Children's Sunday finds us in Petersham this year, and although they apparently didn't have a Fakame last year, they are definitely having one this year. It may have something to do with the promised meal after the show?

Ma'ata Ngalo'afe is on the official programme, but you know how kids are, there's nothing set in stone until all is finished and done. Sisitoutai decided he would deliver the light entertainment side of the programme and immediately went into action as soon as the programme started. While everyone's serious and concentrating, Sisitoutai wanders the activities making up his own activities and poor mum tries to blend into the background to prevent a disaster.

Things must be in the blood (genes) because the little blizzard Sesilia wasn't on the programme either, but between different parts of the programme she managed to evade her mum's arms and crawled up the stand the elder kids were using.

Can I have a witness to the Lord here tonight ?

Can I get another amen ? AMEN!!

The church decided to celebrate the events with dinner out at the Bankstown RSL instead of the regular cooking (and people late or missing to the functions.) We asked Ma'ata and Sisitoutai whether they enjoyed the day.

"LOVE IT!!!"

Ozzzy ozzzy ozzy, 'oi 'oi 'oi.

We had a clan visit from the visiting Taufatofua's who were in town for Ma'ata Lee's wedding to Siakumi Tangi. Sione and Lesieli got to the reception (note, not the wedding) and we didn't get to either. and we didn't even get photos.

We made it to the game again, now we've really got to call 'Ofa a rabid NSW Waratah fan.

We were the noisy duo in row BB, right behind and in front of some rabid South African fans who were competing sadly against us, but losing it badly even before half time.

We got of to a loser of a start with the game, by standing at the wrong bus-stop ? What's with that ? After half-an-hour of seeing no bus around, 'Ofa had the smarts to get us to walk to another bus-stop to see the rest of the rabid fans queuing for the busses

So, what do you do on a pouring / raining afternoon when you've got a million and one things to do and another long day ahead of you?

Well, you get on the train and get yourself over to the nearest park to watch 'the game!' We treated ourselves this afternoon and took off to the Sydney Football Stadium to watch the HSBC Waratahs (oops, NSW Waratahs) in their Super 14 round game against the Lions.

We went together with Lita and thoroughly loved the experience of not only watching the 'big game' live, but loved the atmosphere.

Grand Pa's flower garden has been taking in a whole lot of rain and therefore we have flowers we can take to Grand Ma.

Ma'ata was just visiting, whilst Sisitoutai was really into filling the watering can to help grand pa water Grand Ma's flowers (remember we been living through a week's downpour?)

Dude needed a change of clothes after only five minutes, as he decided the shortest route between two points is a straight line, independent of the size of water puddles inbetween.

We're getting into more unboxing sessions here in Oz, but I'm finding that a lot of these unboxing stuff is costing me more time.

We have a lot of old stuff that just needs to disappear, one of these is an old single bed that we don't use anymore but have some seriously big bolts that need to be loosened to take the frame apart. Unfortunately, having been gone since the beginning of time, any tools that may have been collected at this house no longer exists. Fortunately, I had to go and get some new tools for this deconstruction job, which just fell into place because GrandPa decided that his grand kids were disadvantaged by not having their own:

The old guy is great, but this construction work didn't come with the correct tools (presumably because even though it is marketed for the do-it-yourself audience buying IKEA furniture, they really don't want you to put it together for warranty/insurance reasons.)

Some of us have become fatigued with all the unboxing stories on the Internet where we have some jock with too much money getting a new too expensive toy, and getting on our nerves by flaunting the whole opening process, let alone the fact they have one and we don't!!!

I decided I was going to do my own anti-unboxing, with the receipt of our new Arista AQXXF 129 washing machine. There's usually a good reason for getting a washing machine:

• The old one died and didn't go to heaven
• The washing starts to pile up, with nowhere to go
• Wives can't deal with dirty clothes like us guys (something about cleanliness and body odour I recall)
• Health inspectors aren't keen on kids turning to school with preventable diseases, etc.

Of course, Easter Sunday wouldn't be complete without the trip over to church to see what the latest fashions and feed is all about.

Sisitoutai looks forward to going to church these days. It may have something to do with Mascot Uniting Church having a playground that he disappears into. There are great number of activities at the playground, and with so many older/tougher kids there's more trouble to get into, just the kind of thing for going to church?

At least Sesilia made an attempt at going to church, which lasted all of five minutes.

But going to Church is also a great opportunity to touch base with family and friends. As this year's Easter Service was a shared service between a number of congregations (Tongan Language congregations in the Uniting Church, Sydney Presbytery?)

But its all about the food isn't it?

Next time you're in town, drop in on a Tongan Service, you'll at least be fed in the body if not in the spirit 8-)

This 2008 Easter Monday didn't see us the Easter Show, or at Luna Park.

We couldn't afford the extra entertainment costs, so we did it the old traditional way, by staying home and finding something to do, and having family over as guests for the day.

Sione, Neomai and 'Amelia joined us just after lunch, and Hepi, Tevita, Nick, and Sela joined us for dinner.

I thought it was one of the better ways to celebrate the holidays ?

Tonga-now, reborn TongaReview.com has an article on 'Eua's new water system.

m 'Eua Water System produces muddy water

25/03/2008 12:16:18 p.m.

It has only been a week since the launch of the ‘Eua water system by His Highness, Crown Prince Tupouto’a Lavaka, and already the public are complaining about the muddy and unclean water produced by the new water system.

I thought it looked like someone had a glass of Orange Juice in the sink.

We can sometimes get ahead of ourselves, as techno-geebs. The solutions people generally want rarely needs new flashing lights with special coolant, our priorities should be solving problems, not installing new technologies.

Re: [OT] Pursuing Management to adopt OpenBSD

Chris wrote:

> I been trying (rather unsuccessfully) to convince various clients and
> employers to adopt OpenBSD. Most people, I find, are resistant to
> change and would not use anything they are not familiar with. Others
> would say that if I leave the job, it would be hard to find people who
> can use (or even heard of) OpenBSD and in some places Management never
> heard of OpenBSD and have very little clue as to how good or bad it is
> compared to Linux/ Solaris and Windows thus they will just knock off
> the proposal in 2 seconds.
>
> Is there any way I could convince these people to make the move to
> OpenBSD? Suggestions, tips and tricks along with real life examples
> would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Sad but true, another opportunity to have our history recorded by a palangi (and in this case a history buff with real enthusiasm for the subject.)

I don't have any memories of the 1st MV 'Olovaha (or the national debt incurred for a sizeable benefit for everyone while we were incurring the debt?)

We left Tonga for Australia and 1974, and my memories of the water were of much smaller boats, and avoiding the large boats at Uafu Vuna while trying to get my 'line' onto a fish that was just waiting down there for me.

Dear all

I am writing to you in the hope that you can assist me with a piece of Tongan history.

Between 1971 and 1982, the first M/v OLOVAHA sailed the Tongan Islands acting as a ferry and cargo ship.  I actually served on this ship when she was in Australia under the name Queen of the Isles.  I know she sailed between Tongatapu and the outer islands of Haapai and Vavau.

I have set up a website tracing her history from being built and serving in UK, through Tonga (cargo and ferry), New Zealand (floating Casino), Australia (Cruise ship on the Barrier Reef) and finally her demise in the Solomon Islands.

www.queenoftheisles.com

All I had for the Tongan years was a postage stamp and a story about her sinking, but Matangi Tonga were kind enough to publish my request and I managed some great feedback!

I was hoping that someone there (or one of your readers) may be able to assist me in finding a little more about her times in the Friendly Isles!  Any advice would be much appreciated.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards
Andy Newland
Export Sales Manager
Elster Metering Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 1582 438056
Mob: +44 (0) 7793 442965

If you have some photos or a story, Andy's collection on the above site seems such a grand way of collecting them for later generations to enjoy.

What I remember of large ships (from the perspective of a 7/8 year old in Tonga) at the Uafu Vuna was dad telling me not to play around with the walkways to the vessel. Walkways are like in the old black and white movies with a step/plank over the side of the boat lowered to the wharf that moves sideways, up, down constantly with the movements of the vessel due to the sea.

Within a space of days of those sagely advice highlighted itself, one of the kids playing at the wharf decided that playing under the walkway was fun and was caught with the walkway dragged onto him as the boat rocked and the steps rolled onto him (obviously after a few screaming moments the adults finally got him free worse for wear.)

The 2nd advice was not to panic if I fall in the water but to try and breath by letting myself sink to the bottom kicking up. Hold your breath, do not panic, and someone will get to you before you get into trouble. Thankfully we didn't have to test that one.

Must have been a translation problem somewhere along the way.

TONGAN RUGBY UNION CHAIR ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION

The suspended CEO of the TRU Siosaia Fonua...says the Court is poised to bring in an administrator from the International Rugby Board for the next six months. (listen)

That was the suspended CEO of the TRU Saia Fonua.

But Sangstar Saulala says he's hoping his resignation will enable the Board to get on with business without any more involvement from the Court or the I R B.

He says Tonga's outstanding performance at the World Cup and in Sevens is a vindication of his policy to direct more funds to players. (listen)

Tell me again which of the players in which "he" invested were part of the Rugby World Cup Team? There sure was a lot of money disappearing (and under investigation) that supposedly went to local competitions, and we had so many of these players graduate to the World Cup Team? Or did Nili and 99% of our successful team all hail from overseas contracts?

Translation: The ride was fun while it lasted, but the rides derailed and its time to get off.

Maybe your election results will vindicate your position. The move to candidature in Tongatapu (as opposed to his last foray as a candidate for Vava'u) might be helpful (since this is where much of the Rugby money went) or not.

Soana Sesilia Faka'osifolau Taufa celebrated her 1st Birthday with family and friends of the CLAN this Saturday.

It was one of those typical Tongan Thangs(tm), a "small BBQ." When our 1st daughter (Ma'ata Ngalo'afe) had her "small BBQ" we ended up hosting near a hundred people with all sorts of things going on. This event wasn't as big, thank God, but it was typical Tongan stuff (heaps of food, and heaps of more food.)

The Birthday girl just had a wonderful day, up on her own wandering between legs as she made her way around the house to watch all the noise etc. Grandpa invited the 'local' congregation to come along, and they did, with a special treat when the Saturday Band Practice was called off, so the band (minus instruments) turned up at the table.

'Amelia, Ma'ata Ngalo'afe, and Neomai helped out with setting the decorations, while Sisitoutai helped out with tasting the cake (before everyone.) A late celebratory dance troupe turned up after everyone had left. Neomai, Talita, Ma'ata Ngalo'afe, 'Amelia closed the evening with some hula.

Soana Sesilia is in the planning stages for her 1st birthday which is coming up March 6, but we'll be celebrating with friends on Saturday.

She's had a bit of a struggle with the move to Sydney, but that could just be mum and dad not having a clue how to take care of her with the weather change etc.

If you're in town on Saturday, drop in and say hello, but just don't tell 'Ofa I invited you. Something about not having enough food for guests tends to really upset women.

Tae's song "walk on walk strong" is an important message for a young girl, as it is to all of us.

www.centrelink.gov.au

Looks like one of the fields in the centrelink claim forms doesn't filter input correctly.

I try putting in 'Ofa for my wife's fist name, and I get errors messages for some other part of the form until I get rid of that leading single-quote. That's so 1990's!!!

Imagine if I had no idea about database query problems and use of quotes and single-quotes (read: that would mean I would be for ever confused about why I can't fill the form in). Or worse yet, what would happen if I was malicious and tried to wipe the database back-end with some sad query 'DROP DATABASE *'

It doesn't help that the website doesn't respond to centrelink.gov.au. Ahhhhhh, the joys of being online.

Ma'ata Ngalo'afe decided she was going to do some colouring/drawing and came up with this display.

She found some passport photos we had around the office and decided that it's rightful place was decorating her drawing.

Rather creative I thought.

But what is the deeper meaning of this photo?

Ma'ata's school held their Meet the Teacher Night today so we trotted off with 'Ofa to get a briefing on ... 'something.'

Wow, there's a lot of teachers taking care of Kindergarten at Chullora Public School.

Anyhow, nothing drastic is happening, they just wanted us to have an idea of what they are doing and how we can participate with our children's education (i.e. it's a partnership between school and home, not a one way thang)

We asked the teacher if she can give us a list of the music cd's they are using so we can get a copy for Ma'ata (not not the torrent versions, although ...) Apparently Ma'ata's teacher is using stuff mostly from the ABC Shop, so they're quite accessible.

Of course, Ma'ata Ngalo'afe is a little behind on her "Advance Australia Faire" but she pumps out some gusto words of her own during these and other songs (she just enjoys singing even if the words aren't quite right.)

Peanut / Nut Allergy can kill. I remember a couple years back, here in Australia, reading the news about a boy who died at a camp because although he was allergic to nuts the camp played a game where children were given different tasks. The boy volunteered to eat the peanut sandwich because no one else in his group would eat the peanuts, and for the remaining hours of his life the camp participants (staff and children) could only watch as he suffered and died (they did not have the training or the medication on hand to deal with the sudden death.)

Deaths from peanut allergy

Approximately 125 people die in the United States each year from food allergies.^[8][9] Peanut allergy is the most common cause of death from food allergies. ^[10]

The dangers of peanut allergy are real, even if sometimes misrepresented in the popular press.

Australian schools (at least here in Sydney anyway) seem to have become seriously aware of the issues, as a consequence both Ma'ata's school (Chullora Public School) and Sisitoutai's school (Bankstown Montessori Center) are "Nut Free Zones" to encourage awareness and prevent failure to save children's lives.

Unfortunately, some parents just choose not to understand the severity of this ailment.

Being from Tonga, we don't recall ever hearing of anyone with this kind of food allergy (the only food allergy common in Tonga is obesity, ha ha ha) but we've stopped buying peanut products for the kids as there are plenty of other foods for energy etc.

One mother at tonights meeting just had to argue that her kids don't eat anything else but Nutella (i.e. chocolate with peanuts.) Pray tell, what is she supposed to do? She can't argue with her kids about their food selection, God forbid?

Knock knock, anyone home ?

We would rather that our kids get peanut butter in their sandwiches for additional nutritional content, but I wouldn't wish the pain of an allergy attack on my kids let alone someone elses. Get a clue, educate yourself.

Got a message from Google (you know, those guys that do the search thing on the INTERNET) and they're letting people set up their websites using Google's services (well, we've known this for a while but they've added a few more services.)

Services that Nomoa.com are making use through Google include:

Start Page  http://partnerpage.google.com/nomoa.com

The Start Page lets you create a unique, dynamic place to preview your @nomoa.com Gmail inbox, your Google Docs files and your Google Calendar, collect relevant information from your organization, and search the web. You can customize the layout and content, choosing from thousands of handy Google gadgets.

Chat / GTalk

Google Talk provides a free and simple way to connect instantly with your contacts with instant messaging and free PC-to-PC voice calls anywhere in the world. You can even exchange files with your contacts using Google Talk, with no file size restrictions.

Chat with colleagues from within your start page Now you can chat with colleagues and friends from right within your Google Apps start page. The new Google Talk gadget also allows for multi-person chat, so you can schedule a meeting or get input from multiple people without switching back and forth between chat tabs. If your administrator has activated the start page, add the gadget by clicking on the "Add stuff" link on the top left corner of your homepage, open the 'Google Apps' category of gadgets, and click 'add it now.'

Web Pages http://web.nomoa.com

Sites http://sites.nomoa.com

Google Sites is the easiest way to make information accessible to people who need quick, up-to-date access. People can work together on a Site to add file attachments, information from other Google applications (like Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube and Picasa), and new free-form content. Creating a site together is as easy as editing a document, and you always control who has access, whether it's just yourself, your team, or your whole organization. You can even publish Sites to the world. The Google Sites web application is accessible from any internet connected computer.

Email http://mail.nomoa.com

Email with up to 6 GB of storage per email address, mail search tools and integrated chat, powerful search to find messages as fast as you can search the web, and instant messaging built right in. The Gmail web application is accessible from anywhere, and you can even sign in from your mobile phone. Or if you prefer, you can access email from your favorite mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird using POP or IMAP at no additional cost.

Straight Google GMail, but using @nomoa.com as your base address

Calendar http://calendar.nomoa.com

Google Calendar helps individuals and whole organizations manage their time. Not only can you organize your personal calendar, invite others to meetings and events, and keep track of RSVPs, but you can also create shared calendars that multiple people can view or edit. You always control who has access, whether it's just yourself, your team, or your whole organization. You can even publicize events to the world. The Google Calendar web application is accessible from anywhere, and you can even sign in from your mobile phone.

Google Calendar gallery Many organizations and individuals choose to share their calendars publicly through Google Calendar. Now Google Calendar users can access these calendars through an easy-to-browse gallery. You can find all sorts of interesting public calendars that you can overlay on top of your school or business calendar, so you can keep track of your favorite basketball team's schedule, know when your favorite TV show is a repeat, or follow your favorite band's concert tour. To see the gallery, click the 'Add' button at the top of your list of calendars and choose 'Add a public calendar'

Docs http://docs.nomoa.com

Google Docs makes creating and collaborating on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations simple. Not only can you create and edit your own docs, but you can also have multiple people view or edit together. With Google Docs, you don't have to manage multiple versions of the same attachment from different people. You always control who has access, whether it's just yourself, your team, or your whole organization. You can even publish docs to the world. The Google Docs web application is accessible from anywhere, and you can even sign in and view docs from your mobile phone.

Localisation?

And, what does this all have to do with Talanoa Oceania 2008? Well, you can now go to a new Talanoa site @ Google specifically for the event http://sites.google.com/a/nomoa.com/talanoa/Home . The simplest URL is the generic Nomoa.com sites hosted by Google at http://sites.nomoa.com

Talanoa Oceania 2008 - http://sites.google.com/a/nomoa.com/talanoa/Home

Talanoa Calendar of Events - http://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/nomoa.com/render

Of course, you're not going to see anything on the Calendar until you page through to September ~ October.

I'll try to keep the Talanoa Calendar and Talanoa Details/Site up to date. When the event goes, we'll hopefully have some interesting information (videos?) we can put up on the 'NET for the rest of the world to see.