Annual Westcoast trip - special Rodin patrol

This year should be quite different.
I used to run these camps - in fact this would have been my 10th camp.  However - I got conned into "training" other leaders into camping so I kept the Westcoast camping experience going.  This year, we went with a troop from Torlesse Zone and the leader in charge was already on his 4th camp. I (and Brush) were tagging along just as observers.  So Brush and myself along with two other members of the famous AITSSS  (oops should have said SECRET)  group became a adult Patrol with limited and special duties.  A weird feeling being on this camp and not having to worry and/or  organize food / transport / accommodation etc etc.

Anyhow - it was a VERY relaxing camp and we had a great time.
Impressions below


The biggest challenge - picking up what to do/make.
There are literally thousands of things you carve - from traditional Maori carvings - past wannabe look-a-like Maori carvings to the - well - kitsch I guess.  If I had time (and money) naturally I may have made a Teddy-bear!!  Alas - I made a teardrop pendant instead!!













 Using a Dremel drill with diamond tips to do the fine cutting/grinding/shaping!!








 

The Pendant - cut / shaped and half polished!!
Yes there was much more work to be done!!





 



Here is me hard at work - polish, look, polish, look, polish, look etc;  - hmmmm should have brought my reading glasses with me.  I must admit - this getting older thing  (and supposedly wiser - yeah right) has it's drawbacks, one of which is that I now need reading glasses . . .     Sighs




 In the afternoon we had to leave the workshop as the ankle-biters - oooops Scouts came to do their Green-stone carving.  So we had the afternoon of.  I asked if anyone had yet seen the new-ish made walk in the tree top attraction! None had, so decision made we would go there.  Bold as brass I went to the Till and asked "seeing I had been already 5 x since they opened if I could get discount" - which they promptly did - making me a Senior Citizen - much to my fellow leaders delight!! I will never live that down.




 



The cafe nearby - with amazing reflections in the wall!!







 


In between we saw Mount Cook from the distance!!








 


Looking west and seeing the sun disappear behind the clouds. 











Same time same place - just looking East

 Same time same place and looking south - Mount Cook in the distance and having a red glow!!








 

 We went back on the next day and finished our own master pieces.

the day after it was time to head back home - Little Jon-e taken with these cloud formation - the "Greymouth Barber"!
It washes over the hill and has an amazing chill factor!!

Another misty river bank up the Taramakau river.

 More early-ish morning fog/mist











The Cub-pack couple - still all grins after spending so much time together!! Wonder what they talked bout during the car journey!!  
Myself and Brush, we clocked up in excess of 10 000km in a van - but THAT story will keep for another day!

Canterbury is famous for it's braided rivers, and this is the Waimakariri near Arthurs pass.  Already braided and much more to go (some 150km ) before it goes out into the sea near Christchurch.

 Four happy campers with their unique Pounamu!!

 Time to come home - unpack and re-connect with my lovely mamabear!!

I resurrected a bit from a much much earlier FB account musings! enjoy reading the stories below.

greenstone

April 25, 2011 at 5:31pm

Pounamu (greenstone/jade) holds a special place in Maori culture and the reasons are bound tightly into the stone age culture of the Maori. New Zealand jade carving is unique in its designs and forms. We owe this to the Maori who have refined techniques of working with the stone over a long period of time. Early Maori discovered Pounamu's ability to retain a hard, sharp edge making it ideal as cutting tools. We can trace their use of Pounamu back to the twelfth century. Because of its extreme hardness, Pounamu was used by the Maori for weapons and tools. Maori
made adzes (toki), chisels (whao), and war clubs (Mere) from nephrite jade, they fitted the jade to wooden handles and lashed them together using flax cords or simple thongs of leather or flax like a camera strap. It is also prized for ornaments - pendants and earrings.
Because of it's scarcity and the difficulty in working the hard stone (Mere could take months to create), Pounamu tools and weapons attained great value and were traded and used as peace offerrings between warring tribes. Broken tools were rarely discarded. The broken pieces were reworked into smaller tools, ornaments and  jewelery. Thus Pounamu gained special significance for the Maori and now for all New Zealanders. Legends and traditions vary, but the core belief is that in addition to the Mana or spiritual power inherent in the stone, Pounamu absorbs the 'mana' of its
wearers/owners. This mana builds over the lifetime of the piece. It is a stone held to be tapu (sacred) and that it can be both dangerous and protective depending on the
spirit within it, the shape it is carved into, and the events associated with it. Pounamu items are traditionally gifted to persons to provide them with good luck and increase their spiritual health/power. Kept for yourself, the good luck turns to bad. The Maori also believe that a piece of Pounamu will always yearn to return to its source in the rivers and mountains of New Zealand (keep wearing it and you'll be coming back!).
Tradition has it that a greenstone pendant should be given to a special person and not bought for yourself. The sacredness (tapu) comes in the passing of 'mana' to someone who has earned it. It is believed that a carving which is worn with respect or given and received with love, takes on part of the spirit of those who wear or handle it. In this way it becomes a spiritual link between people spanning time and
distance. A carving that has been worn by family or tribal members over many generations contains the spirit of all of those people and is truly a great and
powerful treasure (Taonga). Traditional Maori carvings all have meanings attached to them representing the history and mythology of the Maori people. Many carvings combine elements from several areas of mythology which interact with each other to tell a story. Each element has its own specific meaning and the way they are  portrayed or combined is what gives a carving its own special character. The
meanings of some elements vary from region to region but all share common roots.
Your teardrop shape, symbolises healing and comfort, positive energy and  reassurance. The beauty of jade is unsurpassed with its semi- translucent look and swirls of green that seem to float deep within the stone. Hold a jade carving up to the light and you will truly be looking into another world. Hold it in your hand or against your skin and it will transform into a dark green, almost black, with subtle glimpses of its secret inner life appearing as it moves. Nephrite jade naturally ranges in colour from a very pale green to a very dark, almost black. Wear it frequently and the oils of your skin will add to the warmth and lustre of the Pounamu. I didn't get a real good look at the pieces we gave you but recall them being lighter coloured pieces? So the colours you see holding your pendant to the sun will be more as described for Tangiwai, Inanga or Kahurangi. All that aside, Pounamu is a stone of great beauty
and value.

Caring & Wearing of your Pounamu pendant.
Pounamu will benefit from the addition of light, scented oil and if it is not being worn very regularly, is best stored in a felt or leather pouch. A very light smear of oil in the pouch will enhance carved pounamu with a beautiful warm gloss. Pounamu is normally suspended from thin leather or plaited flax, metal chains do not harmonise with the stone. It was traditional for a piece to be worn level with the cavity where the two collarbones meet above the chest.  Greenstone is a term peculiar to New
Zealand to describe nephrite, and sometimes bowenite. It is known in Maori as Pounamu. New Zealand greenstone is either the mineral nephrite or bowenite.
Pounamu is the Maori group term for both nephrite and bowenite. This greenish-coloured rock was used to make tools, weapons and jewellery. Maori classified pounamu according to colour and named many varieties. There are four (4) main types:
Kawakawa, Kahurangi, Inanga and Tangiwai.

The first three are nephrite and the fourth - Tangiwai is bowenite. Although the Maori placed Tangiwai as a variety of Pounamu, they knew of its difference and
limitations. Three others are Kakotea, Kohuwa and Totoweka  Jade - The name given to two types of silicate minerals, which come in a variety of colours, though the most valued is green. The finest jade is jadeite (which does not occur in New Zealand) and nephrite. Both are very hard and tough. Most New Zealand greenstone, the nephrite variety, is jade. Nephrite - is the only jade mineral found in New Zealand. The Maori names Kahurangi, Kawakawa and Inanga refer to varieties of the nephrite. Kahurangi is a highly translucent, lightish green greenstone with lighter streaks (which look like clouds) and free from dark spots or any flaws. It is one of the rarest varieties of Pounamu. Kawakawa, a strong dark green greenstone with varying intermediate shades and is named because its color resembles that of the leaf of the kawakawa or lofty pepper tree (macropiper excelsum). Inanga (whitebait) is pearly-whitish, grey-green coloured greenstone which can be translucent and with a fine texture. Kakotea - streaky dark green greenstone with black spots
Totoweka - especially rare, usually streaked with white or spotted with red.
Bowenite (Tangiwai) – is a very translucent, olive- green to bluish-green type of serpentine, found mainly near the entrance to Milford Sound in the South Island.
In New Zealand, sources of nephrite are confined to the South Island. The districts surrounding the Taramakau and Arahura Rivers in Westland and the Lake Wakatipu area of Otago are where the main deposits have been found as river boulders washed down from the parent rock in the Southern Alps. Bowenite is found as beach boulders and pebbles at Anita Bay in Milford Sound. From the gold workings on the west coast of the South Island much greenstone was secured, and lapidaries, both in New Zealand and overseas, found a ready sale for it as curios, at first to the Maori and afterwards to tourists and collectors. This trade has continued, but the use of greenstone by the Maori declined so rapidly that by the end of the nineteenth
century its fashioning was a lost art. With the virtual cessation of gold mining, greenstone is becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain; hence, to conserve stocks and also to encourage local manufacture of imitation Maori ornaments, jewellery, and souvenirs, an embargo on the export of raw greenstone came into force in April 1947. At the present time high-quality greenstone artefacts are in
keen demand as collectors' pieces and fetch high prices on the open market.
The value of greenstone lies in its beauty and its toughness and hardness, a result partly of mineral composition, but primarily of a characteristic felting and interweaving of minute mineral fibres. On the whole, bowenite greenstone is inferior to nephrite. The greenstone at Milford Sound, “tangiwai” is not really greenstone at all as it is not nephrite but bowenite. The word tangiwai came from the Maori legend relating to the petrification of the tears of a lamenting woman. Sometimes it is referred to as koko-tangiwai, koko meaning ear pendant, and this
signifies its predominant use. Tangiwai has all the mystique of Pounamu and highly prized by Maori. It is softer than nephrite so easier to work. It is a very beautiful stone. The true splendour of tangiwai is only revealed when it has light behind it that illuminate the white speckles that resemble tear drops in the stone. Tangiwai means, “tear water” in Maori Legends. The Maoris have an interesting legend concerning
the bringing of greenstone to New Zealand. Originally, it is alleged, there were two stones, Poutini (the greenstone) and Whaiapu, which belonged to Ngahue and the chieftainess Hina-tua-hoanga respectively. The latter became jealous of Ngahue's
stone and drove him from Hawaiki. Eventually his canoe, Tahirirangi, reached New Zealand and Ngahue hid his greenstone near Arahura on the west coast of the South Island. It was very well hidden and lies there to this day; however, small portions are
occasionally broken off and carried down the river. These pieces provide the Maori with his source of greenstone.

Origin of Greenstone - Tangiwai
Tama-Ahua was deserted by his three wives, Hine-Kawakawa, Hine-Kahurangi, and Hine-Pounamu. No one knew where they had gone. Tama ranged vainly round the southern coasts. At Piopiotahi he heard a suspicious noise and paddled through the towering walls of the sound. There he found one of his wives turned into a translucent greenstone. He bent over the cold body. The tears ran down his face and onto the hard stone, penetrating it until the tangiwai was flecked with tears and remain to be seen there to this today.

Legend of Poutini (abbreviated)
To Maori the West Coast is known as Tai Poutini. Poutini was a taniwha, a giant water being swimming up and down the West Coast of the South Island protecting both the people and the spiritual essence or mauri of pounamu. Poutini guards the mauri within the treasured stone. The mana or spiritual force of pounamu comes from Kahue (or Ngahue) an atua (God). Poutini as protector of the stone is the servant
of Kahue. Poutini once abducted a women, Waitaiki, from the North Island and fled south pursued by her husband. He hid with his captive in the bed of the Arahura
River but Waitaiki's husband pursued them. Poutini transformed Waitaiki into his own spiritual essence - Pounamu - and fled down river to the sea. Waitaiki became the mother lode of all pounamu. The husband went home grieving.

 
Have fun


 

The Old Bear gets to Rock and Bop with Michael Buble

The Boy's know!
Mamabear knows!
Even some other people I am not related to  - know!!

:)

Yes - this old male bear is un-ashamedly a fan of Michael Buble.
I have almost all of his songs.
I like his Christmas specials on TV. Got them recorded and from time to time watch them. Yeah - nuts - right?!???   Wrong!

Anyhow - when I discovered that Michael Buble is on a World Tour I was initially swearing and spitting tacks (visualizing a very costly trip to Australia - and missing out) and then - amazingly, yes sit down folks - there were tickets for sale in Auckland for  O N E  only concert. Hold on - Auckland!! yesssss
High-fives himself

Well - I winked at mamabear and convinced her that we do need to take time out and smell the roses.  ( Actually I was on knees and begging. :)  )
So we decided - to hell with cash and lets go and enjoy ourselves.
The day the tickets came on for sale, is when we pounced - along with 8-12000 other kiwis.  wohoooooo - this was in October last year.
Then of course came airline tickets and a we are extremely grateful to Dale Peach who kept the door open for us, 'till very late to be able to bunk down for a night (or what was left of it).
We had a bit of fun getting there.  The fabled Auckland traffic did struck and we covered 20 km of roading in just over one hour, not leaving a lot of time for a evening meal before the concert. I mentioned to Mamabear that I could just about walk there quicker!
The concert was F A N T A S T I C.
He's such a Babe and a very very talented entertainer.
We sat next to a lovely young lass who almost drooled over Michael and as it turned out - she is a jazz singer in her own right in Wellington.  Not surprisingly she knew all the songs of by heart.  So seemed to be all the folks in the audience and with popular known songs - it almost turned into a karaoke session.
We just got tickets - so seat allocation - although by the time we printed them - we were given seat numbers - and they turned out to be as far away from the stage as you could possibly be - up in the rafters at the opposite end of the stage - so the Man was more like a 2cm tall figure. Thank goodness for the techno guys who projected his image on a very large screen. 
Leaving the car park building became another exercise in patience.  Seasoned Auckland-ers know that you ought to 'reverse' park into the spaces - so that you have a straight and easy way out.  While waiting for a gap to duck out and out - we got entertained by music being piped in from the Auckland Vector Arena next door - surprise surprise - Michael Buble!!

It has been 10 years since he visited last and lets hope it will be less years than that till he comes again.  Not many people know this - but NZ gave Michael Buble his first Million Sales and NR1 in the charts!! wohoooo

Thanks to Simon Schueller who snapped a lot of pictures as part of his review and should be acknowledged as owner of the images used here.  I tried to take some - but given that i was sooooo far back - there was no point.









The opening number - to give you a taste/teaser

Ah well - back to the daily grind!

Have fun

 

Scouting across the Nationalities

   There is this joke about an english/scottish/welshman entering the bar and the barman says . . . . . .  I am sure you have heard it before.

    Well - there is a new variant of this joke. It goes like this:
A very unlikely and as different looking as can be quartet of an Italian, Kiwi, English and Austrian bloke go for a hunt when a 10 year old kiddo asks --  if we are brothers?!   Quick witted reply  - yeah our Dad got around;  He traveled a lot . . . . . . .    :)  

   It is true - Lord Baden Powell did travel a lot - mainly through South Africa and going back to Old blighty from time to time. He even came to Australia and New Zealand at some time. So what were these 4 nationalities doing - well . . . . .

   We have an annual Westcoast Scouting camp - some 300km plus across the main divide and doing a variety of activities - this year it will be Greenstone (jade) carving.  As well as that, they get taken upriver by a local native who will tell them the story of Aotearoa and the Jade and the Mana that comes with carving this particular stone and  I F  they are get lucky may even find a small boulder and (if they are able to)  carry that back to the carver and then there cut into suitable pieces and then - of course carve a whale tail or Romiata / Teardrop or Koru or  . . . . . . . whatever

   Regular readers will remember last years (and the year's before that) trip to Barrytown for Knife making. To make these trips  a reality for the youth we need to go over some weeks beforehand and firm up a suitable place to bunk down, check out the activity and a whole lot of other stuff.  The cynic might well say - it is just an excuse for leaders to go over and have a cruiser /boozy/relaxing weekend away from the family/work and other stressful parts of their life - and you might well be correct.  It is a hard life being Scout leader - the sacrifices we make . . . . . .
Yet there is more to this. Apart form the relaxing and catching up and male bonding there is a informal training going on as well as sharing our experiences.

So it was a leisurely 7 am start. Met and collected the other blokes and set of for a life time trip of adventure. Here at 11 am at Arthur's Pass - the sun not yet reaching the valley floor. It was cold too. At least we had sunshine - no rain.  Perfect excuse for a hot cuppa of - Coffee.  I had a rather strong Macciata, whatever that was - and as I said earlier - rather strong.

From there it was forward to Hokitika - where we found the hall and dumped our gear and made plans - for lunch!  (priorities!!!) Now if you are travelling over there with Brush there is  absolutely  N O   choice but to go to the "Cafe' De Paris" and yes it was superb. Then on to the Carver and his side kick checking for prices and discussing logistics.  That done, we had some spare time so headed off towards the Hokitika Gorge where we got met by a very exhibitionist-ish Fantail who had no shy-ness about posing.  I actually think he was after the mozzies we disturbed - thus helping him catching dinner.     Speaking of dinner - time to head back and get ours sorted.

On the way back we spotted the sun and clouds and really weird looking - well light - so snapped a few of that - then of towards the Tasman Sea / beach and enjoy the last few rays of the sun. (dinner being late)

 There she is - ready for a dipping into the Sea.

 Always  (locals and tourists) watch from any vantage point and enjoy the view.  This time we just took pictures. For myself I remembered a very recent event there, where we had strawberries and bubbly and enjoyed the sights/sounds/smells with Cousin Doris and Co!!  Ahh miss you lot already

 Yup - not long now.  From there it was back the hall and a exquisitely cooked genuine Italian prepped Spag-bog! It had everything - flavor/ texture/ authenticity.  That of course just set up the bloke form Italy to be nominated as future camp cook.  We have high expectations for future quality meals.  Eh Chef!?!?! After a few drinks of red and cream cheese and crackers and - stuff - it was time to go to bed = and all slept - except for me who had a slight hickup - and a very loud freight train next to me.

 Next morning - Breakfast!! Some of us had a traditional English breakfast (of left overs) and others a Swiss/Austrian Muesli and of course the 'must have' (Italian produced)  Nutella on toast!!!
The Kiwi left his Marmite behind but I am sure it will go to camp in a few weeks time.

 The frying of the bacon created some teeny weeny bit of blue smoke . . . . . .









 

Who me???   Say what???  













 Having eaten / cleaned / packed and paid,  it was forward to do the other main-checking up/on thing - the hike!!  Recently there has been a storm wrecking and flattening entire forests, so we were a bit concerned about the quality of the  tracks.  However in and near Hokitika itself seemed to have escaped so we walked the Goldsborough track. It is a rather nature-ful track - in places ankle deep muddy and that was on a good day.


 






 Left or right?? Urm - straight up ol' Chap.  Follow the trail.















Obviously it is not a often walked trail.










 
 Yes this is the actual trail. 










 

 Having completed the challenge and ignored the option to actually pan for gold (which yes you can still find some nuggets if you pan for some hours or so) it was time to come back home and catch up on sleep and the wife. The weather forecast was for a lot of rain and it certainly for a while looked like it just might be . . . .

 Looking back towards Arthurs Pass - and yes - they did get a lot of rain - again!!! We just escaped that and I remember a time we traveled across here and even with the wipers going full double speed you did not see past 20 meters - the rest just disappeared in the rain.

 A new addition to the landscape.  Part of the mountain collapsed thus making this very distinctive U shape. 

 The cloud formation followed us

Porters Pass and the typical norwest cloud formation, being bent around the hills and forming distinctive wave patterns

Looking down the pass and towards Christchurch - still an hours drive away.











Eventually got home in one piece.  Along the journey back home some plans for the QEII Weekend Green-stone carving trip were finalized and tweaked.
Our Italian Maestro made plans for a suitable menu which sounds already delicious if not fattening and the English men pulled all things together in planning while the Kiwi bloke did the driving and listening,  and the Austrian - let the other nationalities do their thing.  Should be a good camp coming up.
So you see - it is amazing what can happen when 4 different nationalities put their heads together and set their mind to a task.

Have fun

The day when the Joker died

 

 

 

Recently I had some spare time (yeah right) and I indulged in a old Film version of The Fledermaus (The Bat - to you English folks), with Peter Alexander featuring.  I always liked the music of Strauss and co and also the plot.   It starts with an historic event and the reason for the (in the play) coming action.  Seems two friends went partying and got drunk - then one left the other on a park-bench to sleep of the alcohol induced slumber, only to be woken up by school children and being made fun off -  all the way to his home.  The fact he still wore his "Fledermaus" costume from the previous nights Costume dance (Fasching's Ball) not helping him then.
So good chap that he is, he plotted revenge on his good (or not so good) mate.  So the play starts with setting the scene and then involving (and evolving) a complicated plot and several sub-plots of fake invites and people pretending to be people who they are not and a very memorable 'getting to prison' scene.  All this for the Fledermaus character to get one over his not so good mate, who left him on a park bench some time ago.  Hmm talk about revenge. Anyhow - lots of laughter and great music.

A most enjoyable time spent - thanks You Tube !
 Then I got thinking - if you tried this in today's times - you just might get arrested.

Hmmm you know - I used to enjoy Candid Camera. I used to be (and some say still am) a fun loving mischief creating kind of guy. I especially LOVED 1st April. Nothing better then playing a harmless trick on some unsuspecting person.
After all - to this day - there are still some people in Scouting circles who believe(ed) the underground newspaper (published on a Scout camp),  which run a story on my absence and late arrival by very proudly proclaiming that I would be honored by the Queen herself at Balmoral -with an OBM.  Truly!! Like as an Austrian Citizen I would e v e r have that happening - so gullible.
I also fell for some good ones - like the first year in my marriage and we had moved to Wellington and I knew it was prime earthquake country and had felt a few minor tremors already - only to be told via Radio, that any home-owners with cats ought to lock them up today as they where expecting a semi largish shake ( that would do no harm to people and buildings) BUT will upset the kitties and send them crazy and get them lost - so be kind folks and lock them up at home for their own good for the day!  Well we just recently got a much loved kitten and I heard the stuff on the news on the way to work, so rung my wife at her work  being totally concerned and related the story only to be asked what date it was today - 1 April -  and what has that got to do with it??  - 'till it slowly dawned - I had been had!!  :)
Ever since then I have been wary of news stories on 1 April - printed or otherwise.
There have been good ones - really good ones - totally plausible good ones.

And we are so gullible -- see below;

              A radio station in the Coromandel reported (in the 1970's) that a couple of large killer bee swarms had been blown over from Australia (they did have in previous weeks some bad weather) and the best way to "contain" them was to tempt them down to something special.  The suggestion was to put honey on the letterboxes - thus the bees would be tempted with the nectar and settle there - rather then invading your house.  Then a bee keeper can come and collect said killer bee's.   A good number of people did do  just that - only to having to wash off the gooey mess later.
             Another prank involved an announcement that a beer truck had rolled over State Highway nr3 or whatever nr it was and that help was needed with uplifting said truck and if people could come with any containers and draw off the beer (to make the truck lighter) which they then would get to keep and take home.   Traffic chaos ensued for hours afterwards!!
           Color television wasn’t widespread until 1966, but some Swedes armed with nylon stockings tried to get it four years earlier. They fell victim to a hoax by Sweden’s Sveriges Television, which trotted out a “technical expert” to explain on-air — in thoroughly technical terms — how a thinly stretched nylon screen in front of a television would bend light’s wavelengths and produce a color image. The thousands who tried it learned quickly that there was no such trick — and were out a pair of stockings to boot.
           Virgin Atlantic made headlines with the “world’s first glass-bottomed plane”.

Images of the new aircraft were broadcast far and wide, with promises of a glass-topped aircraft to follow, so passengers could see the stars at night. The prank was bound to succeed because it was such an appealing concept and because if anyone was going to launch a glass-bottomed plane, it would be Richard Branson. “I’m thrilled to announce that Virgin has created another world-first,” Richard was quoted as saying.
            Burger King cooked up a whopper of a different sort in 1998, but that didn’t mean fast-food customers were any less willing to swallow it. In a full-page ad in USA Today, Burger King announced a solution for the 1.4 million left-handed customers visiting their restaurants every day: the Left-Handed Whopper. Burger King said all the condiments were rotated 180° to suit the left-handed burger connoisseur. Southpaws eagerly tried to order the burger the next day, but they had to wait in line behind right-handed folks equally caught up with making sure they got the correct Whopper. The thought that a burger is basically, you know, a circle apparently never crossed anyones mind.
          Do you remember Google and many of their pranks - the best I liked was the “You click. We stack. You get.” prank.  Google has long encouraged users of its Gmail service to archive, rather than delete, their e-mail. But paper archives too? That was the idea behind the 2007 launch of 'Gmail Paper', which promised to provide on-demand printed copies of e-mails for users. The massive costs of printing and shipping would be offset by advertisements on the back of each sheet, printed in “red, bold, 36-pt. Helvetica.” The hoax website lives on today. But paper lovers beware — there’s still no word on how Google planned to handle the Viagra ads and Nigerian e-mail scams that would undoubtedly clutter every shipment.
            The British media have a unique affinity for pulling April Fools’ pranks, matched only by the British publics unique ability to fall for them. On April 1, 1976, BBC Radio 2 astronomer Sir Patrick Moore gave listeners some bunk about how, at 9:47 a.m., Pluto and Jupiter would align in such a way as to temporarily reduce Earth’s gravity. Moore told listeners to jump at exactly that time to experience the once-in-a-lifetime effect. At 9:48, callers flooded the lines, eager to describe how they had briefly floated. News that Moore had played them no doubt brought everyone crashing back to earth.
       America was outraged when the fast-food chain Taco's took out a full-page ad in six major newspapers, claiming it had purchased the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.  But no worries — they planned to leave it on display. The prank’s real victims were hapless National Park Services employees manning the phones at the Liberty Bell. Unaware of the media blitz, they spent their April Fools’ Day reassuring Americans that no, their national monument hadn’t been sold off to the highest bidder.
             Today - a fragile bridge (the Pepe bridge in the Coromandel) linking two communities was as announced in a "precarious" condition after a heavy truck drove over it and leaving a few cracks in the concrete thus making it unsafe to use so if people would be kind enough and use the 15 km round trip on the alternate route - and be aware of the traffic chaos!!

  So here is the thing - 
In both the last two items listed above - so many people so fell for the pranks, that they vented anger - and now we have retractions and apologies and more apologies and yet more fake apologies - to the point where it is UNSAFE to play any prank, any time, anywhere, on anyone -  let alone on 1st April (unless of cousre it is for entertainment on TV, some sad sick reality show - whats the latest - "you got spanked"????).   Major reason - seems people nowadays are afraid to up-set anyone.

Heaven forbid.
 I mean - we could upset some poor old fool of a soul.
We could even get sued.
Or worse - made fun off aka the Fledermaus.
Or worse still loose customers.
Or worse - they may hold a grudge.
Or worse - prank us next year
(actually that would be a bonus if they did)

The PC brigade (or nowadays often called the 'Anti-Fun-police') is getting stronger and stronger by the day and year.  We are now at a point where major media outlets no longer pull pranks on their faithful member/reader/viewer-ship.  There hasn't been one on TV-news for years.
I miss those practical jokes.
THUS - it is with deep regret that i have to inform you that

Today is the day that joker in the pack died.

Sadly  /  Buried / Forgotten

Readers digest always had a section called 'Laughter is the best medicine'.
Even the Bible had some good positive advice about laughing at ourselves and at others - indeed it is part of our human existence.

Time to resurrect the fun stuff.

A Lazarus moment

So I suggest we forget once in a while our stuffiness and lets have some harmless little fun.
Thus my question for you -  what harmless fun prank did you pull today???

I just know what to do next year for my boss who is often away from the office  :)   

Have fun