Begger Chicken

My brothers, Charles, Joseph and Henry are all good cooks.

This is Charles breaking open his "begger Chicken". The chicken is encased in a dough and roasted. Charles had to use a hammer to break the harden dough open.

This is similar to my Grand dad's salt chicken. Grand Dad would heat up a whole heap of coarse sea salt in the wok. When he deemed the salt hot enough, he would bury the chicken in it.

That holiday in Oz with D is very special to me. It was the last summer I had with my mum.

Cuckoo clock

My Sister Rose gave Sam this Made-in-Switzerland cuckoo clock. It's cuckoo can be heard in the neighbourhood. Our friends kids like to come up to our house to see the cuckoo come out of it's house. They would count the times the bird cuckoo and feel very dejected if they came up too late. (We lived on the third floor)

We didn't bring it over to NZ, but took in over to Sarawak to gie it to Nicol, Rose' grand daughter.

***In Indonesia, cuckoo means something else.***

Tangiwai Disaster

We went to the Tangiwai Disaster at Whangaehu River with the children and paid our respects to the many who died during a time before we were born.

The Tangiwai disaster on December 24, 1953 was the worst rail accident in New Zealand. The overnight North Island Main Trunk express train from Wellington to Auckland, hauled by steam locomotive KA 949, fell into the Whangaehu River. The bridge over the river had been badly damaged just minutes earlier by a lahar from Mount Ruapehu.


Cyril Ellis is credited as being a hero of the accident because his actions saved many lives. He saw that the railway bridge was damaged and ran down the track, waving his torch at the oncoming train. It is believed that his warning enabled the train driver to brake before the bridge, slowing the train sufficiently so that only the first six carriages tumbled into the river. Almost everyone in the sixth carriage survived. All following carriages stopped safely.


Of the 285 people on the train, 134 survived and 151 died. Of those that died 20 bodies were never recovered; it is believed they were washed 120 kilometres from the bridge and then down the river and out to sea.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were visiting New Zealand on their first royal tour when the disaster occurred. The Queen made her Christmas broadcast from Auckland, finishing with a message of sympathy to the people of New Zealand. Prince Philip attended a state funeral for many of the victims.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Tangiwai-disaster

Albert Park, Auckland

Thirty years ago, when I was a student at Auckland University, I walked up and down Albert Park from the bus at Civic Theatre at Queen Street to Princess Street. The slope is very steep and in the wet winter, it was very slipperly. At lunch tme, many students including myself would have our quick or leisurely lunch, depending on the time of the year.

This is a cast iron fountain (1881),which was popular among the students, There was the bronze statue of Queen Victoria (1897) which the pigeons and sea gulls like to poop.

***Here is Sam when he was little.***

The park is very beautiful with lots of flowers. We took our wedding photos there. Luckily, the weather was very good. There was a floral clock, but when we took the kids back there in 2000, the hands of the clock were gone. A victim of vandelism.

ginger

The Chinese use ginger rhizome as a spice and as a medicine. In cooking, the gignger is believed to remove the "gameyness" of meat and "fishiness" of fish and other reptiles like crocodile, snake and turtle meat. It gives a nice fragrant and a slight spicyness.

As a medicine, they are good in expelling wind and when you have a cold, a ginger tea will sooth you sore throat and stuffy nose. Also, it acts like a strepsil, and keeps you from coughing.

It is customery for a Chinese woman to go through a rite of passage of "Confinement" after she has given birth to a child. During this month, she eats a lot of ginger chicken, meat and fish. The ginger will have expell the wind that she had trough child birth. The older people will say, if you don't eat the ginger brew, you will get "wind Wet" disease aka arthritis and rheumatism when you grow old.

Ginger is a plant with underground rhizomes. My mum used to grow them, and after we have slaughtered a chicken, or a duck, we throw the feathers into the ginger bush. I guess it was Mum's own form of composting. We also dug up young tender rhizomes to make a pink ginger pickle to eat with the duck.

My sister Helen recommended that putting a lump of ginger will keep morning sickness at bay.

My own anecdote about ginger was when I was working in my summer job in a food packaging factory in Penrose. My girlfriend and I were packing ginger crystals. We were popping lumps of ginger into our mouth while avoiding being caught. We laughed that we were Lucille Ball and her girl friend working n a chocolate packing factory.

This is from Dr. Weil:

Ginger’s benefits are many and varied - it:
Alleviates nausea and motion sickness
Relieves congestion
Reduces inflammation
Reduces the risk of blood clots
Provides a pleasant “warming” sensation against winter chills.

A simple way to incorporate ginger into your diet is to make fresh ginger tea: add about one half teaspoon of grated ginger root to eight ounces of boiling water. Cover and steep for 10 to 15 minutes, strain, then add honey to taste (if desired). You can also eat candied or pickled ginger or honey-based ginger syrups

ATM Skimmers

About twenty five years ago, I worked with an elderly gentleman B. in a very big institution. While all the younger employees were paid by direct credit, the older workers were wary aboutthe computer.

B. told me, "One got to be careful, people entering data in the computer can easily make mistakes."

So every pay day, he would walk up to the pay office, queue with the like minded people and get his pay in dollar note.

He also warned me about the ATM machine. I guess if he was reading today's news, he would say," I told you so."

ATM skimmers target shoppers

4:00AM Sunday Dec 28, 2008, New Zealand Herald
By Jared Savage

Are you a victim of ATM skimming?
Email the Herald on Sunday

Tens of thousands of dollars have been stolen in a brazen attack by ATM fraudsters in two of the country's busiest shopping districts.

The scammers fixed skimming devices to National Bank money machines in Auckland's Queen St, Vulcan Lane and Parnell last month. The criminals are believed to be linked to another skimming attack in Hamilton around the same time.

All three machines are on busy streets and have anti-skimming jitter devices, which literally shake the card, supposedly making it harder for them to be read.

The skimming attack comes as banks admit gangs of foreigners are increasingly targeting ATMs in New Zealand.

The skimmers use a device fitted to an ATM which copies the magnetic strip of a credit or eftpos card as it is fed into the machine. The crooks then use either a hidden camera or "shoulder surf" the victims to obtain PIN numbers.

More than 800 customers used the Auckland ATMs during the narrow timeframe, but the National Bank has refused to reveal how much was taken other than to say the amount was "significant".

As in most skimming cases, the fraud was not detected for weeks until a bank customer was alerted to a suspicious transaction.

As yet, no ATMs of other major banks have been hit by the skimmers, although a small number of BNZ and Westpac customers used the targeted machines.

National Bank refused to reveal details of the police investigation, or if fraud detectives were following any strong leads, but CCTV cameras are located above the Vulcan Lane and Queen St machines.

National Bank spokeswoman Virginia Stracey-Clitherow said all affected customers were alerted and replacement cards issued. Although widespread in Europe, skimming is rare in New Zealand, but she admitted the skimming gangs were "coming to New Zealand now".

The latest attack in Auckland comes shortly after the successful police prosecution of two illegal immigrants, Jan Marius Scutariu, 31, and Andrei Iustin Raileanu.

The Romanian pair stole nearly $35,000 with cloned credit cards after gluing a skimming device to a Westpac ATM in Hamilton - fitted with a "jitter" mechanism to supposedly prevent skimming.

But the "green sleeve" and "jitter" technology, introduced after a Russian couple stole $100,000 from Bank of New Zealand customers in 2006, have failed to stop the most recent scams.

Any losses incurred by banks from skimming are claimed from insurance companies - costs which are ultimately passed on to customers in higher banking fees.

As money machine skimming is rare in New Zealand, police and banking experts say banks make an "economic decision" to use cheaper security measures.

Fences

Once upon a time,
There were no fences and no gates.
Neighbours popped in and out,
Children came and went.

Then came a time,
When people wanted privacy,
Neighbours respected that.
Children no longer felt welcomed.

Instead of bridges,
People built fences.
No matter how beautiful they look.
They are still cold hard things.

I am glad I live in a neighbourhood,
Where fences are few and far between.
My neighbour's kid drop in to play.
My son feels equally at home in my neighbour's house.