Thursday, 13 November 2008

Life is good in New Zealand


Life has been pretty amazing in New Zealand over the last couple of weeks. Well for me, anyway. The kids might not agree and, as teenagers do, they're grumbling and griping about the upcoming exams.

These are the good things that have happened:

  • The local community gym let us join through the school, for only $9 a week and no joining fee! The facilities included in this membership are a fully equipped circuit, a heated swimming pool (actually there are four), a sauna, steamroom, spa, and various classes including aerobics, kick-boxing and a pilates-yoga class! You also get an assessment and a personal trainer - all included in the price!
  • The government let me vote in the elections. This after just having lived in the country for three years. I received my Permanent Residency in June, and this allowed me to vote! What a thrill to actually have a say. It really made me feel that this is indeed a new home for us.
  • We have a new leader - John Keys. He believes in standardized testing in the Primary School, which may just be a good thing... We don't know how this is going to go, but on the whole the country seems to be heading in a good direction!
  • The price of petrol has gone down 19c in the past fortnight. Imagine that! The rest of the world is reeling under a recession, and here the price of petrol, and as a result food, is declining.
  • My teenage sons are actually studying for their NCEA exams. (See my previous post!) By the way does anyone know how to re-arrange the following formula to make v the subject?
    fL = [(v + vL)/(v + vS)] fS
  • I got a $50 discount voucher on my Jenny Craig groceries for getting a friend to join. I'm also steadily losing weight, and feeling pretty energetic.
  • The sun shone today. And yesterday. And the weather forecast says it will be shining tomorrow again. For Auckland, that is a miracle!
Yeah, life sure is good. Must be the endorphins from all the gym sessions making me feel this happy!

Tuesday, 4 November 2008

New Zealand Education Policy: What the Parties say!

We've got an election in a few days in New Zealand too! The two main Parties are National, with their leader John Keys, and Labour with the lovely Helen Clark as their leader.

Their education policies in a Wordle, are quite interesting!

National says:



Labour says:



In the long run, it's not the WORDS that count, but the ACTIONS! This is going to be an interesting show to watch!

What do you think?