Author: Literacy Waitākere

In the last post, you saw a pōhutukawa tree. At this time of the year, they’re colourful and very nice to look at. In this country, when the pōhutukawa is in bloom, you know Christmas is just around the corner.

Yes, the flowers are nice to look at, but there’s a downside to beauty. Each flower has many, many red needles, and after a while, these needles fall to the ground and form a carpet, but not the usual red carpet that famous people walk on. If there’s no wind, they just lie there until somebody sweeps them up.

But let’s not blame the poor pōhutukawa. Other trees do the same thing. Take the jacaranda for example. The tree comes from South America, and this one is near where I live, but I’m sure there’s one in your area. The flowers are a blue-purple colour and a different shape, but they also form a carpet when the flowers fall. And the flowers have a different smell. I think they smell like vinegar, but don’t take my word for it. Find one and see what you think for yourself.

And to finish off, have you ever seen this artwork as you get off the northwestern motorway on your way into the city? It’s been there since 2006, and it’s our old friend the pōhutukawa flower. But thankfully, this one doesn’t drop its needles!

If you’re in the CBD at this time of year, you’ll see these at the bottom of Queen St in that big public area called Te Komititanga or Britomart. You can’t really miss them, because they’re huge. Look at the two people on the right of the picture, and you’ll see how big they are.

Two of the Christmas decorations or ornaments in this picture are in the traditional Christmas colours of red and green. These ones are very big and they’re sitting on the ground, but usually they’re much smaller, and people hang them on their family Christmas tree at home.

In this same area, there’s also a tall Christmas tree. It’s covered in decorations, and is a pyramid shape. It’s wide at the bottom, ends in a point, and has a silver star at the top.

Normally, a traditional Christmas tree has green leaves, but this tree is covered in red flowers. And there’s a reason for that.

At this time of year in this country, there’s a special tree with heaps of red flowers. The name of the tree is pōhutukawa.

In late December, people say “Merry Christmas” to friends and family and even strangers. That means we want them to be happy.

The name of this tree isn’t English, though; it’s Māori, and that’s why some people call it the Māori Christmas tree, because the words Māori and merry sound similar. I like that.

I have a little story about the picture of the pōhutukawa tree above. As I was walking along the street, I noticed the tree, and I thought it looked very healthy and happy, so I took a picture of it.

When I turned around to continue walking, a woman was coming towards me. She smiled and started talking to me. She saw me admiring the tree, and she told me she was a gardener. She also told me something I didn’t know. She said this kind of pōhutukawa was called a Maori Princess. I didn’t know that. I thought there was only one kind of pōhutukawa.

So you live and learn, and sometimes it pays to stop and talk to strangers.

It was one minute to eight, and the clock was ticking. I was standing outside the Countdown Metro, a mini-supermarket in Albert St in the CBD. There were some other people waiting, too. Time was short. I had five minutes to get in, buy something, and dash across the road to catch the bus home. They only come every half hour, five past and twenty-five to, and if I missed this one, I’d have time on my hands and nothing to do for thirty minutes.

The doors were still closed, but I could see what I wanted just inside the door. When the doors opened on the dot of eight, I hurried in, picked up the newspaper from the stand, paid and left.

Waiting at the lights, I could see the number 106 also waiting at the stop on the other side of the road. I was saying in my head, Come on! Come on!, willing them to change, and they did. I made it across, hopped on, sat down, and headed home. Job done.

Some people read the sports pages first, others business. Me, I always turn to the crosswords. But when I read the first clue, I thought it looked familiar. Then I read the next one and the next one, and I had the same feeling. Then it hit me!

I turned to the front page, looked at the date, and saw that it was yesterday’s paper! Because it was so early, the supermarket hadn’t put out today’s paper yet, and because I was in such a rush, I hadn’t checked.

Well, you can imagine what I said, but being angry doesn’t change anything. I had to think of a way to fix things. I didn’t want to wait for another bus into the city or walk there, and then it hit me.

There’s another Countdown in Ponsonby close to my house, so I walked there with yesterday’s NZ Herald under my arm. I explained to a nice lady what had happened. She listened, took yesterday’s paper off me, gave me today’s, no questions asked. Now that’s service with a smile!

I was walking along the street, eyes down, as usual, looking at the ground. Then I saw something ahead of me that made me look up because it was unusual. It was big and very pink, and as you can see from the exhaust pipe, it was a car. It was parked outside a local primary school.

When I saw the colour, in my head I could hear the driver shouting “Hey everybody, look at me!”. I walked on, but then I went back and took a photo of the bumper sticker because I thought it was funny.

Drink-driving isn’t funny, though. Drunk drivers don’t drive straight; they go from side to side of the road, and that’s very dangerous: dangerous to themselves and dangerous to others.

But sometimes, there are holes in the road and the driver has to drive around them. The potholes can be small or they can be bigger. If a car is moving fast and if it drives over a pothole, the driver’s head will hit the roof, and that can cause an accident.

But this car owner wasn’t a bad driver. They wanted the driver behind to see the sticker and smile, and maybe forgive their driving if they made a mistake.

I like the sticker. It’s short. It’s quick to read. It’s only four words. The top two words look drunk, while the bottom two look sober. The outline at the top is up and down, while the bottom is smooth, just like a road with no potholes.

Drive safely. And I hope you have a smooth ride around life’s potholes.

Today, I have a two-word phrase for you. The two words are in the third paragraph. But before that, read paragraph one, then paragraph two. They will help you understand. So, here we go.

1. 

In this picture, you can see white rice, black pepper and brown sugar. But how much rice is there? How much pepper and sugar? Is there a lot, some, or a little? When we use the word much, it usually means amount.

2. 

Now look at these flowers. The flowers are pretty, and the colours are pretty, too. In other words, the flowers are beautiful, and the colours are also beautiful.

3. 

I took this picture at my local supermarket. As I was leaving, there were two men standing here and working. They were putting out more red and green drinks boxes and egg trays for people to buy. One man said to the other one, “Are we finished yet?”, and the other man said, “pretty much”. 

And that’s today’s two-word phrase. In this phrase, pretty doesn’t mean beautiful. When we say pretty much, it means the same as nearly or almost. It’s a phrase from everyday spoken English. For example, if someone asks you if you’re ready to go, you could say pretty much. It means you’re nearly ready. Or if the question is, “Did you get everything on the shopping list?”, you could say, “pretty much, but they didn’t have any eggs”.

So if you get the chance, why not try to use this phrase? You can use it in pretty much any situation.