Category: Your Corner


Snow in Auckland

Filed Under: Your Corner by User Contributors — Leave a comment
August 21, 2011

On the 15th of August, Aucklanders experienced a very memorable event. Snow fell perhaps for the first time in 72 years due to the rare southerly polar blast. It fell on various parts of Auckland for a mere 10 – 15 minutes before melting away as sun reappears (or for some, as the rain starts to pour). It is unclear to me as to how this polar blast occurred. A simple Google Search did not help much so if anyone can shed some light, that would be great. Of course, the cold weather continues after the blast leaving Aucklanders at the freezing 4degrees temperature.

Here are some pictures from the snow blast – share yours with us !

Snow on the Floor

Snow falling all over the floor

Snow Flakes

Catching snow in a container

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Carlson’s Rise to NZ Comedy Fame

Filed Under: Your Corner by marnsT — Leave a comment
June 29, 2011

For Urzila Carlson at 32, her journey into the comedy scene could be in her words described as unexpected and accidental. Initially a dare from friends to perform at an Open Mic night at Raw Quest, Urzila has since gone into great comedic success, attracting the attention of fans to her South African accent and raw style humour. The edge comedian has also netted many accolades and awards in her short time on the NZ Comedy scene.

Carlson won ‘Best Newcomer Award’ in 2008 and December 2010, she was the winner of the ‘Best Female Comedian’ in the NZ Comedy Guild Awards. “It was a massive surprise, says Carlson, I was so in the same league with everybody that I look up to”. Carlson is also a nominee for this year’s Billy T Awards.

Her material is inspired by events that have happened in her life. Some of her content needs to be censored depending on the crowd. If there are old people in the crowd I won’t swear as much, or young people I won’t swear at all. If they’re really drunk I’ll stick to safe subjects and won’t talk about politics or religion”.

Her greatest ambition is to one day meet and open for Billy Connelly, but she is a huge fan of Brian Tamaki. “I like his ability to pull a crowd”. Carlson is fond of new Zealand audiences. Although she has only performed in New Zealand and Australia, Carlson thinks New Zealand audiences are forgiving. “They are so good; they are very accepting and almost extremely polite. They laugh at anything, to a point. If your crap through, your crap”.

Her advice for up and coming comedians is “to stay calm and talk about stuff you find funny”. Her new show “The Truth According to Urzila Carlson” took a couple of months to write. “It’s about lying or the truth, however you choose to hear it”.

Urzila Carlson performed at the recent New Zealand Comedy Festival 2011.

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Sitting all day might just kill you

Filed Under: Your Corner by User Contributors — Leave a comment
June 26, 2011

As students and even working at the office, sitting can be a dangerous activity. We sit in class, we sit for hours in the labs or in front of our desk, we sit to eat three meals a day, we sit to watch tv. We basically sit for almost anything we do. Recent news has articulated the dangers of sitting for a long period of time, even when you exercise regularly. Some say that if you sit for most of the day, you are 54% more likely to get a heart attack.

There is a site, “Stand or Die” that clocks your standing hours and maps it to tell you whether you have stood enough for a day. Pretty neat huh?

Have you sit for a long time with a particular posture and find that your body starts to ache and you can’t sleep well because your back is stiff? “Sit up straight” does not mean that you should sit up at right angle (90 degrees). When sitting you should not bend forward but have yourself lay back slightly. Make sure that your eyes matches directly to the height of your screen that you’re looking at. Also, do some stretches from time to time. Here are some helpful stretches that will help in your shoulder ache as a result of sitting to long .

Also, besides sitting down for too long, staring at the screen or reading for a long period can lead to short sightedness. From a visit to the optometrist, I’ve been told that the phrase “look at green things, its good for your eyes” exists not particularly because green colour is good for our eyes, but when we look at green things, we are looking at a further distance – which is good.

So, take time out to look far, stand up and stretch. Stay healthy.

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