Bump Bump Honk Honk

Over the past two days while my dad has been on holiday from work he has taken me driving around West Auckland. My hill start is getting better, but I keep stalling! What is worse about it is that whenever I do a hill start I always seem to be around people who are watching who start laughing at me! Yesterday I did a slight hill start at this intersection and I stalled a bit and these Polynesian guys in the car next to me started laughing. I parked beside this house which happened to have a couple of Polynesian guys outside and when I did a hill start and stalled, the guys bursted out laughing and my dad just waved to them.

 

What scares me the most is doing a hill start at an intersection with cars right behind you! I'm afraid of either letting the handbrake off too soon and rolling back into the car behind, or not starting right, causing the car motor to stop. Guess what? That is exactly what happened to me in the middle of an intersection down Lincoln Rd yesterday! I was turning left into Lincoln Rd, and as I was turning I must have lifted off the clutch too fast and the motor stopped. In the middle of the road I had to quickly start the car up and get going again!

 

Whenever I'm driving along a road and a car is following close behind I just pull over to the side of the road so I don't cause them to crash into the back of us. I managed to count eight cars that I was holding up at one time!

 

I suppose as time goes by hopefully I'll get better...

Froggie where are you?!

The frog is on the loose! Why do we always have bad luck with our pets?! Despite feeding them and changing their water frequently, just recently one of our two tadpoles died. Our remaining tadpole continued to grow on its own, and was starting to develop well into a frog. Until...yesterday morning my mum came over to check on our aquatic pets when the bowl was empty! Our frog had jumped out and ran off somewhere! Either it is still somewhere in the house or...I don't want to think what the cats could possibly have done to it!

House Call

New Years Day wasn't too exciting. We spent the day tidying up the bedroom, which still isn't tidied. We seem to have a lot of clothes and books in our house, and with all our bookshelves and clothes drawers already full they're all overflowing onto the ground!

We've managed to tidy up the lounge at least, so we've been able to invite a few people over to our house. One of our aunties came over prior to Christmas (I think she must've been the first in a couple years to visit?). We invited Phillip over the week before Christmas. He drove all the way from Palmerston North, so who were we to refuse to let him in! Last Saturday Hyun and Joon came over and then just yesterday Shen came over for a while to visit. Fortunately they didn't all mind the mess!

Happy New Year 2006!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Yay another year begins! Another year older! All the best to everyone for the year 20 06 let's hope it'll be a great year!

These are a few of my New Years resolutions...yeah I've probably made too many to be able to keep them all and they're mostly pretty stupid:
1. Take at least five photos a week
2. Do at least 3 good things a day
3. Get good grades
4. Achieve something as head boy
5. Make at least one more really good close friend
6. Go to the ball with A GIRL (I don't know if some of these are considered New Years resolutions actually)

One of my friends suggested I try get my first kiss in 2006 but that's probably pushing my luck a little too far!

Record Reading

I just managed to finish reading one novel in under a month! Prior to the holidays I realised I had only read one novel all year, and I was forced to read it (yes Life of Pi) and that took me about two months, so I thought I'd see if I could try read a novel within one month! I'm proud to say I read 220 pages within that time! OK so some of you people have read some really thick Harry Potter books within one or two days, but I'm getting there!

I was watching movie trailers (as you do when you don't have money to watch movies) when Memoirs of a Geisha came up. I had no idea what it was about, and to be honest it didn't look too interesting, but because I heard it was based on a novel, I thought what the heck I'd just read the novel. It turned out to be a really really great read!

'In 1929 an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha's mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive in her society. As a renowned geisha she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. As World War II looms Japan and the geisha's world are forever changed by the onslaught of history.'

Some of my favourite passages in the novel that really made me think included:

'Sometimes we get through adversity only by imagining what the world might be like if our dreams should ever come true'

'I never seek to defeat the man I'm fighting I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Tow men are equals - true equals - only when they both have equal confidence. '

So if you have nothing to do in the holidays try reading Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.