Thursday, February 27, 2014

The old bear finds some magic numbers to play with

Thursday, February 27, 2014
oldbearnews editor



I have always loved numbers.  Not that I can retain any of them. Nor am I particularly brilliant when it comes to adding or dividing.  I married a certain female bear for that skill - she is way ahead of me when it comes to numbers.  She can recall birthdays and equations / special dates and numerical oddities with consummate ease - which is why she is the Accountant in the family and I happily leave her to balance the books. Don't get me wrong - I can and could balance my cheque book if I had to.  Nor could I keep up with my boys once they got into algebra and numbers at school - they talked a foreign language at that point.  Nevertheless I do love numbers, and in particular statistical numbers.



There are certain numbers that just appeal - for example a 86-60-86 sequence would be great and very pleasing to look at!!



I belong to a group called ARHS - Association of Rugby Historians and Statistician and we operate a website and Facebook page.  I keep records of other certain things - like our monthly power usage and certain medal winners by state or athlete in certain sports.
For a while I kept track of every earthquake we felt in Christchurch but since the Feb shake of 3 years back gave that up.  the latest current thing is keeping track of the daily high temperatures for Christchurch / Dunedin/ Whitianga and Waiuru.  (we are comparing notes between where we live - and Pam's sister lives (Dunedin) where we would like retiring too (Whitianga) and where the boys thought they could learn how to be a soldier (Waiuru) ).   I drive my boys nuts with the insane need to get the numbers correct - and in right order.
Of course part of the fun is to draw nice graphs and such things . . . . 

So guess what - last week it dawned on me that today - yes  T O D A Y  - the 27 Feb 2014 is the exact 30 year anniversary since I touched down in New Zealand - and touchdown it was - no air-bridge in those days - you just walked down the stairs and in-between 2 yellow lines across the tarmac to the terminal!! 

30 years!!   :) 

Time to reflect. For within these 30 years a few things that have happened,  that are little anniversaries in itself.

  • I have been involved as a scout-leader exactly half of my time since I been in New Zealand - some 15 years and still counting.
  • I have had the same employer now for 10 years - one third of my time here
  • I have been married for 96% of that time - ok ok - I can never got to 100% on that - still it is pretty good going (and next year we will celebrate 30 years of marriage)
  • I have had the privilege of walking alongside my son for 25 years = thats 85% of my time here
  • I have been a full time dad raising my boys for 12 years of my time here - = thats urm - adds one - looks at calculator and comes up with 40% of my time here.
  •  the Millennium celebration - are sitting exactly half way between arriving and now - and who can forget all those fireworks and the y2k bug???
  • I had my first jamboree in 2002 - and had 3 more since then
  •  I gained 33%  (some whopping 22kg) of my original weight - yes I was a skinny rag - due to all the cycling I used to do.  Since I stopped that and stayed at home my middle has gone more sideways then I care to admit. Actually that is not a statistic I am proud to admit. Lets scrap that from the internal memory bank :)
  • I have lived her 30% longer then I have in my entire life in Salzburg.
  •  on average we have been back to Europe for a visit every 7.5 years
  • This year will be my 10th mid winter camping trip with some scouts - to our lovely west-coast
  • As a Family (counting the wife as a secretary and the boys starting keas) we are involved with scouting in various roles for the last 20 years
  • We have had 14 times where someone crossed the Equator (either we made a trip or received visitor's from Europe).  It works out on average every 2.05 years .  Wohoooo who is next????
  • We have had (hmm ok still have ONE) three cats - on average one every ten years.

Wohooooo - I rings Mamabear and ask her to be home early and we get a bottle of bubbles out - hmmm make that two and CELEBRATE

have fun






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