Logan Nathan and Nadine Katene won this year's Harcourts Dancing for Hospice. Photo / Andrew Warner
OPINION
What a difference September has made already.
A new month, new season, new alert level, and from my seat in the radio studio, just a general positive feeling about what is ahead.
And while there has been that mood of change, best we still remember and heed the health warnings.
We're not out of this just yet, and we need to still stick to the rules, and all get vaccinated!
Yes I'm happy to say I'm double jabbed, happy to put my name to any campaign encouraging others to do so, and fully believe that every employer should have the right to make it mandatory for their employee's to get jabbed, or get the move along.
I believe our vaccine rollout has been one of the worst in the world, and it has taken another outbreak to finally get it moving.
In my opinion, as a country we have gone from poster child to laughing stock in less than a year.
It is so frustrating now seeing most of the rest of the world enjoying freedoms, getting on with life and coping with Covid, while we languish in more lockdowns and restrictions.
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But back to the positive stuff.
One reason for the more positive vibes personally, is that in the Hickey household we've entered what is essentially 'gift week' in our house.
Two birthdays and Father's Day mean three of four in the family get a gift day over the course of this week; or that is what would normally happen.
It seems we all got caught out by the lockdown and getting the planned gifts, or doing the shop wander for ideas didn't happen in time.
So gifts will have to wait, and it will be the gift of time spent together that we'll all have to be happy with for now!
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One of the highlights of the lockdown period has been this week's final reveal of how much money was raised at this year's Harcourt's Dancing For Hospice event.
It was a whopping $130,000, which is a stunning amount given the circumstances of the preceding 12 months.
It is testament to the support of the Rotorua community to the event itself, and the amazing work that Hospice does in our community.
Congratulations to everybody involved.
I must admit to a sigh of relief that the event timing saw it happen without any alert level changes, however there have been plenty of other events across the region adversely affected by the latest Covid outbreak.
I feel for all those organisers and groups who had invested so much time, money and effort into putting events on for the community only to have to postpone them, or cancel completely.
Even for me personally over the past three weeks I've had 10 events that I was due to MC or host have to be put off, and there will no doubt be more.
Like the hospo and retail businesses, we need to make sure we get out and support these events once they do get back into the swing of it under alert level 1, whenever that may be.
One thing is for sure, it is going to make for a very busy lead up to summer!
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This week on The Hits, we've been asking our listeners to decide which decade was better; the 90s or the 00s (Naughties).
We've been staging daily battles between the music of the eras and talk about memory flashbacks!
Think the Odeon Theatre, Ace Of Clubs, Big Fresh, Lions Rugby, Monkey Joe ... oh the list goes on.
We're continuing this next week so join me for the music highlights, the memories and a few special local guests from years gone by.
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Paul Hickey is the host of the local Rotorua show on The Hits Rotorua weekdays between 9am and 3pm. Listen on 97.5FM or download the iHeartRadio app. Follow The Hits Rotorua and Paul on Facebook and Instagram.
The airport is built on land confiscated by the Crown in 1866.