Today my dad reached a huge milestone! Now he gets a Super Gold card!
Tonight we celebrated his 65th by having a family dinner at the our cousins' house. Not too many showed up because some of the relatives had other events to attend, but at least there were still quite a few! We also invited the Tans along.
We had these pizza vouchers we bought not too long ago on one of those one-day deal websites (ten vouchers to be precise) and we had to use them up by the end of the week, so we brought along three pizzas to the dinner!
Once again we all got really bloated at the dinner! There is always so much food and the dessert is so filling! There is even quite a bit left over!
The Tans gave our dad this cool hat that makes him look a little stylish for his age (he should try wear it around the place!).
We waited till we got home to give him our present - an iPad! Our old computer is always dying on him and he's always been talking about the iPad and what it can do, so I thought maybe we should get him one!
Today after music teaching I came home to news that the neighbours were trimming the trees lining our driveway and needed our help, so my brothers went out and helped shift branches and other stuff that had fallen on the driveway.
The neighbours cut the feijoa tree back quite a bit, so much that we were afraid our dad wouldn't be happy as we wouldn't get that many feijoas next season!
We spent a few hours outside raking the leaves and putting everything into one pile ready for collection. I have to admit it's probably the most work I've done outside since I started working full-time!
While we were working, there seemed to be quite a bit more traffic coming down our road, including buses (our road isn't a bus route)! It looked as though the main road was blocked off and traffic had been diverted down our road. No wonder there was a huge queue of cars down our road!
Our driveway did look quite a lot tidier after though!
We had a very interesting discussion at youth group tonight - sex and relationships. The boys and girls were separated and had our own discussions. We discussed things like our views on sex before marriage, how far is too far, whether there is 'the one', and other questions.
I won't write what was actually said here because what is said in the group should stay in the group!
A few of us stopped by McDonald's on the way home for a quick bite though. My brothers, Grace, Ben and I met up with Wei there, and bumped into Eva and James who were just stopping by to get something to eat. We also bumped into Cleo, which was a nice surprise since we haven't seen her in a while!
It was originally meant to be a quick thing, but we ended up staying for almost an hour (half an hour after midnight) continuing the discussion we had at church! It was quite interesting, with the different setting (more relaxed setting) allowing us to talk about all sorts of other things!
It was my week to lead worship at youth group though, and usually I would get someone to play piano to accompany me, but Aonghas has been busy preparing for exams and I felt bad for asking the others. I also had in my mind that the songs would sound better with a guitar. The only problem is that..I can't play guitar! I had a go at one of our guitars at home and quickly gave up when I just couldn't hack it.
The ukulele hasn't been too difficult to play, but it just sounds too high and tinny to be taken seriously! I discovered that there is such a thing as a baritone ukulele which is a bit bigger and sounds lower, almost like a guitar! The best thing about it? It only has four strings, so it's a lot easier to play than the guitar!
I originally was going to get Aonghas to buy one for me yesterday so I could practise last night, but they said they'd have to order it in and it wouldn't arrive till this afternoon! I guess that was OK. I just had to practise the different chord positions on my small ukulele and then transfer it to the baritone ukulele after work.
Fortunately it wasn't too hard and didn't take too long to pick it up! Hopefully worship sounded OK!
Tim invited me to dinner tonight after work which was exciting as I haven't done anything with myself after work ever since sitting my exam and having all this free time! Finally I had something to look forward to!
Tim picked me up after work and we were joined by Andrew, who had just finished his last exam today. We went to Sichuan Restaurant in Newmarket where we had steamboat (that's what I think it's called? Apparently others reckon it's actually called fish-pot or hot-pot?).
My greatest fear with steamboat is not cooking food properly and getting sick a few hours later! However, with Tim and Andrew being pros at this I didn't have anything to fear!
There was both raw and cooked food all on plates/trays along a table and you could just help yourself to whatever you wanted. We grabbed a bit of meat, some little octopuses, tofu, fish balls and crab meat. Some of the cooked food included egg tarts, noodles, rice and other deep-fried food!
There was a boiling pot on a stove in the middle of our table where we put in our raw food to cook. It was split into two halves - one spicy side and one normal side. I put my food in the normal side of course!
We spent the night eating and talking about all sorts of things, like my love life (it seems to be a favourite topic for some!)
By the end of the night I was quite full! We left to go pick up Tim's wife Gabrielle, having to circle around the block a few times before we found her.
I really enjoyed the night out! With no exams to study for...for now, I have a lot more free time, so I'll have to do this a bit more often!
Today after church our mum had originally made us lunch to eat, but Winston was keen on trying the new pie KFC are selling. My mum changed her mind and let us walk across the road to KFC to buy one and give it a go.
We used an online coupon to get free regular fries along with our pie so that was a bonus!
The verdict? It was quite yummy. It had chicken inside it, and the filling tasted like potato gravy! If only it was bigger though!
Queen's Birthday, really just an excuse to have a day off work and to go out and do something! Well a few families from church decided to go visit MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) with us today, especially since it was free for Auckland residents for the month of June. I haven't been to MOTAT since primary school, so it was going to be an interesting experience!
We picked Grace up and met up with the Tans and the Ongs and the pastor's family not too long after. It was quite busy today, the busiest I've seen MOTAT in a while! It's probably because it was free!
Winston was our guide for the day! We first all went to check out the trains before having a wander around the Kiwiana exhibition.
There were some displays with toys and stuff that was from back in my childhood! It sure made me feel old!
There was also a mirror maze that we had a little wander through. It kills it a little when you just look up or down at the floor to figure out the correct path though.
It was then time for a little break, so we had some lunch in the middle of a little Victorian village! There was a little cottage and a small church, and a little barnyard where some man was doing something with iron!
After lunch we checked out a few more old shops with these creepy looking dummies inside them!
The shops had old washing machines, TV's and other really old things!
There was also an old school too
There was a really interesting area with interactive displays and activities, such as a little earthquake area where you sit in and it shakes violently as if you're experiencing an earthquake.
There were other things like tubes you hit to make music, and other things like that.
The last thing we did before we decided to go was to check out the spaceship!
We didn't really know what was inside it, but it turned out to be sort of like the Motion Master at Rainbow's End!
We then caught the tram over to the other Aviation Hall to check out the planes.
There weren't any passenger planes as I had remembered from back in primary school, but at least there was a Skyhawk!
After, we had to go to pick up our dad from work while the others went to meet up with Leonie at her work in St Lukes.
Aonghas soon had to go off to work so we bought some takeaways for him, dropped him off at work then met up with everyone at this Malaysian in Mt Roskill. We had a table upstairs, but it wasn't big enough for all of us! We could only just fit around the table!
There was some nice food, like beans, squid, and...I can't quite remember what they're all called but I'll let the pictures do the talking!
We all went to J's Tea to finish off the night. I met up with Jade, one of my old pharmacy friends who was just outside. Apparently there were quite a few pharmacy people from Otago there that night!
We all sat around and munched on some fries and kumara chips while we waited for our orders.
I tried a strawberry milk tea with pudding and it was nice, even if Leonie thought it looked girlie!
Tonight a group of us from our church attended the evening Equippers Church service at the Auckland Town Hall just to see how things are done. We are visiting a different church on the first Sunday of each month.
When we entered there was a band on stage and everyone was up on their feet jumping up and down, singing and dancing to the music! They were mostly young people so that's probably how they had so much energy! I should have brought a drink bottle with me as my mouth was getting so dry after all that singing!
There was a guy (I'm guessing he was the pastor) who came out to talk for a little while but he didn't speak much as I think tonight's focus was on their 'Revolution Tour' and sharing what happened. It looks like they all did a good job at the schools and rest homes and other places they toured!
He also asked us to say 'hello' to people beside, in front and behind us. I said 'hello' to this girl sitting in front of me. She asked me if I used to go to Rutherford College, and if I had a twin called Aonghas! She also asked if I used to be head boy! Wow I didn't think anyone would remember me as head boy after so long!
The service finished with one more upbeat song, and Grace and Rebecca ran up to the front of the hall to join all the people jumping up and down and dancing! Go them!
After the service, we were about to leave the hall when this Brazilian guy called us over! He introduced himself, and gave us all free coffee! He was quite friendly and by the end of the evening he and I exchanged numbers! Ooo la la! (Don't worry I'm just kidding!)
Apparently they all go to Wendy's after for dinner, but we headed off to the same Korean restaurant where we celebrated Winston and Leonie's birthday a few years ago. We got a table right at the back of the restaurant.
After ordering, we discussed our experience tonight and then dug into our food once it arrived! Aonghas scheduled his break so that he could join us.
Quite a few of us had sticky rice powder rice with meat or something like that (I can't exactly remember what we ordered!) but it was quite nice!
It was then time to leave. Lucky we don't have work or school tomorrow!
Tonight after work I went to this Asian store in the city that sells all these novelty Asian gifts and was surprised to see they were having a sale with all these big discounts, like 50% off all soft toys! They had a lot of Pikachu, Spongebob Squarepants and Super Mario soft toys, as well as all sorts of other things like socks and hats.
I couldn't resist and ended up buying this
Pikachu is now sitting on the shelf in the bedroom next to those marshmellow face soft toys I bought the family for Christmas a few years ago! I don't think my parents have noticed it yet, or else they'd be asking questions right now!
I really should stop wasting my money on stuff I don't need though! Right now I don't really desire anything, but I still get the urge to buy something, even if it's for someone else! If only I had someone to spoil! haha
