Storm Hits Home!

Donna left a note on the board for me this morning that read, "Tree down in the garden - bugger!!"

It was a surprise to see the storm come to my own home. We were lucky, I suppose, that it didn't crash into the house!

Storm II

Dramatic cloud over Auckland

Storm moving into Auckland

Cloud over Ashburton

Te Aroha - thousands of trees uprooted

Whangarei Falls

Kerikeri

Karangahake Gorge Waihi

After a fabulously hot and dry summer, we are into our second storm in one week. This one is sweeping throughout the country. It has claimed one life and another missing in a flash flood in the Bay of Islands.

We have had tornados in Mt Maunganui, snow in Wellington and torrential rain and gale force winds throughout the North Island. The storm is now heading into the South Island.

Auckland has missed the worst of it with the exception of West Auckland where a lot of trees and power lines were down and flood waters made some areas inaccessible. Several staff members posted photos of the damage in their areas on the intranet on Monday morning. Power in West Auckland was off from about lunchtime on Saturday until 8pm on Sunday night.

Storm!

The North Island is being battered by some wild weather. We have had some stormy weather this winter, although it hasn't been very cold. This storm is being touted as being the biggest to hit us with some of the largest and deepest lows seen in a decade. There are weather warnings and people are being advised to stay indoors wherever possible.

The upper regions of the North Island have been hit first and wind gusts of 150km have been recorded. The central business district in the Far North has been evacuated. Telephone poles have been ripped out and the sea is coming up and causing flooding in Devonport and St Heliers.

The storm has developed an eye and was on track to reach Central Auckland around midnight on Sunday morning - very dramatic! However, it never really did arrive here and moved on further South leaving havoc in its aftermath.

Parent Report Evening

When I was a beginning teacher my Deputy Principal said to me that on Parent Report Evening I could expect parents to come in and say, "tho you thay my thon has a thpeech impediment."

I would have to say that he was quite correct. Very often when you meet the parents you gain a clearer understanding of the student. For better or for worse, children are a product of their upbringing. Their environment during the formative years has a huge bearing on who they are and who they will become in their adulthood. When there is a problem, you can very often trace the root of the cause back to their home life.

Children want boundaries. They want to know what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Of course they will test those boundaries but a strong, loving and consistent approach will prevail in the end. Why some parents don't see this, is an enigma - I guess the answer may lie in their own upbringing.

I am always absolutely exhausted by the end of the evening but it is a positive experience. Parents come in to meet the person that they have heard so much about and to thank you for your work. They seek reassurance and ask advice on all manner of things from how to help their daughter to improve her grades to how to parent - I'm a real authority on the subject!

As for being a teacher, I think the key to success lies in your enjoyment of the profession.

Albert Einstein says it best:

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

I said I like BLOGS!

Election Year

I just love election year. The spin, debates, party policies, updates and changing fortunes are quite fascinating to follow. However, the farcical behaviour and lies of some of our most prominent politicians I can do without.

There are flimsy, transparent excuses concocted such as Winstone Peters', I didn't know about the Glen donation after a week of several denials of receiving one that included holding up a placard with the word "NO" emblazened upon it. One can only assume that this was for the benefit of the hearing impaired, whatever the case, it is not welcome. He then went on to say that the money had been used for a legal fund and not for himself or NZ First. These excuses are necessary, I guess, because otherwise Peters may be guilty of perjury.

Peters may be just enjoying himself, it can be argued, judging by the huge grin he had on his face upon getting into his car after yet another confrontation with journalists over this matter earlier this week. On this occasion he turned around three times to continue lambasting a reporter before entering his vehicle. Peters has gone so far as to call for the resignation of the same journalist and the editor of The New Zealand Herald over what he called a "scandalous piece of journalism, indolence and sloth."

That he is obviously enjoying himself is nice, but it would be preferable that he did this in his own time rather than waste everyone's time and money.

Also, what is the Prime Minister's role in light of this revelation about her Foreign Minister and Member of Government?

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

This film is about two brothers, Andy and Hank who are both in financial strife so they decide to knock off their own parent's jewellery shop. This was supposed to be the perfect crime. The boys knew the business layout, the safe numbers and the staff who worked it and they knew that their parents were insured so nobody would be hurt. However, the robbery turns horribly awry.

This film is a lesson in morality and iniquity and ensuing righteous justice. The director used flashbacks to and from the robbery from the perspectives of the different characters - the brothers and their father.

Andy and Hank were played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. Andy, the older brother and seemingly successful executive had been embezzling his employer for a long time to fund his drug habit and it was about to catch up with him. Hank was well behind in his child-support payments and was sleeping with his brother's wife. The two characters were a study in human base instincts and scruples.

This extract of dialogue from the film was between Andy and his drug dealer:
Andy: The thing about real estate accounting is that you can, you can, add down the page or across the page and everything works out. Everyday, everything adds up. The, the total is always the sum of its parts. It's, uh, clean. It's clear. Neat, absolute. But my life, it, uh, it doesn't add up. It, uh... Nothing connects to anything else. It's, uh... I'm not, I'm not the sum of my parts. All my parts don't add up to one... to one me, I guess.
Justin: Get a shrink or a wife.
Andy: Uh, I got a wife.
Justin: Get a shrink.

Betrayal

“There hasn’t been two lives, hers and mine. There’s been one life that we shared. That’s the best kind of life that you can have.”

Betrayal by Harold Pinter is your classic love triangle story famously played in reverse. The story begins in the present time when Emma is meeting with her former lover of seven years who was also her husband’s best friend and then traces backwards to the start of the affair.

Pinter is less interested in the excitement of the illicit affair and more focused on the breakdown of relationships. The affair ended 4 years previously and the relationship between the two now is spent and there is no resurrecting it. Emma has just been informed by her husband, Robert that he has been having affairs of his own that have been going on for years and their marriage is over. The breakdown of love is played out over and over again. Emma has betrayed her husband, Robert, who has likewise had extramarital affairs; Jerry has betrayed his wife and his best friend. Now Emma is losing both her husband and her ex-lover.

The comic deadpan delivery is played out well, as is the reticent English correctness. Robert has known that Jerry is having an affair with his wife for years yet they continue to keep up the appearance of a friendship. Hence this rather comical exchange between the two:
"Read any good books lately?"
"I've been reading Yeats."
"Ah, Yeats. Yes."

Besides, as Robert tells his wife, he has always liked Jerry. In fact, he likes him rather more than he likes her. Then there is the manly game of squash and the suggestion of a power struggle.

Betrayal is playing at the Herald Theatre in the Aotea Centre until the 19th July.

Mt Maunganui Beach

Long, leisurely walks along a beach and then sitting on a latte at a cosy café with a view of said beach afterwards is one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon. In NZ we have arguably among the most beautiful beaches in the world. Another benefit of our beaches is their close proximity – you are only ever (at most) 20 minutes away from a beach. I have decided to make posts of my favourite beaches in this country.

The first is Mt Maunganui beach. This picturesque ocean beach is wild and rough in the winter and blue and inviting in the summer. It is located on the east coast of the North Island about three hours drive south of Auckland in an area called the Bay of Plenty. I am adding a map for those friends and family overseas.

It is a popular tourist location with plenty of cafes, restaurants and shops. The Mount notably comes “alive” on New Year’s Eve with live bands performing and thousands of young people arriving to take part in the celebrations.

In the distance, next to the mountain, you can see the Oceanside Twin Towers Resort where we stayed for a couple of nights on our trip here last week.

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach; one can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few"
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

White Island Volcano

If there’s an eruption, don’t run to the beach and yell for the boat to come and get you off the island, is the advice that we received from our guide upon stepping onto White Island. Now would we ever do that, I ask you? No, this is the worst thing that you could do as you would be an open target to the extremely hot rocks flying out of the crater and the correct course of action during the short but extremely violent explosion would be to don your gas mask and take cover behind one of the large boulders on the island.

We spent a day on Whakaari (maori name) last Thursday, one of the most memorable days that I have ever experienced. The island has an almost unearthly quality, like it is another planet altogether. It is extremely dry and rugged although there is evidence of plant life behind the main crater-lake and along the walls of rock lining the coast. There are hissing, steaming fumaroles furiously venting steam in every direction and bright yellow sulphuric crystals growing everywhere. There are also bright reds and browns of the water channels and iron deposits.

Other sensory experiences include the pungent smell of the sulphur gases that cause you to cough and make your eyes water and then there is the dull metallic taste of the water the guide encourages you to taste and questions you about.

The overwhelming feature is the huge, smoking, milky green crater-lake. The lake is constantly boiling and has an acidic level of -1. Currently the lake level is on the rise quite rapidly. The temperature it is recording at the present time is 57’C and its highest temperature recorded just after the last eruption in July 2001 was 75’C.

White Island, along with Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngaruhoe is on level one alert rating. It is NZ’s only live marine volcano. It is currently recording 10 to 12 tremors daily and the main magna chamber is only about 3km below the ground that we were standing on. It is of huge interest to scientists and volcanologists worldwide because of its unique feature and easy accessibility. The island is monitored hourly by cameras taking a shot every half hour and probes testing the temperature and gas emissions.

Miners were stationed out on White Island to quarry the rock and sulphur round the turn of the century and there is rusting remains of the machinery and structures left behind. Although maori made use of its natural resources much earlier.

It is also home to a large colony of gannets and seals that were luxuriously lolling around on the black rocks around the island as we approached that were probably quite warm from the sunshine that we were so fortunate to have that day.

On the way back we were treated to the sight of a pod of dolphins swimming alongside the ferry.

aahhhh, holidays

Well the end of term arrived finally….. Stress compounded towards the end as usual and my mind pretty much went on strike and refused to play after a while. Thank heavens for good friends that you can kick back with in the breaks and share a laugh!

Although my mental self always does the business in terms of getting on and doing whatever is necessary, my physical self does not always keep up hence a cold that has lingered on for the best part of three weeks now! Sheesh – talk about staying power!

I have now cleared out my office of 10 years worth of accumulated resources. I really had quite an impressive store. I was quite ruthless. Aside from it being an absolute mammoth task taking two of us over 4 hours non-stop; it was quite an energizing exercise. It was a throwing out the old and tired and making way for a fresh new start.

So, now the holidays have arrived. I spent a couple days doing retail therapy which is really good for the soul – if not the cheque book. Next up is a trip out of town. The objective is transparent - to wash off the city dust and grime and to settle down to some serious beach time. A trip to White Island is on the itinerary for some spectacular sights and sounds and time soaking in thermal pools is also on schedule – with pure, unadulterated relaxation in mind. The weather has come to the party, too, switching on absolutely gorgeous sunshine!

I love Thanksgiving. It is the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts.
- Arnold Schwarzeneggar

Monty Python

Today I received an email from my friend, Xanthe called, ‘A Message from John Cleese’. This ‘funny’ took me back to the Monty Python sketches. I watched the television series, movies, bought the tapes…. Here are a couple of my favourites:

Ministry Of Silly Walks




Always Look on the Bright Side of Life




Other sketches that I enjoyed include: Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink; Eric the Half a Bee; The Holy Grail; Bruce’s Philosopher’s Song; The Penis Song; Are You Dead Yet?; The Parrot Sketch; The Cheese Shop; The Lumberjack Song; Argument Clinic…. They’re still funny – timeless!

Random Thoughts

I have a cold right now. Boo! Probably because its the end of term....I want to get well before the end of the week and the start of the holidays.

I love coffee. Probably because I'm addicted to caffeine...I could do with a coffee...

I have decided to start calling hotdogs, h-dogs.

We won the debate today....silly that the opposition was another team from our own school.

I need to get back to the gym. I crave feeling achy whenever I turn…or move. I should return during the school holidays.

I want to meet Oprah Winfrey. I realise that I will have to go to Chicago to do this. I am willing to make the trip.

I wish that I didn’t drink lots of diet soft drinks but I do.

I used to have a crush on John Travolta as a teenager. Well I outgrew that now but sometimes it comes back to haunt me….I love you John Travolta. There, I said it. And I don't care who knows. I LOVE YOU JOHN TRAVOLTA!!!!