Weekend Nature

Arms gracefully lift
holding up a precious pink
above serene blue

Picture made for weekend nature hoted by Gemma




I so love the bright colours spring brings to us. I won't see that much from it anymore because we started to fix cracks from the earth quake and started painting the whole living room, stripping down the bathroom and more. Work is busy as well. In 6 weeks my brother is coming to NZ though and we go on holiday together. I am looking forwards to it.

The masquerade

 

There is a party at writers island. I used to be a party animal when I was young. I have never celebrated Halloween however. In Holland we had something simular though; Carnaval.On carnaval, Prince carnaval took over the city and young and old were dressed up. We danced, drinked and had fun for 3 days. What struck me was that suddenly lots of people showed another side. They were more open, passionate, funloving etc. which lasted till the end of carnaval. It should have lasted longer.

photo from here

The masquerade

This is the night
an anonymous girl
warps a shadow

matching the queen
of the masquerade

This is the night
of her metamorphoses
giving her wings of

 a butterfly, vibrating

coloured thoughts

This is the night
she wears a veil.
drenched in perfume

concealing the days

of her laboures life

Lady dance, dream, dare
to drop your mask
and sing a new song
Become your shadow
when the night is still young

The Silk Worm

The silk Worm

By Rumi

 I stood before a silk worm one day.
And that night my heart said to me,

"I can do things like that.
I can spin skies,

I can be woven into love that brings warmth to people;

I can be soft against a crying face,

I can be wings that lift,
And I can travel with my thousand feet throughout the earth,
my sacks filled with the sacred".

And I replied to my heart,
"Dear can you really do all these things?"

And it just nodded "yes".

So we began and will never cease .

Me and John Key and Band Together

More than a hundred thousand people gathered today in Hagley park in Christchurch thanks to the generosity
of business and the artists who did a fantastic job entertaining the people of Canterbury who were shaken a bit lately. A concert, the biggest of NZ from 11.00 AM to 8.00 PM. All for Free!!!
Just what I needed. I went for a walk with my friend Elisabeth, ended up in the park at 12 noon, had something to eat and left at about 5.30 after having laughed, danced like I was 20 and listened to remarkable talent and I had a close encounter with our prime minister.

"This is a concert that will live in our memories long after the Canterbury

region emerges stronger and prouder than ever" John Key Prime Minister

I got asked by our Prime Minister to go on the photo with him :0) Of course John with you always.  This would be completely impossible in Holland. That's one of the things I love about New Zealand and John of course.

Sorry bloggers I have to deal with my charming brothers in Holland a minute. They haven't seen me for a long time. "OK boys there is a lot of me on this picture. That means for you twice as much love. Yes I know I eat when I am stressed so that means that I had a lot of stress lately OK. Get over it."  So that's done

Impressions from the concert. My favourites: Anika Moa, Evermore, The Feelers and of course Opshop.
The latter organised the whole show of 30 performances only starting 6 weeks ago. Thank you guys it was fantastic.

Water

Natures vein of life
Free falling fresh blue water

more precious than gold

Picture made in the centre of Oamaru for weekend Nature hosted by Gemma

Blog Action Day - Water

Yesterday it was Blog Action Day Oops althoug in some parts in the world it is stil the 15th and the topic is still current so here is my contribution

20 procent of people don't have access to safe water. In lots of countries however water gets wasted. Rivers get drained to be able to meet the "needs" of the people. In the process of lots we produce to consume, water gets wasted. Wastewater pollutes our rivers and oceans and kills the life and effects safe water.

Ok when do we realise that water is life, that water is actually the real gold in the world. We experienced that after the earthquake when we were 2 days without water. We had a bit to cook our food but we couldn't flush  the toilet, shower or drink water. It was scary.

We must realise that we still use the water that was here millions of years ago. There will be no water added.
Water get recycled. It gets reused by nature over and over again. We also have a negative impact on the water cycle by building hydro dams ( article from  Ann about effect of it),by using irrigation, deforestation and because of the greenhouse effect. I won't go in on the details. There is heaps of information on the net. As long as you become aware that we have to stop and think and

 Treat water with respect Don't waste it


Support the effort of the UN to bring fresh water to millions and sign the petition

Synchronisity

Years and years ago I had a walk with a friend and told her that I had a remarkable series of coincidences. Every time I had a question, something turned up to give me an answer and the right opportunity came up when I needed it. My friend said "Oh you are talking about synchronicity or meaningful coincidence. That is more common than you think" she said and she gave me a book to read about it.

Synchronicity comes and goes in my life. I think when it doesn't happen for a while this is because I am not open to it as I am too caught up with daily life. The following happenings are my two favourite examples of synchronicity in my life.

I hardly ever remember my dreams but one I remember very clearly is the following;
I am floating in the air and enjoy the sensation of being weightless. Suddenly I am lying down next to a balcony. The balcony surrounds a black square hole. I know I have to go back into that hole. That is were my life is but at the moment all is white and light. A few people are standing at the opposite site. I recognise one face clearly. The rest is vague. Suddenly a bold man, with glasses appears next to me. He wears a white gown. He says "we need you" I haven no idea what he is talking about.. At the same time I look to the other side and know that the people I see at the opposite side are there to help me. Then I wake up.
This dream appeared when I was in a very difficult period in my life. A short time after this dream the person I recognised in my dream had a huge, life changing effect on my life.

The second experience was during a time when I felt stuck. I worked at that time with children and enjoyed it.
I also wrote articles and 3 of them got published in a short period of time. It was all very time consuming and I felt I had to make a choice and decide which path to follow. I couldn't. Just then my eye fell on an add. There was a workshop in town about "finding your purpose in life" and thought "just what I need". I went and came into a small hall with about 60 people. We had to ask the person sitting next to us questions to work out our purpose and I figured I had to become a writer but felt edgy about it.

After that a young woman was called on stage as she was stuck. The interviewer said that there are two dimension to your purpose. She worked out that the primary purpose of the woman, who was stuck was to love. She continued that a number of people are destined to express the primary purpose in a certain role. This role is the secondary purpose.
She continued that it didn't matter in this case how this woman expressed her purpose whether it was by writing articles for magazines or working with children. The woman on stage said "I haven't done either of them" The interviewer mumbled "I know" The woman sitting next to me poked me excitingly saying "she is talking about you." I said "It sure is a coincidence!".  . I felt I didn't have to choose anymore. I found my answer.

A joke for the 30.000nd visitor

I am just a tiny fly on the wall of the World Wide Web. But sometimes a fly can tickle your arm and leave an impression behind. I am about to recieve the 30.000st unique visitor after a bit more than 3 years and about 400 blogposts.I had a fair bit of breaks but keep on blogging. One of my posts is a hit which is dysnomia (a learning diability), as it receives about 17% of the visitors. This is because there isn't much information about it on the internet. My favourite posts are my poems. However writing poetry takes up a lot of time and bcause time is scarse I don't get to do it a lot. My second favourites are the posts about NZ as it is my paradise.
Thanks all for visiting and here a joke for the 30.000st visitor and the ones after that.

The following is an actual question given on a University engineering mid-term. The answer was so "profound" that the Professor shared it with colleagues, and the sharing obviously hasn't ceased...

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or Endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote Proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law, (gas cools off when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let us look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa  during my Freshman year, "...that it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you.", and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then, #2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze."

This student received an A.

- Unknown

Weekend nature

Red caterpillars

Curling closely around green arms 

sensational sight

On my walk in the weekend I was captivated by the blossom on this tree. I had never seen it before. 

Weekend nature is hosted by Gemma

Not much time to post  as life is full of excitement. I went to some interesting lectures at Uni which were open to the public. There were some drinks and I did some networking as I met somebody who we could work together with at my job.
We had a nice family lunch as 10-10-'10 is a day to celebrate. Happy birthday Mayke. I am preparing a calender for some young friends and more. At times I feel pressured but than I reminded myself not to spoil the fun and just go with the flow.

William of Orange

William of Orange? I am not talking about "the father" of the Netherlands but about my husband. In the earth quake his bike fell against the car. He had a high no-claim on his insurance because it wasn't an expensive bike. The former black bike lost its mirrow, indicater, screen and was scratched completely. As a proper kiwi  he is a DIY-man and fixed his bike himself. He was born in Christchurch but he is a Dutch kiwi, born from Dutch parents. Eventhough he thinks he is a kiwi I think he is typical Dutch, he has orange blood and the colour he choose for his bike proves he has Dutch tendencies.

My husband loves moterbikes. I am not that keen. When I was young I went on the back of one for 3 hours.
I had long hear which like a wip blew into my face on the back of the bike and I was leaning the wrong way when the bike hang low in a corner. I learned quickly but after a while I felt all my limbs were froozen and they were. When I came off I walked like a mummy. From than on I just kept with 4 wheels on the ground. Even that was tricky when moving to NZ as I suddenly had to drive on the other side of the road. William didn't have a bike for a long time but not that many years ago he bought one again and thanks to the quake it is orange now I was a bit wary at first but it turns out not too bad. What do you think?