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Saturday, May 30, 2015

The PhotoHunt for today is RED




The PhotoHunt for today is RED, What am I?

http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz/

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Alphabe-Thursday letter B


 A bell high up in a cemetery,  Recently, an idiot ruined babies' cemetery. It was not the cemetery where my late baby was buried.

I was angry with the idiot. I can image how angry the parents must have been.

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/


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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Foodsale for Deaf in Kenya.





 When I was living in Singapore, my friends and I had "Foodsale." We cooked and sold our food to neighbours and the proceeds went to the Deaf In Kenya.

We were not the only people raising funds. One year, a group of Americans went and gifted gifts.

Last Saturday, my church had a silent auction to raise funds to a school in Thailand. I offered to cook a Malaysian dinner for 4. I assured the successful bidder that I cook curry chicken quite well. I used to cook 5 chickens 4 times a year for 16 years for "Foodsale."

Saturday, May 23, 2015

The PhotoHunt for today is 'Tanned'




It was summer, and we went for a long walk along the marina, and got quite tanned.

The PhotoHunt for today is 'Tanned'

http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz/

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Alphabe-Thursday letter A

an aeroplane in a shopping mall.


 a real aeroplane in an airport. By coincidence, my husband rang from Wellington Airport saying his aeroplane is delayed, and won't be back until almost midnight. The marvel of air travel, he left this morning.
 aerobridge, you don't feel that you are going to fly when you use the aerobridge.

For a small plane and airport, you walk on the tarmac. When I was growing up, Dad often drove us to see the Fokker Friendship in Sibu.

 It became my sweetest story. When I was 20 months old, Dad went to London to study, courtesy of the Government of Sarawak aka the British Empire. My uncle Hung Fei never failed to share this story. He was holding me watch Dad walk into the plane. For as long as he was alive he would recount this, "Where's dad?" " Dad went Wheee" and I moved my hand gesturing the flight of the plane. 
Aircargo so important that your luggage arrive at the same time as you. This I leave for another time.

Airport ground control tower.  We lived next door to a ground controller. His kids boasted that their dad had the most important job. We retorted, our dad's job was more important. He sits in the plane. to go for important meetings. LOL


http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/


search/label/Alphabe-Thursday


Thursday Challenge: Spring







"SPRING" (Fresh Leaves, Baby Animals, Warm Weather,...)

http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

Friday, May 15, 2015

PhotoHunt for today is Mystical.



The PhotoHunt for today is Mystical.
As in 'amazing . . . how in the world did they do that?'


http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz/

Challenge theme is: PEACEFUL


at the beach at Surfers' Paradise. The wave is very loud at night.

Challenge theme is: PEACEFUL (Calm, Relaxed, Sleeping, Landscapes, Water,...)

Posting begins approximately Thursday 1am UTC (Wed 8pm EST, Wed 5pm PST, Thu 11am AEST) at http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

--

Alphabe-Thursday Letter Z for

This is a boy's book. Zac Power is an Australian children's book series by a team of writers under the corporate pseudonym H. I. Larry.  My nephews in Australia love this book.


http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/


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Monday, May 11, 2015

Thursday Challenge: Beautiful


A beautiful tree


"BEAUTIFUL" (People, Animals, Flowers, Cars, Houses,...)
http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html 

http://www.spunwithtears.com/

dog bites woman



I am teaching my students about an incident near to our school. At our local beach, a dog off his leash bit a woman. I am infuriated, because the beach was off for dogs at that time. The woman had a 13 cm gash, and the owner had the audacity to say his dog won't bite.

The above photographs were taken when I was an outing. There were signs plainly posted that dogs had to be on their leash. Yet, in this case, the woman had her dog off his leash. An accident waiting to happen.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/auckland-dog-bite-victim-right-he-bit-me-my-daughter-s-head-height-6308517




http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Impressive



http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz/ 


In 1977, I went to San Francisco to visit my Aunty Teresa. She took me to Lombard Street and told me that it was the crookiest road in the world.

Tomorrow is Mothers' Day.
I wrote a poem
On this Mothers' day,
I pray for those whose mothers have died.
I pray for those who can't be mothers.
I pray for those who have lost their children.
Not everyone is happy on this day.
I pray for everyone.
Happy Mothers' day.

We didn't always celebrate Mother's day.
The first time I encountered Mothers' day was in 1977. I was visiting my Aunty Teresa in San Francisco. They celebrated Mothers' day in a big way. The dads paid for a meal, the kids paid for another.  The queues were so long. The restaurants shouted all women a free drink.

Mothers' Day since Andrew's death had always been difficult. That first Mother's day when we came back to New Zealand, there was a prayer similar to my poem. It spoke to my heart as I have lost my mum and my child.

The PhotoHunt for today is 'Impressive'





This is a cake that made people say "WoW! Raymond, did you say your Aunty Grace made it?"

Grace made this for our nephew Raymond's wedding. She did most of the work, and some of us gave a little hand. If you look carefully at the bottom tier, where there are those delicate spiral lace work, and notice a rough patch, that's was done by me. Raymond's sister Flora flew back from Australia and did a great job.

We had to send one of the nephews to scour the whole of Kuching town to get as much icing sugar as possible.

We even had an consultant engineer giving advice. Our brother in law Teo was worried the cake would cave in or topple. When he saw the piling or wooden dowels inside the cake, he had confidence that the cake wouldn't fall. Before that, he had always wondered  why the multi-tiered cakes don't flop.
Transporting the cake to the hotel was an incredibly difficult job. Henry was driving very slowly, Elizabeth held the cake with the flowers. Her husband Kallang and I sat on the floor of the back of the 4 wheel drive trying to keep the cake in balance so it won't topple over.I don't know what Grace was holding.

We were all beaming with pride. I wish the cake was left intact because it was such a beautiful cake.

http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz/

Friday, May 8, 2015

Message for Nepal


From Prinka who has been working hard in New Zealand for her home country, Nepal after the earthquake aftermath. 

This is her message:


For people out there:
"Hands that help are better than lips that pray. " so please keep helping and supporting Nepal in whatever way you can.

For my country: 
We will rise again. Long live Nepal. 
## Jai Nepal. 


Regards
Prinka

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Yellow: Save the trees.




This road is lined with one hundred years old Pohutukawa trees. 6 trees were slated to be chopped to make way for a road extension. This is really sad. Public protest led this decision to be reversed, and there is a happy ending.

In another part of the city, a tree was saved after a young man climbed up, and stayed on the tree. The protester who perched in an old Auckland kauri tree for three days has come down and been charged with trespassing.


http://mondaymellowyellows.blogspot.com.au/


  
Stay mellow with yellow!

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Volunteers Services Abroad and my daughter Gabrielle


This is from my second daughter, as most of you live overseas, I am posting this for you to be aware of VSA, Volunteers Services Abroad. It is similar to the Peace corp that we were exposed to from USA.
What shall I say about my daughter Gabrielle? Even when she was in primary school, she was very aware of social issues. She volunteered in the Singapore Zoo.The first time she went, they gave her the worst job. Yet she persisted in going.

How should I feel when my daughter gives up a very cushy lawyer's job to become a volunteer in a remote pacific island? I trained her to have social consciousnesses. She had been to and helped me with my charity work. Now I just have to give my blessing and pray nothing bad will happen.

As a mum, am I happy for her to go.  That's her calling, and I am proud of her.

Ann
******************************************************************
I'm heading to the Solomons in July for 12-18 months with Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA).
To raise funds and awareness of VSA's work, I'm putting on a mid-week autumnal feast and would love for you to get some friends together to come along to a night of delicious food and drink, music and quality company.
The lush menu will be brought to you by my extremely talented friends: Meg Abbott-Walker (vino), Petra Galler (dinner) and Takumi Robert-Woodward (dessert).
$85 a ticket includes a 3 course meal and wine and is limited to 60 seats.
Please email me at gabrielle.chin@gmail.com to RSVP and let me know any dietary requirements (dinner is veggo-friendly).
If you can't make it along on the night I would appreciate any contribution! My fundraising page is at: http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/GabrielleChin/

A Fundraising Feast
Wednesday, June 3 at 7:30pm
Alleluya Bar & Cafe in Auckland, New Zealand

Nepal Earthquake 2015: Helping Hands.

 Pasang and Prinka





Prinka is actively involved with the "Helping hands" for the aftermath of the Nepalese Earthquake.

They are trying to help remote affected places through "Helping Hands". The youths from Prinka's home, Pokhara. Prinka's sister and medical teams are involved. Her home village is affected with cracks in the houses but they have no where to go.

Prinka was in Mt Albert Baptist Church to man the donation buckets. Pasang came after working in the barista machine.

The funds will be used to buy medicine, tents and food. Tonight (Sunday evening) there will be a candle night at Aotea Square.


Thursday challenge: colourful Mexican restaurant







"COLORFUL" (Flowers, Butterflys, Birds, Houses, Boats,...)



http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

Friday, May 1, 2015

save the world, save the sugar canister


There were ants in the lunch room, and the sugar canister had to be kept inside the fridge. It was taken out by the user, and back inside the fridge. The next person did the same and so on and so forth.

It was no rocket scientist to see what a waste of time it was. It took a bowl, filled it with some water, and the canister doesn't have to go back to the fridge until the end of the day. No body knew who the brain child was.




http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

Save the world: Controll the stray cats' population.



Not my belief, but something I learned. When I was in Singapore, some of us expats arted a cat rescue, called cat cafe for the strays.

The idea was rescue them and them "fix" them, so the cat population is controlled.

A Buddhist person told us, according to her beliefs, all animals should be allowed to have one litter before they are "fixed".



http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

Photohunt: Youth


In one of my flights to Australia, I flew with a young group of boys flying to Australia representing New Zealand in Softball.
Youth

http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz/