Kiwi Laksa

The Pursuit of Wealth - Does it equal to happiness?

2016-07-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

The Pursuit of Wealth - Does it equal to happiness?

When I was a young student I sometimes envy wealthy families who bought their children lots of expensive things and gave them lots of holidays abroad. Coming from a middle class family, my mother was a great saver as she saved to give both my brother and me an education in Canada and the United States.

Having the opportunity to study abroad meant that we have a great experience not only in getting a good education but also had the chance to make great friends from many countries and getting an awesome experience too.

Years after I did get a career in the petroleum industry for about 15 years. During that time I earned a decent salary but never thought of pursuing wealth as an ultimate goal in my life. I have school friends who did and their lives revolved around the material world. Some of course did not think that way and distanced themselves from those who did. For me I do my best not to judge my friends and still stay in touch with them as long as they are friends to me. It is not my business if their aim in life is lots of money or just live a simple but happy life.

When I moved to New Zealand, my first priority was to get my teaching diploma and then I knew that teaching would allow me to spend all my daughter's school holidays with her. We were never rich but we were alright. We never had to starve and always had a roof over our heads and clothes to wear! My daughter went to an all girls school where the girls came from mainly families who were quite well off. She always came home about how some of her friends were going for holidays abroad, etc. Recently she found that one of her friends was not as rich as she thought them to be. Instead her mother did some dodgy accounting which allowed them to live a luxurious life but now she is on the run from the law! My daughter now understands that not all is rosy in families who seemed to be well off!

About 3 years ago, I lost a friend to stomach cancer as she found out too late! Doctors gave her 3 months to live without chemo or 9 months with chemo. Her husband and her were quite wealthy but they did not spend their money frivolously. As they could afford it they went for the unsubsidized chemo drugs which finally allowed her to live for another 15 months. Despite their money you still cannot beat cancer.

Recently I lost someone in my childhood who was related to me too. I found that he was rejected as a young man by his girlfriend as he came from a poor family. I think after that he made his goal in life to make a lot of money! He did and accumulated enough wealth and built a mansion for his mother and sister and for him, too. He continued to achieve success in his career. His first marriage did not work out as he married quite young and she was also from a wealthy family. That probably fueled him further to be successful financially. He did remarry but had no children. Despite his wealth, it all ended in a very tragic freak accident where he lost his life at 54 years old. I kept thinking was his life really worth all that pursuance of money? He was still working when he died and did not even get to enjoy all his wealth. As he did not have any children, he was cremated and his ashes were thrown near a temple by the sea... The tragic thought for me was he was probably focused in making himself wealthy to show those who rejected him and looked down at him because of money....

Is the pursuit of money really worth it? Having lots of money does not mean that it will make you happy! To me health is more important and not even money can help you when you have an incurable disease! I live my life by letting GOD direct my life and trying to discover what HIS will is for me and to live according to GODs will. I have faith in GOD that HE will always take care of my needs and never let me despair!

You are always in my heart.....

2016-07-16T23:13:00.005-07:00

You are always in my heart......

Years ago we met as students
Then one weekend we went with friends on a trip to the seaside
There you asked me to dance with you and we did so the whole night and only with each other

Next we met at another dance where you asked me to dance with you again
I was really happy but I had to tell you that we were distantly related....
Sad to say that freaked you out and we never saw each other again

We pursue our tertiary studies and went our own ways
I heard you got married but that did not worked out

Over the years I have wondered what had happened to you
And if you were happy with your life....

My life went on and so did yours...

Then I found that you have suddenly returned to the Lord
I was so sad when I found out....
In fact I was overwhelmed with sadness
I never thought you meant so much to me until now...

I hope writing this would help me overcome my sadness and move on...

I only hope that maybe someday we will meet again in another world....

May your soul rest in peace and that you are now wrapped in the arms of GOD .....

You are always in my heart.....

2016-07-16T23:13:00.003-07:00

2016-07-16T23:13:00.001-07:00

2013-03-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

COMPETITIVE ANYTHING! BEWARE!

In this current world, a lot of parents are keen of getting their children into some extra curricular activities be it sports or music or any other activities. For myself, it was more of an activity which will keep my daughter occupied as well as keep her fit. I never had dreams for her to be a world class figure skater or an Olympic hopeful! We do not have the hundreds of thousands of dollars anyways! But here I am sharing with all you parents with young children to think carefully before you encourage them to compete in any level!

I only know one sport but I have learnt a lot from friends who are parents, too! When my girl first started to compete at the tender age of 4, she got a lot of wonderful praises and admiration! And she loved it and lapped it all up! So she continued to skate and want to skate. Then when she get to the tween stage that is when she started having a lot of 'battles' with her coach who had high hopes for her and always harping on her not reaching her potential! After about 3 years, she was all broken as her Russian coach was also verbally abusive so I had to change coach to one who used to coach her when she was younger just to see her through her competitive season. Now she has swapped to her current Czech coach whom she respects and is happy with her skating again.

So, number 1 is coaching style. Then next is the part with making friends with other fellow skaters! Here like in the school ground there will be lots of ups and downs and friends come and go as part of the life package. But as they grow to teenagers, you will come across some peer skaters who will pscyh all their competitors out before they skate their programme or programmes. Usually the skaters are gathered in a room before their scheduled time to prepare themselves mentally for their skate. A lot of coaches are aware of these tactics so they will remove their skaters to other places and to reduce the stress and pressure.

On ice even before the competition, the skaters are supposed to give way according to certain heirarchy but some skaters do not bother to give way even though a skater has the right away during a programme skate with music. Usually they will give way only if your are bigger size as everyone knows that if you crash into someone bigger than you, you will suffer the consequences no matter whose fault it is! There are also instances where ex coaches can be vindictive and purposely ignoring the rules and sending their skaters into your way disrupting your programme. If I have a $1 for everytime my daughter complains about this issue, I would be rich by now!

Then there are the 'skating mums'! Before I knew the connotation of the title of 'skating mum', I would think I am a skating mum as I do not skate but am just the chauffeur and the bill payer! But do not cross the path of skating mums! They would do anything to push their 'skater' to the point of tears and tantrums! Sometimes you can see the battles between mothers and skaters and it is not a pretty sight! I have always believe that a child must have his or her own determination to do well in anything they do and if your parents need to wake you up to skate in the early mornings, you do not have it! But sadly with most young skaters, it is more of the parents pushing and more pushing! I can understand as figure skating is an elite sport and thus a big drain on the wallet(easily $10,000 - $20,000 a year depending on locations of away competitions, etc)! Another skating mother who has a son doing competitive swimming tells me the cost is no different in swimming! A good pair of goggles is easily a few hundred dollars and double that for swimming trunks! And when we complained of the early morning starts (my daughter's earliest lesson is 5.30am) swimmers are worst! They have to be in the pool by 5 am most days! Where skaters have injuries due to falls, swimmers usually end up with chest infections!

One of my close friends whose children was also musicians apart from skating told me it is no different in the music world! With competitive parents, she told me that there are occasions where blades are taped to the piano ivories to injure competitors!!! What?! This is just at school level children and not even the world class levels where people sabotaged your music equipments, etc! And in sports, the use of drugs and hormones! When my daughter had a bad ankle injury last year she had to take pain killers before skating but when competing, we had to be extra sure that the painkillers she took were not on the banned list of drugs.

In New Zealand, parents have to pay for all sports and music activities. If you are in a team sport, you have to pay for the rental of the sport uniform (which was fund raised in the first place) and pay for any rental of sports centre and equipment if you do not have your own. Then of course transportation and accommodation is entirely on the parents or caregivers on away games if the children fails to raise the money through fun raising! Everywhere you go children are always fundraising for this or that!

So parents of young children, think carefully if you want your children to excel in sports or activities of any kind! It comes with lots of $$$, stress and not to mention injuries, too! It looks like it is the same no matter what competitive activity you choose for your child to pursue.

Another Miracle

2009-07-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting anxiously for my kidney operation for a few months and it finally happened just this Monday. I had a keyhole operation to remove a big stone (thought one consultant) or a big cyst(another's opinion) in my kidney. Miraculously, during the operation, they found the cyst was outside the kidney and not inside as they originally thought! So the operation was about an hour less. I actually requested a lot of my friends to pray for me before the operation so I believe that had helped a lot. The operation went smoothly and now I am on my way to recovery after a rough days the last 2 days. Apparently people tell me the worst days are actually a few days after the surgery and not immediately after because it takes a few days for the aneasthetic to wear off and then your interiors wake up and struggles to catch up with the rest of your body! I am now officially painfree for the last 24 hours and I hope it stays that way!

Praise God for taking good care of me during my surgery as everyone told me that the operation went smoothly except for the intubation which left me with a very sore throat.

Getting Bella!

2009-05-24T02:50:00.000-07:00

Teenage Deaths

2009-04-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

courtesy of home.comcast.net

I was never really exposed or aware of the high rate of teenage deaths unlike I started teaching in New Zealand. Almost every year since I have been teaching, there was a death amongst one of my former students and 4 out of 5 times, it will be suicide.

Teenagers here take their own lives for reasons known or unknown but when you look at the known reasons, they seem to be so miniscule for the young people to take their own lives. Here in NZ, there are lots of counselors available and most of them are free to the youths. One year the police were even looking out for a so called 'death pact' going around when one teenager took her life and everyone watched closely all her friends who were at her funeral.

Most of the teenagers are usually what experts labelled as high risk in that they usually would be your disruptive kids in class or the rebellious type that do not fit into your normal average school environment.

I have always wondered if the way that children are raised today (with velvet gloves and very pc oriented!) are making them too soft and thus not able to handle everyday problems and taking the easy way out when they are faced with any issues they think they cannot solve!

God works in mysterious ways!

2009-04-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

courtesy of www.phrasecrazy.com

Recently I was stressed out at work so much so that about 3 weeks ago, I had sharp abdominal pain in the middle of the night and my 12 year old daughter had to call the ambulance and I ended up in the Dunedin Hospital Emergency.

My pains started at about 1.30 am, was admitted about 2.45 am. Doctors tried to give me all sort of painkillers, took my blood for test, took ECGs, X-rays but still I had my pains and was vomiting, too, (due to the side effects of morphine) until about 8.30 am in the morning when they decided to take a urine sample. I panicked when I saw how pink my urine was but found out later that it was a result of my passing a kidney stone! Immediately, they sent me for a CT scan and then gave me different painkillers again. Then the director of the ED came and informed me that I had stones in both my kidneys and also a very big 2.5 cm big stone! I waited at the ED for the specialist who never showed up so at about 1.45pm, the ED director told me I could go home as the Urology Department needed to talk about the big stone tomorrow before they get back to me. So I left at about 3.40 pm when one of my friends picked me up and send me home.

It was only after I saw my GP and got him to call the specialist to find out what they planned to treat me that I found out that I actually have a big magnesium cyst. I saw it on the CT scan when I finally got to see the urologist last week and it is about 1/3 of my kidney. Now I am waiting for the shock wave treatment which hopefully will break up everything or I may have to go for the keyhole operation.

Looking back I would never have known that I have all these kidney stones if I was not stressed out so GOD must have decided for me that it is time I took care of my health and brought it to my attention. I always think that things happen for a purpose and GOD does work in mysterious ways....

Quick and Easy Chicken Rice and Pickled cucumber

2009-01-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

Pickled cucumber

Chicken rice

Living overseas, I have to cook most of our home delicacies myself as we get very limited Malaysian restaurants. So I experimented and look at some of the ingredients on the bottled chicken rice so here's quick and easy chicken rice.

Chicken Rice Ingredients

2 cups rice

500 ml chicken broth

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

2 tablespoon cooking oil

salt to your own taste (my daughter likes it salty!)

Instructions

Put all the ingredients into an electric rice cooker. Stir it until it is all mixed up well and cook.

I am sure most of you will have very good recipes for roast chicken or steamed chicken as I do not have the time to roast chicken and normally just buy one from the supermarket!

But I love fresh pickled cucumber and experimented and come up with my own pickled cucumber which I love to eat together with my chicken rice.

Pickled Cucumber

Ingredients

1 medium size cucumber or half a telegraph cucumber

1 red chilli (optional)

1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

Instructions

Slice cucumber thinly. Deseed the chilli and cut into thin strips. Put in a bowl together with the salt and sugar and squeezed the lemon juice into the mixture. Allow to sit for at least one hour for the pickling process.

Enjoy!

Malacca, World Heritage Site

2009-01-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

View of Malacca Straits from outside the chapel at ST. Francis Hill with the Taming Sari and the Eye on Malaysia in the foreground

Statue of St. Francis Xavier who preached and died in Malacca and was briefly buried there before he was exhumed and moved.

The remains of a chapel with numerous memorials to Dutch, Portugese and English parishioners of the past.

The bright and colourful trishaws available to transport tourists around Malacca town.

The only movable large ferris wheel in Malaysia which will make a tour across all the states in Malaysia starting with Malacca.

On our recent trip back to Malaysia, my close friend, Shirley invited us to visit her in Malacca. I have not been to Malacca for almost 10 years so decided to take her up on her offer. My two other close friends based in Kuala Lumpur drove down with us and we stayed overnight.

It is quite a change from when I visited last. Going on a Sunday was also a no - no as there was traffic jam all over town as I understand the Singaporeans love to drive up to Malacca for the weekend.

We did a few tourist attractions including taking a ride on the Eye on Malaysia ferris wheel which is visiting Malacca for the year after being in KL for 2 years. We did it at night and I must admit I do not advise a night ride as there was not too much to see in Malacca in terms of night lights.

We had a great stay catching up with friends and tasting the local delicacies including chicken rice balls, now everywhere in Malacca.

What I missed was the trademark bullock cart pulled by buffaloes where we once took a ride around the padang as in place is now a shopping centre and no water buffaloes in sight. The price we pay for modernisation!

International Air Travel

2009-01-09T19:10:00.000-08:00

I have just got back from travelling back to Malaysia for about 3 weeks. What I discovered was the inconvenience of air travel these days.

First, Air NZ has restriction on amount of check in luggage, i.e. one piece per passenger and not more than 25 Kg. And they worry about people breaking their backs carrying heavy bags! Hand luggage is not more than 7 kg.

Next my girl decided she wanted to bring her skates and that she was going to hand carry them but nooooo! At the boarding gate, we were told we had to check in the skates so I had to fork out NZ$15 for the extra piece of luggage as we had already checked in 2 pieces of bags.

When we got to the international airport in Auckland, we had to repack everything (because fo the skates) only to find out about the liquids in hand luggage limitations and at the last minute I had to open up our luggage (we were checking in at the same time) to squeezed all the manuka honey jars into one of our bags.

Even then I missed out a half full bottle of shampoo which was still in the hand luggage so I told security he can chuck it out. It just seems ridiculous the liquid rule only applies for international but not the domestic which means to say it is alright to bomb the domestic flights but not the international ones???!

As we were passing through security towards boarding our flight back to NZ, I saw a couple in front who got pulled over for having several big bottles of lotion and perfume in the lady's hand luggage. Boy! Did I feel sorry for her as I know that she will loose them all as I doubt they will check them in for her as everyone was already boarding the plane. Even with all the notices at the check in counter people still do not read or following instructions and get caught up and lose money in the process.

Accidents - What does it mean?

2008-11-22T23:57:00.000-08:00

According to Wikipedia:
An accident is a specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent or deliberate cause but with marked effects. It implies a generally negative probabilistic outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.

However, nowadays, people always try to put someone at fault so the idea of accident may no longer exists as someone always will be found to be the cause of the 'accident'.

Why on earth am I on about?

Well, a few months back some students and a teacher were swept away when a sudden flashflood occurred where the school trip was doing water activities. Now the school board is held responsible as they were told that they did not do enough to ensure that thorough risk management had taken place!

With that in mind, recently our school principal reminded all of us about doing our risk management properly and that if we went to bed and snored away because we had a drink, then we will be liable should a student sneaked out of camp and gets into trouble. One teacher was quick to ask but what if we did not drink but just snored away?! Then he said it was OK!

Then another teacher brought up the subject about being responsible for the students while on overnight trips or camps (very common in NZ) and that there seem to be no more accidents and people are always trying to find fault and place someone responsible for the so called accident and thus accidents do not exist. And with that type of possibility hanging over teachers' heads, many would not like to volunteer themselves for trips anymore as with age, their reaction may be too slow to prevent 'accidents' from happening and thus will be liable should something happen to a student under their care. That is quite a sobering thought, actually!

As teachers, we have to be careful about giving students lifts to anywhere because their parents should give their permission first in case anything happens. I only give lifts to my daughter's friends if I know the parents quite well and vice versa and I do not give lifts to my own students if I can help it knowing the consequences should anything happen. It is a sad world we live in nowadays because people will sue their friends or find someone to fault either to find closure or something to dull the pain they suffer. Ultimately someone innocent may get faulted as a result of a real accident!

National is the New Government!

2008-11-08T02:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it is all over! Or is it just starting again??? We now have a new government just like US has a change back to Democrat. After 9 years we need a change. All are predicting the National will have their work cut out for them in that Labour did not let the people know how much debt NZ is in.....

Well, we will see!

New Zealand goes to the polls, too, this coming Saturday, November 8.

2008-11-04T01:37:00.000-08:00

Do we keep Helen and the Labour Party in government.............OR

do we make a change and vote for John Key and the National Party?

Everyone seems to be going to the polls about the same time and New Zealand is no different. We have been under the Labour party rule for a while now and a lot of people are unhappy with the high crime rates and very lenient sentences. So will National win and take over the next government?

As a permanent resident, I found that we are expected to vote if we have at least one year residence in NZ. So I have to vote this Saturday...

What frustrates me is that the Labour government would dangle some carrot just before the election to gather votes every time. The last was interest free student loans! Now is parents' income will no longer impact on students' allowance just to gain votes from university students! Then there are there are the ridiculous ads on tv, too!

I am a skeptic in that do they actually carry out their promises???

I still haven't decide on my vote yet although my tween is telling me to vote for the National as they are the ones who understand the education system! I find it amusing that she is getting into the campaigning and I am sure National would love to have her in the campaign!

Whatever it is, I have to vote on Saturday and we may have a new government come Monday.

Teenagers will be teenagers!

2008-11-04T01:20:00.000-08:00

This is my 100th posting! I have been wondering what to write about and finally something happened in school today which I thought amused me a lot.

I normally put my notes for my students to copy on powerpoint so today was not different. Only the students were rather restless and noisy so I told them I am not going to wait for anyone who talks but will wait for anyone who does not talk and writes away. Then some boys objected and I reminded them that they could not talk and write at the same time as 'boys cannot multitask'.... Well, of course I provoked them and got them protesting and calling me sexist! But my point was proven when the loudest point started arguing with me using his writing hand to make his point and then, I happily pointed out to him that what I say was correct! He was talking and not writing at the same time! That was quite amusing as it got more of the boys to quieten down to copy the notes.

Then another boy said, "I wonder if there was anything boys could do that girls cannot." I could not help myself and said that I will enlightened them on some biology and that in the future when they and their spouses or partners could not have baby boys, then they should remember that only males have the Y chromosome and they are the ones responsible for not having any boys and not their wives. It was amusing to me as it took them by surprise and it took about a minute before it click with them to absorb in what I was on about.....

Do you have pain in the soles of your feet?

2008-10-11T01:32:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I slipped and fell twice on the morning ice in winter. I thought all I had was 2 sprained feet (still went to work) but now the pain had gotten worst so I resorted to seeing a Chinese doctor who is also an acupuncture expert. The first thing she said to me was I had very poor blood circulation in my feet. No wonder I always had extremely cold feet and could never seem to get them warm so I end up wearing socks to bed as most old houses in NZ do not have central heating.

Not only did she tell tell me that I had poor blood circulation but also my pain in the heel part on the soles of my feet when I put pressure (like walking!) on them is also due to my sciatica which I had for years. I did not even think that my falls were that bad. Anyways, the 2 treatments I had seemed to be working but I still have a lot more to go. All I am hoping for is the pain to disappear in the near future so I can go back to enjoy my walks while doing window shopping!!!

It has been quite a few years since I had acupuncture done and I do believe they work on chronic aches and pains. However, I was a bit surprised that now they have also attached some electric current to stimulate the points and speed up the process. I am not a newcomer to passing electric currents through my body as I had that done for my sciatica years ago.

I cannot wait for the day when I can walk pain free.....

Visit to a NZ sheep farm

2008-10-05T14:48:00.000-07:00

Jo-Ann with Mower the Mohair goat with some sheep in the background

Our friend, Winnie, with the mother sheep and 2 day old lamb

In between our competitions we had some free time where we went to a sheep farm as my daughter has never been to a real farm in her young life so I thought it would be a good experience!

She decided after the visit that she does not like farm life as she was all squeamish at the amount of mud, poohs and some dirty animals (after a full rainy day before!) in a farm. The only spark in that visit was "Mower" the Mohair goat they had! She was tied up but she hated Murphy the town dog who was there on a short holiday while his 'mum and dad' are off on a vacation. Mower kept chasing after Murphy each time he passed in front of her so that was really hilarious as Murphy was so hyper jumping into the pond and out despite the cold water. The 2 black swans in the pond just ignored Murphy while the white duck was more cautious.

I also learnt that a lot of farmers are switching to dairy farms due to the high price of diary products where each cow is worth about $2000. However, the sheep farmers do not like the diary farmers as apparently the diary farms are polluting the rivers with their discharge. Diary farms are more work because of the twice daily milking that needs to be done but the returns are high with the current milk prices.

It is nice to be in Southland as the people are generally friendlier and that was what struck the Aucklanders the most about how life is more relaxed and people are not stressed or in a hurry to get anything done! The small town of Gore welcomed the 500 odd people who visited Gore during the Figure Skating Nationals as all the visitors are always hungry and in search of food all the time! The small town does have Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut but too small to have a MacDonald's. I think the nearest big M is in Invercargill about 45 minutes drive away.

NZ Figure Skating Naitonals

2008-10-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

We have just returned from my daughter's NZ Figure Skating Nationals in a little southern town called Gore, famous for its country music and brown trout.

It is amazing how the standards keep improving every year so the competition gets tougher and tougher. It is also nice to catch up with skaters from the North Island whom we see once a year at the nationals. My girl came in 5th in her grade but she still maintained her position as the top skater from the south.

This is the first time that we have professional sports photographers taking photos so I purchased my daughter's and it is good to see her shots and she can also see her actual posture and if they meet the standards.....

Pick Pockets

2008-09-08T03:37:00.000-07:00

I just received upsetting news about my 80 year old father. He was out doing marketing with my mother at this Sunday wet and fresh market in Kuching when someone bumped into him and picked his wallet. The inconvenience for him was not only that he lost a substantial amount of cash but he also lost his driving license and his identity card.

What is the world coming to? I mean why pick on the elderly??? They are not rich and they are barely getting by with their small pensions but some ruthless individuals or group of people just prey on the elderly instead of working for their own living! It is really disgusting and very worrying about what society is becoming nowadays!!!

Common Sense

2008-09-02T23:48:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me this article which is SO TRUE!!!

Date: Aug 27, 2008 10:08

Subject: Obituary of the late Mr. Common Sense

(Interesting and sadly true)

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6 year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little on her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

Noro Virus

2008-08-15T23:55:00.000-07:00

Noro virus

courtesy of www.dbtechno.com

For the past month or so Dunedin has been struck by suspected Noro virus where you get diarrhea and also vomiting. Today I tried to visit a friend whose baby is in the children's ward but was turned away from the hospital with a sudden lock down at the hospital. Yesterday, I was still able to visit her and her baby but we had to gel our hands before going up into the wards as well as on the way out.

All schools are affected by the outbreak with an average of 100 - 150 students away from our school for the past 2 weeks and teachers are out too with some sort of illness. My daughter and I are hoping that we will survive through this very very long winter which started in as early as April and still snowing here and there now even though we are supposed to start our spring in September! The cherry blossoms are out but the weather in Dunedin still hovers around 10 deg Celsius during the day and drops below 5 deg at night.

It has also been very wet in the past 2 -3 weeks. Two Saturdays ago, I went to the laundrette for my usual Saturday drying loads but was I surprised to see the long queue! My usual 40 minutes to dry our clothes was not even enough wait time! And people were getting grumpy if you used more than one drier! One man mentioned that it was worst than watching paint dry! I think I spent close to 3 hours there just to dry 2 loads of laundry!!! What a waste of time but I had to dry my daughter's school uniform so had no choice! Luckily, today it was almost empty when I got there at my usual time.

I wonder how long this winter is going to be..... The only good thing now is that petrol price has come down to just $2 for 91 octane despite the lower oil price. However, the economist are telling us that the price is not coming down as fast as the Kiwi dollar is weakening against other currencies......Oh well.....

Do you remember everything you see?

2008-08-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

I was helping out ice skating club with marshalling this past weekend at the South Island Figure Skating Championship. A female skater was doing a double jump when she fell to land and thus ended up on the ice. I saw it happened as I was in charge of getting the skaters on the ice for their warm-up and their programme. But when someone asked me can you describe what happened? For the life of me, I could not describe it as it all happened so fast! All I remember is she fell and did not get up so her sister who is also a skater went in to check on her first when she failed to pick herself up and continue skating. Fortunately she did not break any bones I think but fell on her hip.

Now I understand when people said they cannot recall when they saw. If it happened really fast, it may not even register on your brain later! I mean we saw it happened but cannot describe how it occurred after that. I was not even traumatised as it was nothing to do with me but imagine someone who witnessed something terrible and expected to recall everything later! How can they remember?!!!

Incidentally, Jo-Ann did come in first again in her division but failed to make it on time to the prize giving so missed out on all the photo taking opportunity!

Wanaka - hometown for the wealthy

2008-07-25T03:21:00.000-07:00

One of the illusion rooms in Puzzle World

Jo-Ann and Rina in front of Puzzle World, Wanaka

The leaning clock tower at Puzzle World

The outdoor maze

Rina, Jo-Ann and Winnie by the lake with Wanaka town centre in the background

On our last visit to Queenstown, I decided to take an hour detour and take a tour of Wanaka as we have never been there. Always heard that only the rich can afford to live there and apparently there are lots of American retirees who had settled down there. My first impression of the tiny lakeside town centre was that the architecture really reminds me of suburban USA.

I think the main attraction for tourists to Wanaka is Puzzle World where you can go and walk through an outdoor maze, an indoor area with illusion rooms or just sit down, have some snacks and try the puzzles for yourself and decide if you want to buy them. It is quite a good marketing ploy to let visitors try out as it gets people hooked and some people spend a long time day or bring their kids there to play the puzzles for free. There were a lot of wonderful wooden puzzles plus others made of other materials. My daughter and her friends really enjoyed their visit there. So if you are in Wanaka area, you may want to visit and give yourself at least an hour or more if you are a puzzle king or queen!

Queenstown Skyline Gondola

2008-07-23T00:54:00.000-07:00

View from the viewing deck in the main building looking down at Queenstown

Looking down at the bungy jump from the viewing deck

Part of the luge track we 'drove' on

Rina, Jo-Ann's classmate on the luge

Jo-Ann on the podium with her trophy

Last week we were back in Queenstown again for my daughter's regional figure skating competition. We had some free time so we decided to take the cable car ride up to take a bird's eye view of Queenstown and the surrounding area.

It was an awesome ride and the view was breathtaking! There was also a small platform where people could bungy jump and a cliff where people can jump off and parachute down and my daughter's favourite was the luge rides.

I hope you enjoy the photos......