ABC Wednesday: J for Jandals, and not just for fun.

Excellent participation by this teacher and her class. Ka Pai and Paki Paki.


In New Zealand, the jandal is a national icon. Jandals stands for Japanese sandals. In Germany, my friend H tells me it is known as flip flop. In USA, I believe it is also known as flip flops, in Australia, they call it thongs, in China and Taiwan, it is cool shoes, and in Singapore, and Malaysia , we call it Japanese slippers or just slippers.

Today is a special day in school. We had a parade. The weather was terrible, so we had it in the auditorium. It was our fancy bike/scooter/skateboard parade, and it is not JUST for fun. It is serious stuff. It is about travelwise.


Please read the email from Keren, the teacher who organised this day.

I know the Year 5/6’s are out that week ( They went to camp) but I am inviting the rest of our staff to take part in what I am hoping will be a fun week!



Room 2 are going to help me organise the following:



A teacher’s GUESS MY SHOE competition-this is where I am asking you the teacher to bring in 1 shoe and the kids will be guessing who it belongs to!
Lunch time: Obstacle course for Year 3 & 4 children on bikes & scooters
Lunch Time: Year 0/1 & 2 Fancy Bike Parade
Fancy Feet Competition on Friday 23rd March in Whole School Assembly-Maxx the Pukeko might be coming to judge!
All teachers who walk/bike to school from home go in the draw for a prize…or park at the top end of Point Chevalier Road (Montrose Street or Meola Road if you are coming from the North Shore) and then walk to school!



Thanks for your support

Cheers

Keren

( Mr. Pukeko, I walk to school)



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ABC WEdnesday: Imagination

Today is Watery Wednesday meme, for my church, it is water wednesday as part of our Thailand project. It is for Thailand. We abstain from drinking anything but water and imagine what it is like in places where there no clean water. The Mt Albert Baptist Church sold shares to build a well in Thailand.
































Our Pizza oven is ready.
I take my students to look.
Wear your imagination hat,
I tell them.
It's an igloo.
Let's have a party.
Imagine you are in Iceland.
You are invited.
We will have ice coffee,
We will have ice water.
We will have ice cakes.
We will have ice cupcakes.
We will have ice blocks.







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ABC Wednesday: H for hen, henhouse, hedge and hinge

I was walking along Pt Chevalier Road when I saw this truck. I think as a non technical person, there are a lot of hinges on this truck.

I looked around and saw no one around so I whipped out my camera. But I was spotted by two friendly and good looking guys. One of them asked me why I was talking photos of his truck. I told him, I was blogging, and he said don't take the name of his truck. I am sure his employer won't sack him.

In fact, they were very good PR person for this company which is doing a great job for the environment. They collect our green waste and recycle and reuse to help grow healthy plants in our city. Ka Pai and Paki Paki.


If you are in Auckland, you can find The Garden Bag Company at 0800 307346 mobile: (027) 478 9420








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ABC Wed: Letter C for sugar cane and celebration.

The Chinese celebrate their new year for 15 days. For the Hokkien/Fujien dialect group of Southern China, they celebrate the 9th day in a big way. According to history, this coastal province was attacked by bandits on the evening of the 8th. They ran into the sugar cane fields. Because the sugar cane plants had "hairs", the bandits didn't want to go into the fields and get itchy all over.

The Hokkiens attribute their survival to the humble sugar cane. Up till this day in Singapore, the Hokkien people would buy two stalks of sugar cane, from the leaves to the roots, and place them on either sides of their front door.

The temples have worshippers and roast pigs and longevity buns. Even non worshippers display the sugar cane as a cultural thing. My parents are Cantonese, I didn't celebrate this day.



Here are sugar canes if you ever wonder where your sweets and lollies come from. I didn't eat a lot of lollies when I was young. Mum would cut a few stalks, we cut them to 1 foot lengths, peel off the hard outer skin, and then bite off and chew the sweet inside. It was good for the teeth, as the fibre clean the teeth very well.

My sister Helen lives in Australia. This closeup shows the bottom end of the sugar cane which you can eat because it is very hard and has root.




Facebook has connected me to many of long lost friends and friends of my siblings. I am full of euphoria.

Nostalgia surged through me, and I sent emails to old school mates and my greetings. Today, I even got connected to a woman who was many years my senior in school. I was very happy to "meet" her husband who knew my Dad and a good friend of my bro-in-law.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge. I now use the name Ann that Dad used for my Roman Catholic Baptism. Many of my classmates and studnets would not know who Ann Chin is , as Chin is my married name. I told the water engineer that perhaps I should revert back to my madam name when my books make me famous. LOL. My name in school was Chan Kit Suet, Kit Suet is translated as Puresnow.

This photo was taken when I was 14. Tt was taken at Buloh Road, a Government quarter. You can see part of the neighbouring house which is identical to ours. The house has stilts. I sent this photo to my pen pal in England, and she noticed the stilts. We had floods every year. The plants behind me is sugar cane.

Sarawakiana, this was when I was next door to your Uncle CC Chang. Mrs. Loi, that was the year, 1968. The year I remember seeing you.




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ABC Wed: Z for Zumba

This sign is 5 minutes from my house, but I am too embarrassed to join them, me with my flabby tummy. So I took the top three photos from the TV.


Zumba is a Latin dance -inspired fitness program created by dancer and choreographer Alberto "Beto" Perez in Colombia during the 1990s.

Zumba involves dance and aerobic elements. Zumba's choreography incorporates hip-hop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue, mambo, martial arts, and some Bollywood and belly dance moves. Squats and lunges are also included.

Zumba became very popular in New Zealand, and gyms and even church halls were offering Zumba sessions. They have infomercial on TV and I have never actually watch. Me being more interested in my finger exercise with my computer. But this morning, I remember it is letter Z this week, and last month, I saw a sign and took a photo in anticipation for this week's challenge.

My friend Megan told me that she has the CDs that she could do Zumba with. May be I could do that. and have the body one can only dream off.







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ABC WED: Y for yeanling

In New Zealand, we have a lot of sheep and their babies. I always thought a baby sheep is called a lamb, but when I came to New Zealand, a lamb is not just a New Born. The meat of a sheep in its first year is lamb; that of a juvenile sheep older than 1 year is hogget; and the meat of an adult sheep is mutton. In doing this post, I learn that an unusual name for a young lamb is a yeanling. We learn something new everyday.

The first Sheep were landed in New Zealand by Captain Cook in 1773. The Sheep population grew to 70.3 million in 1982 but has now declined to 43.1 million due to declining profits compared to other types of farming.

That represents 12 sheep for every person in New Zealand. Lambing is usually in Spring, sometimes the yeanlings decide to come earlier, and then there is a cold snap, and it is tragic to see the farmers losing the babies.



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ABC Wednesday: waves, water, wetsuits and W.W.W.

Schools out, and it is our summer holiday.
It is anything but hot.
The last ten days in New Zealand can be termed aptly as WET! WET! WET!
My 15 year old had been dreaming about surfing.
We enrolled him for a surf lesson.
We drove to Omaha to catch the waves.
It was cold and rainy. While he was warm and snug in his wet suit, I was shivering and dripping wet with a tourist from Germany.

Surfaris Surf School & Surf Tours, described by YHA NZ as 'A truly unforgettable experience' is a respected surf company operating across Northland offering surf lessons and surf tours to tourists and New Zealanders. The Surfaris all-inclusive surf tours travel to remote locations in search of good times and fun waves. We promote surf lessons, surf tours, school & holiday camps, corporate team http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbuilding, women's surf retreats, family surf days, beach education, surf culture and adventure. Learning to surf is a great discipline that feeds the mind, body and soul so why not give it a go! Standing for the first time is a memory to last that will have you smiling from ear to ear. Surfaris is committed to sustainability and take steps at all times to ensure we take nothing but experience from the environment.

Surfaris is internationally accredited and we've helped many people of all ages experience the thrill of surfing.

The World Wide Web (or the proper World-Wide Web; abbreviated as WWW or W3,[2] and commonly known as the Web) is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks. In New Zealand, when you listen to the TV or radio, W.W.W. sounds like DUB DUB DUB.


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ABC Wednesday: V for voting, victorious, vision and vortex Football

David Shearer, a high-ranking United Nations official, the Labour Party's candidate was victorious in the by-election in the parliamentary seat of Mt Albert left vacant by Helen Clark who left to work in the United nations. In the national general election in November this year, he was victorious in the same seat. Yesterday, he was victorious in winning in his bid to become the leader of the Labour party. Mr Shearer was voted as by caucus in a secret ballot, and become the leader of the opposition party.

I am not a member of any political party, but I support the under dog, the poor working class. In my university days, I worked in factories in the long summer break. That has influenced my thinking. I believe Shearer is a man of vision and will lead the Labour party and become the Prime Minister after the next election.

This photo was taken during the by election just before he was voted into parliament in a by-election. Shearer was standing outside my school entrance as I was going home. His supporter gave me his red flyer. I did a double take, and went back to take his photo. He was most obliging and thanked me. Of course he doesn't know that I am doing a post about him.

Shearer is an aid worker who has spent much of the past two decades in the world's worst war zones: Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Lebanon and now Iraq.

Herald files show a number of close calls, such as surviving an armed hold-up by bandits in Mogadishu to being on the ground in Belgrade while it was being bombed.

Mr Shearer and his wife, Anuschka Meyer, were the Herald's New Zealanders of the Year in 1992. That year, they ran one of the biggest aid camps in Somalia during the civil war.

He is currently the deputy special representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in Iraq.

His role includes acting as envoy for the UN Development Programme





Nerf Pocket Vortex Football of just known as the vortex ball in New Zealand.
The Pocket Vortex Football means lots of far-flying fun around the office! This pocket-sized football is easy to throw and catch, and its stabilizing fins provide for distance and accuracy. The football is made of dense foam, but it's still soft enough to minimize the damage of errant throws (something only your co-workers are guilty of, of course). Get this Nerf Street Zone football for your office fun and games!

My friends tell me, "someday you will get into trouble the way you flash you camera out."

In deed sometimes, I had security guards tell me I have to leave. Sometimes they ask why I am taking the photos. But most times , my models were quite happy and obliging to pose for me.

This was the second time I saw grown men playing a small rugby shaped ball which makes a whistling sound. It attracted my attention and I whipped out my camera from my holiday cabin in Waitomo caves. But I didn't feel brave enough to take their photos openly. My first attempt failed.

This is the second, you can see the initial attempt was done in secret, the photos didn't turn out good, so I went and asked them,

"What ball is this?"
"It's a vortex?'
"Vortex what? I have never seen them on TV?"
"It's fun."
"May I take a photo of you.
"Sure!" and he posed for me.

The rest of the group, some guys and some girls with guitars, they enjoyed my interuption.

I came home and google it, it is very cheap US$1.99, not too late to buy it to stock up you Christmas stocking. You can play it any where, snow or sand.
Approximately 6.5" long x 2" diameter, dense foam.



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ABC Wednesday: T for Toast and Toastmaster Mr. Ting Ming Siong

In 1991, when i was living in Singapore, I was very surprised and proud that a man from my home town Sibu, Mr. Ting Ming Siong held a Guiness World Record. I read with pride that he held the record for being a best man for the most number of times.

That Christmas, I returned to Sibu to visit my relatives. My aunts treated me to a restaurant at the See Hua Daily News factory at Sungai Antu. Lo and behold, who did I see seated at the next table? I asked my aunt if he was who I thought he was. My aunt said yes, and asked how I knew. I told her I read it in the Newspaper in Singapore.

I asked my aunt why he was so popular. She said he is very eloquent in his speech. He was not just a bestman, people requested his services as a Toastmaster and his toasts.

I went to congratulate him and asked if I could have a photo with him and his lovely wife and family. He was very happy to oblige and that the news paper in Singapore published an article about him.

Last evening, I made a new Facebook friend orignally from my home town, but now workinging in Miri. Christopher Gan is a Wedding Planner at Grand Palace Hotel, Miri. His friend commented that he must have organised so many weddings that he could be in the guiness records, I asked Christipher if he knew about this Best man.

Christopher said yes, and told me that Mr. Ting runs a coffee shop called Delta Cafe in Sibu. He sent me a photo of that important document.

Thank you Christopher for the Coffee Shop photos and his own with the chef.

Here's another of my bucket list ticked. To be photographed with a famous person, a Guiness World Book record holder. It pays to be shameless and ask to have a photo taken with famous people.


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