Well, isn't that a creepy LJ topper... I dislike Halloween. It really means nothing in NZ and there's just one house along the road that's now well known for being 'in the spirit' of it all. The rest of us just look on with faint amusement (children adore it - the garden is full of vampires, skeletons, hags, spider webs, a ghoul vomiting in a bucket - now that's rather successful, gravestones with dead people crawling out... you name it, it's in their little front garden!).
Today was busy as usual, a run of four senior classes back to back this morning. My Year 13s are studying the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and we watched Hotel Rwanda to ponder on the incredible kindness of that hotel manager, Paul R. What was amazing to me, and to the girls, was that we watched it all on tv, when those students would have been about three years old. We saw the hundreds of bodies lined along ditches and roadsides, in streets and burnt out buildings. We watched it and we cried and we didn't know what on earth to do. And who is my neighbour, I asked the girls in the best Biblical fashion. Sina, a beautiful, gentle Year 13, looked up, "Everyone."
And a pic from the little lake by the skate park near my mother's house
pukeko, not takahe...
and here's an indication that it's going to be a good summer
Today was busy as usual, a run of four senior classes back to back this morning. My Year 13s are studying the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and we watched Hotel Rwanda to ponder on the incredible kindness of that hotel manager, Paul R. What was amazing to me, and to the girls, was that we watched it all on tv, when those students would have been about three years old. We saw the hundreds of bodies lined along ditches and roadsides, in streets and burnt out buildings. We watched it and we cried and we didn't know what on earth to do. And who is my neighbour, I asked the girls in the best Biblical fashion. Sina, a beautiful, gentle Year 13, looked up, "Everyone."
And a pic from the little lake by the skate park near my mother's house
pukeko, not takahe... and here's an indication that it's going to be a good summer
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natesmountain- natesmountain
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I have been thinking lots about New Zealand and have so many wonderful memories of the great times we had there and wonderful places we lived and visited and the people...
Thanks for sharing, the harakeke is so beautiful - determined to come back and see it again sometime...
Thanks too for your postcard which arrived this week.
*sigh* wish you were still in the Hutt
-Thanks for sharing, the harakeke is so beautiful
I love sharing NZ flora and fauna *g*
OMG I can't believe the postcard took so long! That's terrible! I'll blame Napier.
Postal services are really erratic - I don't think postcards are given much priority!! but it was very welcome even if it was a bit delayed!
Yeah, our plants are very distinctive to us, huh. I find Aussie bush so incredibly different, too. Is it different if you travel across a continent, I mean, is there more continuity of 'bush', so to speak? I'm so used to living on an 'island'! And Australia is one too, really *g*
It's like a takahe but taller and much more common, a LOT more! It's called a pukeko (poo kek oh). Because so many introduced species eat birds' eggs, our many flightless native birds have really suffered. Pukeko have huge feet, like giant prehistoric claws!
-glad to see you on my friends page.
Thanks xxx!! I've been soooooooooo busy... I'm glad to be around when I can.
I bought the DVD of Hotel Rwanda but haven't watched it yet.
I always loved Hallowe'en when I was a child - it was the only bit of 'fun' in the middle of the autumn term while the days got darker and darker towards Christmas. We didn't have half term breaks so Hallowe'en sort of stood in for that!
It's too light here for Halloween!! That's my excuse.
And I sat in bed the other night and wrote you a gay little short story for your site. But I'm just getting up the guts to share it with you *g* so I'll hopefully get there... 878 words
I don't think Halloween in Spring would work... It's freezing cold here and dark by tea time. There's fog around too, and rustling leaves, when they aren't damp. Just right for ghost stories and general idiocy. And of course the whole thing is linked with Samhain, which ties into early British culture - Druids and suchlike. I don't believe a word of it, but I enjoy the atmosphere!
Your story sounds perfect. *pokes guts at you*
Oooh fog for Halloween, that'd be good! We get fog here about once a year, and it's usually at dawn!
-Your story sounds perfect. *pokes guts at you*
yeah, well, you don't know if it's perfect LOL! But it's just something I wanted to write that minute... and I tend to assume no one really out there wants to read what I like to write. But I guess it's still worth putting out occasionally *g* sharing, huh.
I'm not sure which came first, the fog or the ghost stories - obviously a very Brit thing, taken up and commercialised by the Americans!
Please, pretty please, send it to me, at least. *begs*
-Please, pretty please, send it to me, at least. *begs*
Yikes, how can I resist that? Okay, I'll flick it to you after school and you can tell me what you think!
We can sort of follow the news. Politicians say the same as politicians anywhere and the pictures tell the story!! We watched a soap opera a couple of times in one of our favourite cafes - we made up our own story to go with it...
Hee!! That's brilliant! I love it.
I sometimes do that with pigeons if we're waiting anywhere. I do running commentaries
Thanks for reading my story. I can't understand why I get so nervous about it. You're so kind *g*
It was a pleasure to read your story - we need good writers!!
Absolutely. I have two vices, coffee and writing *g*
-It was a pleasure to read your story - we need good writers!!
Thanks, you make me feel goooooood! Does that mean I can really write more little stories like that? I think with my current schedule, I could handle that kind of writing! At least until summer holidays...
Yeah, if we open the gates, we get quite a few trick or treaters, but no one knows what the hell they're doing it for! And a few people even put up signs saying, 'Don't come in here'
I love your icon! Now that's familiar!