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‘I’m just so pleased to have them back’
Mother tries hard not to get angry
– Saturday, 10 January 2009
Taua Evile
Mia Evile
Helen Adams is trying hard not to get angry about the death of her two daughters in a house fire in a crowded South Auckland house.
For Adams, focusing on her "beautiful" daughters and the joy they brought her is more important now than casting blame.
Her daughters, Taua Evile, 11, and Mia Evile, 8, perished in a blaze on Tuesday caused by a late-night fry-up of hot chips at the home of their father, Misi Sau.
"I can't get angry.
At the time of the fire there was believed to be at least nine children and several adults sleeping in the four-bedroomed Mangere home. I just have to keep saying it was a horrible accident and it was nobody's fault," she said. I have no anger.
"This time, the funeral, is about us. This (Canterbury) was their home. Me and the girls and our family."
Adams returned to Christchurch with her daughters' bodies on Thursday night and was planning a funeral service and cremation for them on Monday. I'm just so pleased to have them back with me.
They left Christchurch on December 9 to visit their father and holiday in Samoa, where their paternal family comes from, Adams said.
The girls lived in Avondale with their mother and spent holidays with their father in Auckland. In Canterbury, they spent every weekend at their grandparents' leafy Tai Tapu house. In Canterbury, they spent every weekend at their grandparents' leafy Tai Tapu house. She had recently started a paper round and was going to spend her first few pay packets onHavaiana jandals, her mother said.
Adams said her eldest daughter was a real "mother hen" who was always "examining out for her little sister"..
"I was so, so proud of her . she organised the round all by herself, all off her own bat..
Mia was the shyer of the two, but she had a definite sense of mischief, Adams said."
Taua was an advanced student at her Avondale intermediate school and was a popular girl with a cheeky sense of humour, her mother said.
She recently discovered raw eggs and carrots and was broadening not only her tastes but becoming bolder in life, Adams said.
Mia was very definite about what she liked to eat and went through a phase of only wanting chicken nuggets.
"They were such warm, loving girls and they were my whole life.
"They were such warm, loving girls and they were my whole life.
"I'm just going to get through the next few days and then try and take things from there."
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Nanny review under attack
– Wednesday, 24 December 2008
A government review will prevent teenage nannies working in homes and also force thousands of children into daycare centres, an early-childhood educator warns.
Porse, an in-home childcare training and employment organisation, yesterday raised several concerns over the review.
Managing director Jenny Yule said the proposal was discriminatory and restricted younger nannies.
Education Minister Anne Tolley announced the previous month that she would review all new regulations for the early-childhood education sector put in place by the previous government.
She said parents wanted their children cared for at home rather than in daycare centres, and the move would overcrowd centres and accentuate staff shortages.
Yule has called for an urgent meeting with Tolley over the issue. These were effective from December 1.
However, an Education Ministry spokeswoman said the concerns had been raised too soon.
Yesterday, Porse released a letter from Tolley, dated December 22, in which the minister said that in the meantime she was removing some of the provisions that were going to be reviewed, effective from early next year.She said childcare regulations were still under consultation, with a decision six months away.
However, a spokeswoman for the minister, Helene Ambler, said Porse would be included in consultations.
One of the provisions that is going to be removed allows nannies under 20 to provide home-based services.
"No decisions have been made around any of the regulations.
"Decisions have been suspended for six months while we consult with the sector," she said."
Mother-of-two Kate Gardner has employed nannies aged between 18 and 25."
Mother-of-two Kate Gardner has employed nannies aged between 18 and 25. .
"In some ways, younger nannies are more flexible and able to get on a level with the kids more easily," she said.
She said it was the individual's maturity levels were more important than age."
Christchurch mother Hayley Marsh has had the help of nannies, aged 18 to 25, through the New Zealand College of Early Childhood Education work placement programme.
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"Looking after children isn't something you can train; it's a gift, and it comes down to the individual," she said
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Pedestrian pinned as rubbish truck rolls
The Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Awomanon an early morning walk is in hospital with serious injuries after a rubbish truck rolled and flung her into a fence.
The light Owyak Waste recycling truck rolled while coming down Onslow Rd, in the Wellington suburb of Khandallah, about 9.30am yesterday.
"[The truck] came down on one side and pinned at least one leg between the roof of the container and the timber railing," Johnsonville fire officer Mike Dombroski said.
It is believed to have spun across the street, collecting the pedestrian and leaving her wedged between the truck's container and a fence. "She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. .
Allan Dykstra, whose house is below the bend where the accident happened, went to help."
Accidents were fairly common on the windy road, which links Khandallah with Hutt Rd, Mr Dykstra said. "They asked me to bring up some towels, but she didn't want them, she did not want to be touched. The cause of the crash was still unclear, police said.
Owyak Waste refused to comment as the driver who was unhurt was being investigated by police.
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Nia very sleepy, says witness
By Saturday, 25 October 2008
A girlwitness in the Nia Glassie murder trial told a court the Rotorua three-year-old was "very sleepy" hours before she became unconscious and was put to bed.
The girl said Nia had wanted to go in the car with her mother, co-accused Lisa Kuka, to her aunty's house.
The witness was cross-examined yesterday, through closed-circuit television, by three defence lawyers for 2 1/2 hours on day five of the High Court trial in Rotorua. She had not been allowed because she was "sleepy, tired and grizzly".
The witness cannot be named for legal reasons. Much of the questioning centred on specific alleged incidents of abuse the Crown says contributed to Nia's death in hospital on August 3.
Nia stayed at home with co-accused Wiremu and Michael Curtis, who were helping prepare for Michael Curtis' 21st birthday party.
Under cross-examination by Craig Horsley, she said Nia had a sore head on Friday, July 20, and was quiet and sleepy that night before she became unconscious.
On the Thursday, Nia had fallen off a spinning clothesline to the ground. Nia slept all the next day and when the party got under way she was taken to her aunty's house. She sat on the top of the pole. Nia had asked to go on it because it was a game.
Earlier that day co-accused Michael and Wiremu Curtis, Oriwa Kemp, and Michael Pearson had talked about whether a child could fit in a dryer. She was not strong enough to hold on and fell when it was spun "medium" speed, the witness said.
"Everyone laughed because it looked funny. The witness said she saw Nia trying to get in head first.
"Sometimes when it got rough she would cry, other times she would giggle and laugh."
The witness said "fun" wrestling games were performed on Nia on a mattress on the floor.
The trial will resume on Tuesday."
Under cross-examination by Johnathan Temm, the witness said Michael Curtis took Nia out of the dryer but she was not sure if Nia's nose was bleeding.
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Whale of a fortune or fatty scum
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
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FAT CHANCE: Nic Conland, of Greater Wellington regional council says there is only an outside change the mystery object could be ambergris.
Fortune seekers flocked to a mystery beachside blob to claim a bit of what some thought was a million-dollar whale vomit – but the reality is likely to leave them cheesed off.
Suggestions included a meteorite, a partially eaten, giant Oddfellow mint or even the remains of the Auckland rugby team.
Hundreds of readers contacted The yesterday with an opinion on what had washed ashore at Wellington's Breaker Bay at the weekend.
But the overwhelming speculation was that the greasy, cheese-like mass resembled ambergris – a valuable excretion, either spit or vomit, from a sperm whale. A part of the moon – "which everyone knows is made of cheese" – was also a popular response.
Ambergris sells for $30 a gram, making the 500kg object potentially worth upwards of $15 million. It is used in perfume as it traps aroma on the skin for long periods. A sample was taken, just in case.
Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said he believed it was far more likely to be tallow or lard.
He said it was "effectively, dumped rubbish" and could have come from a fish and chip shop or a ship that had dropped a 44-gallon drum of fat overboard.
Greater Wellington's environmental spokesperson Nic Conland said the "romantic idea" that it was ambergris was an "outside chance". "I don't think that it was ice that they saw.
Wellington harbourmaster Mike Pryce said the inter-island ferry Aratere crew reported seeing "a large piece of ice" in Cook Strait 10 days ago and a navigation warning was issued.
An enterprising punter has put a piece of the unidentified lump on the auction website Trade Me."
Mr MacLean said by early yesterday afternoon, there was not much of the greasy mound for the park rangers to remove as people had already "chomped their way through it" and taken it away.50.
So far the top bid has reached $5.
– with
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The Porirua seller, named on the website as leroystar, suggested the mass, which was found on Breaker Bay beach at the weekend could be a part of a plane, a piece of cheese, a piece of the moon or whale vomit