Year In Review

This is something else that has become a tradition for me on this blog for the past several years, where I quote the first sentence of the first post of each month, and look back at what happened in each month. This year I've been a bit slack at posting so it won't be as thorough!

January

'Byebye 2008, hello 

- Spend New Years watching fireworks from side of road in Te Atatu Peninsula

- Paint house walls

- Summer School starts, attend others' commercial law classes!

- Ex-neighbours Phillip and Kenneth come to visit

- Hang out with Diane for a day before catching up with high school friends for karaoke

- Aonghas accepted into Bachelor of Engineering

- Help out with children's summer programme at church, dress as a pink butterfly

- Chinese New Year festivals are held!

- Do nothing but go to uni and attend Dessert Club committee meeting for my birthday

- Get blood tests done for surgery, almost faint!

February

'We had our first youth group for the year on Friday night, and because I remembered that Angie asked me to keep her informed on what was going on with our youth group, I let her know and she was keen to check it out for that night.'

- First youth group evening for the year

- I go in for surgery at Middlemore Hospital and spend four days there

- Attend Lantern Festival with a swollen face

- Attend a training day for Uniguides

- Koreans attempt to baptise me at my doorstep

March

'I spent my mum's birthday in the city helping out with the Dessert Club stall at Pre-Orientation Week on Thursday. Now before you say what a sad guy, I did promise her I'd come home as soon as we finished at 3pm!'

- Orientation Day at uni and I am a uniguide, help out with orientation up in Grafton and help run the Dessert Club stall

- Celebrate our mum's birthday with a surprise party at the cousins'

- Our youth group go out to watch Watchmen

- Bus breaks down on the way to uni

- Tell the whole class I want to leave pharmacy - a little slip up!

- Our Dessert Club runs a successful Pie Eating Competition with Aonghas coming 2nd!

- Sneak out to Polyfest to watch Cleo perform

- Inject our first mice! :D

- 

April

'Friday night was our youth group's annual Family Pot Luck Dinner where we'd bring along our families, a plate of food, eat and play games!'

- Our youth group have a potluck dinner with our families

- I wander around uni with bunny ears giving away free Easter eggs from Dessert Club

- Mum gets pulled over by police for speeding

- Our youth group has to clean the bathrooms as part of the big church clean-up

- We walk a long plank of wood home from Mitre 10, getting questioned by the police along the way

- Spend Easter hanging out with our church friends

May

'Is the world becoming a nastier place? Or do people just not react as well these days whenever they are told something they don't like? In the past two weeks I've been witness to two unpleasant incidents..'

- Mid-term tests!

- Celebrate birthdays of Sunday School class members

- Miss out on part of the University of Auckland Gala Concert and end up waiting outside Town Hall in the rain waiting for free seats

- RIP Mr Hirst, old primary school principal and good friend

- Celebrate Mother's Day by taking mum out to dinner

- Watch Jenny perform at the City Library, while Aonghas and I perform accordion at the Henderson Library

- Bad day in the Chemistry lab with everyone smashing everything

- Pharmacy lecturer yells, shouts and tells us all off for plagiarism

June

'Last weekend was a bit of a busy weekend, with the annual NZ Accordion Competitions and Benson and Danielle's (two people from our church) wedding taking place, almost at the same time!'

- We perform for the last time at the accordion competitions, dressing up as cowboys for our trio

- Aonghas performs at Benson's wedding

- Our youth group goes to Epsom Girls Grammar to watch Cleo and Jenny perform in their school orchestra

- The hikoi marches down Queen St

- EXAM TIME!

- Get kissed on the bus by some random girl on my way to my oral exam

- RIP Michael Jackson

- Relive old memories by attending Rangeview Intermediate's music evening

July

'I was reading the New Zealand Herald online yesterday, when I came across an article on the University of Auckland holding an event for girls to get to know more about engineering. Guess who I spotted in the accompanying photo? Jenny!!'

- Catch up with high school friends at a restaurant in Te Atatu Peninsula and end up waiting almost an hour for food to be served

- Go bowling with some other high school friends

- Seven reasons given to me by another friend as to why she can't hang out with me!

- Youth group camp! Too much to summarise!

- My braces come off!

- Go ice-skating with Sunday School friends = big FAIL

August

'Uni has been hell in terms of the amount of sleep I'm getting, and it's not because I'm doing so much study, but because of the 8am starts I have almost everyday!'

- Have to attend a Quality and Safety Workshop with nursing and med students, very boring + require coffee to stay awake

- Join the Medical School Students Symphony Orchestra at Grafton

September

'One of the highlights of my year, the KBB Schools Music Festival was held a couple weeks ago at Aotea Centre from the 18th to 20th August. Every year I look forward to this event as it is really inspiring (and FREE) watching all these different school music groups perform. '

- KBB Music Festival! Get to watch Rebecca from youth group perform

- Hang out with the Chin sisters in the city after Cleo's performance at the KBB Music Festival

- Graeme our cousin has his 21st birthday party

- Complete my three day community pharmacy placement in Swanson during the holidays, make a fool of myself

- Our MHSSSO have our first and only performance and make it on Asia Down Under!

October

'Stephanie, this girl in our youth group was to get baptised along with her dad at church on Father's Day (first Sunday of September...almost a month ago!). This of course is a big thing for Christians (or so I'm told!), and so when I first found out a few months prior to her baptism I thought it'd be a good idea to do something special for her!'

- Stephanie from our youth group gets baptised

- Our youth group combines with the city youth group, in which Hannah a girl from pharmacy is in

- Celebrate Estee's 21st with a surprise tea party

- I catch a bus to Sarena's 21st the night before a test!

- The pharmacy social event of the year - the pharmacy ball! 

- I go into a night club for the very first time for Jacqueline's 21st, in the middle of the pharmacy ball

- Have our last EVER accordion lesson 

- Have a tour of Douglas Pharmaceuticals

November

'For a start, to those who have invited me to their birthday parties that I have not been able to attend, let me just apologise, and that I would have loved to make it but I'm handicapped by living far away out west in Henderson, and am stuck on a restricted license which means I have to be home before 

- Get a tour of Propharma, very exciting...

- Have to complete two big group projects

- Get approached by an escort down K' Road

- Car breaks down twice! On the way to hand in my lab report, and on the way to say goodbye to our accordion teacher

- APSA election craziness!

- EXAMS!

- Catch up with Scholastica for lunch before she flies off to Korea

- Celebrate Hamish's birthday with some Burger King

- Celebrate Hamish and Aonghas' birthday by going out for yumcha with Sunday School class

- Go laser striking and bowling with high school friends

- Our string group perform at Shirley and Bobby's wedding

December

'Second semester was by far the busiest and hardest semester I had ever endured and it's been a few weeks now since it has been all over...'

- Perform with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra at their Christmas concert

- Sing carols at Waitakere Hospital with the youth group

- Sing carols outside Chinese grocery stores!

- Celebrate our friend's graduation from AUT

- Celebrate Alice's 21st with karaoke

- Perform at the church's Christmas concert on Christmas Eve

- Celebrate Christmas by leading children's worship, having lunch with cousins and checking out Christmas lights with family

- Boxing Day sales!...disappointing...

- Have a very long phone conversation with my Korean friends Hyun and Joon who live in America

- Watch Avatar at IMAX with Diane and hang out with her

Things are Different in Reality

Today I got to hang out with one of my best friends, Diane for the first time in almost a year. This time I got to the city about an hour before we had planned to meet, and because I was hungry I decided to go over to McDonalds for breakfast before returning to Sky City Metro to wait for her to arrive. When I texted her when I first arrived, she had only woken up!

Anyway she arrived at 10am, and we went up to collect our movie tickets for Avatar (we booked them on the net a couple nights ago just to be sure!). She brought along a couple of vouchers that gave us $5 off each ticket which made the IMAX tickets cheaper than regular tickets for 3D! Diane actually paid, and so throughout the day I was trying to find some way of repaying her!

There was still quite a bit of time before the movie started, so we went down to Burger King to buy a drink and for her to buy some breakfast. I discovered she I refilled my drink a few times and had to go to the toilet a few times. I hope I'm not developing a weak bladder!

Finally when it got closer to the start of the movie we made our way to the theatre. They gave us the 3D glasses upon entering the theatre. I thought we'd get to keep them but we had to return them! I don't know what I'd do with them at home though. We got seats that were somewhere near the middle of the row and closer to the back which wasn't too bad. The theatre was quite packed. I don't think I've been in a theatre more full than that one!

 

As for Avatar, EXCELLENT! I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it (like my family...we were thinking about trying to get the whole family to go together to witness a cinematic revolution, but if they do decide to I'll just go watch it again...that's how much it was worth it!) I didn't really know what to expect from a 3D movie before, seeing as this was the first one I had seen. It felt like you were there! 

I have to say I really enjoyed the soundtrack as well! Music for Avatar was composed by James Horner (he also composed music for Titanic), so no surprises there! The movie ran for almost three hours, and by the end I really needed to go to the toilet...again!

Both of us weren't too hungry after the movie so we skipped lunch. We went to the arcade where we had a game of that basketball shooting game. I was leading for most of the game before one of the basketballs I threw rebounded right out and bounced to the other side of the arcade so I was one ball down! I ended up losing to her!

We also had a go at DDR (a dancing game where you have to match the arrows). We couldn't get both machines beside each other to work, so we just used one. We started on the easiest level, with her going first followed by me. Me = FAILED! Diane then thought she'd give the hardest level a go, and five seconds into the game she FAILED! I did record it for evidence but she deleted it off my camera!

 

 

We then had a little wander down Queen Street all the way to Downtown Shopping Centre, having a few stops along the way before wandering back up Queen St, stopping at Burger King for a toilet stop (yep me again! Too much drinking!). By then she was pretty tired as she didn't get a good sleep the night before, so we walked to the bus stop and I watched her leave.

It was really cool catching up with Diane again, but I just can't help but feel something feels a little awkward whenever we meet up! Don't get me wrong, we're like best friends, chat and text almost every night, but because she studies vet down in Palmerston North and only comes back up to Auckland during the Christmas holiday, I only get to catch up with her around once a year. We don't seem to talk as much in person! For the past few times we've hung out we always watch a movie, and then after when we're just walking around we run out of stuff to do or talk about. Maybe we're just not used to being around each other in person, and I guess watching a movie isn't such a great way to socialise! She did hang out with another friend the day before, and so she had done a lot of the stuff you can do in the city already. 

We did have a bit of a talk about this after we both parted, so maybe next time we catch up we'll do things a little differently and we will be more like ourselves around each other the next time! It really was cool to catch up with her again, and at least I managed to get a photo together with her (wearing the necklace I bought her for her birthday this year! Wow I didn't think she'd still have it! haha) after repeated attempts just before she left! 

 

A Year of Facebook Statuses

Thought I'd try something different and have a look at 2009 through Facebook statuses:

January

• wonders why Studylink just can't get it right!!
• probably should attend class
• misses
• got great comments after wearing pink he might consider doing it again...
• is got such *great* comments after wearing pink he might consider doing it again...
• has got to get down to business
• thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, will thank you personally soon once he finishes his assignment..
• is oo'ing and waa'ing at CCTV's Spring Festival Gala Concert Happy Chinese New Year!!
• just can't stay awake when reading!
• has years of bad music technique to change

February

• is going under the knife, hopefully he'll see you on the other side!
• is still swollen but glad to be finally out of hospital!
• watched Parliament TV for the first time and finds it quite interesting!...sadly
• has lost so much weight!
• wants to know if anyone else is going to be a uniguide this year
• is wondering if he should go to the Starlight Symphony tonight if the weather holds up for long enough
• has some...interesting...new students
• just got confronted by two Korean people wanting to baptise me at my doorstep
• will be looking after the ice!
• just watched Wall-E for the first time, what a pretty cool movie!

March

• wishes every week at uni could be like this week
• should stop jumping to conclusions
• is never buying a drink from McCafe again!
• is thinking two years...just two years...
• should probably reread the road code
• ran and slipped...stupid Friday the 13th!
• has a new favourite word - flocculation!
• made it to South Auckland and back again by bus without getting lost for the first time!
• had a bit of a flat day, must be the end of the week!
• will not ask his patients if they've been vomiting blood or if their stools are black
• mice injected: 2, mice dead: 0 yay!!
• doesn't think his lab report makes any sense
• should never have started doing those quizzes
• can now officially eat soft food!
• CAN'T SEEM TO TURN CAPS LOCK OFF ON HIS LAPTOP!

April

• is going to keep his distance from sheep from now on...
• is sad...does Sky have to take away ALL our live free-to-air sport???
• hates playing in the wrong clef!
• is half-way there, hoping to avoid an all-niter
• just can't seem to do quiet
• wishes someone would turn the air-conditioning down in the Henderson Library it's so freeezing!
• can't take any more science!
• really hates his calculator
• will get round to it soon..
• can't tell if The Exorcist is supposed to be a comedy or a horror movie
• is tossing up between going to class dinner or finishing his assignment
• will miss the wit of Michael Cullen

May

• will try avoiding sitting next to babies the next time he goes to an orchestra concert
• won't be doing any all-niters this week! :D
• thinks the upside to all this is the LAV's are finally being used for something...to pick up unwell residents...
• should stop making bets especially when he keeps losing them
• didn't do so well but when the rest of the class doesn't do so well either then that makes things slightly better!
• favourite lecturer-explains-her-lecture-slide moment: "...can be easily swallowed. This means you can swallow it easily."
• Scholastica and I have had a bit too much ketchup
• Total Umbrella deaths: 2, Umbrella inversions: 8
• thinks its depressing when others go on about how they answered questions in a test and you start to realise how stupid your answers were
• screwed his hands playing soccer the night before he has to perform in a music competition!

June

• Who was found not guilty? Joe Karam or David Bain? I can't tell by the way Joe Karam is talking to the media...
• is doing a little bit here, a little bit there....should probably focus on something for more than a few minutes!
• has given up understanding...it's time for rote-learning!
• has only sat one exam and has already lost motivation
• had a blast from the past tonight. It's been eight years and Rangeview hasn't changed much!
• >_<
• just doesn't get it!
• is relying on Wikipedia to help get him through!
• outdid his expectations in the oral exam today...he lasted longer than a few minutes!
• got kissed by some random girl on the bus O.o
• Favourite part of the exam is filling in his name - even he can't get that part wrong!
• will be mourning for the rest of the morning

July

• woke up before 10am for once these holidays! (even if it's only to watch MJ's memorial service..)
• just got back from camp with awesome youth group friends and discovered he passed everything so far! Yay!!
• One thing learnt from watching Hot Fuzz - being impaled through the chin on a pointy steeple of a minature church really hurts.
• needs to start thinking in alto clef!
• is not the sassy one! grrr!!

August

• is hoping 2degrees doesn't disappoint him tomorrow!
• will make up for three weeks of doing nothing starting....tomorrow....
• is so excited after discovering another Henderson person in pharmacy! yay!!!
• needs more body fat!
• Help me Wikipedia!!!
• needs to set a target or he'll never finish...let's make it 3am!
• is falling asleep at the computeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
• will be at the pharmacy stand tomorrow afternoon at the UoA Courses and Careers Day, so come say hi and he'll try convince you to study pharmacy ;)
• has a stiff pinky
• will be quadrupling his community pharmacy experience in the next three days (eight whole hours a day O.o)

September

• was starting to get the hang of this whole pharmacy thing just as placement finished! Oh well...couldn't counsel patients for #*$!
• is on dial-up!! Might just wait till Tuesday to start assignments then...
• got wished a Happy Fathers Day by a little boy who told me I looked old enough to be a father!
• made it through winter without a cold, only to catch one at the beginning of spring!
• wishes pharmacy was a three year degree
• hopes they like one sentence answers!
• phone calendar screwed up and now everything is 12 hours behind! He'll never be on time now!
• got mauled by Maureen!
• has too many people he wants to vote for! Why can't everyone just win?
• hates it when you're in the toilet and all of a sudden the lights go out

October

• multi-labels arrgh!!
• is enjoying reading the class results for the mouse behavioural lab - 'staggering acting like a drunk', 'really agitated and weird', hates other mice'...
• is just going to do it his way!
• had a great night at the ball and a 21st! Now no more fun for the next four weeks
• tries to get study done and then something always comes along and takes him away from it!
• is attempting to type up all 302 notes by end of today! Two hours gone and only one done...

November

• should not be holidaying just yet...
• is officially completely rid of it for the next few months!
• might just be hooked on Glee (oh the shame)...
• thinks he's getting subliminal messages from everywhere...or maybe it's just a sign of boredom...
• always suffers a nervous breakdown a week out from a concert because of his students, but in the end they pull through and make me proud! :D
• Some people will never understand...
• really needs a job...or money...
• is so close!
• wishes he had perfect pitch!

December

• is going to increase the Asian in him these holidays!
• just realised Kurt (from Glee) is a guy!
• is finally officially rid of 3rd year pharmacy forEVER!
• has seen Love Actually so many times and still likes it!
• just realised Christmas is next week! Where'd all the time go?
• 's fingers ain't what they used to be
• hopes Grace Wong doesn't freak out when she checks her email inbox in the morning :D
• doesn't know if he thinks he's feeling pain or if he really is in pain..
• got beaten up by Carmen Chin!
• is starting to think Tim Allen is Christmas!
• Even the end-credits of Forrest Gump are worth watching just to listen to the music!
• Merry Christmas to you too :D

End of Year Survey

Time for an end-of-year survey I do at the end of every year:

01 What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Went inside a night club for the first time ever!

02 Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well...I will post more about my New years' resolutions in a later post!

03 Did anyone close to you give birth?
Karvin, my youth group leader's wife gave birth to a son, while John, one of my Sunday School teacher's wife gave birth to a son as well!

04 Did anyone close to you die?
I don't think so, unless you consider Michael Jackson close!

05 What countries did you visit?
None :(

06 What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Confidence, especially in what I'm doing and what I'm studying

07 What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
21 January (20 January in USA) - President Obama's inauguration ceremony

2 February - When I went in for my surgery

25 June - Date of Michael Jackson's death

08 What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Passing 3rd year of Pharmacy!

09 What was your biggest failure?
My grades not getting any better, and not finding a job. I've had a few other failures as well, but they're kinda shameful!

10 Did you suffer illness or injury?
I did have surgery in February which made me a little ill for a few days, and I've been experiencing headaches and jaw pain only recently this month, but it's gone away...for now! I've also suffered a few minor injuries such as bruises to the knee and scratches but they're nothing!

11 What was the best thing you bought?
I haven't bought anything flash this year, but if we were to change this to the most expensive thing I bought, I'd have to say my $230 textbook that weighs 5kg - 'Pharmacotherapy - A Physiologic Approach'. I hardly brought it to uni since it was so heavy! I only started understanding it towards the end of the year though. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) I'll be using it more next year...

12 Whose behaviour merited celebration?
The way my youth group got together to support fellow members at events, such as Cleo and Jenny's orchestra performance and Stephanie's baptism. They also all got together to help me learn a Chinese song at camp! Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside!

13 Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Ummmm certain person/people...thought they/the person had changed for the better but is/are still the same. Doesn't mean I'm not friends with them though!

14 Where did most of your money go?
Sadly I'd have to say bus passes and food. Being isolated in Grafton means not a lot of choice in food without walking all the way back to the city!

15 What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The community pharmacy placement! Oh yeah like totally! Not...Probably more like my youth group camp!

16 What song will always remind you of 2009?
Love Story/You Belong to Me by Taylor Swift, Pokerface by Lady Gaga or Jai Ho! by A. R. Rahman feat. Pussycat Dolls for no reason except that they were really popular songs this year!

17 Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Let's just say...neutral! Certain things have made me happier (such as youth group), while others have made sadder.
b) thinner or fatter? I feel fatter than before, although for most of the year I have been thinner weight-wise after losing several kg's after surgery
c) richer or poorer? In terms of money, I'd be richer but I spent a lot more this year than previous years

18 What do you wish you'd done more of?
Working out! I'm skinny as! I also wish I could've got closer to some people and catch up with old friends a lot more. Other things I wish I had done more of include learning Chinese and music theory!

19 What do you wish you'd done less of?
Teasing and picking on certain girls. You know who you are! haha I'm sorry :(

20 How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent Christmas morning leading children's worship at church, and then had lunch with the cousins before checking out the Christmas lights in Ponsonby with the family.

21 How will you be spending New Years?
Probably on the side of a road somewhere in Te Atatu Peninsula once again with the family watching fireworks shooting off the Sky Tower

22 Did you fall in love in 2009?
Sadly, no.

23 How many one-night stands?
I don't roll that way ;)

24 What was your favourite TV programme?
I've had several this year - besides the usual Lost, Smallville and Desperate Housewives, my new favourite TV programmes this year have been Glee, V and Grey's Anatomy!

25 Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope, or I try not to anyway

26 What was the best book you read?
I don't think I've completed reading a single novel this year, but the closest I've gotten to completing a novel was Twilight at the beginning of the year, and I only read the first ten chapters!

27 What was your greatest musical discovery?
Lady Gaga (whether I like her music or not is another thing...) - both her music and her weird, weird fashion sense

28 What did you want and get?
Passing 3rd year of pharmacy! I have absolutely no idea how I pulled it off! I was almost 100% I would be repeating next year.

29 What did you want and not get?
I really wanted to know what I want to do with my life, but I'm still struggling to find it. I also really wanted to become better friends with certain people but that didn't quite happen...

30 What was your favorite film of this year?
Of the movies I've watched for the very first time this year, I'd have to say Wall-E

31 What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
On my 20th birthday I went into university for Summer School, a Dessert Club committee meeting and then pizza for birthday with my family. It wasn't too spectacular!

32 What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Making more close friends I guess? You can never have too many close friends!

33 How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Baggy! It's mainly consisted of T-shirt and shorts. I've been deviating from the usual dark t-shirt and have been experimenting with brighter colours and polo shirts!

34 What kept you sane?
Having my friends around to moan and groan to, and ask for advice!

35 Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Fancy as in like? Probably none, but if we talk about admire, I'd have to say Michael Jackson for his music. You only realise how great it is once he's gone!

36 What political issue stirred you the most?
Climate change, not so much that it stirred me the most, but rather I kept hearing about it and got sick of it that I just couldn't care anymore.

37 Who did you miss?
I missed one of my friends when she went to Australia for a week (I know...it was only a week!), but what I missed more was how close I used to be with some friends and now we seem so distant. We hardly talk to each other!

38 Who was the best new person you met?
Uhhhhh.....not so much new person but people I got to know a whole lot more and become really good friends with include the new people in my youth group, a few of my pharmacy friends such as Natalie and Scholastica.

39 Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
To be successful you need to choose one thing and be really good at it, rather than be average at a whole lot of things, or else you'll end up as a 'Jack of all trades, a master of none'. You'll will never rise above the others and make a name for yourself that way! 

Catching up with Old Mates

Yesterday I had an almost two hour conversation with Hyun and Joon, two of my best friends who left me after high school for Korea and then America! I've long gotten over that now though. I'm moving on!

Anyway we caught up with each other, updating each other on what's been going on at both ends. It sounds like they're doing really well over there! I emailed them a little video message from me for Christmas since it's been almost three years since we last talked to each other in person. It was good hearing their voices again too. They haven't picked up an American accent just yet, which is equally good!

Hyun and I have a little bet/pact/whatever you want to call it going on, which we were hoping to settle this year, but it looks like the two year old bet/pact/whatever you want to call it will keep going next year!

I can't believe 2009 is almost over though! I didn't realise we were so close to the end of the year! With Christmas over, I don't really have much left to do in 2009 (or the remaining two days to put it in perspective). Well...that's not really true. I've still got to organise music that us three Anderson brothers will be playing at our cousin's wedding in February.

I've also got to sort out what I'll doing for my 21st, if anything! My parents have been pushing me more than anything. I always try to avoid thinking about how I'll be spending my birthday. I guess what makes me try to avoid thinking about planning birthday parties or whatever you call it is that I'm so unfamiliar with parties! I'm not such a party person. I may attend parties and have fun but I'm not one who knows how to organise one! I'm also not one to draw attention to myself and I try my best to avoid making things about me (ain't that so vein? hahaha) It was good when my friends organised a surprise 18th birthday for me a couple years ago, but then again that's me being lazy and not organising things for myself! So I will probably have to get onto sorting out my 21st. Whether it'll be a big thing or not is another matter.

Besides that though, it'll be a very quiet end to 2009, just mucking around at home (and trying to fix it up as well!) and texting certain stalkers (you know who you are!). I'm catching up with one of my friends tomorrow for the first time in a year though so that will be exciting but a little nerve-wracking as it always is. Even though we hardly talk to each other in person, we always chat and text each other so hopefully it won't be awkward like past years!

Where are the Good Deals?

Once Christmas passes the only thing left to look forward to in the year is the Boxing Day sales! Last year we got a really good deal when we bought our Canon SLR which came along with a twin lens kit, a camera bag, a 4gb card and a spare battery for less than the current price of the camera with the twin lens kit! 

This year while Aonghas had to work the whole day, my mum and I went to check out the Boxing Day sales and I have to say they were very underwhelming. We went to The Warehouse first and there weren't too many great deals. There was an announcement made that Ipod Nano's were being discounted below $200, and that caused a large crowd of people to gather at the entertainment department. 

Another announcement informing us of the opportunity to receive a free knife for watching a demonstration caused another crowd to gather near the homeware section. I had separated from my mum and so I was frantically looking for her. They said the free knives would be given to those over 21, so I didn't know if I'd be able to get one since I was still 20 and don't turn 21 till next month. I ended up just watching the demonstration, where a lady with an American accent showed how she could cut all sorts of things such as wood and hammers with the fantastic knives she was trying to sell. It was really funny. You'd expect to see this in one of those long TV infomercials. The lady would ask someone in the audience a question, like 

"You would expect to pay tens of hundreds of dollars for this wouldn't you?"

and the lady in front would eagerly nod in agreement! My mum soon found me and joined me, and eventually the lady finished her demonstration and started handing out the knives. I managed to get one myself!

While my mum looked at all the Christmas decorations discounted by 50% (she was pretty keen on outdoor lights after checking out Franklin Road the night before!), I went over to Dick Smith to see if there were any discounts there. We've been interested in getting a GPS receiver lately, seeing as they're a lot more affordable these days. I've been doing a bit of reading about the various models and brands, and thought I'd try ask a Dick Smith guy for his opinion. Surprisingly he knew what he was talking about! He was recommending the Navman MY30 model, which is the cheapest model. I've been looking at the MY55 model, which has a few extra features like lane guidance, 3D landmarks, bluetooth and an FM transmitter. I read that TomTom used to be way better than Navman, but that Navman has caught up and are now equal to TomTom with their latest MY series. If anyone knows anything about GPS receivers please let me know!

There weren't any other great discounts at Dick Smith, so my mum and I wandered around West City for a little longer to check out a few more shops. We saw my neighbour Szelin busy working, while everytime we passed Aonghas he was busy folding clothes on the table at the front of the store. I'm sure no matter how often he folded the clothes they'd get messed up not too long after!

We then went over to Harvey Norman where there seemed to be quite a few sales going on. There weren't too many that we were interested in though, except maybe some wireless headphones, but we waited till the next day when Aonghas was free to check them out.

The following morning we had to go to church early to set up tables for lunch, as well as practise music, as the minister wanted us three brothers to play our accordions at the church service. Jenny, the good violinist in our youth group would be playing another song on her violin. After a quick practice, the service started and after the message we had to play our music while the congregation sang. I think we played slightly too slow!

I originally thought that the shared lunch (or 'pot luck' lunch) would be straight after the service, but it turned out that there was going to be a combined sharing where letters from various missionaries our church supports would be read out! Some of us from our youth group tried to make a get-away by going into a side room and hiding there, but somehow we were discovered and shepherded back into the main hall! It wasn't too bad I suppose, even though I wasn't fully paying attention since I was starving to death. There was an elderly couple who sang, which was really nice.

Finally it was time for lunch! I love shared lunches at our church! Because we all have to bring a plate to share, there is plenty of food and we all leave church full without having to pay!

We did a bit more Boxing Day shopping after church, checking out Kmart and Harvey Norman again. My mum bought some more Christmas lights. It looks like we might be lighting our house up next year! Some of the lights are solar-powered so that will hopefully keep the power bill down!

I haven't been doing much since then. While we're on the subject of shopping, I've been thinking about getting a new phone for a long time now, but there haven't really been any models that have caught my eye. My current K800i is getting a bit old. It restarts, lags a lot, doesn't capture great videos and photos. Because it's parallel imported, I can't use too many of Vodafone's services like Mobile TV, and because it doesn't have wifi I can't really use the internet without paying. I used to be set on getting a Windows Mobile phone, but after reading more about Windows Mobile, I'm not so sure. I'm leaning more towards Android, but it still doesn't seem to be fully developed yet. Non-negotiable's for me though would be a good still/video camera (5mp or more), GPS, wifi, 3G, and capacitive touchscreen. Any suggestions are welcome! I've also been thinking about whether to just buy a phone that can at least take good photos and videos and has wifi while waiting for Android to mature and Windows Mobile 7 to come out next year. 

Lately I've also had the urge to get an Ipod Touch! I could imagine it becoming handy for using internet on the go, as well as using it as an organiser and reading things or listening to music on the go. The only thing going against it is that it has no camera, and I would prefer to have one device. I would consider the Iphone if it could only take better photos and videos!

Anyway, any suggestions are welcome!

Christmas Cheer

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our string group was to perform next. I don't think we actually sounded too bad! Peopl even started clapping as we played Jingle Bells! When I went into the second version of Jingle Bells, I couldn't hear the others entering because everyone was clapping so loudly (thinking we had finished!) and played a few wrong notes! I guess no one heard that though which is good (but hey, now you know!)

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

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

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

"You never said it was a competition!!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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