Testimony

In memory of John Nickolls

2007-12-27T18:57:00.000+13:00

John Richard Nickolls, ex RAFOn December 23rd 2007, beloved husband of Michele Nickolls, son of recently deceased Tom and Elizabeth Nickolls, brother and uncle of Leslie and Angela and family. Son in law of Colin and Marie Sharman, brother in law and uncle to Suzanne and Graham, Paul and Liz, and Mark, and their families.Be at peace now John, you were brave to the end.A service for John, will be

Amazing Encounter with the Amazing Race

2007-07-11T12:46:00.000+12:00

A couple of days ago I found myself in the middle of a TV spectacular, by accident.There's a TV programme called *The Amazing Race*usually filmed out of the US, where teams of two race each other around the world, following clues, and performing tasks. First home win US$1000000!!We watch it here because of the interesting places that the teams visit, and the sights they see, and a couple of

MV3 - the machine

2007-07-06T05:45:00.000+12:00

I just spent a week with MV3.Lying in the dark watching the operating head wheel in the gloom like a telescope, lying on my table with padded legs and headrest, like some astronomer on his couch.Watching laser beams align, assistants call out calibrations, setting up.But this is no glimpse of the Cosmos - this is almost time travel.MV3 is (I think) a cavity magnetron.It will push electrons and

In Memory of Ivy, 2001 - 2007

2007-05-12T21:49:00.000+12:00

After a tragic accident on Friday night, 11th May, my dear cat Ivy died, despite the best efforts of the vet. She was about 5½ years old.

Cry "God for Harry, England, and Saint George!"

2007-04-23T19:58:00.000+12:00

The title is from Shakespeare's Henry V, and is King Henry's battle cry at Agincourt. And I'm writing this today because today is 23rd April - Saint George's Day.George is the patron saint of England, and you might expect that this would be our national day, but no........ We English seem to have missed the boat on national days such as Ireland and Scotland.Anyway, here's something about George

Miss Colombia, and the Baptismal Font

2007-02-07T22:13:00.000+13:00

Colombia - August 2003.Michele and I had travelled from England to Colombia to meet the family of Wendy, our dear exchange student, who stayed with us in 1999. In fact we had just spent 10 days in England with Wendy, who had come over from Germany (where she was studying) to travel with us.She saw us off at Heathrow airport, and hours later we were welcomed at El Dorado Airport by her sizable

Comet McNaught

2007-01-18T22:13:00.000+13:00

Comets are rare visitors, at least, those easily visible to the naked eye, and so the arrival of Comet McNaught in this part of the sky is extremely welcome.McNaught, aka C-2006 P1 McNaught, is a non-periodic comet that was only discovered in August of last year, by an Australian astronomer (McNaught). Much more on the comet in Wikipedia - click here...It´s called a *Sun-grazer* because its orbit

Mouthy Mufti At It Again

2007-01-14T09:09:00.000+13:00

The title is not mine, let me explain at the start, but is the by-line to an article in the current issue of the Weekend Herald (January 13 2007) about our old friend Sheik al-Hilali of Sydney. I already blogged the Sheik's "Cat's meat" remarks here, and updated him here. (The links here will all open in new pages)The Herald article can be seen here, but interestingly the online version is

The Ocarina

2007-01-04T19:38:00.000+13:00

A couple of posts ago, in *Shelley and the Steps of Doom*, I mentioned an ocarina.The ocarina in question occupied a small part of the story, and in fact I could have told the tale without it, and nobody would have been any the wiser.But having mentioned it, I was then dismissive of it, and at the end of the tale I declared that I had no idea where the ocarina was now.In the succeeding days,

I Hereby Resolve

2007-01-01T23:26:00.000+13:00

Well it's got once more to that time of year when it's fashionable to make one's New`Year Resolutions...Like many people I have mine almost all thought out, so I'll share them here, but like many people, I reserve the right to change my mind...So, I, Kiwi John, do hereby resolve to execute the following items in 2007. To remember to write 2007 on documents including cheques. To write more

Shelley and the Steps of Doom

2006-12-15T12:37:00.000+13:00

In 2003 I travelled with my wife Michele (aka Shelley) to South America. The whole trip deserves a blog elsewhere at a later time, but it's fair to say that it was punctuated by several incidents which stand out very firmly in our minds.One such incident was the case of Shelley and the Steps of Doom.We were in Peru.Peru is a remarkable country, and we would go there again tomorrow if we could.

Garden Madness - the Succulent Story!!

2006-12-06T18:41:00.000+13:00

When we moved into our new house, just before Easter 2005, we didn't really have a garden. Out the front was a planted area, with a few little shrubby things, which were eventually to grow to be large shrubby things, which we then pulled out, but we had no nice flowers or plants of note. We did manage to plant some roses and other things in a strip along the driveway, but that was about it.At the

A Flying Visit

2006-12-03T17:56:00.000+13:00

This Sunday I was offered, and sensibly took, a great opportunity. My pilot friend David had to fly to Tauranga, a city in the Bay of Plenty, about 90 miles Southeast of Auckland, and invited me along for a ride in his Cessna 150. Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, and I was ready for takeoff at 7 am...The Cessna 150 is only a small plane, and David and I are both tall, with long legs, and

Vulcan Part 1

2006-11-28T23:03:00.000+13:00

This is an Avro Vulcan, Britain's Cold War bomber.They were huge aircraft, measuring almost exactly 100 ft long (30.48metres), with a wingspan of 111 feet. They were smelly, dirty and noisy - I worked on them and loved it!!I'd known the Vulcan ever since I was a boy... After the aircraft began deliveries to the RAF in the mid/late 1950s, Vulcans could be seen almost daily in the sky above my home

All Blogs Bright and Beautiful.....

2006-11-28T17:27:00.000+13:00

I'm having great fun with this blog!!I've just passed the 100 visitor mark since I set up the counter, (I admit 7 visits were from me, before I discovered how to set the counter to ignore me) and it's nice to see people showing interest. It's true that I shamelessly promote the blog when I'm online in ESL chat, but I have also been stumbled across by strangers, which is quite nice.For anyone

The Gates of Paradise - a promise to a friend

2006-11-26T23:38:00.000+13:00

A Promise to a Friend Please don’t be sad, my friend, but I must go. The days allotted me by God have run, And he has called me home to give account Of my poor life. And sadly I leave this life, yet gladly go To my reward. But I have erred,

A date with Destiny! - or is it History?

2006-11-23T21:51:00.000+13:00

Today, 23rd November, is a day that will always stand out for me, for several reasons.Reason 1On this day in 1969, I made my first parachute jump. At about 1220 hrs I climbed out onto the wheel of a Cessna 172, registration 5B-CAR, 2500 feet above Kingsfield Airstrip, in Cyprus. John's first jump, 23 November 1969Some 2 minutes later I was safely on the ground, surprisingly close to my intended

Sheik al-Hilali, and the Cat's Meat, an update

2006-11-22T11:15:00.000+13:00

Sheik al-Hilali managed to outrage a large number of people in Australia and around the world a few weeks ago, following a Ramadan sermon in which, amongst other things, he likened women to plates of uncovered meat, subject to the unwanted attention of roaming cats. I wrote a blog about it (here), and so did almost everyone else who wote a blog, it seemed. On Monday this week, our 60 Minutes TV

Halt! - Who goes there???

2006-11-17T19:35:00.000+13:00

Here in New Zealand we drive on the left of the road, like most former British colonies (together with a few other countries like Japan and Thailand). I know most countries drive on the other side, but overall the basic rules are the same, just reversed left-for-right in some locations.In most countries (where rules are observed) the usual is to give way to traffic on the driver's side. So at an

The war I never went to

2006-11-15T21:18:00.000+13:00

In the mid 1970s my world was parachutes! I had begun parachuting (skydiving) in November 1969 although it was strictly sport jumping, even though I was then in the Royal Air Force (RAF). I did make 2 military jumps for aircrew training, but that was all. After I left the RAF in late 1973, I trained as a sport

Cabaret, by William Shakespeare

2006-11-13T17:49:00.000+13:00

Did Shakespeare write *Cabaret*??No, of course he didn't - it´s a story set in the decadent Berlin of the 1930s (for the truly pedantic, I admit that the story begins on New Year´s Eve 1929), and contains elements that Shakespeare would have relished - love and rejection, betrayal and conflict.He would have had a ball writing *Cabaret*, but of course being dead for 300 years or so is rather

Wallah Wallah, Cat's Meat

2006-11-06T14:48:00.000+13:00

Before I get too many complaints, let me explain the title...In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, visiting street traders had no motor horns or recorded jingles to play to attract customers. So they had to *Shout their wares* when they arrived in a neighbourhood, either pushing a hand cart, or with a horse and cart.What they shouted usually related to their particular product, and did not have

Exerpt from a poem in progress

2006-10-26T23:11:00.000+13:00

Some nights ago, when I had taken more wine than I should, I stood outside my tent, as was my custom, gazing at the stars. They were as friends to me, and many I called by name when they appeared. Night upon night I watched them rise and set, I knew their movements well, their times and seasons too

Big Boys Toys - Playing with Jets

2006-10-26T19:30:00.000+13:00

I've been very lucky in life, in many ways...I always liked aircraft as a boy, and when I joined the Royal Air Force, I naturally had quite a bit to do with planes, which for several years was wonderful. Later, after the RAF, I worked with smaller planes, as a parachute instructor, but eventually that had to end too.So imagine my joy, at the end of the Millennium, when a vintage British jet

Defending the Pope

2006-10-19T18:10:00.000+13:00

Photo Copyright © L'Osservatore Romano - Tutti i diritti riservati - All Rights Reserved A month or so ago, I found myself in the curious position, as an Anglican, of defending the Pope. A Turkish correspondant was incensed by reports in her newspaper that the Pope had insulted Islam. Since the news had not yet broken in my media it took a

Go with the flow

2006-10-15T18:50:00.000+13:00

It costs so little to make someone smile.Sometimes just the ability to share a joke, to laught at yourself.To go with the flow

A Year in Our Lives

2006-10-12T22:38:00.000+13:00

Alvaro Samaniego came, accidentally and delightfully, into our lives in January 2004. I was a helper at the AFS exchange student arrival camp at Huia, and as the days went by, droves of eager young students came were orientated, and left, as ever. But one young man, from Paraguay, was without a family, because his visa had been processed very late. The dots that form their words, that detail their personalities, itemize their lives, rest on a piece of glass before me, baring their souls, probing my mind, chatting through the night. But where do they go? When the dots fade, and the owners, the

John of Arabia

2006-10-09T20:40:00.000+13:00

Well this may not be the definitive picture of me, but it's one of the best and most recent, and i took it myself!!I'm wearing a shemaq, a gift from a friend in Saudi Arabia (thanks Melody from ESL Chat)Sad Rose, another Saudi friend from ESL Chat was visiting Auckland in August, and very kindly showed me how to wear the thing properly, and supplied some extras which make it all the more

Starting Point

2006-10-09T15:18:00.000+13:00

Like every blogger I arrive at my first post.Like many I am not sure what to write.I have ideas, of course, and many things to say, but the act of opening this blog in the first place has taken my thoughts away.I'll rest now then, and think what else to say.