Willis and Luxon
An insightful interview with Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis in the Herald. Was nice to see they can hassle each other:
In return, Luxon says he has discovered Willis has “a wicked sense of humour”.
He had a painful brush with that sense of humour just before the interview.
It was a totally deserved one. He and Willis were inspecting his newish digital photo frame, one of the few personal items in a very spartan office.
He had brought it to add a homely touch to his “gilded cage” – the ninth-floor office of the Prime Minister.
Willis then narked on him, telling us the first time she saw his new photo frame the photo displayed was a portrait of himself.
She was merciless in her mockery. She even took a selfie of herself next to the photo in question, which she shows off.
She laughs and laughs and notes that she totally understood why he would want photos of himself to look at, saying somebody might want to start the day looking at something that inspired them.
“So here you are, starting your day looking at an image of yourself to motivate you.”
He takes it very well, laughing and trying to explain that at that stage he had not curated the photos that would rotate through it.
The exchange dispels any doubt Willis might defer easily to Luxon and whether he can handle having the mickey taken out of him.
I regard it as a very good thing that you can take the Mickey out of your boss, and that your boss can handle it.
Nicola mischievous streak ius also covered in this interview with Tova O’Brien:
With that, I suggested she’d already answered the Theresa May memorial question, ‘what’s the naughtiest thing you ever did?’ (the former British PM famously replied that she’d, gasp, run through a field of wheat), but Willis says no, the question would be lost on her because she did a lot of naughty stuff – and started young.
“I remember I literally, at my primary school, turned the power off at the mains, which led to everyone in the school having to evacuate and go onto the field and them asking who had done it and so yeah, I did naughty stuff.”
Reminds me of my kids a bit. This week we were walking through a rest home and passed a group of residents. One of them had a beautiful hand carved walking stick. My youngest (4) stopped as he passed him, grabbed the walking stick and declared it was now his staff and walked off with it! You are equally mortified and amused. And yes it was promptly returned.