Looking back - Year 2016 回首和回忆 2016 年

Yes, politically the most significant event of that year, 2016, was the New Zealand flag referendum. The Prime Minister, John Key, announced in the year 2014 that there would be a two-stage process to determine whether New Zealanders wanted a new national flag.

In 2014 Prime Minister John Key announced a two-stage referendum process to determine whether New Zealanders wanted a new national flag. Those who voted in the first referendum in November 2015 selected a black, white and blue design featuring a silver fern and the stars of the Southern Cross from among five shortlisted options for a new flag. In March 2016 voters in the second referendum chose between this and the current flag and nearly 57% preferred to stay with the current flag.

是的，2016 年政治上最重要的事件是新西兰国旗公投。总理约翰·基在 2014 年宣布，将分两个阶段确定新西兰人是否想要一面新国旗。
2014 年，总理约翰·基宣布了一个两阶段的公投程序，以确定新西兰人是否想要一面新国旗。那些在 2015 年 11 月的第一次公投中投票的人从五个入围的新国旗选项中选择了带有银蕨和南十字星的黑色、白色和蓝色设计。在 2016 年 3 月的第二次公投中，选民在这面旗帜和当前旗帜之间做出了选择，近 57% 的选民更愿意继续使用当前旗帜。

In February 2016, people staged a protest march down Auckland City’s Queen Street with some people carrying a flag created to show the need for a return to unifying the country behind the Maori culture.

2016 年 2 月，人们在奥克兰市的皇后街举行了抗议游行，一些人举着代表创造的旗帜，以表明需要回归统一毛利文化背后的国家。

On the personal front, the previous year 2015 saw me retiring from the property consultancy activities, the last real estate projects being the marketing of several key apartment development blocks in Auckland City, notably (1) the Queens Residences, 273 apartments located at 8 Airedale St, CBD, built by developer Conrad Properties. (2) Sugartree Alto, 265 apartments located at 145-147 Nelson St, by developer Sugartree, following the success of Stage One’s 148 Prima apartments (completed) and Stage Two’s 259 Centro apartments, still under construction in 2016, and the Altro apartments scheduled for completion by the middle of 2017. (3) Queens Square, 226 apartments located at 438 Queen St, CBD, built by developer Conrad Properties; and (4) Park Residences, 225 apartments located at 35 Albert St, CBD, also built by developer Conrad Properties.

The first few months of the year 2016 were relaxing moments, visiting several beaches around Auckland. Clarke Beach still lives in my memory as my favourite at the time.

2016 年的前几个月是放松的时刻，参观了奥克兰周围的几个海滩。克拉克海滩仍然是我当时的最爱。

The Chinese Lantern Festival in Auckland was held for the Domain for the first time in 2016. It used to be held in Albert Park in the City but the weekend event (held during the fifteen day of the Lunar New Year - in February, 2016) had exceeded so large a crowd the previous year that the organisers had to relocate to a much larger ground to accommodate the increasing number of displays in hand.

奥克兰的中国元宵节于 2016 年在 Domain 举行。此前，该活动在奥克兰市的阿尔伯特公园举行，但 2016 年，组织者不得不搬迁到更大的场地，以容纳越来越多的展示物品。

Later that month, we went on a P & O Boat Cruise, meant for Fiji, but because of the weather conditions in Fiji waters, the destinationi was changed to Tonga, and Vanuatu. See the cruise ship layout and comments from this website. https://youtu.be/WAXUh4ztMl0 We were a team of three families from our Tai Chi morning training sessions at Waiatarua Park - us two plus Mr. and Mrs. Ji and Mr. and Mrs. Shi.

那个月底，我们进行了 P&O 船游，原定是前往斐济，但由于斐济水域的天气状况，目的地改为汤加和瓦努阿图。请参阅本网站的游轮布局和评论。 https://youtu.be/WAXUh4ztMl0 我们是一个由三个家庭组成的团队，他们来自怀塔鲁瓦公园的太极早训班——我们两个加上纪先生和夫人以及史先生和夫人。

This was our first trip on a cruise ship. We were impressed by the size of the ship and the many levels that housed so much activities - four restaurants, cinema, theatre for life shows, casino, top deck of swimming and spa pools and water slides, library, piano bars, entertainment centre, and even a gym. The on shore activities at Tonga and Vanuatu included local dances and meals and visits to farms - not as exciting as we originally envisioned.

这是我们第一次乘坐游轮。我们对这艘船的大小和容纳如此多活动的许多层次印象深刻 - 四家餐厅、电影院、生活剧院、赌场、游泳池和水疗池的顶层甲板和水滑梯、图书馆、钢琴酒吧、娱乐中心、甚至健身房。汤加和瓦努阿图的岸上活动包括当地的舞蹈和用餐以及参观农场——并不像我们最初设想的那么令人兴奋。

I spent my days reading heaps of library loan books and listening to songs on Spotify.

This book entitled “The Five People you meet in Heaven” is the most interesting book. Watch the movie about this book at https://youtu.be/OHVvNwHfjqc

Briefly, this book by Mitch Album is a story that follows the life and death of Eddie – an amusement park employee and a war veteran. On his 83rd birthday, Eddie died in an accident in an attempt to save a little girl’s life. After his heroic death, Eddie went on a journey in heaven, where he meets five people who had made a big impact in his life. Upon reflection, Eddie realised that these five people had taught him the following five key life lessons: (1) We are somewhat intertwined with one another in some ways and thus any action we take does rebound back to affect us; (2) As a result of such interrelations, therefore, we have to find beauty in the sacrifices we make in life; (3) We need to learn the importance of ‘forgiveness’ because holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Forgiveness is one of the keys to a happy and beautiful life; (4) We learn that love does not die even when a person passes away. Love is an infinite emotion, and cannot be easily wiped away because the person leaves physically. It may take a different form, but it is still love; (5) We need to understand that every one of us is living on earth for a specific purpose in God’s Masterplan. Everyone is given a particular role in life and there is therefore no necessity to be envious of the rich and famous and there is no necessity to compare one’s life with another’s.

我每天都在阅读大量图书馆借出的书籍并在 Spotify 上听歌曲。https://youtu.be/OHVvNwHfjqc

简而言之，Mitch Album 的这本书讲述了 Eddie 的生与死——游乐园员工和退伍军人。在他 83 岁生日那天，埃迪为了挽救一个小女孩的生命而在一次事故中丧生。英勇死后，埃迪踏上了天堂之旅，在那里他遇到了五个对他的生活产生重大影响的人。回想起来，埃迪意识到这五个人教会了他以下五个重要的人生课程：（1）我们在某些方面有些相互交织，因此我们采取的任何行动都会反弹回来影响我们； （2）由于这种相互关系，因此，我们必须从我们在生活中做出的牺牲中发现美； （3）我们需要学习“宽恕”的重要性，因为保持愤怒就像喝了毒药并期待对方死亡。宽恕是幸福美好生活的关键之一； (4) 我们知道，即使一个人死去，爱也不会死去。爱是一种无限的情感，不会因为人的身体离开而轻易抹去。它可能采取不同的形式，但它仍然是爱； (5) 我们需要明白，我们每个人都为上帝总体规划中的特定目的而生活在地球上。每个人在生活中都被赋予了特定的角色，因此没有必要嫉妒富豪和名人，也没有必要将自己的生活与他人的生活进行比较。

As far as Spotify went, our favourites for that year were Adele’s “Hello” https://youtu.be/be12BC5pQLE ; Justin Bieber’s “Sorry”; https://youtu.be/BerNfXSuvJ0 and Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself”. https://youtu.be/TMSIR210mRg

就 Spotify 而言，那一年我们最喜欢的是阿黛尔的“你好”https://youtu.be/be12BC5pQLE；贾斯汀比伯的《对不起》； https://youtu.be/BerNfXSuvJ0 和贾斯汀比伯的“爱你自己”。 https://youtu.be/TMSIR210mRg

By May 2016, I was restless again and started doing Uber driving.

到了 2016 年 5 月，我再次坐立不安，开始做 Uber 驾驶。

What a foggy day - May 2nd 2016 - Looking across the road, at No. 33.

多雾的一天 - 2016 年 5 月 2 日 - 看着马路对面的 33 号。

So many people were going to the airport on 8th December 2016. Why? School holidays?

2016 年 12 月 8 日有这么多人去机场。为什么？学校假期吗？