste Alexander Blenheim woman Harleen Apperley has been writing to her pen pal from Northern Ireland for over 60 years. It’s a friendship that was forged by pen and paper from the age of 12, with plenty of memories shared over the years. Harleen spotted a column in a magazine advertising pen pals and she responded by writing to all three. The only one who wrote back was Gladys Wallace from Coleraine, 55 miles from Belfast. They wrote every three months and being a similar age, their friendship has only grown stronger over the years. “We had similar interests like puzzles and reading and shared regular updates on our families as they grew,” Harleen says. She says letter writing is something not a lot of people do anymore but she relishes receiving her letters from Gladys. “People email and text more nowadays, but I like writing and sending photos. I like getting mail, I always smile when I see a letter
Military exercise
from her.” Harleen describes the feeling of receiving the letters as ‘special arrivals’. “It’s exciting to see what she has written, especially if she has sent souvenirs over or photos. “Opening the envelope and finding out what’s inside is a thrill.” Although they haven’t met, Harleen says they are good friends. “If I met her in person I would probably cry. “I would be so thrilled to see her as she’s lovely and we shared a lot over the years. “I’m definitely looking forward to many more letters,” she says. In her younger years Harleen says she lived and worked in Kaikoura as the local mail deliverer before moving to Blenheim with her husband and working at a lingerie factory. Gladys is also retired after working as a school teacher for 36 years and helps her husband on the family farm. Today Harleen is retired and living at Aberleigh Village rest home, but still putting her writing skills to good use.
Correction The electric vehicle convoy is in Blenheim Thursday next week, not yesterday, as reported in the Sun on Wednesday. We regret the error.
Earth Day event tomorrow
Blenheim woman Harleen Apperley has been writing to her pen pal in Northern Ireland since she was 12 years old.
than that. The Sun understands it could be two months before a decision is made on the district nurses’ location. Stuart says there seems to be a ‘mismatch’ between the district health board and the district nurses. “Some of the things the district nurses are putting up as problems, I don’t think are, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems in the proposal though.” He says the nurses are ‘right to ask the questions’. The Health Hub in Queen Street.
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The Sun
Air force C-130 Hercules planes are flying low over Marlborough as part of Exercise Skytrain. More than 200 people from the air force and army are at Base Woodbourne, near Blenheim, to take part in the exercise which finishes next Thursday. The tactical low-level flying and aerial drops exercise will use C-130 Hercules aircraft, and there may be low-level flying at night. Detachment Commander for Exercise Skytrain, Squadron Leader Blair Oldershaw, said the exercise was about focusing on aircrew skills and other techniques when flying the C-130.
More to be done: Stuart Smith By Cathie Bell A new plan has been put in front of Blenheim’s district nurses, Kaikoura MP Stuart Smith says. Stuart, who has been contacted by constituents unhappy about the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board’s proposal to move district nurses from Wairau Hospital to the Health Hub in Blenheim’s Queen Street, says his understanding is that no decisions have been made yet but that a new plan has been put to the nurses. He says he cannot say more about it
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Tomorrow the inaugural ‘Marlborough Earth Day’ is being held at the A&P Park in Blenheim from 10am - 3pm. There will be a number of businesses exhibiting their products and technologies that are designed to reduce emissions of carbonn and other harmful waste products, as well as speakers. For the kids there will be entertainment including bouncy castles, food and music during the day.
Good season ahead Fish & Game staff are predicting a very strong start to the new game bird season in some parts of both the South and North islands thanks to the wet spring and summer. The season opens on May 6. In some regions, such as Marlborough, the wet spring conditions which extended into summer provided ideal conditions for ducks to breed and raise their ducklings.