CHRISTCHURCH WEATHER

With all this talk about climate change and seeing the effects globally with superstorms like the ones that are pounding Scotland at the moment, is making us take note of what is happening in our neck of the woods. No matter where you live in the world I am sure you will see changes in weather over a historic period of time. Now that I have got that of my chest I would like to talk to you about the weather in Christchurch Canterbury NZ.

CHRISTCHURCH WEATHER

I use to live in Auckland in the north island of New Zealand before coming to Christchurch in the early part of 2012. I was told that it is a tad colder as in Auckland Summer would see days of around 24 to 26 degrees celsius and winter on a bitterly cold day would get down to maybe 6 degrees celsius at its lowest. Christchurch was a major shock to my system as for the first time in my life I had to wear multiple layers in winter with thermals.

WINTER 2012

A GUY FROM BRAZIL SURFING IN THE SNOW
NEW BRIGHTON BEACH CHRISTCHURCH

In the month of April the temp was bloody cold getting down to a few nights in the low negatives but the thing that struck me the most was how the easterly winds were very cold as were the southerlies. Back to Northern NZ for example the easterly winds would be hot like a fan heater and the westerly and southerly winds were colder. So that was bizarre to me noting that the North Westerly wind here in Canterbury is very warm to hot in summer and warmish in winter. 

The Temps in winter of 2012 got down very low recalling days of maybe 1 or 2 celsius and night temps dropped to negative 9 celsius at times but was always in the negatives at night. This was the first for me as we got a bloody snow storm and when you are working on a building 20 stories high with no windows she was bitterly cold. I was on contract taking down the Clarendon towers after the earthquakes that devastated Christchurch. If it was not bad enough still having magnitude 5 plus quakes now we had to deal with snow. It was so cold and the snow fell to sea level.

SUMMER 2012 - 2013

The start of summer seemed to come on very fast as one day it was around the 16 celsius mark then we had a rather quick increase to the mid twenties. This was a great summer always very hot with a week or so of the temperature reaching 35 to 40 celsius and that was a killer. The North Westerly winds were blowing like the ultimate fan heater whereas on the coast it was much cooler with the easterly winds.

Summer lasted all the way through until early April then we had a big change as the weather dropped temperature suddenly as we progressed into another cold winter. The snow that fell in Canterbury was nice and thick on the mountains and low areas around the Southern Alps and Arthurs Pass. The City of Christchurch only got a few days of snow but the weather was extremely cold right up to late October before coming into summer again. The summer of 2013 early 2014 was quite nice still with high peaks at times but they were short lived. This season was definitely a bit cooler for summer and it ended in early to mid April.

WINTER 2013 -2014

CHRISTCHURCH CITY FLOODED

Well this has been a really strange winter as even though the temps were in single digits for the majority of this winter season it has been a lot warmer. The snow is normally visible on the ,mountain tops of the Southern Alps by June. But this year the snow coverage has been quite scarce as the whole of winter has had a drastically shortage of the white stuff we are use to. 

We have had no snow in Christchurch City this year with only a flurry on the Port Hills but we have had some severe down pours of rain putting the city underwater. Further south they had a pretty descent amount in some locations.

As we head into summer I was expecting it to be a very early summer as in October we had days with temperatures reaching 28C but that changed rather quickly going from high temps to low temps rapidly. We are now in the month of December and I am rather mythed as the temps are all over the place. First thing in the morning it may be 10 degrees then by lunchtime we are hitting 24 degrees dropping rapidly in the late afternoon.

So it will be interesting to see what happens this summer season and this will be a topic I talk about next year. After talking to many locals that say the weather is very odd are sure that next winter 2015 is going to be super cold with heavier snow falls down to sea level.

May God Bless you and keep you all safe over the holiday season no matter where in the world you may be.

SURFING IN THE SNOW CHRISTCHURCH JUNE 2012

WHAT ARE YOUR FAULTS

For the majority of us we find it very easy noticing faults about others that we discuss with mutual friends etc, but how do you like being made aware of the faults you have? I do not think that we like to try to find faults about ourselves or take onboard others criticism about the faults we have, But in order to grow and expand our minds we must first look at ourselves before we judge others! This i know is a hard thing to do.

EXAMPLES OF FAULTS

I will give you an example, My wife and I have been looking for a new car and even though I cannot drive at the moment I get told that I will not drive that car as I am too messy. I found that really offensive but at the same time I started to look at myself and I have to agree with her, as I Can be messy at times. This may not be saying that rubbish would be in the car just not tidy and keeping the car clean.

Another example that I know is a fault of mine is that I find myself after my surgery as being very explosive. Everyday I wake up and first thing I see is the cut where the surgeons botched up leaving ne dead for a few minutes. This makes me very angry and I have to try to find reasons why I should not go up to the hospital and beat the shit out of them, for doing this to me! Where in actual fact I need to get over this and leave what has happened in the past, instead of carrying it forward, as this anger is a bad disease that will just eat me up. What I should really be doing is waking up and focus on the positive things like my gym and therapy that will give me a better chance of finding my way back as I still feel quite lost.

DWELLING ON NEGATIVES

Dwelling on negatives is very easy to do whereas concentrating on positives is hard for me to do as I keep getting reminded of all that has happened to me. So this is an issue I really need to work on but I do not think I can or could forgive these individuals, as there is no re-address or compensation these surgeons have to pay to me. Instead I have to go on living in constant pain daily whereas for the surgeons it is like water off a ducks back, as they can go on as if nothing has happened.

There are some faults that I have that are very easy to change for the better that I am doing now but there are some that will take a bit more time and a lot of soul searching before I can forgive and move on. I have a piece of paper on my wall with my faults I see in myself and tick off the ones I have rectified. The anger in me is very high and no matter how hard I try, at this present point in time it is very hard for me to think about forgiveness and moving on.

TAKE THE CHALLENGE

Take the challenge write down all the faults that you think you have then ask your partners and family members to tell you the faults they think you have. Do not get angry just listen and discuss your reasons why you may disagree with what they say, as they are only saying it because they care. Once you have done that create a list of all the faults and tick them off as you correct them. The ones that are the hardest should always be at the top as we need to keep coming back to those ones we need to change.

ARE THEY REALLY FRIENDS?

Hello beautiful people of the world, I hope you are all in a happy mood getting ready for sleep, work or family time having fun with each other. The topic today that I wish to talk about is social media friends and true friendship.Also we will be looking at personal viewpoints as to whether all this social sites are good for individuals or do they come at a cost that can destroy families and lead unsavoury people into your lives!

SOCIAL MEDIA & SECURITY

FACEBOOK, TWITTER, LINKEDIN
First off we need to look back to where and when all these Social media sites came into play discovering all the good and bad effects they played in peoples lives. The first social media site that most people engage their social lives with is Face Book.

FACEBOOK: As we add our family and friends then we start to look for other people that have similar interests as ourselves. From here we can talk about things online or set times to catch up for a social activity or participate in an event together. Some Guys and Girls look at FaceBook as a place to extend their circle of friends, or find love and romance. My first question here is why do we need so many online friends?

TWITTER: Twitter like many other apps guide people to your page on FaceBook your Limkedin, Youtube, Picasa and many other sites where people can express themselves. Some people use these sites to guide others towards products and or services for their businesses. Using all the above sites are good to use on a professional basis but at times in can be detrimental to our business and private lives as well. My question here is, Is it wise to have these apps to your FaceBook page where you share a lot of your personal life with family and close friends?

POSITIVES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA: There are a lot of positives with all this social media like loved ones abroad being able to instantly send or stream live video. Being able to bring friends & families that are spread over the globe is fantastic. Other positives include groups of individuals that want to share a cause that is positive for the protection of wildlife, including marine life. We could most likely think of lots of very positive points like business opportunities but this all comes at a price! How much negative impact will you draw to your friends and family?

SOCIAL MEDIA NEGATIVES: Looking above we can think of lots of positives for social media, but I tend to think that many of the negatives outway the positives and that is a sad state of affair. I say (SAD STATE) as I think the majority would like to live in a world where positive and good things outweigh the negatives!

Heaven forbid having personal images exposed that may put off
employment in an institution of utmost scrutiny.
Holly shit that is a graet looking body

If you are in business and you have an important job interview or you are in the process of closing that big deal Social Media could be your downfall. The reason for that is all of us, or at least the majority of us will have objectionable things on or in some of our social online activities. These pieces of material may seem fine for me and you but others may see that in another light placing that job or closing deal on the line with the possibility of it not going ahead.

There are many examples that one could give and I encourage you all to think about that and I am sure you will be surprised at how some things you say and do can have dire consequences to your everyday life. Online social media is out there and everyone can see and access loads of things about you with a little bit of knowhow!


WHAT IS A TRUE FRIEND: As individuals we can all have a viewpoint as to what a true friend really is depending upon what we value in our personal lives. A true friend is someone you can trust with things of great importance. Someone that you know they can keep private unless it is in the nature of hurting another person. Then I would expect a friend to really question that threat or decide if it was for real or a venting of anger and frustration at that point in time.

A true friend may not always be there in person but is always there when you want someone to talk to. I have experienced this myself and it surprised me how many do not talk to me now that I am a bit slower. A disability should not jeopardize friendship and if it does then they are not true friends. Like helping you in troubling times! Being there for you if you require help move house or general things.

To me I think I can count on my one hand true friends and all the rest are merely acquaintances or maybe close friends but not ones I can rely on! My best friend is my wife!!

ARE THEY REALLY FRIENDS: I want you to look at your social media sites and then think about whom are you best true friends and your close friends. Then the balance will be classed as online chat friends that are great to have, so do not get me wrong but the majority of the others are acquaintances. Some of my best friends now we only catch-up in person a few times a year but they are always there to talk to or problem solve.

BAN SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TERRORIST GROUPS

I personally feel that allowing terrorist groups to have any exposure in the media is wrong as this enables them to recruit young individuals that are experimenting in life along with deadbeats that know they can get attention by joining such terror groups. Why are we allowing this in the media and social sites as this is allowing them to have the exposure that they want! I would like toi see all of these groups banned from all social and media avenues and dealt with by governments and armed forces to eradicate them.

There is enough hostility in the world so why are we the people of the world allowing them the privilege to be seen gloating about their mindless acts of terror. I would only like to see in media of them being eradicated like the disease that they are.

MY PERSONAL SUMMARY 

I have a facebook account with 4900 friends of which I will talk to about maybe 50 of them occasionally and on my other Facebook page I will talk to all of them weekly or bi weekly. If you have a business or a blog it is good to have so many contacts as you can direct people to your site to make purchases or in my case now to read my articles. For me it use to ber about business and I did well from that but now it is more about the individuals and family in my life that matter to me.

It is also good for me to be able to direct people to my blogs as I feel that I have a lot of interesting things to talk about that may be beneficial to others in a way that it may enhance their travel adventures. My blog posts talk about life events and of my experiences that may be of help or give somebody an idea that they are not alone in medical both-ups. 

MARRIED THREE TIMES

MY FIRST MARRIAGE
Some people go through  life having one wife from the time they get married and that is how I thought I would be as well but sadly in some respects this was not to be. With my first wife was 12 years older than I and things did not all work out but we had an amazing mutual bond in the handsomest little boy that has made me very proud over the years as he is a fine young man now, with much better looks than his dear old dad.

My second wife was 9 years younger than myself and very loyal and loving when I met her in Tonga when I was working over there as a Chef for the Tongan Royal family. That may be another blog post about that experience in itself. We were married for around 17 years having two beautiful girls that have made the both of us very proud as we continue to watch them bloom into lovely young and sensible ladies. My two girls are very close to their older brother and they all love each other to bits.

My second marriage I ruined by being not that faithful one could say for a number of reasons but none that could justify our calling it a day. However we are still good friends and spend Xmas and other family events together. I am very lucky in the sense that we get on so well and the mother of my two daughters gets on well with my third wife Emily. Yes that is right I have married again and some of you may find this absurd.

MY DARLING WIFE & SOULMATE EMILY

We met in 2012 and hit it off very well from the start not saying everything was perfect as that is a fantasy as there is no such thing as the perfect relationship as it takes both parties to put in the effort to make things work. Emily is 14 years younger than I am and she is a dressmaker for a local clothing company and I was on contract for the demolition of the Clarendon Towers. After this contract ended I worked for a few companies in one of my past trades as a craftsman tiler and the level of workmanship to say the least was appalling apart from one company called CBA TILING these guys had a great structure and work methodology and they continue to turn houses into homes that families talk about with pride and enthusiasm.

Having seen the need for quality tiling and the abundance of work that existed here in Christchurch after the earthquakes I decided to start my own company, Christchurch Tilers Ltd. Sadly this was all taken away from me by a basic surgical operation that was botched by the surgeons that have left me till this day in a bad way. For more about this tragic event from the day I died till now you can read it all here Pauls Med Nightmare

Throughout all the issues and hardships we have endured Emily my darling wife whom really is my soulmate has stuck with me and has supported me emotionally, physically and always been there to guide me through the really rough times when I could not speak properly. The darling makes all my meals for me so I only have to reheat in the microwave as I have a severe memory issue and I have set off the fire alarms more times than I have fingers and toes within a couple of months.

By now most people would have bailed out but my darling wife has been my rock that I can depend on and rely on in so many ways. Sure we have our moments like everyone has and sometimes we both make each other really angry but unlike in my previous relationships we both make the effort to talk things out once we have both calmed down. 

There was a time in my past relationships where I was so pig headed and it was either going to be my way or no way at all. I know how that sounds like very controlling and a prized prick but I am happy to admit my faults and I have learnt from them. Dear God, if I was to even think of being like that with Emily she would BBQ me over the hot coals one could say. 

At times well most of the time I feel quite useless as I am trapped at home most of the time due to the botch up of a couple of prick surgeons that I wish could go through life feeling the severe pain I am in. My darling works during the day Monday to Friday then comes home makes my dinner or we make it together then goes off to her night job on her bike as neither one of us drive at the time being. I am not allowed to drive due to my reaction times and the drugs I am taking.

Looking back over the time we have been together Emily has accepted my children that are young adults now and she loves them to bits, especially my daughters watching what they are up to and talking about them enthusiastically. My children are great with Emily as well and we have had some great times together over the past two years. I long to be able to do the things I use to so we can all have fun together and take my son diving with Great White Sharks in Southern New Zealand.

 I know Emily may read this post so darling I love you so much and I care for you so deeply and as every new moon comes into phaze my love for you grows stronger. You have been with me through some really great times and you are sticking by me through these really bad times that are no fault of my own making. I know I have the strength and determination to be better than I was before but I really wish I could go back to having some dairy products or meat as this diet is for my best but I really do not like it lol.