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Empty | Winter Blues

Met, know and have heard of bundles of people, lately who are not themselves. Thy feel flat, down and maybe a little bit empty. Much of it I’m sure is the winter blues.
 
Well, if you are one of those people I have a solution. At this time of year the playgrounds are practically empty. No kids, particularly during the day.
 
So head down to the park, why not take a friend. Then forget that you’re meant to ‘behave’ like a grown up and jump on a swing.
 
Swing.
 
Breathe.
 
Smile.
 
Laugh.  
 
It will be the wackiest thing you have done in ages, but I guarantee some of the winter emptiness will disappear.

329|365 Colours

Picture a day without colour
No colour in buildings or things we wear
No colour in paint for art to smear
No colour in the sun or sky above
No colour in stuff we love
Picture a day without colour
And rejoice that today
However grey
Is filled with colour!

[329|365 – I love how colourful schools have become]

328|365 Water

Just over the summit of the Kaimai Ranges, as you’re headed to Hamilton from Tauranga, is a small almost unnoticed lay-area that conceals a natural fresh water spring. With the road on one side and native New Zealand bush on the other, a pipe is linked to the ground and from it fresh water flows.

There has been substantial rainfall recently and the pipe can’t contain the volume of water coming from this natural purifier and it bubbles up from the rocks around it.

Beautiful crisp, cold, clear water.

Uncaptured, it runs off to join a stream and make its way to the ocean.

Meanwhile almost a 1000 million people worldwide have no access to clean-water.

How lucky I am to have been born in this beautiful, abundant country.

327|365 Learning

This whole school and education thing seems to work. Jayden basically start school in June and has progressed from reading one work, his name, to reading little books. He is really proud of his achievements and I’m really proud of him.

In the initial stages of learning something new we make huge progress, really quickly. As time progresses’ learning gets harder, more complex and takes more discipline. Then it requires huge amounts of brainpower, and before long most adults quit learning altogether.

Maybe it’s time to return to the basics of learning. Find something new, something completely different and explore it. To make huge progress really quickly. To enjoy learning again.

326|365 Spring is almost here

I love spring because the days are growing longer.
I love spring because the rain will eventually clear.
I love spring because of the vivid colours.
I love spring because of the new growth.
Spring is almost here because the birds have returned to our trees and our first trees are in blossom.
Bring on spring I say.

325 | 365 Good Events

The good.trust is well on its way to building its first clean.water well!

Last week was a big week for the trust. 

Jim celebrated his birthday raised $3,200 and Luke Thompson started recording a song called ‘water’ that he has gifted to the trust to sell and raise funds for clean.water.

Follow the good.trust

www.good.org.nz

www.facebook.com/goodtrust

www.twitter.com/goodnz

365 Project | Days 319 to 324

319 | 365 Torch Lighting
Every night at 6pm there was a torch lighting ceremony. 

320 | 365 - Tree of Life
The girls climb the Fijian Tree of Life. Talia is pictured up a coconut tree.


321 | 365 Path of Fire
Took this photo using a 15 second shutter speed. It is a photo of the torch bearer walking past our room towards the main area of the resort.

322 | 365 South Sea Island
Took the kids on a half day trip called "Finding Nemo" to south sea island. One very small island, and yet half a day was not long enough.


323 | 365 Last Sunset
Picture of the kids doing random poses as the sun sets on our last day in Fiji.

324 | 365 Boarding call
Making our way out to the plane to fly back to Auckland. Notice the kids all have jeans on in preparation for the New Zealand cold weather.

318 | 365 Visit to Wailea Settlement, Suva, Fiji

This is Aneil. When my family and I met him in his 6ft x 8ft corrugated tin house with a curtain for a door, he looked unwell. Naively I asked him if he was really sick, he responded “No, no I am just really tired as I haven’t eaten in 4 days”.

I admit that I was caught off guard by his answer. I would feel and look unwell if I hadn’t eaten in 4 days. Hours earlier we had a beautiful breakfast in our resort in Nadi, then drove to Suva, now we sat in the slum house of a man who hasn’t eaten in 4 days.

As I sat with him all I could think of was the verses in James that say, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough."

Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” I will write more on Fiji in a later more detailed post.
 

Project 365 - Days 311 to 317

311 | 365 Home made clothes
Karina has been hard at work making dress for herself and the girls before we head to Fiji. What a very talented and creative wife I have!



312 | 365 Dinner with the Grandparents
Dinner with Keith and Leonie. Youngest snuggle up on the floor and watch the cartoon network. My grandparents never had sky TV and the cartoon network. 



313 | 365 Pedestrian Crossing
On Holiday and the best I could come up with was a late afternoon photo of the pedestrian crossing.



314 | 365 Homework
"When I was growing up we had to research countless books to study". My kids have Wifi, Laptops and the internet. Jealous, I'm sure I would have been a heaps better student if I grew up now.



315 | 365 Packing
Suitcases packed, ready to get the family up at 3:45am to get going.



316 | 365 Fun in the Sun
Arrived in Nadi (29 degrees) and off to the Resort to check in and have a swin.



317 | 365 My Beautiful Girls
Karina and the girls (who are wearing the dresses Karina made them), while we wait for the Bula bus.

Project 365 - Days 304 to 310

304 | 365 - Express
Intresting that Express Goods trains need to slow to 70. Whats the point of them being express?



305 |365 Creative gatherings
Reminded creatively at Church about how our messiness and sin are forgiven, burnt up becuase of what Jesus has done for us.



306 | 365 Connected
Amazing how connected, electronically, our world is. 



307 | 365 Upside Down
Took this photo in the reflection of a puddle just as I left work. Turned it upside down for effect.



308 | 365 Parent teacher interviews
Three perfromance reviews, oops I mean Parent Teacher interviews in 45 mins. They all wemt really well.



309 | 365 Boycott 
Sometimes at the height of the BP oli spill, I thought I should stop buying petrol from them in protest. Like many times, I thought it was a good idea, but the convenience and habit meant I did nothing.



310 | 365 Last Day
Last day at work, left at 7:20pm, before 3 weeks leave. First time in 7 years I am having 3 weeks uninterupted leave.

303 |365 Pumice have partnered with the Good Trust

Pumice Bistro and Café will be undertaking a trial of clean.water donations for the Good Trust this week.
 
Had the privilege of sharing with the team at Pumice about the challenge that 1 in 8 people in the world experience every single day just to fetch dirty unhealthy water, and about how $2 can provide clean water for a person for 2 years.
 
If your in Hamilton from Monday this week and feel like dinner, lunch or coffee then head to Pumice and support clean.water and the good.trust while you are there.
 
Good Trust www.good.org.nz 
Pumice www.pumice.net.nz 

302 |365 Rainy Nights

Some people, like me, love rainy nights, love the sound of rain on the roof while being enclosed and protected by the warmth of a house. Some people I have met on the other hand, don’t like rainy nights; they bring back bad memories and cause concern.
 
It never ceases to amaze me as to how influential the past is to our lives. How seemingly small things to one person, are big things to others. How things of enjoyment to some, are things of pain to others.
 
It’s easy to assume everyone likes the rainy nights, just because I do.
 
It’s easy to assume everyone likes … just because I do.
 
Not true.

301 |365 Puzzle

puz·zle (pŭz'əl)
v. puz·zled , puz·zling , puz·zles

• To baffle or confuse mentally by presenting or being a difficult problem or matter (verb. Tr)
• To be perplexed. (verb. Intr)
• Something, such as a game, toy, or problem, that requires ingenuity and often persistence in solving or assembling. (noun)

Hey – They just wrote a definition of my life, I am both puzzling and puzzled.
 
But then aren’t we all.

300 |365 Te Rapa Dairy Factory moves closer to city

Every year they move the Te Rapa dairy factory on the outskirts of Hamilton closer to the city. It’s a huge undertaking I know, and I never actually see how they do it, but the diary factory is now right on the city boundary.

When I first moved to Hamilton it would take ages to get to the dairy factory from Te Rapa, but now Te Rapa and the dairy factory are stones throw away from each other, rather than kilometres.

Around the same time that I moved to Hamilton, a property developer friend of mine said that cities in New Zealand grow to the north. Almost 15 years later he was proved very correct, the urban growth of Hamilton has all been to the North, and Te Rapa stretches further than ever towards the dairy factory.

Finally, this is one of those on the way home, must take a photo shots. A bit disappointing that my 300th photo was of the Te Rapa Dairy Factory, but that’s the way the 365 project rolls I guess.

299 |365 Clouds on the Ground

Most fog that we get in the Waikato is Radiation Fog. This means as the fog or clouds lift they generally reveal a beautiful crisp day. On Monday the as the fog eventually lifted it produced a rainy damp and dull day. From memory this is frontal fog (could be wrong).

I don’t like frontal fog.