So today is Helen Keller day. It was her birthday today and is now a day in New Zealand (and maybe everywhere else too?)
used to promote deaf/blind awareness. i know this because I am working at the Royal New Zealand
Foundation fo the Blind and today they had a birthday cake and balloons for that exact reason.
And you know what else I found out today? There are apporximately 1500 deafblind New Zealanders at the moment.
What the heck. And an estimated 3600 deafblind Canadians.
What the Heck.
Touch is the primary source of communication for people who are deafblind, and they
have programmes set up to teach deafblind children the same way Helen Keller was taught,
using a manual touch alphabet and language and braille. There are also tools like telletalkers where someone can type in words and then
a temporary braille strip is produced for the deafblind person to read. again i say, what the heck.
how inspiring that people live, learn, work and study all through touch.
wow. how am i not more grateful for my hearing and sight!?
So now, I am practising the deaf/blind alphabet. very similar to New Zealand sign language alphabet, in terms of the shapes and
movements that are made,
but different becuase where for the deaf it's visual using 2 hands, both the "speaker's", it uses two hands, one of the "speaker"
making shapes on the palm and fingers of the "listener"
amazing
So yeah, I am really learning a lot at this job, it's kinda fun being the perceived "font of all knowledge"
that people ask for "Information and Advice" when they ring or visit the foundation. tehehe
I just kinda do my thing and it seems to be going alright.
Had lunch with two girls that I used to teach drama to when I was in high school, one of whom is now dating
my little brother Alec (not so little, he's living in Japan right now studying Japanese!) Very cool.
Good kebabs too. though pretty messy.
So am listening to a lot of country/pop kinda music at the moment. Cheesy I know, but it's like my
Vancouver soundtrack. Keeps it all fresh while I sit here and type at work.
Have a bunch of pictures on my wall here too, so Auckland gets to see a bit
of Vancouver and many of you.
My goal is to have pics of just about everyone i know with me when I am back in Vancouver. I like having pictures with
me as most of you know, and so far the collection is pretty good. I took all my stuff out of
storage and those boards of pictures that i had up at my 21st/goodbye party
are still in good nic and are definately coming with back to Vancovuer in the bottom of my suitcase!
Hmmmm, what to do now.
It's a slow day.
It was really cold this morning, so I was wearing two sets of arm warmers, one on top of the other
Nerdy yes, but also warm! and who can hate black and grey stripey arm warmers.mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
It was so cold last night there was actually a frost and my windscreen needed hot water to be poured on it to thaw
it out
I'm serious Canadians, STOP LAUGHING
tehehe
Funny bad moment of the day was when i was talking about seraching our database for details and
excluding deceased members from the search. My boss turned around and asked me if "i knew how to
bring up the deceased if necessary" . ouch.
I have curly hair at the moment. Makes a nice change. I might get this done permanently. can I do that
without it looking like some kind of crazy eighties disaster area? it's not really curly it's just loose wavey and not poker straight like
my hair normally is.
so who in vancouver is reading my blog? i really want to know the website and the name of the programme
that leigh and ange downloaded to help them learn languages. apparently it was a free one that they
downloaded off the internet. can anyone help me out with that? Ryan? Jaqcs? Need to start working on my Cantonese
whiel I am still around my mum so she can help me practise.
so yeah anwyays
that's all for today folks
Happy Birthday Helen Keller

So my darlings, New Zealand is even as we speak preparing for "the coldest night of winter yet..." I'm not even kidding, and, Canadians please contain your laughter and superior smirking, it's expected to drop to a frigid low of two degrees. centigrade. there will be frost. and up to a foot of snow in some places.
sigh
so how is the true north? i dunno, i'm here in the true south!
But life in the true south is good. i had my first official day of real work, having real responsibility of the "advice and information line". it was good, though i needed my lunch break for sure. was a good one too, as i met up with darragh and orla, gavin's brother and sister who are here for a visit. it's been fun hanging out with them, will post pics from our driving tour of auckland by night here as soon as orla emails them to me!
otherwise it's slow going here, things are just keeping on keeping on.
enjoying it, and excited for the future, and watching dvds lol.
good recommendation this week, goes to de post belgian pub on mt eden road. mmmmm, good feeds belgian beer and chill out place when it's raining and storming.
am tired. it's late. it's bed time.
will post again soon
have a lot more to say, well kind of, but it'll all keep
i miss you
i love you
and i'll write soon
hill

So here goes.....
LETS GO ALL BLACKS LETS GO! 27-17 YEAH BABY!!!!
So in the midst of a driving rain and some nice black sky and clouds, we got to be drenched for the sake of a SWEET game of rugby, ALLBLACKS vs. IRELAND. And lucky me, I got shouted my ticket by Gavin's big brother Darragh, and ended up doing my absolute best to out shout him, their sister Orla, and their English friend Vicki. But, it was totally worth the sore throats and the drenching, because we took it out in the second half for a good 10 point win. Lots of Irish were there, and it was great to have some good kiwi experience and cheering and have an allround good night. I tell you, when the Rugby World Cup is on, I will be glued to a screen in a pub somewhere in Vancouver, the haka still brings shivers down my spine!!!
Life here is going alright, it's good settling into my new job, I am now the "Information and Advice officer" at the RNZFB, and it's been going really well, Monday is my first day of having total free reign of the desk, so yeah 0800 callers be prepared!
Support raising is going well, the Pizza magnet has so far been a hit, all of them are gone, the other ones are moving much slower! but more pizza ones will be printed by monday so it's all good.
Mum and Adeline are watching Troy, terrible movie, but seriously (and i know it's tacky and superficial) but between Bradd Pitt, Eric Bana, and Sean Bean, it is a seriously good looking cast :)
Anyways, it's strange to think that if all goes well I will be back in Vancouver in less than 9 weeks. It seems pretty crazy actually, but at the same time I am excited. Am stocking up on Kiwiana to take back too, maybe not too much, but definately an All Blacks flag to add to the Kiwi one I have in storage there in Jacqui's living room.
Okay,
bed and warm dry snuggly pajamas are calling.
Love you lots and lots
hill

Yeah, like I said, which one do you think this is in my mum's opinion?

So I should clarify.
When I said I thought Queen's birthday happened while I was in Vancouver, I meant Queen Elizabeth IIs actual birthday. Like, for real, happy birthday to her!
Just to clarify :)
So had my first day of work today. Was alright, and it was exciting really feeling how this is the first step back to Vancouver and missions and YWAM and all that good stuff (aye layne?) It's pretty chilled out work and pretty straight forward and it looks like i have a lot of fun cool people to work with.
Have finished my magnets, have 2 designs, to give people options (my mum refers to them as the one for my friends and the one for normal people! lol)
But have attached a sneak preview of one of them (guess which one it is!) just for a laugh.
I'm so sad for the Oilers. I kept tabs while I was at work but missed the third period *sigh*
it can only get better though!
Anyways, dinner time shortly, so will sign off.
Love you lots and lots
hillbo

So, am watching the West Wing, season three, on DVD with my mum.
Was supposed to be designing my "pray for me" fridge magnets, but my lovely camera ran out of batteries as i was loading pics so i guess it will have to wait til tomorrow.
Things are going alright, it's been pretty tough being home to be honest, good to be with friends and family, but with more than enough stressful moments with the same.
Am speaking at church on sunday to give the big update, story sharing, support raising, picture showing thing, so here's hoping it goes well, all prayer much appreciated.
Tomorrow is a public holiday and I was a little weirded out to realise that I not only didn't remember that when i came home, but then when informed that it was a long weekend I couldn't remember why. Queen's birthday apparently, but i'm sure that happened while i was in Vancouver. But then again if she's queen she's allowed to have more than one birthday i guess. plus as queen that would mean more than one pretty cool parties whenever you want.
Ok so i'm a bit tired.
I miss Vancouver, I love Auckland, but Vancouver.......
I start full time work on Tuesday, at the Royal NZ Foudation of the Blind working on a short term contract, and have applied for another job doing two nights and a weekend shift, so we'll see how that goes. mostly going for that one to pay for the gas/bus to get to the main one! but we'll see.
Support raising is going ok too, thank you so much for the support and prayers that are happening on my behalf.
I miss so many of you so much, you know who you are.
Oh and before I go......
GO OILERS
tehehe
even if i am the only one in NZ cheering for them!