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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Saturday PhotoHunt :gather



Students gathering plums from my plentiful tree.








My sis E came to visit me in New Zealand from Borneo. We went to Western Springs and saw a chest nut tree.









a : pick, harvest
b : to pick up or amass as if by harvesting

I actually love to gather than consume them, especially in this case of the plums from my tree. I live the kids in the neighbourhood to gather my plums, because my teeth or rather my gums can't stand the fruit

The bottom photos: my sis Elizabeth and I gathering chestnuts at Western Springs.


The Saturday PhotoHunt December 31st ~ Gather
http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.com/

Friday, December 30, 2011

Weekend Reflection: Playing on the beach in the rain.



New Zealand is basically two islands. We are surrounded by the ocean and we succeed in our sporting achievement. When you look at this photo and see a brave heart family, you will understand why. It was bitterly cold, the wind was blasting, and the rain was pelting. Here was a pair of parents at the beach, letting their kids play, occasionally swim in the waves. No wonder Kiwi kids are so tough.

New Zealand won consecutively the America's Cup in 1995 and 2000. In doing this, we became the first team from a country outside the United States to successfully win and then defend the America's Cup. Next year, it will be America's cup again. A friend's husband is involved in designing one of the boats.



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Kenya Missions of Hope


Mama Linet with her children and the charcoal she is now selling.
Photo credits: Jonah, Missions of Hope


For 16 years, when I was living in Singapore as a faculty wife, together with a group of women, I raised funds for the Deaf of Kenya.

This year, I found fellow blogger JOYFUL: http://snapthatpenny.blogspot.com/ and am glad she shares the same passion for Kenya.

This is from Joyful's post.

This blog is about savouring the good and small things in life and being thankful for what I have. I am retired now and trying to do my part to live simply and frugally.

My friend visited Mama Linet on December 12, 2011 to take her some support I sent to try and help her get on her feet. Some of you remember me writing about Mama Linet before. She is the young mother with the little girl named Linet who has a cleft palate.

I came to know of Mama Linet through my friend Jonah. He found this little family while on a medical mission. On that mission he learned about the little girl Linet who was rapidly losing weight and could not eat. He felt led to help her get some medical attention and the right food to help her get stronger. He was so gratified and excited when the little girl stopped losing weight and started to get healthier. Now the little girl is thriving, running around, playing and drawing. She still needs cleft palate surgery and hopefully she will be able to get it some day.

In the meantime, we also wanted to help this mother try to provide for her family since times are very hard in Kenya with runaway inflation and poor maize prices. Initially, the young mom thought she would like to try and start a beauty salon. After she thought about it some more, she decided to start a charcoal business instead. I do hope and pray that she will make a success of it for the future of herself and her children.

My friend also visited some Internally Displaced People (IDP) in early December. He returned to see them on December 24, 2011, to take food. I wrote about this in my last two posts in case you are interested in reading more about this. It will bless you so much to see that someone's Christmas was brightened.

Jonah has visited the IDP Camp whenever he can to try to encourage the people and bring them hope. He tries to take blankets and mosquito nets whenever he can purchase them. These IDPs are Kenyans and they were displaced about 4 years ago from their homes. They lost everything and escaped with their lives after the ugly violence that erupted soon after the last national election in Kenya.

We know that most people will never get a chance to go and visit these places.
We want to show you the conditions the people live in so you can determine whether you can share whatever you have to help these people.

Even a little goes a long way but we don't want anyone to give what they cannot afford. We only want you to give if you have enough food and if you are thankful for what you have.
We want you to give if you feel blessed enough to help someone else and have faith that your future needs will be met.

If you can help, you can do http://www.kenyamissionsofhope.org/

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Sign the petition:Stop Mercer County, KY school from abusing autistic children.


When therapists have their ideas of helping their patients, who is there to monitor that it is the right treatment? I remember a woman who died when they put her inside a bag to simulate her birth process?
Change.org is an online advocacy platform that empowers anyone, anywhere to start, join, and win campaigns for social change. Millions of people sign petitions on Change.org each month on thousands of issues, winning campaigns every day to advance change locally and globally.
I am part of the Change.Org and I believe in justice. The causes are:
Animals
Criminal Justice
Economic Justice
Education
Environment
Gay Rights
Health
Human Rights
Human Trafficking
Immigrant Rights
Sustainable Food
Women's Rights

Dear Ann,

When Sandra Baker was called to pick up her 9-year-old autistic son, Chris, from his Mercer County, Kentucky school, she was stunned by what she found: She says that Chris's teacher had stuffed him in a gym bag and left him in the hallway as punishment.

"When I walked in," Sandra told CBS News, "I went down his hallway, and I saw this big green bag laying in the floor beside the [teacher's] aide, and I saw it moving."

Then Sandra heard a voice come from inside the bag: “Momma, is that you?”

Sandra demanded her son be released immediately, but allegedly the bag was tied so tightly the teacher's aide struggled to open it. When Chris finally got out, his mom says he was sweaty and uncommunicative.

Lydia Brown, a freshman at Georgetown University, is autistic, too. When she heard about Chris's ordeal at school , she started a petition on Change.org demanding the Mercer County school district discipline the teacher who put Chris in the bag and require its teachers to complete training on interacting with autistic children. Click here to sign Lydia's petition now.

At a meeting with school officials last week, Sandra learned this wasn't the first time Chis had been stuffed in the duffel bag as punishment. The teachers allegedly referred to the duffel as a “therapy bag,” but lacking even basic training for working with autistic children, were unable to explain how confining Chris to a drawstring bag constituted “therapy” of any kind.

Here’s the worst part: after her meeting, Sandra says she rec eived no guarantee that this kind of abuse wouldn’t happen again -- either to Chris or to other students in Mercer County schools.

That’s just not acceptable to Sandra, or to the 12,000 people who’ve already signed Lydia’s petition on Change.org. Lydia is hoping to deliver the petition to the Mercer County school board at their next meeting. The school board won’t be able to ignore this issue when they see the thousands of people angry about Chris’s treatment and calling for changes.

Please sign Lydia’s petition to get Mercer County schools to fire Chris’s teacher, and to get the school district to require its staff to complete comprehensive training on i nteracting with autistic children.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

- Katie and the Change.org team

http://www.change.org/petitions/end-abuse-of-autistic-students-in-mercer-county-kentucky?utm_medium=email&alert_id=fTVYPJTgIK_JNEKxWVxer&utm_source=action_alert


Why This Is Important

(Updated and corrected version)

In Mercer County, Kentucky, nine year old Chris Baker, an Autistic student, was told by his special education aide to climb inside a bag intended for therapeutic purposes as a punishment to "control his autistic behavior" on 14 December 2011. He was placed in the bag with the drawstring tightened and left in the hallway in the school. When his mother, Sandra Baker, was called to the school to get her son, she demanded that he be removed from the bag right away. The teacher struggled to undo the drawstring, and Chris emerged sweaty and non-communicative. According to the teacher, this had been done several times over the last year, but Sandra didn't know until this latest incident. While she met with state officials on Monday 19 December 2011 before a possible meeting with school officials, there is no guarantee that those meetings will prevent this kind of abuse from happening again -- either to Chris or to other students.

If you think it's wrong to tell an Autistic child to climb inside a bag not intended as an instrument of confinement and tighten it with a drawstring, which could potentially have led to serious injury or death, as punishment, then please sign this petition. This is wrong. This is abuse. It needs to stop.

Update, 27 Dec. 2011: I have received a few messages expressing concern about why the petition does not solely call for the firing the teacher responsible.

While I personally believe that the teacher more than deserves to be fired, the demand stipulates that if she not be fired (which it does request explicitly -- asking that the teacher "be dismissed from position") then she be required to complete extensive education regarding respectful treatment of Autistic students. I do not harbor any illusions that the people who are naturally malicious-minded and inclined to abuse will truly benefit or amend their ways from any amount of education; however, in the event the county Board of Education refuses to fire her, it would be better than simply allowing her to keep her job and stay in the same position where she already is now, maintaining the status quo.

I firmly believe that the majority of teachers are people with good or decent intentions who genuinely want to support their students and not abuse them; the kind of education demanded in the second and third provisions of the petition ought to provide these people with a better foundation and toolkit for interacting appropriately and respectfully with Autistic students and students with other disabilities. I would much rather focus on what good can be gained of a horrific and disgusting situation than the good that cannot be gained from it, and that is what I hope to accomplish with this petition.

In response to concerns about misinformation or conflicting information about the type of bag used, it was an Abilitations BagOBalls (not a duffel bag, or a gym ball bag, or a netted bag), which is intended to be used for occupational therapy, specifically sensory integration therapy through application of deep pressure; however, the teacher who told Chris to get inside the bag was NOT a trained clinician using the bag in a therapeutic setting in a manner so that he would have been free to leave of his own initiative. It was instead used inappropriately as a restraint and a punishment, not as a therapy.

- Lydia

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

ABC Wednesday: X for Xmas

This is Christmas/Xmas Down Under, in New Zealand, not a speck of snow, because it is summer here.

Christmas in the Park is popular in New Zealand as we are having summer. Kids and adults dress up.

No thick costume for Santa, he is wearing our tanktop or singlet, our farmer's uniform, (usually black) in his black gum boots and rides a quad bike.)


The community comes out in droves, free music, freebies. TV Celebs.

Guess the number of candy canes and win a prize.

children loves it being in a trailer cage.

traditional Christmas plant.

New Zealand Xmas tree, this Pohutukawa tree is crimson red at this time.

a Poem that explains why the candy cane is eaten during Xmas.

"Xmas" is an abbreviation of Christmas found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), "Christ", though numerous style guides discourage its use;[24] it has precedent in Middle English Χρ̄es masse (where "Χρ̄" is an abbreviation for Χριστός).[23]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmashttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I write Xmas a lot especially these days when we use the email and Facebook a lot. I also sign off with XXX.


httphttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 26, 2011

Ruby red/rednesday: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)



My students are excited with this movie. They were chirping away what they were going to do this summer holiday. We are going to the movies and watch Alvin.

No wonder, the city buses are advertising and this bus is seen going towards the playground at Coyle's park.

The Chipmunks and The Chipettes (three female counterparts to the Chipmunks) go on a cruise trip with the Chipmunks' owner/manager/father figure, Dave Seville. During the cruise, the 'Munks and 'Ettes turn the ship into their personal playground, causing trouble and running amuck as they will. Eventually, their chaotic behavior gets them ship wrecked on the Isles of Scilly, 20th Century Fox Distribution





http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com

http://www.suelovescherries.blogspot.com/

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Yellow Mellow: Surfaris Surf School & Surf Tours







My 15 year old was so happy with Simon the instructor that he wants to go back for more lessons. http://www.surfaris.co.nz/

Surfaris Surf School & Surf Tours, described by YHA NZ as 'A truly unforgettable experience' is a respected surf company operating across Northland offering surf lessons and surf tours to tourists and New Zealanders. The Surfaris all-inclusive surf tours travel to remote locations in search of good times and fun waves. We promote surf lessons, surf tours, school & holiday camps, corporate team building, women's surf retreats, family surf days, beach education, surf culture and adventure. Learning to surf is a great discipline that feeds the mind, body and soul so why not give it a go! Standing for the first time is a memory to last that will have you smiling from ear to ear. Surfaris is committed to sustainability and take steps at all times to ensure we take nothing but experience from the environment.

Surfaris is internationally accredited and we've helped many people of allhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif ages experience the thrill of surfing. You can visit them on their facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Surfaris-Surf-School-Tours/166284389637



http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/

Saturday, December 24, 2011

whistlestopphotohunt/sunday scans: Surprise

frozen chicken

The year was 1979.
We were students are the Auckland University.
We decided to host a surprise Christmas party.
Everyone was to bring a present.
As it was a surprise party,
the shops were closed,
We told our friends
just come with what you can.
Before we opened the present,
We had to feel, smell to guess what we got.
This friend had no idea what he was given.
When he teared away the wrapping,
We all laughed, he got a frozen chicken.
It was indeed a surprise.

Student days!!!!! Life was full of surprises.



http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.com/http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

previously photohunt.


http://sundayscans.blogspot.com/

Al http://alsphotographyblog.blogspot.com/.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Weekend Reflection: Thailand



My cousin Ambrose went to Thailand and took this lovely photo. Thank you Ambrose for reminding me of my own holiday in Bangkok more than 10 years ago.






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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Thursday Theme Song: Oh Christmas tree


By coincidence, the last two houses I lived in, there were 4 pines trees in the garden. One year, my daughter suggested we decorated one of the trees. It was fantastic. We had strangers coming to the front door and commented that the tree made them happy.


I love decorating Christmas trees. The tradition went back to when I was a little baby. Dad had gone to England and came home with this tradition. There are lots of memories. One year, the wind blew the tree down, and all the baubles broke. Another year. mum grew her own Norfolk pine. She brought the tree in, together with a nest with eggs or was it nestlings. Dad ordered her to take the tree back downstairs to the garden. Mum removed the nest and tied it to another tree. What happened after, I can't remember, or did I block out that memory.

Now, I have one special decoration for each member of the family.

Merry Christmas every one!

Peace to mankind.


Oh Christmas tree,
Oh Christmas tree,
With faithful leaves unchanging,
Oh Christmas tree,
Oh Christmas tree, with faithful leaves unchanging
Not only green, in summer’s heat,
But also winter’s snow and sleet Oh Christmas tree,
Oh Christmas tree, with faithful leaves unchanging
Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,
Of all the trees most lovely
Oh Christmas tree,
oh Christmas tree,
Of all the trees most lovely
Each year you bring to me delight,
Gleaming in the Christmas night
Oh Christmas tree,
Oh Christmas tree,
Of all the trees most lovely



http://youtu.be/J4Hv9YmhGpw




http://thursdaythemesong.blogspot.com/
http://hootin--anni.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

ABC Wednesday: waves, water, wetsuits and W.W.W.







Schools out, and it is our summer holiday.
It is anything but hot.
The last ten days in New Zealand can be termed aptly as WET! WET! WET!
My 15 year old had been dreaming about surfing.
We enrolled him for a surf lesson.
We drove to Omaha to catch the waves.
It was cold and rainy. While he was warm and snug in his wet suit, I was shivering and dripping wet with a tourist from Germany.

Surfaris Surf School & Surf Tours, described by YHA NZ as 'A truly unforgettable experience' is a respected surf company operating across Northland offering surf lessons and surf tours to tourists and New Zealanders. The Surfaris all-inclusive surf tours travel to remote locations in search of good times and fun waves. We promote surf lessons, surf tours, school & holiday camps, corporate team http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbuilding, women's surf retreats, family surf days, beach education, surf culture and adventure. Learning to surf is a great discipline that feeds the mind, body and soul so why not give it a go! Standing for the first time is a memory to last that will have you smiling from ear to ear. Surfaris is committed to sustainability and take steps at all times to ensure we take nothing but experience from the environment.

Surfaris
is internationally accredited and we've helped many people of all ages experience the thrill of surfing.

The World Wide Web (or the proper World-Wide Web; abbreviated as WWW or W3,[2] and commonly known as the Web) is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks. In New Zealand, when you listen to the TV or radio, W.W.W. sounds like DUB DUB DUB.


httphttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 19, 2011

mellow yellow/ruby red/rednesday: Surfing school.















From the home made beach in a city apartment in Singapore, my 15 year old has graduated to wanting to surf in the deep wide ocean.

We enrolled him for a surf lesson. It was cold and rainy. While he was warm and snug in his wet suit, I was shivering and dripping wet with a tourist from Germany.

Surfaris Surf School & Surf Tours, described by YHA NZ as 'A truly unforgettable experience' is a respected surf company operating across Northland offering surf lessons and surf tours to tourists and New Zealanders. The Surfaris all-inclusive surf tours travel to remote locations in search of good times and fun waves. We promote surf lessons, surf tours, school & holiday camps, corporate team http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbuilding, women's surf retreats, family surf days, beach education, surf culture and adventure. Learning to surf is a great discipline that feeds the mind, body and soul so why not give it a go! Standing for the first time is a memory to last that will have you smiling from ear to ear. Surfaris is committed to sustainability and take steps at all times to ensure we take nothing but experience from the environment.

Surfaris
is internationally accredited and we've helped many people of all ages experience the thrill of surfing.





http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/






http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com

http://www.suelovescherries.blogspot.com/

Friday, December 16, 2011

Joy



You can see the joy on S's face when his little friend Ken comes to play at our sand pit. My husband made one of the best sandpits in Singapore from pristine white Australian sand. Our son had his own beach in urban Singapore. It was always very popular with the kids in NTU.


http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.com/http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

previously photohunt.


http://sundayscans.blogspot.com/

Al http://alsphotographyblog.blogspot.com/.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Auckland Town hall, 100 years old.

http://www.the-edge.co.nz/aucklandtownhall.aspx
Auckland Town Hall is a prominent civic landmark of neo-Baroque style. Taking pride of place on Queen Street in Auckland’s CBD, it was specifically designed by Melbourne architects JJ and EJ Clark to fit the wedge-shaped piece of land acquired for it. Protected as a Category A heritage building, it was opened in 1911 by Baron Islington, New Zealand’s Governor General at the time. From 1994-1997 the building was fully restored, allowing the addition of modern amenities and re-estabhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflishing the building’s standing as a multi-functional venue and world class performance hall.

Constructed from Oamaru limestone, this historic five-storey building with its distinctive clock tower, has many special features including kauri floors, decorative pressed metal ceilings and plasterwork, stained glass windows, cast iron balustrades, porcelain and glazed ceramic tiling, and hand blown chandeliers.



Such an ornate building, though Auckland is very young relatively, we have a beautiful building. Its interior was extensively restored from 1994-1997http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif for NZ$ 33 million, partially because the unreinforced masrony structure did not meet earthquake standards, especially as a gathering place. Sinclair Knight Merz pioneered various techniques to reinforce the structure without substantially changing the heritage character of the building.[3] The exterior has recently (2007) undergone some restoration work as well.[1][ The water engineer happens to work for this company.








Auckland Town hall at night.


Our Town hall has a renovated organ. They plan to have organ tours. This is a speciment of the organs.

Great Hall
The centrepiece of Auckland Town Hall is the Great Hall, seating up to 1,529 people in theatre-style on three levels, and featuring a 17 metre (approximately 60 foot) stud and permanent concert platform.

Considered to have one of the finest acoustics in the world, this is Auckland’s premier venue for fine music and orchestral performances as well as being a popular choice for rock concerts.

Housed in the Great Hall, the Auckland Town Hall Organ also dates from 1911 and is the largest musical instrument in New Zealand. The organ has recently been restored to its former Romantic-era status and was unveiled to the public in March 2010. The organ required a major rebuild due to the extensive remodelling it underwent in 1969-70 during the Organ Reform Movement, giving it the then-fashionable Baroque sound.



When you have slogged three, four, six, ten years. Don't you think you deserve an elaborate ceremony like this? The water engineer getting his PhD.
***Inside the Auckland Town Hall***

This was my capping/graduation/convocation with Mark. I walked from the campus at Princess Street, down Victoria Street, walked up the stairs into the Great Hall. Then I never saw him again. I wonder where he is now.

My reflection for this week is two profound ideas. I just learn that some Town fathers wanted to demolish this building. Luckily there was some wise people who opposed to this move. Imagine this grand old lady was gone? What a great loss it would be.

The other is some people advocate that you don't need to succeed in life without an education. I beg to differ. Education has served my family very well. My grand grand dad had a SIEW CAI, and equivalent of a university degree more than 100 years ago in China. The family had instilled in us the value of education. Yes, we may not be rich financially, but we have a wealth of experience.




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