It did snow last night in Queenstown!

 View from the garden of backpackers on Wednesday, 30th April, 2008

We were told that it was going to snow last night (we are in the middle of autumn season now) but we only got poured buckets early this morning!  But surprise!  Looking at the hills beyond it did snow up top as you see a sprinkling of snow on the peaks but none on the ground though.  Yesterday there was no snow on the peaks at all........The ever changing weather in New Zealand!  Of course, a lot of people blames the climate change for the unpredictable weather...

Living in a Backpacker hostel!

And I really mean living in one unlike just passing through!  I just found out last night that a lot of the people in the backpacker hostel I am in are actually living in it for several months or more or even a year or so!  Why?  There is just no cheap rental accommodation for these young people who came to NZ on a one or 2 year work and holiday visa so they live in a backpackers where they rent a bed for about $26 per night with free utilities and also free wireless internet and kitchen with all the utensils and all the other things in a normal kitchen.  I saw one guy making pizza last night.  Most of the people come from Ireland, Great Britain, Europe and South America and most are waiting for the winter ski season where there will be more jobs.  Most of them like to stay in Queenstown where an American described to me as very similar to Colorado where he originates from.  

I can never live like they do i.e. share everything with everyone and put up with everyone.  I hear interesting snippets of conversations where they look for jobs as well as any possible rental accommodation coming up.    They probably can do better elsewhere but they just want to stay around Queenstown where everything is expensive as most properties here start from at least half a million NZ dollars.  This is the first time I learnt that people actually live in backpackers!

Queenstown Skyline Gondola

It is always nice to wonder around downtown Queenstown when we have such a nice and beautiful day.  Above is a view of the Skyline Gondola or cable car ride, just a little off from downtown and you can ride back down or luge your way back down.

Views from our accommodation...

View from the balcony of Jo-Ann's room at skating camp

View from the garden of Deco backpackers with downtown Queenstown on your left

Continuing view (my simple camera cannot do panoramic view!) from the above

Thought I'll share with you the beautiful scenery we see from my daughter's motel room and from the garden of my backpackers.  The view from my window is too depressing so I am not even bothered with taking a picture of it!

Friends are precious treasures!

Jo-Ann and Abbey - long distanced friends

I have always considered myself lucky to have a whole lot of close girlfriends from my schoolgirl days in an all girls' catholic school.  I hope my daughter will also get to have such friends, too, but I feel guilty as because of my changes in life and career, she had to go to 3 primary schools and now I hope that she can go through her intermediate and high school in the same school for the rest of her school days.

But having said that, last year in one of her figure skating competitions, she met a little girl in Christchurch, whose parents had recently immigrated from Scotland.  They hit it off and got along great immediately!  It was really interesting for me to watch their part time friendship as we live about 4  1/2 hr drive apart.  Today they met again and are rooming together at her skating camp.  They are just so happy and excited to meet up again  and will probably do so again in for another 2 more competitions in 2 different towns in the next few months.  It is just really fun to follow their relationship through texting and phone calls.  I think part of the reason they get on so well is because my daughter is bossy but her friend Abbey will follow her lead so that friendship works out really well!  I hope she will keep up this skating friendship into the future........

Memorable sign from the past!

On our drive into Lawrence, over 2 years ago, we pass the above sign which caught out eyes and we had always wanted to take a photo of it!  We finally did today!  We think it is 50 cents a bag!

Is horse poo very good manure????

Dunedin to Queenstown - Part 2

The air was so still that Lake Dunstan was like a mirror!  Awesome sight!

We came upon Cromwell and just as we cross Lake Dunstan, it was quite a sight from the Lookout point just before we cross the bridge.  The whole lake was like a mirror.  Our photo did not show this as clearly but it was a really pretty sight!

From Cromwell we drove on and past numerous wineries in the Gibbston valley area (Central Otago is fast developing into an up and coming vineyard area).  Then we drove past the turnoff to another historic gold mining town called Arrowtown.  Then finally got to Queenstown and we started to look for my daughter's motel where they are based for the 5 days 5 nights camp.

I off loaded her and her baggage and then head off to my own backpackers for my stay in Queenstown!  Yeah, she gets the nice place to stay and I'm on a budget!!!

The long drive though very scenic was a bit overcast with light showers along the way.

Journey to Queenstown from Dunedin

Clyde Dam located between Alexandra and Cromwell

Looking back at Clyde Dam from the rest stop

We left Dunedin at 12.15 pm today and arrived just before 4 pm after a few quick photo stops.  We drove through Milton and then through the historic town of Lawrence, an old gold rush town started in 1861.

From Lawrence we continued pass the orchards and nurseries in Central Otago.  It was quite a sight seeing red apples hanging on the trees.  I did not have any photo of them as my photographer (my 11 year old girl) was taking a nap!  Then we drove through Roxburgh and onto Alexandra and then pass along the scenic Clyde Dam.  My photographer woke up just before Alexandra and we stopped for some photos along the dam.

Continue next post.......

Free Rice!

We just found out a website called Free Rice. What it does is let children improve on their vocabulary and at the same time for every question the player gets correct, 10 grain of rice is donated to a poor undeveloped country where the children are fed with the rice the player wins.


My daughter was really happy to find that she can win rice for some poor African children somewhere else in the world. It is a good way to teach children how lucky they are and what they can do to help out other deprived children in poor countries.


The website is created by World Food Program to help feed hungry people in the world. So get your kids to play and improve on their vocab at the same time.

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

My daughter's artistic talent!

Aerial view of Jo-Ann's painted pottery

A couple of Jo-Ann's favourite pots done when she was 9 years old

Jo-Ann's indian ink print of The Palm Beach

Jo-Ann's oil painting of The Green Eye

From time to time, my daughter surprises me with her paintings and the above is an oil painting she did in school when she was 9 years old! This picture of an eye blew me away and I still cannot believe she did it 99% by herself! Her teacher did a little of the yellow colour and the rest is all hers!

I was also told that her pottery using the potter's wheel was the best amongst those in her age group so much so that she was also helping her busy art tutor teach some younger beginners' on the wheel and this was also when she was about 9 years old. Currently she has stopped going to her art tutor but told me that her current art teacher in school gave her Excellence in her shading method. Well.... she did not get her artistic talent from me! I can hardly draw although I appreciate paintings very much and have collected a few paintings! I blame it on my poor art classes when I was in school! Now I do encourage or give my girl all the advantages she can have if she shows any interest in art which included art classes after school which she did so for a couple of years!

I am no art critic but I welcome any commentt from any of you bloggers who are artists, too!

Price of Oil is up again!

picture courtesy of www.mrdowling.com

Price of oil is up 3 cents again making 91 Octane at NZ$1.89 per litre and over $2 for top grade gasoline!

So we can expect another price hike in everything now! And I also have to drive to Queenstown this Sunday to send my girl to her figure skating camp being held there!  Wonder how much that trip will cost me now...... It is roughly about 270 km away through windy mountain roads and I drive a Toyota Rav 4.   

Oh well... we just have to suffer the high price of oil!

Tasty Spare Ribs

Baked honey glazed spare ribs

Marinate for at least one hour before cooking

Living overseas meant that I always end up experimenting with the ingredients I have to work with and some dishes turned out better than others! I am also a great believer of sauces as if the basic fresh ingredients are unavailable or too expensive, then make do with the cheaper alternative!

Here's one easy (and very popular dish with my friends) dish if you can find the sauces in your hometown....

GRILLED/BAKED SPARE RIBS

Ingredients:

600 - 700 grams of spare ribs (about 5 pieces; chopped up if desired)
1 tablespoon of Hoi sin sauce *
2 tablespoon of Char Siu sauce *
Honey for brushing

* I like to use Lee Kum Kee's sauces and I can get them easily in Kiwi supermarkets

Directions:

Marinate the ribs with the two sauces at least for one hour before cooking.

You have a choice of baking (if you have the time) or grilling (if you do not). I baked the above lot at 180 deg preheated oven for 20 minutes and then turning it over and baked the other side for another 10 minutes or so. I brushed honey (NZ has so many variety of wonderful honey) 5 minutes before I serve the ribs.

If you decide to grill, watch out that you do not burn the ribs.

Optional: If you like to make a sauce to pour over the ribs, collect the liquid from the baking tray and stir in a teaspoon of cornflour to thicken the sauce and heat for 20 seconds in the microwave. My daughter loves the sauce on her steamed rice!

Enjoy!

The Big R is here!

 picture source 

Kiwi economists have been skimming around the edges but let's face it!  Manufacturers and banks laying off staff and moving production overseas because of the strong Kiwi dollars has hurt the exporters while importers are making the big bucks!  Recession is here!

Yesterday ANZ bank announced a big layoff (430) to move some operations off shore.  And in Dunedin Fisher and Paykel, a Kiwi icon in whiteware announced that the factory will shut down in the next 6 - 12 months' time moving operations to Mexico, Thailand and Italy where cost of living is lower.  Then a wool factory also announced closing down in July, too.  For Dunedin, with a population of less than 120,000 of which about 30,000 are from the University of Otago, there will be quite an effect on all the support services so experts put the figure as closer to 2000 jobs will be affected.  Fronterra is also shutting down their cheese production (more lay offs) in the North Island and concentrating on milk powder products instead.

With high interest rate, prices of houses had started falling this year, some places more so than others.  Prices of food has risen steadily as price of 91 octane petrol is at $1.86 per litre  today!

Every week some company is closing shop, some with notice and some without.  We're are suffering and in great pain with all this recession!  All this was brought down by the artificially inflated Kiwi dollar!

Demanding Parents!

When I went to school, my parents never got involved in any of the discipline that was dished out by the school.  Not that I ever got into trouble back then.  The worst that ever happened to me was I got hit on the side of my head with a book by a male teacher when I was too slow to stand up to greet him at the beginning of the class.  I was just finishing up writing a sentence from the previous period.  And if we cannot answer a question, we had to stand up until the teacher deemed time for us to sit down again.  The only time my parents hear from my teacher was in the report card written by my form teacher.  They did not interfere with what happens in school.

Nowadays, we have to write about every student we teach, then see the parents at least twice a year as well as keep in touch with any problems or issues.  Students also play the 'I don't understand the teacher' card with me as I do not speak the kiwi accent as I have more of an American accent after living in US for 5 years and working for an American corporation for almost 8 years!  In between I also worked for British and Australian companies!  My accent is not something I can change but I try to pronounce the Kiwi way with some particular words!

Fellow teachers sympathize with me and even English, Scottish and South African teachers share similar problems, too.  

Do not get me wrong!  There are some really wonderful and supportive parents but there are some really demanding ones who can even come out as bullies!  I mean what do they want?!!  There are lots of times when we feel that we are underpaid baby sitters!  If a student is truant, we have to chase up to see where they are and then to figure out their alibis!  Then we have to call home with the bad news!  A lot of what a student older than 16 years do are not known to their parents as under the law, we cannot tell their parents unless it is life threatening!

Nowadays, teaching is not just a job!  You are a role model as well!  My best satisfaction is when a student does well in some subject if not all of them.  We always tell a student who talks too much that they will make a good lawyer!  They find it very complimenting but we are actually a little sarcastic but usually they hardly figure that one out!

I know I have a lot of influence on the kids but parents also have to take the responsibility as well!  If their children ask for help in any subject, they need to remember never to reply, "I don't know!  I'm never good at it!"  This negative reply will give their children the impression that it really does not matter because their parents got through life without knowing much so why should they bother?!  So actually they are not setting a good example already!  Then they expect their children to do well in that particular subject!!!  

Low Fat Milk......

                                      .

A friend of mine sent me this little video and I thought all low fat milk drinkers will love it!

Cheats - Why do students do it?

picture source

Every year I come across students who cheat in tests or exams.  I always have to supervise them with two eagle's eyes, not one!  And still some manage to slip pass me!  I usually found them out when I marked their papers.  Students who copy others always copies everything including every incorrect working and answers!  If you do not catch them red handed, it is sometimes up to you to prove to senior management that you think a student copied in the test or exam.  Most times, it is not worth the time and effort so some smart alec student got lucky!  But sooner or later it will come back to bite them!

Why do they cheat?!

Desperate to pass?  Too lazy to study?  The most recent excuse - no retention!  I think it all starts with copying answers from friends or from the back of the textbook!  All these unwise actions normally lead to failure in tests and exams!  I always tell my students that if they copy the answers, they are only cheating on themselves and not me!  They are the ones sitting for the exams, not me!  They are supposed to ask if they do not know how to do the questions and not just take the easy way out and copy answers!

I think that if students cheat in schools and do not get penalised they will go on to their adult lives thinking it is okay to cheat.  They will probably be the ones who copies others' ideas and gets sued, etc....  I know it sounds harsh but that is how life is!  Once you do something wrong and you get away with it, you will always be tempted to do it again until you get caught!

Kiwi Teenager linked to International Cyber Crime

Wow! A teenager confessed to a international cyber crime that stunned investigators because of the sophiscated nature! This self taught 18 year old was home schooled and has aspergers. He was the mastermind of botnet, a software that infected a million computers and caused million of dollars of damage.

To read the details of this incredibly talented young man, go here.

Who knows? You may have been one of his victims if you had Adware in your computer!

Trouble Teens

Picture courtesy of www.blueflamepolitix.org

Recently in Dunedin, two schools encountered 'Wake-up call' problems that prompted the police to ensure that all schools in the Dunedin area are ready for any emergencies.

According to the Otago Daily Times, a school boy was heading to his high school and he met a woman on his way and told her that he was bringing a gun to school! She was alarmed and so alerted the police who in turn alerted the equivalent of 'swat' team in New Zealand. On searching they did find a toy gun!

On the same day, in a primary school, teachers had to disarm an angry boy with a kitchen knife!

And this is in slow and peaceful Dunedin! I think these are the result of too much influence from watching too much violence on tv!

April Fools

photo courtesy of www.istockphoto.com

Well, I survive today without getting tricked!  Actually 2 of my 4 classes today have their internal assessments so there was no time for jokes on the teacher!  Phew!  What a relief!

But my girl told me they did trick one of their teachers by moving the classroom clock forward! Quite a good trick for 10 - 12 year olds, I must  admit!  Luckily for them, their teacher took it in good humour and they still had a good period!  

Well, my students would not be able to play that trick on me as I depend on my own watch as I do not have a clock in my classroom because some immature idiot will always steal the single battery it needs to run! Sigh!

Our school website got hacked today!

Well, our school website got hacked today!  The funny thing was that the hacker made sure we knew that he or she got in as in our homepage there is a photo of our principal.  Well, he was spinning around for a while, his pic, that is!

We doubt we will know who did it but if it was a student (we hope not!), imagine all the test papers and answers they can get their hands on!  I guess we can figure it out as maybe suddenly we see great improvement in test results where we do not expect any!

A bunch of us teachers saw the hacker's humour (must be an April Fool) and our webmaster quickly corrected it at the end of school day today!