Yesterday Aonghas and I attended this accordion workshop over in North Shore. This French guy who is some expert in choosing the right music for programmes to enter into various accordion championships gave us advice and tips on how to improve our playing and performance. Once again we were late, so we arrived at Sunnybrae Primary School half an hour late. Everyone was already in the classroom listening to this French guy speaking! Aonghas and I quietly took our seats.
For the first two hours we listened to this guy tell us how to improve our performance techniques, from pushing and pulling the bellows at the same time, to raising your eyebrows and showing expression on your face as you play music.
We finally had our lunch break at midday, when Aonghas and I sat with some of the North Shore accordionists there like Jessica and this guy called George. Jessica only just got back from Taiwan the night before so I was surprised she even made it! We managed to get talking which is cool, because usually us Westies don't talk much to the North Shorians except for Jessica. So yeah it was cool getting to know them a little more!
After lunch we had to practise the piece we would perform later in the day for an hour, so we found a spot outside somewhere on the school grounds. I sat on this bench, and started playing. It was a little weird practising as some girls in bikinis walked by to the school pool, and these two boys rode by on their skateboards, and here's me sitting outside playing this weird musical instrument!
We were next given a demonstration on how the accordion works. I have to admit I nearly fell asleep during that! Hopefully no one saw me, although these two girls were giggling about something...hopefully not me!
The last half hour we spent doing more practise before we had to perform. I was one of the first to perform since I hadn't played to the French guy that whole day. My performance was so bad though! I kept playing mistakes and stopped right in the middle, so you know what I would be like - smile overtime. For some reason I just smile whenever I make a mistake! When I stopped I made some sort of scoffing noise which made it even worse! The French guy gave me a few comments after my performance, such as STOP SMILING!
I was supposed to go to the second day of the workshop today, but I was planning on going to the University of Auckland careers and courses advice day, while Aonghas had to go back to school for uniform and options check. I decided to come along. I thought I might try laugh at some of the students returning to school! :D (I didn't in the end by the way!)
We dropped Aonghas off while I went driving around Te Atatu Peninsula with my mum. After an hour we drove back to school and I saw Zahir cross the road! That was cool. We waited on the side of the road for over an hour and Aonghas (and Chen who we had to take home as well) still weren't done, so I decided to just drive past the main gate and back to the back gate, when I drove past Phoebe waiting at the corner of the road! The first time I tried waving to her like an idiot but she didn't notice me. She probably didn't notice the white car as I don't think she's seen it before. I came back though, and this time I honked the horn and hopefully she saw me! Hopefully it was her!
By the time Aonghas and Chen came out it was midday, so we took Chen home. I was busting to go to the toilet so I went into Chen's house, and Aonghas and my mum ended up being invited in too. We ended up having lunch there and talked with Chen for a while till it was 3pm! I missed the careers advice day at university but that's OK! I've got most of the stuff sorted out anyway.
By the way I never realised texting people after midnight was abnormal! I've had people questioning me about a previous post...I've been texting after midnight regularly in the past week...is that unusual?
Wednesday 31 January 2007
Sunday 28 January 2007
Fun at Church?
I didn't even think that was possible but today turned out to be quite a good time at church! Because this week was the last week of holiday Sunday School before we'd have to resume normal Sunday School next week, us teens were going to have a barbecue instead of Sunday School. I ended up texting Angie till half past three in the morning the night before (before I decided I'd better get some sleep and she started to drift off!) trying to convince her to come today and eat sausages! (amongst sharing other things) :D She ended up coming this morning to church and happened to sit in the seat right behind me!
While I wasn't completely listening to the sermon, I listened to bits of it as I discovered towards the end that it could be relevant to me! The associate pastor was talking about living a life of purpose and doing something meaningful with your life, and as of yet I still haven't discovered my ultimate life goal! I spent the whole service kicking Aonghas's foot, keeping him from sleeping as well as trying not to yawn too much.
When the service was over Angie and I met up with Jennifer, the other girl in my Sunday school class and we carried the food and barbecue equipment to the lawn at the back. The three of us talked for a while before all of us had to sit around in a circle, have a pray, sing some songs and then one of the adults give a little message to us about having a good year and being a good Christian and everything. The singing was pitiful! Hardly anyone sang, and one of the adults started clapping during one of the songs! He looked like some little kid!
Once that was all over, the guys got the barbecue warmed up to cook the sausages. The girls and I were supposed to butter the bread but then it was decided that whoever wanted their bread buttered could do it themselves, so Jennifer, Angie ended up talking. We eventually sat around on the lawn eating and talking about all sorts of stuff. Jennifer just recently went to some science forum/camp thing, which sounded interesting! They ended up being forced to do these crazy things in public down Queen St, like sing songs and hold hands with guys. When she said that I made some comment like that was nice, and her mum (who's going to be a helper in my Sunday school class this year) said that I probably wanted that!!
Jennifer and Angie were to remain in the same Sunday school class this year with all these new people (Aonghas included), while I'd have to move up to the uni students class with Hamish, but Jennifer tried asking her mum if she and Angie could move into the same class with me so that I wouldn't be lonely, and her mum (who's the assistant helper of the class) said that I wouldn't be lonely because my brother would be in the class! She didn't have any problems with it though, so hopefully we'll still all be together this time next week!
We ended up sharing embarrassing stories, and (don't worry about how the conversation came to to this!) I discovered that Jennifer knows Zippo!! She used to go to the same primary school as her! She also recognised Estee's name too (same primary school!). She also knew Phoebe, who used to go to our church's Sunday school! It's amazing how we're all connected!
After lunch Angie, Jennifer, Aonghas and I went back inside and decided to play a little table tennis. Jennifer then went off to attend the cooking class, where my mum went off to as well, so Angie continued to play table tennis with us until she had to go. After that a couple of guys joined us in table tennis, and then after we played soccer. Aonghas and I thought we'd try different strategies which didn't work too well with Hamish as goalie! We ended up reverting to plain basic shooting! After a while we were sweating like hell, so we shot a few hoops before Jennifer came back and together with Tim my Sunday school teacher from last year we played a bit of 3-on-3 basketball. It soon evolved into volleyball after we put up the nets. After one of the guys hit the ball into the net causing it to come off though, it took a while for it to be put back up so we gave up. By now the cooking class had finished, so we left church at about 4pm.
I think I finally have friends at church!! :D
While I wasn't completely listening to the sermon, I listened to bits of it as I discovered towards the end that it could be relevant to me! The associate pastor was talking about living a life of purpose and doing something meaningful with your life, and as of yet I still haven't discovered my ultimate life goal! I spent the whole service kicking Aonghas's foot, keeping him from sleeping as well as trying not to yawn too much.
When the service was over Angie and I met up with Jennifer, the other girl in my Sunday school class and we carried the food and barbecue equipment to the lawn at the back. The three of us talked for a while before all of us had to sit around in a circle, have a pray, sing some songs and then one of the adults give a little message to us about having a good year and being a good Christian and everything. The singing was pitiful! Hardly anyone sang, and one of the adults started clapping during one of the songs! He looked like some little kid!
Once that was all over, the guys got the barbecue warmed up to cook the sausages. The girls and I were supposed to butter the bread but then it was decided that whoever wanted their bread buttered could do it themselves, so Jennifer, Angie ended up talking. We eventually sat around on the lawn eating and talking about all sorts of stuff. Jennifer just recently went to some science forum/camp thing, which sounded interesting! They ended up being forced to do these crazy things in public down Queen St, like sing songs and hold hands with guys. When she said that I made some comment like that was nice, and her mum (who's going to be a helper in my Sunday school class this year) said that I probably wanted that!!
Jennifer and Angie were to remain in the same Sunday school class this year with all these new people (Aonghas included), while I'd have to move up to the uni students class with Hamish, but Jennifer tried asking her mum if she and Angie could move into the same class with me so that I wouldn't be lonely, and her mum (who's the assistant helper of the class) said that I wouldn't be lonely because my brother would be in the class! She didn't have any problems with it though, so hopefully we'll still all be together this time next week!
We ended up sharing embarrassing stories, and (don't worry about how the conversation came to to this!) I discovered that Jennifer knows Zippo!! She used to go to the same primary school as her! She also recognised Estee's name too (same primary school!). She also knew Phoebe, who used to go to our church's Sunday school! It's amazing how we're all connected!
After lunch Angie, Jennifer, Aonghas and I went back inside and decided to play a little table tennis. Jennifer then went off to attend the cooking class, where my mum went off to as well, so Angie continued to play table tennis with us until she had to go. After that a couple of guys joined us in table tennis, and then after we played soccer. Aonghas and I thought we'd try different strategies which didn't work too well with Hamish as goalie! We ended up reverting to plain basic shooting! After a while we were sweating like hell, so we shot a few hoops before Jennifer came back and together with Tim my Sunday school teacher from last year we played a bit of 3-on-3 basketball. It soon evolved into volleyball after we put up the nets. After one of the guys hit the ball into the net causing it to come off though, it took a while for it to be put back up so we gave up. By now the cooking class had finished, so we left church at about 4pm.
I think I finally have friends at church!! :D
Saturday 27 January 2007
Uni Stuff
Things are really moving forward! Today nearly all of the mail was for me! I got a letter from the electoral commission telling me I was added to the electoral roll so that I could vote in the upcoming local body elections this year, two letters from the university, one with my student ID card and another with information on the careers advice day this Wednesday, and also all my NCEA papers (that's kinda yesterday's news now!). Yesterday I also got a letter from the university letting me know that I got the scholarship too so that's good!
Anyway I finally sorted out my university timetable. Let me know if any of you guys have breaks at the same time as me or are in any of my classes!
Monday:
8-9am CHEM110 (88085) (city)
9-10am BIOSCI107 (87993) (city)
1-2pm POPHEALTH111 (87696) (city)
Tuesday:
8-9am CHEM110 (88085) (city)
9-10am BIOSCI107 (87993) (city)
1-2pm POPHEALTH111 (87696) (city)
2-5pm BIOSCI lab (87985) fortnightly (grafton)
Wednesday:
10.30-11.30am POPHEALTH101 (87692) (Tamaki)
11.30-12.30pm POPHEALTH101 tutorial (90368) (Tamaki)
12.30-2.30pm POPHEALTH111 (90376) (Tamaki)
Thursday:
8-9am CHEM110 (88085) (city)
9-10am BIOSCI107 (87993) (city)
1-2pm POPHEALTH111 (87696) (city)
2-5pm CHEM110 lab (88082) fortnightly (grafton)
Friday:
8-9am CHEM110 (88085) (city)
9-10am BIOSCI107 (87993) (city)
11.30-12.30pm POPHEALTH101 (87692) (Tamaki)
Anyway I finally sorted out my university timetable. Let me know if any of you guys have breaks at the same time as me or are in any of my classes!
Monday:
8-9am CHEM110 (88085) (city)
9-10am BIOSCI107 (87993) (city)
1-2pm POPHEALTH111 (87696) (city)
Tuesday:
8-9am CHEM110 (88085) (city)
9-10am BIOSCI107 (87993) (city)
1-2pm POPHEALTH111 (87696) (city)
2-5pm BIOSCI lab (87985) fortnightly (grafton)
Wednesday:
10.30-11.30am POPHEALTH101 (87692) (Tamaki)
11.30-12.30pm POPHEALTH101 tutorial (90368) (Tamaki)
12.30-2.30pm POPHEALTH111 (90376) (Tamaki)
Thursday:
8-9am CHEM110 (88085) (city)
9-10am BIOSCI107 (87993) (city)
1-2pm POPHEALTH111 (87696) (city)
2-5pm CHEM110 lab (88082) fortnightly (grafton)
Friday:
8-9am CHEM110 (88085) (city)
9-10am BIOSCI107 (87993) (city)
11.30-12.30pm POPHEALTH101 (87692) (Tamaki)
Friday 26 January 2007
Out Again
A new record for me: going into the city to hang out with friends TWICE in one week! OK it didn't start off too well at first.
I was invited to the city to catch up with the year 12 group of guy/girls...maybe change that to year 13 now! (I keep thinking I'm still in 2006!) a couple days before, but I didn't ask my parents for permission to go because I was a little scared (yeah as crazy as it sounds!) since it was so close to the last time I went out. As it happens, yesterday morning was when my dad had an optometrist appointment in the city, and my mum thought I needed to ask some questions at university, so I decided to go in.
My dad went into the city in the morning by bus, and an hour later my brother drove my mum and me into the city. They dropped me off at the campus before going to pick my dad up. I went into the information centre to ask my question before waiting outside the Clock Tower for my brother to come round and pick me up. I stood there waiting, and waiting and waiting. Eight free City Link buses, three students with kids, an American tourist group and heaps and heaps of white cars passed by, but none with my brother in the driver's seat! I sat on the edge of the footpath waiting, then walked up and down the road checking out the car park, before deciding to find a park bench in Albert Park where I could have a rest. By now, two hours had passed! And then they decided to come pick me up! During that time Gwen and the guys had been waiting for me by Britomart before I told them to go without me. Anyway the reason for the long wait was that my dad's appointment took much MUCH longer than expected!
I finally picked up the courage to ask my parents if I could go meet my friends in the city, and promised to be back home in time to deliver newspapers, but my parents did the whole guilt thing on me! They wanted to go have lunch at some Asian food court down K' Road! So I decided I'd go have lunch with them before meeting up with my friends!
Once again our family had a little disagreement over what we'd eat. My mum suggested this Malaysian restaurant, but as the weather was so hot we didn't think we'd be able to handle it! So we decided we'd just buy a $7.50 plate of food of our choice. We got a cup of tea with it too! :D
As soon as I finished that my family were about to go home before I asked them to drop me off at McDonald's down Queen St where Gwen and the others were. I got out at one end of Queen St and started powerwalking my way down that road. I then spotted Gwen, Aone, Esther and Rhea all standing outside McDonalds! I think they were about to leave. Jenna apparently got picked off the street by the Cut-Above Academy after being offered the chance to have her hair done for free (as a test I think), but it would take several hours! We decided we'd go up and visit her, but once we got to the right level, we asked the two women behind the counter if they saw the girl (Jenna) and...well I didn't really hear what they said. But according to the other girls they were snobby, especially when we couldn't find the button to the lift door! It was on the other side of the wall by the other lifts! That was a little silly! We walked down to Whitcoulls where we caught up with Alex, Zahir, Angie, Howdle (I know that's her surname but I'm not exactly too sure what her first name is...Natasha???) and Yeeping. We walked around checking out stuff on shelves like Barney educational DVD's and what-not. Well...we weren't really looking at stuff but just walking around talking to each other. Yeah sounds a little funny...socialising in Whitcoulls! :D Aone, Esther and Rhea disappeared somewhere, while Angie and Howdle went off somewhere else too. So it was just Gwen, Alex, Zahir and me again. We walked around a little longer, I talked to Gwen about the joys of uni, and then we decided we'd go down to Britomart. The others were originally going to watch a movie and have dinner in the city but decided to come back to Henderson early with me, sorry guys!!! We decided to catch the train back instead of the bus, since the others hadn't caught it before, and also since we'd get home earlier. The guy at the information booth must've thought us guys were crazy when I asked him how we could get tickets for the train. He (jokingly!) told us to go annoy the guy in the next booth, who happened to turn out to be the ticket salesperson!
We managed to jump onto the train. Gwen and Alex sat at one end of the train while I sat with Zahir a few rows down. It was cool going through the tunnel, but the ride was surprisingly slow with plenty of stops! Then again the last time I caught the train was the first time back in January last year! The train might've been the wrong option, as Gwen and Alex were starting to feel sick and there was this...different guy...on board! We finally got off in Henderson, and decided to check out the Japanese garden around the corner, where Zahir and Gwen jumped on fountains shooting up from the ground.
We then went to pick up Zahir's glasses which were ready, and then they all walked with me home. I got to show them my crusty house! :D It was a bit sad saying goodbye to them. It's been really fun hanging out with those guys lately! I wish I knew them all many years earlier! I'm going to try them visit regularly at school though, hopefully on a Friday when I finish uni by midday!
I was invited to the city to catch up with the year 12 group of guy/girls...maybe change that to year 13 now! (I keep thinking I'm still in 2006!) a couple days before, but I didn't ask my parents for permission to go because I was a little scared (yeah as crazy as it sounds!) since it was so close to the last time I went out. As it happens, yesterday morning was when my dad had an optometrist appointment in the city, and my mum thought I needed to ask some questions at university, so I decided to go in.
My dad went into the city in the morning by bus, and an hour later my brother drove my mum and me into the city. They dropped me off at the campus before going to pick my dad up. I went into the information centre to ask my question before waiting outside the Clock Tower for my brother to come round and pick me up. I stood there waiting, and waiting and waiting. Eight free City Link buses, three students with kids, an American tourist group and heaps and heaps of white cars passed by, but none with my brother in the driver's seat! I sat on the edge of the footpath waiting, then walked up and down the road checking out the car park, before deciding to find a park bench in Albert Park where I could have a rest. By now, two hours had passed! And then they decided to come pick me up! During that time Gwen and the guys had been waiting for me by Britomart before I told them to go without me. Anyway the reason for the long wait was that my dad's appointment took much MUCH longer than expected!
I finally picked up the courage to ask my parents if I could go meet my friends in the city, and promised to be back home in time to deliver newspapers, but my parents did the whole guilt thing on me! They wanted to go have lunch at some Asian food court down K' Road! So I decided I'd go have lunch with them before meeting up with my friends!
Once again our family had a little disagreement over what we'd eat. My mum suggested this Malaysian restaurant, but as the weather was so hot we didn't think we'd be able to handle it! So we decided we'd just buy a $7.50 plate of food of our choice. We got a cup of tea with it too! :D
As soon as I finished that my family were about to go home before I asked them to drop me off at McDonald's down Queen St where Gwen and the others were. I got out at one end of Queen St and started powerwalking my way down that road. I then spotted Gwen, Aone, Esther and Rhea all standing outside McDonalds! I think they were about to leave. Jenna apparently got picked off the street by the Cut-Above Academy after being offered the chance to have her hair done for free (as a test I think), but it would take several hours! We decided we'd go up and visit her, but once we got to the right level, we asked the two women behind the counter if they saw the girl (Jenna) and...well I didn't really hear what they said. But according to the other girls they were snobby, especially when we couldn't find the button to the lift door! It was on the other side of the wall by the other lifts! That was a little silly! We walked down to Whitcoulls where we caught up with Alex, Zahir, Angie, Howdle (I know that's her surname but I'm not exactly too sure what her first name is...Natasha???) and Yeeping. We walked around checking out stuff on shelves like Barney educational DVD's and what-not. Well...we weren't really looking at stuff but just walking around talking to each other. Yeah sounds a little funny...socialising in Whitcoulls! :D Aone, Esther and Rhea disappeared somewhere, while Angie and Howdle went off somewhere else too. So it was just Gwen, Alex, Zahir and me again. We walked around a little longer, I talked to Gwen about the joys of uni, and then we decided we'd go down to Britomart. The others were originally going to watch a movie and have dinner in the city but decided to come back to Henderson early with me, sorry guys!!! We decided to catch the train back instead of the bus, since the others hadn't caught it before, and also since we'd get home earlier. The guy at the information booth must've thought us guys were crazy when I asked him how we could get tickets for the train. He (jokingly!) told us to go annoy the guy in the next booth, who happened to turn out to be the ticket salesperson!
We managed to jump onto the train. Gwen and Alex sat at one end of the train while I sat with Zahir a few rows down. It was cool going through the tunnel, but the ride was surprisingly slow with plenty of stops! Then again the last time I caught the train was the first time back in January last year! The train might've been the wrong option, as Gwen and Alex were starting to feel sick and there was this...different guy...on board! We finally got off in Henderson, and decided to check out the Japanese garden around the corner, where Zahir and Gwen jumped on fountains shooting up from the ground.
We then went to pick up Zahir's glasses which were ready, and then they all walked with me home. I got to show them my crusty house! :D It was a bit sad saying goodbye to them. It's been really fun hanging out with those guys lately! I wish I knew them all many years earlier! I'm going to try them visit regularly at school though, hopefully on a Friday when I finish uni by midday!
Wednesday 24 January 2007
The Greatest Guys!
While my birthday wasn't so eventful, the last few days have been, thanks to my friends! On Monday I needed to go down to the bank to sort out student allowance stuff, so Aonghas and I walked down to WestCity to go do that (as mentioned in my last post) and then went to the vege shop to buy some bread. On the way there we checked out this car shop to look for car aerials. This guy immediately came up to us and asked if we needed any help, so we just had to sound like we knew what we were talking about! After that was over we went into the bread shop to get our bread and we met this girl Sophie (I think? From Rutherford?) that Aonghas knows and that I remember buying chocolate from last year!
When I got home my mum passed me this birthday card, and I opened it to find it was from Melissa and Kat! While I was out they had come by (Melissa? Driving? *cough cough* :P) and dropped it off with my mum. Inside it was a $20 Vodafone top-up voucher! Just what I always wanted! Thanks guys soooo much for that trouble!! They didn't have to do that for me! I've promised that I'm going to take them out for lunch sometime as a small thank-you gesture! So I spent 40c replying to them and thanking them before Melissa told me I was supposed to buy TXT2000. Duhhh. So I finally did that today and now I have 2000 txts to send! Yay!! I'm not used to sending txts though, ever since free weekend txtn was over and it's been about three months since I last txted obsessively! Anyway now you'll get a reply if you txt me! :D
Another surprise came to me when I found out not too long ago that a few of my friends had organised a little birthday 'outing' for me! So yesterday Chen came over in the morning to pick Aonghas and me up from our house and took us round to Gwen's house, where I found Alex, Zahir and Angie there as well! Zahir gave me this book on Worst Case Scenarios for Dating and Sex (very helpful!!!), while Chen gave me this book of jokes (very funny!!). Alex bought me a polo shirt from Hallensteins while Gwen and Angie did this huge collage of Rutherford memories for me which was really nice! I've put that up on my wall now so when I go in there I can remember all those good times! Thanks you guys!! You guys as well didn't have to get me anything either!!!
We hung around in Gwen's bedroom playing with her BIG ball, with Zahir making a little scratch on her wall, and a few of us knocking each other over and nearly smacking her computer. Aonghas and I also got to try out Alex's new phone which is so cool, a 3.2 mega pixel Sony Cybershot phone! It's better than my old phone! I've been looking at it for a while and waiting for the price to drop, but it was cool playing with hers!
We then all decided to go outside for lunch, so we strolled over to Woolworths to buy some food (with Gwen and Alex sneaking around the place trying to hide from their manager I think!), and then we went across the road to the fish 'n' chip shop to buy some...fish and chips. While we were waiting outside on the footpath Mrs Reid came by! It took me a little while to remember her name, and it hasn't even been that long since I left Rutherford!! She said I was welcome to come back and visit her anytime so I'll do that!
Once we got the food we went back across the road to the nearby park to eat it. That was amusing with the cups and forks flying around and Aonghas and I getting soaked in L&P. That was OK though as we couldn't finish it anyway! We went back to Gwen's to play a little bit of Singstar, mainly because I wanted to hear Chen and Angie sing!! Now I've got a recording of it ;)
Time was running out so they got out my cake, and did a fast forward version Happy Birthday and I blew out the candles being sure not to spread germs, and then the cake was distributed! We then had 15 minutes to walk down to the bus stop! We got there in time but the bus didn't arrive for several minutes so we were a little anxious, but sure enough it came late! We all got on and I ended up having a conversation with Angie who I was sitting next to during the bus trip.
When we got to the city we went over to IMAX and bought our movie tickets to 'Night at the Museum'. Aonghas was going to use his 'movie money' voucher but the guy at the counter asked him if he REEALLY wanted to use it on the discount day! So Aonghas changed his mind.
We got in the theatre early and we were the only ones sitting there. Angie, Zahir and I were all sitting next to each other, the guys with the really bad eyesight. Although even though Zahir's glasses got munted at Big Day Out he could still see the screen without them, while Angie and I couldn't without our glasses! The movie was really good nonetheless! We hung out at the arcade afterwards, where Zahir beat Gwen, Chen beat Aonghas (and me for the last three points, but that's just because I didn't have enough time to warm up ;) ) and...I can't remember who won between Chen and Zahir but it was really close! By now it was approaching 6pm so we flipped a coin to decide whether to eat at IMAX or at this pizza place. In the end it was the pizza place.
The pizza place which wasn't too far from TVNZ or Sky City was very posh, the poshest place I've eaten at before! We ordered three large pizzas, Mexicana, American(a) and the other one...(can't remember what it's called...). They all tasted great and as expected us guys were left finishing it all as the girls got full. Zahir mistook a waitress to be a cleaner and asked the waitress to get a waitress!
Once all the food was gone we started walking down Queen St to Britomart to wait for the bus. We got back at about 9pm and just talked and shared stuff in Gwen's room, until my mum came to pick all of us guys up at 10pm.
Thanks once again Kat, Melissa, Gwen, Alex, Zahir, Chen and Angie for making it a memorable 18th birthday afterall and thanks again to Gwen for organising a day out for me!!
When I got home my mum passed me this birthday card, and I opened it to find it was from Melissa and Kat! While I was out they had come by (Melissa? Driving? *cough cough* :P) and dropped it off with my mum. Inside it was a $20 Vodafone top-up voucher! Just what I always wanted! Thanks guys soooo much for that trouble!! They didn't have to do that for me! I've promised that I'm going to take them out for lunch sometime as a small thank-you gesture! So I spent 40c replying to them and thanking them before Melissa told me I was supposed to buy TXT2000. Duhhh. So I finally did that today and now I have 2000 txts to send! Yay!! I'm not used to sending txts though, ever since free weekend txtn was over and it's been about three months since I last txted obsessively! Anyway now you'll get a reply if you txt me! :D
Another surprise came to me when I found out not too long ago that a few of my friends had organised a little birthday 'outing' for me! So yesterday Chen came over in the morning to pick Aonghas and me up from our house and took us round to Gwen's house, where I found Alex, Zahir and Angie there as well! Zahir gave me this book on Worst Case Scenarios for Dating and Sex (very helpful!!!), while Chen gave me this book of jokes (very funny!!). Alex bought me a polo shirt from Hallensteins while Gwen and Angie did this huge collage of Rutherford memories for me which was really nice! I've put that up on my wall now so when I go in there I can remember all those good times! Thanks you guys!! You guys as well didn't have to get me anything either!!!
We hung around in Gwen's bedroom playing with her BIG ball, with Zahir making a little scratch on her wall, and a few of us knocking each other over and nearly smacking her computer. Aonghas and I also got to try out Alex's new phone which is so cool, a 3.2 mega pixel Sony Cybershot phone! It's better than my old phone! I've been looking at it for a while and waiting for the price to drop, but it was cool playing with hers!
We then all decided to go outside for lunch, so we strolled over to Woolworths to buy some food (with Gwen and Alex sneaking around the place trying to hide from their manager I think!), and then we went across the road to the fish 'n' chip shop to buy some...fish and chips. While we were waiting outside on the footpath Mrs Reid came by! It took me a little while to remember her name, and it hasn't even been that long since I left Rutherford!! She said I was welcome to come back and visit her anytime so I'll do that!
Once we got the food we went back across the road to the nearby park to eat it. That was amusing with the cups and forks flying around and Aonghas and I getting soaked in L&P. That was OK though as we couldn't finish it anyway! We went back to Gwen's to play a little bit of Singstar, mainly because I wanted to hear Chen and Angie sing!! Now I've got a recording of it ;)
Time was running out so they got out my cake, and did a fast forward version Happy Birthday and I blew out the candles being sure not to spread germs, and then the cake was distributed! We then had 15 minutes to walk down to the bus stop! We got there in time but the bus didn't arrive for several minutes so we were a little anxious, but sure enough it came late! We all got on and I ended up having a conversation with Angie who I was sitting next to during the bus trip.
When we got to the city we went over to IMAX and bought our movie tickets to 'Night at the Museum'. Aonghas was going to use his 'movie money' voucher but the guy at the counter asked him if he REEALLY wanted to use it on the discount day! So Aonghas changed his mind.
We got in the theatre early and we were the only ones sitting there. Angie, Zahir and I were all sitting next to each other, the guys with the really bad eyesight. Although even though Zahir's glasses got munted at Big Day Out he could still see the screen without them, while Angie and I couldn't without our glasses! The movie was really good nonetheless! We hung out at the arcade afterwards, where Zahir beat Gwen, Chen beat Aonghas (and me for the last three points, but that's just because I didn't have enough time to warm up ;) ) and...I can't remember who won between Chen and Zahir but it was really close! By now it was approaching 6pm so we flipped a coin to decide whether to eat at IMAX or at this pizza place. In the end it was the pizza place.
The pizza place which wasn't too far from TVNZ or Sky City was very posh, the poshest place I've eaten at before! We ordered three large pizzas, Mexicana, American(a) and the other one...(can't remember what it's called...). They all tasted great and as expected us guys were left finishing it all as the girls got full. Zahir mistook a waitress to be a cleaner and asked the waitress to get a waitress!
Once all the food was gone we started walking down Queen St to Britomart to wait for the bus. We got back at about 9pm and just talked and shared stuff in Gwen's room, until my mum came to pick all of us guys up at 10pm.
Thanks once again Kat, Melissa, Gwen, Alex, Zahir, Chen and Angie for making it a memorable 18th birthday afterall and thanks again to Gwen for organising a day out for me!!
Sorry Saga of the Student Allowance Struggle
On Monday I received ANOTHER letter from StudyLink asking me for proof of my bank account information for the THIRD time for my student allowance!! Here's what has happened so far:
- Way back in December as you may recall I went into the StudyLink office in the city to provide all my documents for the first time upon applying online. They accepted my application form, my birth certificate, but not the letter from my employer nor my bank statement, as I got it from an ATM machine and it didn't have my name on it.
- After receiving a bank statement in the mail in early January, I decided to return to the city office to provide my bank statement and this time a letter stating I won't be employed till after I start uni. The StudyLink people accepted both and submitted them.
- A few days later I got a letter telling me they couldn't accept my bank statement (for some unknown reason), and so I rang StudyLink to find out what was wrong. A very apologetic man told me that while the letter regarding my employment was accepted he had no idea why my bank statement wasn't, and said I had two options. I could either try again by bringing my bank statement down to my local WINZ office, or he could try find out what happened, which would take several weeks. He thought the former was the best option.
- The next day (last Friday) I drove to WINZ (all by myself! :D...with my dad beside me...) and gave them my bank statement, which the guy said he'd fax to StudyLink
- On Monday I got another letter from StudyLink asking for proof of my bank account number by bank statement or other verified document! I rang StudyLink and they told me they hadn't received anything since the last bank statement I provided to the city office! They recommended I go back to WINZ to find the guy I dealt with and ask if he faxed it.
Where I'm up to now? I decided I would go down to the bank, ask the bank manager for a statement/letter with my bank account number and have it stamped and signed. As Hamish had to go into the city yesterday for Summer School anyway, he took in both the letter as well as the bank statement and provided it to the city office. They said they only required the bank statement. Hopefully third time lucky!!!
- Way back in December as you may recall I went into the StudyLink office in the city to provide all my documents for the first time upon applying online. They accepted my application form, my birth certificate, but not the letter from my employer nor my bank statement, as I got it from an ATM machine and it didn't have my name on it.
- After receiving a bank statement in the mail in early January, I decided to return to the city office to provide my bank statement and this time a letter stating I won't be employed till after I start uni. The StudyLink people accepted both and submitted them.
- A few days later I got a letter telling me they couldn't accept my bank statement (for some unknown reason), and so I rang StudyLink to find out what was wrong. A very apologetic man told me that while the letter regarding my employment was accepted he had no idea why my bank statement wasn't, and said I had two options. I could either try again by bringing my bank statement down to my local WINZ office, or he could try find out what happened, which would take several weeks. He thought the former was the best option.
- The next day (last Friday) I drove to WINZ (all by myself! :D...with my dad beside me...) and gave them my bank statement, which the guy said he'd fax to StudyLink
- On Monday I got another letter from StudyLink asking for proof of my bank account number by bank statement or other verified document! I rang StudyLink and they told me they hadn't received anything since the last bank statement I provided to the city office! They recommended I go back to WINZ to find the guy I dealt with and ask if he faxed it.
Where I'm up to now? I decided I would go down to the bank, ask the bank manager for a statement/letter with my bank account number and have it stamped and signed. As Hamish had to go into the city yesterday for Summer School anyway, he took in both the letter as well as the bank statement and provided it to the city office. They said they only required the bank statement. Hopefully third time lucky!!!
Monday 22 January 2007
The Perks of Being Eighteen
My 18th birthday has been...well not too spectacular. Usually people look forward to turning 18 because they can drink illegally. Alright people who have told me to drink, I will drink...water! :D What else could I look forward to?
- Voting!! Yay!!!
- Marrying without the consent of my parents...don't have anyone to marry anyway!
- Go clubbing
- Buying or being in porn
- Getting or being a hooker
Maybe not so much the last two...
I spent the morning at church. This service was probably the first one I fell asleep in in a little while, but the Sunday School class was fun. We played a few games and actually discussed relevant issues, like should Christians believe in UFOs? That never really hit me! My mum went off to the flea market while we were at Sunday School so when we came out we had no money or plates for lunch, and one of the church people ended up offering to pay for us. We will pay him back! We sat next to the Sunday School teachers and I ended up having this long conversation with one of the guys about religion and everything.
We stopped off briefly at Westcity so Aonghas could pick something up from work before coming home. We noticed some dried up metal on the steps, and when we opened the door, we noticed a strong burning smell. The first thing we went straight to was..the computer!!! OK that was alright! Now we had to investigate where this strong burning smell was coming from just in case a fire was about to start. We narrowed it down to the stove where we noticed the area around the front element covered in ash, and the panels for the ventilation thing above removed. After my mum came in to have a look, she told us to look for a pot, and we found one outside with burnt white beans inside it and dried up metal stuck to the base of the pot. The culprit! What happened: my mum decided to boil green bean soup before we went off to church, but she forgot about it and so it was boiling for over an hour. When my dad got home he found the house filled with smoke. It's 1.10am now and the house still stinks after opening every window in the house for the whole day!
I spent most of the day using, or playing, with our new vacuum cleaner, cleaning the lounge carpet as best as I could! The rest of the evening was spent on the computer, and then just recently Aonghas's external hard drive fell off the coffee table and now it's damaged with all the data lost. Oh what a great birthday!
Yeah things don't usually seem to go well on my birthday. George Bush was elected on this day a few years ago and Hamish broke his arm further back. Oh well! Memorable times!
I didn't get anything for my birthday but I got emails and txts which was cool. Thanks Phoebe, Diane, Alex D, Alex S, Gwen, Chen, Julia, Szelin, Zippo (I think), David, Alice (wow), Amy, Ellyce, Rhea, Julie, Zahir, Esther, Shen, Janice, Jacqueline, Cookie Bear, Melissa and Kat for remembering my birthday! (let me know if I missed you out!) I only found out my dad didn't even remember until it was nearly over!
I didn't plan on having any party till Melissa and Kat asked me, and so I started thinking about it (this was about a week before!), but then it hit me that I don't really know what people do at birthday parties! My mum said our house was out of bounds due to it being such a big mess, and so I wouldn't know where to have one anyway. It most likely would've been the most boring party anyone's been to as well! Maybe next year!
So here we go for another year!
- Voting!! Yay!!!
- Marrying without the consent of my parents...don't have anyone to marry anyway!
- Go clubbing
- Buying or being in porn
- Getting or being a hooker
Maybe not so much the last two...
I spent the morning at church. This service was probably the first one I fell asleep in in a little while, but the Sunday School class was fun. We played a few games and actually discussed relevant issues, like should Christians believe in UFOs? That never really hit me! My mum went off to the flea market while we were at Sunday School so when we came out we had no money or plates for lunch, and one of the church people ended up offering to pay for us. We will pay him back! We sat next to the Sunday School teachers and I ended up having this long conversation with one of the guys about religion and everything.
We stopped off briefly at Westcity so Aonghas could pick something up from work before coming home. We noticed some dried up metal on the steps, and when we opened the door, we noticed a strong burning smell. The first thing we went straight to was..the computer!!! OK that was alright! Now we had to investigate where this strong burning smell was coming from just in case a fire was about to start. We narrowed it down to the stove where we noticed the area around the front element covered in ash, and the panels for the ventilation thing above removed. After my mum came in to have a look, she told us to look for a pot, and we found one outside with burnt white beans inside it and dried up metal stuck to the base of the pot. The culprit! What happened: my mum decided to boil green bean soup before we went off to church, but she forgot about it and so it was boiling for over an hour. When my dad got home he found the house filled with smoke. It's 1.10am now and the house still stinks after opening every window in the house for the whole day!
I spent most of the day using, or playing, with our new vacuum cleaner, cleaning the lounge carpet as best as I could! The rest of the evening was spent on the computer, and then just recently Aonghas's external hard drive fell off the coffee table and now it's damaged with all the data lost. Oh what a great birthday!
Yeah things don't usually seem to go well on my birthday. George Bush was elected on this day a few years ago and Hamish broke his arm further back. Oh well! Memorable times!
I didn't get anything for my birthday but I got emails and txts which was cool. Thanks Phoebe, Diane, Alex D, Alex S, Gwen, Chen, Julia, Szelin, Zippo (I think), David, Alice (wow), Amy, Ellyce, Rhea, Julie, Zahir, Esther, Shen, Janice, Jacqueline, Cookie Bear, Melissa and Kat for remembering my birthday! (let me know if I missed you out!) I only found out my dad didn't even remember until it was nearly over!
I didn't plan on having any party till Melissa and Kat asked me, and so I started thinking about it (this was about a week before!), but then it hit me that I don't really know what people do at birthday parties! My mum said our house was out of bounds due to it being such a big mess, and so I wouldn't know where to have one anyway. It most likely would've been the most boring party anyone's been to as well! Maybe next year!
So here we go for another year!
Sunday 21 January 2007
Big Day In
So while thousands of people spent their day at the Big Day Out, I stayed in at home having fun...tidying up the house! OK so I thought I'd try join in the fun by watching a bit of C4's lousy live broadcast from the event. No surprises there, it was lousy! After an hour of garble garble garble from the talking heads of C4 interviewing random people who had nothing much to say, I switched channels to catch a bit of Bert's Family Feud! Yesss!!! A game show I never really got...
In other telly news it was sad to see Tyson leave on Beauty and the Geek. He was representing Asians everywhere, and doing a heck of a job! Just a shame his partner couldn't answer a few more questions! Does anyone else think that that girl Cher look part Asian though? Not that it's important or anything!
TV TV...boy there was a bit of good telly on this week what with Heroes and Ugly Betty! I can't wait for some of the other upcoming series starting in the next couple of weeks! I surprisingly enjoyed Heroes, and thought that Japanese guy was funny with his accent and everything, and good on Betty for representing us uglies out there!
I was thinking in bed the other night, with TV2 having Desperate Housewives on Monday, Amazing Race/Ugly Betty on Tuesday, Lost/ER on Wednesday, Grey's Anatomy on Thursday (apparently..) and Supernatural/Smallville on Fridays, I won't have any reason to change the channel!
Us Anderson brothers have been avidly watching the second season of 24 after getting through the first season in December. Apparently season six won't b shown on TV3 till June so that gives us time to get through seasons three to five!
OK OK besides TV I've been starting to do more regular driving practice with all these little year 12 youngsters (I'm starting to feel old) catching up to me and about to overtake me! I've driven to the cemetery a few times to help do up my grandparents' graves with some flowers. My mum planted some flowers so now there's a bit of colour!
I got an email from an old friend who actually used to be my old principal back at primary school. It's funny that not only do we have our birthdays on the same day but we both have an interest in aviation and planes (mine has somewhat lessened over the years since primary but I'm sure it's still there in me!). It's good to hear from him after a while! He hasn't had such a great year which isn't too good though.
Anyway it's the 21st today and I'm off to bed so I can wake up to feel a whole year older! :D
In other telly news it was sad to see Tyson leave on Beauty and the Geek. He was representing Asians everywhere, and doing a heck of a job! Just a shame his partner couldn't answer a few more questions! Does anyone else think that that girl Cher look part Asian though? Not that it's important or anything!
TV TV...boy there was a bit of good telly on this week what with Heroes and Ugly Betty! I can't wait for some of the other upcoming series starting in the next couple of weeks! I surprisingly enjoyed Heroes, and thought that Japanese guy was funny with his accent and everything, and good on Betty for representing us uglies out there!
I was thinking in bed the other night, with TV2 having Desperate Housewives on Monday, Amazing Race/Ugly Betty on Tuesday, Lost/ER on Wednesday, Grey's Anatomy on Thursday (apparently..) and Supernatural/Smallville on Fridays, I won't have any reason to change the channel!
Us Anderson brothers have been avidly watching the second season of 24 after getting through the first season in December. Apparently season six won't b shown on TV3 till June so that gives us time to get through seasons three to five!
OK OK besides TV I've been starting to do more regular driving practice with all these little year 12 youngsters (I'm starting to feel old) catching up to me and about to overtake me! I've driven to the cemetery a few times to help do up my grandparents' graves with some flowers. My mum planted some flowers so now there's a bit of colour!
I got an email from an old friend who actually used to be my old principal back at primary school. It's funny that not only do we have our birthdays on the same day but we both have an interest in aviation and planes (mine has somewhat lessened over the years since primary but I'm sure it's still there in me!). It's good to hear from him after a while! He hasn't had such a great year which isn't too good though.
Anyway it's the 21st today and I'm off to bed so I can wake up to feel a whole year older! :D
Friday 19 January 2007
Fixing Things Up
After doing a lot of digging and shifting of dirt the day before our family decided we'd go out initially just to drop Hamish off at university as well as let me try find out some information about the courses I got approved for so I could make an 'informed' decision. Well we did that, and then ended up going all the way to Penrose because Aonghas wanted to buy some more CD's and DVD's!
Since we were over there we decided to buy noodles from the noodle factory (you could even smell the noodles from the street!) and then go off to our favourite yumcha in South Auckland. That was yummy as usual!
There happened to be a market on the other side of the road so we walked around having a look. I was thinking about getting a beanie saying 'Samoan' on it, you know to make me fit in with the rest of the homies..but yeah I didn't bring my $2 with me. We did meet up with the key-cutter man my mum met at the car boot sale over in Henderson and so she got a couple copies of my car key done.
We then went to Bunnings Warehouse, where we had a look around, and in the end only bought flowers for my nana's grave to spruce it up. I drove there with my dad the other day and all that is there at the moment are just two lonely plastic flowers! So it's up to us to beautify the grave!!
Conveniently Super Cheap Autos was right beside Bunnings Warehouse, so Aonghas my mum and I took a quick look to see if there were any hub caps for sale there (obviously there was!) There were two sizes of them though, 14" and 12"! We weren't too sure how big ours were so my mum brought in the broken one that we had in the boot. We looked really gumbie carrying around a dirty hub cap with us! We bought a set of hub caps and put them on when we got home. I never knew how many different types of hub caps there are out there until we bought some! I was staring at the hub caps of all the cars passing by!! Well now hopefully ours won't fall off the car any time soon!
Since we were over there we decided to buy noodles from the noodle factory (you could even smell the noodles from the street!) and then go off to our favourite yumcha in South Auckland. That was yummy as usual!
There happened to be a market on the other side of the road so we walked around having a look. I was thinking about getting a beanie saying 'Samoan' on it, you know to make me fit in with the rest of the homies..but yeah I didn't bring my $2 with me. We did meet up with the key-cutter man my mum met at the car boot sale over in Henderson and so she got a couple copies of my car key done.
We then went to Bunnings Warehouse, where we had a look around, and in the end only bought flowers for my nana's grave to spruce it up. I drove there with my dad the other day and all that is there at the moment are just two lonely plastic flowers! So it's up to us to beautify the grave!!
Conveniently Super Cheap Autos was right beside Bunnings Warehouse, so Aonghas my mum and I took a quick look to see if there were any hub caps for sale there (obviously there was!) There were two sizes of them though, 14" and 12"! We weren't too sure how big ours were so my mum brought in the broken one that we had in the boot. We looked really gumbie carrying around a dirty hub cap with us! We bought a set of hub caps and put them on when we got home. I never knew how many different types of hub caps there are out there until we bought some! I was staring at the hub caps of all the cars passing by!! Well now hopefully ours won't fall off the car any time soon!
Thursday 18 January 2007
A Pass
I woke up early, a little excited but mostly worried about what my NCEA results would be like once I got them from the mail. All I saw lying on the coffee table was a letter from StudyLink to Hamish (I swear that boy has received over ten letters from them!!!) and nothing else! I was trying not to give up hope that they wouldn't come, but how often does the mail arrive each day anyway?
So I thought I would try take my mind off NCEA by helping my dad shift some sand in the backyard. There's this big pile of sand in the corner of our property that is supposed to be used to make paths, but when we were little kids we used to use it as a sandpit, making volcanoes, avalanches and the rest. We were going to shift the sand to the area beside the house to make way for a possible garden shed.
After a while I decided I couldn't fight my need to know my results so I went back inside, searched the net and found out that NCEA results would be posted online sometime mid-afternoon, but not wanting to wait I just went straight on to find my results, and the words to describe them:
TERRIBLE miserable EMBARRASSING shameful
So this was the second time I passed NCEA Level 3 and get University Entrance, not that the first one counts anymore according to Auckland University! I thought I did badly in my Chinese exam, and yes I did! My parents weren't too happy, and were pretty disappointed! Aonghas checked his results afterwards and they weren't too bad, although a few were missing.
I later checked the Auckland University website to find out that I've been approved for Biomedical Science! Later on in the day I was approved for Health Science as well! I still haven't heard anything about my application for Law/Commerce and Law/Engineering, but because they were my two lowest choices maybe I was given a miss for them. My mum seems to think this is some sign from God - that because I missed out on the law scholarship and that I haven't yet been approved for the two law degrees I have applied for, he probably wants me to go into health/science! I'm going to have to think about this all over again now!
Mrs Russell, a teacher at Rutherford rang later in the day today. Being the typical slow, clueless me it was a bit of a weird one:
(Mrs Russell) "Hi Calum, is Aonghas around, or is he at work at the moment?"
(Me) "Hi oh he's not working today but he just went out with our dad to pick some stuff up"
(not knowing who I'm speaking to...definitely not Chen! Possibly a guy or my aunty??)
(Mrs Russell) "Oh OK, just wanted to ask him about his results. Did he do alright?"
(Me) "Uhhhhhh....results......."
(Right now trying to figure out what she means by results....his accordion exam results?????)
(Mrs Russell) "You know...the results...Chen told me you did pretty well?"
(Me) "Ooooooooh you're Mrs Russell!!!!!"
(Mrs Russell) "Yeah, just a minor detail..."
In the afternoon we finished shifting the sand after having to carry bucketloads of it across the back lawn. I'm sure I must've gotten a bit of exercise from doing that!
Fortunately my parents were in a better mood and were kinda cheered up by the fact we had actually done something constructive today, so my mum went out and bought Chinese takeaways for dinner! Yay!
Oh and for the record, I won't be running through the school naked :D
So I thought I would try take my mind off NCEA by helping my dad shift some sand in the backyard. There's this big pile of sand in the corner of our property that is supposed to be used to make paths, but when we were little kids we used to use it as a sandpit, making volcanoes, avalanches and the rest. We were going to shift the sand to the area beside the house to make way for a possible garden shed.
After a while I decided I couldn't fight my need to know my results so I went back inside, searched the net and found out that NCEA results would be posted online sometime mid-afternoon, but not wanting to wait I just went straight on to find my results, and the words to describe them:
TERRIBLE miserable EMBARRASSING shameful
So this was the second time I passed NCEA Level 3 and get University Entrance, not that the first one counts anymore according to Auckland University! I thought I did badly in my Chinese exam, and yes I did! My parents weren't too happy, and were pretty disappointed! Aonghas checked his results afterwards and they weren't too bad, although a few were missing.
I later checked the Auckland University website to find out that I've been approved for Biomedical Science! Later on in the day I was approved for Health Science as well! I still haven't heard anything about my application for Law/Commerce and Law/Engineering, but because they were my two lowest choices maybe I was given a miss for them. My mum seems to think this is some sign from God - that because I missed out on the law scholarship and that I haven't yet been approved for the two law degrees I have applied for, he probably wants me to go into health/science! I'm going to have to think about this all over again now!
Mrs Russell, a teacher at Rutherford rang later in the day today. Being the typical slow, clueless me it was a bit of a weird one:
(Mrs Russell) "Hi Calum, is Aonghas around, or is he at work at the moment?"
(Me) "Hi oh he's not working today but he just went out with our dad to pick some stuff up"
(not knowing who I'm speaking to...definitely not Chen! Possibly a guy or my aunty??)
(Mrs Russell) "Oh OK, just wanted to ask him about his results. Did he do alright?"
(Me) "Uhhhhhh....results......."
(Right now trying to figure out what she means by results....his accordion exam results?????)
(Mrs Russell) "You know...the results...Chen told me you did pretty well?"
(Me) "Ooooooooh you're Mrs Russell!!!!!"
(Mrs Russell) "Yeah, just a minor detail..."
In the afternoon we finished shifting the sand after having to carry bucketloads of it across the back lawn. I'm sure I must've gotten a bit of exercise from doing that!
Fortunately my parents were in a better mood and were kinda cheered up by the fact we had actually done something constructive today, so my mum went out and bought Chinese takeaways for dinner! Yay!
Oh and for the record, I won't be running through the school naked :D
Tuesday 16 January 2007
Shock Horror
RIP RYDIA (for two days ago - our last big goldfish!!!!)
First of all sorry to all those people I was chatting to tonight! My internet screwed up and wouldn't let me receive or send messages! It then took me ages and ages to get back on!
Anyway what have I been doing? Nothing...except for watching TV, playing on the computer and occasionally practising driving, oh yeah and washing and hanging out clothes. Most of the time I've been either home alone or at home with my mum while Aonghas and my dad have been at work and Hamish at summer school (again).
In between those things though, a few things have happened.
Today Colmar Brunton rang asking to survey someone over 50, but I said no one was available, and then they asked me if I wanted to take part in research, so being the guy that I am I said OK! Hey I mean answering a few questions about my preferences could be fun, right? And what better things have I got to do with my time? Later that night a lady rang asking for me, and then went on to ask me a few questions. That is when she mentioned that I would be paid for taking part! I think it's something like $30, so that wouldn't be so bad! The lady asked me all these questions I could only really answer no for:
Do you smoke? No
Do you drink alcohol? No
Do you drink spirits? No
Do you run your own business? No
Do you have pay TV? No
Do you have a cheque account? No
Do you ever travel on business? No
Yesterday when I went with my mum to Westcity to drop Aonghas off at work, I met Melissa who was on her way to a job interview! My mum and I were just walking into the carpark when I saw this girl coming towards me from the opposite direction and I thought hey that's not Melissa is it? (I've only met her in person twice before so yeah I didn't want to make a fool of myself!) And yes it was!!! So that was cool. Talked to her for a short little while before I had to let her go to her job interview.
Tonight while my mum drove Aonghas home from work in my car, the hub cap came off one of the wheels! What's worse is that it came off down Great North Road!!! Well thank goodness I wasn't in the car at the time! Aonghas told me though that fortunately the hub cap stopped on a median strip so they were able to retrieve it! Oh it just gets better and better doesn't it!
Today I watched Mulan on TV for the first time. I never knew the song Reflections was from that movie! Ruby this Korean girl who used to go to Rutherford and was Rutherford idol 1 runner-up sang that song, and it has stuck with me ever since! She's since gone back to Korea, so the twins will get to hang out with her more now! No longer a flight away and an ocean separating them! Anyway Mulan really does look like my friend!...in cartoon form of course...
And last of all NCEA results might be coming out tomorrow!!! I'm so seriously scared more than any other year!!! I know I'll fail something in Chinese, that's a definite given. History - maybe, chemistry - maybe...I had a nightmare last night that I didn't get accepted into two of the four courses I chose to do at Auckland University!! Hopefully dreams won't come true! I reassured someone that they would pass NCEA or else I would run through their school naked, so hope all goes well for her!
Saturday 13 January 2007
More Space More Time
Ever since the children's holiday programme finished I've resumed my daily programme of doing nothing, although after ...I have no idea what, Aonghas got keen on upgrading our computer. I'm not too sure why, possibly because we just got a 19" monitor or the fact that we have less than a couple gigabytes of free diskspace left on the computer. Anyway after reading stuff on the net, he started promoting the idea of getting a new CPU case so we could put in more hard drives! At first we only had two hard drives, an 80 and a 250 gigabyte hard drive. We had no more bays left to put in more hard drives so our other one was a 250gb external. While we could've put a couple in the spare bays supposed to be for CD-ROM drives, we would've needed some PCI adaptor card as well as a new fan. So Aonghas started promoting getting a new CPU case that had 12 drive bays! Surprisingly my parents bought into his idea! I have no idea how Aonghas does it! Good thing he's got a job selling stuff!
So in the past few days we've been driving around to different computer shops buying all sorts of bits and pieces and now we have an extra 500gb and a new black CPU case with this big fan at the front (and a blue neon light) and two more USB ports at the front. We're just ten short from a terrabyte! At least that means we can now finish Ryan's Rutherford Idol DVD after two years of delay!
Yesterday after going into the city to get the CPU case, I went in to uni to complete my student allowance application after the lady rang me the day before and helped me out a bit. Hopefully I'll get some sort of confirmation and then all I'll have to do is wait for uni to start to receive some money! :D
I've also been doing women's jobs around the house such as washing the clothes, hanging the clothes and watering the garden (OK I'm joking I'm not a sexist! They are chores around the house!) I've also done a bit of driving but car parking is really frustrating me as I can't really see the white line on the ground as I turn to park! At the moment I'm practising in empty carparks (and rightfully so!) and so it's a little hard judging whether I've cut the line or not! More practising to do...
So in the past few days we've been driving around to different computer shops buying all sorts of bits and pieces and now we have an extra 500gb and a new black CPU case with this big fan at the front (and a blue neon light) and two more USB ports at the front. We're just ten short from a terrabyte! At least that means we can now finish Ryan's Rutherford Idol DVD after two years of delay!
Yesterday after going into the city to get the CPU case, I went in to uni to complete my student allowance application after the lady rang me the day before and helped me out a bit. Hopefully I'll get some sort of confirmation and then all I'll have to do is wait for uni to start to receive some money! :D
I've also been doing women's jobs around the house such as washing the clothes, hanging the clothes and watering the garden (OK I'm joking I'm not a sexist! They are chores around the house!) I've also done a bit of driving but car parking is really frustrating me as I can't really see the white line on the ground as I turn to park! At the moment I'm practising in empty carparks (and rightfully so!) and so it's a little hard judging whether I've cut the line or not! More practising to do...
Yesterday the folk from Restaurant Brands rang me up asking if I still wanted the job at their call centre that I applied for last month. At first I said OH YIP! But then I asked if I could consult...first... and the lady said that was fine. I asked my mum and she started saying it wouldn't be convenient since the job was in the city, so I had to tell the lady that I wouldn't be able to take up the job as I had...things...going on now. I must sound like a real dork sometimes!
Wednesday 10 January 2007
Little Kids
HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY DIANE!!
Today was the last day of the holiday programme for the kids at church, and so it was a little sad! I had gotten to know quite a few of these kids as well as some of the other helpers and now it was about to end! As with Monday and Tuesday, we started off with singing. Aonghas and I played the song Father Abraham on our accordions while the little kids sang and did the actions with the singing leaders. We had to play the song fast, and then slow, and then normal.
After that we played some games such as all the boys trying to kick this huge ball out of a circle only with our feet while the girls around the outside of the circle had to try keep it in. For the record us boys won! (unlike yesterday when the boys lost to the girls in Tug o' War!! I think there were definitely more girls!) We ended with a round of the limbo. I ended up having a go but didn't do so well!
After the games we went back to the mat to listen to some stories, learn a bit about Aslan (in the Chronicles of Narnia) and learn some memory verse as well as do a few other activities. One of them was that each kid had to write a sin on a piece of paper and then pin it onto the big cross. It was interesting to see what the kids wrote on their pieces of paper. Most of them wrote swearing, fighting and bullying, but I saw someone put down suicide!
We then had morning tea, which was the usual biscuits, corn chips, strawberries and juice. The interesting part began during craft work though. We were all in our groups helping the children make triangle pyramid-shaped 'lanterns', and I somehow ended up helping and talking to the girls in the group. There was one girl who was basically asking me to do everything for her. I tried to help her out a bit, and while I was, the girls and I ended up having this conversation about ice-cream. I was asking them if they liked these different flavours of ice-cream that I liked, like gingerbread, cookies and cream, rocky road, and even goody goody gumdrops and each time the girls would go
"EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!"
One girl said I probably ate feces-flavoured ice-cream! That girl told me about how she has an ice-cream maker and I tried asking her how she made ice-cream (with the ice-cream maker) and she replied:
"With an ice-cream maker...duuuuuuuuhhhh!!"
Man those girls were meanies! One of them asked me if I liked sour stuff and got me to try this sour powder and then they all watched me as I cringed while consuming it! Another group borrowed our group's cellotape so I went around trying to look for some, and I was standing in the way of a photo so the photo-taker called my name out. Not so long after I found the cellotape, quickly took a long strip and sneaked off, leaving some girl from that group calling out
"Stealer!!!!!"
I know not a good look in front of the kids at church! To my defence I was using it, not stealing it! When I got back to my group the girls started calling me naughty! They were even planning on chasing me after the programme! That didn't eventuate fortunately.
When time was up the kids had to go back to the mat for prize-giving. My group 'Aslan' came last...sadly! I have no idea how that happened!!
Once all the kids left, us helpers and a few of the kids still there had lunch. I was sitting with this little guy called Raymond, the guy who started calling me and getting others to call me Salad. Man he was a machine at eating dumplings! Then while we were eating he was explaining why he sometimes gets watery eyes and feels like vomiting, but doesn't vomit in the end, this while I was trying to eat as well!
Helping out in the past three days was so much fun! I got to know quite a few people at church and hopefully they got to know me! I also learnt a lot! Boy I wish I went to the children's services, they must be fun! Hopefully I'll see the little kids around church on Sunday again!
Yesterday after the programme I went over to visit Joshua, my 5-year-old cousin/nephew/great-nephew whatever he is. I actually played with him for the first time! He can speak both Cantonese and English so he sometimes puts me to shame! Anyway Aonghas and I went with him to his bedroom to play on his PS2. He's a huge Star Wars and Lego fan, so what better than to play the Star Wars Lego game on PS2!
It's amazing how much he can speak, after remembering how small he used to be! I'm not too sure if he remembers our names yet, but at least we're 'goh goh' (older brother) to him! Hopefully we'll be to him like what 'jie jie' was to us! She used to play with us when we were little kids and take us around Hong Kong when we went there over 10 years ago!
Tonight Szelin came over to give us some curry after we got back from the computer shop in the city to buy a few things. Aonghas, Szelin and I ended up talking for over two hours, catching up with stuff! She's going to sit her restricted within the next few days! I can't believe how far behind I am! I was talking to Phoebe the other day who said she's nearly ready to sit her restricted, but she's only had it for three months, so she has to wait till March! I told my mum and she started shaming me telling me how slow I have been, since I've had my learner's for over a year! I've definitely got to get a move on, and with Chen now practising driving regularly, I may end up the last person to get my restricted!!
Monday 8 January 2007
Playing with Kids...Legally
Today was the first day of the children's holiday programme at my church, and I was helping out. We had to have a meeting for it yesterday as soon as I got back from the airport to sort things out. When we got there I caught up with Jennifer who asked me where I was and told me that Angie showed up at church, just when I didn't come to church! Anyway we spent three hours planning what everyone would do, how the games would be run and so on and so on. I was put in the blue group with Jennifer, Hamish and our leader Karvin. My name was put down as CALEB! Hamish would be going to Summer School so it would only be Jennifer, Karvin and me.
We had to practise some counselling with the person next to us, even though most of us weren't going to do the counselling (especially me!). I paired up with Jennifer who first acted as the teacher and managed to get through seven pages of this little booklet we each got in three minutes. When it was time for me to be the teacher, she played a little kid so well I only got through one page of the little booklet, and not very well! There was this drawing of this person knocking on the door. I tried explaining it to her:
"So....on the other side of this door is Jesus, and you have to kno..."
when Jennifer interrupted...
"I think that guy knocking on the door is Jesus"
She then went on to ask
"Who's Jesus? Is he goood? Is he hot???"
Stupidly I replied
"Not as hot as me!!" forgetting that I was supposed to be counselling to a 6-year-old GUY! Yeah...best that I don't counsel little children...
Anyway today was the real deal. Aonghas and I got to church early in the morning so we could play our duet to the singing leader (who we had to accompany). We were a bit apprehensive about this as we thought our playing on the accordion sounded a bit weird and gumby! The singing leader thought it was good so that was OK.
The official programme started with a welcome and then a bit of singing. This is where we came in. We had to play the song (Father Abraham) while the little kids did their actions fast...and then slow....and then normal. After that we played some games like hospital tag and this game where we we could only run to grab a cone whenever the guy said green light but not when he said red light. If he caught us moving then we had to go back to the start. I was getting a little bored so I thought I'd have a go at cheating. This little kid caught me though and started shouting at me and watching me closely! He told on me to the other teen leaders who didn't really take much notice of him. When they asked what my name was he looked at my name tag and saw that it sad CALED (yep another take on CALUM) and then started calling me SALAD!!!
The whole holiday programme was based around Narnia, so there was story-telling time and we did a bit of craftwork with out group making lion masks, as well as having a castle-making competition. Our castle had portable canons, giant mufflers (so the castle can move), and can somehow fly...We were all winners though! :D
The programme finished at midday, when all us helpers had some lunch (rice yumyum) and then Aonghas got called to work again, when he had been told he wasn't needed for the rest of the week! That meant I was going to be home by myself (and the parents) again! So I decided to walk down to the library myself and spend a few hours there finding something to do. Well...I watched a bit of sport on the TV there (they have Sky Sport in the kids section!), tried reading a book but falling asleep, more successfully spent probably an hour reading newspapers and the National Business Review, and unexpectedly caught up with Ben who was with his mum!
We had to practise some counselling with the person next to us, even though most of us weren't going to do the counselling (especially me!). I paired up with Jennifer who first acted as the teacher and managed to get through seven pages of this little booklet we each got in three minutes. When it was time for me to be the teacher, she played a little kid so well I only got through one page of the little booklet, and not very well! There was this drawing of this person knocking on the door. I tried explaining it to her:
"So....on the other side of this door is Jesus, and you have to kno..."
when Jennifer interrupted...
"I think that guy knocking on the door is Jesus"
She then went on to ask
"Who's Jesus? Is he goood? Is he hot???"
Stupidly I replied
"Not as hot as me!!" forgetting that I was supposed to be counselling to a 6-year-old GUY! Yeah...best that I don't counsel little children...
Anyway today was the real deal. Aonghas and I got to church early in the morning so we could play our duet to the singing leader (who we had to accompany). We were a bit apprehensive about this as we thought our playing on the accordion sounded a bit weird and gumby! The singing leader thought it was good so that was OK.
The official programme started with a welcome and then a bit of singing. This is where we came in. We had to play the song (Father Abraham) while the little kids did their actions fast...and then slow....and then normal. After that we played some games like hospital tag and this game where we we could only run to grab a cone whenever the guy said green light but not when he said red light. If he caught us moving then we had to go back to the start. I was getting a little bored so I thought I'd have a go at cheating. This little kid caught me though and started shouting at me and watching me closely! He told on me to the other teen leaders who didn't really take much notice of him. When they asked what my name was he looked at my name tag and saw that it sad CALED (yep another take on CALUM) and then started calling me SALAD!!!
The whole holiday programme was based around Narnia, so there was story-telling time and we did a bit of craftwork with out group making lion masks, as well as having a castle-making competition. Our castle had portable canons, giant mufflers (so the castle can move), and can somehow fly...We were all winners though! :D
The programme finished at midday, when all us helpers had some lunch (rice yumyum) and then Aonghas got called to work again, when he had been told he wasn't needed for the rest of the week! That meant I was going to be home by myself (and the parents) again! So I decided to walk down to the library myself and spend a few hours there finding something to do. Well...I watched a bit of sport on the TV there (they have Sky Sport in the kids section!), tried reading a book but falling asleep, more successfully spent probably an hour reading newspapers and the National Business Review, and unexpectedly caught up with Ben who was with his mum!
Farewell Hyun and Joon!
Yesterday morning I got up early out of bed...OK not that early but by my standards it was! Anyway I gathered the troops and half an hour after we were meant to set off, we finally set off! We picked up Gwen along the way and went on our way to the airport to say our last goodbyes to the Oh Boys.
We were supposed to meet them at the airport at 10am but we only picked Gwen up at 9.15am! So we didn't have much time to get there! Fortunately, my car didn't break down, there were no funny sounds reported, and we made it to the airport in about half an hour!
When we got there we found Hyun and Joon with his father and the luggage waiting beside the check-in archway. The reason - their luggage was about 20kg overweight! For each kg overweight it would cost them $35, which would equate to about $600! Hyun, Joon and their dad were therefore asking each passenger passing by if they could help carry some of their luggage and in return they would pay for the passenger's departure fee. For an hour it was looking bad as people were ignoring Hyun (nah sorry! Not just you!) and unable to help out. It was looking bad and I had already made a bet with Gwen (for a dollar) that they wouldn't be able to find anyone just half an hour out from their boarding time, and they were about to check-in having given up finding someone, when DUNDUNDUN they found someone! We all watched from the barrier as they checked in and Joon helped the Check-In girl haul the luggage onto the belt. As soon as they were done though there wasn't much time to talk to them before they had to go to the departure gate!
We took our final photos. I passed on Melissa's handshake and Sarena's hug to the twins before the Oh's had to board their flight. We quickly rushed to the observation deck to watch them walk past the duty free shops and Joon managed to see us first and we communicated via hand signals for a few minutes before they continued on to their plane.
By now two hours was nearly up and we'd have to pay some more money for car parking, so instead of missing watching the plane take off, Aonghas and my mum decided they'd go shopping across the road at The Warehouse for several minutes (where car parking is free) while we stay and watch the Korean Air plane take off.
It was pretty sad watching them leave knowing I wouldn't see them for aaages! After hanging out with them for the past seven years, I'm going to have to find other friends or make new friends to hang out with this year! At least there's still MSN! So yeah it isn't really farewell...completely!
We were supposed to meet them at the airport at 10am but we only picked Gwen up at 9.15am! So we didn't have much time to get there! Fortunately, my car didn't break down, there were no funny sounds reported, and we made it to the airport in about half an hour!
When we got there we found Hyun and Joon with his father and the luggage waiting beside the check-in archway. The reason - their luggage was about 20kg overweight! For each kg overweight it would cost them $35, which would equate to about $600! Hyun, Joon and their dad were therefore asking each passenger passing by if they could help carry some of their luggage and in return they would pay for the passenger's departure fee. For an hour it was looking bad as people were ignoring Hyun (nah sorry! Not just you!) and unable to help out. It was looking bad and I had already made a bet with Gwen (for a dollar) that they wouldn't be able to find anyone just half an hour out from their boarding time, and they were about to check-in having given up finding someone, when DUNDUNDUN they found someone! We all watched from the barrier as they checked in and Joon helped the Check-In girl haul the luggage onto the belt. As soon as they were done though there wasn't much time to talk to them before they had to go to the departure gate!
We took our final photos. I passed on Melissa's handshake and Sarena's hug to the twins before the Oh's had to board their flight. We quickly rushed to the observation deck to watch them walk past the duty free shops and Joon managed to see us first and we communicated via hand signals for a few minutes before they continued on to their plane.
By now two hours was nearly up and we'd have to pay some more money for car parking, so instead of missing watching the plane take off, Aonghas and my mum decided they'd go shopping across the road at The Warehouse for several minutes (where car parking is free) while we stay and watch the Korean Air plane take off.
It was pretty sad watching them leave knowing I wouldn't see them for aaages! After hanging out with them for the past seven years, I'm going to have to find other friends or make new friends to hang out with this year! At least there's still MSN! So yeah it isn't really farewell...completely!
Saturday 6 January 2007
Yeah I Know
This morning I decided I would do something! So once I finally woke up, I went outside with some pliers, a screwdriver and a box and started ripping the front fence down. Well OK not exactly ripping the whole thing down but pulling off the wires holding the fencing to the poles. I first did my mum's way, by using the pliers to undo the wires, but after it took so long with me stabbing myself and accidentally getting my fingers instead of the wires, I decided I'd do it MY way. I stuck the screwdriver in there and bent the wires and BANG BANG BANG I did get a few blisters though so now my hands are covered in plasters. I could only do half the fence, as the other half of the netting was set in concrete. Tomorrow I'll be snipping them with wire cutters! Zahir came by on his way to work and talked to me for a while. I probably looked like an idiot pulling down my fence in front of him!
When Aonghas finally got home from work at 1pm we only had enough time to eat a little bit before I had to go pick up a friend who wanted to visit the twins. Yeah we're kinda operating as transportation for those who want to farewell the twins before they leave. Anyway Aonghas was driving with my mum beside him, and I was in the backseat. We were heading for Kelston but took the wrong turn and nearly ended up in New Lynn, before I realised I had a map on my lap and decided to use it.
Anyway we finally got there and managed to surprise the twins, as I told them I'd drop off the DVDs with photos for them and bring them a surprise. So Joon and the friend went off for a walk, while Hyun light some paper in a plastic bucket which melted, and then tried searching a rubbish bag for something until the rubbish truck and man came by and so he had to throw all the rubbish out. Joon and our friend finally got back, and then we went upstairs to check out the photos on the computer. I got told my handwriting s*cks and I can't take photos. Thanks guys! :D Only just because some of the photos were blurry. I could explain why it's not completely my fault but it ain't that big a deal.
After a while we had to leave, so Aonghas and my mum came and took us, but just as we got to my friends place she realised she forgot her keys! So we went all the way back to the twins house to pick up the keys and then went back to her house. Along the way my car was squeaking at the front and going GUUNG GUUNG GUUNG at the back so we were hoping it wouldn't explode or the tyre wouldn't fall off or anything! Fortunately everyone made it home safe and sound...
When Aonghas finally got home from work at 1pm we only had enough time to eat a little bit before I had to go pick up a friend who wanted to visit the twins. Yeah we're kinda operating as transportation for those who want to farewell the twins before they leave. Anyway Aonghas was driving with my mum beside him, and I was in the backseat. We were heading for Kelston but took the wrong turn and nearly ended up in New Lynn, before I realised I had a map on my lap and decided to use it.
Anyway we finally got there and managed to surprise the twins, as I told them I'd drop off the DVDs with photos for them and bring them a surprise. So Joon and the friend went off for a walk, while Hyun light some paper in a plastic bucket which melted, and then tried searching a rubbish bag for something until the rubbish truck and man came by and so he had to throw all the rubbish out. Joon and our friend finally got back, and then we went upstairs to check out the photos on the computer. I got told my handwriting s*cks and I can't take photos. Thanks guys! :D Only just because some of the photos were blurry. I could explain why it's not completely my fault but it ain't that big a deal.
After a while we had to leave, so Aonghas and my mum came and took us, but just as we got to my friends place she realised she forgot her keys! So we went all the way back to the twins house to pick up the keys and then went back to her house. Along the way my car was squeaking at the front and going GUUNG GUUNG GUUNG at the back so we were hoping it wouldn't explode or the tyre wouldn't fall off or anything! Fortunately everyone made it home safe and sound...
Thursday 4 January 2007
Save Me!
I had one of the most boring days of the holidays today! Aonghas went to work, Hamish to summer school, my parents went out to get one of the cars fixed (yeah don't have to guess it was mine) and I was left at home with nothing to do but watch tennis, some Olsen twins movie and find something to do on the computer!
I did manage to find a measuring tape and measure the fencing around our front yard to see how much fencing we would need to replace. Yeah that was a little fun, so was delivering newspapers. Chen rang in the afternoon.
I ran out of stuff to do by dinner time, with Thursday's being one of the worst TV nights of the week! I even went outside to play a little basketball before the sun started blinding me.
I ended up offering to cook something after dinner before my parents kinda shot me down, telling me it was too late.
Please someone save me and invite me out or something before I become some bored to death domesticated housewife!
Wednesday 3 January 2007
Final Visit
Well it's now 2007 and already I'm starting to notice the differences! I beat Diane in pool more than once! OK that's not a significant change.
One significant change will be when Hyun and Joon leave for Korea, with this week being their last in New Zealand. Originally they were going to come visit us on Monday but then they cancelled. Thank goodness, as we were busy tidying up the house! We ended up with so much rubbish to throw out.
Instead they decided they'd visit us yesterday. Well...Aonghas and I went over to their empty house first to check out their computer hard drive to help them remove it before we'd take them back to our house.
Once they came back to our house we revealed to them some stuff on our computer they had never seen before, showed them some photos and then played a little bit of FIFA. I'm not too sure who won most often though!
For some reason I wasn't feeling that emotional, but I always seem to have this feeling that it doesn't matter because I'm used to seeing them again so I'll see them again sometime! I probably will maybe once or twice more this week and maybe at the airport to see them off. Let's see how I cope next week when they're really gone forever!
We all finally watched Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for the first time after several years of having it on DVD but never getting round to watch it! I admit to nearly falling asleep in the first half hour of it, but as soon as the full-scale battles began I was wide awake and sitting on the edge of my seat!
Today I bought a laptop from Dick Smith, but it wasn't without a hitch. I checked out the package when I was in the car and couldn't find the bag or mouse that they said was included with it, so I had to take it back in and ask. The guy took a while to find the code to process it by, and then gave me a bag, before giving me one of the cheaper mice as it wasn't in the package like it was supposed to. Anyway I'll test drive this laptop and then possibly return it within 14 days if I'm not happy with it (thanks to their 14-day money back guarantee!)
One significant change will be when Hyun and Joon leave for Korea, with this week being their last in New Zealand. Originally they were going to come visit us on Monday but then they cancelled. Thank goodness, as we were busy tidying up the house! We ended up with so much rubbish to throw out.
Instead they decided they'd visit us yesterday. Well...Aonghas and I went over to their empty house first to check out their computer hard drive to help them remove it before we'd take them back to our house.
Once they came back to our house we revealed to them some stuff on our computer they had never seen before, showed them some photos and then played a little bit of FIFA. I'm not too sure who won most often though!
For some reason I wasn't feeling that emotional, but I always seem to have this feeling that it doesn't matter because I'm used to seeing them again so I'll see them again sometime! I probably will maybe once or twice more this week and maybe at the airport to see them off. Let's see how I cope next week when they're really gone forever!
We all finally watched Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for the first time after several years of having it on DVD but never getting round to watch it! I admit to nearly falling asleep in the first half hour of it, but as soon as the full-scale battles began I was wide awake and sitting on the edge of my seat!
Today I bought a laptop from Dick Smith, but it wasn't without a hitch. I checked out the package when I was in the car and couldn't find the bag or mouse that they said was included with it, so I had to take it back in and ask. The guy took a while to find the code to process it by, and then gave me a bag, before giving me one of the cheaper mice as it wasn't in the package like it was supposed to. Anyway I'll test drive this laptop and then possibly return it within 14 days if I'm not happy with it (thanks to their 14-day money back guarantee!)
Monday 1 January 2007
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!
HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!!
Well I spent New Years 2007 in the car down McLeod Rd watching the Sky Tower fireworks and thank goodness for clear skies! The fireworks lasted for about 10 minutes and New Years music was playing on the radio!! It was great!!
Hope everyone has a great, happy, fun and prosperous 2007!!!
Well I spent New Years 2007 in the car down McLeod Rd watching the Sky Tower fireworks and thank goodness for clear skies! The fireworks lasted for about 10 minutes and New Years music was playing on the radio!! It was great!!
Hope everyone has a great, happy, fun and prosperous 2007!!!
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