Roses

At the beginning of the year, Alex decided that we needed roses in the garden.
At some stage we brought 3 rose bushes and planted them in the front garden.
As mentioned here they took a little time but then suddenly bloomed to all their goodness. He was well chuffed to have pretty things out the front.
Well of course here in New Zealand, November is the month when most roses are in full bloom and looking beautiful. Towns have their local parks rose displays at this time.

Hamilton is no exception, with the Gardens right on our door step, then we couldn't not go to the weekend special for the rose gardens.
The boys loved it, the weather was gorgeous and the roses shone like no other.
We all had our favorite ones, ones that had glorious colour or even weird colour. Ben loved the fact there was one that was close in name to him, well it had the same first name!

So the pictures that follow are the glorious shots we got viewing the beatiful roses at the Hamilton Gardens Roses Day a couple of weekends ago

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M*A*S*H

I don't think there is anyone who doesn't remember this programme.
You either loved it or hated it.
I remember watching it in the late 80's in the US, at that stage you could, if you really wanted to, watch 5 episodes a day, although the 1 shown at 11pm was a repeated the next day at 10.30am, so really only 4 a day.

However, the reason I am having this little walk down memory lane is because sadly Harry Morgan has passed away today.
"Who was he again?" I hear you say.
He had the wonderful pleasure of playing Col. Sherman T Porter.

He was 96 when he died of pneumonia and he had lead a full life.

I looked up M*A*S*H on the computer and found some useless little facts about the show.

• Did you know that all the paintings in Col. Porter's office were actually painted by Harry Morgan.
• Ron Howard, Patrick Swazye and John Ritter all had small parts in an episode at some stage throughout the 11 years of the show running.
• The dog tags worn by Jamie Farr (Max Klinger) were his own actual tags from when he himself served in the U.S. Army in Korea in the 1950s after the Korean War. Alan Alda also served in the U.S Army in Korea.
• The outdoor sets for the show were built in Malibu, California
• The last episode aired on Feb 28, 1983 and was apparently watched by over 125 million viewers.

I am lucky enough to have the complete set of M*A*S*H on DVD at home, and still enjoy sitting down and watching a few episodes.
Now it is even funnier to watch as I am a theatre nurse by trade so interesting to see how they did things in the OR during the show.

More Judo

This past weekend we also, along with the big party, had a Judo Tournament.
I almost died the night the Sensei (Terry) announced that we were having a tournament day on the 4th. I sat there shaking my head thinking 'no, we are away that weekend but I know the boys will want to be here!'

So we reshuffled our weekend plans and raced back from Rotorua, after the birthday party, late on Saturday evening ready for a very early start on Sunday morning. (why they have to start tournaments at 8.30am I will never know?)

Anyway, as per usual, we both got roped into helping on the day, but at this tournament I was working on the mat area, so got to watch all the boys fights, unlike last time when I worked in the kitchen and managed to miss some of the fights!

The boys both fought hard and good. They won some, they lost some and they both had a lot of fun, which at the end of the day is important.
Ben desperately wanted to be part of this because Judo is almost ending for the year and this is when Terry does a lot of the grading. Ben knows he isn't at Orange belt level yet, but he is hoping he might get a notch towards it on his yellow belt. So fingers crossed for next weekend when Judo has their fun day and awards ceremony.

The boys, however, did walk away with a few medals.
Ben got a silver in his class fights and a bronze in the open fight.

Yea for me

 Alex managed a bronze in his class fight.

I got another medal, yea

He did enter the open fight, but sadly did not get placed, although we are proud of both of them for the effort they showed on the day.

with their big friend Jarod

End of year party next weekend and then summer holidays off!

Advanced Birthday Celebrations

If your birthday happens to fall over a major holiday, then what do you do?

Celebrate 6 months in advance? Celebrate the week before? Or even 4 weeks before?

Depending on when it is then I guess you celebrate when convenient.

A friend has a child born on Feb 29,  she said they choose which day suits them best Feb 28 or Mar 1, although she says they do try to stick to the same day each year!

Alex is born over a public holiday weekend here in New Zealand. We always celebrate his birthday on the right weekend but when you want to hold a large party then you have to celebrate the week before or after due to everyone going away for the said weekend!

However, the biggest one we have is Steve.....his birthday is Dec 26, Boxing Day.
And this particular year it is important to celebrate due to the fact he is turning........50!

So we discussed it and decided to celebrate his birthday at the beginning of December. Why I hear you ask, well because everyone, including ourselves, are away over the Christmas period (it is our summer holiday after all). We can't celebrate closer to the day because everyone knows this is the manic period of everyones life, what with work functions, school functions and any other organisation function you happen to be involved in.
This week I am out Monday and Wednesday night, the boys have Judo on Tuesday and Thursday and Steve and I both have a work function Friday afternoon/evening. So this is one of our busiest weeks before Christmas.

So this past weekend we had a party to celebrate his 50th Birthday at my mum's house in Rotorua.
Sadly I didn't get pictures of the party in full swing or even of any of the guests having a great time playing pass the parcel! But I did manage a picture of the birthday boy with his birthday cake.

The weather did not cooperate quite how we would have liked it too, but we all had fun anyway.
So thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us this past weekend. Steve had a wonderful time and loved catching up with family and friends.
Thank you to mum, who kindly loaned us her house for the party and also helped us by doing some of the shopping and helping us cook the food.
It was all delicious and nothing was wasted, in fact for once it was the perfect amount required for the amount of people attending.

I think it was a great way to kick start the festive session ahead.

Christmas Yummies

At this time of year we are always having morning teas and shared lunches.
Doesn't matter how many recipe books you have, when it comes time to make something your mind can often go blank and you race around the kitchen muttering to yourself "what can I make? what is simple and easy? what will keep overnight?"

Why not pop over here to Paisley Jade's place and see all the yummy simple recipes she has just posted about.
I have had a quick drool through them all and already worked out exactly what I am making tomorrow for the shared lunch I have to attend on Thursday at work.

I do love coming across a blog that saves the day.

December 6

December 6 is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 25 days remaining until the end of the year

Events on this day:

1897 – London becomes the world's first city to host licenced taxicabs.
1967 – Adrian Kantrowitz performed the first human heart transplant in the United States.

2001 – The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.


Births on this day:

There were people born on this day, but Wikipedia only mentioned American Baseball and Football Players, no one of any importance that I could see.

Deaths on this day:

343 – Saint Nicholas (b. 270)

1988 – Roy Orbison, American singer, guitarist, and songwriter (b. 1936)

2001 – Sir Peter Blake, New Zealand sailor and environmentalist (b. 1948)

Due to the death of Saint Nicholas on December 6, this is the reason that many international countries in Europe celebrate Saint Nicholas Day where it is a festival for all the children and little gifts are received.

Expensive "Oh Ooops"

Just read this on a website news paper.....

"A Sunday drive has ended in a $3.5 million nightmare, with eight Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benzes and a Lamborghini involved in a 14-car pile-up in Japan.

Police said the pile-up happened on the Chugoku Expressway in Yamaguchi Prefecture about 10.15am yesterday, with 10 people hospitalised with minor injuries.

Japan's largest English language newspaper, The Daily Yomiuri, reported the crash happened on a curve of the road and one Mercedes-Benz was driving in the oncoming lane.

ANN news video of the crash aftermath shows the sportscars lying mangled on the road, a mess of ripped metal, broken glass and snapped alloy wheels, with several cars wedged up against metal barriers.
About $3.5 million worth of supercars and luxury coupes from the 1980s to today - and a Toyota Prius - were damaged in the crash.
According to a translated report from the Asahi Shimbun the smash occurred when one of the Ferraris hit a median strip.

The report said there was then a series of crashes over 400 metres as the drivers went around the bend, with car parts flying through the air.

The group of drivers was made up of self-employed "car enthusiasts", who were travelling from Kyushu to Hiroshima.
A 36-year-old self-employed man from Kanzaki, Saga Prefecture, said he was driving in the opposite lane at the time of the accident.
"Cars were making a tremendous noise," he said.

The pile-up made headlines around the world, with the UK's Mirror reporting "it could be the most expensive car crash ever".

The cars involved included at least two Ferrari F430s (one was the race-ready Scuderia, these days worth more than $400,000), two Ferrari 360 Modenas (each worth almost $200,000), two Ferrari F355s (each worth about $150,000) and a Lamborghini Diablo (one of the most expensive supercars of the 1990s and still likely worth upwards of $200,000). There was also a Nissan GT-R - the only current Japanese supercar - while the cheapest invovled in the crash was a Toyota Prius hybrid, worth closer to $20,000. "

I think my baby brother would cry hearing this story, just about every car he loves was involved!

Volunteering

Have you ever volunteered? I mean actually gone out and worked with an organisation or someone? Been part of a team that runs something for others, looks after something or meets regularly to organise?
If you have .......then you are part of that wonderous group of people who happily give up a small amount of their own time to help others.

Today is International Volunteers Day

This is the day when we can celebrate and say thanks to all those wonderous people who do give up some of their own time to assist and help others, just because they want to.

We are lucky to have such super volunteers in the hospital setting. They give of their time freely each week to ensure patients and visitors do not get lost around our huge campus.

They also give of their time to assist people whilst visiting the emergency department, supporting people in their bad time and just being there to talk or bring that small cup of tea that may be so desperately needed.

I myself, have never volunteered in the hospital setting, but have spent many a year volunteering. When Ben was just 5 weeks old I join Parents Centre, an organisation that ran Antenatal classes and Parenting education classes. The organisation was run by the headoffice in Wellington, but each of the local centres were run by volunteers.

I did this for 5 years, sometimes just a small input, others times well I gave it my all. I was Chairperson of the Hamilton branch at one time, but when it took over my family life then I gave it all away.

Volunteering should be fun and enjoyable. It should be something that you want to do otherwise you don't enjoy it and you don't give and receive the necessaries out of it.

Nowadays I am on the PTA at the school, a smaller committment but still a huge giving back. We have managed to change things at school for the better but at the same time don't feel that it is taking over our family life.

I happily volunteer at Judo too, the club runs itself each week thanks to the couple that own it, but whenever they have tournament days etc then they need help. So this past weekend I just spent 5 hours ensuring the kids doing the fighting had the right coloured belt on each time. May not seem like much, but at the time it assisted in making the tournament day run smoothly as possible.

Previously I have spent the entire time working in the kitchen, cooking more toasted cheese sandwiches than I care to admit too!

I will post about this weekends tournament later this week.

So to all you wonderful people out there who give of their precious time and volunteer.

Thanks you,

Thank you so much,

Thank you for finding it in your heart to be someone prepared to give up a few hours each week, whilst also working and running a family, to do something for someone else because you can.

December 4

December 4 is the 338th day of the year (339th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 27 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events on this day:

1791 – The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
1881 – The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.
1954 – The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida, United States

Births on this day:

1930 – Ronnie Corbett, Scottish actor

1949 – Jeff Bridges, American actor

1949 – Pamela Stephenson, New Zealand-born actress

1973 – Tyra Banks, American supermodel

Deaths on this day:

1976 – Benjamin Britten, English composer (b. 1913)


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December 3

December 3 is the 337th day of the year (338th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 28 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events on this day:

1976 – An assassination attempt is made on Bob Marley. He is shot twice, but plays a concert two days later.

Births on this day:

1948 – Ozzy Osbourne, English singer

1959 – Eamonn Holmes, Northern Irish TV presenter

1960 – Daryl Hannah, American actress

1960 – Julianne Moore, American actress

1968 – Brendan Fraser, Canadian-American actor

Deaths on this day:

1894 – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish writer (b. 1850)

December 2

December 2 is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 29 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events on this day:

1982 – At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.

Births on this day:

1973 – Monica Seles, Yugoslavian-born tennis player

1981 – Britney Spears, American singer, dancer and entertainer

Deaths on this day:

On Wikipadia, there was a nice long list of deaths for this day, but no one I recognised or found that famous.

Today, here in New Zealand is National Jandal Day in support of the Surf Life Saving. The wonderful volunteers who patrol our beaches during the summertime to try and help us swim in the safe areas between the flags and attempt to rescue us if we do have trouble in the water.

So whether you call them flip flops, jandals or thongs today is the day to be wearing them out.
Where them to work, the supermarket or the beach, if you are lucky enough to have the day off. Here in Hamilton the weather is very condusive to wearing them, the sun is shining and it is a lovely day for wearing little on your feet.

December 1

Useless information, everyone has a little tucked away in their purse for a rainy day. My mother swears blind she could take a degree course in it and pass with merit, she feels she knows so much useless information!
Me, well the odd bit pops into my head from time to time, usually thanks to my mum.
So for the month of December, I will post some useless info about the date.
You never know, you might actually learn something from it!

December 1 is the 335th day of the year (336th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 30 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events on this day:

In 1960 Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested then deported from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson.
In 1981 the AIDS virus was officially recognized.
In 1990 the Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the seabed.

Births on this day:

1935 – Woody Allen, American film director, actor, and comedian

1940 – Richard Pryor, American comic and actor (d. 2005)

 

Deaths on this day:

1135 – Henry I of England

2007 – Anton Rodgers, British actor (b. 1933)

Many of you are probably sorting your Christmas tree out so you can decorate the house. So here is some useless information about that too.....

• The custom of erecting a Christmas tree is believed to have begun in 15th or 16th century Linovia (present day Estonia and Latvia) and northern Germany.
• The first artificial Christmas tree was developed in Germany during the 19th century and were made using goose feathers dyed green.
• For every real christmas tree harvested, 1 to 3 seedlings are planted the following spring

Quality of Living

Did you know that Mercer, a world leading insurance broker and risk management advisor, management consulting and human resource consulting company, do a survey each year on the Worldwide Quality of Living Rankings?

Mercer conducts the survey to help governments and multi-national companies compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments. Mercer’s Quality of Living reports provide valuable information and hardship premium recommendations for major cities throughout the world. Mercer’s Quality of Living index list covers 221 cities, ranked against New York as the base city.



Here is the Top 10 list for 2011

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Auckland, New Zealand
4. Munich, Germany
5. Dusseldorf, Germany
6. Vancouver, Canada
7. Frankfurt, Germany
8. Geneva, Switzerland
9. Bern, Switzerland
10. Copenhagen, Denmark

13th  Wellington, New Zealand.

I was impressed that New Zealand had 2 towns in the top 15 and even more impressed, or was that let down that none of the United Kingdom were in there! Nor any of America?

26th  Dublin, Ireland
29th  Honolulu, USA
30th= San Fran, USA; Adelaide, Australia; Paris, France
38th  London, United Kingdom!

They also, this year, did a survey that separately identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based on internal stability, crime levels, law enforcement effectiveness and the host country’s international relations.
So in other words, which city they felt was the safest to live in.

1. Luxemborg
2. Bern
3. Helsinki
4. Zurich
5. Vienna
6. Geneva
7. Stockholm
8. Singapore
9. Auckland
10. Wellington

Aberdeen and Glasgow both rank 44 and are the highest ranking UK cities on the personal safety list. Birmingham (53) and Belfast (63) both rank higher than London (68)
However, Baghdad (221) is the world’s least safe city, followed by N’Djamena, Chad (220), Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (219), Bangui, Central African Republic (218), and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (217).


The link to their page gives a lot more information. It was really quite interesting reading.
Go over there and have a little check of your favourite countries, see where they positioned!!