ABC letter Y for yacht

Auckland is the city of sails.
http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

Thursday Challenge: fields of wild flowers.

Love it when there are fields of wild flowers.
"MY FAVOURITE PHOTO" (3 week theme from Dec 11 to Jan 1)

Thursday Challenge is a place for photographic fun and learning. A theme is announced on this site each week. You may either take a new photograph related in some way to the theme or select one that you have taken previously;  

http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

FSO: Solace

Solace [Friday My Town Shoot Out] [Link-up]

What do you associate with solace and peace? What makes you relax and reflect?

 

http://mytownshootout.blogspot.co.nz/

MABC : Family Christmas

A great Family Christmas service.

Winter Days [Friday My Town Shoot Out]

 

We in the Southern Hemisphere is heading to our summer. So I post my old photos.
Severe snow, wind and rain is expected to continue to batter parts of the country. MetService said a bitterly cold southwest flow was expected to spread over the lower South Island with snow lowering to near sea level later today.

Southlanders already dealing with the effects of the weekend's storm were being urged to prepare for more snow and rain over the next two days.

My choice for this week:

Winter song
It's a cold, cold feeling
On a real lazy wind
That blows all the way trough you
And the autumn begins

How it cuts like a sabre
How it chills to the bone
You've got cold feet and fingers
And you're thinking of home

If I put my arms around you
Turn you in from the storm
From your autumn through winter
Darling I'll keep you warm

My overcoat's empty
Deep, wide and long
I got room for you darling
till your winter, till your winter has gone

Artist(Band):Chris Rea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRegIcB6zys

http://mytownshootout.blogspot.co.nz/

Winter Days [Friday My Town Shoot Out] [Link-up]

How does your town prepare for the coming winter season? What do your homes look like when the nights are long and days are short?

Alphabe-Thursday letter D

The sign says DO NOT Drink, DO NOT swim and DO NOT collect shells fish.


http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/

search/label/Alphabe-Thursday

ABC Wednesday for V

 Every summer, we get these buzzing villains. My husband comes home to attack them. I tell him the story of  the Valiant little tailor

A tailor is preparing to eat some jam, but when flies settle on it, he kills seven of them with one swipe of his hand, or "blow." He makes a belt describing the deed saying "Seven at one blow."

I found these sticky tape which is very good to snare them, on the first day, we caught 20 villains.



http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

http://click.e.tripadvisor.com/

 

 

Congratulations, Ann, you're in the top 15% 

Over 190 million traveller reviews and opinions

With 5,698 readers, you're one of the most popular reviewers in Auckland. Keep those great opinions coming.

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I do a lot of different kinds of writing, This is one of them

Christmas Chinese BBQ

 I was invited to the New Zealand Chinese BBQ, The building with the Chinese words evoked such emotional response in me.

Here they have plaques and tiles which acknowledge the donations the members have made to build this building. I was very pleased to see my friend Turners and Growers. During their Oct Refugee lunch, I saw Jeffery Turner. He told me his family and the Chinese go a long way back.

 These individual tile reminds me of my Grad dads on both sides going about to raise money for the Nanyang University in Singapore. It was to be a people's university. My Grand dad and Dad used to proudly say they owned a brick in that University. I was to benefit from their generosity when my husband became a Professor there, and I was faculty wife for 16 years. My oldest girl, did her first degree there.

Christmas also meant fundraising. The women organised a raffles for the Starship hospital.

 BBQ is a summer activity. There were yummy food, brought as pot luck, but the meat was provided. I love the ham. 

This is how we celebrate Christmas. We did have Santa dressed in the traditional red.

What does your town look like at the beginning of the Christmas season? And if you are not celebrating, what does the start of December look like in your corners of the world.

http://mytownshootout.blogspot.co.nz/

The Chinese in Auckland.

The Chinese came to New Zeanad in the 1850s. They have came to Dunedin to mine the gold, more like tailings when the other miners had moved on. 

The Chinese have been in New Zealand for 130 years.They came when they were invited by two Otago invitations mine gold in 1865. At the turn of the 20th century the racial issue became dominant and led to the White New Zealand policy of exclusion. The Chinese were the only race group who had to pay a poll tax of ten pounds because of The Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881

Today, there are 117,000 in the country and 112,000 live in Auckland.

Many proposals to have a Chinese garden have been met with disappointment. There is a garden in Dunedin and in Hamilton. It is timely for the Chinese to have a garden to call their own and for the rest of New Zealand to share the Chinese culture and Heritage.

I was in a New Zealand Chinese Association, Auckland Inc. lunch. Ron Sang , architect, gave his proposal.

 Susan Zhu, deputy Chairperson of Whau Local Board and Kai Luey, Chairman of the Auckland Chinese Community Centre.

Millennium Tree , I puff with pride when I tell my children this is our tree.




The Millennium Tree was gifted by the Chinese people to New Zealand. It was not without controversy. It was first proposed to be erected in the Rose Garden,. residents formed a protest group to stop the work, citing a lack of consultation and the aesthetic clash with the gardens' Victorian and Edwardian atmosphere.Much protest  led it to beerected in the Domain.

At the base of the tree are Chinese words set in chrome. You have to look carefully, otherwise you won't notice it. Guy's work was inspired by the cudgel or staff of SUN-WU-KONG, the Monkey King of Chinese legend - the fabled staff could dispel all obstacles.

Our world: Auckland Domain

John Edgar's Photo courtesy his website. I am proud to know this artist's parents.

This photo is courtesy Auckland city council. Because when I was there, as I wasn't sure if this is the sculpture, I didn't take the photo from a wide prospective, and take them together.
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My first reaction when I saw it from afar, was it looks like a grenade. Then as I walked closer, it was an enlongated shape. An unexploded torpedo which is appropriate as the Auckland War memorial is just near by. Upon closer look, at the end of it, were two red spots, I then thought of it as a caterpillar. The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle. A favourite book of my students.


No offence, John if my interpretation is wrong. Perhaps the Domain Parks keeper should go and replace your plaque.

This helpful grass cutter came all the way, stopped his machine and asked if he could help me. Ka Pai to him. It was him to led me to a woman who led me the way.


http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com


http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/