No Name

Hello 2011, Goodbye 2010, the decade without a name, or at least according to the following news article I found .....

"History left us with the Roaring Twenties, the Swinging Sixties, the Excessive Eighties and that widely despised term: the Naughty Noughties.

But as we enter the new decade proper, a label is yet to be coined for it.
There's talk of the "tenners", "tweens" and "teens" - terms that fail to impress the country's language experts.


NZ Dictionary lexicographer Dr Dianne Bardsley said each fell short of capturing the full timespan.


"The Tweens not only sound very adolescent, but could only apply until we get to 2013. Then we'd have to switch to The Teens, which also has those negative connotations."


AUT University language and communication professor Allan Bell said it could be years before a name for the decade took shape. "I don't think anyone ever came up with a name for the 1910s either."

Didn't realise that it was so important for there to be a nick name?
Any suggestion anyone?

Identification Needed

On Sunday it was reported that a ladies body had been found in a local park in Hamilton.
She was discovered by 2 teenage boys as they walked through the the park.
It was decided that the lady had unfortunately been unable to negotiate a bend on a steep path whilst riding her bike and had hit a tree and fallen into the knee high water, were sadly she drowned.

I did not know the lady, but what struck me as the sadest part was that it took her family 4 days to realise she was missing.
Because she was out cycling, although she wasn't wearing a cycle helmet, she had no identification on her at all.
It turns out that she was a 40 yr old lady who lived alone. She had seen her family the night before and because of that they didn't notice her not being around until about Wednesday.

Now I can see this happening very easily, my mum lives on her own, (an hour away) now ok my brother lives 500m down the street from her, but I can happily go 4-5 days without talking to her on the phone. If my brother didn't live so close then I wouldn't know if anything was wrong until I tried to contact her and couldn't. So it is not unusual.

But what I am trying to stress here is the importance of ID when out running or cycling on your own.
This lady had keys with her and nothing else.
It would have been so great if she had a card on her that said her name and emergency contact details.

So if you have a friend or loved one who loves going for long runs or bike rides on their own, then encourage them to make a card that is about credit card size, that they can slip in a back pocket of shorts etc that gives their name and emergency contact.
That way, if anything ever happened to them whilst out, someone would be notified immediately and not have the whole town wondering who this poor person is and who do they belong too.

Alex Knows His Name

Both the boys have placemats at the table with their name on it.
Yesterday whilst having lunch, we asked Alex if he knew what his name was? He replied "Alex" well it actually sounded like "Alis" but hey he has the gist of it.

Ben on the other hand with tell you his name is Benjamin Twotter, which is pretty good too.