Skywatch Friday: Peter Hillary

Peter Hillary with his wife (red) Yvonne and Diane Harding. Diane had worked in Nepal for 2 years.

Peter talking to the children about his Dad Sir Ed Hillary and his work in Nepal.


On the 50th anniversary of Sir Ed's conquering of Mt Everest, Peter and his friends climbed the mountain. Here I took my photo from the video that Peter showed the children of him talking to his Dad. His Dad asked him if he reached the summit.


In 1992 Hillary appeared on the updated New Zealand $5 note, thus making him the only New Zealander to appear on a banknote during his or her lifetime, in defiance of the established convention for banknotes of using only depictions of deceased individuals, and current heads of state. Peter had a joke about the $5 note. My ESOL kids remember him saying," Sorry, Dad, I have to buy something, good bye."

Our beautiful sky after the talk, view of my part of my school.

Like our Sky Tower, Sir Ed is an icon of New Zealand. View from my school.

When I was 11 in Borneo, we had to cut out photos from Newspaper and make a scrap book and learn the facts of important and famous people. The hero in my scrap book was Edmund Hillary. He was the first man who climbed the highest mountain in the World, Mt Everest in 1953 just before I was born. He came from New Zealand.

Sir Ed was not just an adventuror, He was a philanthropist. He was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Following his ascent of Everest he devoted most of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which he founded. Through his efforts, many schools and hospitals were built in Nepal.

As an adult, I was privileged to come to study at the university and then to live in New Zealand. Today, I was just as excited as the students of Pt Chevalier to hear our speaker, Peter Hillary. Peter is the son of Sir Ed. I was very pleased he was very obliging when I asked to take his photo for my blog. Peter by his own right is a remarkable man.

My colleague Diane Harding had organised his talk. It was Peter and Yvonne's wedding anniversary. It is indeed a great privilege to have them come to school. Diane had spent 2 years up in the mountains of Nepal as a nurse with her partner Liz who is a doctor.

Nepal, of course, has a special place in my heart. Occasionally, I blog about Ganga and Jemunah. They were the pair of con-joint twins from Nepal. In 2000, they came to Singapore to be separated. I spearheaded the fund raising in Nanyang Technological University. I felt very touched when their mum and grand dad invited me to see them while they were still con-jointed.


Peter Hillary comes from one of the great families of mountaineering and has a history of world-class achievements in climbing.

Like his father, the late Sir Edmund Hillary, who made the first ascent of Mt Everest with his climbing partner Tenzing Norgay in 1953, Peter has summited Everest and forged a new route to the South Pole. The names Everest and Hillary are forever linked, and will always be associated with high adventure.

Peter Hillary is an accomplished mountaineer, speaker and expedition leader. He raises funds for Himalayan Foundations around the world and owns the Hillary Brand, a line of HILLARY branded goods. Together with his sister Sarah Hillary, they manage the intellectual property of the Ed Hillary estate.


The last photo I show is of Auckland Sky Tower. It is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere, just as we are proud of the Hillary name who is an icon is New Zealand, so is the Sky Tower where we can see from our school on a fine day like this morning.



Climb every mountain,
Search high and low,
Follow every byway,
Every path you know.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
'Till you find your dream.

A dream that will need
All the love you can give,
Every day of your life
For as long as you live.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
Till you find your dream

A dream that will need
All the love you can give,
Every day of your life,
For as long as you live.

Climb every mountain,
Ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow,
Till you find your dream.

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Purple Cake day: Kids helping Kids all over the World.

Today is Purple Cake Day.

For our school, Pt chevalier School, Phil Spriggs, the Deputy Principal was in charge of this special event. The teachers and some parents took part. Some children brought purple cakes for the staff. I know, in one class, a mum made cupcakes for all the children. Some of the classes had a shared breakfast of purple cup cakes, some of them made purple cup cakes. Most of them wore purple and donated a gold coin for the children in Nepal.


We raised more $660. A fantastic effort for a primary school.

Nepal has a special place in my heart, About 12 years ago, I spearheaded a fundraising exercise in the Nanyang Technological University to help separate a pair of Siamese/Con-jointed twins from Nepal in Singapore.

What is purple Cake Day?


Purple Cake Day is about connecting children around the world.

Children in Nelson, New Zealand and New Jersey, USA were skyping to learn more about each other's Purple Cake Day. We now have over 1000 people in 28 countries who have downloaded our Resource Kit to learn about Purple Cake Day and the projects we support. 



On 1 st March – there were sporting events and bake sales to purple dress and wearable art, from small to big events, from classrooms to whole schools and communities.

There is tremendous support and recognition. There is real benefit in making these global connections, helping children understand their role in the global community and empowering them to take part in change. 




Children in orphanages in the Congo and Burundi will be celebrating and having purple parties.

At an International School in Bordeaux, France, children will wear purple, make flags of hope, draw and give their thumbs up to Purple Cake Day.

At the Children of Haiti Project in Haiti – one of our project partners - older kids will wear purple ribbons and help clean up rubbish in the tent camp they live in. The little ones will sing, draw, read and play games.

In Hong Kong, at the 10 Woodland Pre-schools, it's going to be a purple day, with purple decorations and purple clothing. And at Citykids Preschool, children are making and selling bead necklaces, butterfly pencils, ladybug fridge magnets and bumblebee bookmarks

In Nepal, our project partners First Steps Himalaya have organised a Mad Hatters Tea Party. Its going to be a fun filled family friendly event - yummy food, purple cakes & drinks, kids art exhibition, competition and prizes, stalls, music and kids corner. They're also running an art competition and lots of rural Nepalese children are competing. There'll be a special purple party, as well as an environmental clean-up. Also in Nepal, our project partners In Time Trust are organising a rubbish collection day at the Kailash Bodhi School.

In the United Kingdom, a school in Portsmouth is planning a purple day. And One World Nannies will be celebrating too.

And moving to the US, we have a preschool and church in Bozeman, Montana turning purple. In San Luis Obispo, California, 10 schools with YMCA afterschool programs have all sorts of purple activities planned, from studying Nepal and eating Nepalese food through to a "who can wear the most purple?" competition. We have wonderful ambassadors in SLO, who have lots of businesses on board for support as well. And at Brigantine Elementary, New Jersey they've been turning purple all week, with "thumbs up", the toy box, bake sale combined with exercise class and studying Nepal.

In New Zealand, lots of schools and groups are getting involved, turning purple, selling cakes and donating. There are also sponsored sports activities, purple yoga and purple icecreams and in Nelson the businesses and Saturday market have already turned purple.

We have New Zealand TV personalities giving us the thumbs up .

Countries involved: Angola, Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Dubai, France, Germany, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.

What a wonderful day it was. If those students were like me, they would remember the day even when they are 50 years old and blog about it.

It's a small world after all
It's a world of laughter
A world of tears
It's a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There's so much that we share
That it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

There is just one moon
And one golden sun
And a smile means
Friendship to every one
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

Thursday Theme Song.
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Save the world: Plant native plants

I have lived in the tropics, I have lived in the temperate climate. I loved gardening. Some people like to plant exotic plants from another region. They are frustrated when the plants fail to grow.

I was the secretary of the Gardening club of NTU in Singapore. I gave advice to neighbours from different countries. I use to collect saplings of the birds nest fern. I started a fernery, and I left five years ago. The ferns continue to thrive though nobody had tended the plants.

The water engineer went to "my" garden and took this photo. My legacy of living 16 years there.






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My nephew Lincoln's recycling project

I am very proud of my nephew Lincoln. He showed a lot of initiative and leadership. Lincoln and his team entered an inter school competition In Australia. It required using recycled material for building a "tuna can turner and stacker". They had six weeks to do it. They have to do it without adult supervision.

Lincoln showed something, using hydraulics(unfinished), the teacher said that they have to be team work!!!. Lincoln tried to organise people to come home and work. No one came.

He took his model to school to work and it kept on breaking!! The competition was on last Sunday. Not much done!!! This morning, Lincoln said that he could alter the design to get more points.

Helen, his mum was worried, she told him that it would be a wonder if they could present anything at all and he might have to prepare an impromptu speech and using diagram and broken bits to explain how the project supposed to work.

Lincoln proved her wrong. His group received an honours recommendation award for their project.

Ka Pai and paki paki which means good job, and clap clap in Maori in New Zealand. Now may be Lincoln can have a summer job on a Japanese fishing boat. That is I think what his invention is, I may be wrong. Can you guess which kid is Lincoln? The one with the important plan of course. LOL

Tuna can project.

It is to pick up tuna can from the ground to base A and then stack 3 tuna cans on to base C.
The plunger in the syringe is pushed/pulled to control the water in the other syringe.
The water in the the tube is strong to power the plunger in the other syringe.
Each syringe is placed to raise/lower the arms and also to swivel the bases either way. The magnet in the drink bottle is dropped on and then to pick cans. Once the can is pulled high enough, it can not go pass the drink bottle and this would release the can from the magnet. The base is supported by tin cans.
The student use the syringes attached with tubings to operate the mechanism.
There are lot of amazing designs using different techniques in the competition. I think Lincoln's group has the youngest members.
Helen