Orchids.

One of the lovely things about this house sit is the pot plants. They have some really nice plants and quite a few large pots distributed around the house. There is the most beautiful orchid that has just come into flower. Isn’t it beautiful?

More about spiders and birds.

I have mentioned before about all the small spiders we have had in the house. They are not so scary, and I can deal with them okay, but it was getting to the point where we were killing three or four of them every day. When they are small they are manageable. But four or five every day will become quite a few big ones in a few months, and that was my main worry.

To deal with them, we decided to get the house sprayed.  Peter had done the house thoroughly at the beginning of summer with stuff from the supermarket, supposedly commercial grade spray, and we have not had many large huntsmen in the house, and certainly no redbacks at all in or around the house, but I am sure these little spiders are from within the house, as I said in a previous post, some mummy and daddy Huntsmen made hay while the sun shone, and laid a bunch of eggs somewhere, possibly in the hall linen cupboard, there seems to be lots of the baby ones around that area.

Mates Rates van.

 

Spraying the bathroom.

Anyway, I called several pest control people for quotes and decided to go with a company called Mates Rates. They were a bit cheaper and give a 10 month warranty, so if the spiders come back I’ll be calling him in again to respray.  He came a couple of days ago, and did the whole place through, did a complete pest control spray. And guess what, I haven’t seen another spider since.

On a different subject, we have had a sick bird on the front lawn. In this picture you can see a bird feeder Peter has made, and we get lots of birds coming in to feed during the day, which we love. But one galah, the one on the right on the ground, (I know its not a very good picture) has been really sick. He can hardly walk. Peter managed to catch him two days ago and his feet were all tangled up with some sort of fabric. Peter got all the fabric away, but he is still really really sick. We tried to catch him yesterday and see if there is anything else we can do, but so far he eludes us.

Its a little hard to see here, I can't get any closer without scaring him but he is asleep on the lawn with his head tucked under his wing. Not normal for a bid to sleep on the ground like that. Fortunately there are not cats or dogs that come onto this grassy area.

 

 

In this picture you can also see a grey plastic shopping bag. It is protecting the last huge mango on this tree. We are trying to get it ripe enough to pick without the bats and birds getting it.

One place not to go house sitting.

I haven't been so busy on here for the last week or so, my photo scanner has been going flat out and I am getting lots of my photo albums digitised, which also means that I have been wandering down memory lane quite a bit.

 
Anyway, one place not to be house sitting is Russia. I don’t think the home owners would be so happy if I phoned them up and said all the windows had blown out!!!

Adhttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/meteor-shower-prompts-panic-central-russia-article-1.1265028d caption



http://news.yahoo.com/fiery-meteor-explodes-over-russia-1-100-injured-200611578.html



 

Old age might not be fun, but youth is a problem for many too.

I found this article on the China Daily News site. This is food for thought. Suicide is a huge problem among the younger ones.

  

Volunteers at a suicide intervention hotline in Shanghai try to ease the burdens of callers. The mirrors help volunteers adjust their facial expressions and voice tones. [JIANG LEZHOU / FOR CHINA DAILY]

"Sometimes, I would sit in my lab staring at the equipment and ask myself over and over again, 'Why am I alive?' "

This is how PhD student Sun, 27, who did not want his full identity revealed, recalls one of his lowest points. "It was a few years ago, but at the time I just couldn't see a future," he said. "I still can't, I guess."

He eventually sought professional help, and with continued support he says he feels better.

Analysis suggests millions of young people like Sun are struggling under the pressures of work, study and relationships. Unfortunately, many are not finding the help they need.

Every year, roughly 250,000 people commit suicide in China, while another 2 million attempt to cut their lives short, according to the Ministry of Health. Although studies show the highest incidence is among elderly and rural women, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says suicide is now the top cause of death for people aged 15 to 34.

The data "show us that this group of people needs far more help with mental health", said Lin Kunhui, founder of Life Education and Crisis Intervention Center, a nonprofit organization in Shanghai.

In December, his center launched the city's first 24-hour suicide hotline, and within a month it had received 632 calls, mostly from white-collar workers aged 23 to 35.

According to Lin, roughly 20 percent of callers needed urgent crisis intervention.

"Young people on the Chinese mainland are under a huge amount of stress, but they have few places where they can talk to someone about their problems," he said.

Suicide remains a taboo subject in China. Studies into the problem were nonexistent until the 1990s.

Michael Phillips has been looking into the issue for more than two decades, and between 1995 and 2000 he cooperated with the Chinese CDC to conduct the largest-ever study of suicide in China. He talked with families in 23 locations nationwide about loved ones who had killed themselves.

"Suicide is a very complicated problem. It's a different situation among different groups," said Phillips, now director of suicide research and prevention at the Shanghai Mental Health Center and winner of the State Council's 2012 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.

"The problem among young people has to do with education and family environment. There is too much to be done in the country."

 The study found that from 1995 to 1999, China's suicide rate reached 0.023 percent, one of the highest in the world. In recent years, the rate has dropped, thanks largely to controls on pesticides, and greater medical support and education.

 However, the suicide trend among young people in recent years has raised concerns.

A 2008 poll of more than 3,800 teenagers in Foshan, Guangdong province, found that 17 percent of female junior high school students had contemplated suicide. The main reasons were the pressure to behave well and feelings of isolation and loneliness, according to a report by the city's health authority.

"There is a clear connection with the country's basic education system," said Xu Kaiwen, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Peking University.

 "They (the girls) have been educated to work hard and receive high marks from childhood. But although they perform well in class, they lack education about the value of life," he said, adding that the problem is even more serious at prestigious universities.

 "When they (students) meet difficulties, they are fragile," he said. "Such problems will extend to their work and life after graduation."

 

Depression increases the risk of someone attempting suicide by as much as 20 times, according to the Chinese CDC, with anxiety disorders increasing the risk by six to 10 times and alcohol abuse by six times.

To help students cope with the pressure, Xu said Peking University offers psychological counseling sessions once or twice a week.

"For young people who grow up under the protection of their family, there must be a platform for them to speak out whenever they feel anxious or in trouble," said Zhang Qi, deputy director of the psychological counseling center at East China Normal University.

"Keeping these things inside can make them into a disease," he added. "It requires work from families, schools and the government."

Cao Lianyuan, former director of Beijing Psychological Crisis and Intervention Center, agreed and said that although there is no cure-all remedy, ensuring people get enough social support through help lines and counseling would go a long way to reducing the suicide rate.

The first suicide hotline on the Chinese mainland opened in Beijing in 2002. Since then, similar projects have been launched in major cities such as Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing.

In Taiwan, a 24-hour suicide intervention hotline can receive as many as 100,000 calls a year on average," said Lin, who is also secretary-general of the Taiwan Suicide Prevention Association. "On the Chinese mainland, the number still lags behind."

 He said about a third of calls to the Life Education and Crisis Intervention Center come from people living outside of Shanghai.

 "That reflects a large demand for such services, so psychological aid and crisis intervention need to be widely publicized," he said.

 The center is now planning to expand the hotline to cover every district in Shangha

Old age ain't fun.

There is a poem doing the rounds on the internet. Of course, with all these things, you never know how much truth there is in the origins of these things, but it’s quite a nice poem, and it does address a problem that most of us have, especially as our parents age.  Here is the poem.
 

Cranky Old Man.....

What do you see nurses? . . .. . .What do you see?

What are you thinking .. . when you're looking at me?
A cranky old man, . . . . . .not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .. . . . . . . .. with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food .. . ... . . and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice . .'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice . . .the things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . . . .. . . A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not . . . ... lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding . . . .The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking?. .Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse .you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am . . . . .. As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, .. . . . as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten . .with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .. . . .. . who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen . . . .. with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . .. . . a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty . . . ..my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows .. .. .that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now . . . . .I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . .. . . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . .. With ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons .. .have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me . . to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .. ...Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children . . . . My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me . . . . My wife is now dead.
I look at the future ... . . . . I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing .. . . young of their own.
And I think of the years . . . And the love that I've known.
I'm now an old man . . . . . . .. and nature is cruel.
It's jest to make old age . . . . . . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles .. .. . grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone . . . where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass . A young man still dwells,
And now and again . . . . . my battered heart swells
I remember the joys . . . . .. . I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living . . . . . . . life over again.
I think of the years, all too few . . .. gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people .. . . . .. . . open and see.
Not a cranky old man .
Look closer . . . . see .. .. . .. .... . ME!!

 

With my newly acquired photo scanner I am currently sifting through and saving all my family albums. I have some photos of my mother from age 16 to age 92.

  

16 years old.

26 years old.

 

 

About 40 years old.

  

About 60 years of age

  

About 66 years of age. 40th wedding anniversary.

   

About 76 years of age. 50th wedding annivesary.

  

92 years of age.

Old age is not a friend to the human race.

Who’s been mucking about with the sun?

I’ve been sorting out lots of files on my computer, and found a story I wrote soon after Peter and I went to China the first time, and decided to do a bit of research. Here is the email to the family on the subject of getting my bearings as far as directions were concerned. I called it......

Who’s been mucking about with the sun?

Someone’s been playing games and not told me. I’m pretty sure about that.

Peter and I lived in New Zealand for much of our lives. New Zealand is in the south of the southern hemisphere, pretty much at the bottom of the world. The next stop is Antarctica. 

Winters were quite cold there, although it rarely snowed in our part of the country. However, we knew that the sun lived at the top end of the world and so we never bought a house with the main entrance to the house facing the bottom end of the world because that is where the howling southerlies came from and invaded your warm home every time you opened the door in winter.

Therefore we looked for houses that had doors facing north, east or west and that was very sensible. Our homes were designed for outdoor living in the summer, but more importantly to keep warm in the winter. We always knew which was east and west, and even though the sun moved around a bit up and down the globe, we knew it rose in the east and set in the west but lived up the top. No problem.

Then when we moved to Australia, we found that houses were designed to stay cool. In Queensland because even the winters are warm, there is a whole new mindset involved. So they have doors, and lots of windows that open in any direction so that any breeze will wander into your house and keep you cool. Very sensible.

Even so, the sun still rose in the east and set in the west, and spent most of its time up in the top of the world.

But about the time we came to live in China, someone made some changes. Either someone moved China or else someone has been mucking about with the sun. The Bible says that faith the size of a mustard seed (a really tiny seed) could move mountains, but I’m not sure about moving a country as big as China.

However, somehow, China seems to have been turned one quarter of a turn on the globe, because, and I kid you not, here the sun rises in the south and sets in the north. I have always had a really good sense of direction, and generally could find my way anywhere, (within reason). In Napier, the hill was north, the sea was east and everything else could be worked out. In Australia the sea is east, the storms come from the west and you can work out the rest. But not so here.

For some reason I have yet to find out, China builds all its houses facing the same way. There are rows and rows and rows of these high rise apartment buildings, usually built in housing estates, and they generally all face the same way. They have the long side of the building facing one way and the short end of the building facing the other way. And it seems to have completely messed up my sense of direction, because, it is an absolute fact, that the sun is now rising in the south and setting in the north and it does the same thing every day.

I am going to add some photos in here. These were taken from the top of the building on the left, the Financial Trade Building in Shanghai. The height is not so clear from this angle, but the Trade Building is quite a bit higher than the Jinmao Tower next to it, a rather lovely building when you see it up close. 

 The Trade building has a viewing platform on the 94th floor. It is 100 floors high I think. This is the viewing platform below. The 94th floor is at the top of the gap in the building, sometimes refered to as the can opener due to its rather unusual shape and the gap in the top. Part of the floor is glass so you can look right down to the ground.

Of course,here in Longyan you can go for days without seeing the sun, just a mist everywhere, all day every day. Sometimes you get the see the sun as a giant red ball as it rises and then a giant red ball as it sets, but that is all you see of it all day. In fact the first time we saw the sun set we were absolutely convinced it was the moon rising! It took us a while to figure it out; it was just too red for the moon.

Living in China now, I realise that I am at the top end of the world and things will be different. For those of you who have lived or travelled from the bottom bit of the world to the top bit of the world, or vice versa, you may have noticed the same thing. How did you deal with this?

At the moment the sun is whirling around directly over poor old Rockhampton, causing heatwaves and such. It definitely is not close to China because our highs here in Longyan are 10 to 15 degrees and our lows are 3,4,5,6, etc. In Beijing, (who would want to live there?) they are having lows of minus 15 and highs of minus 5. What joy! And I am told Longyan gets much colder in February, so course we are really looking forward to that!

Taken from the 94th floor. All the apartment buildings facing the same way, south I guess.

Alos from the 94th floor. More apartment buildings in Shanghai, by the river in Shanghai.

The Jin Mao Tower is in the front of this picture and the Oriental Pearl Tower is in the background. It will give you an idea of how high up I was. This is in the central part of Pudong, the centre of Shanghai. Most of the buildings in this picture are offices, hotels etc, this is the business district, so not necessarily built facing south. If you want to stay somewhere posh the Hyatt Hotel starts on the 54th floor of the Jin Mao Tower. They have an observation floor on the 87th floor.

Anyway back to the subject. I am still confused about east west north and south, and all that stuff and as my sense of direction is usually really good, I am quite sure someone has been playing games with the sun, and if  it was you, please could you put it back again? Or if someone actually has turned China one quarter of a turn on the globe, please could you undo it for me?

To use one of Peter’s latest words, I am somewhat discombobulated. Thanks.

My originial email to the family ended there but today I thought I'd find out why this is so. This link explains it a bit. I think it might be from old times when feng shui was important. It seems houses mostly face south, the direction the warm weather comes from. That makes sense to me.

 http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/3intrhme.htm

Bummer!

There are times when we just get caught out at the wrong time. This is one such case. Imagine if you will, being in prison, with a cell search being conducted in a minute or so and you realise you have a cell phone, something forbidden in this jail. What to do with it?

I suggest you don’t do what this prisoner did. Ninemsn gives the details.

A Sri Lankan prisoner who tried to hide a mobile phone in his rear end during a cell search was caught out when it began ringing.

The guards heard the sound and sent the 58-year-old prisoner to a hospital in Colombo where doctors removed the handset, a hospital official told AFP.

"The man had concealed the phone inside his person," the official said, asking not to be named.

"Unfortunately for him, the phone rang at the wrong time and guards knew he had a phone at the wrong end."

The man remained in hospital for two days and was discharged back to the prison on Friday.

Source: AFP 

Politically correct spiders.

We know political correctness has been introduced to keep everyone on a level playing field.  Women, the bra burning type, didn’t like some of the names or words used to describe us or our jobs, so they decided that in fairness to all, we should change those that seemed offensive.

You know that we now have two legged walking chairs.  A chairman is a chairman no longer. A chairwoman is not so popular either, so we call them a chair. There’s lots of other stuff around too, that’s a bit silly, but keeps some of the population happy.

Today I had a conversation with a spider. At the moment, in this lovely house we are house sitting, we are finding a lot of baby huntsman spiders. We are finding one or two adults, but heaps of babies. Some mummy and daddy huntsman made hay while the sun shone a while ago, and we are reaping the rewards…….

Anyway, the huntsman, baby though it was, is a diplomatic type of arachnid and wants to know if it is proper to call a female huntsman a huntsman. Surely it should be called a huntslady, or perhaps a huntswoman. It did ask me if we could consider calling it a huntsperson, although to be correct it’s not a person, so maybe just call them a hunts.

Does anyone out there have any ideas? Anyone in government want to take up with worthy cause?

In my normal nature loving way, I stood for a minute considering this seemingly logical question. Then in true John Wayne fashion, I said, ‘put up your dukes buddy’. Unfortunately for him, even though he has eight legs or hands, he came off second best, and my can of fly spray took him to spider heaven, where hopefully every spider sits on a cloud playing a harp and doesn’t have to worry about such things.