building an island’s economy

While holidaying in Rarotonga in 2010 I was impressed by the effort many young people were making to build the economy of the island, primarily within the tourist industry. These young people had often been educated in other countries, such as New Zealand, and were bringing back what they had learned to try and move the country ahead. In particular they were trying to implement innovative ideas, building on the natural and historic resources of the islands, that matched the type of tourist experiences people might have in other countries. Really interesting things don’t happen only in Silicon Valley!

Screwed up Faces

When we were in Amsterdam we went to an exhibition where a photographer had worked his way around the middle east taking pictures of people with screwed up faces. Essentially he asked them to contort their face as much as they could then he took the shot. There were some amazing photographs and some evidence that the "fun" of the activity relaxed some of the tensions amongst the people involved in what was a pretty tense time in the area. I had to have a go myself; I guess I was not as good at screwing my face up as some of the people shown in the exhibition, but I gave it a good go.

Face to face with a black bear

This photo is the location of my most profound wildlife experience: finding my self face to face with a black bear. The place is Vancouver Island. Early in the morning I opened the door of the Backpackers hostel we were staying in and, there right in front of me was a sizable black bear. Black bears are not large bears, but to me it was fairly enormous. In New Zealand the largest mammals you might come across in the wild are goats or deer; they of course will run off, probably  before you even see them. As the bear and I looked at each other I found I wasn't afraid, even though I could have let a dozen stories of how dangerous bears could be run through my mind. Instead I felt calm and enjoyed my brief moment with the bear until it sniffed the air around it and ambled off to find more rubbish bins to forage in. Then it was gone. But, the image of that experience has never left my mind and I realised that enjoying the moment was far more important than racing back into the hostel to find a camera to try and photograph it. In the time it would have taken me to get my camera it would have probably moved on anyway. So, I guess that's why I only have a photo of where the bear and I met; not of the actual meeting.

Styles of blogging by people with life threatening illnesses

http://www.butdoctorihatepink.com/



Ann Silberman's blog helped me to realise that there are many people talking about their illness on the web, and almost everyone has a different style.



Some people talk about what their illness means for them, some talk about how they cope with their situation others talk about experiences at different stages of treatment and so on. This puts together a rich mix of experiences and personal knowledge of what it means for anyone to be in the situation of living with a life threatening illness. For example, consider Ann Silberman's recent blog on Kevin MD:



http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/12/person-cancer.html



I thought this was a good blog from someone who has obviously thought about the way people approach her and what that might mean for her and for others in a similar situation.



By reading through these blogs people in similar (does not have to be exactly the same) situations can:

• Gain some reassurance that their situation is not totally different from experiences other people have had

• Get ideas from other people regarding how to deal with specific day to day living situations

• Be more prepared to deal with the health system which becomes an increasing part of day to day life for people with a life threatening illness

• Come to realise that it is OK to talk about yourself and that this can be therapeutic and helpful to others

• Obtain specific information that might help decision making around treatment options

• come to realise, that even with a life threatening illness, life goes on.

Aerobatics

There was always something special about doing aerobatics in the high country area of the South Island. Here my plane waits for another session of loops and rolls around the mountains.

Salt water Crocs

When I visited Australia Zoo one of the most amazing things that happened was a demonstration (for want of a better term) of feeding salt water crocodiles. I guess these are one of the most dangerous reptiles in the world, but by developing an understanding of how these creatures function the zoo handlers were able to control what happened in the show to a remarkable degree. For example, at the start of the show the crocs swam slowly up the long canals to the feeding area and then lounged around in a pond waiting for their food. One clambered out of the pond and the handler demonstrated how close you can get to one of these crocs without it leaping and grabbing you in its enormous jaws. Then a handler stood on the platform and the crocs leapt up to grab their food like a well trained dolphin. Unbelievable, but it did suggest to me that if you understand well enough how something works you can sometimes use that knowledge to make extraordinary things happen.

One of the greatest experiences of my life was climbing up and down the Leaning Tower of Pisa

As I climbed and "swung" my way up the steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa I could not stop thinking to myself, here I am following in the footsteps of Galileo. While it is probably unlikely that Galileo used the tower to carry out his experiments on the effect of the weight of an object and its speed of descent, it seems likely to me, given he grew up in Pisa, that be would have climbed the tower at some time in his life - even if it was just to take in the view. On the other hand, even if Galileo never entered the tower, climbing it with thoughts of what he achieved gave me a real feeling of being part of the world where modern science began.

The importance of early experiences

As a young person my partner and I moved to the Waikato area so I could attend the local university. Accommodation proved to be difficult to find so we looked around at cottages for rent on local dairy farms.  Eventually we were offered a cottage on the understanding that we would run the farm for a month while the farmer went away on his annual holiday. This was not just rent in lieu of working on the farm, it was accommodation for actually running the farm! I said yes, we could do that although I had never really been on, or worked on a dairy farm in my life.  We had a weeks induction and then we were in charge! It was one of the greatest challenges in my life but we did it; the farm survived and I learnt an important lesson. Don’t be afraid of taking on really big challenges, even though they may seem daunting at the outset they are usually achievable. More importantly, by taking on big challenges you learn how to utilise the resources you will need to achieve the outcome you want. I have subsequently faced bigger challenges than running a farm for a month, but I am sure the lessons I learned from this experience made these new challenges more possible to achieve.