I finally got my new glasses today! It's been two weeks since getting my eyes tested and choosing my frames, so I thought I'd ring up the optometrist in the morning and finding out what was going on. It turns out they just became ready for me!
After having yumcha in the city with some church friends, we went to Newmarket to get my glasses.
So here's a comparison of my old and new glasses!
Old glasses:
New: (FCUK)
(Osiris)
It's taking me a little while to adjust to the new glasses, but at least I can see (slightly) clearly now!
Today our family and a few family friends from church went to yumcha together. We went to the Imperial Garden Restaurant in the city once again, as it's pretty much a yumcha buffet! While Aonghas, my dad and a couple others hadn't been there before, most of us had been there before so we knew what to expect.
There was a bit of a mix-up as to where everyone else was, as we had parked in a carpark above the restaurant, while the others all parked down the road. We got to the restaurant first, and while I would've thought it was best to wait till the others arrived before eating, my parents reckoned we should make the most of the time we have, as our lunch period was only from 11.30am-1pm and half an hour had almost passed already!
The others soon arrived and joined us and we began eating! There was so much food there. I was trying not to eat too much greasy, oily food as I don't want my face to be covered in pimples and spots when I graduate. I won't get very good graduation photos!
It's amazing how fast we got full though! We had only been eating for an hour and we were full by the end of it!
After lunch, we all wandered down to Queen Street and split up for a little while. Us guys went to JB Hi Fi while the parents went to check out the $3+GST shop.
We wandered around for a while before heading over to Aotea Square and then sitting in Aotea Centre when we ran out of things to do. Funnily enough our parents came down the stairs a little while later and we reunited before parting ways!
Aonghas went to the place to pick up my graduation regalia this morning and so I was able to bring it to youth group tonight.
Because it was birthday night at youth group, we were all asked to bring one possession that reminded us of our childhood. While a lot of the girls brought soft toys, I brought an old bag I used to use to keep things in when I was little, which contained stones I got from my trip up to Northland as a kid, some airline rubbers and my Pro-yo!
Afterwards, I got out my graduation regalia and got some photos taken with the youth group!
Tonight after I finished work I caught up with Angie and we just hung out till our bus came..only thing was we missed our bus and the next one wasn't coming for another hour! So instead we just wandered to the Korean pancake shop and she bought me a pancake (yeah yeah I know she's always buying me food! I will buy for her in return sometime soon!).
We then strolled down Queen Street and around the waterfront talking before returning to Britomart to catch the bus.
So graduation is next Wednesday and I haven't sorted anything out! No gown, no graduation photos or anything!
Because I had the day off today for ANZAC Day/Easter Monday, I thought I'd try give the shop a call to see if they were open, and to my surprise they were! As soon as Aonghas came home from work we were off!
My family and I got there and was shown all the photo displays before I had to book a time for the photo shoot and pay the deposit. I don't think I've had a photo shoot since I was a little kid!
Because I won't have time to pick up the gown on Thursday, my dad will have to. That meant I had to try on the gown then. I went for the large gown so it drooped closer to the ground. The cap is quite heavy too! The hood colour of greyish-green wasn't too bad though!
Once I got the gown sorted we were about to go when we found out the graduation soft toys were only $12 each! There was Doraemon, Winnie the Pooh, a few teddy bears and chipmunks, and a pig! I had a tough time deciding which to get, but in the end I went with...piggy!
Afterwards we went window-shopping in Newmarket since parking was free today, and I came across an Asian gift shop and they were selling graduation Mushimaro! Nooooooooo!!!! Oh well piggy is still cool I guess.
Anyway I think I'm all sorted for graduation now! Only just over a week to go!
Today after church a lot of the people stayed behind for a meeting, while I taught some kids recorder and my mum and some other parents did some dancing before sitting around chatting.
This went on for quite a while that by the time everyone decided it was time to go, it was quite late! Usually when this happens we all just decide to go out for dinner together, and this is what happened this time too!
We went to this restaurant called Dragon Gourmet in Epsom. It was quite posh but the serving size was huge!
Tim had been to the restaurant before so he helped us order.
I ended up choosing some chicken cutlets (I think?) with spaghetti and cream sauce. It was quite huge but very yummy, especially the chicken since it was boneless!
We took up quite a bit of the restaurant! We had about four tables pushed together!
After dinner, Aonghas and I ordered a Hong Kong milk tea which had a very confusing taste, was it milk or was it tea?
As we were leaving though, I thought I recognised a girl who was an old primary school friend who was sitting at a nearby table. I thought I must be seeing things though as I was sure she moved to Macau not too long ago. I later found out that it was her! I wish I said 'Hi' to her now, as I haven't talked to her in person since primary school! At least she recognised me too though!
Today was a combined Easter baptism service at our church, so three of our 'sister' churches joined us to celebrate Easter and the people getting baptised. I was sitting right at the back with some of the guys and it was kind of hard to hear!
The service eventually finished though, and we were introduced to a new girl called Katie! Hopefully she joins our youth group!
Gabrielle, one of our youth group leaders came over to me during lunch, and gave me a little present she said was from her and her husband Tim. She told me it wasn't a baptism present but something she hoped would help.
When I unwrapped it a little later while I was on my own, I discovered it to be...
A guide to dating for Christian guys!
Hahahaha! I think it's becoming like an Oddfellows inside joke/goal, to see Calum get a girlfriend! Well guys, I won't disappoint you ;)
I was reading the book in a corner by myself for a little while till one of the girls came over to see what I was doing, snatched my book and ran off into the toilet with it!
My mum's church group decided to go on a little outing today since it's Easter and All! Our destination: Waitakere Ranges!
We all met up at church just to check if everyone knew where to go. Of course we were once again the last to arrive. They were about to leave without us!
Aonghas had his GPS so we used that to help us get to the park, while we had a car or two following us!
We got to the park and others were already there. Once we got our stuff sorted, it was time to hike!
Before we could enter the bushes though we had to wash our shoes with some special chemicals that were at the entrance to prevent the spread of some sort of disease or something.
The bush walk was quite relaxing, with the trees and nature all around us, and the forest noise around us!
Our first destination was the Cascade Falls. We had high expectations of some great waterfall, but as soon as we got to the rocks we had to climb over to get to, we realised it wasn't much of a waterfall, more like a piddle of water!
The rocks were quite slippery and so it was a little dangerous climbing up them just to see that small little waterfall. Some got quite high up though!
We made our way back into the forest, not really having any aim now except to make it to the end of the walk and back to our cars for lunch!
We came across the Anderson Track along the way as well!
Once we made it out of the forest, we got our lunch out and all sat together in the park to eat. We happened to find an area that was sloping and full of bees and wasps so it wasn't the most pleasant places to eat!
We started off with some singing before we all got into our food.
After lunch we just played around on the field, trying to find creative ways to entertain ourselves. We tried rolling a soccer ball down the hill and between the legs of someone at the bottom of the hill. We also played rollie-pollies!
Finally we had a game of capture the flag! That took a lot of out of me! I probably should step it up a bit at the gym!
It was still quite early when everyone decided it was time to go home. For us younger people though we felt as if the day wasn't over just yet! Some of us guys decided to meet up later this evening (with Grace joining in) to watch a movie. We had a hard time deciding what to watch between Sucker Punch and Fast and the Furious 5 (we couldn't watch Paul as it was R13 and I forgot my ID!). Even our coin and iPod couldn't make a decision for us! We ended up going with Sucker Punch and it wasn't too bad!
On the first day of my five day weekend, I had to wake up early to go to church for the Good Friday service! My brothers, Jenny and I were playing as a string quartet for the service!
The service was sombre, and I suppose that's how it's meant to be when it's about the death of Jesus Christ.
After the service some of us from our youth group hung out while Aonghas and a few others went out to buy lunch for us.
They eventually came back with KFC and takeaways! Yum yum! We all ate for a while before we packed up and headed to the main hall for youth group. Because this week was film study, we were going to watch...Tangled! It's the movie we've all been looking forward to!
Once again Tangled didn't disappoint!
We had movie discussion afterwards and when each of us were asked what our dream was, people answered mine for me before I could, saying my dream was to get a girlfriend! What is this!!
Sadly youth group had to end, but before we went home we helped Ben clean the church (he gets paid to do it) so he'd be free to join us on an outing to the Waitakere Ranges tomorrow.
One of my best friends invited me to attend a free guitar lesson her boyfriend was teaching at uni tonight after work, so I decided to attend, mainly so I could meet her boyfriend, but by the end of the night I found that I actually learnt quite a bit about how to play the guitar!
It was actually quite good...both meeting her boyfriend and learning the guitar. I actually realised there is some logic to the fingering of chords! I really really want to learn how to strum though!
As for her boyfriend, he's a really great guy! I'm glad my prayers have been answered and that she's found someone who will take good care of her!
I think I might just attend the next guitar lesson in a couple of weeks!
Today after teaching my last class for the term, my mum, Aonghas and I went to Newmarket to take me to the optometrists to get my eyes examined.
I had my eye test and once it was finished I was left to check out which frames I wanted. I texted Aonghas to find out where he and my mum were, as they were supposed to join me to help me choose. He replied, saying he had dropped his keys down the drain as he got out of the car, and so had to wait by the car till AA arrived since it was unlocked!
I went back to the car to find my mum and Aonghas waiting outside. Aonghas showed me the rolled newspaper he had tried sticking into the drain to determine its depth. It was so deep he could drop the whole newspaper into the drain!
Two hours had almost passed and AA hadn't arrived, so Aonghas decided to take matters into his own hands. He was thinking about buying a cheap broom from a nearby cheap $2 store and using it to find the keys, or a magnet on an extend-able arm thing. He went off looking for a store, and eventually found one. He asked the Korean man at the store said they didn't have one of those magnet things, but they did sell a bag of craft magnets, and suggested using some fishing rod.
Aonghas came back with the bag of magnets and the fishing rod. He tied the bag of magnets to the fishing rod and dropped it into the drain. He moved it around until he could feel the keys clicking on to the magnets. He saved our keys!
He called AA to let them know no one had come to our aid and explained how he solved the problem himself!
Today after finishing music teaching, my mum, Aonghas and I went into Newmarket so that I could finally redeem my coupon which entitled me to an eye exam, and two pairs of designer glasses. I got the coupon cheap on one of those one-day-discount websites.
My appointment was at 1pm and I only just got there in time. The eyesight test was first, which saw me staring into this machine while it was determining how good/bad my eyes were (most likely bad!), before it blew air into my eyes to determine the pressure in my eyes.
After that, they took me into another room to determine which lens let me see the best, which meant reading all those different sized letters!
Once that was all done, it was time to choose the frames! I had a hard time with this. I'm bad at making decisions. I was hoping my mum and Aonghas had arrived at the optometrists by now, but there was a little incident with Aonghas dropping the keys down the drain...
I had to go back to see what was going on (which you can read about in the next post) before we could all finally go back to the optometrists.
I almost settled on these Tommy Hilfiger glasses and one other pair of glasses (my mum wanted me to have at least one normal pair) when the people at the store found a pair of FCUK glasses which they though suited me more. They thought it made the Tommy Hilfiger glasses look like safety glasses in comparison!
Anyway they should be arriving in 7 to 10 working days, hopefully in time for graduation!
Tonight Gwen, Angie and I had dinner together again. It's now becoming a Thursday night tradition for us!
This week we decided to try Western food after having Asian last Thursday. We went to this place that made burgers that we had passed on the way to the bus stop last week.
I caught up with Angie before Gwen met up with us and Angie told me about buying a surprise birthday cake for Gwen...and it was taro flavoured too! It was her birthday yesterday so that would definitely surprise Gwen!
When Gwen joined us, we all headed off the the burger place and ordered our burgers. I ordered this lamb burger with mint sauce. To be honest it tasted like normal meat, but then again I don't really know the difference between meat! I also bought a couple plates of chips for the girls.
Eating the burgers got a little messy with the juice falling out of the bottom of our burgers!
We eventually finished our burgers and Angie was going to get the cake out, when one of the guys who worked at the burger place passed by and asked Angie if she needed a knife to cut the cake! That sort of wrecked the surprise! I don't think Gwen actually picked up on it but Angie just took out the cake, lit the candles and we both sang Happy Birthday to her!
It's been a rainy night tonight, and Aonghas was out doing some work while Hamish still hadn't come home from uni. It was soon 10.30pm, so my mum told me to text Hamish to find out where he was. He replied saying he was approaching New Lynn, so I texted him asking if he wanted a ride home.
He texted me telling me he just arrived at the Henderson shops and was waiting for us, so our dad drove down there to pick him up.
Half an hour went by though and they still hadn't returned home. My mum was getting a little worried and tried ringing Hamish but couldn't get through. We decided to jump in the car (with Aonghas who just got home) and drove down to Henderson shops to look for them.
I tried ringing Hamish again, and this time I got through. I could hear Hamish pass the phone to my dad who told me that they were at the police station waiting to make a statement, as Hamish had just been assaulted!
The story was that Hamish was waiting at the bus stop for my dad when there were a group of guys across the road. One guy crossed the road towards Hamish, went up to him and just punched him in the face before swearing at him and walking off! Hamish phoned the police and that's when my dad arrived.
The police soon arrived, and Hamish and my dad jumped in the police car and they went driving around looking for these guys. They saw a group of guys and as the police car approached one guy started running. The police car turned around and chased after this guy before he went into the bushes. One of the policemen got out and went after him but lost him.
They returned to the scene so Hamish could try find his glasses which got knocked off his face but he couldn't find them. A passing police car mistook Hamish as the assaulter!
Fortunately Hamish wasn't too seriously injured, only suffering a minor cut to the face and the loss of his glasses. We met up with them at the police station and waited with them for almost half an hour for him to make a statement before we decided to go since it was approaching midnight and Aonghas had homework to do.
It does make you wonder how safe you are these days.
