Photohunt: Loud

A Seagull squawking very LOUD protecting the Omaha bird santuary as he perches at the warning sign.





This week's topic is LOUD


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Photohunt: Bliss

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You can't see the bliss my son is feeling after getting up on the surf sail board for the first time, after umpteen times of falling in the water, especially when his fellow student is still falling.

windsurfing in Pt Chevalier at Raymond Reserve. Coached by e Pete Smith WNZ Master Instructor.http://www.aucklandwindsurfing.co.nz/

PhotoHunt theme 'Circular'.

I am told not to rest on my laurels, I tell new friends I ran the marathon in 2005, (albeit 10 kilometers) once I finished that gruelsome run in Singapore, I have not seriously run another lap. It's hard to pick it up. My running partner is in USA, and she suggested that she encourages me over the internet. I have become old and put on weight and lack the discipline. and I have the bane that plague women who had multiple pregnancies. In short, my son says he won't go on the Amazing Race partnering me, because I need too many toilet stops.



The PhotoHunt theme for the week is 'Circular'.

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Photohunt: Handwritten

I teach English as a second langauge to adult immigrant students as well as primary school children. I use a lot of plans which I print out for the students. But I hand write on the white board.

This lesson was on The Mooncake festival. I had no intention of recording this lesson. If I had known my students had wanted to photograph this, I would have done it neatly. At the end of the lesson, a student from Taiwan asked if she could take a photo. LOL

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photohunt:wet/rain

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Photohunt: wet/rain

My cousin Ambrose visited Thailand. How wet can you get? Living on top of the water.

photo hunt: 2 helicopters & 2 cruise liners

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My husband went to Papua New Guinea for work, and he flew in helicopters a lot.




My Cousin Bart Ngieng is the Travel Manager with Wah Tung Travel Service Sdn Bhd. in Kuching, Sarawak Malaysia. www.wahtung.travel

He took his wife and my aunt and uncle to a cruise to Europe. Ka pai , paki paki Bart for being a good husband and son. Ka pai means good job and paki paki means clap clap in New Zealand.

Bart tells me it is "Pacific Primcess cruise ship, together with Silversea anchored off Sorrento, Italy. How cool is that?


3 more days to vote:

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Photohunt/save the world:Light

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These beautiful lights at the Gold Coast Park are powered by solar energy.

The lights changes color, and I was very impressed that they were powered by solar power.

If only more buildings were powered by solar, we won't have so much pollution and shortage of fossil fuel.

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Photohunt: Broken

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The earthquake on February 22 in Christchurch broke many Historic Buildings. I went to Christchurch in August and took this photos. My heart bled.


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photohunt: drink Chinese green tea

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My favourite cuppa: Chinese green tea served in tiny bowl like cups. You can't fill the tea to the brim because it will be too hot to hold the handleless cups.

Photohunt: Painting

http://www.currumbin-sanctuary.org.au/

Yes, I know this week's challenge is on painting, but I want to focus on the painter who paints the paintings. I asked her if I could photograph her paintings. She said she didn't know if the management would allow me to do it. I was just in awe that Barbara Stockill sells her paintings and the proceeds go to the Animal Hospital. She is there on Sundays and Tuesdays as an artist, and a volunteer on Thursdays.

You will have to imagine her paintings from the photos I have taken on this sanctuary, they would be kangaroos, wallabies, koalas,and beautiful birds of Australia.

I spent a wonderful time of nostalgia and interests at this wild life sanctuary at the Gold Coast of Australia.

25 years years ago, I went with Mum and Dad and D to see the famous Kangaroos and Koalas. Mum and Dad have passed away, and going back there makes it a special place.

They have a new place, the Green trail adventure challenge which Sam completed. http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2010/01/scenic-sunday-currumbin-sanctuary.html


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From the website:

With hundreds of native Australian animals on display in natural bushland and rainforest settings, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary provides a rare opportunity to get closer to our amazing native wildlife.

A place where you can enjoy exciting, interactive displays, presentations and dining experiences. Nestled within 27 hectares of lush eucalypt and rainforest, each day brings visitors face to face with extraordinary wildlife in shows and encounters. Everyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif day at Currumbin is a new adventure. Cuddle a koala, get up close to a crocodile, get amongst a mob of kangaroos or check out reptiles, birds and marsupials in amazing wildlife shows and displays.

Our latest attraction, The Green Challenge high ropes adventure course, is the newest nature-based adventure experience for the Gold Coast. With Sixty-five challenges including giant flying foxes and a tarzan swing, the Green Challenge takes visitors higher and further into the spectacular natural setting.


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Photo hunt: together

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My daughters used to play together sitting inside a doll's cot.

photohunt:busy

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Engineers busy at work, except the one taking the photo.

Photohunt: cards

These are my personalised car cards for Patty at Crisfield, Maryland. It was Patty who got me interested in BIG fancy cars. Whenever I see such a car, which is a rarity in New Zealand, I think of Patty.

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My Dad frequently sent postcards to my children. Dad passed away five years ago on the 18th of February.

These ones he sent when he was living in Australia seems so appropriate when the Koalas and Kangaroos in Victoria are also suffering from the fires.

Photohunt: Informative sign In China

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The husband went to China and looked for his roots. The Hakka dialect group.

Photohunt: Dirty

June 4: Dirty

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The water looks clean, and tempts young boys to wade and catch fish. What they don't know is the dirtiness lurking inside these murky water. All the industrial waste of the surrounding factories seep into the creek and kill it.

Photohunt: Looking down

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Climbing down a rock.

Photohunt: Digital

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It was at the height of the Swine flu in 2009 when we visited Singapore. There were notices in the MRT train station.

Photohunt: Squares

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This is a $4 bag from the $2 shop. My school encourages our students to buy this bag when they go for camps. It is very big and roomy. The kids can put everything in them. If they get dirty or broken, it doesn't matter. It's only $4.

I bought it after I heard my DP tell the students to use it. But I found the zipper broken before I even use it. I store my bedding when they are not the right season. So in summer, I put my winter sheets and duvet inners, and vice versa. Not elegant, but nobody comes into my room. My daughter says I am low maintenance.

photohunt: Dusty in Australia & ANZAC Day

My niece sent me these photos taken at the University of Queensland in Australia.


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This is an old post of the red dust in Sydney in September 2009. It blew up to Queensland and even across the Tasman sea to New Zealand. There was a layer of orange dust on our cars this morning here in Auckland.

I asked my family in Australia and my two nieces tell me:

It was very windy when we were hit by the dust storm on Wednesday. There was an inch of dust on everywhere. I was coughing all day and can't breathe properly because it was so dusty & air was really dry.

I spent whole yesterday morning to mop, wipe and clean my house. After I was just about to drink my coffee and relax watch t.v., the news said there might be another one coming this weekend.

F in the GoldCoast

Photos from the outside of my unit around 11.20am, when the storm hasn't fully blown into Brisbane yet. It got worst after that.

S in Brisbane

The photos don't show how bad it is, like she said, she took them before the situation got worst.

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ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably Australia and New Zealand 's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. It is the commemoration for the fallen. Lest we forget.

Outside, the rain is pelting. The National commemoration is shifted indoors in the National Memorial Museum. On this day, the skies cry and release their tears. A few years past, I joined the march past and it was raining.

When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. The ultimate objective was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.

The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

Photohunt: Road

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I have two funny anecdotes about the Morris Minor. So when I was driving back from the Water World on the Gold Coast to my brother's place, I spotted this car. I asked Josh, my 10 year old nephew to take a photo and he started experimenting with my camera.

My first story was when I was in primary school, we moved to a house next to this family. They had a Morris Minor and the wife didn't drive. Mum asked her why? She said when she was learning to drive, coached by her husband, she came to a junction. "Stop!" screamed the husband. Instead of the brakes, she slammed on the accelerator. We just need to imagine what transpired after. She never drove again.

We grew up, and Mum and Dad taught us to drive. Dad always reminded himself and Mum about that woman who never drove. Mum said she always lose weight. When I instructed my daughter to drive, I reminded myself that same story. That is why she preferred me to instruct rather than my husband though he is by far a better driver than me.

In 1975, I went to Canada and made friends from Singapore. They told us how difficult it was to get a driver's license. The tester kept failing them and the testing vehicle? The Morris minor. According to them,the Morris Minor is the hardest car to drive, if you can drive a Morris Minor, you can drive anything. When I visited Singapore shortly after, I saw long lines of Morris Minor cars with an L.

A skeptic said may be the driving schools didn't want to retire his fleet of old cars spread this rumor. What do you think?

Of course now, if you have a Morris Minor, you are cool!!!!