Ruby red Tuesday: Toilet in the west.

http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com

My friends laughed at me when I took this photo when we took a train out to the west at Swanson. Here in New Zealand, we just say toilet.

When I went to Canada, I thought it was quite strange to say bathroom. In Borneo, most houses have separate bathrooms and toilets. If you went to someone's house and asked to go to the bathroom, your hostess would wonder why you want to go to the bathroom.

In Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore, they also call it WC or water closet.

In another post, I will post a photo of a very elite toilet, where you don't need loo paper and it even massages you. LOL

Macro flowers: Daffodil

These daffodils grow every where in Auckland.
August is Daffodil month in New Zealand. August 27th is the 20th anniversary of Daffodil day. I tried to teach my ESOL students the concept of Cancer awareness.

Nowdays Daffodil Day is the Cancer Society's annual flagship event and one of the most important fundraising and awareness campaigns in the country. As well as providing an opportunity to raise awareness of cancer in New Zealand, Daffodil Day is a major funding source for the Cancer Society. We are proud to be regarded as one of the country's most trusted charities and this is reflected in our fundraising practices.

The daffodil is one of the first flowers of spring, whose bright yellow blooms remind us of the joys the new season will bring. It represents the hope there is for the 1 in 3 New Zealanders affected by cancer.

The donations we receive go towards vital scientific research into the causes and treatment of all types of cancer, as well as providing a wide range of support services, information, health promotion and education programmes to reduce cancer risk, awareness campaigns and programmes for people affected by cancer.

http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2010/08/thursday-theme-song-daffodil-song.html Go to my other site to listen to The Daffodil song, a British artist devoted to cancer.
Thank you Maia.

I am joining this meme for the first time. First I love flowers. Second, the badge for this meme is the North Borneo Orchid. My Dad's favourite flower. It gives me warm fuzzy feeling every time I see this flower.

Join Macro Flowers Saturday, a photo meme for macro photos and close-ups of flowers, garden flowers, wildflowers, blossoms, flowers with insects and butterflies (no insects without flowers), flowers with raindrops and whatever beautiful plants, plant seeds or berries you have, in close-up.

First time visitors, please read the rules. They are simple but I do ask that you, please, use a MFS badge or link back to MFS in some way. Thank you.

Macro Flower Saturday

weekend bridges: Guangzhou, China

http://bayphoto.blogspot.com/

In the land of my roots, industrialization has a price. The haze covers the bridge and the rest of the city.

My great grand father left China for Borneo more than a hundred years ago.

The water engineer took this photo this year when he went to Guangzhou.

Some day, I will make my own trip, "daughter for the return home." and show you my own photos. I will be going to the country where you have to take a four hour rickety bus ride.

Pitcher plants and world's small frog

Pitcher plants where they found the small frogs. Some pitcher plants are illegal to take out from Sarawak, and people have been caught to smuggle them out. The natives call them monkey cups. These pitcher plants are found in the Winter Gardens of Auckland Domain.




courtesy: NZ Herald
I am excited, in the land of my birth, they found one of the world's smallest frogs. I was born and grew up in Borneo. I lived there until I was twenty when i went to Canada. I still have strong affinity with Borneo, and I visited last July.

One of the world's tiniest frogs - barely larger than a pea - has been found living in and around carnivorous plants on Borneo island, one of the scientists who made the accidental discovery said today.

Indraneil Das, a scientist at University Malaysia Sarawak, said he and another scientist from Germany were doing field research on frogs in Malaysia's Sarawak state on Borneo island when they chanced on the tiny species on the edge of a road leading to the summit of a mountain in the Kubah National Park in 2006.

"For biologists, this is a curiosity," Das told The Associated Press.

The frogs were named Microhyla nepenthicola after the pitcher plant species where they live, Das said. A Malaysian museum had listed the species but misidentified it as juveniles of another frog species, he said.

The tubular plants are carnivorous, killing insects such as ants, but do not harm the frogs. Tadpoles grow in the liquid inside the plants.

Adult males of the amphibians range in size between 10.6 millimetres to 12.8 millimetres, Das said.

Ruby Red Tuesday: Truck

http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com
I love big trucks.
I am always on a look out for big trucks.
My friend M told me that she and her son used to sit by the road side, and her boy would count wheels. No body taught him, but he knew there were another set of wheels on the other side of the truck. So he knew 2 4 6 8 10.

This was exactly what I did with my son Sam. Our favorite activity was to sit at the bus stop and watch big vehicles go by. There were a lot of double decker buses and construction trucks in NTU at that time.

My nephew Lincoln's recycling project

I am very proud of my nephew Lincoln. He showed a lot of initiative and leadership. Lincoln and his team entered an inter school competition In Australia. It required using recycled material for building a "tuna can turner and stacker". They had six weeks to do it. They have to do it without adult supervision.

Lincoln showed something, using hydraulics(unfinished), the teacher said that they have to be team work!!!. Lincoln tried to organise people to come home and work. No one came.

He took his model to school to work and it kept on breaking!! The competition was on last Sunday. Not much done!!! This morning, Lincoln said that he could alter the design to get more points.

Helen, his mum was worried, she told him that it would be a wonder if they could present anything at all and he might have to prepare an impromptu speech and using diagram and broken bits to explain how the project supposed to work.

Lincoln proved her wrong. His group received an honours recommendation award for their project.

Ka Pai and paki paki which means good job, and clap clap in Maori in New Zealand. Now may be Lincoln can have a summer job on a Japanese fishing boat. That is I think what his invention is, I may be wrong. Can you guess which kid is Lincoln? The one with the important plan of course. LOL

Tuna can project.

It is to pick up tuna can from the ground to base A and then stack 3 tuna cans on to base C.
The plunger in the syringe is pushed/pulled to control the water in the other syringe.
The water in the the tube is strong to power the plunger in the other syringe.
Each syringe is placed to raise/lower the arms and also to swivel the bases either way. The magnet in the drink bottle is dropped on and then to pick cans. Once the can is pulled high enough, it can not go pass the drink bottle and this would release the can from the magnet. The base is supported by tin cans.
The student use the syringes attached with tubings to operate the mechanism.
There are lot of amazing designs using different techniques in the competition. I think Lincoln's group has the youngest members.
Helen

Sunday bridges and spring flowering trees

http://bayphoto.blogspot.com/
All through Auckland, this week, trees dote the road sides showing their beautiful spring flowers. Sorry I don't know it's name.
Do you know?
For cherry flowers, please go to this link.
http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2010/08/sakura-cherry-blossom.html

This is a very old bridge in Mt Roskill leading to park at the opposite side of Wesley.

Sixty two years of wedding bliss

http://www.garden-nz.co.nz/plants-and-products/plant-of-the-week-directory/cyclamen.html

Last month, I wished my friend B. a happy birthday.
http://annsnowchin.blogspot.com/2010/07/happy-birthday-be.html
On August 21, B. and R. E will be celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary. I only have one word for them, "WOW!!!!"

R. helps in the Mt Albert Baptist Church ESOL class, and this is where I met and got to know her. She knits baby jackets for the leprosy mission. As a volunteer, she had knitted 150 of those. 150???? Ka Pai good job R.

B. and R. do a lot of walking and they play tennis.

I am sending them by cyber a pot plant of white Cyclamen. It is a winter wonders for indoors. It has upswept and frilled petals and variably patterned leaves. I wanted a white, because it seems right to send a man white flowers. For you R., soft spring flowers.

You see a yellow cube on my messy desk. I didn't want to crop the photo because I want to show the cube. I use this cube for my ESOL students to play a game using which, why, what, when, where and how. R. would have seen this cube when she sometimes walk pass my class.

Thank you B. and R. for being such wonderful role models, and friend. Congratulations!

B. and R. are proud parents of John Edgar, a famous sculptor in New Zealand.

Macro Flower Saturday

Wu Lei and her piano concert.

My friend Wu Lei and her students will be performing at the Cristofori music school in Singapore. It will be a concert of classical music and modern music such as Jazz and film music. It will be on Sunday, 26th September 2010

It was a chance meeting. About 7 years ago when I was living in Singapore as a professor's wife, I was having a story telling session in one of Nanyang University Playgrounds. Wu Lei was there visiting with her friend. I invited her to our Chinese New year morning teas and she obliged.

We talked. She was a wife of a graduate student, and as usual, I asked her more questions, and she told me that she was a piano teacher of a high caliber with a Masters in Music. I was the co-founder of Nanyang Connect whose aim was to connect residents.( We come from all over the world.) I posted an ad for her on our website. The rest is history.

My daughter D. was one of her first students in Singapore, and a very successful one.

This is for you, Wu lei.

Ruby Red Tuesday: Cafe Redwoods

http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com

Out west of Auckland, in Swanson is this Cafe Redwoods. They serve this sandwich/bun with a fancy name. I am sorry I forgot what it is. It might be a Panini because I remember it began with a P. Do you know?

I didn't order it because I didn't want to embarrass myself not knowing how to pronounce it and also it was quite pricey for a sandwich like that, LOL. Besides, I am a rice and noodle person.

Sunday bridges: in Mulu, Borneo

http://bayphoto.blogspot.com/


Much of Sarawak, Borneo is low lying and swampy. Many of the houses are built with stilts which my British teen aged pen friend exclaimed," Your house has legs." This is actually a clever way, when it floods, the house is safe from water.

We were in Mulu, and the resort was in the highlands. Still the buildings were built on stilts. I looked down and realised why. It was very muddy, and there were lots of roots ready to trip you. The stilts were very high, and bridges link one building to another.

We had our lunch, a soya chicken, with vegetables and a clear soup served all at the same time. We ate the Malaysian way, a spoon and a fork. The spoon we use to scoop our rice. Instead of dessert, we had fresh fruit. Sam was very happy as he loves water melon and coming from winter in New Zealand, he didn't get to eat a lot of that here. Besides water melons are very expensive in Auckland, and mean me, I don't buy often.

macro flowers, double daffodils

These double daffodils are called Erlicheer. They belong to the plant family AMARYLLIDACE and Genus Narcissus

Spring has sprung, says who?

says the flowers
says my friend.
But not the skies.
It poured the whole night.
It's not time to pack away the woolies,
August is usually our coldest month.

These double miniature daffodils grows in the garden.
August is Daffodil month in New Zealand. August 27th is the 20th anniversary of Daffodil day. I tried to teach my ESOL students the concept of Cancer awareness.

Nowdays Daffodil Day is the Cancer Society's annual flagship event and one of the most important fundraising and awareness campaigns in the country. As well as providing an opportunity to raise awareness of cancer in New Zealand, Daffodil Day is a major funding source for the Cancer Society. We are proud to be regarded as one of the country's most trusted charities and this is reflected in our fundraising practices.

The daffodil is one of the first flowers of spring, whose bright yellow blooms remind us of the joys the new season will bring. It represents the hope there is for the 1 in 3 New Zealanders affected by cancer.

The donations we receive go towards vital scientific research into the causes and treatment of all types of cancer, as well as providing a wide range of support services, information, health promotion and education programmes to reduce cancer risk, awareness campaigns and programmes for people affected by cancer.

Thank you Maia.

I am joining this meme for the first time. First I love flowers. Second, the badge for this meme is the North Borneo Orchid. My Dad's favourite flower. It gives me warm fuzzy feeling every time I see this flower.

Join Macro Flowers Saturday, a photo meme for macro photos and close-ups of flowers, garden flowers, wildflowers, blossoms, flowers with insects and butterflies (no insects without flowers), flowers with raindrops and whatever beautiful plants, plant seeds or berries you have, in close-up.

First time visitors, please read the rules. They are simple but I do ask that you, please, use a MFS badge or link back to MFS in some way. Thank you.

Macro Flower Saturday

Photohunt: orange, carrot

Mt Ruapehu and her beauty.


http://tnchick.com/
When I first got married, we rented a quant little house from a retired architect. Mr. M was a lovely old man. When he came round to collect the rent, he came with a few blossoms of camelia. Once, he bought a giant carrot to show me. When I say giant, I mean giant. This post is in memory of him. Later, he was too old to manage the house, and he offered to sell it to us. But the water engineer was a student then, and we couldn't afford it. Had we bought it, we would be very comfortable. The house is in Kingsland which is now a yuppy place. My husband used to joke we lived in an area where the King lives.

Ohakune is the town at the southern gateway to the Tongariro National Park World Heritage Site. It is known as the aprés ski capital of the North Island, the Carrot Capital of New Zealand. It’s a great location and aptly lends itself to the phrase “where adventures begin”.
Skiers and boarders flock to Ohakune to take in what the largest ski area in New Zealand has to offer, then enjoy Ohakune’s varied entertainment, restaurants and cafes.
In summer Ohakune is a fantastic base for visitors wanting to experience the many outdoor activities whether it is canoeing on the Whanganui River or taking in some of the many mountain treks on Mt Ruapehu and in the national parks.
Everyone who goes to Okahune never fails to see the 10 metres high carrot. Ohakune and the surrounding area are the epicentre of New Zealand’s carrot-growing district. They even hold an annual carrot festival.

Afghanistan food.

My Afghanistan student cooked this ethnic lamb dish for one of our ESOL function. She was very happy to have her photo taken, but I don't feel comfortable post it.

Today, we farewelled Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell, our first war casualty in a decade. Lt O'Donnell, 28, died when his patrol was attacked in Afghanistan a week ago during a routine patrol in the Bamiyan Province where New Zealand has a provincial reconstruction team.

Ruby red Tuesday: Boysenberry plant

http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com
This Boysenberry plant is just grown against the red wall of my school building. The leaves are red as well.

New Zealand is today the world’s largest producer and exporter of boysenberries, a fruit which is enjoyed all around the globe in many ways. Their sweet and piquant taste, together with their incredible rich colouration, makes them enormously versatile.

Sunday Bridges: Xena Park

http://bayphoto.blogspot.com/


Out in Henderson, in West Auckland, there are many foot bridges. This place is called Xena park. Do you remember Xena, warrior princess?

We used to watch all her TV shows. You see, Xena aka Lucy Lawless is from New Zealand, the show was filmed here, and her side kick is Gabrielle. My second daughter shares the same name.

Xena no longer roam here, civilization has taken over. Modern housing has replaced the walled villages and rural hamlets. Cars taken over carts. However, there are still feral geese and the Lake Panorama.

You can see the Ponga fern trees, native flax, the Toi Toi and cabbage tree. It is this lush green, mountainous landscape that attracts many American film makers to come to New Zealand. There is a small exercise playground for Xena.