Just Another Human

2006-07-11T01:50:00.000-07:00

I'm back. Well better late than never. Actually I forgot the password and I never really had time to find it again. Now I've made another one. I promise to be better and to post on a regular basis.n Here are some photos of the summer holidays. I will post more later.

Nothing realy exciting happening except for the falling NZ dollar (61 cents!!!) and the rise in the number of students to my school. The weather is pretty shitty but at least I got to go over to Korea and Japan for week. I managed to miss a week of crappy winter.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

It has been raining for the last couple of days. Recently we have had pretty good Christmas weather but we have been getting back to the old fashioned shitty Christmas weather that I remember since I was young. Anyway - normally in Hampden it doesn't get nice until the middle of Jan. That is real beach time. This year we are taking 2 weeks off over the Christmas vacation period. Back into the batte next year.

The dollar is starting to drop - hurray. 67c down from 71 a few weeks ago. This gladdens my tortured heart. Please fall to 60!!!!

Anyway. To anyone from any part of the planet who happens to read this- Merry Christmas.

Josie's Birthday

2005-12-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

On Saturday Josie had her 7th birthday party. She invited 4 friends but one couldn't came and another left the invitation in his school bag. So in the end only two came. THey had a real ball though. We went through the obligatory treasure hunt followed by lollies wrapped in silver foil stuck in the garden. We had an attemped hit the balloon with the balloon race along the newly done lawn (miserable failure due to the constant popping of all of the balloons.) We did an egg and spoon race and lots of swingball games.

Anna and James added to the mix a little with was good. They had just arrived for the hols from Singapore. The 5 sprogs actually played together quite well (6 if you count Victoria). Peter (my brother) and Ai Lee (Sister in Law) enjoyed my brew and sat in the sun porch with Nana.

Aunty Jo sent up a bike for Josie which will double as a Christmas and birthday present.

On Sunday Victoria and Josie and I went to the park to teach Josie to ride the bike. After a few spills and tantrums Josie was able to ride from one side of the park to the other ... hols that thought I'll post a little later...

Language schools

2005-12-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

A recent article in the newspaper said that language school enrolments have dropped by 28% over the last year. Stunning stuff really. We have experienced a drop but not anywhere near the same amount of percentage. I hope that this won't continue as a trend into the next year. We really need a drop in the dollar. We are going to have to do some pretty severe international marketing.

Ruminations about small business and economic recession

2005-12-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

Just yesterday a big sawmill near Balclutha closed its export plant which was exporting timber. They said that they couldn't compete with the Chileans. 37 jobs went. That kind of got me to thinking. Big companies lay off staff early in order to avoid going bust. This company will now focus on the domestic timber trade and those 37 people will just have to fuck off. Small businesses just don't seem to have the balls to lay off people. They seem to wait until their nuts are in the closing vice before they act. Because of this I think that once small companies start to go under the country is really in the grips of a recession. Once small companies start to die however the inherent lag in economic flow through means that the economy won't instantly respond to the reduction of domestic competition. Small companies will die and die and new ones won't enter the market. NZ is inherently a nation of small businesses employing 15 people or fewer. At this time the big companies are laying off staff early. Surely this is a sign for small business to act before it becomes necessary to act. We are reducing our staff wages and going to start doing our own GST. We might even reduce the number of rooms that we rent.(if our landlords agree to this.)
The bottom line is that I am sure the indicators of recession are being written on the wall now. Small business closures will follow within 6 months if the dollar doesn't fall substantially and soon. Once small business start to die the snowball of nationwide recession will be off down the hill and will be unstoppable.

The Kiwi Dollar

2005-12-08T11:52:00.000-08:00

The Reserve Bank raised their interest rates to 7.25% yesterday! This means that floating mortgage rates will be around 9% from now on. On Morning Report today there was an interesting discussion between Mike Pero and some Waikato Uni dude about whether or not this would bring down the house prices. Pero said that it would and that the correction was overdue and the Uni guy ( of all people) said that the correction could come as late as 2007. He talked about a levelling off of house prices rather than a drop.
Another thing a heard yesterday was that if the $ dropped to 65c to the US$ that would be classed as a recession. I don't think that is much of a drop at all. I would like the Kiwi to be at 61-62 against the US.
Even at 9% some people still think that the housing market won't cool. I am just stunned that the average Kiwi can put up with so much mortgage pain and still go out and borrow like there is no tomorrow.

Blogs

2005-11-23T22:14:00.000-08:00

Since I started reading blogs I have been quite interested to see that most people who write blogs have really shit lives(much like myself). I wonder where all the brainsurgeons and lawyers and business executives are? If anyone knows the blogsite of a millionaire I would love to read about their tribulations.

In the meantime I will have to make do with teenage angst and meandering career paths (much like mine).

Nothing much to blog about.

2005-11-21T17:07:00.000-08:00

I've nothing much to blog about. That proves the meaninglessness of my existance really.
"John, we will go and watch Narnia or The world's Fastest Indian this summer holiday.
Don't be so pathetic!! Let's just be happy that we are here". Mari
Get out of my blog Mari!! How dare you squeeze into my cyberspace! Now you have disturbed my train of thought. Where was I. Oh yes. The meaninglessness of life. Is meaninglessness a word? If you are reading this shit your life is as meaningless as mine.
Sick puppy.

Are you still reading?

Fuck off!

Still here?

OK then would you like to read my attempt at touch typing?

New Zealand is a really great country. There are two maon islands. THe main island is cilled the Southe Island and this is quite strange becaise most of the peaple libve on the Motth Osland. THe Motth Island countaons the capital city which is called Wellinggton. It also has the largest city which is called Auchland. This is the end of my touch typing came. I hope you ingoyes it.

Chinese

2005-11-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

Josie has a classmate at school. His name is Kahu. Kahu is a Maori name which makes this next story a little strange. In the weekend when I was up in the top paddock chainsawing gorse off from the fences I was forced to listen to Josie prattling on (as six year-olds do) about her life. In between sawing and dragging branches off onto heaps I got to listen to all manner of things which are inportant to little girls. Pokemon cards, "What would happen daddy if"... plus ridiculous possibility questions, What Victoria did/didn't do, and school. Being such a good father I hmmphed at the correct times and told her to mind out she didn't get prickled. It was during one of the one sided conversations about school that she told me that one of the boys she didn't like in class was Kahu. She said that she used to like Kahu but recently her best friend was Josh. Why? I asked (not really interested in the answer). She told me that recently Kahu had been making fun of her because she was "Chinese." He said that he didn't want to play with a Chinese girl. Josh - (the hero of the story) jumped to her defense and told his that Josie wasn't Chinese because he had seen her dad and he wasn't Chinese.

I have never really encountered racism in my life and hearing that happening to Josie really hurt. What can you do? Josie didn't really seem to mind and she is a strong girl but I think it really stinks that this sort of shit even exists in schools in NZ. Of course it does but it has never touched my family before. THe irony is all the shit that some Maori make in the media about racism etc. NZ is a fucking model of racial tollerance compared with any country in the world. Little Maori Kahu needs to learn a little racial tolerance before the shit that he (or more possibly his parents) spout is likely to fly back and hit him in the face.

On a lighter note... Josie and Tor love playing on the tramp with "berries." Actually they are plums but berries has stayed as the official title. The game involves jumping on, near or having berries hurled at you by the other sister. Mari had a go too but I wasn't fast enough to snap her.

Tory and the bike.

2005-11-20T15:21:00.000-08:00

Tory had her first real go on a bike over the weekend. Actually it is Josie's bike that she got for her first birthday and CHristmas (Since she was born on Christmas Day). Joise has never been that keen on riding the bike and it has spent its life quietly rusting in the garage up at Nana's house. This weekend though Tory really took to it after I put the seat down. She was really proud of her newly found ability. She put Josie's nose out of joint after they had a race against each other. Josie was on the pedal tractor and Tory had the bike. Tory just pedalled past while Josie was pedalling furiously. In the end Josie grabbed Tory's arm to slow her down. I declared Tory the winner and Josie stomped off into the long grass in a huff. She ended up getting hay fever too!

We spent about an hour on Saturday waiting for the excursion train to come past on its way up to Oamaru for the fete. I was expecting a steam train like last year but it ended up being a boring old diesel. Even Tory was disappointed at the event.

All in all it was a great weekend. Good to see the All Blacks puss the Poms. Noe extremely convincingly but it is hard to win with only 14 players and 3 yellow cards.

Speaking Korean

2005-11-16T13:14:00.000-08:00

None of our sprogs can speak Korean. Mari went out of her way only to speak ENglish with Josie in an effort to assimmilate quickly into NZ society. As a result of this Josie is dead set against going to the effort of learning a new language. She said today that she would rather learn ENglish or if she had to learn a new language whe would rather learn animal language so that she could speak to the birds outside. Victoria is still at the age where she is eager to please and tries to listen to Korean if Mari speaks it. So from now on we will embark on the battle of speaking Korean at home. I think it may very well be a battle which is already lost.

I dangled the carrot about going to Korea in the distant future for a holiday to Josie but she said she would much rather go to Australia to get a picture of herself with a Kangaroo.

Beer

2005-11-15T11:39:00.000-08:00

I have bottled my first beer brew of the year. During the year whenever I have had the chance I have worked at polishing off the last of the beer at my mum's house that my dad and I brewed before he died last year. Actually the beer tastes really nice. Dome of the beer at the bottom of the crates is probably more than two years old. It still drinks well. This year I have used bought primer for the bottles. It looks like two lollies that you drop into the bottom af the bottle. Previously I used two teaspoons of sugar. I think that this overcooked the beer and made it a little too bubbly. It will be interesting to see how this brew comes out. I will probably start a second batch over the weekend.

Cold snap and death

2005-11-14T22:41:00.000-08:00

A couple a weeks ago a bird's nest was discovered by a dude doing up our garden. It contained 5 little Thrush eggs. The girls religiously watched the eggs hatch over the next few days and Josie even took this photo of the Mother bird sitting on her nest to show her class on News day. Over the weekend however a cold front passed over Dunedin and it got really cold over a couple of days. The upshot of this was that all 5 chicks died. I told Josie and Victoria on SUnday morning and I thought that they wouldn't have worried at all. Actually Victoria forgot about the whole incident in a flash and Josie seemed quite unruffled. In the afternoon a took down the dead chicks and had a little funeral ceremony at the bottom of the garden. We prayed that the birds would start a new family and have a better life and all that touchy-feely stuff. Josie bowed her head and stayed quiet for a while. After that we all went inside and the matter was closed (or so I thought).

In the evening before bedtime Josie came and sat down next to me on the sofa andtold me that she had a secret. She said that after the burial she had dug up one of the chicks and put it back in the nest. She thought that since the weather was warmer the sun might heat up the chick and it might "get alive again." Also she thought that the parents would miss their babies.

Kids are magic.

Two new Dr Who Books

2005-11-09T16:50:00.000-08:00

I just bought 2 new books! Unearthly Child and Dinosaur Invasion of Earth. I have read them previously and really enjoy them both. If I can remember correctly the Dinosaur book came out of the 1070s and seems really similar to those Heavens Gate dudes who went to a new planet. In Dinosaur I think a scientist dude cons people into going into has spaceship which will go to a new planet. Actually the plan is to bring the past to the present and supplant life on earth. Only Dr 3 can stop this dastardly plan!
The unearthly child is the first televised Dr Who (I think) it is in this one that Susan, Ian and Barbara zoom back into the earth's past and get captured by cavemen. It is the next episode where the Dr meets the Daleks for the first time. The book was way better than the actual telecast as usual.

Other pics from Auckland

2005-11-02T23:18:00.000-08:00

Here is another side shot of Victoria. It looks way worse than the other little sprog from somewhere elase who got the procedure done at the same time. Apparently the two birthmarks are different because the little blonde girl's mark travels up towards her eyes when she gets hot. Victoria's mark gets more red as blood flows into it.

Tory came back

2005-11-02T15:36:00.000-08:00

Mari and Tory came back from Wellington yesterday. Tory's face looks like she has been exposed to an atomic blast on one side. It looks a lot worse than it feels apparently.

When she got back we roleplayed the wholw proceedure on her bed. I got to be her and she got to be the doctor putting a mask of laughing gas over my face. At the end of the game she daid that she wouldn't cry like this time time bacause in two months time when she goes up for her next treatment should "would be a big girl."

Wellington

2005-10-31T11:44:00.000-08:00

I have just dropped Victoria and Mari off at the airport. In the queue I saw a little girl who is going up for laser treatment as well. She has a little very light mark under her lip. 1000s of percent less dark than Victoria's mark and about 800% smaller. Compared to the other kids I guess Victoria's mark is a bit of a monstrosity. So it's off to the surgury tomorrow at 7.30 a.m. The school will be without a office manager for 2 days because Mari won't come back till some time tomorrow.

Chopping Gorse

2005-10-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

In the weekend the family travelled up to Nana's place for Labour day. THe weather was stunning and the kids played outside. Mari even did the entire side lawns!! I went up into the top paddocks and decided to clear some of the gorse along the fencelines which had been gathering ever since my dad got too sick to clear it. It took me two days and about 1000 scratches but in the end one of the main fencelines had been cleared of gorse. Instead of a slasher I used the chainsaw. It did a good job. Now the paddock needs a few sheep to keep any shoots down. I won't go up this weekend but next weekend I plan to attack the next infestation.

Next week is D-day for Victoria's laser-dye treatment. Mari and Tory will fly up on Tuesday and will come back on Thursday.

Kidneys

2005-10-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

OUr Lead Teacher's youngest sprog slit his only remaining kidney in a fall yesterday. Now she is asking for a week off. This will be really expensive for us. Already we lost money by cancelling one of our most lucrative days. I think she has used up all the sick days under her contract as well. Whast should we do. Pay her and the relief teacher or just pay the relief teacher?

We don't have that much money to spend on double payments.

Weather

2005-10-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

The weather this winter has been pretty mild. It still sucked though. This weekend I mucked around at my mum's place. It was really good to have the girls outside having so much fun.; Victoria is almost able to ride Josie's bike now. God how kids grow. Josie is still on trainer wheels and is not really keen to move onto a bigger bike. Santa might have to bring a new bike for Victoria because the brakes on the handlebars have all rusted up.

The family went down to the beach on Sunday and spent a really great hour or two by some low-tide pools of water. Once again the kids shucked off the lower clothing parts and splahed around sonding shells and starfish. It was really magical on the beach - 5-10 kilometers of white sand, blue sea and hardly a soul to be seen... I wish I were retired!

Dr Who AGAIN

2005-10-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

My life is pretty boring. Work-Home-Sleep -repeat until death. There are only a few joys in my life. 1) Family - but not in large quantities 2) Rome Total War. 3) Dr Who

Actually I have liked Dr Who since I was a kid. The first Dr Who book I read was The Brain of Morbius featuring Dr 4 (Tom Baker). Tom has always remained a personal fav of mine. I have a special place in my heart for Dr 3 ( Jon Pertwee). He was the first Doctor I saw on TV. Bloody scary those Autons. The Autons came back twice in the 1970s and once with Doctor 9. They were at their absulute shit scariest in the Auton Invasion. I had waking nightmares about their hands dropping away and revealing those blasters... I can remember playing Autons outside my house at twilight ... diturbing even 30 years later.

My 3 year old is into Dr Who (of course as is my 6). They are sooooo cute going around the house pretending to be Daleks. The new one for all who have seen the series is "Are you my mummy?" Of course I like Rose. If ever I have seen a walking sperm recipticle it is her.

Dr Who again

2005-10-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

I have over 120 Dr Who books. Yip that is sad. I went to a second hand bookstore on Saturday and picked up Doctor Who and the Face of Evil. I saw a FIRST EDITION Terror of the Autons as well. Unfortunately it was really tatty and had been nicked from the Tansmanian State library. All I need is a few more.... Actually about 60 more. I have decided not to collect any of the new adventures of Dr Who - only the ones actually screened. This raises an interesting point about whether to include Dr Eight. I will leave you to ponder such a deep question.

The three major feelings of those in business

2005-10-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hope
Disappointment
Depression

Connect these in a circle and you have the feelings of most self employed business people.

Monday

2005-10-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

Quite a good weekend really. The dishwasher works a dream and is really quiet. It is an LG. Those Koreans can make really good products! For the first time this season I was able to lie out on the deckchair in the garden and soak up the vitamin D. Actually it was too strong in the sun and I had to go inside. Josie went around the garden collecting posies and giving them to us - very cute. Victoria was wandering around in the nudy rudy quite oblivious to this fact. We are going to do up the back of the section. It is really overgrown and we are going to level it and out it all into lawn. Don't know when we will get around to it because it is going to be such a mission.

NE Way... back at work again and reaonably refreshed.

Friday

2005-10-06T18:22:00.000-07:00

We have got a new dishwasher! Hurray! No more fighting over the dishes! Nana will go back home today after looking after the kids during the school hollies. It is good to have family to help out over these periods.

NZQA are coming again

2005-10-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

Oh goodie. It is time for another NZQA audit. Our school gets audited every year by the NZQA. I think they used to be called the NSDAP but after 1945 they escaped Germany and now they operate out of Wellington. NZQA is a shadowy organisation made up of beaurocrats cloned from Daleks. The sole aim of the NZQA is to justify their own existance by requiring schools to be audited by them. They are growing stronger and the amount of new regulations put out by them is part of their master plan. All schools will eventually be buried under mountains of directives and spurious updates. Such cunning - such evil!!

Actually their hearts are in the right places but they are just so fucking expensive! We have done over $10000 in compliance with NZQA over the past 3 years. I could have done sone serious overseas marketing if it wasn't for all that money being pissed away every year. Typical government department. Their argument is that they are needed to keep the export industry honest and to protect the reputation of NZ. The irony is that all of the big schools which closed like Modern Age were part of the big school clubs and had actually been audited by NZQA anyway. It is the small providers which seem to carry all of the shit for all of the big school fuck-ups. Carrich and Modern Age are good examples. We are a great school. We aim to stay quite small so that we can focus on what we are good at. TEACHING ENGLISH. An audit every year? FUUUUUCK OFF! Every two years OK. Checklist yearly OK. Look at the Public Trust Accounts whenever they feel horny? OK, Accountant's report to look at during their office parties - sure. $3500 Audit? YEARLY??????? Suck my d***!

Another post

2005-10-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

Now that I have actually stored my password in my long term memory I will be able to post at my leisure!

Unfortunately this coincides with the sad fact that I actually have very little to say.

We are getting a dishwasher for the house tomorrow. New Student starts tonight. Ummm. That's it really.

Dr Who

2005-09-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

We watched the final episode of this season's Dr Who. Absolutley FANTASTIC. The ninth Doctor completely rocks. I would put him way up there with Drs Three and Four. Four (Tom Baker) is still my personal fav. Can't wait until next season. I will have to save my pennies to get the boxed set of the entire new season that will come out at Christmas. DALEKS RRROOCCKK!! and they can fly through space now! Yeah.

Elections/ dollar and interest rates

2005-09-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

The hung election has resulted in about a 2% fall in the NZ$! Also interest rates are starting to rise again. Fixed interest rates are hovering over 8% now. Some people might think that this will cool the economy as home buyers have their disposable incomes cut but on the other hand the value of the $ has risen again as foreign investors are attracted to the high interest rates. House prices are starting to level off in Auckland possibly suggesting a fall in the coming year. PLEASE DROP DOLLAR!!!

Josie has been looked after by aunty Joanne and Nana over the last week (in Hampden) A whole week away from mummy and daddy. It must have tacken its toll however. I found 15 messages on my answer phone and another 5 on the phone at work. All of these were toll calls so poor old nana.

I got a new password

2005-09-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

Back again after a month where I lost my password and was too busy to get another one.

What happened? Bugger -all really.

The election came and went. Labout won by about 2% (which I predicted) The Greens scrappped over 5% (which I predicted) National went really well but failed to get the ruling majority (which I predicted) I think if I give up my day job I can become a political commentator. God - I am just soooo in tune with the planet. Now if I can only sort my own life out...

Victoria finally got a letter from Hutt Health to confirm her boking for laser surgery for her birthmark. She and Mari will have to fly to Wellington - stay in a hotel in the Hutt - get the treatment and fly back. Crazy that the South Island can't support a designated laser machine.

That's all. Will post more now that I have thepassword back again. Goodbye planet earth.

Not a bad day

2005-09-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

Looks like this month is shaping up to be way better than the last. Still not as good as this time last year but it is early days yet. A few little enrolments over the past few days.

The election is only two weeks away and it is shaping up to be a goodie. My take on the future.

Labour wins by about 2% THe Greens get over the 5% by a tiny margin. NZ First and ACT don't get over the 5% and Winston Peters loses his seat to National. Labour and the Greens form a coalition with a guarantee on supply.

This will work out well for National because after the election the price af oil will continue to rise and inflation will start to bite as these prices work their way into the economy. National will be able to sit back and carp about Road User tax and money being spent on roading and the Kyoto Protocol.

Hard landing for the NZ economy over the next 9 months. Inflation up , house prices down, house hold debt/equity skyrocketing.

High fuel pinches off the international ENglish traveling market but the dollar will start to track down after about 9 months. Then things will pick up for little old John.
The nextr

The next 20 years by nobody with any real reason to be able to make any valid comments

2005-09-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

Gosh- everyone seems to be blogging about the big diaster up in Florida. The thing that stuns me is that for the first time ever the Americans are accepting foreign aid. An amazing thing from the country which gave us the Marshal Plan and Lend Lease. Unthinkable really.

Are the scales of history finally turning and the big US of A is starting to lose its wheels? I wonder what history books will write about in the future of this time? Huge national dept- Sept 11, global policeman, plummeting value of the dollar etc, disaster relief disaster, Spanish replacing English...

I guess the groaning wheel of history might take a few decades to really bring America down and when it does which area is going to be ascendent? My guess is that the EU will be the next power centre ecomonically and morally with China and India coming closely from behind. I guess America will increasingly turn in on itself as it deals with local issues rather than international ones. God help us if the Chinese become a global player.

Here is my take on the next 2 decades...

The "war on Terror" will slowly sink from the headlines and the troops will drip home again.

Iraq will drift into civil was and the Iranians will end up controlling the region. They will get to build their powerstations and will do what the Isrealis did and build their own bombs. This time with Pakestani help rather than with American help in the case of the Isrealis.

The Isrealis will give back the Gaza but keep the jewel - the entire West bank. After all the Gaza is simply a parking lot.

The Isreali - Muslim issue will not go away. There will be an awful lot more bloodshed. The Isrealis will continue to sleep with the Americans but as time goes on and the Muslim states get the bomb this will increasingly become less important. When the Iranians get the bomb and the ability to deploy it the whole ballgame will change. Either the Iranians will be nuked by the US (which I doubt) or the Isrealis will nuke the powerstations - (much more likely) as a warning to the Muslim world.

Either way I think that the endgame is no Isreal. In the end a few million Jews hemmed in and supported by American money can't survive against hundreds of millions of enraged Muslims.

The little countries will watch but increasingly will fall into one of four blocks.
One: the Muslims
Two: The Chinese
Three: The US
Four: the EU

I don't really think that there will be an arms race like we knew in the past. Who needs an army when you can have a few guys bent on mass destruction? The mouse really can chase away an elephant. The days of the mass army perhaps will go and be replaced by "reaction forces."

Depressing really.

I want a strong US like the old days. I want a strong US dollar! I want a weak NZ dollar! I want people to flood into my school. When I was a baby the NZ stood at 40 cents to the dollar. Now it is 70! FUCK - I need coffee. Oh thats right. Maybe this disjointed rant is because I haven't had coffee today. I am sure after a cup everything will seem rosy again.

Boring routine

2005-09-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

6.20 Alarm goes. Victoria has crawled into bed the night before and is lying between us making a complete human H shape on the bed. I get to have her feet on my chest. 6.45 get up and have a shower. 7.00 arrive in the dining room just in time to catch the first of the news on National Radio's Morning Report. 7.00-8.00: Negotiate the eating of breakfast with two daughters as well as organising their dressing. This can be a nightmare.

8.10 out the door and organise shoes on for all.

8.20 Josie gets dropped off at Primary School. 8.30 Arrive at school and check the e-mail. 9.00 Class starts. I have a class of between 4-7 depending on who wants to turn up on a particular day. 12-1.00 Lunch. 1-3.00 Afternoon IELTS class. Sometimes I have after school classes and evening classes from 7.00 til 9.00. Actually this is only on Tuesdays.

Repeat all of the above until tedium sets in.

The good part is the weekend. This weekend we are driving up to my Mum's house in Hampden. It is about an hour out of Dunedin and way into the countryside. Should be good apart from the shitty weather forecast for the weekend.

More boring shit to follow.

I did watch Dr. Who last night. VERY COOL!! It was the first part of "The Empty Child" The new Dr Who really is an improvement on the old. THe whole family sat and watched it last night. If you are an auslaender and you don't know about things British (or Welsh) as the case may be - go the the BBC website and type Dr Who.

Later.

It is now after school. We have had another enrollment today. An Indian chap. Hurray! We might make some money this month after all!

Unfortunately this is going to be my last year as a language school principal. My teacher registration will expire within the new 12 months and before that does I have got to go back teaching again. That means back to High School!! I am very depressed about it but I do feel that I need to keep my teacher registration up to date. I will have to leave the school in the hands of Lynda and Mari. I really love teaching at a language school. It is soooo much less stressful than standard teaching. Still .... Shit happens.

New Students

2005-08-30T17:07:00.000-07:00

Four new students came to the school today. Things have been pretty flat for a while but now we are looking up. I taught a junior vlass and they were all quite enthusiasic. I hope that this month will be a good ine for the school. We had a problem with homestay families and I have had to put one student up with us for about 4 days. It is not too bad though because he is quite nice. My girls like him and Josephine has been showing off to him in the inimitable way thay a 6 year old does.

The weather is really picking up at the moment. We have been hearing quite a lot about the storm in Florida. People have been very much glued to their screens wondering what will happen to those poor folks. It seems like a near miss but still quite nasty. Thank god we are sub-tropical. The worst we get is a little dump of snow once or twice during winter.

A great weekend.

2005-08-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

My oldest daughter is six- and she is an addict.

She has recently discovered a game of mine called Rome Total War. She is not quite sure of the deep meaning of the game (not that there is one anyway) but she spends hours interacting with the game on a level within her ZPD. (Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development) Basically this means that she doen't ' get it' but withn the limit of her 6 year old brain she is happily interacting. I am sure that the game is pushing her to think outside her ZPD and possibly it is being pushed outward because of all of this 'abnormal' interaction. I wonder whetther a ZPD can be pushed out by interaction?
Another interesting thing is that she wants to play chess now because it looks like RTW! She is getting quite good at moving the pieces around but it is interesting to see that she really struggles with the "what would happen if' scenarios of chess. Still she would be able kick the shit out of me if I morphed into a six year old John.

We went to see a warship on Sunday. The frigate Te Mana was in port and was open to the public. I think our navy has only got one or two "big" ships but a stand to be corrected. I was surpried by the size of the thing. It has got a big gun at the front and a Phalanx machine gun at the back. 4500 rounds per minute!!!!! A crew of over 200 as well. It was quite cold at the port and so many people turned up that we had to queue for a long time to get on. After a few minutes, the girls got quite bored and wanted to go home. The best part of the visit was getting two navy tattoo stickers. After bath time the stickers were happily stuck on and I am sure they will be proudly shown off at school and daycare today.

Here is the url for Te Mana. I am not sure yet how to copy pictures from the net to this will have to do for now. http://www.navy.mil.nz/visit-the-fleet/te-mana/default.htm

One of my life's ambitions is to see a real warship. If we ever get to San-Diago I would love to have a look at an aircraft carrier or a battleship - they must be AWESOME! Even the little frigate was quite big to see for a landlubber like myself.

OK then, that's it for the weekend. BTW Kevin posted a scandalous and completely untrue post about my previous life in Korea all those years ago. I officially anounce on this site that his allegations are completely untrue. Kevin was mistaking me (John) for Chohn Wulliamson - a low quality bushman who illegally entered Korea and successfully posed as me for about 3 years. Chohn latter married my wife and lives (bigamously) in our basement. I blame him for anything which goes wrong aroung the house.

I'VE got some stories to tell about Kevy but these will have to wait for a later date -or until I have made them believeable enough.

I have decided not to spellcheck the pages because computer eats my posts. So you will have to put up with brain fart ENglish.

Kevin read my blog

2005-08-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well I have a reader! Actually I completely agree with you Kev. I find it quite funny that a newspaper will virtually pin its colours to the mast and say that they are liberal or convervative. In NZ newspapers obviously have a bias but they go out of their way to deny any political affiliations. Fox News appears to be really conservative. Most of our international news comes from BBC or AFP or AP. American news networks get a fair wack at the TV news but I guess the BBC comes in tops for international news.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the war/police action/on-going liberation/war on terror/crusade, I love to look critically at the language of reporting. Language really is hellishly powerful and often overlooked by the average 'Joe sixpack."

Next job for me is to figure out how to spellcheck without losing my entire post.

By the way. I met Don Brash yesterday!!! For all of you auslaendern, he is the Leader of the Opposition. There will be an election in a few months and he is behind in the polls by about 9%. Hope he gets up to win. We've have a left wing government for two terms not and I am completely sick of it.

Homicide Bomber

2005-08-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

I just read a post from an American newspaper calling a "suicide bomber" a "homicide bomber."
Cute huh? That really reminds me of "freedom fries" and "collateral damage." I do hope the phrase catches on. I also really love the term "foriegn fighters." I don't think I have ever seen a newspaper call the Iraqis "rebels" apart from early in the war.

2005-08-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Fuck! I just wrote a post and pressed the spellcheck and the fucking computer ate about 1000 words of post. Fuck!!!!!!!!

Uploading even more photos

2005-08-23T00:36:00.000-07:00

Here are my two little angels. The pictures are a little out of date. Josie has lost her two front teeth and Vicky ... well Vicky still hasn't grown much at all. She is still a little dot.

2005-08-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

Here I am. I have just learned how to upload a photo.

Back at work in the evening.

2005-08-22T23:58:00.000-07:00

Here I am babysitting a student in the evening whle he does some computer work. I have had this guy as a student for over a year now and it is great to see the positive transformation which we have had on him. Although his English is not so hot still he is still able to get quite good grades in his computing course. He is really building his self confidence and he is a lot happier than when I first met him. He is on his way to success and it is great to feel that I have been a part of it in some small way.

I also was able to score a couple of enrolments for our after school classes today. Great to see that there will be more support for that area of the school.

I can get onto the blog site.

2005-08-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hurray! I know how to enter the blog and type in my password!

John's first blog

2005-08-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

I wonder if anyone will ever read my blog?

Here I am sitting in my office in New Zealand on Tuesday. Business is pretty flat at the moment and I have not done anything for the morning. Back into it tomorrow. Who am I?

I am John. Not that much more to me really. I have a family and we live in Dunedin. I have read lots of posts from other bloggers and they are quite entertaining.

Mine however will probably be very sparsely updated and probably pretty boring. Still...
Well... If you are interested in reading boring shit - than I am your man.

OK then... What is worth sharing with the planet today...? Today I ate 3 Weetbix and 2 slices of toast. (One honey and the other Vegemite) My youngest daughter didn't want to get dressed. My other daughter played Rome Total War on the family PC (even though she is 6 and she really doesn't know what she is doing)

It is getting to be spring here in Dunedin. THe weather is really getting nicer and we haven't been putting the heater on much recently. Last month we got a power bill which was over $200 smackers. God I wish we had a fat cheap nuclear power station in this country.

My wife works at the company too. It is cool to work together but it would be even cooler if there wasn't so much work stress.

That's it from me. I hope you enjoyed my first post.