Today, February 29, is Leap Day. It occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisable by 4, such as 1988, 1996, 2008 or 2016 (with the exception of century years not divisible by 400, such as 1900). These are called Leap years. Leap days are more likely to fall on a Monday or a Wednesday.
Although the modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, an extra twenty-four hours have accumulated, so one extra day is added to that calendar to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent position.
A person who was born on February 29 may be called a leapling or a leaper. In non-leap years they may celebrate their birthday on either February 28 or March 1 (some countries/states have different laws on this). There is also still the odd computer programme that is thrown in confusion if someone types in a date of February 29 as a date.
Leap day is perhaps best known for the tradition that allows women to propose to men on this day, supposedly based on an old Irish tale of a bargain made between St Bridget and St Patrick. In some places if the man turns the woman down, he has to pay a forfeit. It is unluck to be born on this day in Scotland or to get married today in Greece.
And when it comes to trivia – on this day in 1692, the first accusations were made in the Salem witch trials, on this day in 1952 the first “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs were erected in New York City and in 1933 former Governor General of New Zealand Sir David Beattie was born.
Friday, 29 February 2008
Thursday, 28 February 2008
On your bike for Rodney's
Mayoral Cycle Challenge
Sunday 2 March 9 am.
Come along with the family for a fun bike ride with the Mayor. The ride is only 2kms, so is suitable for riders of all ages and abilities. All participants get a goody bag! You may win one of our hundreds of Spot prizes. The ride will finish with entertainment, stalls, fun rides, face painting, and prizes on Orewa Reserve. All riders can link to their local school – the school who scores the most points will win sport equipment!
Start at Plantation Cafe, ride down state highway 1 to McDonalds (Florence Ave) or further to the West Hoe traffic lights, where we turn and head back. Register from 9am, ride starts at 10am
Last year we were second in the country for bike riders during this promotion. Let's beat it this year. Get the whole family on their bikes and turn out for the Challenge on Sunday when Mayor Penny Webster is hoping to be joined by 2,000 other riders.
Sunday 2 March 9 am.
Come along with the family for a fun bike ride with the Mayor. The ride is only 2kms, so is suitable for riders of all ages and abilities. All participants get a goody bag! You may win one of our hundreds of Spot prizes. The ride will finish with entertainment, stalls, fun rides, face painting, and prizes on Orewa Reserve. All riders can link to their local school – the school who scores the most points will win sport equipment!
Start at Plantation Cafe, ride down state highway 1 to McDonalds (Florence Ave) or further to the West Hoe traffic lights, where we turn and head back. Register from 9am, ride starts at 10am
Last year we were second in the country for bike riders during this promotion. Let's beat it this year. Get the whole family on their bikes and turn out for the Challenge on Sunday when Mayor Penny Webster is hoping to be joined by 2,000 other riders.
For the young and young at heart
... in other words, the big kids out there.
Sunday 2nd March is Children's Day when we celebrate how special and important the children of New Zealand are, not just our own, but all the children out there. You can do this by doing something as a family, just spending quality time with your child, or why not come along to one of the events in Rodney that are being held for this special day. Here are a couple of things that are going on.
The Hibiscus Coast Leisure Centre in Stanmore Bay is running an afternoon jam-packed with family fun on Sunday. Some of the activities on the programme include a Gym’nee’s programme for children 15 months – 5 years, starting at 12 noon, the wonderful ‘Pirates’ Bouncy Castle, Dallas the Clown, Face Painting and the chance for 3 – 5 year olds with ‘energy to burn’ to cruise around on scooters, bikes and trikes, with Pedal Power.
Pool games such as ‘sharks and pirates’ and noodle races are expected to be very popular and awesome prizes are up for grabs. And don’t miss the famous AquaRun, which will be inflated at 3 pm. Entry is by gold coin to HBC Parent Aid.
Warkworth Playcentre are running a Teddy Bear's Picnic in Lucy Moore Park, Warkworth from 10am to 12 noon on Sunday. Bring your Teddy along for story-telling, games and activities. Should be a great family day (this is where me and my teddy will be).
Helensville are running their Children's Day out on 9th March at the Helensville War Memorial Hall from 10am. This is a free event with stalls, music, arts and parenting seminars for kids from 0-12 years and their parents/caregivers.
Let the kid inside you out and join in one of these events. If we have missed yours, send us an email and let us know so that we can include it.
Ka kite ano
Sunday 2nd March is Children's Day when we celebrate how special and important the children of New Zealand are, not just our own, but all the children out there. You can do this by doing something as a family, just spending quality time with your child, or why not come along to one of the events in Rodney that are being held for this special day. Here are a couple of things that are going on.
The Hibiscus Coast Leisure Centre in Stanmore Bay is running an afternoon jam-packed with family fun on Sunday. Some of the activities on the programme include a Gym’nee’s programme for children 15 months – 5 years, starting at 12 noon, the wonderful ‘Pirates’ Bouncy Castle, Dallas the Clown, Face Painting and the chance for 3 – 5 year olds with ‘energy to burn’ to cruise around on scooters, bikes and trikes, with Pedal Power.
Pool games such as ‘sharks and pirates’ and noodle races are expected to be very popular and awesome prizes are up for grabs. And don’t miss the famous AquaRun, which will be inflated at 3 pm. Entry is by gold coin to HBC Parent Aid.
Warkworth Playcentre are running a Teddy Bear's Picnic in Lucy Moore Park, Warkworth from 10am to 12 noon on Sunday. Bring your Teddy along for story-telling, games and activities. Should be a great family day (this is where me and my teddy will be).
Helensville are running their Children's Day out on 9th March at the Helensville War Memorial Hall from 10am. This is a free event with stalls, music, arts and parenting seminars for kids from 0-12 years and their parents/caregivers.
Let the kid inside you out and join in one of these events. If we have missed yours, send us an email and let us know so that we can include it.
Ka kite ano
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
Doorway to the world
I'v mentioned before that your Rodney Library card is not just about the physical books and other items you can find within the confines of the Rodney Libraries buildings. This week I want to introduce you to another one of the fantastic resources that we make available to you.
The database I want to highlight this week is the Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre which is hosted by EBSCO. For a magazine and newspaper junkie such as myself this is heaven in a library card. This site will give you access to the full text of articles from over 240 (at last count) magazines, newspapers, industry journals and newswires, and has details of what is inside each edition of nearly 400 periodicals in total. As suggested by the title, there is an Australian and Kiwi emphasis but there are magazines from further afield (e.g. United States of America and South Africa). Check out this list of everything available at the site.
This is a fantastic way to track down an article that you can remember reading, but can't remember exactly where you saw it. In a lot of cases, once you track it down you can read it on screen immediately (that what we call fulltext). In other cases the site can provide you with details of what magazine it was in, what month or edition, and even the page number. You can then check the Rodney Library catalogue as heaps of the magazines we have on our shelves are covered by EBSCO (which is a quicker way to refer to it).
So how do you access it. Simple! Go to the Rodney Libraries web page and click on the e-resources button/option. This will bring up the list of databases available to you. Scroll down to either Newspapers and Magazines or New Zealand and click on Australia/NZ Reference Centre. A screen will come up with two boxes, one asking you for your library card number and the other asking for your PIN. Once you have entered these correctly and pressed Go, the search screen for EBSCO will appear.
Oh and did I mention that you can do this from home.
Oh and did I mention that this is FREE to all Rodney Library card holders.
If you would like a demo of how this works, please ask next time you are in the library.
The database I want to highlight this week is the Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre which is hosted by EBSCO. For a magazine and newspaper junkie such as myself this is heaven in a library card. This site will give you access to the full text of articles from over 240 (at last count) magazines, newspapers, industry journals and newswires, and has details of what is inside each edition of nearly 400 periodicals in total. As suggested by the title, there is an Australian and Kiwi emphasis but there are magazines from further afield (e.g. United States of America and South Africa). Check out this list of everything available at the site.
This is a fantastic way to track down an article that you can remember reading, but can't remember exactly where you saw it. In a lot of cases, once you track it down you can read it on screen immediately (that what we call fulltext). In other cases the site can provide you with details of what magazine it was in, what month or edition, and even the page number. You can then check the Rodney Library catalogue as heaps of the magazines we have on our shelves are covered by EBSCO (which is a quicker way to refer to it).
So how do you access it. Simple! Go to the Rodney Libraries web page and click on the e-resources button/option. This will bring up the list of databases available to you. Scroll down to either Newspapers and Magazines or New Zealand and click on Australia/NZ Reference Centre. A screen will come up with two boxes, one asking you for your library card number and the other asking for your PIN. Once you have entered these correctly and pressed Go, the search screen for EBSCO will appear.
Oh and did I mention that you can do this from home.
Oh and did I mention that this is FREE to all Rodney Library card holders.
If you would like a demo of how this works, please ask next time you are in the library.
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Hold your Horses!
I'm being a litle parochial here (that's the bonus of being one of the bloggers) in saying wasn't it great to see Mark Todd and equestrian sports on the front page of the Herald yesterday. The interest and publicity he has garnered for the sport simply by announcing he wants to ride at one more Olympics has been phenomenal. I was talking to someone a couple of weeks ago who is involved in the Puhinui Three Day Event in March and she said we would not believe how busy her phone and email were after the news was announced. Check out the story at the NZ Herald website.
We have a huge horsey community in Rodney (and a very talented one) and we cater for all horselovers at Rodney Libraries. If you are a beginner rider check out books like First Riding Lessons (Sandy Ransford) or if you are more advanced a good book is Fitness for Horse & Rider (Jane Holderness-Roddam). You can find up to date news in the Horse & Pony Magazine, read about famous horses and riders in our sports section under number 798.4 (such as Mark Todds biography) and get information on a wide range of horse sports.
There is plenty of fiction for all ages in the library. Young readers are well catered for with plenty of series fiction. Have a look at the new Kiwi series Pony Club Secrets by Stacey Gregg. The first book is Mystic and the Midnight Ride. For older readers Dick Francis is as popular as ever but if you have read all of his books, try John Francome or Lyndon Stacey. I have just finished an excellent audio book of the latter called Outside Chance (which we also have in print).
For all our different books, dvds and videos on horses (fiction and non-fiction) go to our Rodney Libraries catalogue and enter a subject or keyword search for "horses" (or ponies) - or click here where we have done that for you.
The other reason why horsey things spring to my mind today is that I took my horse for a ride to the beach last night. I can report that the storms over the weekend brought lots of sea grass and debris onto the sand. I can also report that it is very soft. How do I know this? The instant and sudden dislike and refusal of my mare to take one more step and her spinning retreat from the vicinity. I got awarded an 8 for my dismount, roll and recovery from some spectators with an extra .5 for presentation as I came up smiling. It would apparently have been a 10 if I hadn't needed to go on a short jog up the road to retrieve my mount. Maybe I need to check out some of those instructional books and videos myself.
Have a good day.
We have a huge horsey community in Rodney (and a very talented one) and we cater for all horselovers at Rodney Libraries. If you are a beginner rider check out books like First Riding Lessons (Sandy Ransford) or if you are more advanced a good book is Fitness for Horse & Rider (Jane Holderness-Roddam). You can find up to date news in the Horse & Pony Magazine, read about famous horses and riders in our sports section under number 798.4 (such as Mark Todds biography) and get information on a wide range of horse sports.
There is plenty of fiction for all ages in the library. Young readers are well catered for with plenty of series fiction. Have a look at the new Kiwi series Pony Club Secrets by Stacey Gregg. The first book is Mystic and the Midnight Ride. For older readers Dick Francis is as popular as ever but if you have read all of his books, try John Francome or Lyndon Stacey. I have just finished an excellent audio book of the latter called Outside Chance (which we also have in print).
For all our different books, dvds and videos on horses (fiction and non-fiction) go to our Rodney Libraries catalogue and enter a subject or keyword search for "horses" (or ponies) - or click here where we have done that for you.
The other reason why horsey things spring to my mind today is that I took my horse for a ride to the beach last night. I can report that the storms over the weekend brought lots of sea grass and debris onto the sand. I can also report that it is very soft. How do I know this? The instant and sudden dislike and refusal of my mare to take one more step and her spinning retreat from the vicinity. I got awarded an 8 for my dismount, roll and recovery from some spectators with an extra .5 for presentation as I came up smiling. It would apparently have been a 10 if I hadn't needed to go on a short jog up the road to retrieve my mount. Maybe I need to check out some of those instructional books and videos myself.
Have a good day.
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