Upclose and Personal

As previously mentioned, that lovely cargo ship "The Rena" caused a little bit of disruption to peoples holidays this summer by chucking a little bit more cargo overboard prior to sinking!!

We managed to get to see one or 2 of the containers in person on the beach.

The boys were fascinated by it all.

Real News

Last October I mentioned the fact that the ‘lovely’ large cargo ship “The Rena” had run a ground just off the coast of Tauranga.

Tauranga is just under 2 hours drive away from us, plus we don’t have any coastline in Hamilton so not effected by it. However we do have coastline at the caravan.

When the first containers went overboard they stayed around the Tauranga area and went a little south, luckily they never went north. Our caravan is by the beach north of Tauranga (60kms), probably about 20-30 mins by water (it takes us 40 mins to drive)

The Rena has been slowly breaking up over the last 4 months, they in turn have been slowly removing all the remaining oil and also attempting to remove some of the 1200 containers before they go overboard. They have placed transponders on all the remaining containers, so if they go over they can be locate them, as some have been sinking.

This weekend, after all the horrid weather we have been having over the last 2 weeks, The Rena has broken in 2 and containers that are remaining on her are falling into the water, and they have made it north this time!

So yesterday we drove to the beach and showed the boys the mess. They could see 3 or 4 containers bobbing out in the sea, they could see the bags of milk powder that were littering the beach from where one of the containers has broken and they also got to see the 5 containers that had actually washed up on the beach.

Ben discussed the Rena at school last year, so knows all about disaster and how it can effect lives, but not living near it had no idea what was involved, now that has changed. We were able to show them what was happening and also discuss how this affected everyone. What it means now the beach is closed and how long it may be before it opens.

So we have managed to show them real news up close and personal and discuss how this effects everyone, which I think is really important because you see so much on the news and sometimes it is very difficult to explain it all to them and get them to understand the seriousness of it and the consequences.

Burning Energy

A crematorium in England wants to install turbines in two of its burners which would use the heat generated during cremation to provide enough electricity to power 1500 televisions.

I was quite shocked when I first read this article in the newspaper, but on further reading I could actually see the sense of it.

As they said, they have all this energy being produced that could be better used elsewhere and for them to conserve energy.
Apparently it is the burner itself that creates the energy not the body, so don't suddenly think it is the human body they are powering off of!
According to the article, this one crematorium has up to 2100 cremations per year, and further more about 75% of the dead are cremated

Apparently one of the biggest problems with cremation is the amount of mercury, from fillings in teeth, that accumalates in the air. About 16% of mercury in the air comes from crematoriums, so they are all trying to sort out their burners so they half such emissions by next year and eliminate it totally by the end of the decade.
Some have already fitted systems which use the heat from the burners to heat their offices, nearby offices and also a swimming pool.

It seems a morbid thing to talk about, but at the end of the day it is a business and they need to conserve energy just like all other business's, it is just that it is a sensitive area for all to consider.

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!

News Items

There are always things happening in the news that catches my eye, interesting little stories that probably are not much, but interesting to read and understand.
This week in New Zealand I have read 3 stories that interested me.

1) Whilst erecting a Christmas tree in Auckland Viaduct this week, the helicopter used to raise it got its rotor blade struck by one of the wires assisting the tree and did a 180 degree flip onto the concret below. The pilot walked away from the wreck and to an extent was lucky he was so low to the ground when it happened. I am sure if you search the internet or check out the New Zealand Herald website you will be able to see video footage of the whole thing, as there were many people video the spectacular sight of this tree going up.

2) 6 girls at a local college (aged between 13-15) got taken to hospital this week after one of the girls brought, what they think were Ecstasy tablets, to school and proceeded to take them along with the other girls. Unfortunately they all had agressive side effects, getting abusive and agressive.
The girls have all been suspended from school and when 2 of them did visit the school gates to see mates they received a lot of verbal abuse from other pupils for their stupidty. They are still waiting for the toxicology reports to come back to knwo exactly what the sunstance was that was taken.
The big question at present is where did the pills come from? The answer tcirculating is that one of the girls obtained them from her parents stash in the house!
Again check out the above link to read more on this.

3) This item is not really a big headline story, but you just feel so sorry for them.
A little 13 month old girl burnt the soles of her feet when she stood on tiles on the balcony that had been heated by the sun. As she had not long learnt to walk, her reactions and ability to move quickly were still not mastered. She stood on the tiles and her little feet got burnt.
The parents did all the correct things for treatment of burns and she is currently in hospital receiving treatment.
Her father, got a thermometer and tested the temp on the tiles in the sun and discovered that they had gone to 69C. the tiles were made of basalt stone. The home was new and the parents had no idea this could happen to the tiles when they laid them, however, they were again reiterating the fact that the child didn't have the reaction ability to move off the tiles fast enough when she discovered them to be so hot.

The helicopter pilot, well he is just so lucky, especially when you see the video, makes you grateful for all littel miracles that come our way.
The girls with the tablets, were just plain stupid, but at the end of the day, they were being teenagers, but think they might have learnt the hard way about trying things out.
The little girl, she will have months of rehab and will have to learn to walk again but makes you realise the power of the sun nowadays.

Whats happening in the news in your country this week?

Remembering

For the last week, all of New Zealand has been holding its breath whilst the Police in Auckland try to find a missing 2 yr old.
Aisling Symes wandered from her house whilst her mother had her back turned for 2 seconds.

For the last week everyone has been debating over where she is and what could have happened to an innocent 2yr old?
Was she abducted, fallen in the waterway at the end of the property, even hiden somewhere?

Sadly on Monday evening everyone's worst fears were confirmed when the body of a very young child was found in a storm water drain on the property next door!

Mother's all over New Zealand are today keeper closer eyes on their kids and I know my kids are getting extra hugs and kisses along with being watched that little bit extra.

Our heart felt prayers go out to the family in this very hard time for them.

Sour Note

As I was doing the shopping this morning, I decided to treat myself to the local weekend paper. Not sure when I will get time to read it, but if it is there then you never know.
Well after all the cooking I have done and the fact that dinner is taken care of, I thought I would give myself 5 minutes now.

The front page headline was "Swine Flu at School But Doors Stay Open"

So far no worries, till I read the first sentence of the article.........

"XYZ Primary School is set to remain open - despite one of its boys yesterday becoming one of the latest cases of swine flu."

Oh %&#*! really glad I got the paper this weekend because that is actually my sons school.

So a quick yell to Ben to see if he has any notes from school for us?
No he says, but then you never can quite trust a 51/2 yr old.
So a quick search of his bag and low and behold, there is a note from the local Public Health Dept informing us of the situation.

I am not altogether that worried, I know that there is nothing to jump up and down about. They have the case under control.
They have informed us on the day they discovered the results, which was yesterday (Friday) and it is obvious that the boy is not in Ben's class because it mentions that we would have received further notice if he was in the actual class.

But, hey, am I glad I bought the weekend paper today!

Air France

We all unfortunately now know about the crash that happened on Monday somewhere in the Atlantic.
Nobody likes to ever think about an areoplane coming down, because lets face it....people take planes everyday, some even commute on them daily to work and think nothing of it.
We get on with life and tend to get blaize about the fact it won't ever crash.

If we do think about it, then it is only for a couple of days that we worry 'it might happen to me?' and then life just slips back to normal.

Today I read the newspaper and saw a story about the crash. It was listing people who had sadly lost their lives on the plane and what they had been doing in Brazil and why they were on the plane.
You had the couple who were on holiday, the scientist and his wife who were doing research, someone who had won the trip in an office contest and even a group of doctors who were taking a well earned break. But what really hit home to me and really shivered down through my emotions was the 11yr old boy who was flying back (on his own) to England to go back for the next term of Boarding School.

I went to Boarding School for 6 years in England and at the time my parents lived in several places around the world, in fact at least 40% of the kids at the school travelled by themselves to far away countries to spend time with their parents. That to us was life.
Now I think back to that time and realise just how lucky we were, we never had the headmaster have to tell us someone was not returning from so far away place due to a plane crash. I never once in all the time travelling with my younger brother thought about the worst thing to happen. I just got on the plane, put my headphones on, listening to the radio and waited for what ever crap awesome movie they decided to show us. (remember this was before tv sets in each seat!)

My heart goes out to those families, waiting in Paris for the flight that is never coming home.
It is everyones worst nightmare, and they now have to live it. I do so hope they are able to find the flight recorders to assit with the recovery for these families. It will be a mammoth task but here's hoping.

Be Nice to People

My father sent me a link to a news article about a young lady in France that has been keeping a blog (that is in French, so unless you are fluent, take your French English Dictionary with you when you go to visit it!) that has now been turned into a lucrative book contract, possible movie and otherthings.

Now I know several blogs have come under the scrutiny on publishers and have been turned into books, but this one, that is currently published in French and hopefully will be in English in the middle of 2009, is one I am hoping to catch up with, as I feel it will be amazing to read and actually feel whether it is true or not?

Here is a link to the news article about it.

Just goes to show you really can't judge anyone at all unless you really know them!

How Stupid

The main headline news today in New Zealand is the fact that 2 Australian Tourists, 2 brothers aged 22 & 24yrs old, here on holiday with their extended family, have been killed on Fox Glacier in the South Island.

Turns out they decided they wanted a better picture of the glacier and so they crossed the safety barrier and walked a little way to stand under a lip and have their picture taken. You can imagine the rest....the glacier was unstable due to recent rain and collapsed, killing both of them.

Now I know 20 yr old boys can be defiant but this takes it all a little far. I also realise that this was a freak accident, but still.....how stupid can people be? There are safety barriers for a reason?! Turns out one of the brothers was an Areospace Engineer, so you would have thought they would have had half a brain between them!

I feel sorry for the parents, who went on a wonderful family holiday with their sons, their only sons at that too, and now have to return home without them because, simple put, they were stupid!

My thoughts are with the parents because the thought of loosing my 2 precious monsters is not even worth thinking about!

Fire

I woke this morning to the radio alarm by the bed as normal. What wasn't so normal was waking to hear the news telling us there had been a spate of fires around Hamilton over night (arson) and that one of the Private Hospitals had had to be evacuated. In the next breath the reporter went on to say my hospital!

I of course zipped downstairs to the computer and googled it to find out the details.

Here is what I found thanks to tvnz:

"The Fire Service has dealt with a spate of suspicious fires in Hamilton overnight. Appliances from Ngarawahia, Te Awamutu, Cambridge and around Hamilton were brought in to help.

The first of three fires broke out at 2.42am at Braemar Hospital in Frankton.

This was followed by a car fire in Queens Avenue 20 minutes later.

At 3.15am firefighters were called to Hamilton Girls High School where a skip bin was set alight near the school gym.

At Braemar Hospital, a wheelie bin fire set against an external wall ignited the hospital's gas feed. Fire then spread to the hospital's ceiling vent. The building's fire sprinkler system activated and stopped the fire from spreading, averting tragedy. The hospital's fire alarm is linked to the Fire Service communications centre and automatically alerted firefighters to the emergency. More than 30 firefighters and eight fire appliances brought the fire under control. Firefighters dissipated a gas cloud using water. Hospital staff have evacuated the hospital of half of their 30 bed ridden patients to safe areas - 10 of which have been bussed to another hospital. "

OMG, should make for a rather interesting day at work today, even if I am doing an admin position. Sounds like everything was gained under control quickly due to the sprinkler system, but they tend to leave a little bit of a mess when they go off!

Will let you know how work is today, just what was needed the week before Christmas, at least people can't say their stay at Braemar wasn't interesting?!

P.S: Now that I am at work I can give you an update......One of the corridors is rather wet from the fire being put out, but it was at the back of the hospital not the front. Business is carrying on as normal as luckily due to the sprinkler system things were under control very quickly.

It has caused a mess of the outside of the building, but again it is at the back of the hospital and has taken over space of a car park, so not quite as big a mess as it could have been.

According to someone at work this morning they already have someone in custody for the little arson trip they went on last night in the area.