End of Year Survey

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
It was the first time I had
- gotten a photo taken in one of those Asian photo sticker booths
- gone inside a bar
- attended uni
- celebrated my birthday (in years!)
- tried one of those DDR dancing games
- tried pearl milk tea
- met my cousins from Christchurch

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I kept a few but not too many! I'll make some more for next year and will try do better!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Don't think so (although please forgive me if I've forgotten you!) although I know a couple who are pregnant, such as my accordion teacher's wife

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Fortunately no..I don't think

5. What countries did you visit?
None besides New Zealand

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Definitely direction!

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Probably the day that Korean guy went on a shooting rampage at that American university, the only thing is I can't remember the date of the day that happened, so I guess it won't remain etched upon my memory!

Maybe then ...(thinking off the top of my head...) 7th January - the twins left for Korea forever. The first date of this year I could recall from my limited memory!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not a lot to choose from...

9. What was your biggest failure?
My uni results, I guess I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but will be looking to make amends next year!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I got food poisoning I think on one Sunday and spent the day vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Probably my laptop or the video camera. Not so much my phone though as it seems to be buggy! Next time it'll be a Nokia!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Chen for starting to open up to me. About time, seeing as we've known each other for about ten years now! haha

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Hmmm....I won't name the person...I probably don't have to! Although I wouldn't say it's too bad

14. Where did most of your money go?
My laptop and the video camera!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Diane getting into vet school, Alice getting into law school is all I can think of so far!

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
How to Save a Life by The Fray, or Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol I suppose, that's if you go by songs played in 2007 (they don't really have much relevance to 2007 though!). I can't really think of one!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder?
I'll say neutral. Some things made me happier while others made me sadder, and it all balances out!

18. Thinner or fatter?
I'm probably about the same, but I think I've lost weight since last year. Must be because we have less food in the house these days!

19. Richer or poorer?
Definitely poorer!!! Student allowance has been my lifeline!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Studying, hanging out with friends as well as making more friends

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Studying inefficiently, wasting time at uni, spending money on food at the Munchie Mart and that place I buy fries from, jumping on the internet as soon as I got home every day, reading the newspaper at the library and falling asleep while studying in the library!

20. How will you be spending christmas?
It already passed but I ended up performing at the church's Christmas service and then going over to the neighbours for dinner

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Probably not quite fall in love! I did like someone this year though

22. How many one-night stands?
None haha

23. What was your favourite TV programme?
24, Lost, Scrubs, Eating Media Lunch, Power of One,

24. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
Nah not really, but I probably understand someone less now than this time last year though, sadly

25. What was the best book you read?
I don't think I've read any books beside textbooks this year, so I'll have to say the best one out of those was Psychology - New Zealand Edition. Very very sad!

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Charconne from The Fairy Queen by Purcell...that sorta discovery?

27. What did you want and get?
A cellphone! But I had to buy that myself though!

28. What did you want and not get?
Nothing material, but I guess I could say a cellphone that worked properly!

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
I only saw three - Fantastic 4, Shrek 3 and The Golden Compass and I have to say Shrek 3 probably wasn't my favourite!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 18 this year and did nothing on my birthday, but Melissa and Kat dropped off a small birthday present for me (top-up yay!!) which was cool and my mum filled the house with smoke after her soup evaporated while left unattended. A couple days later though Gwen and Chen had organised a surprise birthday outing for me together with Alex, Zahir, Angie and Aonghas which was really cool and something I won't forget! We hung out at Gwen's house before going to the city to watch Night at the Museum.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having gotten better grades and possibly one other thing I won't mention...

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Long-sleeved and baggy shorts - my 2005 wardrobe lives on!

33. What kept you sane?
Knowing I could text and talk to my friends whenever I was in need of company or support! Thanks guys!

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Don't think I had one but I can say the celebrity furtherest from being fancied by me would have to be Paris Hilton. - we definitely reached peak Paris this year!

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Possibly either the anti-smacking bill or the terrorist raids (if that can be considered as a political issue)

36. Who did you miss?
Probably Hyun and Joon and the others left back at Rutherford this year

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Probably Alice!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007?
One mistake can screw you over big time so you better be at the top of your game at all times!

39. Sum up your year in a sentence:
A bit of a waste of a year, going in no direction with very little progress made!!!

No Two Days the Same?

Sun 31st Dec & Mon 31st Dec...

Birthday Bowling

Happy Birthday Alex! (for yesterday)

We had church in the morning which was a special one where two other Chinese churches from around Auckland gathered at ours for an 'extended' baptism service. Now usually this would be just another one of those baptism services, but what made this one different was the fact that we knew one of the people who was getting baptised - Angie's mum! She gave her testimonial which was about eight minutes long, and despite not being able to understand it since it was all in Mandarin, it seemed pretty emotional for her.

Later that night I was invited bowling with Alex and some friends for his birthday. Along with his cadet friends, Nick, Shrikkanth, Larry, David and Sarena came along as well.

Nick and I played a game of air hockey which turned pretty dangerous, as the puck went flying over Nick's head and landed several metres away, behind the Christmas tree over by the wall (and it was Nick who hit that one!), or past Nick's head causing him to duck, or right beside the counter!

When most people had arrived it was time for bowling! We played for the first hour. My first game was terrible. After a promising start knocking nine pins down, several misses followed after that. It was only once I tried using the ramp that I got back into knocking over the pins!

The following game I did a bit better. It was the next game that I did a whole lot better, getting a few strikes and managing to get a score of 120 out of not too sure but probably something outrageous. I'm adamant it was the bowling ball! I started off using the heavier 12 ball before going down to 10.

After reaching such a high my final game was completely hopeless. I was back to my old ways of getting quite a few gutter balls. The second hour was soon close to an end that I had no time to improve again. Larry was one of the better bowlers of the night, doing this fancy sorta routine with his feet, and Alex bowled a ball just after Sarena did. This got a ball stuck at the other end, requiring one of the workers to go down there and retrieve it!

After bowling we all went out to the car park. Sarena and Larry left and the guys waited with me till Aonghas came to pick me up, but before that one of the security guards told us to leave! I can report that I made it home safely!

Year in Review

Once again here's a look back at 2007:

January

'Well I spent New Years 2007 in the car down McLeod Rd watching the Sky Tower fireworks and thank goodness for clear skies!'

- Take down the front fence (still hasn't been replaced yet!)
- Farewell Hyun and Joon at the airport
- Look after little kids at children's holiday programme
- Our last big goldfish Rydia dies
- Pass NCEA but results not too great!
- Hooked on 24
- Gwen and a few others arrange a surprise day out for my birthday!
- Catch up with the guys again in the city within the same week!

February

'After talking to many of the 2007 prefects of Rutherford College, it seems as though hardly anyone is looking forward to the camp in two weeks time, which is something I can't understand!'

- Chinese New Year festival at the Showgrounds
- Lindsey's Farewell with drinks (Coke for me thanks!)
- Jacqueline, Patrick and I join the Year 13 prefects at their AUT camp
- Watch the massive ship QMII leave Auckland Harbour on the eve of Chinese New Year
- Orientation fun: going round to all the stalls and grabbing free stuff with Shen, Nick and Shrikkanth

March

'I've been so exhausted from the first week of uni that I haven't had time to post! It's been an up-and-down week as well, so here it goes!'

- First day at uni. Got lost on the way to first chemistry lecture but made a new friend in Kevin
- Catch up with Alice after uni, try pearl milk tea for the first time, then catch up with Gwen, Alex, Zahir and Tasha at the Lantern Festival where I do karaoke!
- Go to watch AK07 fireworks at the Auckland Domain and get swamped by people while in car trying to leave afterwards
- Get told off by security guard for sleeping in library!
- Stand in for Hyun at Rutherford College's Scholars Assembly
- Catch up with Diane, have lunch at Nando's and go to her old school with her

April

'I got my chemistry test mark back already (wow I know after only three days!) and it turns out it wasn't too bad! As for Biosci tonight that's another matter. Everyone came out of it moaning and groaning on about how bad it was (me included). It's funny though as tonight I found the test a place a good place/time to meet some new people!'

- Uni mid-semester tests with POPLHLTH111 being a complete shambles
- Auckland Christian Mandarin Church's 30th anniversary
- Good fun at Julie and Lisa's birthday party, keeping an eye on Gwen to ensure she doesn't drink herself crazy!!
- Go to the zoo for Gwen's birthday (same day as that Virginia Tech massacre)
- Spill chemicals all over my phone in the chemistry lab

May

'The weekend started off with a dinner at the cousins', this time because our other relatives from down in Christchurch came up to visit. We ended up getting to meet our long-lost second cousins! Well not exactly long-lost but just unknown! I would say what their names are but...I kinda forgot already...'

- Meet our long-lost cousins from Christchurch
- Mistaken for Aonghas at the parent-teacher interviews at Rutherford College
- Told my interpretation of a piece I performed at the North Shore Performing Arts Competition is 'strange' by the judges
- Race against time to get my POPLHLTH essay done, and end up speeding and dodging traffic to get from Henderson to Tamaki in under an hour
- Break equipment in chemistry lab
- First photo sticker thing with Jacqueline, Shen and Ben!

June

'Could this weekend BE any worse?...well besides getting killed...but what a Queen's Birthday weekend! Once again it was the National Accordion Championships. This must've been the worst prepared us Anderson brothers have been for the competitions of any year, as we hadn't even memorised our trio till the night before, and due to uni and everything I hadn't done enough practice!'

- Lock ourselves out of our own house while preparing to leave for the accordion competitions in the morning
- Spill hot coffee all over my old accordion teacher
- Get dumped by my Bebo other-half
- Uni EXAMS!
- Catch the wrong bus, get lost on my way to Aonghas' debate
- Get taunted, abused and vilified by little kids we're looking after
- Catch up with Diane in the city to watch a movie and waste her in pool

July

'Friday marked an end of an era - Mr Jameson, principal of Rangeview Intermediate School retired!'

- Mr Jameson, principal of Rangeview Intermediate School retires. I'm called the flagpole guy by the school property guy
- Miss out on going to Heather's farewell get-together
- Evil kids get into my Bebo account and make me out to be some gay pedophile
- Go to the movies with Shirley
- Diane gets into vet school
- Semester 2 starts, studying the reproductive system hehehe
- UMAT!!!!

August

'Last Thursday I had my first MEDSCI lab at the Grafton campus, and guess what? My access card was working, so you could picture me standing there swiping my card just for the fun of it!'

- Attend my very first club event - Dessert Club movie night!
- Get lost on the bus while on my way to debating again
- Told the degree I'm studying is useless by a guy at the Coke Careers Expo
- First MEDSCI study group meeting,
- Meet the whole Mt Roskill crew
- Attend a 70's themed birthday party, dress up as a cross-dressing trucker
- Attend first Kiwi Asian Club event - foodoke
- Auckland City at a standstill for Boobs on Bikes
- Back at Rutherford College for Rutherford Day, mistaken for a student/photographer
- Perform at Rutherford's Studio Show
- Make a bet with a 13-year-old girl that I can make her scream

September

'Last night was the last studio show performance for the lot and also for the year. I'm sure it would've been quite emotional for some of the year 13's as it would be their last ever at Rutherford.'

- Haunted by plane crash dreams
- Have fun at the Kiwi Asian Club ball
- Our Team ACE (Alice, Lucy and me) come 5th out of 16 in the Dessert Club Amazing Race
- Get-together to celebrate Heather's return at Denny's
- A strange encounter with some homeless guy at the Sky City bus stop who claims to see spaceships in the sky
- Enter the Dessert Club Ice-Cream Eating Competition and freeze myself
- Aonghas leaves for Christchurch
- Get into trouble with some girls and one of their mums...

Actually I never got round to telling this story...so here's how it all went...

The evil girl had a friend. She gave this friend my cellphone number and she ended up texting me and commenting on my Bebo page regularly. Her phone ran out of credit so she used her mum's Telecom phone to text me and got me to reply to her Vodafone phone. One day though she texted me with her mum's phone and I accidentally replied to her mum's phone. Her mum got her phone back before I replied, and when she saw my text, she rang me. I answered the phone, thinking it was the girl, but it turned out to be the mum! Apparently, later that night her mum was crying and so distressed as she thought her daughter had been talking to much older, dodgy guys! The mum was so angry at her daughter that she grounded her for the next several months. What made things worse was that the holidays just started and so she wouldn't be able to go out with her friends. Her friends were really annoyed with me because they blamed me for getting her in trouble. The girl didn't hate me though and didn't blame me for anything but because her friends did and were angry she was still communicating with me through Bebo, she had to stop to keep her friends happy and to avoid getting into more trouble with her mum. I haven't talked to her since!

October

'Yesterday was the first time I had thrown up since primary school and I can tell you it wasn't fun! After that I spent the rest of the day making trips to the toilet and struggling to sleep to forget the pain.'

- I get sick for the first time in years. Fortunately it's a weekend
- Cross paths with Fall Out Boy-obsessed tweens lining up outside Real Groovy
- Go to Gengy's and Spookers for Jacqueline's birthday
- Fall into deep, deep depression after the All Blacks loss
- Get a photo with THE MAN, THE Mr Colin Quilter
- Perform with Aonghas at Rutherford's Luv Musik concert
- Big uni EXAMS

November

'A few days ago a video of Aonghas and I performing an accordion duet at the Rutherford College Luv Musik Concert a couple weeks ago posted by one of Aonghas's friends managed to reach number 1 in the Top Rating You Tube videos for that week!'

- Exams finish, Kevin and I loiter around Queen St
- Great fireworks at the Trusts Stadium
- Have a job interview with the boss of Jesters Pies
- Get rejected by Farmers, rejected by current owner of Jesters, but offered a job from future owner of Jesters
- Aonghas elected Deputy Head Boy of Rutherford College
- Surgery gets postponed
- Attend Rutherford's Senior Prize-Giving
- Hamish celebrates his 21st birthday
- Work begins on the Leavers DVD
- Future owner of Jesters decides not to buy Jesters, I lose my promised job

December

The last few days have been busy with more and more video editing for the leavers DVD. We've had about 27 to do (a few are only half a minute and so require no editing!) so I've been flat out.

- Uni applications close, make a last minute decision
- We advertise the DVD at the year 13 farewell dinner
- I go for my pharmacy interview which gets shifted to midday after I get stuck in traffic.
- Mum gets sick, boys cook dinner - mince on nacho's
- Music school prize-giving mix-up
- Catch up with a few other ex-Rutherford students in the city for a reunion
- Church Christmas music rehearsals aplenty
- Alice gets into law!
- Aonghas's phone goes missing
- Christmas concert and service + have dinner at the neighbours
- Watch The Golden Compass with Chen and Angie
- Went bowling for Alex's birthday

Overall, an average year! Hopefully 2008 will be better!

Repeating the Process

I just finished watching Kindergarten Cop and now I want to be a kindergarten teacher! Nah maybe not in this PC world where male teachers get accused of all sorts of things.

For the past few days my mum has been pushing us to tidy up the house, which feels a bit like deja vu. I tidied the lounge a couple days before Christmas, and then when Aonghas tried tidying up the bedroom and shifted all these clothes to the lounge, it got messed up again! So once again I have to try tidy up the lounge again. It feels like going around in circles!

I slept in till about 11am in the morning and only just woke up minutes before my mum got back from the shops. She got a phone call and as soon as she was off the phone she told me to get immediately get dressed as we were going to Esther and Julia's house for lunch! Aonghas was too tired and lazy to be bothered so Hamish and I left him and we went with our mum there.

We had a bowl of noodles with soup, which was extremely spicy. I don't know how those people cope with spicy food! I was gasping for air and water as I ate the food, but it still tasted good though, especially with pineapple added to it! One good tip - if you're likely to splash your soup, don't wear a white t-shirt! I should've thought about that before I wore a white t-shirt to their house and got some stains on it!

Male Bonding

Yesterday morning Chen, Angie and us Anderson brothers were supposed to meet at the cinema foyer at 9.45am. While I woke up and had a shower in time, my brothers slept in and only woke up at 9.30! I had to speed them up and get them out the door. The others were already there although Chen was at Whitcoulls while Angie was at the cinemas.

We finally all met together and just talked for a while before buying our tickets. The night before we were trying to decide which movie out of Enchanted and The Golden Compass to watch. I had heard (thanks One News) that The Golden Compass was

"An embarrassing colossal piece of cr@p"

and so was a little unsure about seeing that movie, plus it had Nicole Kidman in it! On the other hand, Enchanted looked like a movie for girls! That's sorta the reason we had to invite Angie as our excuse to watch either of these movies! Nah jk

Anyway Angie and Hamish preferred The Golden Compass while the rest of us didn't really mind, so we decided we'd go watch that!

The movie itself wasn't all too bad. It did resemble a mix of Lord of the Rings and Narnia a little with talking animals (who were actually 'demons') and war scenes. The movie was supposedly anti-religious but I never caught on until I was walking home later in the day and Hamish explained it to me!

The movie was just on two hours and Angie had work at around midday so she had to leave only a few minutes before the movie finished! Fortunately there wasn't much left at the end that she had missed. I only just managed to give her the Christmas present I had gotten her - this snow globe. I had remembered having a conversation with her at the beginning of the year about things we most wanted and she mentioned one of them being a snow globe, so I tried looking for one to get her for Christmas, but never knew how rare they are around West Auckland! Fortunately someone pointed out a shop that sold them. She texted me later while we were having lunch thanking me for the present and that she felt bad, so that must mean she opened it. Fingers crossed she liked it though!

Once the movie was over, us guys went down to Wendy's to test Angie's ice-cream scooping skills by buying kiddy cones. I never knew we could have a little taste of a flavour before we chose it! As for Angie's scooping skills? Pretty good!

We then had a wander around West City helping Chen and Aonghas find something to buy some girl in their class who's leaving New Zealand at the end of the week.

While having lunch in the food court a little later on, we were witness to an Ambulance pulling up right by the mall entrance and ambulance staff coming to the aid of some lady who was lying on the floor by McDonald's. She was taken away on a stretcher. She was holding her head so I'm guessing it must've been a fall!

We looked around a little while longer before it was about 4pm and Chen had to go. We presented him with a gift, this keyring with a mouse soft toy named 'Romanceo'. There is a bit of meaning behind the present but I won't say anything!

Getting Up With It

Boxing Day - the busiest shopping day of the year, and I missed it because I slept in! Oh well there wasn't really much I wanted to buy anyway, nor would I be able to afford to buy it either!

We caught up with our old neighbour Phillip and his girlfriend Lee in the afternoon at West City after a year. He's come up from Palmerston North for a few Christmas to visit family...and us of course! haha We had a little walk to the new city council buildings and had a look at the Japanese garden. The buildings had been finished since Phillip last came up to Auckland so he had never seen them before.

We then went back to West City to have dinner, and since it was Phillip's shout, we just went along with what he had been having for the last few days - kebabs. That was the first kebab I had tried! I've always thought a kebab is when you stick beef, vegetables and fruit on a stick, but never knew it was beef and vegetables wrapped up in some sort of bread which tasted pretty good! I never knew how much they could fit into it! That together with a bottle of Coke went down well. That was followed by an hour of sharing stories about being pulled over by police (maybe that was just Phillip and me..) and reckless driving...Hamish!

Tonight was also probably the first time I've asked someone if they wanted to hang out with me. OK, with my brothers and Chen too! I have to admit it was a little nerve-wracking as I wasn't sure what the reply would be like, and for a while I wasn't too sure what the final outcome would be but fortunately it turned out OK! Hopefully she didn't get the wrong impression! I know I sound frigid but I'm getting there. I've got a lot to learn! Amongst all the children's Christmas movies I watched during this week (funnily enough quite a few of them - Santa Clause 2 and Single Santa Seeks Mrs Claus - saw Santa trying to find a wife or else...) there was a quote in the movie Single Santa Seeks Mrs Claus that went something along the lines of:

"If you don't go into the kitchen you won't get burnt, but soon you will go hungry"

which I found to be quite true! Well there you go Julie, I've asked someone to hang out with me (oh and with a few other people), now I've just got to try do that more often!

Christmas Highs and (Few) Lows

Christmas 07 has been a very mixed bag. My brothers and I just got money for Christmas and a cow...or hippo?? soft toy from our neighbour Szelin, which was cool. What also made Christmas cool were all those people who sent me emails and texts wishing me a Merry Christmas! Thanks guys I must say I haven't received that many texts in one morning for such a long time!

Some of the highs:
- Found out that I'm still friends with someone I originally thought had cut all ties with me for some unknown reason!
- After being shocked by something a really good friend had told me, we had a little 'heart to heart' and I discovered how much I meant to her
- The same friend found someone (although this also caused her a lot of grief at the same time which made her Christmas miserable!)
- Being able to catch up with Esther and Julia at the get-together at the neighbours'
- This was the first year I had sent Alice a Christmas email actually knowing who she is after having met her throughout the year! For the past couple of years I have sent her random Merry Christmas emails despite knowing nothing about her and having never talked to her before. This year I passed on my random Christmas cheer to some other person I’ve never actually talked to who kindly replied! I’ll have to figure out who she is some day!

And the lows:
- The rain!
- My friend was having a miserable Christmas

I ended up staying up till 4am finishing off typing Christmas emails to people before trying to get some sleep. That didn't last long though, as we all had to wake up early to prepare to go to church earlier than usual as we were to perform at the Christmas service.

We got there slightly late and had our last ever music group practice as a group which was kinda sad! The service opened with our group performing. This time round we didn't screw up despite playing slightly slower than we had practiced! As soon as we finished, Aonghas, Hamish and I had to go back in.

The sermon was given, with Aonghas constantly falling asleep! I kept having to kick his foot to wake him up, as it wasn't such a great look if we were seen falling asleep during others' 'performances'. They might end up falling asleep when we perform!

Eventually the sermon finished, and it was time for the group who sang carols at Waitakere Hospital to perform to the congregation. Us three brothers stood at the side to play music. We performed three pieces, including the infamous rendition of O Happy Day!

Not so soon after we had to go back up to perform Hark! The Herald Angels Sing as an accordion trio. Because the programme for the service was all in Chinese, we were really confused as to when we were to perform and had to rely on others to cue us in!

Performing our accordion trio was a bit weird. It was at the end of the service so we thought everyone would be mixing and mingling and leaving while were playing, but instead everyone remained in their seats and stayed silent! I'm not too sure if it was the acoustics but I couldn't hear Aonghas playing and he was sitting a couple metres away from me! As soon as we finished though, there was applause and we sat down, expecting everyone to start moving, but they all remained silent! We just got up and left the stage!

There was a shared lunch afterwards in the main hall/gym. We could keep going back up for more once were finished until the food ran out, but I ended up getting full after not too long. I got to the point where I just couldn't eat anymore, which wasn't good because we were going to the neighbours later that afternoon for dinner where we would be expected to eat and eat and eat! For some reason though little kids kept coming up to me! I had this boy stand in front of me while I was eating, and so I wished him Merry Christmas and asked him what he got for Christmas. He told me he got Transformers before running off. Then when I was in the foyer later on this little girl came over and said

"Hi"

to which I wished her Merry Christmas and she then ran off. This boy then came up to me and wished me Merry Christmas! It must be the Christmas spirit surely!

We got home and probably spent a good couple of hours doing nothing but listening to the radio, talking to Chen on the phone or texting, until 5pm when we went over to the neighbours for dinner. Szelin had her boyfriend over and so she didn't really talk much so we hung out with Esther and Julia, these two sisters we know.

After dinner Esther, Julia, Aonghas, Hamish and I all sat down and just talked for a few hours about all sorts of stuff. We were trying to crack the girls and get them to open up but they're pretty tough! They were also quizzing us on how we would approach girls we like and stuff like that. Zippo and her boyfriend soon came along.

The evil girls were there too, and despite trying to be nice by saying 'hi' to them and wishing them a Merry Christmas, I just got disgusted faces in return!

Soon it got late and when people started leaving, we took Esther and Julia over to our messy house to show them the Leavers DVD as Esther and her mum (who teaches at Rutherford) features in it. We talked for a while longer, showed them the sort of stuff I've done at uni this year as Esther will probably do something like that next year, got them to play the piano for us, and by then it was 11pm! Time to take them home!


So Christmas 2007 wasn't at all bad. The rain outside meant we were slightly more limited as to what we could do compared to past Christmases, but all-in-all it wasn't as bad as I thought it was after having typed this post!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I've almost sent an email to most people on my contact list, but hopefully I haven't left anyone out! Hopefully you're all having a relaxing break, free from shopping and working and using the time to spend with family and those loved ones ;)

Thanks to all you guys I've met this year and the guys I already know. I've really enjoyed meeting you, knowing you all, catching up with you all and hope that it will all continue in the new year!

Celebrating Christmas Through Music

On the night of Christmas Eve our church held a Christmas concert, where there would be performances by different church groups, such as a children's and adults' play, children's dance, the church choir and our little music group. It was to start at 7.30pm and we were meant to get to church by 6.30pm. However, being the Andersons, we arrived there at 7pm! Our shirts were smelling really bad as when my mum washed them yesterday morning and then went out, I completely forgot about them and didn't hang them out to dry! So we attempted to spray as much deodorant on ourselves to cover the stink!

We got to church to find the back gate locked, so we were going to walk to the next closest gate only to find it locked as well! We ended up having to walk right around the church building to get in while carrying our numerous musical instruments. We got straight into music rehearsal mode when we got inside.

Once the concert started though, we had to move to the library which was a room further away from the main hall so our sound wouldn't be heard.

Our big moment: putting on the lipstick! We were expecting to have to do our own lipstick, but then I managed to get the lady in charge of us to do it for me so that was good. It didn't look too bad actually, as it didn't stand out too much. It sorta tasted good too!

We ended up waiting in the library for about an hour doing nothing, except for telling jokes, or gloating about the quality of our school orchestra (if you were Jenny or Lisa! haha).

When it was finally our turn to perform, we went into the hall to watch the choir perform just before us. Once it was us, we got up on stage and did our thing. People were really amused and started to laugh a bit when Aonghas and I kept changing instruments, but it was only once I put down my viola, and quickly grabbed my accordon (the third instrument change!) that people started clapping! Just as well though, as it covered up Aonghas's big screw-up on the trumpet.As Aonghas put it, he added the Aonghas touch to the song!

After the performance we went back to the library for a group photo. This time it was a funny one and I jumped in between the girls but accidentally stood on one of their feet! The photo turned our all right though ;)

There was a little bit of supper after the concert. Some of the new people who came to the performance were being talked to in the library during then. They were probably trying to convert them! They spent a lot of time in there anyway!

We can't rest now though, as the next morning (Christmas morning) we have to play the music again, as well as perform what we performed at Waitakere Hospital, and then play Hark! The Herald Angels Sing as an accordion trio at the Christmas service!

Playing Dress-ups with Cats Don't Work!

Today after Aonghas finished work Hamish and I joined him to browse through shops, and we were in one shop that sold Christmas clothes for dogs! It came with this red shirt and a mini santa hat. Aonghas thought maybe we could try dress our cat up in that!

When we got home Aonghas got hold of the cat and put the shirt on her.The cat then got free and was walking around the house for a while wearing a shirt! Someone left the door open though and it ran out! We lost sight of the cat and so for the rest of the day this black and white cat with clothes on was probably wandering the neighbourhood!

We came home after the church Christmas concert wondering where the cat was, as usually she rushes to the door whenever we get home. We were starting to think that maybe putting the cclothes on the cat traumatised her or scared her away! It was not till about 11pm Maomao finally arrived home, minus her clothes!

Missing

Aonghas was working last night and lost his cellphone! He was pretty gutted about that, but he thinks there was something more sinister about the loss of his cellphone. When he first tried to ring it, the phone started ringing, but later on when he tried again it went straight to the voicemail box, which obviously means whoever took it must've turned the phone off.

He thinks this guy, a Polynesian in his 20's may know something about it as he looked very dodgy when supposedly helping Aonghas in trying to find the phone around the shop.

With his shoddy talent Aonghas has managed to come up with a rough sketch of his face. So if you've seen someone who looks anything like this badly drawn sketch of the questionable man, let us know, not that there's anything we can probably do about it!

We've already got the number barred and blacklisted the phone as well as disable it, so hopefully whoever has it now will enjoy their paperweight ;)

Can't Find It!

Happy Birthday Tammy!

Yesterday us brothers went to church alone, and with our music instruments. Church service...snore, but with one interesting note. When they asked for any new people to stand, there was this African guy who stood up in the back! Everyone turned around and was either surprised or impressed! The minister said something in Chinese and the guy who was about to sit down stood up again so it seems like the guy understands Chinese! That's impressive! So far besides Chinese people at our church, we've had a few 'white' people, a Maori and an African. May racial diversity continue! The little children also got up on stage and sang a few songs, which is always hilarious. The smaller kids are completely clueless, with one of them constantly lifting up his shirt and flashing everyone, while a couple of other kids wandered up on stage at a random time!

After church we were supposed to have another church music rehearsal for two hours apparently. I didn't realise they meant it was going to be a dress rehearsal of the whole concert, and because our music group weren't playing till somewhere near the end, we were just standing around doing nothing. I was just leaning against the door when Angie walked by! I never knew she came to church, which is the first time she has in several months, but then again I guess she would've seeing as her sister was performing with the kids on stage. We were just talking for a while and watching her sister practise this dance she'll perform at the concert in amusement until her mum had finished. Her mum's getting baptised next week which is an exciting thing! Too bad Angie has to work and miss it all though!

It was finally our turn to perform on stage and so we got up there and screwed it up! It didn't sound too bad on camera but it did on stage! Afterwards the lady in charge met with us guys to teach us how to use the make-up she had for us. I think it's supposed to be lipstick! It says it's strawberry tart flavour, and it smells good too! Hamish wasn't too pleased about it all, but the rest of us guys just joked about it. At least we don't have to put on foundation and all that other stuff as well!

Us Anderson brothers then went to Burger King for lunch after church. We went all the way to Lynn Mall so that we could check out the shops over there and see if they had anything good to sell. It was really packed! We also came across this music teacher we knew from when we used to go to the West Auckland Music Education Centre.

I couldn't find what I was looking for, so we managed to get home before the petrol ran out, but I shall continue searching for what I need to buy before Christmas comes!

--

Don't you just love Christmas TV? It's pretty cool with all those holiday movies, except for a Christmas celebrity special of Are You Smarter Than a 10-Year-Old. That we could do without! Eyeworks Touchdown just parade all their washed up personalities to answer supposedly primary school questions and do horribly bad at it! My House My Castle's Rob Hart didn't do so badly though, making it to the last question before deciding he'd take the money and not risk attempting it. Wait a minute...why did I bother watching this show again??

Wandering Pointlessly

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER!!!

When you've got nothing better to do, then shop! Well that's what Hamish and I decided to do on Saturday. Aonghas and my dad had to work, and our mum was going to some friend's for most of the day. Because our house is so low on food supplies, she told us boys to walk down to Pak N' Save after our church music rehearsal to buy some lunch.

Once we finished church music rehearsal (which was a struggle waking up for at 9am in the morning!), we got back home, mowed our neighbour's lawn, then started walking down to West City. Aonghas had to go to work so Hamish and I walked with him to West City and just decided we'd just walk around there to pass the time away.

We first went over to Pak N' Save and basically cleared the Reduced to Clear shelf. We then returned to the food court to eat our Pak N' Save lunch which only cost us $5 in total!

We then walked around West City another several times looking around and doing nothing. It was really packed, as you'd expect on Christmas Eve eve eve. We finally deciding we'd buy a tub of ice-cream and then go home. First we went to Countdown to check how much they were, then walked back to Pak N' Save to see if they were any cheaper, but they weren't so we walked back to Countdown. At 5pm, we finally walked home!

It's amazing just how many people you come across in the shopping mall. Most of them were working though, which is kinda sad when you can't find a job yourself! It's really awkward though when someone calls your name out, you turn around to see who it is and then you see the person in the distance and wave and shout hi back to them, but then you're not sure whether you should go over and start a conversation with them or just to keep walking!

Later that night though when our mum came back, she wanted to go out…shopping! We went to the Lincoln Pak N' Save to buy some food before coming back to West City and shopping at The Warehouse while waiting for Aonghas to close up the shop. I then came across Casey (I hope I didn't spell her name wrong!) which was the first time I had seen her in ages!

 I have to admit it was pretty tiring walking around shops, and that I'm officially sick of West City…for the time being!

 --

Calum's annual Christmas time donation went to SAFE. I donated 20c to a woman dressed in a pig suit!

 

Where's the Real Money?

How coincidental is this? Bunnings staff received Monopoly board games and were pretty ticked off by receiving that instead of a pay increase.

Well guess what Air New Zealand staff will be getting for Christmas?

Nothing

Job searching for me has nearly come to a complete stop as it becomes clear that job vacancies in West Auckland (at least) have dried up. I've tried to widen the search area and have a look for jobs in Auckland City, and I've found a few so I'll have to try apply for those, but I'm a little weary about the ease of transportation though!

While Aonghas continues working at Cotton On (he got promoted to shift supervisor just recently so no longer will he have to put up with slack workers who claim they have to go off to the toilet and come back half an hour later!), Hamish and I have been sitting at home trying to tidy up while watching those midday kids cartoons. Surprisingly they haven't been as bad as you'd expect! We've also begun to do a bit of gardening and work outside, such as the exciting task of sanding down the window ledges of the garage so we can repaint them, and putting a huge net over our plum tree to try (no matter how useless it may be) to prevent the birds from getting to the plums before us.

While I've been a little conservative in which jobs I apply for, Hamish has been all out applying for this and that. He just recently got turned down for a position as CEO of some trauma service, a customer service clerk at Waikumete Cemetery, and a finance assistant at some place! He almost tried applying for TVNZ political reporter down in Wellington but decided not to because he didn't want to relocate just in case they do decide to hire him (haha don't worry he wasn't serious!).

What going through these job websites has made me realise though is that I'm under-qualified and inexperienced! I'm in desperate need of any experience at all! So it's made me motivated to study something these holidays, not too sure what just yet but I'll figure it out! I might try see if I can memorise the Korean alphabet once again. I also finally started reading George Orwell's Animal Farm.

We got this new HD camera yesterday which should hopefully mean I can put up clearer videos on this! We used the money we made from the leavers DVD and I ended up having to cover the difference, but hopefully my parents and Aonghas will contribute a little more so my bank account doesn't remain too low! We still haven't tested the camera at it's highest potential though as we don't have any HDV tapes just yet, so we'll have to get a few of those soon. I really shouldn't be spending any more money for a while seeing as I have no money coming in right now!

On Tuesday night we had a dress rehearsal for the church's Christmas concert. The water had been turned off due to construction nearby, so we couldn't use the toilet, and the water from the water cooler was all gone! Our turn to perform on stage wasn't for a while due to the little kids going through their play, and so Aonghas and I went out to the hall to play a bit of basketball with the minister's son Jireh. Aonghas of course threw the ball and knocked a Christmas decoration off the wall, so we had to quickly hide it! We were all sweaty and thirsty afterwards and there was no water, but fortunately someone found some soft drinks in the fridge which was nice.

Tomorrow morning will be yet another rehearsal. I suppose at least the rehearsals are giving me something to do!

Into Law!

Congratulations to Alice for getting into Law pt 2!!! Yay!! That's another friend in law and one more friend who'll probably eventually end up in some very high and powerful position!

Making Use of Time

I've had nothing to do for the past few days, so I've had to find things to do to keep myself occupied. Since my last post on Tuesday, I went into the city for a meeting (see my previous post) on Wednesday. After I had finished my meeting, my family came to pick me up from the city and we all went to the new shopping mall in Albany on the following Wednesday which is huge. Of course everything is expensive there, so we didn't end up buying much. We bought some cheap food from Pak N' Save though and had a good family lunch inside the car which was parked in the underground Pak N' Save car park! There was background music going on and so it was a nice setting.

We saw these cakes on display at the bakery section. There was a dog cake, a cat cake, and a hedgehog cake, and they all looked so yummy! That day was also the first time we had been along that new motorway in Albany. I'm not too sure what it's called but it was pretty much like any other motorway.

On Thursday night we had a music rehearsal at church. Us violins remained in the main hall to practise together while Aonghas was led to another room to practise his trumpet alone with the lady in charge. This girl who recently joined the group brought SCALES for us to play! Fortunately that didn't last long! We ended up finishing before Aonghas was done, so we were just mucking around....in silence. I decided I'd try break the silence and start a conversation, so I asked the minister's son if his dad practised his sermons at home. Hamish then joined in by asking what happened once his dad finished the Bible! I also got talking to this new girl. It turns out that she (her name is Jenny) is a year 11 student at Epsom Girls Grammar School. OK posh...

We had another rehearsal on Saturday morning but we didn't get too far before it was midday. The lady kept talking though and so we were held back till about half an hour after midday. By then we had to quickly rush off to accordion lessons over in North Shore. We didn't realise it was our last lesson for the year and so we had to go buy a present at the nearby shopping mall and then wrap it up in the car before giving it to our accordion teacher. He unwrapped the present to find chocolate and returned the surprise by telling us that he wouldn't be able to share the chocolate with his wife because...she's pregnant! Congratulations to them!

On Sunday church service was...church service. I was sorta looking forward to Sunday School because it was going to be a fun Sunday School with a quiz against other Sunday School classes. OK it was based on Acts, but hey you've got to be happy it's a quiz! It was also Jennifer's last class before she went to Hong Kong on holiday with her family. The lady in charge of the music group came to ask us if we wanted to have lunch during Sunday School though so we could start another rehearsal early! I was faced with a tough decision...stay for the quiz, which could possibly be fun...or not...or go with the others to Burger King and have lunch with them and possibly get to know the others better. Well in the end, Burger King and the attraction of getting to know the other people won me over.

Burger King was pretty good, even though it was pretty expensive! I also got to know the others a bit better too. I have to admit I drank a little too much fizzy drink though, and when I got back to church for rehearsal I kept having to go to the toilet! The 'Burger King bonding' helped me to enjoy the music rehearsal a bit more!

For the rest of Sunday while Aonghas went over to a friend's house to console him, I just went shopping at various Chinese vegetable shops with my mum.

Yesterday was tidying day though. We pretty much spent most of the day tidying the house up, finishing off the day by washing my car. I admit it was only a half-baked job, but I will do a proper job in the next few days! I also got my second Christmas card from Kelvin. Thanks Kelvin! Oh and I forgot to thank Gwen for giving me my first Christmas card several weeks ago! Thanks Gwen too for that! I'll be giving you one when you return to NZ next year! That reminds me that I've got to send Christmas emails soon! (Sounds a bit weird...I just have a tradition of sending people Christmas emails!). I can't believe Christmas is so soon!

Contemplation

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGIE (for Wednesday)
and
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALICE (for Friday)

(This was supposed to be posted on Friday night!)

Tonight the Germinids were supposed to perform in the sky! In other words a meteor shower was supposed to take place at midnight tonight, but as expected nothing happened! Just clouds, dark sky and a few stars. So I was left to end up sitting outside, staring up at the sky in contemplation, thinking about my ultimate purpose on this world is, or more immediately, what I'm to do with myself! As Chen pointed out, this is possibly my mid-life crisis despite only being 18!

First of all, I got told by a friend the other night that I really needed to get a girlfriend soon because I needed the experience, to make the mistakes now and get them out of my system. She then went on to call me frigid. I tried telling her that I wasn't inhibited in the ability to experience sexual excitement during sexual activity, but she just went on telling me that she bet she had kissed more guys than I had kissed girls. I told her I wouldn't bet against her on that one!

The saddest thing about what she was saying though was that it's sorta true!

Now there is one thing I don't quite understand about girls. Why is it that when you first talk to them all is good, and then after a while they completely change, as if they're no longer interested in talking to you anymore? Here's an example of a conversation I had with a girl tonight (slightly modified just in case she's reading this!):

'Hey, how's it going?'
'Good I guess, lol'
'What you been up to?'
'Nothing much I guess, lol'

As opposed to a conversation that just keeps going and flows from one thing to another, it's the sort of conversation where you have to keep on asking questions to get an answer and to keep the conversation going. It just becomes so tiring!

Anyway, moving along...

Second of all, after going in to uni on Wednesday for a meeting with the scholarship man, I decided I'd try to find some books related to possible courses I may take next year. I ended up borrowing this book on New Zealand's legal system that I thought I might try and read whenever I had nothing better to do. I've only read bits and pieces and so far it's quite interesting. Of course I have no idea what is covered in first year law papers, and did try to ask at the law library if they had any copies of this year's course guides for LAW121 and LAW131 but all they could provide was the undergraduate handbook for law. The same went for commerce!

I found out today that I've been approved for the Health Science/Law conjoint degree if I choose to take that up next year. I'm waiting to see if I get into pharmacy first. If I do, I guess I'll probably go into pharmacy (might as well I suppose...it doesn't sound too bad and plus people need pharmacists), but if I don't then I have no idea which I'll choose to do. While ideally I wish I could've done Law/Commerce from the beginning, now that I've completed one year of Health Science it's probably best that I don't waste that year's worth of studying by completely starting again.

A lot of pondering to do!

Train Trip

I've now got green braces to celebrate Christmas! :D I had to travel all the way by train to Middlemore Hospital on Tuesday to have my braces changed. While the train ride is pleasant, it's really long! The scenery may not be too bad but what I noticed was all the graffiti! There's so much of it and I'm sure it wouldn't impress those who are foreign to this country. There was graffiti all along some balconies of apartments/units and along building walls, I'm just amazed at how they get to those places just to tag!

Middlemore Hospital is a mess, but for a good reason! There is all this construction going on to make the hospital better (obviously!). I got a little lost on my way to the oral health unit but eventually found it.

I took the long train journey back home and when I got back to Henderson I decided to have a walk through West City to see if there were any vacancies available. I came across my friend Toni who works at Muffin Break who suggested I try asking if there were any jobs available at Muffin Break because she was sure there would be. I tried, but they said there weren't any available at that time, which Toni thought was a lie! So maybe she was wrong or they just decided they didn't like the look of that guy...haha

Reunion!

Tuesday marked exactly a year since we had our year 13 leavers boat cruise, and as promised by our dean Mrs Taylor back then, a reunion was held as an opportunity for all of us to catch up with each other. It hadn't been organised too well though, with Mrs Taylor asking me to text all my friends to pass the message on a couple weeks ago. Hardly anyone replied except for a few, so I had no idea who would show up to it! Therefore I wasn't too sure about whether I would be going!

Earlier in the day I had spent most of the time trying to tidy up the lounge till Angie came over to pick up her leavers DVD. My texts expired the night before and I hadn't topped up all day so she had texted me twice to ask me where I lived as she was getting near, but I wasn't aware of the texts as I was testing the DVD. It was only once she rang me that I discovered them! Not too long after I spotted her and her sister outside the front and went out to give it to them.

I later went to West City with Aonghas to finally top up and then ended up getting caught up in checking out the stuff being sold. It was approaching 7pm when the reunion was about to start. That's when I got my second cellphone call of the day - a personal record for me! This time it was from Jacqueline asking me where I was and when I'd be coming. She was the only one there and thought this lady nearby looked like Mrs Taylor but wasn't too sure! I told her I'd be on my way!

I got Aonghas to once again take me into the city to drop me off outside Float on the Viaduct. This was near where our leavers dinner was held last year. As soon as we got into the city, I jumped out the car and walked around until I could hear the guys calling me, and that's where I saw Mrs Taylor, Nikki, Ellyce, Jacqueline and David sitting at this bar! I went over and joined them, a little overwhelmed as it was my first time in a bar!

We soon decided to get up and have a little walk along the waterfront. We all just talked and caught up with each other. We had reached one end of the waterfront and started to walk back. That's when we caught up with Frank, Robbie, and ....(aarggh I can't remember his name!!) We all then went back to the bar for a few drinks. Jacqueline, Alex and Nikki were all encouraging me to give a little bit of alcohol a go. Apparently the drink was called 'quick f**k'! I can now see how peer pressure has an influence on people! No I didn't end up making this night the first time I had drunk alcohol. I just went over to the counter to ask what non-alcoholic drinks were available, and decided to go with pineapple juice.

We all continued to talk, joke and drink for a little longer. It turns out I was the only one in the group who doesn't have a job! That and still being on my learner's license, it's a bit sad!

Mrs Taylor soon was the first to call it a night as she had to deal with naughty kids at school the next day. Michael Jiang just turned up as she was about to leave though! Once she did, we all started moving. Most of the guys were going to head over to Showgirls and David and I were being heavily persuaded to join them. While David consistently refused to as it went against his morals, I guess I was more amused than anything at being persuaded to enter a strip joint and probably joked a little bit too much about it! Apparently it costs $20 to enter and then you may have to pay tips if you want to touch...or something like that...$20 seemed a bit too steep for me! It was 10.15pm and I didn't really want to pay $20 for a 15 minute show if I was to catch the bus at 10.30pm! The persuading continued for another half an hour. I guess I should've flatly refused instead of stringing the guys along and joking about it! I ended up not going and got a ride home with Alex and David.

It was an interesting night, the first time I've ever hung out in the city for purely social reasons (besides uni reasons!) since the leavers dinner last year! Apparently next year will be a whole lot more organised!

Staring at the Ceiling

Ever since coming home from church on Sunday I've found that I have absolutely nothing to do! OK that isn't completely true. I could always get round to tidying the house, but that is taking a bit of motivation! I just laid on the couch staring at the ceiling for an hour or two before there was decent enough TV to watch! I suppose at least I have an orthodontist appointment on Thursday to get excited about..

Yesterday after Aonghas got back from the dentist, Aonghas and I went to Rutherford to drop off the last lot of Leavers DVD's (and may I once again remind people I'm not obsessed with that school!!). I managed to see Mrs Taylor to actually find out about what's going on with this reunion thing for our year level on Tuesday night. Originally Mrs Taylor asked me to pass the message around, so I texted everyone I knew, and people ended up thinking I knew all the details about it! Anyway for those who don't know, we'll meet up sometime between 7-7.30pm outside the Float Restaurant before going off for drinks, talking, catching up and other stuff.

 

We also met up with the principal to give him a copy of the DVD, but he had already bought one and watched it over the weekend. He didn't seem to mind that we included him in the teacher sing-along video of Justin Timberlake's 'Sexyback', and in fact said that next time he would try to be more laid back!

 

my brothers, mum and I went to West City to try look around for any stores wanting to employ people, but we ended up coming away not being very successful. We just spent the time hanging around the mall, looking at random things. We came across Santa Claus and waved at him, and guess what? He waved back at us!!

 

Monday night TV is dead. I stopped following Heroes after two episodes mainly because Desperate Housewives came back on the channel TV2. Having absolutely nothing to do made me realise that I've got to do something! Maybe I might try get my Chinese learning back on track, or maybe even have another crack at self-learning Korean, or possibly go through Hamish's first year commerce course guides and text books. It would be nice to stay away from studying, but I have nothing better to do!

A (few) Decision(s) Have Been Made!

With five minutes to go, I finally made a decision on which four programmes I would apply for at the University of Auckland! In the following order:
- Bachelor of Health Science/Bachelor of Law
- Bachelor of Health Science/Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting)
- Bachelor of Science (Biomedical Science)
- Bachelor of Science (Computer Science)/Bachelor of Commerce (Information Systems)

As for which one I'd choose, I have absolutely no idea, but deciding on these four has bought me some time to think it over during the holidays, assuming I get accepted into all of the programmes!

One Thing After Another

Yesterday morning was the Lincoln Heights Music School's End of Year Concert and Prize-Giving. My students were to perform in front of an audience, and so throughout this week I have been crossing my fingers and toes that they have practised their little hearts out! Typically we arrived slightly late, but I managed to gather my students around for a quick rehearsal. I went over the programme and everything that would happen, and in what felt like a very short time, it was soon my time to go on stage as a violin student!

My brothers and this other guy in our class had to sit at the back of the stage while the beginner groups performed. Eventually it was out turn and we performed two pieces we've been working on for grade 6 (whether or not we actually sit the exam is another matter!). It went off all right, no major boo-boo's.

As soon as that performance was over, I had to rush out the door to grab my recorders in the adjacent classroom and then rush back to join my students. I then led them onto the stage. My junior students were going to play three pieces. Two of my students were to play My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean and The First Noel, and then my beginner student would join in for the duet Country Dance. One of my advanced students would then perform two students with Aonghas and me afterwards - Bourree by Handel (from The Water Music) and Sonata by Scarlatti.

The junior students did GREAT! I was so proud of them! They were supposed to announce their own pieces but...I won't hold that against them! My beginner student who I was a little worried for had done HEAPS of practice over the week and played the piece nearly flawlessly!

Then was the performance by one of my advanced students. Bourree went well, which was good because it didn't in last week's lesson! After that the Sonata, which was four pages long, went OK till the last two pages where it all fell apart! I think Aonghas lost it which caused my student to lose it, and I kept on going. We luckily managed to all finish on the last note at the same time!

After the performance I gathered my students back in the adjacent classroom to hand out their reports and give them each a small present. Now I was supposed to buy them lollies/sweets but because my mum was sick yesterday I had no chance to go out and buy anything. Instead, my mum grabbed some bag at home that had some kids toys in it. Now I was about to present these (unwrapped) gifts to these kids. When I took them out, I discovered them to be children's craft kits! The kids were literally staring at me in dismay! I managed to convince them to accept them though, and I was about to give one of the gifts to the advanced student when I realised the Warehouse sticker that said $3.99 was still on it, so I started trying to peel it off, when I pricked my finger and started bleeding all over it! I ended up not being able to give her anything as you know how dangerous contact with blood can be!

The students all returned to the hall for prize-giving and soon it was the recorder section. I went up to present the awards, with the first being the Musical Encouragement Awards. I presented a few, but then one of my students was called up for the award when she wasn't meant to receive one! She came up on stage and I had no certificate to give her, and so I had to whisper to her that there was some mix-up and she was getting another award later on.

I then was about to hand out a certificate to one of my students when I realised I had the wrong certificate and had given her certificate to the advanced student, so I had to a swap on stage!

Later on in the prize-giving the girl who was mistakenly called up on stage was this time rightfully called up for the Musical Excellence trophy, and she was pretty happy about it, seeing as it was the very first trophy she had received. Hopefully that erases or puts to the back of her memory the mix-up earlier in the morning!

After the prize-giving I went to the advanced student to talk to her and give her some lollies as I felt bad for her after a bad morning!

We went home after the concert for a brief break before we had to get changed and go to church to prepare for our carolling at Waitakere Hospital. We got there though, and found out that we were the only ones wearing red t-shirts and blue jeans, while everyone else was wearing white t-shirts and blue jeans! We heard the others nearby asking each other why we weren't in white! Some of the church members though said it was OK, and that the musicians could just be in red.

We went to various points in the hospital such as nurses' stations, lounges and other clear spaces to sing a few Christmas carols. Aonghas and I were on recorder while Hamish was on accordion. After each performance the church members would go around to the patients lying in bed to give these little wrapped gifts of...something...as well as a pamphlet advertising Christianity. Yeah...that part was funny! It was also slightly amusing seeing this large group of Asians singing English songs, oh and don't forget those weirdos in red playing the music!

After an hour of carolling, we returned to church for some pizza before we had to have another music rehearsal with the lady who worked us hard! We had the whole group, with the new girl Jenny and Lisa, this other girl, along with the minister's son and Hamish all on violin, while Aonghas and I were sitting in the back. We have to play all sorts of instruments. There was a bit of disagreeing and a case of too many cooks spoil the broth going on, but Aonghas and I just sat back and enjoyed the show ;)

Fending for Ourselves

Yesterday my mum fell ill. She was feeling too dizzy to stand up and so she was confined to the bed for most of the day to sleep. My dad was at work and for most of the day Aonghas went out to play squash with a friend so it was up to me to regularly check up on her while burning DVD's.

Aonghas had spent all night fixing things on the DVD while I had light sleep on the couch, just in case he wanted to consult me (half awake!). When it was finally finished at 7am we had planned to spend about four hours burning, assuming we had four DVD writers going simultaneously. The one in our main computer was faulty though and the other one was burning duds so we only had two going which meant it was going to take six hours! So I spent most of the day burning DVD's while taking naps in between, as each took ten minutes to burn and we had sixty to do!

The real challenge came at night when us Anderson brothers were faced with the task of cooking dinner. This time we were hoping for something a little more substantial than baked beans on toast, noodles or rice. We sent Aonghas shopping and he came home with lemonade (for our mum!), nachos, two bags of potato chips (fries) and mince.

The fries should've been straight forward to cook, just follow the instructions in the bag right? Well we cleaned the tray, put it in the oven and heated up the oven. After a while Hamish tried pouring the fries out of the bag but he couldn't find the oven gloves, let the plastic bag get a little too close to the tray and it melted and got stuck to it! I came along just in time, grabbed a towel and pulled the tray out to remove the bag.

After washing the tray for the second time, we attempted to cook chips again! Aonghas was in the middle of installing a DVD writer in our computer before cooking the mince. The only problem was we had no idea how to cook mince, except that you have to put it in a pan and turn on the element! I asked around on MSN and got lambasted for being a Kiwi yet not knowing how to cook! Fortunately we got it cooked despite Aonghas pouring a whole lot of cooking oil into it.

We put the baked fries (well actually it tasted a little undercooked...) on our plate along with the nachos with mince dumped on top of it with a bit of tomato sauce, and voilà our dinner!

After that I was waiting for the food poisoning to kick in but I can now announce I did not get poisoned by the food, and our mum made a full recovery the next morning! 

Spelling Errors!

Appose???? This was on Prime News last night...

Discombobulated

All night I had dreams about somehow missing my interview and so when I woke up in the morning I was adament there would be no way I was going to miss that interview! I had my shower and a bowl of noodles before leaving with my dad in the car. We didn't get far though as the traffic was horrendous! The heavy rain had made things worse. My dad decided to try changing to the faster lane which would take us to Te Atatu Peninsula and see if we could get on to the motorway faster that way. Unfortunately it was just as long!

Time was fast running out and we were crawling at no more than 5km/hr along the motorway. My interview was at 9am and we were still around Pt Chevalier at 8.45am! I was starting to freak out, wondering if I wasn't meant to make this interview. That's when I decided to be proactive and ring up all the phone numbers I could find on the letter I received. I first contacted the Undergraduate Amissions lady, but only got an answering machine! I tried another phone number but got the same response! Without knowing who to ring next I decided to ring general admissions and asked to be referred on to someone who knew about pharmacy interviews. Finally someone from pharmacy was on the line and I told them of my situation, that I had been stuck in traffic for nearly over an hour and hadn't gotten beyond Pt Chevalier, and was looking likely to miss my interview at 9am. I asked if anything could be done about it, and so she put me on hold, and when she got back, her first words were

"OK you can relax now! We've rescheduled your interview for 11.30am."

Thank goodness thank goodness thank goodness! Even though those three phone calls had cost me a litle over $5... It only took us about ten minutes to get to the medical school and my dad told me to go find out what was going on and then text him (he was using Hamish's cell phone) and let him know if I wanted him to wait or stay. Once I got out of the car I started wandering around the campus with my mum's purple floral umbrella. I went to the cafeteria to text Aonghas to let him know what had happened and he told me to get the house key off my dad. I texted my dad, who later replied telling me to wait for him opposite the bus stop!

Now one thing you have to know is my dad does not know how to text! I went to the bus stop to wait for him for a while but he never showed up, so I waited at the nearby entrance to the Auckland Domain and texted my dad to let him know I was there. I waited for at least ten minutes before walking back to the bus stop when I saw him drive into the entrance! I walked quickly back up there and down the road past the entrance and eventually found the parked car, but my dad was gone! My dad texted me to ask where I was, and I said I was standing beside where the car was parked. I thought I better wait at the car just in case he decided to come back.

Ten minutes went by and nothing! I texted him to ask where he was and he said he was at the main entrance! So I walked all the way back to the main entrance of the domain but he was nowhere to be seen. I thought that maybe he might've meant the entrance to the medical school, so I crossed the road, went inside and there was the receptionist trying to show my dad how to text!

My dad left soon after that and I just hung around for another couple hours going over what I was going to say, until it was 11am. I went to the building where the interviews were being held and was greeted by a few current pharmacy students who ticked my name off. I talked to a few of them, trying to get as much out of them as possible! One of them told me that 600 were being interviewed, which got me feeling a little hopeless! Another girl, Mimi, who just completed first year and knows Lunshen (apparently because there's only 100 of them they're like family! That's so cool!) told me there was fewer though so that gave me a little more hope! About half an hour later (traffic was bad for not only me!!), it was finally my turn for an interview.

I was led to a door and I waited outside talking to the pharmacy student waiting with me for a while. The interviewers would open the door when they were ready. The trouble is, they never opened the door! After about ten minutes, some women came down the aisle asking if there was a Calum Anderson who was delayed by traffic earlier in the morning. It turns out the pharmacy students had taken me to the wrong interviewing room!

The interviewers were two women who were really nice, possibly too nice to be able to read them well! They started off asking me about my music teaching job before asking me about how I found health science. I replied with

"It was...interesting..."

I talked about how I chose it because of the attraction of learning about the structure of the health system and public health, and then they asked me to explain more about it to them.They also asked me what I would spend money on if I was the Minister of Health. Fortunately the interviewer agreed with my answer!

They then moved on to my past responsibilities such as being Head Boy and a student trustee on the BOT, and I told them about the sort of things I did for the school. They then questioned me on what other hobbies I had and I told them news and current affairs. They asked me what health-related news had been going on recently, and I mentioned the fiasco going on down in Wellington where the CEO resigned, but when they asked me what I would do to rectify the situation, I sorta hesitated and told them that to this point I had only briefly read about that situation and that in all honesty I didn't know enough to be able to make a reasonable assessment of the situation. That sounds much like a cop-out!

They asked me where I could see myself in pharmacy and I said as a hospital or community pharmacist, or even possibly owning my own pharmacy one day as owning a business did sound appealing after having taken the economics general education paper (to which one of the interviewers jokingly said everyone had taken!)

We finished off talking about what else I had applied for and I told them that I hadn't applied for anything else, stressing that pharmacy was number one priority for me! That's where it all ended.

I came out thinking it went all right, until as I was walking from Grafton back to the city all these WHAT IF'S and THAT DIDN'T SOUND TOO GOOD'S were filling my head! I described people who hung around and smoked in dark and dingy places at school as 'bad people' even though I said I cared for people not too long before (a better word such as miscreant just didn't come into my mind soon enough!). I'm not too sure if my handshake was firm enough, or if I sounded serious enough, or if I presented myself well enough ARGHHH!!

The perfect cure - go to Munchie Mart, buy a bag of chips and binge eat! :D

We'll be informed of the result by January so I guess I should just forget about it till then and enjoy the holidays!

--

Speaking of holidays, great to see the decorations up around the city!

Getting Prepared

In the morning is my big pharmacy interview! OK so it's not an interview for medicine but this might be a chance for me to do something a lot more interesting than health science without wasting my first year! I've got to try not to get my hopes up though, seeing as there is about 600 people going for 100 places. I'm not too sure how many are getting interviewed, or how many places are available for us alternative admissions guys, but apparently it's about 30-40 so it's really tough!

After the year 13 farewell dinner on Monday night I've been doing research on what pharmacy is all about so that I can sound like I've wanted to be a pharmacist since the day I was born! I've been getting help from a few pharmacy guys on what may possibly be asked in the interview. I've been told the Treaty of Waitangi may pop up, so I've been trying to do a bit of research on it and how it links to health care, despite having studied the treaty in history last year and in population health this year! You would expect me to know this stuff by now!

My major fear is that I'll say something that is completely irrelevant to pharmacy, or they'll ask me some question where I have to explain what I'd do in a certain situation and I'd be like

"Uhhhhhhhhh.................."

and look like a complete idiot. If I don't get in though then I suppose it won't be the end of the world and there'll always be Health Science to go back to, or possibly any of the other four degrees I will have applied for by this Saturday (come on Calum get going!)

Fitting Farewell

Nooo not for me but for the year 13 students at their farewell dinner last night! And while they were doing that, Aonghas and I were continuing to work on their DVD which we had been working on all night right till then. Their leavers dinner started at 7pm and we still hadn't gotten it onto DVD as we were having problems with our computer so we ended up having to just bring a hard drive along with a laptop to their dinner to play a few videos for them.

Earlier that day we rushed over to Auckland University to do some photocopying for the DVD case covers (one photocopier ended up running out of paper...after one or two copies while the other photocopy was close to running out of ink!) and as soon as we had done so no one would realise we nearly used up all the ink! Due to greater-than-expected demand we had to buy some more DVD's.

We rushed home to start printing DVD's and fixing up the DVD files but isn't it annoying when your computer is running at nearly full-speed and keeps freezing, and then the hard drive runs out of space? We're probably going to have to upgrade again sometime soon.

We were trying to hold Chen off while getting the files onto DVD until Chen told us to just get there as soon as possible. We spent a little time driving around North Shore before we spotted Chen at the end of one road waving to us. We got to the place to be greeted by Mr Sizer, the dean and Mr Moore the principal. While the others were dancing on the dance floor, Aonghas and I got started setting up the equipment, only to find the cable connecting the laptop to the projector was missing! It was looking grim until the DJ said he could try contact a friend who may have a cable. Aonghas and Chen went off to pick up the cable while I stayed behind to look after the equipment and try work out the password to get into Aonghas's laptop!

Once Aonghas got back it was full steam ahead. Soon everyone was seated and we presented to them a few of the videos we had produced. Thank goodness it was well-received! After that Aonghas and I just spent the night on the sidelines talking to a few people and watching the other people enjoy themselves while filming them (well it's THEIR night anyway!). When midnight came, everyone left the building and got into the double-decker bus waiting for them while we went back to our car. We followed the bus almost all of the way home!

When we got home I was so hungry but I was so tired after not having slept the night before (I had been falling asleep in the car on the way to uni too!) that I just fell asleep on the couch! I woke up a little while later to properly get ready for bed. I ended up oversleeping and waking up at midday the next day, but that sleep felt pretty good!

So now we've just been doing more testing of the DVD to make sure it is as perfect as it can be before we pass them on to the school to hand out to students by this Friday.

Edit That Out!

The last few days have been busy with more and more video editing for the leavers DVD. We've had about 27 to do (a few are only half a minute and so require no editing!) so I've been flat out. Originally I was going to pass on the work to Aonghas to put the final touches on during the weekend, but Aonghas ended up having to go to work for half of Sunday, then had to take his friend to the airport to farewell his girlfriend...now we're still up at 4am with a couple videos to go before rendering and burning begins!

We ended up buying a new printer on Friday after not being able to find a place that would print directly on to DVD's for us. We went with this Canon printer that can also do duplex printing as well so we won't have to waste paper anymore...just ink! We're becoming a bit of a Canon family now. Our camera and scanner and now our printer is Canon!

Saturday was the last day I was teaching my recorder students before the big end-of-year concert next week. I was expecting my students to have done some practice, but (except for one, maybe two) I'm sure they didn't! One student didn't even show up, which is giving me much confidence! I ended up going over and over their mistakes, circling their mistakes, playing through their songs and everything I could possibly do within half an hour. Now it's just up to them! Please little ones don't screw it up next week! I did tell them though that if they did, it would be a good experience for them...yeah right!

Yesterday at church we didn't have lunch as the water was cut for the day, but we had music rehearsal for the Christmas concert in which Aonghas, Hamish and I have to switch instruments at least twice throughout each piece! We go from recorder to recorder to viola or violin or accordion or something else, it feels like some sort of...circus??

Aonghas got to go off to Burger King with his Sunday School class while Hamish and I had regular Sunday School back at church, but oh well at least it wasn't too bad as it was only half an hour and it was sort of interesting talking to Jennifer and the others. Anyway, Aonghas texted me telling me that our mum was taking him straight to work from Burger King and then would come back to give us lunch. He never told me that I had to text our mum to let her know when to come though and so she never came, and our rehearsal was postponed till 2pm. That meant we were waiting at church for an hour before going to rehearsal. Two hours later, finally we had lunch!

There's one week left before university applications close. I still haven't decided which four courses I'll apply for yet, so the pressure is piling up. My friend is thinking of either switching to biomed or doing a health science/arts (psychology) conjoint, and Estee has been trying to encourage me to switch to biomed as well, so I may well consider switching to biomed.

To make matters more complicated though, I got THE letter on Thursday, telling me I had an interview for pharmacy on the following Thursday morning! I guess it'll be a good opportunity in a way to see if I can get in, and if I do at least I won't have to put up with health science for much longer. The only thing is...I don't really have much of an idea about pharmacy! I know you have to sell pills and work at pharmacies, but that's sorta it! As soon as we get this DVD finished I'm going to have to read up on the joys of pharmacy so I can at least sound like I know what I'm talking about in the interview!

That Didn't Last Long

Just when I was starting to look forward to starting work, I got a phone call from the potential new owner of Jesters' tonight who told me she had trouble changing the ownership of the shop to her, and so she decided against buying the business. Therefore she wasn't able to offer me a job anymore! Now as well as trying to complete this Year 13 Leavers' DVD before Monday with Aonghas, I've got to try apply for jobs before all these high school students take them all (which they probably already have)!

I've been spending the last couple of days back at Rutherford College which isn't a good sign. I stress, and I mean it STRESS that I've been going back for business and not for pleasure!!! Mrs Thorogood, this English teacher at the school asked me if I had created the 'RutherThugs' Bebo page, some profile dedicated to the year 13 students. She had a bet going on with other teachers for $10 that it was me because whoever established it was so formal. I told her that I wasn't that obsessed with the school! Sorry to disappoint you Mrs T!

It's been really tough getting this DVD sorted by Monday. It was originally dead in the water but in the last week Aonghas and I decided we'd try get it sorted and so we've been having to try hunt students and staff to film there around school, having to get around exams and everything. For the first couple of days the staff have been easy to find, and easy to get them to talk to the camera. For some reason though the PE teachers haven't been as open and laid-back as we first thought they would! The students though haven't been as willing as the staff to make fools of themselves in front of the camera. Today was different though. It was the other way round today! We couldn't stop some of the students singing for us, while some of the staff blew us off!

I've had to sign in (just like any other visitor) before I do any filming around school and so now I've got several of those visitor stickers. I probably should just save one and reuse it. I've come in to the office several times now though that I'm sure I'm annoying the office staff! Now they just tell me to go straight ahead which makes things a bit easier. I'll probably still have to go back to school on Thursday and Friday to do a bit more filming before Aonghas and I pull off a few all-nighters to get it done by Monday. Hopefully it's worth it in the end, but if it isn't then I haven't really lost much. I wasn't going to do anything useful this week anyway! Oh yeah...besides trying to find a job...

Not Another One!

Apparently another one of my good friends Jacqueline and her family might be leaving for Australia for good, although it's undecided at the moment. Soon I'm not going to have any good friends nearby! Hyun and Joon have gone off to Korea, Yuk kit's in Hong Kong, Diane's in Palmerston North (well most of the time anyway!), Peter in Australia, and now possibly Jacqueline and maybe Gwen who might be off to Singapore!

I don't know if you're supposed to look at it this way but sometimes when you think of forming a close and strong friendship with someone as an investment (does that even make any sense at all??) it seems like a waste when everything you've built up with someone just goes to waste when they leave you and you're left to try get to know some more new people from scratch and try build a close relationship/friendship with another person once again. Then again that's life. Friends come and go, and we've just got to keep on going!

New Beginnings

First of all, congratulations to the ALP for winning the Australian elections and Mr (ear wax-picking) Rudd upon becoming Australian Prime Minister. I haven't really been following Australian politics too closely, but hopefully the change is good for Australia, or if not, good for New Zealand ;) (just picture all those traitorous Kiwis who ditched our beautiful country flooding back! haha)

The movie The Green Mile was on tonight and I have to say that is one of the best movies out there! So sad! I don't know if this theory means anything but does John that big Black guy symbolize anything that is at the least bit mildly related to Christianity? Was his ability to heal and to punish, along with his undeserved execution (due to his innocence) in any way a representation of Jesus and his powers and him being nailed to the cross? Or maybe I'm just looking at it completely wrongly!

Cheap

On Friday my mum, Hamish and I went to this Progressive Enterprises (owner of Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths) open day where they were interviewing all these people for jobs at their supermarkets. We were going to try get Hamish to get a job interview and with some luck, a job. There were all these people sitting and waiting in one of the conference rooms at Lincoln Green Hotel while in the adjacent room interviews were being conducted. Hamish finally managed to get his application form completed, and was given a little slip of paper saying he was number 93.

We ended up waiting there for over an hour and a half until it was Hamish's interview. During that time, my mum and I had been trying to prep him by giving him advice on how to answer possible questions, and to make sure he doesn't sound like a robot but sounds genuine and actually try to SMILE!

Hamish went in for his interview with some lady from Countdown which seemed to last about five minutes. We didn't hear any of it, but when Hamish came out it sounded as though he managed to answer all the questions asked (even though he probably over-glorified Countdown!). He was a little concerned that his interview was too short though! Oh well at least he got a bit of interview experience!

Later that night us Anderson brothers had to go to church for some carol rehearsal with a fellowship group. It was the first time we were there so we mainly listened to the group singing instead of playing music. It lasted for at least three hours, and by the time we got out it was 10pm! The Muse concert was going on at the Trusts Stadium across the road, so we thought we'd go and check it out...from the outside. We're a bit cheap. The last concert we went to was the Bee Gees when they performed at Western Springs, and even then our whole family just sat outside the fence all night listening to their music for free!

We didn't get too close to the stadium as we would probably look a little dodgy to the security guards. I've got a YouTube video of me enjoying the concert up. I had it up before but I got someone calling me a LOSER! haha so I decided I better remove my name just in case someone who actually knows me watches that!

Time To Plan Ahead

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX AND RUBY (for yesterday!!)

Looks like exam results are available online now! I've been logging in to nDeva, the University of Auckland website to check my results on an extremely regular basis, and finally got one mark back yesterday for MEDSCI, probably my hardest paper and exam! Surprisingly I didn't do too badly and did better than I would have expected! According to an email sent by Mr Colin Quilter, the course co-ordinator, the course lecturers got together and decided that the exam was too difficult and so they added 5 marks to each of our totals!

That got me looking at what I should be doing for next year. So far I've come up with the following possible paths I could take:
- Bachelor of Health Science (and just aim for getting honours so I can go straight to PhD)
- Bachelor of Health Science/Arts (Major in psychology and Chinese)
- Bachelor of Health Science/Commerce (and cross-credit my economics paper)
- Bachelor of Health Science/Law (although I may not get into law and then end up wasting another year!)
- Bachelor of Science (either in Physiology, Pharmacology, Psychology)/Bachelor of Law
- Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts
- Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Commerce


OK that hasn't really narrowed it down too much has it? (Any help would be greatly appreciated!!) I've also been considering which General Education paper I should take. So far there are only a few that I'm interested in. I've been thinking about possibly taking an education paper on how people learn, or a paper on beginning Chinese (which I probably won't be allowed to do!) or Korean. I once tried learning Korean during one of my school holidays but only got as far as learning how to pronounce those signs and circles, and then I forgot it all once school started up again! Oh the decisions...