Kyle's latest photos

Look Dad, me in my nightgown and foot-puppies

My Thomas bottle and fish & chips in a boat !

Me & dad shooting the "spiders" in the jungle !!

Cant reach the pedal but I can steer quite well !

Lotto winner ..anyone ?

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Methinks being a big Lotto winner suddenly brings a whole lot of responsibilities and associated anxieties along with it. The person now has all this cash they've never had before to deal with and all the decisions that need to be made on what to do with it .

The media attention , press conferences , news hounds knocking on the door , magazine columnists wanting that exclusive personal story ..the list is endless.

But the biggest headache is  all the friends and relatives that come out of the woodwork claiming you were their favourite !

Unless one is an attention-junkie , the loss of one's comfortable anonymity becomes unnerving and relentlessly painful.  Which is why a lot of winners never actually come out to the public . They just collect and disappear , probably carrying on with their lives as normal but judiciously putting their money in secure investments.

Maybe being a Lotto winner is really not meant for everyone and the fact that the odds are so huge makes it that much more grounding and good for the general public's mental health.

Swine flu

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I now have a Google Alert that pops into my email inbox everytime the words "swine flu" appear anywhere just to keep me informed on what is happening around the world with this virus. In New Zealand the number of cases have crossed a 100 and now it appears we have gone past "containment" and have reached "GO TO YOUR DOCTOR ASAP IF YOU EVEN SNEEZE".  I now find my ears fine tuned to the sounds of sniffs, sneezes, coughs and throat clearing . I use our company supplied sanitized hand-rub more often than is required and everytime someone hands me something I find myself wondering how many swine flu viruses are crawling around on that object. The advertisement for Dettol spray has been instrumental in making  me visualise countless bugs on every object that is accesible to public hands . Am I obsessed with swine flu …..yes I am and so should everyone one else . This is not something to be taken lightly . Let us contain and kill this thing before it has a chance to mutate into an even deadlier version of itself .

Howrah Bridge

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Everytime I spot a photo of the Howrah Bridge , it evokes memories of going away on holiday . This is because we had to cross the bridge to get to Howrah Station to catch whatever train we were taking . As our taxi turned into Strand Road , the great bridge would loom into view and a surge of excitement would course through my body . Our taxi would invariably end up behind a slow moving tram and thus would commence a 15 minute journey through the 705 meter long cantilever bridge with the Hoogly river , brown and muddy flowing underneath.  The huge steel  girders held together by rivets as large as my palm passing by overhead generated a power and energy of its own , supporting and dutifully bearing a daily traffic volume of more than 80,000 vehicles , 1,000,000 pedestrians and  large numbers of cattle and other animals . Even though it was named Rabindra Setu way back in 1965 , I doubt anyone ever called it that . It will always be known as Howrah Bridge . This engineering marvel is one of the best examples of cantilever technology of the time and even though it was built by British engineers,  most of the 25,000 tonnes of steel used was of Indian origin supplied by Tata Iron and Steel.  This bridge represents a gateway to the city of Calcutta and will always remain a favourite landmark of all Calcuttans .