Sunday stills: mechanical things

I am surprised to see this tiny vehicle with a trailer. I have only seen trailers in New Zealand. Most cars have tow bars, and it is very handy to tow trailers. Our friend G had a trailer, and in our early days, when ever we moved house, we borrowed his trailer to move our things.

I have my own fond memories of tow bars. I have written it into my book.



This grass cutter with giant wheels is often on the road when I go to school or when I come back. I get impatient when I am behind him on my way to school. He just seems to take his own sweet time causing a long queue behind him. I don't mind so much on my way home.

I love this AA recovery truck. It is a life saver. I have used him when I had absent minded forgot to turn off the lights on a rainy or misty morning. Once I had to wait for two hours in a cold dark winter dusk. Not very nice.

I love this actually because it reminds me of the BIG vehicles that transport brand new cars across the Ambassador bridge from Windsor, Canada to Detroit and vice versa. The cars were placed in double decker levels. My friend N once joked, "I would love to be behind these truck, and if a car breaks away, I would jump into it and the car would be mine". My other friend W, always a skeptic said, " if the car rolls down, you would be dead."


America comes to New Zealand, I rephrase, American coffee comes to New Zealand. It is quite cheap, only $2.50 per cup. When this van is here, you know it's time to farewell winter. Parked along Great North Road, I noticed there is a wire attached to the power pole so his coffee is piping hot. There is ice cream and hot dog too.


This train is from an another era. It has retired and is an exhibit of the MOTAT, Museum of Transport and Technology. usually, I try to photograph it in my car, and didn't get a good photo. Yesterday, I walked there, and put my camera through the fence.



Like the train, these machines have out lives their hard labor, and are now exhibits. They look like farm equipment. New Zealand is a land of farms. Agriculture plays a very important role in our economy.



The Malaysian train is very long. It goes from Singapore all the way to the border. You buy your ticket from the station and the conductor checks your ticket. Once, we took it from one small town to another, they didn't even come and check our ticket. The trains must look the same, because we saw passengers going on the wrong train. They also stop and leave very quickly. My two city bred daughters once went to visit my mother-in-law. Before they can alight at the station, the train had gone to the next. A story indeed to last a life time.

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This is MRT, Singapore's super slick subway.

I don't like ferris wheels, they go so slow and they go no where. This is at Singapore Down Town East. Mt sister Grace had taken her kids and Sam to swim.

Inside a double decker bus in Singapore. My kids loved going to the upper deck. I seldom use it because I was worried with my bags of shopping, and little kids, I can't get out of the bus in time.

Well here it is, if it runs on fuel and can take two or more passengers lets see what ya’ll can come up with..:-)


Thank you Ed, I have a love affair with anything that goes Vroom! Vroom! The bigger the better. But the big ones often go so fast that by the time I whip out my camera, it is gone.

My love affair must have started when I was six, and Dad bought of first car.It was a little Fiat 1100, it was little, but we loved it. The license plate was S899. The number was an auspicious one. 8 sounds like prosperous, and 9 sounds like forever. So it was prosperous forever. You may remember the Olympics in Beijing started on the 8th of the 8 of the 8th of the 8th. and last Wednesday, hordes of Chinese rushed to the marriage registry because it was the 9th of the 9, of the 9 of the 9.

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Save the world: Grow patches of native plants in the city

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

When you visit Singapore, and go out to the west, you will come to the Nanyang Technological University. You will see many manicured gardens. You will also see a patch of green. Dependng on who or what are you, you will see it as either a piece of natural paradise, or a piece of eye sore.

This is a legacy left by me after living 16 years there. What started was similar to the allotment in UK. The university didn't like the residents to plant any where, and after lots of negotiation, they gave us this plot. Unfortunately, it was at a slope and under big rain trees whose canopy blocked the sun.

Friends came to plant and left frustrated by the plants failing to grow. I was the only one undetered, I didn't care if people stole my bananas, because I didn't eat them, the pandan leaves as I didn't use them. But I did care when they pulled up my clumps of lemon grass. Any way, I had fun getting my fingers dirty.

When I left about fours years ago, the plot was abandoned. The native plants and ferns thrived. I revisited last July. Friends told me that it is gone. I thought the university had dug up my plants. To them, gone meant good bye to my manicured garden. To me, it was quite beautiful as it is. It probably houses a lot of insects like praying mantises and butterflies.

Students in Accredited Online Graduate Schools Still Need Tutoring Programs

With web technology, students can earn undergraduate and graduate degrees from anywhere in the world. Many American universities offer graduate degree programs online that students from any country can access. Earning a degree from accredited online graduate schools allows students to create opportunities that include better jobs, better wages and more fulfilling work.



On occasion, students working at any level need some supplemental instruction. Enrolling in a tutorial program will help students to strengthen their weaker academic areas with one-on-one instruction. Kip McGrath Education Centres offer tutoring for students of all ages so that anyone can succeed no matter what their educational level.


On occasion, students working at any level need some supplemental instruction. Enrolling in a tutorial program will help students to strengthen their weaker academic areas with one-on-one instruction. Kip McGrath Education Centres offer tutoring for students of all ages so that anyone can succeed no matter what their educational level.

Every child, teenager and adult has the right to reach their full learning potential. With over 190 Kip McGrath Education Centres across Australia, and more than 30 years experience, our speciality learning programs are designed to help everyone shine: from pre-schoolers to university students. 

Mums & Dads: Give your child the confidence to do their best at school by enrolling them in our private tutoring programs. Study courses are motivating, fun and engaging! 

Students: Boost your study skills and marks, set yourself a challenge, or complete an online learning course. 

I think Kip McGrath is like the tution centres that is sprouted all over in Singapore and Malaysia. The parents feel that the public system has faihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifled their and they need to spend a lot of money to boost their kids.

It was never like this in New Zealand, but it is catching up.

I just wonder why the building has no windows? Do you wonder?

It was reported in UK, a family of gifted kids with the mum from Malaysia had the kids studying in a cold basement. The parents argue that the lack of distraction helped the kids concentrate. What like of philosophy is that?

http://www.onlinegraduateprograms.com
http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/blog/why-grad-school-is-worth-it-even-in-2011

my world Tuesday/ Outdoor Wed/save the world:Wind power generators

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com


http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/




http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/
I



I see the blades of this generator turning round and round on this yacht docked at Half moon Bay. I suspect those flat panels are solar panels.

What a way to go, enjoy this marine sports and not use the earth's precious resources.

Marine wind generators can help generate electricity to charge a boat's batteries while away from the dock. But careful installation and maintenance are critical.


Wind generators produce electricity when the wind spins their blades, and the harder the wind blows, the more power they produce.

Many larger sailboats and powerboats where the wind blows hard almost continuously mount marine wind generators to capture that wind energy and use it. There was strong gust of wind yesterday.

But boats in other areas can benefit from wind power as part of an overall electricity generation plan that might also include solar panels or even a diesel generator.

Save the world: Factory farming birds nest

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

Bird's nest soup is a delicacy[1] in Chinese cuisine. A few species of swift, the cave swifts, are renowned for building the saliva nests used to produce the unique texture of this soup.


Hong Kong and the United States are the largest importers of these nests.[4] In Hong Kong, a bowl of bird's nest soup would cost $30 USD to $100 USD.[2][4] A kilogram of white nest can cost up to $2,000 USD, and a kilogram of "red blood" nest can cost up to $10,000 USD.

When I was in Primary school, we were very proud of our Niah Caves in Sarawak, Borneo. Accordingly, it went back as far as some 20 to 16 million years ago during the Early Miocene. The cave is an important prehistorical site where human remains dating to 40,000 years have been found. It was also a source of income when collectors scale the cave using flimsy bamboo trellises to collect bird nest nest. My Dad's been there and he said that the stench was so bad that you don't want to go there, so I have never been.

At that time, my school was a two-storey building. Birds which we thought were swallows, it could be swifts used to make their nests at the eaves of the roof. They would bomb their shit on us. Every now and then, the old care taker used a long pole to rid the nest. The result was an awful mess of shit and dead nestlings. When we complained to him that he was killing the babies, he retorted, you complain of the shit landing on your head, and now you complain when I clean it up.

It was fine when the collectors are out of sight, out of mind in the remote jungle cave. But when it is just beside you, it is another story.

Since the 90s, some "brilliant" people decided to factory farm swift's nest. It is now done in a big way in a town in Indonesia. The locals don't like it, but the farmer's don't care. This had spread to the South East Asian region. Landlords find it more lucrative converting their buildings into factories.

Since the late 1990s,purpose-built nesting houses, usually reinforced concrete structures following the design of the SE Asian shop-house ("ruko") These nesting houses are normally found in urban areas near the sea, since the birds have a propensity to flock in such places. This has become an extraordinary industry, mainly based on a series of towns in the Indonesian Province of North Sumatra which have been completely transformed by the activity.

It has become an industry and investment. There are bird nest seminars to entice new investors promising a get rich quick investment. There are many that are built on existing shophouses.All they have to do is to knock down the internal walls.

From a first hand informant of some one who lives in a town there the town has many of these factories, it poses a health risk. "Swiftlets' natural environment is a cave which is airy and cool. The farmers install air conditioning and the water simply drain on to the road there there is no proper drainage. The whole town stenches from the shit and dead birds.

To attract the swiftlets, they develop a special CD and blare out the music with loudspeakers. When the swfts return in the evening and leave in the morning, they cause such a loud racket. The poor neighbours subjected to noise pollution and also the bird droppings move out, and they vacate the building to more farms.

Australia and New Zealand ban birds nest for fear of bird flu or avain flu. In deed for this reason, many people wonder if this is the cause.

I heard about this, and in one of my traveled, I saw many concrete buildings with little windows. My guide told me that those were factory farms.

I have never bought Birds nest, and will never buy them. The image of little nestling dropped on the ground of my primary school is forever etched in my brain.

Breaking Free 28 May 2011

The talented leader of the Fijian team, Amelia Gavidi

Mrs. Williams and her friends, I told her she was very beautiful, and it turned out she is part Chinese.

Olwyn Dickson, the MC and past President. The lighting wasn't very good. Sorry Olwyn.

Another photo of Mrs. Williams and her friend.

The Hosanna Churches led by Seira Sola.

The Fijian team brought us many items of song, dance and drama.

Me with my new friend, Amelia. Bula Amelia, I think the solo drama you wrote and presented were great.

Inside the Northcote Baptist church. Just as the Mt Albert Baptist Church is thinking about rebuilding, I couldn't help by look around. The auditorium was nice, the ladies bathroom was really great. Perhaps, my church planning team should go and pay Northcote a visit.
I attended The Auckland Baptist Women's ministries "In Step with the Spirit...Breaking Free today. It was held at the Northcote Baptist church.

It was endearing to hear the President of the baptist Union and Missionary Society Lyn Campbell talk about the New Normal, and how the earthquake in Church has impacted us.
We have the various cultural groups in New Zealand presenting items of song, dances and talks. I enjoyed the Fijian Baptist Women's Ministry team especially the talented Amelia Gavidi who presented a powerful interpretation of the word poverty.

I want to thank Olwyn Dickson who invited me to talk. Many women came up to tell me my message impacted them. I made many new friends, and the dinner was delicious.

Save our world: Save our families.

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

My heart is saddened, two days ago, I got this email, but with the blogger problem. I couldn't post it until now. You would have known I am passionate about women's health, especially Breast cancer. I had been blessed with only two benign cysts and do not have cancer.

I am wondering what kind of judge will pass such a cruel judgement, to take away her children. Surely, they should involve social welfare and give her home help.

I have two experiences which the judge should consider. When my older daughter was 8 months old, I came down with a very bad breast abscess and needed an operation. Because my daughter was on my milk 100%, guess what the New Zealand system did? They admitted both of us, so that she could feed from me, and the nurses took care of her. We had our own room, but our door was open. Fellow patients came to the door to wave Hi to her. They thought that D. was the patient and they wondered why a baby was in an adult surgical ward. PAKI PAKI to our system.

3 months later, I was heading for a similar problem, my doctor (a man)and husband thought they would prevent this by separating my daughter from me. I went to stay at my friend's house. This was terrible. My breast was engorging, and my daughter was screaming at home. I stayed a couple of nights, and I couldn't sleep. My husband couldn't handle my daughter. He rang in the middle of the night, and my friend drove me home.

Alaina, tell this to your judge. Right now, your children are your comforters. To take them away from you is cruel.

My readers, do read this email and hopefully you will be touched and act on it.

Change.org

Don't let a North Carolina judge use Alaina Giordano's breast cancer as reason to take away her kids.

Sign the Petition

Dear ann,

Alaina Giordano was diagnosed with breast cancer three and half years ago. That was bad.

This is worse: On April 25th, a judge in North Carolina used Alaina's cancer as a key reason to transfer custody of her 5-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter to her ex-husband (a man Alaina describes as "abusive" and who lives more than 700 miles away).

This is happening even though Alaina says her kids "know that I have cancer, they know that I go for treatment once a month now, they know that it's stable. They know me as mom, and it doesn't affect our daily life."

She has just two weeks to appeal, and her hope is that a huge outcry from the public and local elected officials can help reverse the decision.

Thankfully, that outcry is growing quickly. A petition started by Alaina's sister Lauren has more than 7,000 signatures, Alaina was interviewed on Good Morning America and the Today Show, and media throughout North Carolina and the U.S. are now covering the injustice.

But time is short, and the wrong outcome here sets a dangerous precedent for mothers and fathers with cancer or other serious diseases. Please sign Lauren's petition asking that Alaina Giordano's breast cancer not be used as a reason to take away her kids:

http://www.change.org/petitions/do-not-allow-nc-judge-to-take-alaina-giordanos-children-just-because-she-has-cancer

Thanks for taking action,

- Shelby and the Change.org team

P.S. Alaina is urgently looking for a lawyer who can help with her appeal, pro bono. If you're qualified to practice law in North Carolina and can help, shoot me an email at Shelby.Knox@Change.org.



This email was sent by Change.org
Start a petition

Friday Shootout: Nurses

This was Andrew's Dutch Physiotherapist, Majolien who persisted in coaching Andrew to feed, and devised an elaborate feeding plan.

Dr Bobby Tsang was not only Andrew's doctor, he was our personal friend. Here he was at the garden of the Corbetts with Ling Ling his wife, taken during a farewell party for us as we were leaving for Singapore. Bobby, You are the best.

Daphne, Andrew's favourite Day nurse. She was nursing until last year, and I wish I had gone to the hospital to see her earlier. I am happy she is now married. I gave my book to Nurse Janny to pass it to her. Daphne is what the Chinese would call, " Money can't buy." She had two Polaroid photos taken, and she gave them to me later when we had left ICU.
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The hospital is now here. I went back and had a tour guided by Doctor Aftimos.
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Al http://alsphotographyblog.blogspot.com/.




http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com


the theme for May 13 is in honor of Nurses. May 11th is Nurses Day. So show us your medical personal, nurses, doctors, helpers, hospitals, doctor offices of your town.

Now the calendar I have next to my computer has May 11th as Nurses Day. When I tried to find info on it, I found a National Nurses Week tribute, all with different dates. ?? It is celebrated from May 6 to the 12th.
National Nurses Day, also known as National RN Recognition Day, is always celebrated on May 6th and opens National Nurses Week. National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th, the birth date of Florence Nightingale.

The history of Nurses Day can be traced back to 1953 when Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare sent a proposal to President Eisenhower to proclaim a "Nurse Day" in October of the following year. The proclamation was never made, but the following year National Nurses Week was observed from October 11 – 16, marking the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's mission to Crimea.

Thank you Doreen for this theme, which is so close to my heart.

In 1989, I "lived" 55 days in the ICU at the national women's hospital in Auckland New Zealand. My son Andrew was born with a fatal syndrome called Campomelic dysplasia . The nurses, doctors, social workers were ministering angels. I published my book : Diary of a Bereaved Mother, http://annkitsuetchin.blogspot.com/ this year.

Unfortunately I didn't take many photos of the ward and the doctors and nurses.

Dedications

To doctors Andrew James, Simon Rowley and Salim Aftimos

All the caring nurses, physiotherapists and staff at Ward 11A in National Womens’ Hospital back in 1989

Wendy Green

Rev. Don and Olwyn Dickson


Since we had blogging trouble, I am combining Friday shootout, Outdoor Wednesday and Sunday scans in this post. They are part of the Hospital life of my late son Andrew.

The bereaved parents' club

a cup cake holder with no cakes.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8119949_celebrate-birthday-child-recently-died.html

In the synopsis of my book, Diary of a Bereaved Mother. I wrote "For we belong to the club of bereaved parents. Membership is not by choice but by force." Nothing can change the fact that our deceased child is a part of the family forever, and the void in the family constellation created by the child's death also remains forever.

While we celebrate our living children's birthdays with the usual shebang of activities, how do bereaved parents celebrate our departed children's birthdays? For me, I celebrate Andrew's birthdays and anniversary in my heart. This is because my husband has other ideas. However, on the eve of these two days, I mention it during dinner. This is more to tell the family that tomorrow, I might feel moody.

When I was a newbie at a S.A.N.D.S support group, the leader was a bereaved mum of 17 years. She celebrates her late son's birthday the same way as she would anyone's birthday in her family. She engaged her living children to help bake the cake and sing happy birthday.

There are special things like holding memorials, releasing balloons, planting flowers,
giving money to her church and charity in his memory. It could be a charity that helps children or babies it seems fitting. I was involved with a lot of charities including one involved spearheading a drive to raise funds to give life to a pair of Siamese twins. My motivation was I couldn't do anything for Andrew, here was an opportunity to help another mum.

Of late cup cakes have become popular. What if you are a teacher, and your student brought a cup cake to you telling you that it is his late sibling's birthday cake? Or a friend who gets such a cake, how would you react? I would like to hear from you.

Scenic Sunday/Save the World: Save the children from drowning

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2ifBlLC6wHlnKNb8qOQIgP9T7mWqTb5ZH97JdXU9IaQiqj0Hr5Zjho5_zd12I42GCtnaZx5HqyjOsVNfnqcfhGVquaJ8_n3BnIRY1lcZJxrYJVFPS6f9zqf59gWwfLsMhl8KIwrVV_96/s1600-h/scenic+sunday.jpg">
http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/


http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

The photo shows the Nanyang Technological University's oval, and on the right the swimming pool. It was here, I trained for my 10 km Marathon running. My friend L. trained with me at 6 am in the morning, we added 800 metres per day. Later, we did our circuit of running round the university campus. The day, we completed our 10 km, we High 5ed.

This university in Singapore was part of my life for 16 years. The pool was an appealing place in the tropical island. Kids and parents flock to the pool. Sometimes without care givers. We knew it was a disaster waiting to happen. There were rules in the pool, but not everyone obeys.

This email came today:

Dear parents from small children,

this afternoon at around 5.45pm an approximately 3 year old boy almost drowned in the kid’s pool in the midst of dozens of other kids and parents hadn’t he been rescued by a brave and attentive young man. Actually the guy who saved the boy seemed to be a student who was just talking to a friend next to the pool.

We parents who only realized this event when the rescuer jumped into the water with his clothes on (cell phone and wallet probably inside his pockets) to save the boy, were totally shocked especially as we could have never imagined that something like this could happen at a time where the pool was full of people.

Please, for the safety and life of our children:
notice that even though our child can safely stand up by him-/herself in case he/she falls inside the pool, there are moments where the child apparently can loose orientation and is not able to stand up!
instruct your maid or whoever accompanies your child to the pool to PERMANENTLY watch the child especially when nobody is with him/her inside the pool. I noticed that this boy today nicely played by himself for a long time and we would have never expected that out of a sudden he would loose his orientation and couldn’t stand up by himself alone. When that event happened the maid apparently wasn’t watching him and the pool was filled with ‘noise’, so most people probably thought the boy is just playing. I myself realized that one gets easily distracted on such a day by for instance talking to other parents and the same case could have happened to all of us and could have lead to a fatal accident.

Thanks again to the great savior who has prevented a tragedy!

Robert

Thanks for a good reminding. My four year old boy had a cramp on his foot after a long swimming and play this afternoon. We just need to watch the kids all the time when they are near water, and need to remind helpers accordingly.

In New Zealand we have Mark teaching children to swim at Trikids.

My world Tuesday: Old fashioned pram

http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

I took this because you don't see such old fashion prams any more. You normally see buggies, push chairs and new model prams.

This pram has a special place in my heart.

Friday Shootout: Church

Mt Albert Baptist Church. This is my church family. Church is not just building. Church is the people who worship there. Church has no boundaries. We just had a group of 16 students from Sydney Missionary and Bible College across the ocean in Australia.

They served alongside us and injecting some fresh energy into a whole range of areas. They spent their week, among other things, visiting LifeGroups, teaching in various ministries and preaching. It was exciting to see Darran and Kathyrn use their multi media to teach our ESOL class.

Church is the families who opened their homes and host our visitors.

I was privileged to cook a simple Chicken Fried rice and Beef curry for their lunch yesterday. Yes, that is my meaning of church, using my hands. I made a lot of friends while sharing lunch with them.


This is what people traditionally call a church, a church building.

Maclaurin Chapel on the campus of the university of Auckland. it serves the needs of the students. I used to meet there and during our capping aka graduation, there was a service for the graduands and their families. There were weddings and funerals too.


Church is opening her premises to teach English to Speakers of Other languages. This means we have other ethnic groups and religions, including Muslims and Hindus.

Church is remembering those who fought and died for us, Lest we forget, a service on ANZAC day.


The core of the Christian faith, the ressurection of Christ. Last year, our Pastor Arthur Warner gave a little talk to our ESOL students.



Member Voice for April 15th ~ Temples, Churches, Synagogues, House of Prayer ~
The theme for April 15th is Temples, Churches, Synagogues, House of Prayer. Places of worship are in every town or city. No matter what or whom you believe in, at one time or another we all have prayed, or talked things over with our higher power.

In the broadest sense, to pray is to make a request in a humble manner. The term to pray is now often used to refer to religious prayers: to commune with a spirit or deity that you believe in. While the rituals and conventions of prayer may vary widely, the intention is the same--to renew one's spiritual connection with a power outside themselves.

You will find that you can pray anytime, anywhere, anyhow. It may help to be in a place where the focus is on spirituality (such as a church or temple) or where the environment reminds you of your spiritual bond (like a natural setting, or a spot with a big view). You can choose to pray in the presence of others, or you can pray privately.

Show your places of worship from your town.





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Church is also being involved in the community like organising Christmas in the park,


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I will follow up this post with photos of the students. I forgot my camera and will have to wait for them to send them to me.