ruby red/rednesday: Tractor

We went to the Waitakere Ranges walking tracks. The Hillary Trail. Parts of the terraine was steep and muddy. It's been last year, a whole year since I had been to such a difficult track. We joked it would be great to have a tractor to pull us. My 15 year old saved the day and became our tractor.

Waitakere Ranges Regional Park includes more than 16,000ha of native rainforest and coastline. Its 250km of walking and tramping tracks provide access to beaches, breathtaking vistas, spectacular rocky outcrops, streams, waterfalls and farms overlooking the wild west coast.

We had to go back to the information centre to get a map because all the tracks were a network, and we could get lost. A couple told us it takes 4 days to walk the whole track. We walked 2.5 kilometer.




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Ruby red 2/rednesday: Lunar New Year

2012 is Year of Dragon. Chinese/Lunar New Year is on Monday, 23 January 2012. Red is the colour for the Chinese on Chinese New Year.





In China and Mandarin speaking places, they call them HONG BAO. In Singapore and Malaysia, they are called ANG BAO, a Southern Chinese Hokkien dialect, both meaning the same. These are red packages usually with some cash inside. They now are commercially printed, with gold words and pictures printed on it. They have auspicious words like meaning prosperous, WAN SHI RU YI, ten thousand things/every thing is successful and soon on. In the old days, before banks give out these empty packages, we used to make them with newspaper, and then paste a red band round it. In my dialect, we called them LI SEE, meaning something like smooth event. These days, in big functions, they give a chocolate gold coin. HONG BAOs are given out at all auspicious occasions, like births, weddings, birthdays,farewells, house warming, reward for doing well in exams and so on.

Remember, it must be red.


The year was 1986, it was almost around this time, because I was visiting Mum and Dad in Australia and we had Christmas and Lunar New Year celebrations. My cousin James,had graduated from his surveying studies was returning to Borneo. We went to see him off at the Brisbane airport. Little did he know that he was seeing this aunt who cared for him in Australia for the last time. Little did I know too, that it was the last period when I would be with Mum.

Mum died in 1988 from a drastic car accident on the second day of the Lunar New Year, after being very injured for two weeks. Every year at this time, I have a time of reflection. That is why I don't really celebrate Lunar New Year. But this year, things are going to change. I am going to reflect on the good things of Mum.


You might be wondering why I posted this photo of children sleeping on the floor. Over in Malaysia, people can sleep anywhere, just on a piece of mat on the floor. Especially on school trips, you don't carry too much " barang-barang". You travel light. I have this photo to depict the scenario which my ex student told me, something I had long forgotten.

Orlando Chua aka as Siau Wei only just started to Facebook me. He was among the first batch of students I taught. "Yes I do litigation work, mainly criminal but I do take on sizeable civil work."

His first message touched my heart.

Dear Ms Chan, of course I remember who you are. You were my geography teacher in 1974 (Form 1A), the then la creame de la creame class in Kai Chung Secondary School. You whisked into class on the first day and said "Good morning class. My name is Ann Chan Kit Suet!" Also in the same year, when some of us were sleeping over in a school in Sarikei, you came and provided us with extra pillows and blankets. One will not forget kindness like that displayed by you.


I know, as a 19 year old, I wouldn't have thought of that. It would have been Mum's idea. Dad was the DEO, the Divisional Education officer, and there must have been a sports meet. Mum being Mum, took pity on these kids sleeping on the floor with no pillows and blankets.

Thank you, Orlando for not only remembering, but telling me. It means so much. I now recall, a group of students came to visit me in my parents' home. It will be sweet if they remembered. ( Binatang where I taught, was another town in the division. I went home during the weekend either by boat/express or bus.)



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Croquet: Kiwi friendliness and ingenuity

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These photos epitomises New Zealand's friendliness and ingenuity. I was walking round my new neighborhood when I saw this sign for bowling and croquet. Croquet gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. My Dad went to London in the 1950s, and he played croquet. Croquet conjured pictures of victorian ladies in white gloves, and long dresses. I wondered why Dad and his friend from Gibraltar would play such a feminine game. He replied it was a game of precision.

I eventually got to try a game when I went to Christchurch. It wasn't easy, and a great game for friends.

On Friday, as I was taking photos at the club, this gentleman Frank came, he invited me to come and play, and to the tournament that was taking place during the weekend. I commented about his mallet. He said," I made it myself. It is better than the bought ones."

Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the US) embedded into the grass playing court.

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mellow yellow/ruby red/rednesday:matryoshka dolls

My Made in China Russian Doll besides Ahmed's saudi Arabian Russian doll.

Open up, and you get a set of 5 in the family. I use them to teach the children, big, bigger biggest, ect.


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A matryoshka doll, or babushka doll is a Russian nesting doll (Russian: Матрёшка) which is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk crafts painter at Abramtsevo. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan, a long and shapeless traditional Russian peasant jumper dress. The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby lathed from a single piece of wood

I first saw a set of matryoshka dolls in my friend Olwyn's house in New Zealand. When I saw this set in a souvenir shop in Singapore, I felt very emotional. Olwyn had been very good to me. I bought this and found it was made in China, not in Russia.

I brought this to school, and one day, my Somalian student Ahmed said he had a set and would I buy it for $5. I told him to make sure his mum was ok about it. I didn't want to rip him off. So he brought it to school, and he was very happy to have $5. His was a set of Saudi Arabian dolls, I didn't exactly want a set of Saudi Arabian Russian dolls, but he was disappointed if I didn't buy them. I also hope his mum didn't pay too much for them.

When I took the photo, I didn't have time to open up the nest of the Russian dolls. You will have to imagine what they are like. They are all the same.

mellow yellow, ruby red. rednesday: Campbell Aero Classics

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I went to Christchurch to visit my old friends. They took me to Loburn, to visit Ivan and Sandy Campbell. We were all excited as we drove to North Canterbury to Loburn Abbey airfield, as we knew we were going to fly in this special plane. At the Hanger were half finished planes.



I flew in a tiger moth. http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2011/08/scenic-sunday-campbell-aero-classics.html



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Singapore election banners

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These banners are dotted all over the country in Singapore.

ruby red Tuesday/rednesday: Asian snacks

These are dried strips of Thaifood. I think they are artificially dyed with a red dye which is not very good for you.

These sour plums are laden with salt. At least the colour is natural. You can buy the red ones which makes your lips and fingers red.

Yellow dred mangoes from China.
BBQ squids from Japan.
BBQ squids from Japan.


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I am not very into sweet except for chocolate. I can devour a whole box of chocolate with mixed nuts. But I loved the salted Asian dried snacks. I was at an Asian grocery store and got carried away with these, and others which are not red or yellow.

When we were little, these were usually consumed during Chinese New Year. Now you can buy them at any time.

ruby red/rednesday/watery wednesday: Banana bowl

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A fallen banana flower makes a good water bowl for birds.

Rubyred/rednesday/Thursday Theme Song: Waltzing Matilda

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If the saying, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" is true, I made a lot of friends last Thursday.

At Mt Albert Baptist Church, we had a group of 16 students from Sydney Missionary and Bible College across the ocean in Australia. They served alongside us and injecting some fresh energy into a whole range of areas. They spent their week, among other things, visiting LifeGroups, teaching in various ministries and preaching. It was exciting to see Darran and Kathyrn use their multi media to teach our ESOL class.

I was privileged to be asked to cook for their lunch on Thursday. On the menu was to cook a simple Asian lunch. I cooked Chicken Fried rice and Beef curry. The lunch was to be eaten at the blue room, but I served them at the buffet table where part of the wall was red. Can you see the red zinnia flower?

They insisted I took a photo with some of the students. I normally am behind the camera but after much coaxing I obliged. Here I was with Sam and Beck Gough, Donna McCann, Sarah and Darran Holder, Alan Thompson and Kathyrn Windam. You can see Darran trying to feed me to show his gratitude.

The photo shows some boxes at the back. They hold the donated items my church had been collecting from the community for earthquake struck Christchurch. Our youth Pastor Jeff Orr worked very hard organising this.

We played the most famous Australia Song Waltzing Matilda as we welcomed them to New Zealand. I told Darran that I am half Australian because my parents went to live there, my mum is buried there and many of my siblings live there.




Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boil,
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boil
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

....................

Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me,
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

.....................

Up rode the squatter mounted on his thorough-bred
Down came the troopers One Two Three
Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

Waltzing Matilda Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

......................

Up jumped the swagman sprang in to the billabong
You'll never catch me alive said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

Waltzing Matilda Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
You'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.

.......................