Quote of the day

A guest from Zambia

Wild safari in Zambia

A few years ago I did an introduction course in Journalism and that was the most fun course I ever did. Why? Because I had to do interviews for homework and I now had an opportunity to ask people all kind of questions. Instead of 2 interviews for homework I did about 5 and I found one of them in a box tis morning. I started emptying a closet for my brother who comes next week but instead ended up going through a pile of old stuff.

I interviewed somebody from my husbands work who I will call Peter. Tell me if you enjoy it than I might do some more interviews next year, but probably it is too much writing.

A Guest from Zambia

Peter is from Zambia. Zambia is a landlocked country in South-central Africa. Months ago he came with his children to New Zealand. “There must be a lot of difference between life here and in Zambia” I asked. “No” said Lewis, I work; I still shop at Woolworth etc. I felt something was bothering him. I remember how lost I felt when I came first to New Zealand so I asked “What do you really miss about Zambia”. He answered straight away “the people”. Peter told that he was a chemical engineer. The last years he worked however for Totall as a sales representative for oils and diverse applications. Everybody knew him there. He often got reimbursed to entertain his customers and share some drinks with them. His house was paid off and his children went to a private school. “Why did you come here then” I asked. “To follow my wife and the children missed their mum” he said. His wife came to New Zealand in January this year to do some study as a registered nurse. She got offered a job before her course was even finished. A job well paid. “In Zambia nurses are heavily underpaid. From her salary you could buy just a tank of petrol “he said. “There were lots of strikes. I came over, but I still have my house in Zambia to go back to and within a certain time I can get my old job back as well. We’ll give it a try here however”. Peter had 3 job interviews already and is doing some temporary work. Peter was however not very hopeful. Then he asked me carefully “Tell me, are there not a lot of Africans in New Zealand”. I knew what he meant. “There are a lot of people from South Africa” I said “they are white people however. Then there are some refugees from Somalia.” I asked “Do you feel that people stare at you” He nodded. We changed the subject. “Tell me more about Zambia. What did you do in your free time?” I asked him. “We played squash and soccer. With the children I went sometimes to polo tournaments.” “All very English” I said “What about festivals. Do you have your own cultural festivals?” “Yes” he said,” there are 3 major festivals in different areas of the country; The first one is called Mutokombo, a festival of the Bemba tribe. It reflects the migration from the jungle of the old tribes in Northen Zambia. Then there is Kuomboka. This is about the travel of nomadic tribes from the low land, which gets flooded, to the highland. When the low land is dry again they go back and repair their houses. Another important festival in the eastern part is Mtesa, This is a festival of the Zulu people who came from South Africa. In the 17th century there was a brutal chief named Sjaka. He banned his way over 5000 km throughout Africa and killed lots of people. During the festival they sing war songs about the resistance against this chief. Then there are a lot of harvest festivals with special dances and of course the Christian celebrations of Easter and Christmas. “What is the typical music in Zambia” I asked. “The Rumba” Peter said. “It came over from the Congo. My last question was. “Did you see a lot of wild animals in Zambia”. “Sure” he said There are several big reserves in Zambia. Some as big as the South Island. Often I had to cross one of them for my work. Sometimes you had to stop for an elephant. You had to keep still. Blowing your horn would make them angry. They often travelled in a herd of 60 animals. Often you saw zebra’s and giraffes and sometimes there was a big snake on the road. I started to come in the spirit of Africa; Elephants and African people who show their special dances. That was the Africa I liked to think of. His story ended here however but my interest in Africa just started to be fuelled.

Follow your dreams

If you want to read the best book about following your dreams read The alchemist of Paulo Coelho. He is one of my favourite writers. It is a little fable about a boy called Santiago. This book is a perfect blend of simplicity and sophisticated wisdom.

Here is a link to the blog of this special writer.

Ahora, Marja

Another coincedence. Just found out we share the same birthday 24th of august

Wasting Time ?

(Courtesy of google) Ticking away........

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking And racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way The time is gone, the song is over, thought Id something more to say

Intriguing words from Pink Floyd's song Time. I think many can relate to it. We just seem getting on with daily life, when I was young we just "hang out" now it is earning a living and stuck up with lot of not very important things.

But are they not important? Some years ago I struggled with the question which way do I go and I read in the paper that there was a workshop by a famous psychic on the Mind Body and Spirit Festival about finding your purpose. Just what I need I thought, although I am not a psychic kind of person. My main interests at that time (still is) were children and writing. I had a huge (beginners) luck of getting 3 articles published in parenting magazines.

I became a bit disinterested when being told that your purpose was basically what you really wanted to do now. Duh, I was already doing that but I didn't know what to choose because I wanted to do one or the other on a higher level to be able to have a real impact. After an exercise in which you were teamed up with your neighbour and really didn't get further than I already was, I listened to the psysic going through the process on stage with a lady who was totally stuck and had no idea where she wanted to go. I suddenly became alert when I heard the outcome. She said your goal in live is giving love and it doesn't matter how you do it, by writing magazine articles or by looking after children. Next I heard the lady on stage saying I don't do any of the two you suggested. "I know" ,whispered the psychic. The lady I was teamed up with nearly pushed me of my feet and said excitingly "that's about you". Was she right? There were maybe only 30 people in the audience. How many of them wrote magazine articles and looked after children. Coincidence? Maybe - Maybe not, but it made me look at what I do in a different way. No I am not wasting my time I am on the right track. Ahora Marja

Just saw that the naked soul wrote today something simular about your purpose in life and that it doesn't have to be something complicated. It is at a time that I needed to be reminded again.

Coincidence? Maybe - Probably not!!!

Tradition

Our Christmas tree

When we lived in Holland we had many many traditions on a national level from Sinterklaas to eating raw herring with onions. In our family we had our own traditions such as my mums christmas pudding and eating potatoe salad (huzarensalade when there was a fair in town) All these little and big habits and customs were and are shared by many and brought a feeling of bonding and togetherness. They also were part of who we are. We know what is expected and how to handle.
By moving to another country we lost many of these traditions and it was almost like a loss of identity, of loosing yourself. Nowadays I have pairs of wooden clogs on places in my house whereas in Holland I wouldn't even have looked at them. You so need them to hang on to a part of yourself that a bit disapeared.
We reinvented ourselves however and now have bit of both worlds although it will never be the same. Actually you know belong a bit to the one and a bit to the other culture, but it works and you have to luxury to choose the good things out of two.
Here a quick rhyme about the christmas Tradition for Sunday Scribblings

Tradition

What has occurred at our house is a demolition of Dutch tradition

The Dutch and Kiwi customs formed however a coalition

Sinterklaas from Spain brought presents in a bag to me

Now Father Christmas in his sleigh put them all under the tree

Yes we still have a tree with lights on at night

What's new is the BBQ from a sausage we take a bite

In Holland the host provides all the drinks and the meat

 In NZ they bring their own Don't you call that a Dutch treat?

With Christmas we dressed up

now we wear shorts and jandels

 and say "Good on ya mate"

as we put on the candles

Wish you all the spirit of Christmas, however you celebrate it, Marja

Funnie analogies

25 funniest analogies - Collected by high school English teachers

Supposedly taken from actual high school essays and collected by English teachers across the country for their own amusement. Some of them are very funnie so I had to share them with you

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

End of year festivities

On the other side of the world events are nicely spread around the year. Here we get it all at once; end of years functions, christmas events, holiday, picnics and BBQ's Yes I am immersed in it all and I give you some impressions of two events from last weekend.

On friday night we went with 12 staff from work to The Red Rose dinner theater. First we got to dine and than the show started. It was hosted by the leader Mrs Monica Middlesex, a dame Edna figure, who interacted with the public and of course made fun of them. The theater piece was called, "what's up my chimney" and the actors with a professional background in singing presented a wonderful show and there was a lot of laughing. My English wasn't good enough though to pick up everything.

On Saturday night I had to "work" and went with 5 children from the home to the annual free Christmas event "Coca Cola Christmas in the park" We left at 5.30 and when we arrived most of the park was already filled up. We found however a little empty spot on the right of the stage, with a good view.

The show which started at 7.30 pm was hosted by Simon Barnett and Gary Mc Cormick, both well known here from radio and TV. There were christmas songs and dance on stage while most people were sitting back on their rugs and chairs drinking and eating. After the break, when it was getting dark we got some popmusic like "twist and shout" so we tucked the rugs away and tried the twisting. It got closed off by Santa arriving this time on a boat ( He must have lost his sleigh and copied the dutch sinterklaas who always arrives by boat) and a spectacular firework.