Thai'ing Things Up

Tonight my high school friends and I (the ones who are still left in Auckland!) had a bit of a reunion/dinner together for the first time in a little while since Shen is back in Auckland to visit. He moved to Singapore last year to work.

We went to a Thai restaurant in Ponsonby, creatively named 'Thai Me Up'. I was last to arrive, since I only just finished work at 6pm and my mum wanted to drive me home from Albany first before taking me there! She doesn't trust me driving!

I ended up ordering a mixed entrée which had a spring roll, won-ton and this thing on a stick. It was quite yum, although I wish there was more! 

I also ordered this dish called the...something Jack (I can't quite remember now!). It had some chicken, vegetables and sauce, and my rice came in a nice heart shape! Some of the other guys got star-shaped rice, and Sarena got her rice in the shape or a person! 

We did a lot of catching up, and Claire's fiance Daniel joined us a little later on. I had a chat with him and got to know him a bit better! I admit it didn't get off to a good start when I wrongly asked him if he was in the police force! (I think I was thinking of someone else!)

 To end the dinner, Shen asked one of the ladies working at the restaurant to take a big group photo of us, but she didn't do such a great job, so he just had to do it himself!

Tonight was actually possibly the last time we were going to see Evan...for a while as he is leaving for Thailand in a few weeks time! Hopefully he won't be gone for good though!

We all said our goodbyes outside the restaurant when some of us guys decided to head over to Momo Tea. Shrikkanth joined us and we had a drink and talked about all those good old times Rutherford. I can't believe I had forgotten a lot of those funny moments! It was good reliving them with the guys!

Hopefully we all catch up again sometime!

Toni Turning Chinese

Tonight after work I met up with my high school friend Toni and a few others to farewell her, as she is leaving New Zealand for China next Monday to teach English over there!

I had some Burger King before I was going to meet them all at Shadows, the uni bar. As I was walking back up to uni though, I saw them walking down the road, and it turned out that Shadows was closed!

We all walked to some bar in Metro. When we got in and sat down, a staff member came over to tell us that they would be closing in 25 minutes! We would have to find somewhere else to go! There was only enough time for Evan, Toni's boyfriend and classmate, to have a game of pool!

Our third attempt to have a catch-up was at Father Ted's, an Irish pub. It was quite packed, probably because it was pub quiz night. We thought we might just enter a team! Our group was split into two, so all the high school friends of Toni's formed one group, along with a few others.

There were several sections to the pub quiz format. There was a section on movies/TV shows, sections 1 and 2 of Pot Luck, a page of logos we had to identify, and a section on music.

I have to admit I felt quite out of shape when hearing the questions and not being able to answer them! I was able to answer to a National Lampoon movie question, but for the rest of them we relied on Evan!

We got to the end of the questions, and handed them all in. We waited outside in the fresh air till an announcement was made on the winner of the pub quiz. We were expecting to come near the bottom, but as it turns out, we came second, only losing by ONE point! Maybe we should do this a bit more often!

Karaoke was just about to start, but it was getting late and I have work the next day, so I had to depart, but it was a good long-overdue catch-up with Toni and high school friends!

Hopefully Toni has a safe and life-changing experience in China! I'm sure she will gain so much out of it.

There goes another high school friend! Bye Toni!

Singing Birthday

 It was Shrikkanth's birthday today and he was having a 22nd birthday party to make up for not having a 21st birthday party last year. By golly he's young! Most of us have already turned 22 and he's only turning 22 now!

Anyway, I had to teach music in the morning so I couldn't make it till the afternoon. When I got there, his friends were all in the lounge playing Singstar. It's been a long time since I last went to his house. I think the last time was way back in year nine in 2002, when a group of us had to create a short film about something to do with Ancient China. I wish we still had a copy of that!

While I recognised a few people's faces, I only really knew Grainam (intermediate school friend) and Sarena (intermediate-high school friend). Apparently the other high school friends had been and gone already!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoQMiXLWqp0)

There was still some food left so I had a bit to eat while catching up with Grainam and watching the singing going on.

As it got later, people started to leave until there were just a few of us left. We went into Shrikkanth's room to watch a few funny Youtube videos before it was time for me to go too.

Happy Birthday Shrikkanth!

A Farewell with Curry

Tonight a few of my high school friends and I got together at this Indian restaurant to have dinner and farewell Shen, as he is the latest one to be moving overseas to Singapore. He's scored a job with PriceWaterhouseCoopers over there! Go Shen!

On the way there I got stopped at a police checkpoint to have a breath-test. I spoke into the machine which said 

'No Alcohol'

I thought that was it till the policeman asked to see my license! Maybe he didn't trust me!

I got there slightly late because I had work, but everyone was already there when I got there, so I had to order quickly. I thought I'd give the goat curry a go, as well as some plain naan bread!

The food took a while to come out, so while we were waiting we caught up with each other and especially Shen. 

He brought this little booklet our class put together back in year 10, called 'Reflections of 10MT' (10MT was our form class back then). There were drawings of each of us in our future careers. My future career was as a court judge!

The food finally came out. I don't think I've tried any Indian food like it before! The rice were in bowls put in the middle of the table while we were each given a small bowl with the sauce. 

Fortunately my curry sauce was mild so it wasn't too hot. I tried dipping my naan bread into it and it tasted good!

I was sorta the last to finish since I decided to eat all the rice and finish my sauce. Once we all finished, Shen took photos with each of us before we decided to head out.

Now it was time to decide where to have dessert! It was almost 10pm and so we didn't know what places would be open, so we just decided to go over to McDonald's for dessert!

Shen and some of the girls ordered some cake while I ordered a thickshake. I ended up getting into a deep discussion with Evan about pharmaceutical funding in New Zealand which surprised me as I never knew I could talk so much about pharmacy despite it being my current occupation!

There was a bit group of people sitting at a nearby table making heaps of noise as they were watching the State of Origin on the large screen. I never knew they played live sport on TV at McDonald's! I should go there a bit more often to watch sports you can only see on Sky TV!

It was getting late and I couldn't drive home on my restricted license, so I called my dad to come pick me up. It was a good way to farewell Shen, and hopefully I'll be able to say goodbye to him one last time this Saturday when he departs New Zealand!

(http://youtu.be/EVAkzlKyXyI)

What Reunion?

Today after music classes my brothers and I decided to visit our old high school Rutherford College to check out the 50th Reunion. While we couldn't afford to attend the Mix n' Mingle Evening last night or the Formal Dinner at Sky City later tonight, we thought maybe we could at least check out the school's open day. Or so we thought...

We were led to believe the school would be open during the day for visitors, but when we got there, the weather was bad. There were several empty tents in the carpark, and so we thought we'd check inside the hall. There was no one there!

The car park was full of cars, but we thought maybe that's due to Saturday sport. We had no idea if anything was meant to be taking place so we left not too long after arriving!

Later on we found out there was a football game taking place down in the gym to celebrate the 50th reunion...

Birthday Surprise

Tonight a few of my old high school friends invited me to come out with them to dinner in the city for my birthday and also for a catch-up. Jacqueline organised the whole thing which was really nice of her! 

I was told we would be having dinner at the Zap Restaurant, so I drove into the city and parked by the uni, as parking is free after 6pm there (now you know if you didn't before!). With the address I had gotten off the internet (well that's what I thought it was anyway!), I wandered down Queen Street to the other end, but when I got to the number, the restaurant wasn't there! 

I then remembered being told the restaurant was besides a BBQ King, and I went there for Shrikkanth's birthday a little while ago, so I walked back up Queen Street to the BBQ King I knew of only to not be able to see any other restaurant nearby! I then texted Jacqueline who told me it was down by Fort Street, which was right at the other end of Queen Street, so I walked back the way I came!

I got to Fort Street and almost missed the side street but soon found the right place! Already there was Shen, Nick, Larry and Jacqueline. Zap Restaurant turned out to be a Thai restaurant which was good because I haven't eaten much Thai food before! We ordered quite quickly after I got there. I ordered this dish with lamb, rice and sweet and sour sauce. It was really nice!

Shen wasn't too happy with his dish so he ordered another plate while Jacqueline ate his dish! The rest of us managed to eat our food though! Once we all finished, we just hung around and talked for a bit before the spotlight was put on me - I had to decide what to do next, as in what sort of dessert to get! I have no idea when it comes to things relating to food or eating out! 

Somehow the discussion then turned to what sort of girls I go for, what I look for in a girl and which...parts of a girl I prefer...if you catch my drift! Even long after we had decided to go to Hulucat Tea House which serves pearl milk tea and other drinks and were walking there, they were still asking me questions as to what girls I liked! I'll let them know eventually!

Shrikkanth soon joined us at Hulucat, and a few of us ordered drinks. I ordered a peach slushy and was surprised at how huge it was when I received it! 

While the rest of the guys waited for their drinks, we played Last Card with a pack of UNO cards provided. The place was full of Asians playing cards and drinking all sorts of drinks, as well as a few doing what looked like their homework.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgOuBmmMp6Y)

I soon had to go as I had a driving curfew at 10pmm. I admit I left a little late, and ended up running out of the place, forgetting how to get back to my car park and getting lost in the city. I was also desperate to go to the toilet as well, but that was at the bottom of the priority list! I had to get to the car and drive it home before 10pm first! I managed to do so...more or less!

Thanks guys for making my day and night! I'm grateful to have friends like them!

Pre-Christmas/Post-Exam Dinner

My group of high school friends and I have sort of realised that catching up over dinner might be a good thing to do a bit more regularly, and so that's what we did again tonight! We decided to catch up over dinner at Da Vinci's Restaurant in the city.

I managed to convince my mum to let me drive to the city on my own, and you can tell by this blog post that I made it there and back safe and sound! I originally thought there would be parking right by the restaurant, but when I got there I couldn't find any so I had to drive around the place several times before I found a car park a few streets down!

I entered this restaurant that had a different name. I thought maybe this restaurant went by another name, so I asked if the restaurant was Da Vinci's, but it turned out that Da Vinci's was downstairs! 

I wandered down the driveway and spotted my friends through the window! 

There were only about eight of us, but that was all good! It was pretty cool catching up with a few of them who I hadn't talked to in quite a while!

As it was an Italian restaurant, I thought I'd try something different, and so I chose the Gnocchi Primavera, which tasted quite nice! It had some potato, salmon and some peas! I wish there was a lot more though, but then again these sorts of restaurants focus on quality rather than quantity right?

For dessert most of us decided to forgo the ice-cream and instead just have a drink. I tried a mochaccino which didn't have a heart in it :( but that's OK, it tasted good!

(Thanks Jane for this photo!)

I had to leave soon as my driving curfew (since I'm on a restricted license) was at 10pm. I can say I got home just after 10pm but didn't come across any police so that's a relief!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWHzz-jnTZ0)

Reunion with Japanese Food

Tonight I met up with some of my high school friends for dinner at Moto Japanese Restaurant, which was probably the first time I had seen some of them since Jane's 21st or my 21st birthday!

I drove myself there, but missed the turn-off when I drove past the first time so I went around the second time. I almost missed it the second time as well but did a U-turn!

I was one of the last to arrive but that was OK! It was really good to see everyone again! We all ordered our food. Some of us ordered an entrée's and a main, while some ordered the large Japanese meal box. I ordered some mini won tons as my entrée and Teriyaki chicken. It was funny when Evan told the lady from the restaurant that he didn't want the sashimi. She first asked if there was something wrong before taking back and if he wanted it cooked. Later on she asked him if he preferred a different type of fish. I think she might've been a little hurt!

We updated each other on what was going on with our lives, and talked about what was happening with some others in our year - who was getting married, who was getting pregnant, who came out of the closet...It's amazing how much we've all grown up!

We left just in time for me to drive home (I'm still on a restricted license!), but I can't wait for our next catch-up!

Phillip has the X-Factor!

Uh oh Friday the 13th! A lot could have possibly gone wrong today, but as far as I know it wasn't too bad all round! I did have a calculations test earlier in the day which I was a bit iffy about. That might have been where all the bad luck was aimed at. At least there was no bad luck later in the night!

Tonight our youth group all went to Rutherford College to support one of our fellow youth group members Phillip, who would be performing beat-boxing at his school's X-Factor talent show! We had only organised the outing a week in advance, when one of the youth group leaders On and I were discussing what to do for activity night at youth group. Phillip said he was going to miss it because of his talent show performance, and that's how we ended up going to support him!

We originally were going to meet up first at church to see who needed transport, but when only a few guys showed up, we guessed the rest of them were going directly to the school so we just left.

We all met up with each other in the school foyer. It was great being back! I hadn't been back to Rutherford in more than a year! The school renovated the English classroom block, and now it definitely looks better than before. It has balconies, and even a lift!

After Gabrielle, another of our youth group leaders came with the tickets, we all went into the hall and took our seats. I didn't realise that my high school friend Alex was sitting right behind me! Her sister was performing a Korean dance that night too!

The girls perform a modern Korean dance

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZlX3QYVoFo)

Phillip does his beat-boxing

The first competitor was a guy who was going to solve the Rubix cube as fast as possible. Apparently he could do it in under 49s! He admitted he did it a little slow that night though! We got to watch Alex's sister perform a Korean dance with some other girls (one of the songs in their remix was SNSD's Gee!!), a rock band perform, three girls sing Miley Cyrus's Climb and then....it was Phillip!

We weren't too sure what to expect from Phillip, as we had only heard him beat-box a little from time to time at church, but when he got going, he blew everyone away! Whoever knew he was such a pro! He had the whole hall clapping as he was going and then breaking into a loud cheer and applause at the end!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdx6OgFnggk)

Straight after was intermission, when we all got to catch up with Phillip and congratulate him on a performance well done. He had made us proud regardless of what the result was, although we were tipped off that Phillip was leading at that time! ;)

Once the show got back on the road, we watched a few performances by groups who sang, with some spot prize giveaways in between. Ticket 017 was called out and guess who had that ticket...me! What a surprise! I never win things! They were about to redraw as I went up to the front so I had to be quick about it to get my prize which was a block of chocolate!


Throughout the second half I had to endure taunts from the girls I was sitting next to, trying to boast how much better their school was! Excuse me but Rutherford just rules! hahaha (there goes my school pride)

After all the performances were done, the judges went out to deliberate while the prefects performed a little dance and some guy tried to do the Cadbury eyebrows which was quite random.

Prefects perform a dance

The judges came back in, and the winners were announced. Phillip came...2nd! First place went to one of the group of singers, but hey Phillip came 2nd!!

Phillip gets awarded 2nd place

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlGYRgKs_hU)

Oddfellows with Phillip

Afterwards we all went over to Phillip to congratulate him. What a great night! We'll have to make more use of Phillip's beat-boxing skills at church from now on!

Late Nights and Late Starts

These past few days I've started uni after 1pm which is quiet unusual for me as I'm used to starting uni early in the morning! That has meant I've ended up sleeping in a bit which isn't good! Talk about wasting my time!

I had a law workshop yesterday that started after 1pm. When I got there, I saw all these high school students in the cafe, and wondered if Rutherford would be there. I did spot a small group of Rutherford students and a science teacher I knew! She still recognised me which was cool!

Earlier today I had my first pharmacotherapy workshop which was supposed to be in level 3 of one of the buildings in Grafton, but it turned out that there was only construction going on. While some of my classmates and I were wandering around the floor looking for our possible room, the tutor came up and realised there were no rooms for us to have our workshop in, so she made a note on a piece of paper, got out some chewing gum, chewed it and then used it to stick the note to the wall! I haven't seen that being done by staff before!

Fortunately I've got Fridays off, so I've been spending the last few hours watching Chinese drama...or more specifically Taiwanese drama, It Started with a Kiss. I know, I know...it's meant for girls but I'm a little addicted now and I've just finished watching episode 11!

I better get off to bed, or I'll never make it to my Dessert Club meeting in the morning!

Jane's 21st

Tonight was Jane's 21st birthday held in a function room above a bar in Mt Eden.

My parents dropped me off and I caught up with some of my high school friends. We've all been in the same class together as Jane since year 9, so we've known her for a long time!

There was some food there for people to make burgers and some drinks, so I made myself a burger!

I also managed to catch up with some old friends I hadn't seen in ages, like Sam who I knew way back from intermediate school. It was great catching up with him again!

For a while I hung out with Micaela, an old friend from Rutherford. We just sat there talking about our hopes and dreams. It was quite interesting! We just stared into space and talked about all sorts of things!

 It was finally time for the speeches. Some of Jane's relatives gave a speech about Jane, which were quite humorous. Ms Edwards, our old English teacher at Rutherford also gave a speech about Jane, as they are quite close with each other I think. They also played a short movie Jane made years ago in high school. It's unbelievable how much people have grown!

After the speeches, I hung out with my Rutherford friends outside on the balcony which had a nice, fancy fireplace to keep us warm. Actually I was quite hot. I had no idea how to dress smart casual, and so I think I wore too much!

My parents soon came to pick me up. It was a pretty good night celebrating Jane's 21st and catching up with all my friends again.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY JANE!