Crumble in Cromwell

Missing Kitten

2011-11-02T20:54:00.002+13:00

MISSING KITTEN

We are missing our much loved 6 month old kitten called Claudia. She went missing on Sunday 30^th October around Perth St area. She is a Tabby Cat with White chest and paws. She is very friendly and curious – and could have quite likely been locked in somebody’s garage or shed somewhere. Please, keep a look out for her, and if you have seen her or know anything about her – can you please give me a call.

There is a reward for her return!

Thank you.

Diana Mockford

25 Perth St Mosgiel

PH: 489 1989 or 027 615 3330

KiwiScreamer!

2011-05-19T19:47:00.005+12:00

I, like 1.7 million New Zealanders, have a KiwiSaver account.

Today, the John Key lead government announced that they will change the rules of my KiwiSaver account.

But I cannot opt out of my contract with the government. It’s great to know that John Key has thrown contract law out the window. If I buy a house I enter into contract but now I can decide to change it and pay less for the house because that is legit according to John Key.

I had confidence that my KiwiSaver was going to help me when I clean the blackboard for the last time and retire but now that I know that it will just be political football for the next 40 years I WANT MY MONEY NOW!

Also the changes as the DimPost points are a great way for Bill “Double Dip” English to gain taxes without all the fuss and trouble of raising income or company tax and looking like a fucktard.

I read the KiwiSaver changes as thus and please correct me if I’m wrong:

I contribute 3% and my employer contributes 3% which will be taxed. The government’s tax credit will be $521. I’m pretty bloody sure that the new tax will be bringing in more than $521 a year!

Bill English you cheeky bastard!

The John Key led-government this playing with political games with peoples future and I urge people to get out and vote!

Have a great day

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Fun little game http://www.nitrome.com/games/steamlands/

The Price of Democracy

2011-05-18T10:26:00.006+12:00

The news has been chocker lately with talk about the “Price of Democracy” especially in relation to the by-election in Te Tai Tokerau. To me this nothing but a sideshow to the real the price and it has nothing to do with dollars and cents.

The price of democracy is that we have rights! We have protection of the law!

Now to some people, I’m talking to you Sensible Sentencing, want to override these rights and the rule of law for their red meat, car crushing, lock them up and throw away the key ideas about law.

The price of democracy is that someone who rapes, murders, steals, defrauds, or commits any crime as the right to a fair trail, has the right not to be tortured, has the right to legal consul, has the right to appeal if they are convicted and the many other rights that they have in a free and open democracy.

The price of democracy is basically that you can’t do what you want! But also the price of democracy is that people like the Sensible Sentencing Trust can exist and can stand on the mountain top and shout their nonsense!

You can’t take looters out the back and shot them in the head, you can’t convict people who are innocent (tho scarily that does happen and far too often), and you can’t abuse/torture people in prison and the list goes on and on.

To people like the Sensible Sentencing trust these rights are standing in the way of there so called justice but to me they are standing in the way of us getting fucked over by the state.

If these are things that people what then they can more to Syria where people are shot for protesting, to China where you can’t go worship at your church or any other country where human rights are trampled on and where the rule of law goes to the highest bidder.

The price of democracy is not dollars and cents.

Have a great day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S I hope this generates some good comments

It’s been a while!

2011-05-04T18:30:00.004+12:00

As the title of the post suggests it has been a very long time since my last posting….around two months!

So I thought I would change this and I will start posting more regularly but there will be some small changes.

With the election coming up in a few months and heaps of bat shit crazy stuff going on in New Zealand politics; my blog will start to take on more of a political flavour.

The next blog post will be about the “Price of Democracy”.

Cheers,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. A awesome little game http://www.nitrome.com/games/steamlands/

Christchurch Earthquake

2011-03-02T21:15:00.002+13:00

Its been just over a week since the huge and devastating earthquake in Christchuch and I thought it would be time to put my thoughts down about it......Holy Fucking Shit!

That is all I can say really. All my family and friends are all ok but with some of them having quite serious damage to their homes.

I am, however, starting to find out my links and connections to those who have passed and everyone makes my heart break a little.

But Christchurch will rise up again! As it did when the Cathedral was damaged in 1888 and 1901 in earthquakes.

Picture Source

A really long time!

2011-02-18T10:22:00.005+13:00

I have not put a post up here for months and months so it is about time I bloody sorted it out I would say!

A lot has happened in the 4 months I've not posted so here is quick run down:

Sweets graduated in December with her BA and is now at Teachers College doing a GradDip in Early Childhood and loving it!
I have a fantastic summer break. I did not do much but I think that was why it was so fantastic!
I have moved into a new flat...all by myself which is a nice change. Also means I can walk around in the nude..boom baby!
Returned to work keen and fired up for an awesome year of awesomness.
I have a new nephew which is very, very cool.
I'm becoming more involved in the PPTA which is awesome and have a very busy week ahead of me with trips to Dunedin and Wellington on the cards.

I think that hits all the major points of the last few months!

Cheers,

Crumble the Senior!

P.S I don't know who did the picture so if you do let me know so I can credit it :)

Labour Weekend in the Catlins

2010-10-27T18:59:00.006+13:00

I had a great Labour weekend in the Catlins for my second anniversary with my sweets. Instead of prattling on here I thought pictures would tell a better story.

Have a great rest of the week,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. The PPTA is still engaging in industrial action with the Ministry and your support is great appreciated :)

At last a blog post!

2010-10-20T10:28:00.005+13:00

Picture Source

So………… this is my first blog post in about 4 weeks and to be quite honest it feels kind of weird getting back into it but I’m sure it will all come flowing back soon!

I feel I need to tell you why I have not blogged for awhile…….. (cue dramatic music)………I’ve just been to busy to keep it up for a while.

A lot has happened in the last 4 weeks. I went to Wellington for a week for the PPTA Annual Conference. This was great! I loved every minute of it but it did leave me drained.

I’m not going to bore with the details but I met some amazing and passionate teachers that really inspired me to be a better teacher. There were a few amazing guest speakers but one that stood out was Angelo Gavrielatos the head of the Australian Education Union. I now have a man-crush on him!

One thing he said was a quote from the head of the American Teachers Union, Keith Geiger, who said in 1991 about teacher unions

"It's a cause that you and I are defending, the cause of public education "and what it can do for a small child or a large nation. The question is not whether we always win, but whether we always fight. Because as long as we fight, we feel, we grow, we deepen and we serve. You have chosen, and nobly so, to stand and defend the cause. And I could not be prouder to stand with each one of you, shoulder to shoulder, as together we battle for the future of our nation's children."

I’m not going to lie; I almost cried and I was filled with such passion and conviction in our cause by just those few words. Solidarity Forever! The union makes us strong!

Also, while I was in Wellington I had dinner with the amazing Kim and her friends at an awesome little Chinese place. It was great fun and I can’t wait till I’m up there again :)

The second week of my break my sis-in-law gave birth to my nephew! It was awesome to be there the next day and see them because their first kid had to be flown to Wellington for surgery soon after being born.

But because I was the only one not working or busy with new bub I was tasked with looking after my niece which was interesting to say the least, especially when I had to get her ready for centre. I was a little embarrassed when I handed her lunch over in a bread bag and all the other kids had really cool lunch boxes but I’m sure she survived the ordel :)

I headed back to school and got right into reports, marking, meetings, teaching, dealing with PPTA stuff and many other teacher things I have to do.

This week rolling strikes begin with Year 9s today and Year 11s on Thursday. I hate strikes but if it is the only way the govt will take us seriously then that is what we have to do!

Have a great week

Crumble the Elder

P.S a great read http://www.eduvac.co.nz/node/3496

Photo Friday

2010-09-24T14:58:00.003+12:00

Hi everyone!

Sorry no blogs this week and I don't think there will be any next week but I will be back with a vengeance soon!

Here is this weeks Photo Friday

Have a great weekend :)

Crumble the Elder

Photo Friday

2010-09-17T11:32:00.003+12:00

Hey everyone hope you have had a great week and have got a great weekend planned. Here is a photo of the Cromwell War Memorial.

Crumble the Elder

Sorry guys!

2010-09-13T17:07:00.002+12:00

Just a quick note to let you know no blog this week.

Things are a little crazy at work so I need to focus on that this week but more bloggy goodness next week.

Here are some cute pictures to make up for it :)

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2010/04/27/james-hances-amazing-star-wars-themed-art/
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2010/08/24/wookiee-the-pooh-pic/

Have a great week

Crumble the Elder!

Photo Friday

2010-09-10T14:56:00.002+12:00

I was out taking photos about two weeks ago and I found this poppy on the ground near the War Memorial in Cromwell. It was amazing that it was still there from ANZAC Day.

Enjoy your weekend,

Crumble the Elder

Strike Day!

2010-09-08T20:11:00.002+12:00

Next week, on the 15th, the membership of the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) will be engaged in strike action.

This is a last a resort for the membership, who voted overwhelmingly (95%) to support industrial action. The Ministry of Education has ignored all of the claims that we have put forward, not even willing to negotiate in good faith. They put a number of claw-backs (that means taking things away from us) on the table from day one!

Things like the removal of class size limits, the removal of non-contact time, a 0% pay increase. This, of course, was never going to be accepted by the membership. So after 13 days of negotiate, they offer 2.5% over two years and 10 days “call-back” i.e. you work for two weeks for free! They did not address anything that put forward.

We then broke off negotiations as being fruitless at this point. The PPTA then announced held a PUM to vote on industrial action, this is when the Ministry of Education came back with another offer. It is not worth explaining what was in it but 99.3% of members rejected it.

The strike action is a last resort and not something that we want to be doing. A strong public education system is vital for a strong nation and having the best and brightest is vital to that system, be that new teachers or not so new teachers :)

PPTA’s claims are vital in doing this.

I hope we have your support.

Have a great week!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Very cool website http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/webcams/stadium-cam

Tipple on a Tuesday 7/09/10

2010-09-07T14:41:00.003+12:00

Sorry for being a day late, the blog just slipped my mind yesterday.

Review: Café; Ironic.

Last Sunday, sweets and I went to Ironic Café and Bar in Dunedin for brunch before my epic drive back to Cromwell.

I’ve been to this place a few times and it keeps getting better and it is one of my favourite cafes in Dunedin (which is saying something; there are a crapload of great cafes in Dunedin).

The location is amazing! It is right beside the railway station and only a few minutes walk from the Octagon, Queens Garden, Early Settlers Museum, and the Chinese Gardens.

It has a really great feel, with a big fire place and nice dark wood tables and chairs and a very cool bar.

We both had the Station Masters breakfast, which is a traditional cooked breakfast, but the homemade bread and baked beans really made it stand out.

The coffee I had was really good and sweets had the biggest smoothie I have ever seen!

So, to sum it up; Ironic Café and Bar is an awesome place to go for a coffee, for a meal or something more alcoholic.

I give it 4/5.

Have a great week!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. http://www.ironiccafebar.co.nz/index.html

Photo Friday

2010-09-03T09:58:00.005+12:00

These are my photos for the Art Auction.

The first one is stand alone photo, the next three are going to be one piece. I need to work on the stone wall one a little.

Would love to hear what you think about it!

Have a great weekend,

Crumble the Elder

Lester Flockton: My new hero!

2010-09-02T12:39:00.006+12:00

Picture Source

Sorry for no blog yesterday, I was crazy busy with the schools open night and I attended a speech/meeting about the National Standards, with my new hero; Lester Flockton. In educational circles, Lester Flockton in the BOSS! What he does not know about education is not worth knowing.

My understanding of National Standards, I must admit was minimal. This is because I’m secondary teacher and they have little to do with what I do in the class. So, I found his talk enlightening and entertaining, he is a very good public speaker.

To start with, a quick run down of what National Standards are. They are meant to be levels/standards that students at different ages are meant to be at in literacy and numeracy. That, in its self, is a very noble and worthy goal but the way that the National government has implemented their attempt at National Standards is disastrous and will harm education in New Zealand.

I won’t go into to much detail about what Lester said but I will give you the five keys points that I took away from his speech.

1. We need a “diversity of talent” in our world to make it the great place that it is. The governments obsession and preoccupation with literary and numeracy, at the expense of other educational areas, might impact on this diversity.

2. The time frame for the National Standards implantation is shocking. At the moment teachers all across New Zealand are implementing the new New Zealand Curriculum. This document took 4 years of intense development with over 10 000 submissions presented from the Ministry of Education, educational professionals and members of the public. It was then given to schools and we were given two years to implement it in the classroom and with some seniors areas, full implementation will not be done until 2013. The National Standards however, were passed into law 6 weeks after National came to government, created behind closed doors, with input from only a few hand picked experts, like John Hattie (more on him later), and given to teachers at the end of 2009 and had to fully implemented by 2010. Crazy!

3. We have one of the best education systems and achievement levels in the world. We are 4th best in the OCED with a “high quality, low equality” education system. It is well knowen that children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds do worse at school than children from high- socioeconomic backgrounds. A ton of research shows that schools are a small part of a student’s achievement level; about 20%, with social being about 40% and personal about 40%. So, to raise student achievement we have to create a more equal society.

4. The National Standards are not “unique” to New Zealand as Ann Tolley and Johnny boy would have us think. They are the same as all other countries that have failed to achieve significant and sustainable improvement for children who struggle.

5. John Hattie, one of the Ministers favourite experts, has said that we might be able to get 80% to achieve the Nationals Standards but that will take a lot of hard work and money to get it. That means 20% will still fail, but the government as stated that National Standards will help the 20% that are failing, but their expert said that 20% will fail. This could go on and on.

He as also said that National Standards will barely, if at all, change the mean achievement scores. If their own expert says it will not work, then why oh why are they doing this?

The National Standards, as they stand today, will do nothing to improve education or student achievement.

All claims that are made here have their references on Lester Flockton's PowerPoint here.

I think that is enough of a rant for one day!

Have a great week and I’ll have to photos up for you tomorrow,

Crumble the Elder

P.S Plays some games after reading this very long post :)http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/

No post today

2010-08-30T12:41:00.002+12:00

Sorry everyone, no "May As Well Monday" today. I'm in to much of a shitty mood to be able to write anything good.

See you Wednesday,

Crumble the Elder

Photo Friday

2010-08-27T11:29:00.004+12:00

Took this last Sunday after being in the classroom all weekend.

Also, I have the photos I'm going to enter in the Cromwell College Art Auction next term; these will be up next Friday :)

Have a great weekend

Crumble the Elder

PPTA Goodness!

2010-08-25T19:02:00.005+12:00

Today, was a very busy day for me and the PPTA. Now, I can’t go into too much detail, well any detail really, about what happened in the Otago Country PPTA PUM (Unions use a lot of acronyms, PPTA, NZEI, EMPU, CTU to name a few) but I can give you a overall impression.

Most of you out there, in internet land, should have figured out by that I am a very dirty, filthy unionist and strongly support the union movement :)

I’m the Chair of Cromwell College Branch, the Regional Secretary for Otago and now toying with the idea of running for Exec membership in the next elections.

So, at the PUM (Paid Union Meeting), which all 18 000 members attended over the last two days; all around the country, we discussed the claim that we put forward to the Ministry of Education, the counter claim that the Ministry of Education put to us and the thirteen days of negotiations that were had. These negotiations proved to be fruitless.

The Minister of Education, Anne Tolley, seems to lack the basic understand of how the education sector works and makes really dumb comments like this.

I love being compared to a 16 year old kid. Does that mean I didn’t need to get my Bachelor of Arts or my Graduate Diploma of Secondary Teaching, which took 5 years and cost my $30 000. I just needed to not invite my boyfriend over and only eat two ice blocks and I could have got into the classroom that way.

I’m not a babysitter; I’m an educational professional, who is dedicated to my job of teaching young people. Mind you, I wouldn’t mind being paid a babysitters rate. Let’s see…….. 100 kids x 8 hours and $15 per kid per hour……ok I’m not a maths teacher but that seems a lot of cash to me! :)

Sorry, getting off track here. After discussing what was happing with us, the Ministry, the National Government and lots of other things. We voted on industrial action. This is where I can go no further until the details are made public by the PPTA. That should happen around the 30th or maybe even sooner.

This government left unchallenged will destroy education in this country.

That is were I think I should leave it for now but, as they say, watch this space!

Have a great rest of your week,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. I love these pictures http://www.yurock.net/beautiful-portraits-of-random-strangers/

May As Well Monday 23/08/10

2010-08-23T12:27:00.005+12:00

Picture Source

Review: Book; Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

I brought this book for our weekend away at Blueskin Bay, sweets had some uni work to do so I thought I would read while she did that. I loved and could not put it down.

Written by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies¸ the book is based on a secret diary of Abraham Lincoln’s which reveals his life as a Vampire hunter.

After finding out as a child that vampires are real and that one killed his mother, Abraham Lincoln vows to kill all vampires in America.

He becomes very good at doing that after being enlisted, oddly enough, be a vampire to hunt down and kill other vampires. This vampire, Henry, tells Abe that there are good vampires and evil vampires and that 'some men are just to interesting to die'.

The slavery issue, in Southern United States, plays a huge part of the story and Abe makes the link between slavery and the power of the vampires in the South, with their access to an unlimited supply of human blood with no questions asked.

After being in encouraged to run for office by Henry and other Northern vampires, Abe becomes president of the US and the Civil War erupts, which as we find out is more about Vampires fighting for control of American then anything else.

I will leave it there so not to tell you too much :)

So to sum it up, a very good read and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone who liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter.

I give it 4/5

Have a great week,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Some of the issues we face in education http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/4050075/Students-stoned-on-party-pills

Super Snaps Sunday

2010-08-22T10:17:00.005+12:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry Photo Friday didn't pop up this week but to make up for it here are some photos of my classroom and the views from the window.

I thought I talk enough about it you might like to see some pictures.

Have a great week and see you tomorrow :)

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Good for a laugh http://oddee.com/item_97025.aspx

My Amazing Weekend at Blueskin Bay

2010-08-18T19:08:00.004+12:00

Picture Source (forgot my camera)

Last weekend, sweets and I decided that we needed a wee break away from everything. After a furious series of emails and txts between the two of us we decided on this amazing little crib (that’s right I’m from the South Island) right on Blueskin Bay.

It was amazing! So peaceful and beautiful and it was really what we needed even tho it was only for one night.

We drove over the Kilmog (first time I have driven over that bad boy) and found the crib, which was super easy to find, and I was BLOWN AWAY by how freaking awesome it was.

It had a super funky kitchen/living area, 3 bedrooms, with some pretty amazing lights set up, and a deck that takes in the whole of Blueskin Bay. (Check out the photos on their website)

After dropping our stuff off we shot down to the Blueskin Bay Nursery and Café and had a nice chocolate and pecan pie with some coffee for afternoon tea and then checked out a gallery across the road that had some stunning pieces but sadly well out of my price range.

Then spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling and listening to the birds and reading my very cool new book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I’ll tell you more about it on Monday. Sweets worked on her uni stuff and napped on and off :)

After that we tried to make some pizzas for tea. This surprisingly worked out really well, cause neither sweets or I are that great at cooking :)

The next day cleaning was on the cards but it did not take to long so that was good. We then went for a little drive down to Warrington and then onto Sea Cliff. I think I could live there and will look into this for future moves.

Then back to Mollywood to drop of sweets and then the 3 hour drive back to Cromwell.

So, while it was a busy weekend it was great to get out for a night and stay some where amazing and we will for shizz be back.

Have a great week and see you on Friday,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. For all you love birds out there http://www.savagechickens.com/2010/08/love-poem.html

May As Well Monday 16/08/10

2010-08-16T16:45:00.005+12:00

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So to start off with, sorry. Sorry for the lack of posts last week. Things just got a little bit intense with work, union and life issues. Work and life are going all good in the hood for now but the union stuff is very soon to heat up, more on this in the next two weeks or so.

So with that out of the way I thought today’s May As Well Monday should be on Inception.

Picture Source

Review: Film; Inception

About two weeks ago, The Viper, CW, The Actress, Sweets and I went to see this at the Rialto in Dunedin. When we got there the place was CRAZY busy, the busiest I have ever seen it; people were actually running up the stairs to get a good seat for the screening.

This I thought should be a good movie with this much excitement about it and I was proved right. I loved it.

It felt new and fresh, something that I have not seen before.

I was on the edge of my seat nearly the whole time and it felt like I was in a dream within a dream. It was amazing.

I have started to grow to appreciate Leo, and have enjoyed a number of his movies of late after really hating him after Titanic. But the stand out for me was Tom Hardy as the Forger, who I loved as Handsome Bob in RocknRolla. His line “Don’t be afraid to dream a little bigger darling” was fantastic.

I don’t know really what else to say about the film.

It had a lot of my favourite actors and actresses in it; Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Ellen Page, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

It was an amazing story.

It has really great special effects.

It was well worth it and the ending left me wanting more.

So to sum it up, awesome movie, well worth the effect to see it. Also I really want and mountain top fortress and I need to get a totem :)

I give it 4.5/ 5

Have a great week,

Crumble the Elder.

P.S. http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2010/08/11/a-collection-of-cool-stylized-movie-posters/#more-19894

A Really Shitty Post

2010-08-04T20:17:00.003+12:00

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I have really struggled to come up an idea for today’s blog. I'm as confused as the above picture. Chewie, riding a giant squirrel, fighting NAZI's. FUBAR.

So much has been happening lately; the break down of negotiations between the PPTA and the Government and the looming threat of industrial action (I will post about this but later when things become clearer).

I could post about life at work which, as always, in crazy freaking busy but to be honest I’m over it. My new car, which is very, very cool and an awesome gift from my sweets but I don’t really know enough about cars to write a whole post about it.

Should I write about the tragic news of New Zealand’s fist death in Afghanistan? Our first combat death in 10 years and only our second since 1973 when we left Vietnam. I don’t feel nearly qualified to talk about that but I will say my thoughts are with the family of the fallen hero.

I still have no idea about what today’s post will be about.

So I will end it there, today’s post is about nothing. Sorry guys I hope next weeks will be better

Have a great rest of the week,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Play some games to make up for the shitty post http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/

May As Well Monday 2/08/10

2010-08-02T16:03:00.004+12:00

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Review: Theatre; Here We Are

Last Friday I took the day off work and drove 3 hours so I could watch a 30 min play. Why, I hear you ask, did you do that for? Well the answer will become clear as you read the AMAZING review I’m about to give Here We Are.

This play, set in the 1930’s, features only two actors, named He and She, a newly wed couple of less than 3 hours, on their way to New York by train for their honeymoon.

They are both very nervous about the wedding night as this is a “traditional” (read as both are virgins) marriage and these nervous turn into arguments about her taste in hats, who he was looking at at the wedding, writing letters when they get to the hotel and who was going to buy the furniture for their new apartment.

Both the actors did a great job, Alex playing He and Miriam playing She. This was Miriam’s first time as a lead and was great in it. The set was very detailed recreation of a train carriage and added to the whole atmosphere.

The director, a young first timer, was my very talented and very beautiful sweets. You can see now why I did what I did to see the play :)

So to sum it up, great play, great set, great actors and a super duper awesome director.

I give it 5/5 but I am sleeping with the director so I might be a little bias ;)

Have a great week

Crumble the Elder

P.S. http://www.savagechickens.com/chewbacca Very funny :)

Photo Friday

2010-07-30T09:21:00.003+12:00

I don't really like this photo but you have to put the good with the bad :)

Have a great weekend,

Crumble the Elder

Beards

2010-07-28T19:35:00.003+12:00

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After Kim at Cupcakes and Mace posted a video of Big Poppa E, I found his one about beards and it got me thinking about beards and why they are so freaking AWESOME!

I love my beard for many reasons:

1. It makes me a man!

Now, before you leap up and down and accuse me being a redneck sexist let me explain. Throughout human history, the growth of a beard showed that you were becoming a man and leaving childhood behind. So, my beard shows others that I am now a man and not some spotty teenager :)

"There are two kinds of people in this world that go around beardless—boys and women—and I am neither one." -Greek saying

2. It keeps me warm.

My lush (well, at the moment it is nice and trim) beard helps to keep me warm on the cold winter days and nights that we have down here in Central Otago. It can get so cold down here that once walked to work and had ice form on my beard on the way. This, too many, might sound like a bad thing but at least it did not form on my skin :)

3. It gives me respect and wisdom.

This might seem odd to a lot of you but in my experience, when I have a big, lush, and powerful beard people seem to think you know stuff, like I'm all wise and stuff and have “been around the block” a few times. Also with my students I have found in the last five years that when I have a beard, students, especially boys, instantly seem to have respect for you. Weird.

4. I have really, like really, sensitive skin.

My skin is like a four year old kid that is allergic to everything. Shavers, shaving cream, shaving foam, aftershave and basically anything that is associated with shaving irritates the crap out of my skin, so I grow a beard to not have it happen.

5. Nearly all the great men of history had beards.

Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Grigori Rasputin, Zeus (ok he’s not real but still kind of cool), Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Henry the VIII, the list could go on and on. All of them have or had beards and I like the idea that I have something in common with these people.

I love my beard and summer is not something I look forward to because my beard will have to go and I will lose all of my power :(

Have a great rest of your week,

And remember, in the words of Big Poppa E “Fuck it, I'm growing a beard!"

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Nearly everything you could ever want to know about beards http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beard#History

May As Well Monday 26-07-10

2010-07-26T13:02:00.003+12:00

Picture Source

Review: Restaurant; India Gate Dunedin

I love curry in a hurry as much as the next bloke and India Gate on Princess St in Dunedin is a great place to go for one. Sweets and I have gone there a number of times, for both lunch and tea and we enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and the cheap food.

The meals are quite good and my sweets loves their Buttered Chicken (I must admit the thought of Buttered Chicken makes me gag a little) and I think that their Chicken Korma is in the top 10 best I have had.

The Mango Lasses on the other hand at India Gate are FANTASTIC, I really love them :) They are sweet and favourful and I wonder how they make theirs?

A thing to note if you do go to India Gate is to order medium heat or more for your curries. I’m a weakling when it comes to heat in curries but mild is too mild for me.

So to sum it up, if you want great Indian restaurant then is not the place for you but if you want solid food for a good price then you should check it out.

I give 3.5/5

Have a great week!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. A little history behind the name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Gate

Photo Friday

2010-07-23T10:10:00.003+12:00

Took this photo a while ago.
Its just south of Dunedin, I can't remember the islands name.
First one to guess (in the comments below) gets a lollipop. I send it anywhere in the world.

My Term Break

2010-07-21T20:00:00.002+12:00

Picture Source

Sorry about the lack of bloggy goodness for the last week but I have been super busy with the term break finishing and having to teach again.

So, today will only be a quick post to keep you’ll up to date with the exciting and provocative world of me!

The term break was awesome and I did some pretty cool stuff but, as always, the best part was getting to see my sweets and the worst part was having to leave her.

Big news from the break however, was that I am now the proud holder of a restricted drivers licence. I’ll pause for the applause………….. Yes, it has only taken 12 years and threat of a good beating to get me to do it and you know what, it was not that hard.

I was super stressed and paranoid about it but I did it and got it. So, that meant I could drive my new car home. My very lovely, very awesome, very amazing, very beautiful sweets brought me a car! A 1990 Toyota Grande; so very pimp.

Not much us of note really happened in the break, hung out with Viper, got drunk a couple of times, did some school work and watched some movies. Not much really.

Now only 9 ½ weeks till my next break :)

Have a great week and see you Friday,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/index.html Very cool website.

Tipple On A Tuesday 13-07-10

2010-07-13T12:51:00.005+12:00

Picture Source

Review; Film, The A-Team

After going to see Eclipse last week with sweets it was my turn to choose the film for this week, so it was The A-Team! I actually think sweets enjoyed this one more :)

It was a very good action film with some awesome humour. The rogue CIA agent, Lynch, played by Patrick Wilson was very good and played the character perfectly. Liam Neeson,who plays Col. Hannibal was fantastic and I’m always surprised with the roles that Neeson takes.

But the stand out for me was Captain H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock played by Sharlto Copley. He played the role of crazy, slightly suicidal pilot so well. He provided some of the best comedy and action in the film; his flight from the evil Mexican Army General was awesome. I loved him in District 9 and he is definitely one to watch for the future.

There are a couple of scenes that stood out for me in the film, now I’m not going into too much detail cause I don’t want to spoil them for you :)

In just one of the most bat-shit crazy endings I’ve seen for a long time in an action film; involving a container ship, guys getting shot in the head and some larger than life remote control cars. All that I could think of while watching was “OMG THIS IS BAT-SHIT CRAZY!”

The scene in the car with the CIA agents and their prisoner (find character/actor name), was just hilarious, even though it was meant to be a really serious moment; you will laugh so hard.

And the scene that ROCKED MY WORLD involved a Hercules transport plane, a tank on a parachute, and two remote controlled drones. They shot down the drones, with a tank, that they were flying! Holy shitballs was it AWESOME!

So to sum up, I loved this movie and it is what it is; an escapist action film that was just fun and you enjoy watching.

I give it 4/5.

Have a great week and see you Wednesday,

Crumble the Elder.

P.S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A-Team_(film)#Cast

Photo Friday

2010-07-09T19:39:00.003+12:00

Slightly different Photo Friday today; my sweets took this photo outside the early childhood centre she works at and I thought it looked awesome.

Yes, it is that cold down here :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

My PD

2010-07-07T14:33:00.010+12:00

Picture Source

(Disclaimer: These are my ideas and opinions. I do not represent any ground or organisation)

I think I need to clear up what PD for a teacher means. It is not as, some people think, a time when you are supervised picking up rubbish to pay your debt to society for a crime you have committed :)

PD for a teacher is Professional Development, and in my case was a two day course on the new New Zealand Curriculum in relation to teaching History, which I attended last Friday and Saturday.

The course was fantastic! It was run by the OHTA (Otago History Teachers Association) and really cleared up some of the issues that I was having about the implementation of the Curriculum and of the realignment of the Achievement Standards. That might not make a lot sense to most of you out there but it did to me, so that is the main thing :)

I think a quick crash course in where History in New Zealand High Schools is going is needed. Basically, we are moving from proscribed topics, like Origins of World War Two, Black Civil Rights, Russian Revolution etc to being able to teach the history that we want to teach, as long as it meets the Achievement Objective and can be tested through the Achievement Standards. Hope that clears things up for you :)

Also my old History teacher from school was there, Mrs Kelly, so that was pretty cool and I’ve organised to go to her school for a visit to see how the experts do it.

While I was at this course, I started to think about how it relates to many, many issues facing us in the education sector.

The three big issues, as I see it, are the Secondary Teacher Collective Agreement negotiations, the implementation of the National Standards for Years 1-8 (That’s that old New Entrance to Form 2 for you old school peeps out there and for my foreign readers they are 5 to 13 year olds), and the basic lack of understanding of education that the “Honourable” Anne Tolley, the Education Ministry shows.

How, I hear you ask, does you sitting in a room at Dunedin Teachers College for two days discussing AOs, ASs, Internals, Externals and general history awesomeness relate to these three things.

Let’s take the SCTA negotiations, the Ministry of Education offered us minimal pay offer (2.5% over two years) and 10 ‘non-contact’ days a year. The second part of that offer is worse than what we have in the SCTA already. Basically, they want to give principals and BOT’s the power to force teachers to come into school for up to ten days a year when the school is not open for instruction, i.e. weekends and school holidays. Their offer also places no restrictions on the use of these days in relation to cost, work already done and personal PD needs.

For instance, here is the link guys, if I was to use some of the holiday time to do PD like I did last Saturday that would not count to the ten days ‘non-contact’ so I can be forced to do more days in the holidays or weekends. They want us to work for two extra weeks a year for free.

If we also look at the National Standards in relation to my two days at Dunedin Teachers College, then we see huge issues. The new New Zealand Curriculum has been years in the making, with consultations, reworkings and many other steps in the process to get it to the classroom. It is being slowly implemented over the next three years, with it being fully implemented in 2013.

The National Standards however, have been rushed through in a very short space of time and given no trial in schools, with very little teacher input. There are huge issues with the National Standards, check out the following links to get some idea. 1, 2, 3, 4.

The last issue that I thought about while I was working on PD in the start of my holidays was the real lack of understanding of education in the 21st century, shown by the “Honourable” Anne Tolley.

The PD I was at was run by two very experienced history teachers who work in the classroom and have an amazing understanding of the new New Zealand Curriculum in relation to History. Having experts running the course, providing information, gave us the best advice was how things should be run but far too often in education you get some suit, some Ministry hack, sent from Wellington to tell us what to do.

Having someone who is not an expert, say someone who was once a Real Estate Agent, trying to tell experts what to do, what to say and who to say it to does not really inspire confidence within the sector. Anne Tolley is showing she is increasing unable to do the job of Education Minister, she shows a shocking lack of knowledge of education and of teachers.

I urge everyone to be informed about the issues surrounding education. Education is central to the future of our nation.

Cheers,

Crumble the Elder

P.S Here is a very good video about Bulk Funding http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/a-civilised-society-2006

Tipple On A Tuesday 6/07/10

2010-07-06T10:56:00.006+12:00

Hey everyone, sorry that I missed yesterday's post but I am on break so cut me a little slack :)

So, today is a Tipple On A Tuesday day.

Picture Source

Review; Film, Twilight: Eclipse

I went to this film with my sweets at the Rialto and, as my few but dedicated readers know, this is my favorite place to watch films.

Now, I will admit that I have seen the other two Twilight films and if I was 100% honest I did not hate them. But with Eclipse, I did not enjoy it as much as the others but it was still a solid film with some very cool scenes and quite good humour in places.

The battle scene was very cool and done well, also I love the Cullen's house and I want to move there asap.

Jacob (the werewolf) really stepped up in this film and started playing a major role and almost stole the leading man crown from Edward (the vampire).

Overall however, I was over teen angst shots and just how piss poor pathetic the Bella character really is.

So to sum it up, if like Twilight aka you are a person that would have a bedroom like this, then you will love it. For everyone else, if you are remotely interested, wait for DVD.

I give it 2/5 but for Twilight fans 5/5.

Have a great week and I'll be back tomorrow

Crumble the Elder

P.S. http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h62/beautifulmurals/Twilight.jpg This kind of sums up my thoughts about it :)

The Pimpernel

2010-07-01T11:25:00.012+12:00

Last week I was heavily involved in the school production, The Pimpernel. I loved it! I was the sound guy and while I have never done anything like this before I found that I was not too rubbish at it :)

The students really stepped up and gave a great performance (read May As Well Monday for the review). While people are always concerned about the time out of class and the huge cost to the school, I think that it is a huge benefit to the students and I’m seeing it around school.

They are more confident and outgoing; answering more questions in class and generally just being awesome!

We had three shows, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; with all of them almost selling out.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here we go!

Huge credit to everone you took part; you all did a great job! Big thanks to Mr Philip for the photos.

Have an awesomesauce rest of your week,

Crumble the Elder.

P.S I'm on break for the next two weeks so I should be able to get the posts up on time :)

P.P.S http://www.thisblogrules.com/2010/06/grow-a-beard-with-a-knitted-cap.html I WANT ONE!

May As Well Monday 28/06/10

2010-06-28T15:16:00.007+12:00

This weeks May As Well Monday is about the really successful and super duper fun Cromwell College production of The Pimpernel.

I was involved in this doing sound and while it was very stressful it was fun. I will give you more detail and photos on Wednesday. Today’s post is a review about Thursday night performance because it was the best one.

The student’s performance was amazingly and delivered a fantastic, snappy performance with a great comic timing.

My favourite character was Rose the Tavern Girl, played by a first time actor. She had some of the best comic lines in the play and delivered them greatly.

Chauvelin: They must have sent the most beautiful girl in the tavern to me.

Rose: No, No they sent me.

When she said that line I almost fell off my chair, it was so funny.

The main characters did a great job and you could tell that they loved it and were having fun.

All of the actors gave a great performance and I enjoyed all of the shows and loved being involved.

So to sum it up, if you ever get the chance to go a High School production, go, they are a lot better than you think.

I give it, 1000000000/5 but I’m biased :)

Have a great week,

Crumble the Elder

P.S Very funny video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUalTwqWVVw&NR=1

SORRY!

2010-06-22T07:52:00.005+12:00

Link for picture
Hey everyone out there in Internet land. I'm going to take a break this week from the blog. I know, I know, how can you live without my amazing words but you will just have to :)

The reason I'm taking this break is school stuff is getting crazy busy. Production (which I'm doing sound for), Union matters, Reports, Being made BOT Staff Rep and miscellaneous end of term fun.

I will be back next week with all the goss and news from the production.

Have a great week!

Crumble the Elder

Photo Friday

2010-06-18T11:53:00.005+12:00

This is more of the numbers series that I took around Cromwell. Sorry _vitaminK still looking for a nine :)

Next term I will be entering some photographs in an Art Auction for the College. I'm thinking about a day and night series about Cromwell. I'll take a photo of a place in Cromwell in the day and again at night and have them side by side for the auction.

I'll put them up when I'm done.

Have a great weekend!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. A huge Cromwell Shout Out of thanks to The Dainty Squid for her awesome post about taking photos.

P.P.S. I have changed the comments section so that anyone can comment now :)

Cromwell "Top Guy" Competition

2010-06-16T19:20:00.017+12:00

As the few but pert readers of my blog know, I was in the Cromwell Top Guy Competition last Saturday night. This is a bi-annual event run by the Lady Lions of Cromwell to raise money for the Helicopter Trust.

If any of you have lived in rural New Zealand, you will know how important rescue helicopters can be and especially because most of my family make their living from the land, this was something I wanted to support.

The night was FANTASTIC! I didn’t win but I had a bloody great time trying too.

The night was split into six events: Painting, Filling a Brandy Snap, Ballet, a Quiz, Air Guitar and putting a cloth nappy on a balloon.

All of the events were extraordinarily fun and the crowd of about 200 loved every minute of it.

Here are a few photos from the night. Enjoy!

My table of support. Thanks Guys!

The second event; whip the cream and fill the brandy snap.

The third event; Ballet dancing in gumboots.

This is my piece of art from the first event. Painted in under 5 mins and sold for $300 (to my Dad).

Fourth event; blow up the balloon and put a cloth nappy on it.

The last event; the air guitar competition.

Waiting for the winner to be announced. Sadly, it was not to be my night.

This was an amazing event and rasied a heap of money for the Trust.

Have a great week and see you Friday!

Crumble the Elder

P.S More photos here http://www.odt.co.nz/news/galleries/gallery/general/110475/top-guy-competition-cromwell
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/galleries/gallery/otago/110876/people-cromwell-top-guy

May As Well Monday 14/06/10

2010-06-14T15:49:00.004+12:00

Hey everyone hope you had a great weekend. Mine was crazy busy but super fun.

Now, I know you are dieing to know if I won Cromwell Top Guy but sadly the answer is no but I had a great time and photos, video and a more detailed desricption will be up on Wednesday.

Review: Film; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

My sweets and I went to Queenstown over Queens Birthday weekend and as well as her making me buy an electric blanket we went and watched Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

This is a solid film, its not going to change your life and touch you in deep in your soul but I enjoyed it.

It’s the classic evil uncle trying to take over the world story with orphans, hot chicks, some time travelling magic, snake charmers and pretty cool sword swinging swashbuckling action.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead, Prince Dastan. I have always really enjoyed the movies that he was in and this is no exception. The leading lady, Gemma Arterton, fast becoming my favorite new actress (don’t worry Scarlett Johansson and Christina Hendricks, I still love you!)

So to sum it up, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a solid swashbuckling film with an ok plot. I think I would recommend waiting for DVD.

I give it 2.8/5

Have a great day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S This is a very cool little crafty kind of website http://www.cubeecraft.com/

Photo Friday

2010-06-11T14:59:00.003+12:00

Hey everyone hope you like the photo this week. I'm in Cromwell Top Guy this weekend so wish me luck; I'll let you know how I go.

Why, Oh Why Do We Do It?

2010-06-09T20:12:00.004+12:00

I’m talking about tattoos, why do we get them?

I mean, they hurt like ballyhoo (not too sure what this means but it sounds cool), cost a lot and have to be touched up every so often so they still look awesome. Yet, millions and millions of people around the world have them and, a little closer to home, a lot people I know have tattoos and want more.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the idea of tattoos and the reasons people get them. I have two tattoos, one on my left calf and the other on my right upper arm and I want more! I have about six planned over the next two years or so. This has caused me to think about the reasons why I choose the designs I did for the tattoos that I have and for the ones I want to get.

My tattoos are for me and me alone; I got them because they are important ideas to me. I don’t really understand the idea of getting a tattoo to show it off, saying that, I understand why you want people to see a piece of beautiful artwork that you love. That is why, boys and girls in internet land, you need to save up and get the best tattoo artist you can get to do your work or you could end up with something like this.

The two I have mean a lot to me but for very different reasons.

On my left calf I have a Celtic Cross with Truth, Honour, Justice and Courage in Celtic around it (photo above).

This tattoo has many different meanings for me; it celebrates my Celtic heritage, gives me strength at times through the words it displays, and I like to feel in gives me protection from “things” (don’t ask what these “things” are; I don’t really know myself :D ) that could want to put bad juju on me.

But that is what I think of when I see my tattoo but I’m sure that is not what other people think when they see it :)

The other tattoo, on my right upper arm, is a map of New Zealand made up of kiwis with the kiwi over Central Otago, my home, is a different colour.

Now, the meaning of this tattoo is pretty obvious. In the last 10 years or so I have moved a lot; from my home in Millers Flat to Dunedin, then to Auckland and around Auckland, down to Westport and then to Cromwell. I wanted to have a reminder of where I was from, no matter where I am in New Zealand or later the world. (Sorry don’t have a photo of this one).

I love my tattoos and the reasons behind them and I know I will love the next ones I will get because they will mean something to me and not done just to look cool and be part of the “in” crowd.

Why do you have your tattoo/s? Dad, I know why you have yours; share the story with the rest of the world! :)

Have a great day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Very cool blog, with great posts about tattoos http://sometimessweet.blogspot.com/

P.S.S. Cool tattoo tumblr http://fuckyeahtattoos.tumblr.com/

Photo Friday

2010-06-04T09:55:00.002+12:00

Took some photos of numbers around Cromwell the other day. Pictured this one on a canvas on the wall and thought that it might look good.

Have a great long weekend, for it is our beloved Queen's birthday treat to us on Monday. Also I'll treat myself with taking a break from "May As Well Monday", see you Wednesday!

Crumble the Elder

2010 SCTA NEGOTAITIONS

2010-06-03T11:23:00.006+12:00

As most of you will have figured out from my blog, I’m a secondary school teacher and I staunch supporter of our union, the PPTA and we are right at the start of contract negotiations.

This is always a stressful time for a teacher, the uncertainty about your job and conditions especially with the current government and its ideology driven policies.

Our claim was presented to the Ministry of Education in May and was immediately meet with a “counter-claim” from the Ministry of Education. This is almost unheard of and means that the PPTA and Ministry of Education have a long way to go to meet in the middle but I’m sure it can be done.

We have put forward ten claims to the Ministry of Education; these are the main ones:

1. 4% increase in salary:

We have asked for an increase in out salaries to make sure that we are a first choice career for top graduates.
We are part of the global teacher market and have to be competitive with overseas levels if we wish to retain teachers in New Zealand and attract top quality teachers from overseas.
i. Alberta, Canada – 6% in 2009
ii. Queensland, Australia – 12.5% over 3 years
iii. South Australia – 15.75% over 4 years
iv. USA – State and District increases of US$1000-3000 p.a.
We also have to prepare for the counter-cyclic problem of teacher recruitment as the economy improves.

2. Class size maximums:

We have asked for a maximum of 30 per class with an average of no more than 26 per class with 24 for classes with hazards.
12% of learning time for Year 9 and 10’s (that is the old Form 3 and 4 for you old buggers) is in classes of 30 + and parents want classes of between 20 and 25.
Lower student to teacher ratio in actual class size studies show that the students stay longer in school, have a greater chance of leaving school with a qualification, have high wagers in later life, improved attendance, earlier diagnosis of student difficulties, amongst other things.
The 24 per class for classrooms with hazards is purely for student and teacher safety. A lot of workshops and labs were designed with groups of 24/25 not 30 +.

3. Fairness and equity:

This is about laptops and flu vaccinations.
91% of secondary teachers surveyed have to pay the lease on their laptops that are vital for our job. That works out to about $250 per year. I can’t imagine many other people that have to pay for their work computer.
At the moment 89% of schools surveyed pay for flu vaccinations for their teachers. It is about $25 per shot which is a lot less than a teacher taking a day off.

4. School Management:

We have asked for an increase in the number of Management Units, Middle Management Allowances, and Senior Management Allowances, also a $500 increase in the worth of MU’s.
This is to encourage people to move up into middle and senior management roles, which is notoriously hard to find people for.
Current statistics also show a large number of people doing this middle and senior management job without being paid for it.
44% of schools surveyed have people in management roles that are not getting paid for their work.
23% of schools surveyed have people in senior management roles that are not getting SMA’s because the school does not have enough.
38% of schools surveyed pay units out of their operations grant. This money should be going help the teaching and learning environment not paying teachers for work.

This is just a taste of the issues that schools in New Zealand face in 2010. I urge you to stay informed. If you want more information feel free to leave a comment.

Have a great day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Here is the PPTA website

Tipple On A Tuesday 01-06-10

2010-06-01T12:37:00.002+12:00

Sorry about no “May As Well Monday” yesterday, I was crazy busy and if I was quite honest I still am but you guys are more important :)

I now have a rough I idea how many people are reading my blog and it is more than the five I thought and I’ve had readers from the US, Canada, England, Scotland and Russia; Super stoked!

So, enough ego stroking, lets leap into today’s post!

Review: Food; Whittakers 33% Milk Madagascar

I saw the advert for this chocolate and I thought this was a great advert and I should look into this. (I love old maps!)

I was at Cromwell New World and saw it on the shelf and whet “I’ll give that ago”

When I got home I found wonderfully flavoured, creamy chocolate that was divine! The flavour is strong with out being overpowering bitterness that some dark chocolate can have. And as the advert says you can taste caramel and honey but I could not find the citrus but maybe my taste buds are not as delicate as others.

My favourite way to have it, apart from straight from the packet, is four or five cubes in a mug of warm milk, stirred until they melt. This is AMAZING and great on cold Central Otago days!

Ever since Cadburys turned to crap I have been looking for a new chocolate to enjoy and I think that Whittakers 33% Milk Madagascar.

The only negative thing I can say, is that the blocks are too small because I always seem to run out :)

So to sum it up, if you have been looking for a new chocolate treat or you just love chocolate and want to try some thing new, then Whittakers 33% Milk Madagascar is for you!

I give it 4.6/5

Have a great day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S Very cool Whittakers Website http://www.whittakers.co.nz/default.aspx

Photo Friday

2010-05-28T11:30:00.004+12:00

The second "Night Photo" I've put up, enjoy :)

Why I LOVE Winter!

2010-05-26T14:17:00.007+12:00

“There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savour belonging to yourself.”
Ruth Stout

This might be one of the most controversial topics I have ever addressed in my blog.

I love winter; it is the most amazing time of the year and my favourite. Winter reminds me of the some the happiest times in my life, times that I cherish the most have happened in winter.

I have, for most of my life, lived in areas of New Zealand that get very, very cold. And I just have amazing memories of these places in the middle of winter. Now, I’m sure my parents (Jen and Big B) have very different memories of living at Reedy Creek Station (near Waipori if anyone wants to look it up) or driving to Ranfurly in the middle of hoar frost; but for me these times leap out at me as the some of the happest moments in my life.

For us kids, winter in these remote, cold places was an amazing playground, with no school, playing in meters of snow and then coming inside to sit by a roaring fire.

I have three very distinct winter memories that I want to share with you, two from Reedy Creek and one about Ranfurly and the Maniototo.

When I was about 5 or 6 and living at Reedy Creek, we were snowed in for about a week or so and supplies (bread, milk etc) started to run low and a local bloke tried to bring us some. He brought the tractor as close as he could, which was not really that close, and then walked the rest of the way carrying the box of supplies. Only meters from the gate, he tripped, dropped the box and smashed the milk bottles.

I’m sure Mum cried.

The second story from Reedy Creek has to do with my younger brother, Andrew, who at this time would have been 2-3. He had one of those one-piece snowsuits, you know, the type with the zip up the front. Well, this suit was slightly too small for him and he had on a heap of clothes underneath to help him keep warm. So as a result he could not bend his arms or legs.

I had a great time pushing him on to his face into the snow and running away. I don't think he enjoyed it very much tho.

Good times :)

These are my first real memories that I have as a child and they stick strong in my mind.

Winter for us also meant Ranfurly! For those of you out there in internet world, who don’t know about Ranfurly, let me explain, it is a bum hole of a town in the middle of the Maniototo but I love it in winter.

Ranfurly and winter; it meant one thing, seeing Char, my late Grandfather. The times I spent with him where amazing and I miss him to this day.

But weirdly, one my strongest winter/Ranfurly memories, evolves not the town, but coming too and from it.

When I was a kid, we had an old poo brown Holden Kingswood. Bench seats, column shift, the whole nine yards. It also had no heater and a hole in the floor and we used to drive over to Ranfurly from Millers Flat in the middle of winter, in the middle of hoar frost, in the middle of the coldest place in New Zealand. All of us kids in the back, huddled together for warmth, wrapped up in blankets with hot water bottles, trying to stave off frost bite.

I loved those days :)

Winters for me are these great memories and, ones yet to be made.

Have a great day but more importantly, have a great winter and cherish the moments that the cold can give you :)

Crumble the Elder

P.S. I don’t know why but this song has just captured me today, thank you to Sarah Von at yes and yes for getting me on to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjdkc14-zwQ

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” Edith Sitwell

May As Well Monday 24/05/10

2010-05-24T10:32:00.009+12:00

Review: Town; Cromwell.

Today, I thought I would review the town I live in, Cromwell.

Cromwell is a small town of about 4000 in the heart of Central Otago. Cromwell's recent history has been focused on one thing; the Clyde Dam.

The Clyde Dam dominates almost every aspect of life in Cromwell, from the Lake that it created to the layout of the streets and the mall.

This is what lets Cromwell down hugely. I'm sure when the Clyde Dam was being built, under Rob "Piggy" Muldoon's Think Big policy, some suit in Wellington, at the Ministry of Works said "This layout for the Cromwell streets looks great! Who needs straight lines and logical layout?"

So, while Old Cromwell is the straight street, traditional block design; which is logical and makes sense. New Cromwell is a series of confusing Places, Closes, and Crescents that looks like a monkey with a crayon designed it.

Someone spent a lot of time and money making New Cromwell shithouse.

Also, what lets Cromwell down is that fact that it lacks anything really, no movies, only one supermarket (which means high prices), a couple of pubs and cafes and that is about it. It means the unless you to the pub in the weekend, you kind of end up just sitting at home and not doing much, unless of course you want to drive an hour to Queenstown for some "Big City' loving.

But for all these bad things about Cromwell, there are some great things:

The "Greenways' are fantastic! They are a series of long parks/walkways that link the town together. I walk down them every day to and from work.
The fact that Cromwell is a small town, so you get that small town community feel. While sometimes this can be an issue, most of the time I love it. That is something I missed living in Auckland and I have go it here.
Central Otago is a place that I hold close to my heart and the fact that I live here makes me very, very happy.
It is close to Queenstown, Wanaka, Clyde and Alexandra. All of these places are amazing in there own way and I really enjoy that I live so close to them all. It makes me super joyful! :)
The farmers market in Old Cromwell Town, which runs for the summer, is great. The sticky buns from Provisions will blow your mind!

So to sum it up, Cromwell is a nice place to visit and maybe even stay for a wee bit but the lack of services and just the very quiet pace of life ( and before you leap up and down about what is wrong with a quiet pace of life, there is quiet and there is dead) means that I don't think I will be living here forever.

I give it 3/5.

Have a great day,

Crumble the Elder

Photo Friday

2010-05-21T11:53:00.003+12:00

Took some photos last night along the "Greenway" in Cromwell. Never really taken photos at night. Some good, some naff :)

Let me know what you think; always looking for help.

Have a great weekend,

Crumble the Elder!

The New Zealand Drinking Culture

2010-05-19T09:01:00.004+12:00

(Disclaimer: The views below are my personal views and do not represent any organisation or group that I belong to).

The New Zealand drinking culture has been in the news a lot in the last few months and came to a head with the tragic death of a young man in Auckland from alcohol poisoning.

This and the Law Commission report has renewed calls for an increase in the drinking age, an increase in the excise tax, and having a national closing time for both on and off license as well as many other recommendations. Most of them I strongly disagree with, especially the increase in the age.

In little old “Gods Own” at 18 you can marry, vote for the government of our nation, and join the armed services and possible die for you country; but heaven help you if you want to have drink! You! Yes, you! While you are deemed responsible enough to do all of these things, you are not deemed responsible enough to have a drink.

THAT IS BULLSHIT!

The problem is not the age or the price or anything like that. It is the drinking culture of New Zealand. This is not a new issue for us to be facing and I cannot understand the short memories of the people of New Zealand and alcohol, maybe it’s all the drink.

New Zealand has had this problem with alcohol since the first European settlers arrived. The first town, for crying out loud, was know has the “Hell-Hole of the South Pacific” were drunken debauchery was the order of the day.

This drunken debauchery continued into the gold mining areas in the 1860’s especially Central Otago and the West Coast. These hard living, hard drinking men and women had a large impact on the drinking culture of New Zealand.

Then when farming became “King” the spurge become the issue of the day. Men, who worked all month, came into town with their pockets full of money and went on the bender to end all benders (Now days, called binge drinking). It got so bad that the government of the time made it illegal to shout someone at the bar.

The next big cultural impact on alcohol and New Zealand is the introduction of six o’clock closing and the advent of the six o’clock swill. For those readers who live outside New Zealand and those who do, but don’t know what the six o’clock swill was, here we go!

In World War One, to help keep everyone sober and focused on the war effort pubs in New Zealand had to close at 6pm. Men, and at this point in history only men really went to the pub, finished work a 5pm and rushed to the pub to drink as much as they could before the “Time Gentlemen!” call was made.

This "swill" was not changed until 1967, when 10pm closing was brought in. But, in my humble opinion, the damage was done. I don’t think one other event has shaped the drinking culture more than the six o’clock swill. The idea of pouring as much booze down your throat as quick as you can is almost ingrained in the New Zealand psyche.

What I’m trying to get at is that it’s not the law that is the problem but the culture and as I teach my students in the Black Civil Rights unit, changing the law does not change the thinking/culture.

I don’t have the answers to this issue but I know more legislation is not, I repeat, is not the answer.

Have a really great day,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Here is one more thing to help you keep warm http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/e071/

May As Well Monday 17/05/10

2010-05-17T09:43:00.002+12:00

Review: Film; How to Train Your Dragon

Now, I know this movie has been out for a while and I did see it about 5 weeks ago but today is the time for it to be reviewed.

Sweets, two friends and I went to see this on the new 3D screen at Hoyts in Dunedin. While I would not want to watch every film in 3D, for How to Train Your Dragon it was fantastic and added so much more to the film and to my enjoyment.

So a little plot summery here, How to Train Your Dragon is set during Viking times and its focus is a small Viking village that is regularly attacked by dragons. Hiccup, the chief’s son, wants to be a dragon slayer like the rest of the village but finds he is not very good at it when he befriends a dragon.

This film has everything you could want! Great storyline, fantastic characters, (I loved Gobber the Belch played by Craig Ferguson), beautiful scenery and brilliant humor.

The stand outs for me where Gobber the Belch played by Craig Ferguson, Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast and Jay Baruchel as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. These three made the film for me. The “You just indicated to all of me” moments almost made me wet my pants.

So to sum it up, this is a great, one of my favourite animated films up there with the The Incredibles. I 100% recommend anyone going to see this film.

I give it 4.7/5.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Don’t just take my opinion http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strip/468

Photo Friday

2010-05-14T11:36:00.002+12:00

This photo was taken outside a student flat at the start of the year.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Have an awesomesauce day and weekend.

Crumble the Elder

Top Ten Ways to Stay Warm in Cromwell in Winter!

2010-05-12T14:37:00.011+12:00

Last week I said that my sweets had come up with an idea from my Wednesday Post, and that I would share it with you next week; so here it is!

The small, but pert town of Cromwell can be, to be fully frank with you; BLOODY cold in winter and my poor sweets does feel the cold so terribly much. So, she and I have come up with some of the best things to keep you warm in Cromwell in winter.

Before we leap into the countdown, I just want to make sure you understand how cold Cromwell truly is. This is a poem that Char, my Granddad, told me when I was a lad.

As cold as a frog on an ice bound pool,
As cold as an end of an Eskimos’ tool,
As cold as charity, and that’s damn chilly,
But not as cold as our poor Billy,
He’s dead poor bastard, He’s dead.

That is how cold it is!

So here we go.

Number 10: The Electric Blanket.

Now, it seems pretty obvious that this would be a must in Cromwell; but I don’t have one. Sweets would love me for to get one but I don’t really like them mostly because I always, always, forget to turn them off when I go to sleep and I end up drier than a nun’s bum.

Number 9: The Hot Water Bottle.

This one I can handle for a while but my feet get too hot, and then the bottle goes cold, so you have cold water on your feet. It can lead to a nightmare situation but one I can handle.

Number 8: The Hat-Scarf.

When I first saw one of these, IT BLEW MY MIND! I mean a hat and a scarf combined! The efficiency of these things must be awesome. Instead of two items of clothing, Boom Baby! Its just one! Hat-Scarf one of the greatest inventions in Human History! (I’m a history teacher so I know these things).

Number 7: Hand warmers.

I brought a pair of these for sweets when we went to Queenstown. They are mini wheat bags that fit into the palm of your hand. The idea behind it is that you nuke these bad boys on a cold morning and put them into your jacket pocket for you to keep you hands warm when you walk. Hence the name hand warmers.

Number 6: Onesies.

Now I know what you are saying out there, “Onesies are for children”, well yes and no. You can buy them for adults and they seem a great idea to keep warm around the house on those “cold as a witch’s tit” days.

Number 5: The Snuggle Sack.

(Sorry could not find a picture)

This is a really weird thing but my sweets love’s hers. It’s a cross between an onesie, a blanket and a top. I can see the benefit of it but just far too old women for me. (Sorry sweets, love you.)

Number 4: Hot Chocolate.

I love and I mean LOVE a good hot chocolate. It just hits all the right notes for me. Its sweet, its chocolate, its hot, and it warms you up from the inside. If you can make a great hot chocolate I will be your friend for life; even if you go to prison, I will come and visit you.

Number 3: A Roaring Fire.

Nothing beats a roaring open fire. Not your super duper it’s so quiet that I can hear my cat purr four blocks away heat pumps. Not your fancy under floor $900 a month heating. Nothing! There is just something primal and cavemanish about a roaring fire that makes you feel like you have accomplished something.

Number 2: The Tauntaun Sleeping Bag.

Just simply put. If Luke Freaking Skywalker can survive on the Ice Plant Hoth in one of these, you can in Cromwell.

Number 1: My sweets.

(Sorry no picture have to protect her privacy)

She is the best thing to help you keep warm. But hands off she’s mine :) Love you sweets.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. This is were you can get a Tauntaun Sleeping Bag http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bb2e/

May As Well Monday’s 10-05-10

2010-05-10T17:18:00.001+12:00

This is a special May As Well Monday post because it is about my friend Willie. He asked me to review him as a drinking buddy after a night out on Saturday.

Review; Drinking Buddy: Willie

The evening started off great with a quick drink at The Bog in Dunedin. Willie as he is known to do entered into great small talk with the bartender and ordered a Vodka and Red Bull after much discussion with said bartender. Now, I really like these drink and showed that the evening should be a good one.

Next we stopped at Betty’s Liquor Store and again Willie engaged in polite and entertaining small talk with the staff about the prices of the Vodka they had on offer. After settling on Absolut for the evening we went back to Willies flat.

Now, this part of the evening was…… how can I describe it without sounding like a dick…….was interesting. I did enjoy some aspects of the time at Willies flat. Namely, the drinking and shit talking but overall it was the least enjoyable aspect of the evening.

Around 9:30ish, Willie and I took ourselves off to South Bar. This is where, in my opinion, Willie shines as a drinking buddy, in the bar situation.

He orders three drinks every time he went up to the bar and then proceeded to try and give one of them away to a stranger in the bar. This is very funny to watch. We then proceed in some good natured hecking of the guy playing guitar which he returned.

I can’t really go into to much more detail has it all gets a little fuzzy after this so I will be marking him down for that :)

So to sum it up, Willie is a great friend and great drinking buddy. He excels in the bar situation and is very witty and funny and is a shitload of fun! I would recommend him to anyone.

I give it 4.8/5

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. This is very cool. Thanks to Kim for getting me this one. http://vimeo.com/10382785

Photo Friday

2010-05-07T09:29:00.004+12:00

As I said last Photo Friday, I'm entering the Otago Wildlife Photo Competition this year and these are the 3 photos that I'm putting in for consideration.

The first two are being entered in the Plant category and the 3rd photo entered in the Human Impact category.

Wish me luck!

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

The Promise of Something Better?

2010-05-05T19:48:00.006+12:00

Now, I struggled to come up with ideas for today’s post and so I asked the smartest person I know, my sweets for ideas. Her one will be next week because it needs a little research and it would make more sense to do it next Wednesday.

So, today’s post is one I had kicking around the back of my mind but I’m not to sure how good it will be so let me know.

To start of with my good friend Willie the Viper got last weeks movie quote so he gets the 19846 points up for grabs. Well done, who will get it this week?

This weeks post is about Cooking Shows; now I don’t know if you have noticed but there has been a huge increase in the number of shows on television relating to cooking/food in the last few years; enough to choke a dozen donkeys with (Movie quote quessarama! 175830 points up for grabs).

I’m not to sure why this has been happening but I, for one, love them. Maybe because a lot of cooking shows would be cheap to make. I mean think about it, you don’t have actors, and you would not need a huge amount of cameras/equipment, normally they are no multiple sets to make. All of these things point to cheap shows that are quite popular.

We don’t have Sky TV at my flat but my parent’s do and I love, and I mean LOVE Food TV! The shows, the chefs, the drama; everything you need in a show. And its not just me, my brother and sister both love this channel, my old Man gets kind of pissed off at us when we all come home because we always have the TV on that channel.

I’m not to sure why all the children in my family enjoy watching cooking shows so much; maybe because as kids we did not enjoy the most adventurous culinary delights. Growing up on farms and being quite poor when I was younger, we had mutton and three veg most nights. It was nice and kept you going but it was not very adventurous.

So, I guess seeing all this amazing food on TV and thinking “Wow, people actually eat that kind of food?” could be a reason why I love cooking shows.

Some of my favourite cooking shows are, Escape to River Cottage, Iron Chef America, Two Fat Ladies, Good Eats, anything by Nigella Lawson and anything by NZ's own Peta Mathias.

My reason for liking these shows vary hugely from show to show from the “Man, I would love to live like Hugh in a River Cottage somewhere” to “I cannot believe how drunk that women is on Two Fat Ladies!”

But the thread great cooking runs through them all and as I’m typing up today’s post I’m starting to think that most of the cooking shows I like, promise something better, something amazing, something fantastic in your life.

Maybe, that is why I love the shows?

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S This game is sick! http://www.miniclip.com/games/viking-defense/en/

P.S.S This food related link is pretty good too http://www.holytaco.com/25-sweet-food-sculptures

May As Well Monday 03/05/10

2010-05-03T10:19:00.003+12:00

Review; Film: Iron Man 2

In the weekend, sweets and I went to the Reading Movie Theatre in Queenstown for a date night at the flicks.

Queenstown was just starting to recover from the near miss of the flood and it was kind of weird to see sandbags and flood fences up around the waterfront. Luckily, the water and sandbags did not make it as far as the Reading.

I quite like the Reading Theatre in Queenstown it has a quirky layout in the actual main theatre but I do like it.

The film, Iron Man 2, lived up to the hype in my opinion. It is a great blockbuster kind of film with a number of big name actors in it. The stand out for me was Micky Rourke, he just seems to be getting better and better. He plays one of the bad guys in the film, Ivan Vanko, and he does it so freaking well. I loved his performance.

Also, Robert Downey Jr, was great. I really like him as an actor don’t know why but I just do. Scarlett Johansson was also cool and her fight scene was awesomesauce.

The film did not have the most complex plot in the world ( I can sum it up for you very quickly bad guys try to win but don't) but it is was it is and that is a film with awesome action, big explosives, great fight scenes and cool robots/armour suits. I loved the fight between War Machine and Iron Man.

Parts I did not like in the film was the music, I wanted more AC/DC. I love that shit!

So to sum it up, a great film. It was well worth the money and I hope they make more in the Iron Man franchise.

I give it 4.5/5

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S A HUGE congrats to my friend Andrew and his partner Jenna on the birth of their first child. Love you guys!

Photo Friday

2010-04-30T09:30:00.002+12:00

Last week I mentioned that I was going to enter the Otago Wildlife Photography competition. This is one of the photos I'm looking at entering.

I think I will call it 'The Crave Up' and put it under Human Impact. The idea behind it is that we (Humans) have craved up the earth into survey points, straight lines, and boundaries.

Well, let me know what you think.

Have an amaze day,

Crumble the Elder

My Easter Break

2010-04-28T12:00:00.003+12:00

I promised you last week that I would give you a more detailed overview of my Easter break. So I guess I have to give you what I promised, unlike John Key, who promised not to rise GST.
My Easter Break was great, but then again all of my breaks are great; 12 weeks of holiday every single year. It’s not too bad. (Not has great as Batman, which a lightsaber, attacking a shark).

This one was extra great because I got to spend a lot of time with my sweets and my family. I never seem to have enough time for both of these important things in my life.

The break started with a roar with a trip to the Warbirds over Wanaka over Easter weekend it’s self. I had pictures up of these last week but they do not show just how much fun it was to go to this after a long time away. The one thing that I felt let it done was the price. $70 for an adult for one day, it just seems a little much.

After Warbirds shot up to Dunedin for a week and got to spent time with sweets (YAY!). This was when of the highlights of the break happened. Antia’s spa party on Easter Sunday! It was epic and I think some romances might come out of that night.

Also saw a crapload of movies, Boy, Clash of the Titans, How to Train Your Dragon. I love going the movies SOOOOOOO much fun. Plus they were pretty good movies which also makes it worth the time and effort.

Drinks were had on a number of events with my boys. I LOVE YOU BLUE! (Points will be given for getting the movie quote. Ummmmmmm lets make it 19846). I really miss living in Dunedin and wish a job would come up so I could move there or all of you could move to Cromwell. That would also work.

After the week in Dunedin back to my parents place in Millers Flat, followed by Rugby in Arrowtown, which my brothers team lost, then back to Millers Flat, then back to mucking about in Cromwell, then to Alex to watch my brother play rugby which they won! The last week of the break was very, very intense.

The last day of the break was spent with Cam for his birthday went over to Ranfurly for lunch and a couple of drinks.

Overall, the Easter Break was great and I cannot wait for the next one in about 9 weeks.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. This is cool and weird at the same time http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2010/04/27/a-gallery-of-star-wars-pin-up-propaganda/#more-16511

May As Well Monday's 26-04-10

2010-04-26T10:21:00.003+12:00

May As Well Monday’s 26-04-10

Review: Film; Boy.

My sweets and I went to see this film at Rialto in Dunedin, which the loyal readers of my blog will know, is my favourite theatre I think in New Zealand followed very closely by the Roxburgh one.

The theatre it was shown in was one of the smallest one in Rialto with about 40-50 seats and I had not seen a movie in there before but it was great, felt very intimate with a bunch of strangers.

I loved this film. It hit all the right notes for me comedy, drama and tragedy.
It is set on the rural East Coast of the North Island in the 1980’s and deals with the main character, Boy, coming to terms with the fact that his father, Alamein, is not the deep sea diving, war hero, that he thought he was but as it is said in the film he is an egg.

Some of the scenes that stand out for me in the film involved the school and the teachers. Mainly, because I remember teachers smoking in class, swearing at you and just being sexist, racist well all the ist’s really. Also when Boy starts to remember the truth about his mother and father very powerful, almost cried.

The actor who played Boy (James Rolleston) which the film, as you can guess, is named after was a stand out for me. He just seemed to really understand the role. Boys’ father, Alamein (Taika Waititi) was also fantastic in his role. The last film I remember seeing him in was Scarfies, which was along time ago now.

So to sum it up; fantastic film, fantastic actors, fantastic script, just fantastic everything! I think I have developed a bromance on Waititi. The last think I have to say, I hope the Crazy Horses don’t move into Cromwell because I don’t think we can handle that.

I give it 4.9/5 (I would give it higher but my sweets did not like the film so points off for that)

Have and awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S Website for the film http://www.boythemovie.co.nz/

Photo Friday

2010-04-23T12:59:00.003+12:00

Today's Photo Friday was taken at the Warbirds over Wanaka, this year, at Easter. Also I've decided to enter the Otago Wildlife Photography Competition this year so wish me luck!

Warbirds over Wanaka Easter Weekend

2010-04-21T18:52:00.016+12:00

I thought today in my post I would try something a little different. I will give you a run down of my Easter Break next week but for today I had an idea about how I was going to talk about one of the my highlights of the break, which was the Warbirds over Wanaka.

Now, I could sit here a write a big long post about what happened and how fucking GREAT it was but you would not really get the feel or the vibe. (Points for who can get the very loose movie quote just given) But I won’t, I’ll show you instead.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S This is a super rad link http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2009/12/03/actors-return-to-their-most-legendary-roles-for-empires-20th/

Tipple on a Tuedays 20-04-10

2010-04-20T09:03:00.003+12:00

First off, like I seem to be starting most of my posts these days, sorry for not getting the post up yesterday; first day back at work and I did not do a thing for work over the break so now I’m a little behind but not to much.

Review: Movie; Clash of the Titans.

Now, I did not really like this movie. For starters its name is very misleading; there are no, I repeat, NO, Titans in this movie. There are Gods, Demigods, the Fates, Demons, and a Gorgon, Medusa but no Titans.

So with that out of the way. I went to see this movie at the Rialto in Dunedin with my very good friend Willie the Viper.

Clash of the Titans was full of action and adventure and also had some pretty smoking hot girls in it but it just lacked something. It just felt wrong. Maybe it was the lack of Titans :)

Sam Worthington was again the stand out for me, which was weird because there are some amazingly talented actors in the movie, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Mads Mikkelsen, and Pete Postlethwaite just to name a few. But as one reviewer, from the Rolling Stone put it, the movie is "a sham, with good actors going for the paycheck and using beards and heavy makeup to hide their shame."

So to sum it up, an ok movie. In my mind, it did not live up to its potential. I would recommend it for a DVD night but don’t spend good money to go see this at the movies.

I give it 2/5.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder.

P.S Here is some more information for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_the_Titans_(2010_film)

Taking a break!

2010-03-31T07:39:00.003+13:00

Hey guys sorry to say that I will be taking a break for a couple of weeks. I will be back on the 12th of April with a May As Well Monday!

Hope you have a great Easter break!

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

Photo Friday

2010-03-26T09:36:00.001+13:00

Taken on Saddle Hill above Mollywood

The National Govt

2010-03-24T20:17:00.003+13:00

I hate the filthy, right-wing, Tory government lead by the smarmy, multi-millionaire wanker John Key. If you have not yet guessed this post is about why I hate the National Government. (Disclaimer: I am and will always be a dirty left-wing, pinko, socialist, and unionist liberal. I am the Red under the Bed and make no apologies for it)

My big problem with the National party is that they seem to have the horrible ability to sell some really shitty policies, during and after the election, and the New Zealand public comes up like Oliver Twist “I can have some more please?” I just don’t get it.

The New Zealand public or the “Great Unwashed Masses” as I’m sure John Key and his mates’ call us has never, in my humble opinion, benefited from a National led government. Every time they come into power, the public is constantly let down by them. They try to dismantle the welfare state that some of them have relied on (State House’s Mr. Key, Domestic Purposes Benefit Ms. Bennett), they try to attack students and make them pay more for the education they received free, (or did not receive as the case might be Mr. Joyce), they attack the unions and undermine the great that they have done to improve the lives of the members.

The National party does nothing to help the vast majority of the public; they only help their millionaire mates at the top of what is meant to be a classless country.

But I hear you cry “THEY HAVE GIVEN US TAX CUTS!” Sure, they have but at the cost of borrowing $250 MILLION a week to cover giving them to us. I like having the extra money but I don’t like cuts to education, health, welfare, government departments, well nearly everything to think about it. I’m happy to pay tax, heck I’d be happy to pay more tax if it meant that we had top notch education, I could get surgery if I needed it.

So, I come back to a point made earlier. The New Zealand public keep buying the bullshit that John Key and his party keep shovelling up for us to consume. Mining National Parks, Restrictions on welfare, Cuts to ACC, Cuts to Education, Cuts to front line services in government departments.

Who the shit thought it was a great idea to mine our National Parks? Some of the most unique beautiful and special places not just in New Zealand but the whole world! What I don’t understand is the thought pattern behind the idea. I guess it could have gone like this;

Person 1: “Right we need to make money for New Zealand! How can we do this?”

Person 2: “I know we have some gold, coal, iron and that kind of junk under those trees over let’s dig it up!”

Person 1: “Would that damage those trees?”

Person 2: “Nah, it will be all good! We’ll just put it all back once it is done, none will know the difference.”

I hope there was more thought but I do think I have hit the nail on the head with this one. I’m reminded of the old joke; What is the difference between a drug dealer and a hooker? The hooker can sell her crack over and over again.

That is something that John Key and National just don’t seem to be able to grasp once they have dug their giant fucking hole and taken all the gold, coal and junk out it is gone! Done! Over with! Kaput! With most of the profit going to huge multi-national companies and leaving us very a big hole, where an amazing landscape had once been and sweet fuck all to show for it.

Nationals cut throat approach is also hitting two things that I think make New Zealand a beacon of light in the Western world; ACC and Welfare.

Under National ACC is denying the right to health care for people with legitimate injuries National policy is destroying one of greatest rights we have as New Zealanders and what do we, the public, do…………NOTHING! And I do mean nothing! Where are the marches, the petitions, and the public outcry! Sure we can get together when it comes to come really fucking important like the right to hit your children (Go Brian Tamaki! You rock!) But when it’s the right to health care, “Yeah, Nah, we’ll be right” seems to be the way forward.

Welfare is also on the block, lead by the West Auckland Bogan Paula Bennett. They want to work test people on the DPB, which the Attorney-General as found to be a breach of the Bill of Rights Act. The reforms, lead by a Minister who relied on the DPB herself, is destroying the safety net that as been there since “King Dick” was Prime Minister in the 19th Century.

While I believe that welfare should be a hand up and not a hand out it actually needs to be a hand up and not something that destroys your soul if you have to apply for it. I understand that some people are taking the piss out (5% of them) of the system but making it so the vast majority can no longer access it does not solve the problem.

The National government is steering New Zealand into a very dark and dangerous place that I’m worried we will not be able to bring ourselves out of.

I think I have ranted enough for one post! :)

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S To lighten the mood. This is fucking funny! http://www.27bslash6.com/easter.html

Photo Friday

2010-03-19T11:54:00.004+13:00

Taken outside a student flat in Dunedin just before the start of the school year.

My Busy Last Week and Half

2010-03-17T09:20:00.003+13:00

(I did not take this picture)

(First of all I would like to say sorry for the lack of posts for the last week and a half but if you continue reading you will soon find out why!)

I have had a crazy last week and a half. Last Monday, I was involved in getting the Year 10’s ready for their camp which was Tuesday to Friday of last week. Now getting them ready involved them putting up their tents and me checking them, cooking their lunch and then a gear check to make sure they have everything they needed. Luckily a female teacher was there for the girls’ cause that would have just been awkward.

Tuesday arrived and the chaos began. Trying to get 45 14/15 year olds on to bus with more gear than the Russian Mafia was a very time consuming and stressful business. We got them all on the bus and then off we went to Kids Bush which is a beautiful campsite right on Lake Hawea. It was a great 4 days and the kids were amazing. They made me so proud :)

But as you can guess trying to keep teenagers in their tents can be a late night, so I did not get much sleep last week.

Friday rolled around and my amazing sweets came down to see me, which is always a highlight! (Love you!) Then the super busy weekend started.

Saturday: Get up and get ready to drive to Rough Ridge (also know as Oturehua) for my brothers birthday. This was done via Alexandra and a crap load of shopping! It was great fun and a few beers where had. That always goes down a treat!

Sunday: Wake up get ready and drive 2 hours to watch my brother play 15 minutes of rugby. He did very well tho :) Then a birthday dinner out which my brother, his wife and their daughter, my sister and my sweets; it was very nice. Then a 2 hour drive back to Cromwell.

So, after a full on week and weekend, Monday would have been the day to take it easy, sadly, no. Monday and Tuesday were taken up by Quad Tourny, which I was the manger of the Cromwell Year 10 team. It was great fun but very very full on. We placed 2nd out of 4 Year 10 teams and I’m super proud of my kids for how well they did.

Finally my life has calmed down enough for me to write a blog post and catch up on work. But sadly this is not to last. Today is my birthday so going out for tea for that, travelling to Dunedin for more birthday celebrations and seeing my boy Zane who flew from Scotland to Dunedin to celebrate his birthday on Saturday. I also have a PUM on Tuesday for the Union and the claim to be made to government.

When oh when will I get a break! :)

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S Great join us in our stuff quiz challenge http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/stuff-quizzes/ twitter hash group #stuffquiz

Sorry

2010-03-08T07:50:00.001+13:00

Hey guys,

I'm here to say sorry I don't have a post today or for the rest of the week. I'm off on school camp and will be out of touch.

Have an awesomesauce day and week,

Crumble the Elder

P.S Thinking of buying this http://www.sickforcute.com/shop/product/333/Crocheted_Bunny_Hat

Photo Friday

2010-03-05T07:37:00.004+13:00

Taken from a moving car in the Meridian carpark Dunedin. Have a great weekend! Zane, I love you man!

My Trip to Wellington

2010-03-03T09:10:00.003+13:00

This past weekend was great mainly because I flew to Wellington for the Issues and Organisers conference for the PPTA.

I have decided to become more involved in the union this year. The union movement is something I strongly believe in and I want to be more active in my support of it, especially this year with our contract expiring in June this year.

So enough of my dirty socialism, I flew out of Queenstown on Friday, which is always interesting and with them blowing the Nevis timing was super important. I got to the airport on time and grabbed a quiet beer at the bar then some dickhead thought it would be a great idea to leave their bag unattended and the security cleared part of the airport and brought out the old x-ray machine and I guess it was not a bomb because the police took it away.

The flight was good but long Queenstown to Christchurch and then Christchurch to Wellington. The whole trip was on the stupid little prop planes which made the trip longer than usual. Got into Wellington and straight to the hotel, then to the supermarket, then to a party!

Kim from cupcakesandmace (Pictures on her website) was having her flat warming which was a K themed party. It was great fun with nearly everyone dressing up it theme, from “Kate” from Lost, Kinky, Kid, Kanye West, Kaleidoscope, KGB, K' Rd Hooker, and a very, very good Karl Lagerfeld. Big thanks to Kim and her awesomesauce flatmates for hosting a grand party.

Saturday was a full day of meetings and workshops, with one of the highlights being the key note speaker Dr Jim Stanford from the Canadian Auto Workers Union, he is a labour economist and had a heap of really great insights and really challenged us in our thinking about the economy and our part in it. Saturday ended with a great meal and a few beers which went down a treat!

Sunday morning was very interesting with the tsunami alert and the hotel being right by the sea but it was all ok. The rest of the morning was meetings and another great key note speaker Prof Sir Paul Callaghan. It was then a very quick rush to the airport and a repeat of the airport hopping back to Queenstown. I love landing in Queenstown airport because it does look like you are about to crash into a mountain. That will tighten the old ring up!

All in all it was a great weekend and really inspired me to be more active in my union and be a better teacher; so watch this space people in a few more years I might be president of the union! :D

Also the fact I got to meet Kim and her friends was great. They are so fun, trendy and hip. I almost felt out of place but it was great I can’t wait to see them again in September when, I hope, I will be in Wellington for the PPTA Conference and be able to take sweets with me.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S For those you don’t know who Karl Lagerfeld is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Lagerfeld

May As Well Monday's 01-03-10

2010-03-01T13:43:00.004+13:00

Review: Pub; Golden Gate Lodge

To start off; pinch and punch for the first of the month!

Now before I get into today’s review I will say right from the start that is Golden Gate Lodge in Cromwell or the “Gate” as it is known, is my local pub and I like it very, very much.

The Gate celebrated its 21st birthday last year with a refit of the Roaring Meg bar which made the place look great. It has very nice, friendly, and helpful staff but I do flat with one of them so I could be bias :)

It has a wide range drinks available; with a good selection of tap beers and Central Otago wines. The Pisa Café, next to the Roaring Meg, has a very solid menu, nothing to flash and it will not be the greatest meal you will have in your life but is very nice and you will not regret it for one minute.

The Gate has lots of events and is a major sponsor of a lot of groups and clubs in Cromwell. It also has a number of bands come and play; some great, some good, and some very average but it is cool to go along and see where they will fall.

Accommodation is also available at the Gate. I have not stayed in the rooms mainly because I live in Cromwell but from what people have said that have stayed in them they are nice, clean and comfortable.

The main failing of the Gate is that is can be very quiet at times and not very exciting.

So to sum it up, the Gate is a small town local pub with free nibbles on Friday night and a good old fashioned meat pack raffle for the local marching girls and the rugby club. I love it on a Friday for after work drinks but can be quiet at times.

I give it 3.5/5

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. Here is the website for the Gate http://www.goldengate.co.nz/

My Summer Break

2010-02-24T07:59:00.003+13:00

Well it has come time for me to write about my summer holidays. When you are a teacher the summer break is a huge thing and you often look back at the events of summer and think about the highlights and lowlights of the 6 week break.

HIGHLIGHTS

Spending time with Diana. This is the curse of long-distance relationships, not being able to spend as much time as you would like with them. Love you sweets!
Diana’s Birthday was a great night, so much fun!
Christmas was great this year, lots of family, lots of great gifts and lots of drinking and all of these things make a great Christmas.
Seeing a lot of my friends. Again not living in the town I want to be living in means I don’t get to see my friends.
Being able to sleep in till 9 everyday. I normally get up around 6:30 for work.
The last night out before I came back to Cromwell.
Getting more serious about my blog. This is very cool and I am enjoying writing it but I’m finding it tough to get into a routine but it will be all good.
Taking more photos. It was great to be taking photos again I and will be trying to keep this up.

LOWLIGHTS
Really bad weather. For most of the summer the weather was so bad. It was not until I got back to work that the weather hit 30 plus.
For some reason, I don’t know why, but I was always bloody broke this summer. I think it because I was still paying rent over the summer. Normally I have moved towns at the end of the year and stopped paying rent.
Rain at the Rodeo. This was the lowest point of the summer. I love the Millers Flat Boxing Day Rodeo, it is one of my highlights of the year and it pissed down for most of the day and so we left before the Open events started which was very disappointing.
Going back to work. This is always the saddest part of the holiday.

Reading the highlights and lowlights gives me the overall impression that I had a great summer break and I can’t wait until the next one!

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder
P.S Very cool pictures.
http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/monstersndames.php

May As Well Monday's 22-02-10

2010-02-22T12:25:00.005+13:00

http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0908/mateslovers0001-1.jpg

Review: Book; Mates and Lovers: The History of Gay New Zealand.

My girlfriend got this book for her birthday and I grabbed it straight away and read the book in a number of days.

Chris Brickell has done a great job researching and writing this book. He has made a very important historical work, about a little researched group in our country, very easy to read.

He has filled it with very personal stories about the homosexual history of New Zealand that give a great indication about the changing attitudes towards homosexuality in our society. From the almost permissive attitude in 19th century of as long as noone gets hurt, to the sever oppression and imprisonment in the early to middle of the 20th century and the increasing acceptation of homosexuality with the Homosexual Law reform in 1986 and change of attudies in the latter half of the 20th centurey and into the 21st.

Here are some the stories that show the very intimate lives of Gay New Zealand and how they have changed over the last 200 years.

“A year later, in 1889, Robert Gant, a photographer resident in the Wairarapa, was taking photographs of himself and his friends dressed in drag enacting women's tea-parties”

“In 1941 a shop assistant, Victor Andrews picked up a soldier, Terence Moore, caught the ferry across Auckland Harbour to Devonport, went to the Devonport Domain where they drank beer, kissed, and had sex and talked until 3 o'clock in the morning.”

“In 1971, the Silver Star overnight express train had an Auckland gay service crew who changed over with the Wellington gay service crew at Ohakune. They'd exchange information about passengers whose cabin doors were open for those 'similarly inclined'."

These are just a taste of the amazing stories that can be found in Brickell’s groundbreaking work.
He has chosen a huge array of remarkable pictures that makes this book look and feel amazing.

So to sum it up, I love this book and I can’t wait to get my own copy (Birthday coming up soon, sweets) and I highly recommend it to anyone.

I give it 4.8/5

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S. You can buy the book here http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Nonfiction/Social_Sciences/Gay_Studies/9781869621346/?cf=3

Photo Friday (Late)

2010-02-22T12:23:00.002+13:00

Sorry that is late this week. Will try harder :) Photo taken from carpark of the Merdian Mall in Dunedin.

Back to Work

2010-02-17T07:31:00.006+13:00

I have been back to work for a couple of weeks now and it has been full on! The above picture kind of sums up how I have felt. (Try not to read to much into it)

This is the first time I have returned to the same school for a second year of teaching. I have normally been hired on one year contracts and I then leave at the end of it. So this is a whole new world for me and it has been a little scary.

But saying that not much has changed since my time last year. Most of the students are the same and it is nice not to have to try and learn 100 plus names, which I’m not going to lie to you is bloody tough to do. But I’m finding a whole heap of new expectations have been placed on me by the school and other teachers some are all good in the hood but others are kind of poo’s and wee’s but I’m trucking on.

2010 is already shaping up to be a super crazy busy year for me; most of it is my own doing. I have the school production, Year 10 camp, Student Council, Values Committee (I’m taking a back seat on this one), Social Club, Tutoring (maybe), PPTA Chairperson (this is going to be full on this year, stupid bloody National Govt) aw plus teaching and implementing the new curriculum. Sorry this just slipped my mind; I'm also the Assistant Dean which makes me in charge of some of the toughest children in the school.

So as you can see very, very busy but most of it should be fun and Tutoring should bring in a little bit of money which will help pay the bank and reach one of my goals for 2010.

The start has been good and I hope that the rest of the year goes as well.

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

P.S. This is a great tattoo site http://fuckyeahtattoos.tumblr.com/

May As Well Monday's 15-02-10

2010-02-15T09:54:00.002+13:00

Review: Bar; The Bowler

Sorry about the delay. I’m still trying to get into a rhythm with work and blogging.

A wee while ago The Bowling Green Tavern aka The Bowler was forced to move from its premises near the Hospital to one closer to the Octagon. This review is for the new Bowler.

Now this new Bowler just does not seem as cool as the old one. It just lacks something, it’s a feel that I cannot put my finger on but it is still one of my favourite bars in Dunedin.

The Bowler is not really a bar as such; it is more of a pub with all normal things that that entails. The staff are super friendly and they seem to enjoy their work even when Viper is yelling at them (See you got a mention to make up for it being late and ruining your day).

The food at the Bowler is good solid pub food i.e. Steak, egg and chips, pie and chips etc at a good pub prices.

Drinks at the Bowler are the normal range at a pub with a wide selection of cocktails, RTD’s, and tap beers. They are also very good at whipping up most other drinks if you tell them how to. The Bowler is also good because of its hours 3am, 6 days a week.

So to sum it up, I like the new Bowler but not as much as old one.

I give it 3.5/5

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder.

P.S. Website about the Bowler http://www.dunedinentertainment.co.nz/?p=%7B5727E8E6-6216-4881-827D-D0533FB92233%7D

Photo Friday

2010-02-12T07:25:00.003+13:00

This weeks Photo Friday was taken in the backyard of my sweets house. Enjoy :)

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

Becoming An Adult

2010-02-10T07:48:00.004+13:00

http://jayderagon.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/growing-up.jpg

Now this question plagues a lot of people of my age (26) around the world, well at least it does in my small but vibrant circle of friends, what does it mean to grow old and does being a certain age mean you are automatically an adult?

When I was about 14/15 something happened, that at the time I did not think much about it, but as time went on it became more and more important to me when I tried to figure this whole thing out for myself. So, when I was 14/15 my friend Neil, who was my age, had a little brother. He was a lot younger than him and he asked Neil and I something interesting one day. He asked when where we going to get married. He thought that we were so adult by that age, because of the things we did; shave, drive, go the pub (small town NZ) etc and in his mind the next step was to be married because that is what adults did.

Now, like I said did not really think about it at the time but as I have got older and started doing all these adult things I think back to that question or more so the idea behind it. Does doing adult things make you an adult?

This question raises more questions; what are adult things? And who decides what this things are? Man, with these questions I’m starting to think that I will never be able to answer any of them but I shall endeavour to give some ideas that might help.

For me there are very adult “things” you can do in this world and I’m not talking about going to the adult shops, you dirty minded little buggers, but things that your parents did when you were a kid. Like getting married, buying a house, having kids but does having these “things” make you an adult. Well, in a short, no it does not.

It took me a while to figure this out. I had nearly everything that I thought an adult should have; I finished University, I have a good paying job, I have a steady relationship, I’m living out on my own, but I still did not feel like an adult. I felt like someone pretending to be one.

But I realised that you cannot judge yourself by what you have or what you think you should have. You have to figure out what it means for you to be an adult and if that involves pink fishnet tights and a Motorhead t-shirt then I say rock it hard!

But always remember this; "When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

Remember that you do have to grow up at some point but that is not to mean you have to give up things you love i.e. in my case comic books, but it does mean you have think and act like an adult. That means do not throw tantrums when you don’t get your way, don’t be the bully that no one really likes, and most of all stop peeing your pants.
I hope this helps.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder
P.S. Really fucking weird video http://www.videosift.com/video/If-Star-Wars-was-made-in-France

May As Well Monday's 08-02-10

2010-02-08T07:30:00.002+13:00

http://www.aidan-designs.co.uk/images/portfolio/alibi/1.jpg

May As Well Monday's 08-02-10

Review: Bar; Alibi

Alibi is a newish bar in the Octagon (If you don’t know what town the Octagon is in then you smell like vinegar) and has already become a favourite of the shirt and tie wearing set. That is not to put it down, but I did feel out of place when I wore a red shirt there for after work drinks. (It was the brightest in the bar) This is not a jandal and singlet sort of bar.

It is very trendy with a lot of dark wood, black leather and a huge fire place, which is essential for those chilly Dunedin nights. The staff are very friendly and polite and all seem to know what they are doing. The selection of drinks is wide with a good range of higher end beers on tap such as Tiger and Heineken.

Alibi is a must for any young (or not so) professional who enjoys having an after work drink on Friday nights or any other night for that fact. This bar has a great location and is prefect as a meeting place for when in are in town. Also with its outside seating it can be a nice place to speed a lazy Saturday afternoon in the sun.

Alibi also does meals but I have not yet dined there so I cannot, in good conscience, pass judgement on the meals.

So to sum it up, while this is a very nice bar, with friendly staff it is just not my cup of tea. It is nice for a couple of quick drinks but I always like to move on to somewhere else.

I give it 2.5/5.

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

P.S. Here is the website for Alibi http://www.alibibar.co.nz/

Photo Friday

2010-02-05T14:16:00.004+13:00

Hey everyone! I hope everything is going great.

I'm sorry about the lack of posts this week things have been crazy busy. They school had to configure my laptop, then the Internet went down at school, could not use it at home and a lot more excuse that you don't want to hear :). I am so very sorry and normal transmission will now commence.

This weeks Photo Friday was taken on the 21-01-10 in the front yard of my sweets house. Leave a comment if you like it!

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

Photo Friday

2010-01-29T08:49:00.005+13:00

Hey my peeps! Hope everything is going wicked in your life's. Right, two photos today. The first one I cropped to just show the railway going into the distance and the second one is the uncropped photo but made black and white. Let me know which one your like.

Photo taken outside Mosgeil on the 21-01-10.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

Education and the National Standards; Do they measure up?

2010-01-27T09:37:00.006+13:00

http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c721253ef0111685278eb970c-800wi

(Dismclaimer: Below are my PERSONAL views on the National Standards. I do not represent any group or organisation.)

Now, right from the start I’m going to say the I think that the idea of “National Standards” is generally a good one but the way that they have been implemented and they way that the National Government is directed them be used, is very bad for teachers, schools, parents but more importantly it is bad for the kids. Also, I’m sorry that this is a serious blog today :)

There are four main reasons why I oppose what the National Government is doing in education in little old God’s Own.

1) The Government has spent a huge amount of money on the new curriculum that is already a “national” standard.

2) These National Standards put the emphasis on Maths and English at the expense of other subjects.

3) Students achieve at their own level.

4) Money spent on this is needed elsewhere.

Now to go into more detail on each of my objections.

1) The last government brought in the chances that lead to the New Curriculum that cost a lot of money and was part of a wide consultation process that everyone, using the new language, brought into. Now, the new curriculum has achievement objectives or AO’s that go from Level One or Year One’s and for you oldies out there that is the little buggers that have just started school to Level Eight which is the big buggers, the Year 13’s or the ones that are just about to finish school. Now at each level students are judged to have reached the standard or not and teachers tailor the work for the level the student is at. (Remember this idea for later).

So, there is no need for extra money to be spent on producing a second set of standards that students have to meet. Very uncool; when the government is telling us over and over again that there is no more money in the kitty.

2) The government has directed that all money that has been earmarked for professional development or PD in 2010 is to be spent on English and Maths because the National Standards focus on literacy and numeracy. So this is done at the expense of other subjects, which is of great concern. Education is meant to create well rounded individuals not single knowledge machines.

3) Students achieve at their own level and in the own time. They do not achieve at a level decided in an office in Wellington by some suit. I know many students who will never achieve the “standard” they are “meant” to be at but they will make progress at their own level.So teachers tailor the work for their level. The National Standards mean that for about 8 or 9 years they will have on their reports that they have failed to reach the national standard, when they are making progress, but at their pace.

4) The vast amount of money that has been spent on the unneeded national standards could have been spent on the hundreds of other things that schools and their communities need. To name just a few; to get ACE (Adult Community Education) back up and running, getting help for teachers for the increasing violence they are facing from students, retaining the high quality teachers that are leaving education....I could go on and on but I think that is enough of a rant for one day.

Hope this makes you think about what National is doing, in education but also in New Zealand.
Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

P.S Great webcomic

http://www.questionablecontent.net/

May As Well Monday's 25-01-10

2010-01-25T10:42:00.005+13:00

http://www.wetanz.com/holics/media/4/LC_Ad_banner_420.jpg

Review: Graphic Novel; Dr Gordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory.

I picked this book up from the great new Marbecks store in Wall St in Dunedin. If you are ever in Dunedin you should, for sure, check it out.

Dr Gordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory is produced by Dark Horse Comics and Weta Workshops and is written and illustrated by Greg Broadmore. This is the second book about Dr Gordbort and his amazing weapons that I have brought and it is very funny.

It has a fantastic steam punk feel about it with the basic idea being that the planets of our solar system have all got life on them and it is our god given right to capture, destroy and kill this life. It is set, I think, in the Victorian era and so is full of delightful Victorian era racist humour (directed at those dirty savages from Venus).

This great tome is a catalogue for all the weapons, robots and spaceships that are for sale to the general public in Dr Gordbort’s world. They all have wonderful names and descriptions, such as the Golianthon 83 Infinity Beam Projector, which comes with the following description “Settle You’re Woes! Is that wife back-chatting and vote-mongering? Perhaps your daughter’s buck tooth suitor’s giving unwanted grief? Make their posteriors clench with anxiety by flexing your new Golianthon!” I love it!

The hero of Dr Gordbort’s world is Lord Cockswain, who just seems to fly around the galaxy killing everything, from filthy Moon Men to a rare mated pair of Pykel’s Bread-Skinned Tok Tok’s in the Venusian highlands.

So to sum it up, great read, very funny with fantastic drawing and writing and I highly recommend it.

I give it 4.5/5.

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

Photo Friday

2010-01-22T08:30:00.004+13:00

Today's "Photo Friday" was taken on the 21-01-10 at Puddle Lane outside Mosgiel. I had a question about what camera I use, well Zane, I use Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H1. I quite like the little bugger. It works well and was my Graduation Present from my family which makes it that wee bit more special.

If you like this photo let me know below.

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

Why I Love Cons!

2010-01-20T11:55:00.005+13:00

I thought today’s post should be a little light hearted after last week’s kind of serious blog but don’t you worry out there in internet land, I have serious one lined up for next Wednesday.

So, why do I love Cons? Now for all of you who don’t know what Cons are, they are Converse shoes and in particular, I will be talking about their Chuck Taylor range.

There are five reasons why I love these shoes;

They feel great on your feet. Now - if you have a hard days walking ahead of you or you are just sitting around playing Guitar Hero all day, the old Chucks will be your best friend.
They are very cool. That is all that needs to be said on that issue.
Casual and formal all in one! If it is meeting with the lads to watch the rugby at the local or, in my case, the Senior School Prize giving (the most formal event of the year) the old Chuckie T’s will suit your every need.
Great stories. So many of my friends wear the old Chucker Boots that they have developed a life of their own, with fact and fiction combining to create a number of legends around them. Here is one example; to protect his identity we will call him A. Lloyd, no wait that is to obvious how about Andrew L. Now let’s get on with the story. One day not to long ago after a night of heavy drinking Andrew L. could not get his old Connies off so he had to find his way to the kitchen to get a knife. Now, not a little knife but one that could take the skin off a crocodile. He then stumbled back to his room and cut his laces to tiny pieces to get them off. Needless to say this took a while. He was very disappointed to find he had done this the next day because while hung-over, he then had to find laces for his old Chuckers.
When I wear the old Chucks to work I am instantly the cool teacher, you know the one that was trendy and hip and spoke your language. Well, I think I’m that teacher at my school. Maybe my students with disagree, but I think I’m pretty cool :)

Well, those are my five reasons for loving a pair of shoes. Now, I’m sure all of you have some brand or style of clothing that you just love and can come up with reasons to justify your love.

If you want just chuck (ha-ha that is great pun) a comment in the little box below telling us what it is and why you love it.

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

P.S. Very funny link, well I think so anyway. http://www.theonion.com/content/news/gay_teen_worried_he_might_be?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

May As Well Monday's 18-01-10

2010-01-18T10:35:00.008+13:00

Its time for May As Well Monday's, enjoy this review of Sherlock Holmes.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/geek-to-me/assets_c/2009/11/sherlock-holmes-movie-robertdowney-boxing-thumb-400x266-31757.jpg

Review: Movie; Sherlock Holmes.

My girlfriend and I went to see this movie with another couple at the Rialto theatre in Dunedin. I love this theatre and it is one of my favourite in New Zealand, it has great seats and it is in a very cool art deco building.

The film was a very good adaptation of Sherlock Holmes but it did feel a little like Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr. as the main character. He sort of played the same character, but saying that, he is very good in the role and is a fantastic actor. For me tho, the stand out actor was Jude Law as Dr Watson.

The Dr Watson character was amazing; he was portrayed as the strong, brave, intelligent, war hero that he is in the books not the bumbling idiot that other Sherlock Holmes movies seem to have made him.

The movie has an excellent story line. It has a great use of comedy and action and the slow motion parts in the fight scenes are really interesting. I don’t want to go into much detail here but it really adds more to the fight scenes; you can “follow along” for the lack of a better term.

So to sum it up, I really enjoyed this movie. It will not ‘change’ your life but it is a great escape movie that I highly recommend for anyone.

I give it 4/5.

Have an awesomesauce day,
Crumble the Elder

P.S This is a very cool blog http://www.kiwianarama.co.nz/

Photo Friday

2010-01-15T07:52:00.005+13:00

One of my goals for 2010 was to get serious about taking photos and one way I thought I could do that was to start Photo Friday. My thinking behind it is, if I have to post a photo every week, then I have take photos every week and I will start taking more photos and therefore get better at it. Well it made sense in my head ;] Let me know what you think about this one and others on the way.

Taken outside the Otago Museum on the 11/01/10

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

Why I Write My Blog?

2010-01-13T08:13:00.007+13:00

I was reading Charlie’s blog, imabitofageek, and she had a post about why she blogs about what she blogs about and it got me thinking about why I blog, so that is today’s inspiration.

I have tried to write blogs in the past, especially when I moved to Westport for a year and I was short of things to do but I never had the patience or if I was to be quite honest, I lacked the commitment need if you want to write a blog; so it kind of fell by the way side.

So why, I hear all 3 of my loyal readers ask :], did you start your writing one now? Well, if you wait you impatient spider monkeys, I will tell you.

It all started with two things, the 1st of the “things” was , I brought some necklaces from Kim at cupcakesandmace and starting reading her blog and all the ones linked to hers and the 2nd of the “things” was, my students asked if I could give them the links to website, pod casts, and other assorted items that I have used in my teaching over the last year, so set up a blog for my Year 11 History class and posted the things we have done in the class for them to look at any time they wanted to.

Both of these “things” sparked something in me that was not there the last time I tried to write, desire. Now this “desire” took form in a couple of ways. I started to want to be more creative, which was an interesting thing for me to have happen because normally I’m not creative at all and have been jealous of everyone who is :]

I also started to want to get more from the interweb than just email, FaceBook and Wikipedia. I wanted to start to interact with it and therefore with the world. Also I guess I thought that I was interesting enough for other people to want to read about my life :]

I have really enjoyed figuring out what I wanted to write about and how I was going to do this and I think I’m starting to get there, which is very cool.

So if you do read my blog and you do think I’m on the right track please let me know.

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

P.S a very good blog http://imabitofageek.blogspot.com/

May As Well Monday's 11-01-10

2010-01-11T15:09:00.010+13:00

I have been thinking quite a lot about what I want my blog to say about me, what I want to put out to the world and what the world will actually read. So with that in mind I have been reading a few blogs (and these one in particular http://cupcakesandmace.com/, http://www.mermaidinamanhole.com/ and http://imabitofageek.blogspot.com/) to get ideas about what I want to do with my blog.

Mermaid had a great post about how to keep you blog fresh and interesting and one of her ideas that leapt out at my was to have a regular thing.

So with that in mind I’m launching my regular post of May As Well Monday’s! This will be where I review something, be it movie, book, bar, television show. Everything and anything will be up for review. So what will my first review be on?

The movie, Avatar.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/officialavatarmovie/4054023555/

Review: Movie; Avatar.

I watched this film by James Cameron very soon after in came out in little old God’s Own, at the Hoyts theatre in Dunedin. While this is not my favourite theatre, the times suited us.

This was a great movie and I loved it! The colours were one of the parts that struck me most in the movie; they were so bright and vibrant. Of course everyone has been talking about the special affects and they are amazing but they should never be why you go see a film. It still needs to have a plot, while I have heard people say that it was a cliché story and we have seen it before; with some people saying it was Fern Gully meets Dances with Wolves.

While these comparisons have some valid points to them, I come back with so what? It is great movie and just because it is a cliché story does not mean that you are forbidden to enjoy it. Sorry little rant over now :]

The leading man Sam Worthington does a fantastic job but the standout for me was the Colonel played by Stephen Lang, who I have had a man crush on since seeing him in Gods and Generals.

So to sum it up: great, fantastic, amazing, awesomesauce and many other happy words.

I give it 4.5/5.

Have an awesomesauce day,
Crumble the Elder

P.S Very funny webcomic http://www.multiplexcomic.com/index.php

Post New Year Blog

2010-01-08T11:18:00.005+13:00

Well sorry that my posts have been very slack of late, you know how it can get when you are on holiday time just seems to slip by you; but luckily I’m a high school teacher and I still have heaps of time left in my holidays.

So I guess I should let you know about my New Years and what has happened since. Well, my New Years Eve was a quiet one this year, which was kind of nice for a charge. We went to my friend Willies’ house and had a few drinks. It was very low key which was nice for a change, good friends, good drinks, and my very fantastic sweets. It was very nice and at midnight we watched the fireworks that went up from the Octagon. It was pretty amazing, so over all it was a very fun evening. This also involved a boozed phone call to my boy Zane, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over in the mother land. I miss yoooooooooooooooooooou!

One of Willies ideas was for people to say what their top five moments of 2009 where, as you can probably guess most of mine involved Diana but one of them as become my top goal of 2010, I found out that I could be debt free with the bank by the end of this year, so this is what my top goal of 2010 is. Now this is a major one for me because I have been in major debt with the bank since my student days. Stupid overdraft and bank loan but by the end of this year no more!

My second goal for 2010 is to get a new tattoo. It has been about two years since my last one and my other two tattoos do need to be touched up so I think I’ll do it all at the same time. I have had a few ideas for what I want but I’m going to try and knuckle those ideas down into one.

What else do I want for 2010? Well, I want to look more at my idea of owning my own bar/dive, so I’ll be looking closely at that; also I have a few geeky history teacher goals this year, such as getting my units of work ready for the new history curriculum. I also want to get more serious about taking photos; this idea got fired up after going to the wonderful Otago Museum and seeing the ODT Wildlife Photo competition.

So in recap.
My goals for 2010

Be debt free to the bank by the end of the year.

Get a new tattoo.

Investigate owning a bar.

Get my history units sorted for 2011.

Get more serious about taking photos.

So that is the post New Years post. I hope all of you had a great 2009 and that 2010 will rock for you in many different and wonderful ways! Let me know how your New Years Eve went.

Have and awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder.

P.S. A great webcomic http://www.freakangels.com/

The Post Christmas Blog

2009-12-27T10:13:00.003+13:00

Well I hope that everything went fantastic for your Christmas and that all of your present wishes came true.

What happened with my Christmas? IT WAS GREAT! I loved Christmas this year, we had a lot of people around about 14 for lunch which is the most we have had for about 10 years so everyone was a little on edge worried about how it would go; but it went amazingly well. Great food, great drinks, great people, and great times!

But what did I get for at annual gift giving time? I got the Penguin History of New Zealand from my little sister but I did not have the heart to tell her I already have 3 copies of it, the hardcover, paperback and the illustrated one but I loved the fact that she knew what I liked. My brother and sister-in-law got a DVD for me “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”. Love that movie so well stoked about getting that DVD. My very lovely and beautiful girlfriend got me a Playstation 2! I was well happy! My parents got all of us a bag of stuff. It had a couple of beers, some toys, a join the dot books, and that kinda of stuff.

All in all a great Christmas; love you all; my family and friends.

Then it all turned to Boxing Day; now this is a huge day in my small home town of Millers Flat because it is the annual rodeo. It is a huge event that can bring about 600-700 people to Millers Flat, which has a population of about 300 people during the year. So a huge event but this year was not as big cause of really bad weather, it rained and rained and rained so we left early and went to the pub so spend the rest of the day.

Because of some troubles at previous events, drunken brawls etc there was a huge police presence this year at the pub. There were about 6 police at the pub full time during the day and they shut it down early. So this year was very different from other years but it went off without a hitch so maybe they will back off next year and just let us do our thing.

So I hope all of you had a great Christmas and Boxing Day and that your plans for New Years are coming along nicely and that it is everything that you want it to be!

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

P.S I'm doing a guest blog for http://cupcakesandmace.com/ which should be going up on the 28th so please check it out!

The Pre-Christmas Catch Up Blog

2009-12-22T15:33:00.003+13:00

Hey guys what is up? Sorry that it has been so long since my last blog but it has been crazy busy for the last few weeks.

So a quick fill in on what has been happening!

The PPTA meeting went great and I will be going to a meeting in Feb in Wellington fully paid for by the Union! I’m super looking forward to it and it should be great. Just call me Comrade Crumble from now on.
The Stag Do was epic! So much freaking fun! Paintball, milk sculling, waxing, beer, g-strings, beer, strippers, beer, and toy bikes, so busy but very fun.
End of Year do for work was fun, lots of drinks where had but I’m glad we left the next day!
Diana’s family Christmas, so much fun. Diana’s family has their Christmas before Christmas Day so that they can all spend time with other halves families on the actual day. This is real cool so with that in mind Diana and I are leaving for Millers Flat tomorrow for Christmas and if you happen to be there for the Boxing Day Rodeo come and say hello, I will be the drunken loud guy, yelling abuse at people! But trust me it is very, very fun.

Right now to the main part of the blog…….I was struggling to think of a topic for this blog. I know, I could have gone for the obvious Christmas theme but I felt that would be a smack in the face to my loyal readers (all two of you).

So I decided to write about nothing because you should all be crazy busy with only 3 days until the jolly fat man sneaks into your house after stalking you all year and leaves you gifts! And on that cherry note I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a crazy New Year!

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder
P.S A great website! I mean great! http://theoatmeal.com/

What about me? Part 2

2009-12-02T14:53:00.008+13:00

I thought it would be time for part 2 of this weeks posting goodness which will be dealing with one of the greatest questions man kind has to offer which is……..what does c to the rumble do with his weekends!

Now hold on tight and you will find out!

Last weekend was great! I got to see Diana and spend time with her, which makes it always a great weekend but this weekend was great not just for that awesomesauce reason, I shall tell you more.

The weekend started on Wednesday night with a quick bus trip 4 hour bus trip to Dunedin which was not to bad only 3 people on the bus so heaps of room but needless to say by the time I got to Dunedin I was buggered and so it was a very quiet night of sleep.

Thursday was a highlight tho because being a very geeky history teacher that I am a day of history professional development (PD) seemed totally wizard. The PD was about the new New Zealand Curriculum and what it meant for teaching history and for students who study history. It was a well thought out session of PD which some fantastic resources but the biggest thing that I took away from the PD was that the teaching of history in New Zealand is going to be completing revolutionised we will no longer have topics to teach so that means we can teach any aspect of history as long as it fits with the new Achievement Objectives and Achievement Standards.

Now for those who are not teachers in New Zealand that means the stuff that the students get marked against. So it is very cool………well maybe if you are a history teacher but trust me it is very cool.

Friday was very laid back which was nice. Diana and I mucked about in town for the day and at around 5:11pm we met a friend for drinks at Terrece which was nice. Then back to me friends place for drinks and she went and played cards with her friends and I went to the pub with my friends but not before Diana had a mishap with her sister. Let’s make it an equation: Car + Diana Sister + Too Much Drink = Vomit Comet. I felt soooooooooooo sorry for Diana it sucks when that happens.

The rest of the weekend was very quiet shopping, movie (New Moon) and general couple of weeks before Christmas mayhem.

But two very important things happened that I need to tell you:

1) Diana and I went down to the port to have something to to eat and a coffee and there was an empty shop for rent and it got me thinking about what I wanted to do with my life etc etc blah blah and so now I'm looking into owning my own shop. So I'll let you know how that goes.

2) My niece had to go the Chch to have two buttons taken out of her throat. A little intense but she is fine and eating up a storm! So all is good in the hood!

But all in all a very great weekend and I can not wait for this coming one, it should be total awesomesauce! PPTA meeting Friday, followed by stag do Saturday. I’ll let my faithful followers (I think I have 2 :) ) know how that goes next week.

I would like to know how many people are reading this so if you could pop a comment down the bottom so I have an idea. Thanks

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

P.S Very funny web comic, yes I know I’m a geek! http://www.leasticoulddo.com/

What about me? Part 1

2009-11-30T12:38:00.006+13:00

I have had a crazy super duper busy last couple of weeks since my last post which was a very lone time ago and I'm sorry about that but I will catch you all up like the a werewolf always seems to catch up to the people in the movie.
It started with the weekend of the 20th with Diana and her friend Anita coming down for the weekend. We had a crap load of stuff planned and we leaped right into it!

The Gate on the Friday night for a couple of drinks and the meat pack raffles which sadly we did not win but I'll keep on trying!

Saturday was spent in Queenstown, shopping, lunching, lugeing, Arrowtowning basically a lot of ing really and my sis-in-law Aimee got us an awesomesauce hook up for a room for the night so we could go see my mates band play the fucking totally wizard The Fea Street Hustle http://www.feastreethustle.com/ man they are my new favorite band very rockabilly styles with Manchester Street my favorite song.

So after a night of drinks and song we went back to Cromwell and went straight to the Cromwell Old Town Farmers Market, man I am in love with the farmers market here it just has so much great food and produce, nice thick German bread, amazing sticky buns, great cheese's and the best custard squares in the freaking world! Seriously they make me wet my pants a little when I have one! But this time the Farmers Market had a very special guest! One of the judges from Australian Masterchef! The tall one with a cravat, he was pretty cool.

So after we has done our shopping it was picnic time down by the lake and Anita went for a swim which was followed by her mooning a car as she got changed! Then it was off to Tarras for a look at Anita's families’ holiday spot which was FULL of turkeys which was kinda weird.

After Tarras was a trip over to Wanaka for milkshakes, ice creams and duck feeding it was nice over there on the lake front. Don't know if I could live there but it is nice to visit. Back home to Cromwell and tea!

Super busy weekend but very fun and that was just one of the two! Count them! Two weekends of events I need to write about but I think I will leave the other weekend for later in the week!

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder
P.S Really funny website! http://onthesubjectof.co.uk/

Exams!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dum Dum Dummmmmmmmmmmmmm

2009-11-18T10:13:00.007+13:00

I was supervising the Year 10 maths exam yesterday (Form 4 for those in the old speak) and I was thinking about the range of emotions that can be seen in the room at the time.

You have to student who as not done any study and they are staring off into nothingness. In my experience these students are going through two types of emotion.
1) "Holy Shithouse! I'm in deep shit!"
2) "I don't give a flying rats ass!"

The 2nd of these two emotions are the real tough nut kids to get through to but they are the ones that need the most help. The 1st lot just tend to be lazy.
Next you have the "I have to/want to do really well!" students. These ones show a huge range of emotions from hand biting nervousness to quiet confidence. These ones are fun to watch :) I know, I know it is kinda evil but these ones tend to quite well.

Last but no means least are the students who know their stuff, have worked hard during the year and put in the study hours and are now seeing the benefit of all that hard work. They seem to have a calm, almost happy look on their face. Like all the knowledge and understanding that is in their head is flowing out on the page and it is all making sense.

I remember that is how I felt when I was well prepared for an exam, be it at school or uni, but I also remember when I was not well prepared (this was often the case) then I felt like complete updog!

Now I don't want to seem like the 'holy than thou' teacher who is saying study, study, study and you will find happiness, a big house and nice car. But it does make exams that little bit less stressful. Which I'm sure everyone will agree with is a good thing! :)

What are your exam experiences?
Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder
P.S http://www.fmylife.com/ makes your life seem all that much better!

End of the YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAR (Today's title is to be sung!)

2009-11-12T12:29:00.006+13:00

Today is the last day I have my senior classes, which I'm very, very stoked about! It is kinda of a cross between agony and joy when they leave. Joy that the year is done and I have 4 weeks of only teaching 6 hours a week left until the summer break. (Thank the lord cause I need to rebuild my soul after it has been crushed this year)

But also agony in the sense that there is nothing I can do for them now and it is up to them to study hard and pass the exams but, this is where the agony part comes in, a good chunk of my students could not remember to bring a pen or even come to class so relying on them to study and pass the exams might be a little hopeful. I would LOVE to be proved wrong tho and I wish all my students and all the others in New Zealand good luck for your exams on Monday.

Now tho, the real fun begins in school. Tomorrow is on of the most dreaded days in my school year. I will be cleaning my desk! I know! I'm very scared about what I might find in there but I will press on with the task but if there are no post's by next Friday please send a team in to rescue me.

Apart from the desk cleaning , I get to work on my units for next year (with the new NZC coming online) which is actually kinda fun. I like going over what I have taught, thinking aobut what went well, what was shithouse etc. Its nice to be able to review it. This time I will be super crazy organised for next year's fresh meat. (I hope) I also have a PPTA PUM I have to run next Thursday, our contract with the Ministry expires next July so I hope we don't have to strike but I'm keen if we have to!

"Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong."

So on that rousing note,

Have an awesomesauce day,

Crumble the Elder

P.S. A freaking sweetbix blog check it out! http://cupcakesandmace.com/

Is the fear-of-failure or the fear-of-insignificance winning today?

2009-11-04T19:07:00.005+13:00

This is an interesting idea, the title of the post. What drives us in our lives? What makes us wake up and get out of bed in the morning?

Is it a desire to do great things or because we love what we do? Or is it fear? The fear the title suggests. I don't know, I guess in my life it can be a little of both.

I mean that sometimes I get out of bed and start the day with a good, well-rounded breakfast of Fruit Loops and Earl Grey and then tackle all of the days tasks with a great big smile on my dial but other days, well those days are another story.

Maybe it is different for a teacher when you wake up and you just do not want to get out of bed but you know that if you don't go in then your day will be a failure. You will be a failure as a teacher if you don't stubble 14 kms through the driving snow with a small orphan child strapped to your back only stopping to warm your bare feet in a fresh cow shit. (I know, I know this has not happened to me but you get the picture of the struggle it can seem to get to work sometimes.)

Now I am not only staying that this feeling is reserved only for teachers but in other jobs you can just call in sick and nothing happens but with teachers you have to do a shitload of work to have that day off and even if you are sick then you come into work cause it is just not worth the hassle.

Sorry back to my point, it is the fear of failure that drives you in on those days, not all the time but some of it.

The next "fear" in today's post is the fear of insignificance. Now this one is a tricky little bugger. It all depends on if you think you are significant; now if you think that then you could fear that one day you are insignificant and that is what drives on you certain days.

I think I will leave the second one there and let you guys think about it and if you want post some comments about your ideas.

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S This is a total sweetbix website for gifts or something for yourself http://www.endemicworld.com/

End of Year Blues!

2009-11-01T16:40:00.009+13:00

Yes, I know the picture does not really match the title of the post but I put it up to remind me that there is something good about the end of the year. That is the parties that happen!

But I must confess that I am suffering a little from the end of year blues. Not so much the "Aw fuck, I'm really down about life" kinda blues. its more like the "Aw man I have worked so hard this year on my senior students and I have done everything I can for them and now it is up to them" kinda blues.

I think maybe you have to be a high school teacher to get what I'm talking about. It comes down to the fact that you want the students to do really well in the exams so they pass NCEA and then they move on in the rest of school or life and become happy and healthy contributing members of "God's on country".

Well that is what I would have you believe and there is a lot of truth in it. That is what I want my students to be. But there is another reasons that I get down at this time of the year is that it looks bad on me when the students fail. Now I know it should not and I know that it is up to them to put the work in but that is how I feel at the end of the year.

It's kinda weird; I have given my students every chance of success this year but I still feel that if they fail it is my fault. Aw well I guess that is the lot of the teacher :)

What else has been going on? Well one of the things that struck me this week was the story about Rodney Hide and his $50000 trip with his lady friend! http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/taxpayer-funds-trip-hide-s-girlfriend-3101559 Is this the same Rodney Hide that ripped shit out of every MP that spends taxpayers money? I think this a little hypocritical Rodney maybe you should tone it done a bit ;)

The other thing that does have me a little freaked out is the crazy new powers that are being given to government agents . The one that concerns me the most is that peoples fundamental rights are being taken away especially the right to silence and the right to be Innocent until proven guilty. Keep an eye on this people!

Have an awesomesauce day!

Crumble the Elder

P.S Great website http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

Naseby! How I love thee let me describe the ways!

2009-10-27T19:09:00.007+13:00

Naseby, Naseby, Naseby......what can I say it was great! I love that little piece of God's Own and I recommend it to anyone who wants a little weekend getaway or as part of a longer trip.

So what happened? Well Diana came down to Cromwell on Friday and then we took off to Ranfurly to pick up the key for the crib we stayed at, then straight down the Ranfurly-Naseby Road and into the beautiful little town that is Naseby. Found the crib on Swimming Dam Rd and had tea then down to show Diana the night life of Naseby!

First we went to the Bottom pub or the Royal, I never really liked this pub but it is nice and friendly and has a picture on the wall of my Granddad so it can not be that bad. We then went up to the Top pub or the Ancient Britain. I have always liked is pub more and this time was no expectation. A few drinks were had and introductions made and most of the pub knows my family which made for a great atmosphere.

The next day a quick look around Ranfurly to show Diana the sights.....took about 5 mins..... but is a nice town. Then breakfast back in Naseby at the Black Forest Cafe which was lovely! Back to Ranfurly for the Burn Radio Market Day which was fun. Saturday was a big day by the way! Then over to Danseys Pass for lunch; was nice but not really worth the 40min drive on gravel but still nice. This was followed by a drive around the Manitoto to see the sights, was very fun, which ended with a beer at the Vulcan with some of the family. I love the Vulcan and Blue Lake.

Dinner on the Saturday night was at the Naseby Trail Lodge, it was very nice but I don't think I go for that really fancy restaurant food but it was very nice. Sunday was lazy day, a quick trip to Coal Pit Dam to relive childhood followed by a clean of the crib and back to Cromwell and then over to Queenstown for the night with a dinner and a movie which was a great way to finish the weekend.

All in all a great weekend and I cannot wait to get back to Naseby again!

Have an awesomesauce day!
Crumble the Elder

P.S This is were we stayed! I would recommend it to anyone. http://www.bookabach.co.nz/holiday_homes/dsp_listing.cfm?bachId=3903