My school encourages walking, scootering and even skateboarding. We are lucky we are very near to the beach. This photo was taken in March when I took some of my seniors to Walker Park, a Marine reserve. We walked. I tell the kids, we take bus number 11.
This is an old photo taken in the Changi Airport in Singapore. Children like to ride on the airport trolleys. Here's Sam at around 5 years old with his cousins. The Changi Airport is very big, with three terminal buildings. The little feet get very tired, and the trolleys are great.
This is not a daily sight. Sam likes to go horse riding. It is a treat. But for many in a farm. horses are a daily affair.
This is a trailer. I don't know if other countries use this. It like a wagon with two wheels. It is attached to a tow bar of a car, and you can transport anything. It is very handy.
That day at Walker park, a group of tourists came to see the Oyster Catchers. They were lucky. The birds often go galliavanting, and if you take a trip especially, chances are you will be disappointed.
I took this because you don't see such old fashion prams any more. You normally see buggies, push chairs and prams.
This is a mobility taxi. I stood and watch a long time as the driver helped the wheer chair bound person to his van. It had a lever or jack platform. If I could give a bouquet, the driver deserved it. He was so patient. I did another post on these taxis.
When you have a broken window, and wonder how to get the glass panes to your house. This is how it is done.
Some people are lucky, Some even live on their boats.
Finally, after a hard day's work. 99 kegs of beer.
My Town Friday Shoot Out - Getting Around our cities and towns without cars.
I have to confess, as I have done many times before, I zip around in my car because Auckland is a suburban sprawl, and my school is 7 kilometers away, and the water engineer works in an opposite direction of me. My walking is for recreational purposes, so these photos from my archives are those that attract me. I had been posting on wheels, all types of wheels. These photos come handy with this challenge.
Up upon the top of Mt Eden, the wind can be blustery cold. What is better than sipping a cup of hot Latte or cappuccino?
This vender certainly found his niche.
When the water engineer is not around, and your car plays up, and you don't know what to do, call the AA.
When I was little in Sibu, they didn't have big vehicles like this to transport the caterpillar trucks. The conveyor belts easily ruin road surfaces. They had men on foot putting pieces of thick tree barks just before the belt. This was a slow process, after putting one bark to the front, they have to go back and retrieve the last one. I wonder if anyone remembered those days.
This must be why I have a fascination with big vehicles, and I just used Sam to watch the juggernauts and counting their wheels. Now, when ever I see a heavy truck, I try to grab my camera.
This gentleman was going so fast that I had to walk quickly to take the pix. At last, he stopped at the traffic light for me to catch up.
This contraption is a soul saviour. It gives the user such great mobility and independence. One evening, the water engineer and I were in a park. A teenaged boy with a high degree of immobility was enjoying himself in his motorised wheel chair.
Youthtown offers after school care and holiday programme.
Youthtown's After School Programme caters for children aged 5-13 at the purpose built children & youth centre located at 68a Nelson Street.
My friend's daughter goes there during the holidays and thoroughly enjoys herself. She loves the swimming and the day trips. They don't have television during the day at the centre.
Look at the fun programme on the bus.
NTU was always building new tall buildings. Sam loved these trucks that had their bellies churning round and round.
Tens of thousands of these giant trucks must have carried the red scoria that two volcanic peaks at Three Kings were flattened over the history of Auckland . Winstone company must have drastically quarried over the years.
I was walking along Mt Eden Road when I saw these trucks zoomed past me. Before I could have my camera ready, they had gone. So many of them went past, that it wasn't funny. Eventually, this one stopped at the traffic lights.
It makes me wonder, if the government had not decreed the volcanic mountains to be protected, if it was left to commercial enterprise, would the very tourist areas of Mt Eden and One Tree hill be flattened as well?
I was fortunate to be there at the right place at the right time when I was walking pass this Indian Temple at Balmoral. A bendy bus was pulling out of their car park. The driver had a difficult time manoeuvring out of the tight gates.
There were many guides, and eventually, the driver straightened the bus and they went on. I asked one of the man waving at the passengers where the were going. They were going to a picnic.
What a big picnic it must have been for them to hire a bendy bus.
Bendy bus came to Auckland in the 1980s. I was a scary cat and didn't have the encourage to go on one. In Singapore, there are many bendy buses. I didn't go on one too. D used to say, Mum, it's like the MRT train. Well, I do go on the train, but I don't go on the bendy part.
Our boys in blue, as they are affectionally called in New Zealand. In Sarawak, we called them MA DA, a corrupted word from the Malay MATA which means eyes. It is literally correct, the police is the eyes of the society.
My own experience with the police is a good one. I have posted it to a few websites. The responses were mostly brick bats. For me, it was a bouquet to them.
I was shopping in a complex near to a bottle shop. These two cops were talking to a man, and I discretly snapped these photographs. This is why the pix are out of focus.
Thumbs up, Kapai to our paramedics, red cross, St John's ambulance and in Muslim countries, Red Crescent.
I have been in one once, shortly after G was born in Auckland Hospital, and we were transfered to National Women's hospital.
***The morning I took these pix, these two ambulances were rushing up Dominion Road. I guess something serious must have happened to warrant two ambulances.***
Auckland is known as the city of sails. Some claim that there are more boats per population here than any where else. There are a lot of motor boats. You drive along Tamaki Drive, and you will see many Marinas. Some people moor their boats in the marinas, others tow them home.
One friend jokes that people have money to buy the boat, but can't afford to run the boat.
The wheels here are the wheels that tow the boat.
This is our personal experience, the closest we got to a boat.
It was 1980, we were living in Mt Eden, and we drove an old Ford Escort. We lived in the first upstairs of a row of terrace flats. That Friday evening, we came home and parked the car by the road side. It was a quiet road as we were almost at the end of a cul-de-sac. On saturday morning, the water engineer said the car was missing. I thought he was joking with me and parked the car elsewhere.
According to the police, while we were sleeping, a gang of street kids had hot wired the Ford Escort and driven it across the Auckland harbour bridge. They were more ambitious than just taking our car for a joy ride. They were going to take a boat for a joy ride. I guess that was why they took our car, because we had a tow bar.
They found a big boat and went ahead connecting the boat to our car. Unfortunately they mis-calculated our power of our little car. They made a big racket, and the boat won't move. The noise woke the boat owners and the neighbours. By then, they had burned the motor of our car. So they quickly took of.
The police found in the car, an envelope sent to me by Sister Elizabeth to my old address. In the morning, they went to the address, but my ex flatmates didn't have our address and we didn't have a telephone. So they waited for us to report our missing car.
The car had to be towed to a garage to be fixed. Luckily, we were insured. The street kids got some small change. What was upsetting was they had taken away the Bible that was used during our wedding. This was an intangible loss. I spoke to Claire Hart, the wife of Roland, the pastor who married me. She consoled me that may be one of these kids will come to know the Lord after reading it.
I fictionalised this story in my book: Mail Order Bride. When I tell this to friends, they laugh and think I made it up.
http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2008/11/mail-order-bride-chapter-8-lost.html
When my child was little. The number one career choice for the boys was "when I grow up, I want to be a fireman."
In New Zealand, there are many volunteer firemen. Our friend G was one, and twenty years later, his son became one as well.
I visited this station at Balmoral Road with D and her school. I went past many times before I struck gold to find the firemen near the trucks. They had returned from probably a fire. usually either the automatic doors were down, or they were away.
These are great mothers' helpers. Wish these seats were available when my kids were little. My kids just sat on the trolley with their legs sticking out. If you have a baby, it would not be safe or confortable, especially for a youngish baby. These seats remind me of the first baby bucket car seats.
I don't remember seeing them in Singapore. They are like the pix. The kids have to sit on the cold hard metal. I took this pix, as it is another run away trolley.
http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2008/11/shopping-trolleys.html
