Haere Mai,Welcome,To all family & friends in NZ & around the world and anyone reading my blog ! This is my first ever blog, which I started on Black Friday, 13th May 2005. My thoughts & prayers are with you all. Take care & God Bless. Arohanui ! Kakite !

Blog Archive

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

#300 - #309

Something Old

The German town of Bad Doberan has finally got around to stripping honorary citzenship from a former national leader - adolf hilter. Only because in two months time, the world's leaders arrive for a G8 summit. The town on the Baltic coast of what used to be east Germany is in the midst of final preparations for the 3 day gathering in June. During the preparations, they discovered that hilter was still the proud recipient of the town's honorary citizen award. While other towns stripped the the nazi leader of titles after the war, Bad Doberan - the town that first came up with the idea - did nothing about it. That's not the only mistake they made - the state of Brunswick made hilter who was born in Austria, a German citizen in 1932. A local politician had demand the ruling be posthumously rescinded but the state's Interior Minister decided history could not be re-written.

#301. Something New

Nasal snuff, a form of sniffing tobacco is about to go on sale in NZ. Why ? Ten twenty years down the track, will we have the same case senario of companies been sued because people are addicated to snuff, just like they are addicated to tobacco. Nasal snuff is inhaled as a pinch of powder between the thumb & finger. Oral snuff, a pinch of which you put under your tongue cannot legally be sold in NZ, although it can be imported for personal use. Nasal snuff can now be sold, but not to under-18's, nor can it be advertised. So what's the point of importing it into the country. It is addictive and should not be imported. All I can say is, that the people who make it as well as those that are going to import it, must have deep pockets.

It reminds me of a joke - A servant was sent down to the village by his master, to purchase a few things from the local shop. On his way home, he suddenly remembered he was supposed to purchase some nasal snuff. As he was nearly home, there was no way he was going back down to the village. He saw some doggie-do's on the side of the road, so he picked that up. When he got home, he grind it up and put in a bag. After dinner & drinks, the gentleman of the house passed the bag to his guest to take a pinch & sniff. As he passed the bag over, he asked his guest if he could smell doggie-do's. The guest said no, because he had a cold he couldn't smell anything. After the guest had inhaled the powder, he said "Boy, you always buy the best snuff. It's clear my head and I can certainly smell doggie-do's now". (hehe)

#302. Something Borrowed

In the previous "Something Borrowed", was a photo of a jar containing........ ? It seems no one even left a comment as to what they thought may of been in the jar. (Maybe because I switched comments off) I'm sure that no one would of got it right anyway, except for Madam Grizzle from whose blog I borrowed the photo. So have a look at the post on her blog for Tuesday March 6th where you will find the story behind the photo and what the jar contains.

#303. Something Blue

Sad, but true. While reading thru the family notices page of people who had died, one notice caught my eye - on the morning of March 24th, she buried her loving husband who had died a couple of days before. They had been happily married for 51 years and had several children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was heartbroken at his death and that same day she was rushed to hospital where she died unexpectedly in the afternoon. Died of a broken heart but now their love for each other can live on forever. It goes to show you the true love that the couple had for each other when one could not live without the other. How often does that happened now-a-days ? Real, true love !!!

#304. Currently Reading
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I don't know if you can call it reading or not, but I am flicking thru one of the recipe books I brought from the book fair - the one that was published in 1962 which has 296 pages. It is called "The Good Cook's Encyclopedia" and is dedicated to people who enjoy eating, because that really is the whole secret of learning how to cook. It is a book, which seems to cover everything someone who can't cook to save themselves, would need - that is me because I cannot cook and it's time I thought about learning how to cook. Even if it's just cooking on the weekends. The recipes seem so simple (well some of them) which they would of been back then in 1962. Just plain & simple food. One good thing about it is that there are no pictures to show you what the recipe is supposed to look like, when you are finished. Having come from a large family, with a few older sibblings, as well as younger there was never any opportunity to even to learn to cook as Mum or one of the older sibblings usually did all the cooking. If you didn't like what was put in front of you, well just tough. You either ate or you went without - there was no two ways about it. Now-a-days, with so much variety of takeaway food available (even here in this small town), it seems point-less to cook, but I suppose I have to learn sooner or later. Been about 50 minutes (20 minutes downhill and then 30 minutes up hill) from the nearest take away shops has nothing to do with the thought of learning how to cook, of course - nothing at all.

#305. Rural Living

Coming to you from out in the country on Saturday 7th April, 2007 - Here I sit at my computer typing up posts, which I'll save to a floppy disk and then later on in the week (10th) when I am back in the city, I'll go to an internet cafe and download them on to my blogs. I know I have said it before (several times in fact) but I am honestly going to have to get a camera - no if's but's or maybe's about it - so I can share with you, the views from where I sit. I can see for miles. Way over in the distant I can see smoke rising from a fire, but it would have to be a controlled burn-off, because no fire siren has sounded in the town. Looking out the window, futher on down the property is a small garden, which has a norfolk pine tree set in the middle. There are two solar powered lights and a bench seat where one sit and watch the sunset. The owner of the property has scattered his brother's ashes on the garden so when you sit and watch the sunset, you are never alone.
The town had a church fair as well as a book fair one Saturday. Needless to say, I called in just to have a look mind you (I already have enough books & magazines to sink a ship) and ending up buying just a "few" magazines and books. At the church fair, I brought 16 well known geographic magazines for $2. The books I brought at the book fair were priced at 10c, 20c, 50c, $1 & $2 (set of 4). Among the pile of books I brought were a few cookery books, including the one from 1962. (Currently Reading) I could of stayed a lot longer as there were 1000's of magazines & books to choose from but........a friend was waiting to take me home. While she was waiting for me, she thought she would have a browse thru the books and ended up buying more books than I did. She had taken me out shopping for a computer desk & chair. Have you ever tried to put together a kitset desk by yourself ? I opened the box, took one lookat the instructions and...........!!! I managed to screw & bolt all the pieces together with not even a srew left over, so friends can't say I have got a srew loose. It even had one of those slide-out shelves for the keyboard & mouse which I managed to assemble and screw the right way. Friends that know me, would be surprise and yes, it does look like a desk. The same goes for cooking - the friend that had taken me shopping made the comment, "I see you are still buying cookery books, but can you cook yet". She will keep.

#306. We Live In A Nanny State .

Once every five years, we have the wonderful task of filling in census forms so we all can be counted. Every man & his dog, as well as females & children have to fill in forms or have someone fill in a form for them. Even if you just happen to be visiting NZ, when national census day rolls around, it makes no difference. If your two feet are on NZ soil or even on a ship which will dock in NZ on census day, forms have to be filled in. The only way you would get away with it is if you craoked at the stroke of midnight, but even then no doubt someone would have to fill in a form for you - deceased. Now, civil libertarians are up in arms, because 4500 selected households are been asked to take part in a face-to-face interview of about one and a half hours and then complete a diary detailing the spending habits of all adults in the household over two weeks. Those householders selected are legally required to take part and if they refuse they can be fined up to $500. Information is supposed to be protected & confidential, but if someone spends a hundred bucks a week on dope, do you think they will put that - pigs bum, they will. They should ask people if they would like to take part rather than try and coercion people into taking part or else. What happens to the figures, if even 1% of those people who feel uncomfortable about filling in the forms just put anything. The results of the surveys are supposed to give crucial information for compiling the consumer price index, which measures household inflation, but if some of the figures are wrong to start with..........???

#307. Motoring

A little known parking rule under section 6.13 of the Land Transport NZ road user act, has come to light only because a Tauranga driver was fined $40. It seems that you can not reverse your vehicle into an angle park. You are only allowed to drive forwards. The Tauranga City Council, confimed that it was illegal to reverse into a angle parking space because a vehicle would block the road and hold up traffic, while backing into the space. If you reverse into a parallel park you block the road and hold up traffic anyway, so what difference does it make if you back into an angle park ? It's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Expect to see the law been enforced more by traffic wardens & councils around the country as another money grabbing exercise. Given time, the fine will no doubt rise to $100, due to the "rise of inflation".

#308. Up, Up & Away

If you want to take to the skies in a basket slung beneath a hot air balloon, then the Waikato is the place to be. From April 11th thru to the 15th, more then 30 hot air balloons of varying shapes & sizes take to the skies with rides on offer for a price. If you don't have a head for heights, you can always sit and watch, especially on the Saturday night, when they have the popular nightglow show. Check out their website - Balloons Over Waikato

#309. Cast-A-Way

When you are a cast-a-way on an island, you are a castaway / marooned are you not and run around in your birthday suit - well half naked ? Not so it seems in the eyes of the BBC who are filming the latest Castaway series on Great Barrier Island, down under in NZ. The so called isolated camp is only a 30 minute drive from a local store which just happens to sell liquor, a chemist which just happens to sell condoms, a cafe, golf club & a airfield. Also their washing is sent out to the local laundry. The audience in the UK has slumped from 4.1 million viewers to a low of 2.1 million in a primetime 9pm Sunday night spot on TV. Because of the slump, the BBC will as from April 15th, move the timing to 7pm on a Sunday. The series is shown in the UK more-a-less as soon as it is filmed. TVNZ who have brought the rights to show the series in NZ haven't decided when they will show the series, but I reckon they have brought a fizzer. If British people can't stand to watch it, what makes TVNZ think NZ'ers will watch it in their droves, even if it is set in NZ.

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