RIP. Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008)

I know who Sir Edmund Hillary is, he's one of the guys who reached the Mt Everest summit for the first time. I didn't realize he's a kiwi until I read the news that he'd passed away. Shame on me! He apparently is considered as true great NZ hero, he really is. He's no ordinary mountaineer, and the Nepalese probably won't remember that he conquered their highest mountain for the first time. They will remember him as a guy who respected them and provided them health and education with his Himalayan Trust. What a guy...

Who's my hero then? I've been thinking really hard and couldn't find any face or name who's really touched my life. Back in my school years, we were taught of numerous Indonesian heroes and yet none of them really deserved to be called hero. It might be because we were introduced to so many 'heroes' (I reckon it's more than 100 names to be memorized), that there was not sufficient time to really know what they did in their whole life, except that they'd been involved in one or two wars before they finally died. I'll blame it on education system :-)

"Well, it doesn't have to be national hero", some says. How about international hero? Well, they didn't teach me at school, and I'm just too lazy to read biography, so the answer is none. I have soft spot for Nelson Mandela though (and George 'hey where's me brain' Bush killed him already, bugger) as I believe he is the role model for reconciliation.

Celebrities? Nah, they seem insincere to me.

Perhaps I do set my standard to high?

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Ghost town (Wellington Christmas)

This year's Christmas was our first in Wellington.



The build up to Christmas day was really similar everywhere I guess.. Shops offering Christmas discount and extending shopping hours (it's extended to 8 o'clock only :-) and some opened until midnight on selected day). It's not as bad as Christmas sale in Singapore though, where you need to squeeze through barricade of mad shoppers in orchard road (mostly Indonesian), here you can still have enough space while you're shopping.

On Christmas Eve, it was surprisingly quiet. We went to church, and only a quarter of congregation members turned up. We came late to the service and we had panicked that we would have problem finding seats as in Indonesia where Christmas eve services are always flooded with church-goers and sometimes people have to sit outside.

We drove around the city and it was reasonably quiet compare to usual weekend. It was a contrast to what happened in Singapore when I was still living there. I was out on Orchard Road on Christmas eve a few years back, and it was hell, it was really crowded you could feel people literally breathing down your neck. There was countdown to Christmas day which was really absurd to me. I don't know if they still have it now, but someone needs to stop them!

One of my friend mentioned that it used to be really quiet in Wellington on Christmas day as most of the population actually came from other part of NZ and they usually traveled back to their home town on Christmas day and as the shops are closed as well. In NZ, based on Shop Trading Hours Repeal Act 1990 there is restriction for trading on Christmas day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and half a day of ANZAC day hence all shops and restaurants are closed.

Apparently it WAS really quiet here, and I loved it!


The pictures above were taken on 25 December in Willis street and Lambton Quay area which are the shopping belt of Wellington.


There were only a handful of people, and the kids took the chance to skateboard on the road.


Even the ever greedy McDonald's 24 hour chains were closed.

Merry Christmas!
p.s. hun, thanks for the pics :-)

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