Accidents - What does it mean?

According to Wikipedia:
An accident is a specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent or deliberate cause but with marked effects. It implies a generally negative probabilistic outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.

However, nowadays, people always try to put someone at fault so the idea of accident may no longer exists as someone always will be found to be the cause of the 'accident'.

Why on earth am I on about?

Well, a few months back some students and a teacher were swept away when a sudden flashflood occurred where the school trip was doing water activities. Now the school board is held responsible as they were told that they did not do enough to ensure that thorough risk management had taken place!

With that in mind, recently our school principal reminded all of us about doing our risk management properly and that if we went to bed and snored away because we had a drink, then we will be liable should a student sneaked out of camp and gets into trouble. One teacher was quick to ask but what if we did not drink but just snored away?! Then he said it was OK!

Then another teacher brought up the subject about being responsible for the students while on overnight trips or camps (very common in NZ) and that there seem to be no more accidents and people are always trying to find fault and place someone responsible for the so called accident and thus accidents do not exist. And with that type of possibility hanging over teachers' heads, many would not like to volunteer themselves for trips anymore as with age, their reaction may be too slow to prevent 'accidents' from happening and thus will be liable should something happen to a student under their care. That is quite a sobering thought, actually!

As teachers, we have to be careful about giving students lifts to anywhere because their parents should give their permission first in case anything happens. I only give lifts to my daughter's friends if I know the parents quite well and vice versa and I do not give lifts to my own students if I can help it knowing the consequences should anything happen. It is a sad world we live in nowadays because people will sue their friends or find someone to fault either to find closure or something to dull the pain they suffer. Ultimately someone innocent may get faulted as a result of a real accident!

National is the New Government!

Well, it is all over!  Or is it just starting again???  We now have a new government just like US has a change back to Democrat.  After 9 years we need a change.  All are predicting the National will have their work cut out for them in that Labour did not let the people know how much debt NZ is in.....

Well,  we will see!

New Zealand goes to the polls, too, this coming Saturday, November 8.

Do we keep Helen and the Labour Party in government.............OR

do we make a change and vote for John Key and the National Party?

Everyone seems to be going to the polls about the same time and New Zealand is no different.  We have been under the Labour party rule for a while now and a lot of people are unhappy with the high crime rates and very lenient sentences.  So will National win and take over the next government?  

As a permanent resident, I found that we are expected to vote if we have at least one year residence in NZ.  So I have to vote this Saturday...

What frustrates me is that the Labour government would dangle some carrot just before the election to gather votes every time.  The last was interest free student loans!  Now is parents' income will no longer impact on students' allowance  just to gain votes from university students!  Then there are there are the ridiculous ads on tv, too!

I am a skeptic in that do they actually carry out their promises???

I still haven't decide on my vote yet although my tween is telling me to vote for the National as they are the ones who understand the education system!  I find it amusing that she is getting into the campaigning and I am sure National would love to have her in the campaign!

Whatever it is, I have to vote on Saturday and we may have a new government come Monday.

Teenagers will be teenagers!

This is my 100th posting!  I have been wondering what to write about and finally something happened in school today which I thought amused me a lot.

I normally put my notes for my students to copy on powerpoint so today was not different.  Only the students were rather restless and noisy so I told them I am not going to wait for anyone who talks but will wait for anyone who does not talk and writes away.  Then some boys objected and I reminded them that they could not talk and write at the same time as 'boys cannot multitask'.... Well, of course I provoked them and got them protesting and calling me sexist!  But my point was proven when the loudest point started arguing with me using his writing hand to make his point and then, I happily pointed out to him that what I say was correct!  He was talking and not writing at the same time!  That was quite amusing as it got more of the boys to quieten down to copy the notes.  

Then another boy said, "I wonder if there was anything boys could do that girls cannot."  I could not help myself and said that I will enlightened them on some biology and that in the future when they and their spouses or partners could not have baby boys, then they should remember that only males have the Y chromosome and they are the ones responsible for not having any boys and not their wives.  It was amusing to me as it took them by surprise and it took about a minute before it click with them to absorb in what I was on about.....

Do you have pain in the soles of your feet?

A few months ago, I slipped and fell twice on the morning ice in winter.  I thought all I had was 2 sprained feet (still went to work) but now the pain had gotten worst so I resorted to seeing a Chinese doctor who is also an acupuncture expert.  The first thing she said to me was I had very poor blood circulation in my feet.  No wonder I always had extremely cold feet and could never seem to get them warm so I end up wearing socks to bed as most old houses in NZ do not have central heating.  

Not only did she tell tell me that I had poor blood circulation but also my pain in the heel part on the soles of my feet when I put pressure (like walking!) on them is also due to my sciatica which I had for years.  I did not even think that my falls were that bad.  Anyways, the 2 treatments I had seemed to be working but I still have a lot more to go.  All I am hoping for is the pain to disappear in the near future so I can go back to enjoy my walks while doing window shopping!!!

It has been quite a few years since I had acupuncture done and I do believe they work on chronic aches and pains.  However, I was a bit surprised that now they have also attached some electric current to stimulate the points and speed up the process.  I am not a newcomer to passing electric currents through my body as I had that done for my sciatica years ago.

I cannot wait for the day when I can walk pain free.....

Visit to a NZ sheep farm

Jo-Ann with Mower the Mohair goat with some sheep in the background

Our friend, Winnie, with the mother sheep and 2 day old lamb

In between our competitions we had some free time where we went to a sheep farm as my daughter has never been to a real farm in her young life so I thought it would be a good experience!

She decided after the visit that she does not like farm life as she was all squeamish at the amount of mud, poohs and some dirty animals (after a full rainy day before!) in a farm.  The only spark in that visit was "Mower" the Mohair goat they had!  She was tied up but she hated Murphy the town dog who was there on a short holiday while his 'mum and dad' are off on a vacation.  Mower kept chasing after Murphy each time he passed in front of her so that was really hilarious as Murphy was so hyper jumping into the pond and out despite the cold water.  The 2 black swans in the pond just ignored Murphy while the white duck was more cautious.  

I also learnt that a lot of farmers are switching to dairy farms due to the high price of diary products where each cow is worth about $2000.  However, the sheep farmers do not like the diary farmers as apparently the diary farms are polluting the rivers with their discharge.  Diary farms are more work because of the twice daily milking that needs to be done but the returns are high with the current milk prices.

It is nice to be in Southland as the people are generally friendlier and that was what struck the Aucklanders the most about how life is more relaxed and people are not stressed or in a hurry to get anything done!  The small town of Gore welcomed the 500 odd people who visited Gore during the Figure Skating Nationals as all the visitors are always hungry and in search of food all the time!  The small town does have Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut but too small to have a MacDonald's.  I think the nearest big M is in Invercargill about 45 minutes drive away.

NZ Figure Skating Naitonals

We have just returned from my daughter's NZ Figure Skating Nationals in a little southern town called Gore, famous for its country music and brown trout.

It is amazing how the standards keep improving every year so the competition gets tougher and tougher.  It is also nice to catch up with skaters from the North Island whom we see once a year at the nationals.  My girl came in 5th in her grade but she still maintained her position as the top skater from the south.

This is the first time that we have professional sports photographers taking photos so I purchased my daughter's and it is good to see her shots and she can also see her actual posture and if they meet the standards.....