Tonight after church a group of us went to the Baptist Tabernacle in the city to check out their evening service. I think the last time I was at that church was probably the church conference last year!
Originally I thought the service would be in the main hall, but it turned out to be in the upstairs dining hall! We all sat around tables instead of in rows of chairs, which was a new experience! There were Bibles at each of the tables as well.
There was a worship band on the small raised stage, who led us with a few songs, before one of the pastors gave his sermon.
After the service, we all decided to have a vote on what to have for dinner before some would be going home, and a few of us to karaoke! Some of the adults initially suggested Taiwanese food, but after all the money we spent last night on dinner and ice-skating, they were out-voted by us young people who all voted for Wendy's!
It worked out well in the end though, as there wasn't much time before we were meant to be at the karaoke place. Most of us ordered the value meal which came with a burger, fries, drink and a sundae. We also got a free milk shake via the Wendy's app! It was quite filling. I almost couldn't finish it all!
We soon had to cross the road to the karaoke bar which is located in what used to be a giant gaming arcade. It looks quite nice now! It's sorta underground too. We were booked in to Room One.
There were about fifteen of us. Most of them were fluent in Chinese, so naturally they chose Mandarin and Cantonese songs. I didn't understand most of them, so I just cheered and tried singing as much as I could. Hamish, Grace and I (the English group) tried to fit in a few English songs as much as we could, even though the Chinese songs outnumbered most of them!
We did get to sing a few English songs throughout the night! There were a couple we didn't realise would have swear words in them! Uh oh! I also tried singing a couple Chinese songs, like Kiss Goodbye by Wang Lee Hom and Ai Mei by Rainie Yang!
We had the room for four hours, and each of us were allowed to order anything up to a total of $20, so I tried the red bean crush and some deep-fried fish. I'm not too sure if it was worth it for the price, but I guess at least it's something!
Aonghas soon joined us after he finished work over at uni.
Our room was booked till midnight, so by midnight we had to leave. Fortunately it's a holiday tomorrow!
I've been looking for this key ring ever since I got back from Hong Kong almost a year ago, and today my mum found it in a box with other key rings we had bought! Now I can finally attach it to my...sole key..
The Careers NZ website has appeared in the news a lot tonight regarding its new tool allowing people to compare just how much they could expect to earn after graduating with various degrees.
I thought I'd compare a few with Pharmacy (purely for fun. Some aren't specific degrees, and I don't know how well it reflects the real world). It looks like we don't do too badly...
Bachelor of Pharmacy vs Masters of Accounting
Bachelor of Pharmacy vs Masters of Business and Management
Bachelor of Law vs Bachelor of Law
Bachelor of Pharmacy vs Post-Graduate Certificate in Public Health
Bachelor of Pharmacy vs Graduate Diploma in Teacher Education
Bachelor of Pharmacy vs Bachelor of Medical Studies (OK maybe not as good as this one!)
I've grown to dislike birthdays, as it just serves as a reminder that I'm only getting old. Besides, nothing fun usually happens on birthdays anyway! This year though I had quite a good birthday.
It started off with two of my best high school friends, Hyun and Joon having a video chat with me just before and carrying on past midnight. It was about 5am over there in New York, so they were up just to chat to me. It was really cool, as I haven't talked to them in a long time, and I haven't actually video chatted to them since they left NZ over six years ago!
What was just as cool was that they told me they had received the Christmas presents I had posted them several weeks ago - All Blacks ties (as a reminder of NZ)! I was starting to worry a little bit as no one had received anything I had posted overseas to them!
I was also given a birthday card by Eva on Sunday that I had been saving till my birthday to open, so I decided to open and read it just after midnight (apparently I was meant to read it the day before though!). It was really nice of her! She had made it herself, and inside she wrote quite a long and heartfelt message! Thank you so much Eva!
It was finally time to open the present Grace had given me on Saturday too. It turned out to be a shoulder bag! That was something I've been meaning to buy myself for a while, since the one I currently have is starting to fall apart after two years of use! Thank you so much Grace!
It really put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. Later that afternoon I went with my brothers and Grace to the city to go bowling at the new Metro Lanes (in the Metro building), using some one-day vouchers. The place just opened recently, so it was worth a try!
It was quite different to the older bowling alleys we're used to. The lanes are split, with a few here and there. I guess that's due to a lack of space.
It looked as though Aonghas was going to run away with the highest score, with Grace coming a close second. That was impressive too, considering how Grace has played very little bowling! I was languishing in third, but after getting a spare in the last bowl, I was given an extra bowl and was unlucky to come second just by ONE pin!
The game only lasted about 40 minutes which was not too bad!
We were originally going to check out that Japanese pop art exhibition but after finally getting mobile internet to work, we realised the gallery is closed on Mondays! I guess it was straight onto lunch then!
We were about to go to Burger King, but at the last minute decided to go to Wendy's instead. That continues a tradition we have of going to Wendy's on birthdays.
We all ordered one of those $5 combos, and got a free frosty shake through the Wendy's app! (If you have an iPhone or Android, download the app and use it!).
With a drink, ice-cream AND a frosty, we were all quite full after that!
It was time to walk back to the car though, as we only had paid for parking for two hours. Along the way we discovered a nice little Christian bookstore, and some really good lady just drumming on the footpath!
I actually enjoyed my birthday this time! Thanks Aonghas for paying too! :P
What I have come to realise is that rather than dread becoming another year older, I should be thankful I've been able to live another year, and I am truly grateful for that!
I've come to realise that I have many awesome and loving friends. I am truly grateful to have them in my lives, and I hope I've done my best to be there for them and be the best friend I can be!
I also love my family and would have no other family, despite our numerous flaws and quirks!
So once again, thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!
This afternoon our family went to our favourite (cheap) buffet restaurant in the city, Imperial Garden. It's all-you-can-eat dim sum in the weekends! My dad and Aonghas will be working on Monday night (my birthday..shhhhh) so we decided to have an early birthday lunch. All that really means is I don't have to pay my mum back. Woohoo!
When we got to the pay machine to pay for our car park, there was already a ticket sitting there, and it hadn't expired! We were originally just going to use that and save $8, but my dad was worried since there were security cameras around, so we did the honest thing. There happened to be two Australian 5c coins lying around too. What a test!
We had one-and-a-half hours to eat, so it was time to get started! I tried to restrain from eating the deep-fried food, as that fills me up fast. My strategy: dim sum, dim sum, DIM SUM. Oh, and then dessert.
Half way through, and I was pretty full! It was time for dessert! I could only manage a bowl of fruit salad and a few snacks. I had to smuggle the rest of the biscuits in a tissue and sneaked them to my mum under the table to look after for later!
We were pretty bloated after that lunch! Now we just had to make sure we didn't fall asleep during the Experiencing God programme we had to attend at church!
The local Korean church was collecting e-waste today (electronic junk that no one wants), so it was time for me to get rid of all my old laptops!
The Vaio is my current laptop. I didn't dump that one!
We found Hamish's super-old laptop too.
The collection point was set up as a drive-thru, so we just drove up to the guys, opened the boot and they took away our junk for us. I was sitting at the back of the car, just to make sure they didn't take away anything they shouldn't!
Tonight's activity for Oddfellows was simple: build the strongest bridge that can hold up the most number of hymn books, and then you win! I put all the engineers/engineering students together, then split everyone up in school groups (Massey, Rutherford, Avondale+St Dominics, Westlake+Rangitoto, Sunderland+Birkenhead).
I gave each group several Chinese newspapers (I went to several Chinese grocery stores earlier in the day with my mum and Aonghas and grabbed a few for free..thanks guys!) and 100m of cellotape and gave them the whole night.
It was interesting to see the different ideas people had! Initially I wasn't sure the activity was going to work, because I got it off Youtube, and just made up the rules. People kept asking me questions to clarify the rules, so I had to consult the engineering students/engineers to see what they thought (but trying not to give them an advantage!).
Some groups pretty much created one big, fat, sturdy log, while another group made a platform, while another did a criss cross style. The engineering students/engineers created this elaborate bridge with support structures!
The test was yet to come...
Massey were up first, and surprised us all! There were only three in their group while every other group had four people. They managed to hold up nine hymn books!
The other groups followed.
Finally, it was up to the engineering students/engineers. They had designed their bridge to put hymn books on either side of the centre, but that went against the rules and what everyone else did, which was to place the book in the middle of the bridge! They had to make some slight adjustments to their bridge.
Their bridge came close to beating Massey, but they were one hymn book short, and Massey won! We then tested their bridge by the way they wanted it to be, and it could hold ten hymn books!
We ended the night with ice cream and whacking each other with newspaper bridges.
Today my family and I went to Sky City to take advantage of a deal they were offering - $3.90 for a plate of fish and chips or fish balls and prawn laksa. The deal expires at the end of the week!
We parked in the correct area, and kept our ticket in a safe place this time! We followed the signs to 'The Deli' which eventually led us to the casino. The food place actually turned out to be inside the casino!
Where we were eating was right next to the slot machines, so it was an interesting experience to be surrounded by all these machines going off with their beeping sounds, and coins falling into cups!
I was initially skeptical about how big the meal would be, considering it is at Sky City and there must be some catch to something that cheap! However, it was actually quite good! The plate came with fries, some salad, sauce and three pieces of fish! It was quite filling! Apparently it usually costs just under $10!
We got our parking validated, so we had cheap parking for the next three hours. After we wandered around the casino floor, having a look and trying to find the toilet, we left Sky City, looking for a drink. I originally recommended we go to Burger King for a $1 small drink, and just refill it, but my mum didn't want us drinking too much sweet stuff. We took the cheap route and went to the ground floor of the Aotea Centre and had a free drink of water!
It is almost the end of the first, full, free week I've had without any church activities or commitments, and I haven't really done much!
I've been developing this bad habit of falling asleep by my laptop on the reclining couch in the lounge, then waking up at 3am in the morning. It's not good for my sleep, as I find myself waking up at 11am or some time late in the day! Prior to this week, I've always tried waking up early. It was a habit I developed from two years of working. I prefer it that way, regardless of how late I sleep, as I don't believe in wasting daylight hours. Why sleep during the day when you could be doing something? I've redeemed myself a bit in the past few days by waking up slightly early and doing some work in bed (when I say work, I mean my church course workbook!).
There's still a lot for me to do though! I really need to start applying for jobs, and sort out what I'm going to do in terms of study this year! I keep procrastinating!
I've also been looking at driving lessons as well, as I'd really like to get my full license before the end of February.
I try to do a bit of tidying up once in a while too, but I haven't gotten very far with that either.
I think it's time I put my mind to it and get things done!
I received my ENHANCE pack today in the mail. Usually I get excited about receiving mail. This time was no different. However, for those of you who don't know what ENHANCE is, it is the continuing education programme for pharmacists. It means we have to continue upskilling to ensure we are on top of our game! For us, it means study, study, study! I suppose it's not such a bad thing, as it keeps me fresh.
I have to fill in this really big booklet by the end of March, describing my workplace and the skills I use at that workplace. There is one big problem though...I don't have a job right now! I emailed the programme co-ordinator just to check what I should do (even though it is still early), and initially she said I would be switched over to the non-practising register, but later emailed me again after she had clarified with someone else. It looks like I've got till next year to find a job!
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