Without a hitch 👍 Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:24:46 -0400 http://www.withoutahitch.co.nz en-nz © 2026 Without a hitch 👍 yes Support this Podcast e80e18dc-af86-5f0e-9cb3-dcd1d273eb61 Richard Allardice episodic true Richard Allardice tells true, funny stories of failure. With occasional, practical tidbits on how not to fail.

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) humour, commentary, essays, stories, storytelling, personal journals Richard Allardice https://storage.buzzsprout.com/i2amhmfuvywr13ilg2f2froyfahm?.jpg Without a hitch 👍 http://www.withoutahitch.co.nz 14: Dog’s Spare Human Holds Phone in Cold Dark Street 14: Dog’s Spare Human Holds Phone in Cold Dark Street Is a poodle cross a good choice for a guard dog, if your neighbourhood is embroiled in light to medium crime? Today’s story answers the hard questions. A tale of posh pets, local delinquency, and a fear of snobbery.

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]]> Is a poodle cross a good choice for a guard dog, if your neighbourhood is embroiled in light to medium crime? Today’s story answers the hard questions. A tale of posh pets, local delinquency, and a fear of snobbery.

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-18859695 Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +1300 1324 14 full true 13: Soul of the trail 13: Soul of the trail Today’s episode is about the outdoors and space: how we seek out the outdoors as a reset for our troubles; and how we negotiate physical space with our fellow humans, harmoniously or otherwise. Features:

  • Pride, fancy boots and mangoes – when a forest walk, far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, goes awry
  • Neutrinos, a haunting road trip and getting frazzled – a foray into the science (my version) of getting overwhelmed
  • Murmurations, swimming pools and etiquette – a look at the social science of personal space, including why we get so annoyed when people don’t follow the rules
  • A poetic bookend from a chronic memoriser 

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]]> Today’s episode is about the outdoors and space: how we seek out the outdoors as a reset for our troubles; and how we negotiate physical space with our fellow humans, harmoniously or otherwise. Features:

  • Pride, fancy boots and mangoes – when a forest walk, far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, goes awry
  • Neutrinos, a haunting road trip and getting frazzled – a foray into the science (my version) of getting overwhelmed
  • Murmurations, swimming pools and etiquette – a look at the social science of personal space, including why we get so annoyed when people don’t follow the rules
  • A poetic bookend from a chronic memoriser 

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-12343661 Tue, 28 Feb 2023 20:00:00 +1300 2749 13 full true 12: Notes from a small house IV 12: Notes from a small house IV Today’s episode is the fourth in the Notes from a small house series – short tales of life in and around a small house chock full of animals, people and stuff. 

The theme is habits – the patterns we find ourselves falling into, and the patterns we notice in others, including the good, the bad, and the strange. Features:

  • Choosing your preferred parent – kids reveal the truth
  • Witnessing the fitness (or lack thereof) at taekwondo
  • Posh cats with impossible standards
  • The dragon chicken – on eggs and hoarding
  • The ever mug – when coffee never ends

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]]> Today’s episode is the fourth in the Notes from a small house series – short tales of life in and around a small house chock full of animals, people and stuff. 

The theme is habits – the patterns we find ourselves falling into, and the patterns we notice in others, including the good, the bad, and the strange. Features:

  • Choosing your preferred parent – kids reveal the truth
  • Witnessing the fitness (or lack thereof) at taekwondo
  • Posh cats with impossible standards
  • The dragon chicken – on eggs and hoarding
  • The ever mug – when coffee never ends

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-11125828 Fri, 12 Aug 2022 20:00:00 +1200 1050 12 full false 11: Notes from a small house III 11: Notes from a small house III Today’s episode is the third in the Notes from a small house series – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. 

The theme is misaligned perceptions – how something perfectly reasonable to one may be anathema to another. Features:

  • A smashed face, and what to do about those teeth
  • Old cows, barbecues and vegetarianism
  • Rabbits in the home, and everywhere, for eternity
  • How to be a demotivational speaker (or not to be)
  • Kihap! like you mean it – a taekwondo tale

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is the third in the Notes from a small house series – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. 

The theme is misaligned perceptions – how something perfectly reasonable to one may be anathema to another. Features:

  • A smashed face, and what to do about those teeth
  • Old cows, barbecues and vegetarianism
  • Rabbits in the home, and everywhere, for eternity
  • How to be a demotivational speaker (or not to be)
  • Kihap! like you mean it – a taekwondo tale

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-10788961 Tue, 14 Jun 2022 16:00:00 +1200 1022 humor, parenting 11 full true 10: Notes from a small house II 10: Notes from a small house II Today’s episode is the second in the Notes from a small house series – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. Features:

  • Reverse sibling psychology
  • Photodynamic face-melting therapy
  • Artificial intelligence muttering to itself in the next room
  • Things kids say to imply they don’t like their dinner and certainly won’t be eating it

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is the second in the Notes from a small house series – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. Features:

  • Reverse sibling psychology
  • Photodynamic face-melting therapy
  • Artificial intelligence muttering to itself in the next room
  • Things kids say to imply they don’t like their dinner and certainly won’t be eating it

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-10238884 Sun, 13 Mar 2022 17:00:00 +1300 1049 humor, parenting 10 full false 9: Notes from a small house I 9: Notes from a small house I Today’s episode is the first in a series called Notes from a small house – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. Features:

  • Inexact questions
  • Kids being lawyers
  • An avalanche of artwork
  • A forlorn-looking dog who can’t make up his mind
  • Things kids announce just as you’re rushing out the door for school at 8:59am

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is the first in a series called Notes from a small house – chaotic, funny stories from a smallish house chock-full of people and animals. Features:

  • Inexact questions
  • Kids being lawyers
  • An avalanche of artwork
  • A forlorn-looking dog who can’t make up his mind
  • Things kids announce just as you’re rushing out the door for school at 8:59am

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-10149713 Sun, 27 Feb 2022 18:00:00 +1300 688 humour, parenting, true stories 9 full false 8: Wait, what did you say? Part II 8: Wait, what did you say? Part II Today’s episode is the second part of a two-part series on language, looking at phrases we use all the time, but which on closer examination are a bit weird, misleading or funny. Features:

  • Bears, hares and wondering where – notes on the hilarious linguistic laziness of Kiwi English
  • Stars, lasers and taxi cabs – the glorious (and mixed) metaphors of workplace language
  • An examination of idioms and phrases I never quite understood as a kid – and still don’t, really

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is the second part of a two-part series on language, looking at phrases we use all the time, but which on closer examination are a bit weird, misleading or funny. Features:

  • Bears, hares and wondering where – notes on the hilarious linguistic laziness of Kiwi English
  • Stars, lasers and taxi cabs – the glorious (and mixed) metaphors of workplace language
  • An examination of idioms and phrases I never quite understood as a kid – and still don’t, really

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-9587097 Mon, 22 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +1300 1182 language, humour, work 8 full false 7: Wait, what did you say? Part I 7: Wait, what did you say? Part I Today’s episode is about language and working out what things mean – generally by saying the wrong things first, and then looking back on them to either laugh or cringe. Features:

  • Blurts and faux pas – when you don’t know what the right thing to say is until you’ve already said the wrong one
  • Demonstrating how irony works to your secondary school students by living ironically
  • A rendezvous with a supermarket checkout machine
  • A starfish and a universal theory of humour
  • Quaint things your five-year-old daughter says after listening to a lot of Enid Blyton books

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is about language and working out what things mean – generally by saying the wrong things first, and then looking back on them to either laugh or cringe. Features:

  • Blurts and faux pas – when you don’t know what the right thing to say is until you’ve already said the wrong one
  • Demonstrating how irony works to your secondary school students by living ironically
  • A rendezvous with a supermarket checkout machine
  • A starfish and a universal theory of humour
  • Quaint things your five-year-old daughter says after listening to a lot of Enid Blyton books

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-9463001 Sun, 31 Oct 2021 21:00:00 +1300 1129 language, stories, humour 7 full true 6: Hitches 6: Hitches Today’s episode is about hitchhiking, and that choice you have to make when someone pulls over to give you a ride: Should I trust this person? Listen to four tales where this was a difficult question to answer. Note: Contains R-rated language and themes. Features: 

  • A paranoid fellow wielding a machete and asking where I live
  • Looking for love in the wrong places, by a driver obsessed with porn and a shade removed from reality
  • Incredibly inappropriate humour during a high-speed dash through Hamilton, New Zealand
  • Throwing caution to the wind in Japan in the pursuit of maximum freedom, but then hopping in a car with a guy claiming “gun”

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is about hitchhiking, and that choice you have to make when someone pulls over to give you a ride: Should I trust this person? Listen to four tales where this was a difficult question to answer. Note: Contains R-rated language and themes. Features: 

  • A paranoid fellow wielding a machete and asking where I live
  • Looking for love in the wrong places, by a driver obsessed with porn and a shade removed from reality
  • Incredibly inappropriate humour during a high-speed dash through Hamilton, New Zealand
  • Throwing caution to the wind in Japan in the pursuit of maximum freedom, but then hopping in a car with a guy claiming “gun”

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-9393956 Tue, 19 Oct 2021 20:00:00 +1300 2165 humour, storytelling, hitchhiking 6 full true 5: Smoko 5: Smoko Today’s episode is about work. It chronicles a series of jobs that I thought were terrible at the time, although perhaps I should have given them more of a chance. I was young, and didn’t yet have much of a work ethic. Features: 

  • Riding the zeitgeist and cleaning toilets – epiphanies while working the nightshift
  • Kiwifruit, Viagra and the gift of rain – trying and failing to develop a work ethic
  • Animal impressions, chess addiction and meaningful work – attempting to be an upstanding museum worker, with mixed results
  • Google Doc lurkers – why are people always in that Google Doc, week after week, month after month?

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is about work. It chronicles a series of jobs that I thought were terrible at the time, although perhaps I should have given them more of a chance. I was young, and didn’t yet have much of a work ethic. Features: 

  • Riding the zeitgeist and cleaning toilets – epiphanies while working the nightshift
  • Kiwifruit, Viagra and the gift of rain – trying and failing to develop a work ethic
  • Animal impressions, chess addiction and meaningful work – attempting to be an upstanding museum worker, with mixed results
  • Google Doc lurkers – why are people always in that Google Doc, week after week, month after month?

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-9299935 Sun, 03 Oct 2021 19:00:00 +1300 1509 work, humour, storytelling, funny 5 full false 4: Hey, teacher! 4: Hey, teacher! Today’s episode is about teaching, including what it’s like to be a teacher, plus the impression we might form of our own teachers. Features:

  • A story of teaching in Japan and trying to melt the ice with difficult colleagues
  • The performance of teaching gone wrong, plus trying to balance pet and family life in the background
  • Burning out and leaving the teaching profession, including the responses of colleagues, and the guilt
  • An almost unbelievable tale of a primary school trip to the sewage treatment plant – coordinated by a teacher who truly must have drawn the short straw

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is about teaching, including what it’s like to be a teacher, plus the impression we might form of our own teachers. Features:

  • A story of teaching in Japan and trying to melt the ice with difficult colleagues
  • The performance of teaching gone wrong, plus trying to balance pet and family life in the background
  • Burning out and leaving the teaching profession, including the responses of colleagues, and the guilt
  • An almost unbelievable tale of a primary school trip to the sewage treatment plant – coordinated by a teacher who truly must have drawn the short straw

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-9225334 Mon, 20 Sep 2021 18:00:00 +1200 1884 teaching, humour, storytelling, teachers, education, pets 4 full true 3: School’s out 3: School’s out Today’s episode is about school and a little about hard luck – negotiating the slings and arrows of a boarding school in the nineties, and finding the humour in all of it. Features:

  • Some background notes on what school is really for
  • The story of a duckling, a Vauxhall Viva, and the deep irony of trying to do the right thing but making things much, much worse
  • An examination of a really, really big nose, and how (strangely) it was excluded from the bullying canon

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is about school and a little about hard luck – negotiating the slings and arrows of a boarding school in the nineties, and finding the humour in all of it. Features:

  • Some background notes on what school is really for
  • The story of a duckling, a Vauxhall Viva, and the deep irony of trying to do the right thing but making things much, much worse
  • An examination of a really, really big nose, and how (strangely) it was excluded from the bullying canon

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-9177703 Sun, 12 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +1200 1258 3 full true 2: What’s in a name? 2: What’s in a name? Today’s episode is about names – the names we choose for ourselves, and how we might “make a name for ourselves”. Features:

  • The story behind the name “Without a hitch”
  • A troupe of guys all called John, how I distinguished between them, and my attempts to make a name for myself amongst “the Johns”
  • The hilarious and odd pet names we decided against, after a democratic process to decide on a name for pet #12

Support the show

]]> Today’s episode is about names – the names we choose for ourselves, and how we might “make a name for ourselves”. Features:

  • The story behind the name “Without a hitch”
  • A troupe of guys all called John, how I distinguished between them, and my attempts to make a name for myself amongst “the Johns”
  • The hilarious and odd pet names we decided against, after a democratic process to decide on a name for pet #12

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-9177651 Sun, 12 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +1200 952 2 full true 1: Holy WTF 1: Holy WTF Today’s theme is impressions. What feelings or impressions do you get when you first meet someone, or experience something for the first time? What things stay with you, and what effect do they have on you?

Features a housesitter called Digby and a comprehensive list of flatting horrors.

Support the show

]]> Today’s theme is impressions. What feelings or impressions do you get when you first meet someone, or experience something for the first time? What things stay with you, and what effect do they have on you?

Features a housesitter called Digby and a comprehensive list of flatting horrors.

Support the show

]]> Richard Allardice Buzzsprout-9103048 Sun, 29 Aug 2021 18:00:00 +1200 1523 1 full true