Can you sit in a lotus position? Check my story in the NZ Listener.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
check out this guy for some inspiration
Creative Momentum: Rodney Bell (+video)
20 May 2009
“At nineteen years of age it happened like the flick of a dime…” says Rodney Bell, who, as a result of a motorcycle accident, lost feeling and function from the “nipple-line down”. Rodney Bell is this month's Creative Momentum featured creative. He shares, with wit, humour and unguarded honesty, his diverse experience as a Maori disabled man who discovered the international world of dance.
“I used to run and play rugby and do many able-bodied things. After my disability I thought my life was over. While in rehab the focus at the spinal unit was mouth painting and blow darts. I remember thinking…. ‘well, that’s very interesting but felt deep inside there had to be something else out there’.” read more
20 May 2009
“At nineteen years of age it happened like the flick of a dime…” says Rodney Bell, who, as a result of a motorcycle accident, lost feeling and function from the “nipple-line down”. Rodney Bell is this month's Creative Momentum featured creative. He shares, with wit, humour and unguarded honesty, his diverse experience as a Maori disabled man who discovered the international world of dance.
“I used to run and play rugby and do many able-bodied things. After my disability I thought my life was over. While in rehab the focus at the spinal unit was mouth painting and blow darts. I remember thinking…. ‘well, that’s very interesting but felt deep inside there had to be something else out there’.” read more
meet my team, rugby, crusaders and the all blacks
check out my 'other' blog re 'my team' the Crusaders.
This handsome man in Richie McCaw, captain of the Crusaders and the New Zealand 'All Blacks'
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
religion, atheists, bad manners and pets
From
May 5, 2009
Rumours of God's return are greatly exaggerated
Religion is on the rise, religion makes you happy. It may seem bad manners for we atheists to say it, but so do pets
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
bees are dying around the world - can NZ stop it?
Mystery of the dying bees
Something is killing honey bees around the world. NZ has a chance to prevent it happening here; that's what Bee Week is all about. [Cosmos/Voxy]
breaking frontiers . great writing
Every detail you observe, every person you meet, every fact you learn, makes it that much more difficult to generalize, to presume, to stereotype, to say anything at all. For the more you know, the more you own that knowledge and the more its contradictions confound you. So if I say that Peshawar is one of my favorite cities on the planet, I conjure its rough male-dominated bazaars with smirking blue-eyed Pathans in baggy shalwars with battered rifles slung across their shoulders. If I appreciate the rugged beauty of Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier province, I think of the barren brown hills where tribal clans make their own laws and enslave their women. I follow news reports of the latest crackdowns between the Pakistani military and tribal militias in the unruly tribal beltway near the Afghan border where Osama bin Laden is allegedly hiding.
I had trespassed in terrorist country. I had flirted with danger. I was lucky to make it back in one piece. So I gather.
It’s all too easy to be discouraged when it comes to traveling alone in Pakistan as a woman. Though the country has developed an extensive network of public transport to access virtually any town on the map, it remains a system reserved primarily for men. Female travelers require a male escort for “protection” and going without an appropriate chaperone is virtually unthinkable, an open invitation to highway robbery, gang rape, and other impending disasters. The fact that I am neither a complete foreigner, nor 100% native, translated in local parlance as a pukka desi, makes matters more complicated.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
india popular with travellers
Check out my earlier blog about staying in a palace in India ... in Maheshwar
| India Becoming A Favorite Tourist Destination |
According to the latest information released by the World Travel and Tourism Council, India's travel and tourism industry was estimated to have generated approximately $100 billion in 2008. This figure is expected to go up to almost $275.5 billion by 2018, growing at an average of 9.4 percent over the next 10 years. Moreover, according to research, travel and tourism is expected to contribute 6.1 percent to India's GDP and provide almost 40 million jobs by 2018.
As the financial capital of India, Mumbai features on every India travel itinerary. With good air along with good road and rail connectivity, the city attracts tourists from all over India and overseas.
India as a country offers exciting and diverse experiences to tourists. Each state has its own unique traditions, culture, and cuisine. Apart from this, the country has excellent beaches, backwaters, Ayurvedic health resorts, ancient monuments, world heritage sites, forts, palaces, hill stations, and wildlife.
We have all heard about the heritage palace hotels that make you feel like maharajas and maharanis, a truly luxurious living experience found only in India, and something that overseas tourists look forward to. Good hotels to suit all budgets are available all over the country. India now also offer home stays, where you stay with a family as a member of the household and enjoy their hospitality and traditional ethnic cuisine. The Indian railways now run special luxury trains, each with unique themes that cover most of the important state tourism circuits. (I found this article onBargin Travel.Com , check them out)
| Monday, 04 May 2009 | |
new zealand birds are singing for you
The bird on the right is the worlds biggest pigeon: the kereru; on the left is the pukeko - the native bird of my city Christchurch
Every morning my favourite radio station (Radio NZ National) plays the song of a different NZ bird. So, even though I live in the inner city I hear one of our birds. I love that!
Check it out. See and HEAR New Zealand birds here
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
free night at NZ youth hostel (yha)
Enjoy a night on the house at any of our YHA New Zealand Hostels when you join YHA before the end of October!
Plus reap all the everyday benefits of being a YHA member:
- Great rates at over 50 of the best hostels in the country
- Over 100 great travel and activity discounts throughout New Zealand
- Your membership is valid in 80 countries providing access to 4,200 hostels and thousands of worldwide discounts!
Visit http://www.smartmailpro.co.nz/redirect.aspx?xr99=2C24D1AA86B242328D947635112EC98F&xr66=4C7A4621559945E7AE55DC27A3F113CB for further information. Terms and conditions apply
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