Tongans mourns.

Tongan ferry, the Princess Ashika sank when travelling from Tongan capital Nuku'alofa to Ha'afeva, in the Nomuka Islands group last Wednesday. Many Tongans live in Auckland, and I have many Tongan students.

New Zealand has sent an an airforce Orion and several boats to the search and rescue in the area.

The photo shows a school expressing their sympathies.

sundaystills.:ELEMENTS

During the Mid Autumn festival, little lanterns are floated in lakes. I see light (Fire) inside the lanterns made of metal ( Metal) frames set afloat on a wooden (Wood) base, on a lake (Water) surrounded by land. ( Earth)

Dotted all over Malaysia and Singapore are altars or mini temples. This one in Singapore is devoted to the Goddess of the sea. Fishermen come to worship her and ask her blessings. Usually there is a big urn where paper money is burnt. (Fire), the altar is located by the sea (Water) on the land (Earth). The altar is made of Wood and metal. They also burn incense and there is an oil lamp where the fire is never put out.

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/
These photos need to be viewed with a bit of imagination and humour. Indeed getting all five elements in one photo is a bit difficult. Gordon tells me that if I could get 4, that is good enough. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal,and Water.

Just a bit of info about the elements. My dad's family were either Roman Catholics or free thinkers. So we did not believe in this elements. But my mum's family believed in them in a big way.

When a baby is born, the parents would bring to a geomancer his/her "phat chee" or "ba zi" aka 8 characters. The Geomancer will consult his Almanac (Tong Shu) If the baby is lacking in water, he should be given a name that has water in it to counter his lack of it.

I know this, because an Uncle was deemed to lack GOLD (metal), his name was Gold Wheel. A cousin lacked water, her name was water.

Recently, I met a woman whose name was Gold Wood. I explained to her that she was lacking in two elements. She said, no wonder, her name was different from her sisters. Now she knew.

Friday Shoot out: mytownshootout.:Power

Human power is still better in places when machines can't operate. Here, boardwalks in high stilts meants cars can't go. Man pedals special vehicles in the olden days were used to ferry goods.

Where the water is too shallow for the engine, human power steps in. The guides use long poles to shift the boats to deeper waters.



In Sarawak, we have 144 inches of rain a year, there are many rivers. At th eupper tributaries, the Outboard engine is the king.


The water engineer went to Western Australia and saw lots of these wind farms.



A Geo thermal station, NZ is lucky to have lots of these.


Trees are a renewable resource. My cousin Henry is a forester. They reforest the forest with pine trees.



More power stations. This one is at Wairekei. The water engineer likes to take us to visit them. He combines work with pleasure. I used to complain, but not anymore. You can't beat them, join them.


A station at Huntly.
http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com/


These wind farms are in Western Australia.
http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2009/01/west-australia-2.html
New Zealand is very lucky to have lots of lakes, rivers, trees and geothermal activities. These are our main source of power. Wind farms are experimented here.

In Borneo, where I went to the Mulu Caves. The Royal Mulu Resort used human pedal power to move the guest luggage as the chalets are spread over a big area, and board walk on high stilts to connect them, so cars are unsuitable.

In the river, they use outboard engines. When the motor fails because the water is too shallow, again human power comes to the rescue. They use long poles to move the boats.When machines fail, man comes in. Here the guides use poles to move theboats when the water is too shallow doe the outboard

A thought for you

This is a New Zealand Flax plant. It grows in the wild, strong and free even in the winter.

I am posting this for Barry and Sara Diana. and gigisxm and all other bloggers who are in this club, the cancer club.

Cancer does not discriminate. My father-in-law had bowel cancer.

I am very lucky, twice I had breast surgeries to remove lumps in my breast. For a long time, I wear these two inches long scar and mis-shapen nipple. It's been so long ago that I have forgotten I have them, though they are still there. I showed them to a friend when she just had her surgery. She was very thankful. If I didn't feel troubled by them, she too would learn to accept hers.

It was exactly thirty years ago when I had the first surgery. I was in this open ward where there were many old White and Maori women. They came and gave me big hugs and said," You poor thing." The lump was non cancerous, they just nicked a little of it. Ten years later, they found another lump, and another surgery.

Today, I visited Sara Diana's site. I am thankful my scars are just scars and nothing more. So many go through more tribulations than me. My thoughts are with you.

Sunday stills the next challenge: Fences

Fences are not my favourite things. In many areas of Auckland, houses do not have fences. I am passionate about this that I did two posts on fences previously.

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.

In this post, I have photographed fences made of unusual materials. The bamboo fence is made up of cut bamboo strips held together by string. The woven thing pieces of timber makes me think of a basket, and the grass fence looks like some sort of reeds.

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Mulu caves: Artist Wilson

http://www.wilsontheartist.com/

Fancy meeting a fellow New Zealander at the Royal Mulu Resort. Wilson told me he came from Scotland but had been living in New Zealand, in fact in Auckland. Kia Ora I said.

Wilson was up in a tiny stage painting. There was a banner which said Artist, Poet and Musician. I was relaxing at the resort's lounge when I saw him painting. I wanted to take a photo of him but was afraid he did not want to be disturb. Instead he was very friendly when I went up to talk to him. He showed me his red scottish tartan hat. He told me he was comissioned by the resort as the resident artist for 6 months. I asked if it was Ok if I did a post on him, and he gladly gave me his card. "Simply Wilson."

Maori Language Week

http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2008/11/mail-order-bride-synopsis.html

The original people of New Zealand are the Maoris. This week is National Maori week. Kia ora or good day or hello. New Zealanders are encouraged to learn their other national language.

I did a bit of research when I wrote my book, "Mail Order Bride." You can read it on this site, as I have not approached many publishers. My book touched on this Marae though my story is entirely a fictional one. I wrote this book before I knew my friend Ngarimu and my having a sleep over there.

Just as many of my sites are about New Zealand, my book too ia about the different peoples of New Zealand.