Christmas Cheer

Well Christmas came and went for another year. That was quick. The build-up to Christmas was so long that the actual Christmas Day passed by extremely fast!

To start off the Christmas celebrations leading up to Christmas Day, our church had a Christmas concert on the night of Christmas Eve. My brothers and I would be performing a slightly jazzed-up version of Good King Wenceslas and the first movement of Spring by Vivaldi. We were also going to play as part of a string group made up of members from our youth group, performing Humoresque by Dvorak, You Raise Me Up (sung by Josh Groban), Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Aonghas was working for most of Christmas Eve, and so we had to wait till he finished work at about 4pm, before all three of us could do some practice. We had to be at church by 6.30pm so we could do some practice with the string group. It was about ten minutes to 6pm when we realised we hadn't bought white bow ties to accompany the black shirts we would be wearing! Aonghas and I quickly jumped in the car and went down to West City to buy some. We were lucky to get the last three bow ties left at the shop! 

We got to church slightly late, but there was still time for us to do some practice before the show started. Jireh, another guy in our youth group had brought along a pack of cards, anticipating that we would have a long wait with nothing to do. I amazed though at how fast time went by! My brothers and I went into a corridor to do some quick practice before Jenny wanted us to do some string practice, and then we were on! 

My brothers and I were up first. I was really hoping we wouldn't screw this up, since it was the first time we had performed at church in a long time and I didn't want people who had never seen us perform before to leave with a bad impression of us! Our first piece Good King Wenceslas went well, without any major stuff-ups. At the beginning while I play on my own, Aonghas and Hamish were originally going to click their hands in time, but there were some...difficulties with that so we changed it to whacking our accordions.

Our second piece, the First Movement of Spring by Vivaldi wasn't too bad as well, except for one screw-up by me that nearly brought everyone down! During one part of the piece where we're all doing trills and little frilly bits that sound weird, I jumped a bar, which almost threw Hamish off! I ended up just extending one of my trills for the whole part and we all carried on in time. I don't know why I always screw up on stage! In practice I'm usually tough on the others but then I go and blow it on stage! At least I didn't screw up my little solo. That would have been a WHOLE lot more embarrassing! So yeah I was a little disappointed after the performance, as I felt we had performed a lot better at the dress rehearsal the night before. I was reassured that non-musical people wouldn't know, but I have a habit of pointing out my own mistakes to others which doesn't help!

After the concert, everyone from youth group who came to the concert gathered together and it was time for Secret Santa gift exchanging time! By now it wasn't much of a secret for some. Some people got really nice presents. One guy in our youth group, Andrew always seems to be able to find something nice to give the girls! He's going to make a great boyfriend one day! I ended up getting this Santa-shaped trinket/jewellery box thing which my mum says I can put all my teeth in! Hamish got a mug with the NZ House of Representatives (NZ parliament) logo on it - whoever got him that must know him well! Aonghas got some cuff links which look pretty flash too! Fortunately my Secret Santa liked her present (I don't think she knows I'm her Secret Santa yet though!) 

As the clock ticked over to Christmas Day, I was still away at my laptop furiously sending off Christmas emails, which has sorta been a bit of a tradition for me. I don't think people read emails as much as before though, so I sent other people txt messages later in the day. It's sorta my excuse to say heaps of nice and wonderful stuff to people at least once a year! While I didn't get too many replies, at least I've said what I have to  say! Sorry if I didn't get around to you, I may not have had your email or cellphone number!

I crashed at about 4.30 in the morning. I thought I better get some sleep before church in the morning, as I had to lead children's worship! It was going to be the first time Aonghas and I had led worship on our own, so I was slightly nervous. There weren't that many children there though, which left me slightly disappointed...maybe I like large audiences, I don't know haha However, it went really well! There was one song I sang with the kids where they had to do actions and scream and shout, and I was egging them on to make heaps of noise so the adults in the auditorium nearby could hear! I then tried Gabrielle's (she's one of the proper children's worship leaders!) suggestion of turning it into a competition between the boys and girls. I forgot to mention to them it was a competition though, so the first round was OK. When I did it again but switched around what they had to say, I told the girls to see if they could see if they could beat the guys and shout louder. That's when one of the boys moaned

"You never said it was a competition!!"

I just told the boys to try shout even louder than the girls! What we got was heaps and heaps of noise! It was great!

After children's worship I went back to watch the main service, which was extra long because of all the baptisms. I was sitting right at the back with Aonghas, a couple of the Chin sisters from my youth group and this other girl Daisy, who I've promised to be a whole lot nicer to from now on! I might talk about that sometime later when I review my New Year's Resolutions ;)

After the church service, we hung out with some of the others of in our youth group and had lunch. They were serving pies! Yay! It's not often they serve pies at church! We probably should've left a lot earlier than we did since we had to go to our cousins' for lunch, but we helped out a bit with tidying up and the minister wanted to see us about playing some music for the Sunday service.

When we finally got to our cousins' house for lunch, they had already finished and were moving on to dessert! It's a bit of a tradition with the Andersons/Brens that whenever we have a meal together we always have the main meal then dessert! I always get full from these meals which is great, although I hope I'm not getting fat!

Most of our cousins from the other Anderson family (my dad's brother's family) had left for Samoa early in the morning, so it was mainly us and the Bren's (our dad's sister's family). We just sat around catching up with each other, eating, drinking and discussing our big plans for Anbro Productions and coming up with short film ideas for early next year!

We eventually left after lunch and returned home, where I continued with my Christmas message sending, while the rest of the family just wilted in the heat! Christmas Day TV wasn't too great either! 

Not too soon after our neighbours Szelin and Zippo came over to wish us a Merry Christmas! They had a family get-together as well and had been taking some family photos so they were looking pretty good. We just caught up for a while before they had to go back.

Our dad finished work later on and we went over to pick him up. He had to work at Smale's Farm over in the North Shore since the main office was closed for Christmas. It's a large place with a lot of buildings and open space, and all the trees were lit up for Christmas, so we spent some time there taking photos and checking out the nearby bus station before heading to Franklin Road in Ponsonby to check out all the houses decorated with Christmas lights!

By the time we left my phone was well and truly dead (sorry to the people I was texting!) and Christmas was over for another year!

Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Hopefully you lot aren't spending Christmas on the computer, especially reading this because that's pretty sad! Hopefully you're having fun in the sun and spending time with the family instead! :D

I've just had a three hour sleep after spending all night emailing and wishing people a Merry Christmas and having a nice conversation about waxing legs with Grace o.O I don't even know why I did this but I guess it's become a Calum tradition! If I haven't gotten to you then it's because I haven't finished, or I don't have your email/cellphone number!

I've got to go to church and be in charge of children's singing at the children's service today since Gabrielle who usually does it is a bit preoccupied with something else. It's the first time Aonghas and I will have led children's singing on our own, so hopefully it doesn't turn to custard!

I'll talk about the Christmas Eve concert and my Christmas day a little later!

Preparing for Christmas

In the lead-up to Christmas my brothers and I have mainly been preparing for the Christmas Eve concert at our church, in which we'll be performing (as an accordion trio) Good King Wenceslas and the first movement of Spring by Vivald. We'll also be joining two others Jireh and Jenny from our youth gruop to form a string group to perform You Raise Me Up, Humoresque by Dvorak, Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

We've had several rehearsals for the string group and it hasn't been too bad. We all performed You Raise Me Up at an earlier wedding, only instead of Jenny we had Miriam, another girl from our youth group playing with us so we've had to get Jenny up to speed (which is probably no trouble for her!).

After one of our rehearsals Tim, the guy at church who is in charge of the Christmas concert, wanted to hear our accordion trio. I stupidly took both pieces a little too fast and we screwed it up. I couldn't stop apologising afterwards as I felt we had put on a bad show! When we got home I was seriously considering changing the Four Seasons piece to something else, possibly The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. With only a week to learn and memorise it though, it was looking unlikely that we'd be able to switch pieces, so we had to persevere with it.

We had our dress rehearsal last night before the big concert tonight. Our accordion trio went a lot better than the first time we played it to them, but the string group was slightly rusty, so hopefully we'll be able to do some practice together tonight before the concert! Aonghas is working at the moment as well, or else we'd be practising our accordion trio right now!

Last Friday night was also our last youth group for the year. While it was a little sad, we still get to see each other at church on Sunday anyway and we'll be helping out with the children's summer programmer in January anyway!

Our youth group did Secret Santa and so each of us had to buy a present for someone else, while not knowing who would be buying a present for us. My brothers and I all checked to make sure we didn't get each other, so we'd be able to tell each other who we got and it'd be so much easier to look for presents. I got an easy person to buy for (well...when I say easy, as in I know that person well!) and Aonghas's person wasn't so bad, but we didn't know Hamish's person so well!

We spent almost a day wandering around the shopping mall looking for a good present! There was one shop that sold soda-can telephones, which I thought was really cool! Wouldn't it be cool answering your Coke can telephone? It was too expensive to buy for Secret Santa though.

We eventually found a present for our people. I won't say what it is just yet. I've heard though that a lot of people just bought chocolate for their person though, which is a little sad as it takes away the uniqueness of the present! Whether I'll be getting chocolate or not...I guess I'll be finding out tonight!

For our last youth group, we handed in our Secret Santa presents before playing a few Christmas games, such as one that involved charades and a bit of pictionary. Aonghas had to rip a newspaper to help people guess what his Christmas-related 'phrase' was, and I managed to guess it was 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'! OK I admit I cheated and heard someone else guessing it and I just called it out louder.

We also played another game where each of the teams had to come up with their own version of the 12 Day of Christmas. One team did theirs based on 'numerical facts' such as '12 months in a year' and 'nine months of pregnancy' which was quite cool. The next group did theirs based on people in our youth group such as 'nine Calums skipping', but they stole our idea of 'a 20 foot cannabis tree'! We changed ours to an eight metre cannabis tree so there! Ours was pharmaceutical-related, like only pharmacists do! (one of the other guys in our group is a pharmacist!). The last group did theirs based on our youth group camp earlier this year.

We then went for supper where youth group leader Gabrielle brought this big chocolate cake from work, and On, another youth group leader had two chocolate cakes that he had brought. Sadly no one ate his...they were probably all full after Gabrielle's cake!

On the following Sunday morning the children were to perform two songs to the adults at the church service, so Aonghas and I were asked if we could come early in the morning to help out. Unfortunately, Aonghas woke up and started vomiting! We suspect he got food poisoning from this Christmas party he attended the night before, so in the end it was just me who went. Gabrielle and I went through the songs with the children before going back to the service for a little while.

Just before the service was finished, we went back to help the children put on their ribbons and lead them to the hall. They sang a lot quieter than earlier in the morning! Then again I suppose they were probably nervous in front of an audience. As usual one random kid wandered off the stage and started walking around the place as the others sang.

After the service we had a combined Sunday School where we had some food and discussed some challenges we had faced as Christians this year, before it was lunch and I went to join the girls singing group (yes I help a little girls singing group!) for a little food. I got a little toy from one of the girls and a candy cane from another! Yay!!

To end the day, we had a music practice for the Christmas Eve concert. When we finished, Hamish and I didn't realise that we had to call our mum to come pick us up, and we ended up talking to Jenny and Jireh, the other two in the group, for quite a while about all sorts of stuff. Let's just say it was interesting, both what was said and what wasn't said ;)

Anyway I should get on to writing Christmas cards and sending out Christmas emails or else I'll be up all night. It's Christmas tomorrow afterall!

A Tribute to Alice

I think my parents are finally loosening the chains on me! My mum let me go out to my good friend Alice's 21st birthday at this karaoke place last night. Usually she doesn't let me go out to far-away places late at night (which will explain if I couldn't make it to your 21st!!), but she actually let me this time! Of course I had to catch a bus there and back.

After my music practice in the morning, I dropped Aonghas off at work before I did a bit of shopping for her birthday present. It was a bit of a rush because I originally didn't think I had enough money to buy anything and was going to add her to my IOU list, but then I thought just in case I don't see her in a while I better buy her something!

I got home after buying the present and fell asleep! I got a headache and a bit of a pain in my jaw which has been recurring for the past few days which is a little worrying. When I woke up I discovered the time and I had missed the bus I had originally planned to catch! Fortunately there was a later one that would get me into the city in time as well, so I caught that one.

I arrived late as usual, but people were just singing so that was OK. There were quite a few people there, and thank goodness I knew a couple people from pharmacy like Nick and Lun Shen, as well as Lisa, one of Alice's friends, I met her at the beginning of the year through Alice. She was tasked with taking all the photos that night.

People took turns at singing songs, and since Alice had heard of the time I sang Britney Spears at the Lantern Festival a couple years ago, she made me sing it again this time! I also did a little bit of Taylor Swift later on, which was fun too.

By 10pm it was time for the birthday cake to be brought in and for all of us to sing Happy Birthday to Alice! Everyone was given a little glass with some alcoholic drink in it (I can't remember what it was) and they all drank it before the cake was cut and we all had a slice. I was about to leave before 10.30 to catch my bus, but Alice asked me to stay as they were yet to have the speeches, so I stayed for a little while longer to hear the speeches.

Lisa, Lun Shen and this other guy (I can't remember his name...sorry!) each gave a speech, and from what we heard, Alice is a really great, supportive friend...which she really is! I now regret not giving a speech when everyone was asked if anyone else wanted to give a speech, as by the time I got home I thought about how Alice and I met.

Alice first added me as a friend on MSN through my other good friend Diane, way back in 2002. At that time they were good friends. While I had only met Diane once, I had never met Alice. I had only chatted to her maybe once or twice.

 

Usually every year at Christmas time I would email each person on my contact list individually and wish them a Merry Christmas and thank them for all sorts of stuff. Even though I hardly talked to Alice and didn't even know her that well, I still emailed her every year wishing her a Merry Christmas. To my surprise, I would always receive a nice reply from her wishing me a Merry Christmas too!

 

Being the keen stalker that she is, she regularly followed my blog and so knew a little bit more about me. When we all started uni, I somehow came across her on campus, and throughout that year I kept bumping into her! Eventually we hung out more regularly and got to know each other well!

This really goes to show just how nice a person and a great friend Alice is! She's also a great financial advisor ;)

After the speeches the karaoke continued, and I discovered one of Alice's schoolmates from Mt Roskill Grammar recognised me from the bus (apparently we always catch the same bus!). He just recently moved back to Henderson, after moving to the city. He had also attended the same intermediate school as me for the first year before moving to the city and attending Mt Roskill Grammar! That was quite cool. I'll have to look out for him the next time I catch the bus!

I eventually had to leave the fun to catch the bus home. It was really great being able to celebrate Alice's 21st and hopefully she will continue to achieve great things and keep on inspiring me!

Left in Auckland

It's been over a month now since holidays started and besides performing at a wedding and a few other places, I've been at home trying to find something productive to do! Because I don't get student allowance anymore since uni has finished, and I'm on holiday from teaching, I don't have any money coming in and have had to survive on not much money! I really should be looking for a job, but first I've got to fix up my CV, which I haven't gotten around to yet...I have applied for one job though, but applications close in January before interviews are held.

Our friends from our Sunday School class, Nadine, Winston and Leonie all left for Singapore earlier this month on a Sunday, but before they did we were determined to catch up with them at least one more time before they left! Leonie was graduating from AUT and had her graduation ceremony on the Thursday of that week, so we drove into the city and caught up with them briefly to take some photos with Leonie in her gown, before they went off to go shopping and us three Anderson brothers went for lunch. Our mum couldn't catch up with them though because she was preoccupied with something else.

We got to catch up with them again the next day though when my mum was available. Leonie, her mum and her aunty (who won't be returning from Singapore!) were going shopping in Lynn Mall so our mum thought we'd go shopping before catching up with them for lunch. Well, we woke up too late to do any shopping and instead went straight to lunch with them! It was the first time I had food from Long John Silver!

After lunch they were about to go off to Dress Mart to do some shopping. My mum decided we'd go too, so we ended up going all the way to South Auckland to check out Dress Mart. This was the first time I'd ever been to Dress Mart as well! I've never seen so many clothes stores in one building before! I originally thought they'd all be cheap since many of the stores were meant to be outlet stores, but with a lot of them being big brand names like Adidas and Nike, a lot of the clothes were quite expensive! We even saw this one dress that cost about $800! Then again, most of my clothes are hand-me-downs, from The Warehouse or the op shop!

After an hour or two of wandering around the stores with Leonie, we met up with the parents and eventually left just after closing time!

A Musical Christmas

Usually our violin teacher (who is the leader of the viola section of the Auckland Symphony) invites us to join the Auckland Symphony Orchestra for their annual Christmas concert at the Town Hall to fill in for a few of their regular players since they go away on holiday during that time. This year was no different! I ended up joining the viola section while Hamish and Aonghas joined the second violins.

We had to attend a couple of their rehearsals to run through the pieces, before having a final dress rehearsal at the Town Hall the night before and then..the concert! The programme was more-or-less the same as every other year. I think this year is the tenth year the concert has been running. I'm sure we've played in at least three or four of them and the programme has changed very little!

What was cool about playing in the orchestra this time was I got to catch up with my old intermediate school friend Mischa, who plays the cello in the orchestra. The last time we played together in the orchestra I think we knew each other but we hadn't talked to each other in years since intermediate school! We've been in touch in the past year thanks to Facebook though, so this time we were able to talk to each other at orchestra rehearsal! It was also cool how the conductor Gary Daverne came over and welcomed us back during the break.

The dress rehearsal was quite fun and short because Gary wanted to get home. We were sent to the dressing room to unpack out instruments and get ready, but hadn't realised that most of the orchestra were in the Green Room, which meant we got the dressing room to ourselves!

The night of the concert coincided with our final carolling practice at church, but they'd be OK without us! It was a wet night and we arrived later than usual since our mum came home late. When we got to the Town Hall, the underground carpark was almost full! Fortunately we found this carpark which was a little tight but anything was better than nothing. Once we parked though, we realised there were a whole lot of other free carparks on the other side!

We got to the dressing rooms to prepare which were a lot more crowded than the night before. The word around was that 80 of the choir were all on a bus stuck in traffic on the motorway, with ten minutes till the concert was due to start! Fortunately they made it, even if the concert had to be delayed slightly.

The concert was pretty fun. My mum made me wear a t-shirt underneath the orchestra uniform since I had to return the uniform after the concert, and she thought I'd get cold. I never knew it would be unbearably hot on stage though! After the first piece I didn't know how I'd last to the end of the concert!

I had accidentally taken this other viola player's seat in the second row at one of the rehearsals since he came late, and thought I was meant to sit there right up till the concert. It was only till the dress rehearsal that I found out! I asked the man (who was sitting right at the back in front of the percussion) if he wanted to switch seats, but he said the handsome people should be seen (haha yeah right!), and so I got to sit in the second row which is the closest I've been to the front!

After the concert we took a walk down Queen Street in the dark and the rain before picking our dad up from work and having Wendy's on the way home!

The very next day after teaching music classes for the last time this year, we went to church to prepare for carolling at Waitakere Hospital. This year mainly people from our youth group would be carolling this year. The other fellowship have been busy preparing a play/video skit for the church's Christmas Eve concert.

Because it was Cleo's birthday, I had this plan that in the middle of our carolling practice we'd suddenly break into Happy Birthday and surprise her! After talking around, we were about to practise the first carol when Aonghas and I started playing Happy Birthday and we all joined in. I think you could say she was surprised!

The carolling went well. We didn't go to as many wards as the previous year, such as the children's ward, but we did go to a few. Most of the lounges we performed in were empty though. There was one lounge where a Chinese man was watching Chinese TV, and upon our arrival he got up and left! When we told him he should stay and enjoy our carols, he said he was fine! I think he came back once we left!

After singing in one corridor there was a request for us to sing in one of the wards! As we were singing, there was one patient who started shouting and raising her hands. At first I thought she was joining in but I think she was trying to call for someone. After we had finished singing and this European lady came into the ward, this funny conversation ensued:

Crazy patient: "The white lady, I recognise you from somewhere. Where do I know you from?"

Lady: "I'm coming to see her" (another patient in the ward)

Crazy patient: "Where do I know you from?"

Crazy patient: "Do you know who I know? I know Jesus"

Lady: "Well I know a lot more than that!"

The following Saturday we were meant to go carolling outside the local Chinese fruit shop and Tofu Shop after a meeting about the upcoming Summer programme at church next month, but because the weather wasn't too great, it was called off. We still got pizza for lunch and some of us ended up staying at church just talking for a while. We were so kind that we ended up staying and helping out Claire (this girl from our youth group who gets paid for cleaning the church) clean the church!

Some people who thought they'd be able to get out of carolling were then lucky to hear that we were going to do carolling the very next day in the afternoon after church! Because it was the last Sunday school class of the year, some of the classes got to go to Burger Fuel while our class had a little interesting discussion.

There was also a new girl to our church. Usually new people are really shy, but not this girl! She actually talked quite a bit! Jireh and I were going to get our groove out, but that was till we discovered she was only 11! Backing off, backing off backing off...

Carolling outside the fruit shop and the Tofu Shop wasn't actually that bad or shameful! We had people come by and take photos and videos with their cellphone!

It was quite fun and hopefully we spread a little Christmas cheer!

Let There Be Music

It's been a busy holidays in terms of music performances, first with my students' performances at the music school's end of year concert and Shirley and Bobby's (a couple from our church) wedding, then the Auckland Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Concert, as well as caroling at Waitakere Hospital and outside the Chinese grocery shops. Coming up very soon we also have our church's Christmas Eve concert and our cousin's wedding in February!

This year the end-of-year concert at the music school where I teach was slightly earlier this year to avoid students missing out due to them leaving early on holiday. However this meant I had less time to teach and prepare them for the concert! I also had to choose which students would get prizes in three categories: the Musical Excellence trophy for my best student, the Most Improved Student and several Musical Encouragement medals. The rest would get a Merit certificate. Because I had a lot more students this year than last year, I wouldn't be able to give everyone a medal/trophy like I have been in every other year. Two of my students would only be getting a certificate, and I heard one of them wouldn't be coming to the concert, which meant everyone except one girl would be getting a medal! I felt really bad and it bothered me throughout the whole week!

What also bothered me was that a week out from the concert some students were telling me they wanted to play something else while others wanted to do solos and I wasn't 100% comfortable they were ready. I ended up going with what they wanted and just hoped they would do heaps of practice in the week leading up to the concert, and after the concert I think they must've!

On the morning of the concert, I quickly went to buy some lollies before going to school, as I usually treat my students. At the concert, us violins would be performing first, so I had to quickly go to one of the classrooms near the hall where we would warm up to get ready. My students were sitting outside practising, and the boy who I originally thought wouldn't come did in fact come. Actually, all my students showed up!

After all the violin students performed and the flutists were about to perform, I went to the classroom to prepare my students. I tried warning them that not everyone would be getting an award that day just to soften them up and prepare them for the possibility of getting nothing!

It was finally my students' time to perform! They actually performed very well! I also got all their names right unlike last year as well! There was a moment when my advanced students got out of time when I thought we'd have a stuff-up, but they recovered and kept going! I was very proud of them after!

While I was standing at the back of the hall watching the remaining performances, one of the fathers of a violin student came up to me and complimented me, saying I was always smiling! He was also thinking of signing his four-year-old child up for recorder lessons next year, which would make him/her the youngest student I've ever had! That'll be a challenge.

Finally it was prize-giving time! I had a little whisper to the mum of the girl who wasn't getting anything and told her she would be getting her award the following week, and the mum told me that she wouldn't be able to stay anyway because she had Chinese class. Phew!!! The other boy who wasn't going to get anything ended up getting his certificate on stage, but he was the only one who didn't get a medal! I found him afterwards and told him he would be getting something the following week.

It wasn't till two weeks later at the very last lesson of the year that I gave them something. I went down to this local shop that sells and engraves trophies and medals and bought two medals that looked very similar to the ones awarded to the other students. As well as playing to my students the video of them performing, I also presented the medals to the two students, and played a game with one of my classes where they had to guess the notes I played just by listening to them (trying to help them develop perfect pitch!!). I had four prizes: a carrot, an apple, and two of these fancy pens. Note to self: don't have prizes! One of the students almost started crying when his sister won a pen. Luckily I had four pens so I just gave them each a pen and declared everyone a winner. And so I've just contributed to what is wrong with this country :S

Shirley and Bobby, a couple from my church also held their wedding later on the same day as the end-of-year concert at my music school. My brothers and I along with Jireh and Miriam, two other people in our youth group, were asked by Shirley to perform You Raise me Up as a string quartet (with piano) at her wedding as it was one of her favourite songs. We have a connection with Shirley as she has been our Sunday School teacher at one point or another in the past few years.

The wedding was very nice. It was at this old, traditional church in Remuera and the service was almost completely in Cantonese! We performed Jesu, Joy of our Desiring as the bridesmaids walked up the aisle. Everyone then sang a few songs and hymns, including one really nice Cantonese song called 'Unreserved Love'. Shirley and Bobby's fellowship then sang a couple of songs. I hope my youth group will perform at my wedding! haha After that came the typical wedding stuff like the vows, the rings and the big kiss. Then we were on!

We had to repeat a few verses twice so that You Raise Me Up would be long enough to cover the signing process.

Once the ceremony was over, the photos were taken and it was time to move into the big room for the food! There were a few speeches made by the bride and groom before the cutting of the cake. I have to say the food was great! It just kept coming! I got to know Miriam a bit better which was cool because she's a cool person. I discovered a few things about her that I never knew, like she has an older sister who used to go to our church! She still had an exam the day after that weekend, and she was leaving to go back to Taiwan in a couple weeks' time.

As people started to leave, we met up with our church friends Winston, Nadine and their mum and aunty and decided we'd go to One Tree Hill to take a few photos since their aunty was leaving soon...and since we were dressed up nicely at the time!

We went all the way to the top of One Tree Hill to take a few photos, as well as take photos of sheep and lambs on the way up the hill!

The Start of the Long Holdiays

I've been on holidays now for several weeks and I haven't really done
much! I have been out a few times though.

Fortunately I didn't have to resit my pharmacy dispensing assessment
so I got to start my holiday as soon as my last exam finished! It was
perfect timing that the Waitakere fireworks display was on the same
night as my last exam. Since our church is directly opposite the
Trusts Stadium where the fireworks display was being held, we were
able to watch the fireworks from the church carpark..for free! Of
course we had to lock the gates to ensure random people didn't come
in, although I think I accidentally let in one family I thought
belonged to our church when they didn't!

I've been lucky to catch up with a few friends during the holidays so
far. The very week after exams I caught up with my pharmacy friend
Scholastica over lunch at La Porchetta, a pizza restaurant in the
city. Scholastica shouted me lunch for lending all my notes to her
(even though she didn't have to!). She ordered a large pizza, but they
gave us a medium pizza and after she told them, they gave us an extra
small pizza! Go Scholastica!

Aonghas and Hamish had their last exam on the following Monday after
my last exam on Saturday, so we were all able to attend youth group
for the first time since we went to mini-golf with them. It was
perfect timing too, as the dad of one of the guys in our youth group
got some fireworks from a friend, so we were going to light some on
that night! We ended up lighting fireworks in the carpark. I don't
think we exactly followed the safety instructions, as quite a few were
holding fireworks in their hands as they fired into the air! I have to
say it looked a little like a scene from a Harry Potter movie!

November is the month of birthdays, and to start it off on the 17th
was Hamish's birthday. To celebrate, Aonghas and I took him to
Westcity where I paid for Burger King for the guys. We also caught up
with this guy from Rutherford who's the younger brother of this girl
Catherine who used to be in my year at Rutherford. I haven't seen her
since, but apparently she's gone back to Korea!

I got to catch up with my Rutherford friends from the same year when
Shen asked me if I wanted to join them for lunch, so Shen, Jacqueline,
Shrikkanth, Larry, Sarena and I went to the Noodle House in New Lynn
one afternoon for lunch. The lady kept refilling our cups with tea
which was nice.

A week later I got to hang out with my Rutherford friends from the
year below. Gwen, Caroline, Zahir, Chen, Alex, Yeeping and I went all
the way to Sylvia Park to have lunch at Nando's before we went to
laser strike! Nando's was nice, although I'm sure one of the ladies
who worked there was regularly checking up on us, as she would often
walk by and look at us!

We were booked in for laser strike at 1pm so we made our way there
after lunch. While I had been to the one in North Shore with my youth
group last year, I had never been to this place before. What you have
to do is you wear this vest that has sensors, and with a gun you have
to fire at the sensors on the vests of people in the opposing team.
Because Zahir had these coupons, we got to play four games at a
cheaper price than normal.

The first two games were boys versus girls. I wasn't too great in the
first game. Even though the games were only 15 minutes, we were
sweating like pigs at the end of them! We took a break by playing some
of the arcade games outside. Chen had a go at this ball kicking game
which didn't seem to work well. After that, it was back into laser
strike! Another game of boys versus girls saw the boys win again,
before we decided to mix teams. By the last game I got a score of 3900
which was so close to 4000 and a whole lot better than my other scores
which were all under 2000!

After laser strike, we decided to go all the way back to Henderson so
we could avoid the traffic jams. We did a bit of quick shopping for
something nice and cold at Pak N' Save, such as ice-blocks! Then it
was off to bowling!

I had almost my worst game, when I knocked down only 3-4 pins in about
four bowls! Because we had the bowling lane for an hour, there was
enough time for another game, which was a whole lot better for me!
Once I started getting my rhythm and found a good bowling ball, I
started knocking a lot more pins down!

After bowling I had to be dropped home in time for a wedding rehearsal
in which us brothers would be playing together with Jireh and Miriam,
two people in our youth group as string group. We would be playing
Jesu, Joy of our Desiring while the people walked down the aisle, and
You Raise Me Up while the bride and groom signed the book.

Pharmacy Pick-up Lines

Some pharmacy pick-up lines I came across (excuse the spelling errors, it's been copy+pasted!):

1. Your the Na to my Cl.

2. I'm like a cation and your a anion so lets get together.

3. Your a group one metal so you know were soluble.

4. Wanna go share some valance electron so we can obey the octect rule.

5. I'm just a single electron in the s orbital, will you be the other electron to fill my subshell?

6. Hey, I'm like acetaminophen I'll make sure all your pains go away when we're together.

7. I was going to use atropine drops for my eye exam tomorrow but a picture of yourself has enough beauty to dilate my pupils and removed my eye pain.

8. If I could be any enzyme I would be depantsanase so I could catalyze the reaction of you removing your clothes.

9. Baby I'm like HCL and your pepsinogen, when we're together i'm make sure to cleave you to your active form so we can digest some protiens.

10. I'm like an antigen and your IgG so why don't you act like an opsonin to facilitate some serious phagocytosis.

11. Your like a biological membrane and I'm a drug with a high partition coefficient, so you know my high lipophilicity will increase our duration of action.

12. Baby I'm like a large amount of potassium and you're a cell so you know when I'm around your more likely to reach your action potential.

13. Baby I'm like light mineral oil (an emollient), I'll always give a soothing feel and constantly leave you feeling smooth when I'm in your suspension.

14. Baby we're like enantiomers when we're together we're exact mirror images, just different optical rotations but we can correct that problem tonight.

15. Baby I forsee you not as a o/w emulsion but a I/you emulsion.

16. Baby I'm like a flocculating agent, I'll make sure to bind to you so we can settle even faster to my place.

17. We're like the ingredients to an ointment so let's pretend my bed is an ointment tile and partake in some triturating.

18. Are you a cytokine? Because I couldn't help but notice you were recruiting my inflammatory cells towards you.

19. Baby why don't we skip this Go phase and go straight to the M phase, I mean we're both like labile cells right (aka ready for cell proliferation).

20. Baby I'm like Glucuronic conjugation, here to give you some more sugar (glucose) and transfer my activated conj. group to you using a transferase enzyme.

21. Baby I'm like a subcutaneous injection so let's skip the small talk and let me get under your skin so I can absorb even faster.

22. Let's pretend you and I are benzene rings and form a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon this way we can skip numbing the ring junction and get closer to those double bonds.

23. Baby I can sense your occipital lobe going crazy when your looking at me all the way form the other side of the room so lets go back to my place and work out our parietal lobe.

24. Baby why don't we follow pseudoplastic flow and relive this viscosity between us by heading back to my place and increasing our shering rate all night long.

25. Hey baby you look like you have a wild type allel in you, wanna go find out if we have dominant inheritance by making a punnett square, without a chart the old fashion way?

26.When you're with me there's no need for your S.A. node because I'll make sure you heart rate is always up, all the way to the purkinje fibers

27. hey baby I'm like the sympathetic nervous system, I'll make sure your heart rate is always up when we're together

28. You must be a type 3 anti arrhythmic like Amiodarone cause you always cause my heart to beat irregularly when your around.

29. Baby can you feel the electricity in the air? Cause I think your voltage gated channels are about to open and cause us to reach our action potential.

30. Hey baby, I'm like Mannitol I'll always leave you with a pleasant taste and cooling sensation when I'm taken orally.

31.Baby i'm like a prodrug if you swallow me i'll make sure we're metabolized into an active form

32. Baby i'm like sugar, I give you a cool and sweet feeling when taken orally

33. Baby we're like two eutectic drugs, you know when we're mixed together by trituration we'll both turn into a uniform liquid

34. Baby you're like NAM and I'm NAG so let's pretend we're a bacterial cell wall and from some peptidoglycan bond this way we can be both rigid and flexible when we get back to my place

36. Baby I'm like a SSRI antipsychotic, I'll make sure you're sane when you're with me, however a common side affect is an increase of stereotypic sexual behavior when you're in my presence.

37. I want to be your blastocyst so I can get into your uterus and grow inside of you - (Jinesh)

38. Baby I'm like Efavirenz, if you take me at night I can greatly decrease your chance of nightmares, but you still may have strong vivid dreams about me, a very common side effect

39. You must be a CYP450 inhibitor cause every time I look at you I can tell that there's going to be increased levels of me in you when I get metabolized by you tonight.

40. You looked stressed but don't worry just take some Me++ tonight, an enhanced Mg++ supplement that will slow down all your processes tonight and surly relax you.

41. Looks like your suffering form acidosis, why don't you come back to my place so I can cause some hyperventilation and we can lower those acidic levels.

42. You must be on Effexor, cause I can tell your addictive impulsive behavior of taking me home tonight is increasing.

43. Are you rich in sodium? Cause it seems like osmotic pressure brought me over to you, but no worries we'll help decrease those sodium level through perspiration tonight.

44. I must have a low creatinine clearance cause I can't seem to get you out of my system.

45. You must be Sodium cause I can already see myself having hypernatremia later on tonight.

46. I think i need a ACE inhibitor cause I feel my heart getting congested and failing when you're around

47. You know you might wanna take some beta-blockers tonight to help lower your heart rate cause I have a feeling your oxygen demand is gonna be way over your oxygen supply and your heart rate is gonna be off the meters.

48. Excuse me can I bother you for an aspirin tablet to chew? Cause just looking at you from across the room is giving me some heart related pains in my chest

(Courtesy of The Pharmacy/Science Pick Up Line Association Facebook group)