Last night I was talking with one of my mates in Palmerston North, New Zealand. A bunch of my wonderful family members live in that small but awesome city commonly referred to as ‘Palmy’. This is James Wynne with a tag he did. So swift!
View PostI sang or listened to our national anthem everyday while growing up. I learned it in both official languages. I still remember it and can sing it the way we used to, like half English half French. My parents grew up singing God Defend New Zealand. They did not grow up in Canada like I did. I have dual citizenship’ but I live here and feel Canadian. New Zealand has two national anthems of equal standing – ‘God Defend New Zealand‘ and ‘God Save The Queen‘.The reason: ‘National songs, ballads and hymns have a tendency to elevate the character of a people and keep alive the fire of patriotism in their breasts’. The Saturday Advertiser and New Zealand Literary Miscellany, 1 July 1876 Did you know that O Canada was first a poem, became national in 1980 and has several versions? Honestly, I think if you go to Canadian school and work in the Canadian economy and and choose to be Canadian, learn the fucking anthem as a kid in school. Some people in New Brunswick don’t think so. In summary of you havent seen the news “principal’s decision, eliminate tradition, singing O Canada, sparked outrage, parents, the country…heated debate…blah blah blah”.
View PostOne of my favorite books as a kid was Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I loved this story. I just found out that mum complained at the library one time about how the book was horrible. Max was punished and sent to bed without dinner for bring mischievous. She had never heard such a story in New Zealand! This thought is quite funny, mum took another read of the story and saw it in a different light from then on. The book is regarded as an American classic in children’s lit and is only ten lines long. How inspiring!! My sister got me this great shirt for Chrissy this year. I’m feeling a bit wild today!! OMG UPDATE: the movie comes out october 16, 2009
View PostI was feeling quite cold on Sunday as I was lazing around. A friend suggested something called the Snuggie. Have you heard of it? Snuggie seems like a really weird word to me, look at it, ‘SNUGGIE’. I think this unit is following me around. Later that day I saw it on TV and today I got an email offering me a buy one get one free special. I think it’s silly, however, I’d have to try it to find out just how useful it could be. I’m thinking it may be practical for an outdoor sporting event. Especially if you had a few sewn together so you could keep the whole family warm. Family size snuggie. Feel free to take advantage of this offer that was in my junk mail. I don’t need it. I have heating, blankets and many lovely sweaters from New Zealand that my Nana knit.
View PostThis week the Economist published an interesting article entitled “Sex and the Citizen‘. It showed a detailed breakdown of what countries are the most promiscuous. I found it interesting. They surveyed 14,000 people in 48 countries. Questions ranged from “how many one-night stands have you had?” to” is sex without love acceptable, or sex with casual partners?”. Researchers gathered the answers and determined the results. I found the comments on the article to be quite interesting! It’s a bit funny actually. Finland and New Zealand rank highest and Bangladesh and Taiwan are the lowest. I’m pretty surprised that France, Italy and Australia were not closer to the top of the list! Boooya!
View Post
