It was a Japanese bonanza yesterday at the ASB Stadium in Kohimarama yesterday as everyone turned out to celebrate Japan Day! We skipped church just to attend. It didn't seem to be as big as previous years though.
When we got there there were food stalls outside and inside the building, as well as two stages, one inside and one outside. The lines of people at the food stalls were massive though! We didn't end up buying any food since it was quite expensive.
I came across a couple of my pharmacy friends Ai-Ping and Jamie and her boyfriend and then I caught up with Jacqueline, my old high school friend! We just talked for a while since she was bored (she was dragged along by her family!). It was good catching up with her since I hardly talk to many people from my old high school these days, or at least people in my year. I think they've all forgotten me after I've been spending a lot of my time in Grafton! hahaha According to Jacqueline the guys don't know where I've gotten up to and can't keep up with which degree I'm studying towards!
Anyway some of the performances were quite unique and entertaining, but that's what you'd expect from the Japanese (in a good way!). Some of the dances are pretty cool and the dancers are quite into it! I'll put up some videos.
One thing I noticed too was the number of people with dSLR (digital single-lense reflex) cameras there! dSLR's are those big fat professional cameras with those huge lenses! After outgrowing our digital camera we've been meaning to buy one but we're still at that stage of deciding which one to get. We've been Canon fanboys after having good experiences with their video cameras and scanners, and their SLR's seem quite good too, but we've heard that Nikon SLR's are quite good too, so we're still pondering! They're quite expensive too and the lenses can get quite expensive too! We're only amateurs though so we probably wouldn't spend thousands! If any of you know a lot more about SLR's feel free to share your opinions!
So back to Japan Day, we left late in the day but it was a good day. I think I learnt a bit more about Japanese culture!
Monday, 17 November 2008
Friday, 14 November 2008
The End of Another Year at Uni
I had an eight day gap between my last exam and yesterday's exam, so I ended up taking the first day off and just do nothing. The next day my mum got me to go shopping with her and so I didn't do anything for another day. The third day was Election Day of course!! I did a little studying on Saturday and Sunday but finally got started on Monday!
I can only really seem to study when I'm away from the house because of the TV, the internet and the fact that we don't have clear tables at home!
So for the past week I've been at uni drinking V (an energy drink) and studying as much as possible for the dreaded CHEM230 exam.
On Tuesday I caught up with Young-Bin and Eliza, two first year friends and went for lunch with them (which was just popcorn for me...I was being cheap that day!) when Jennifer (a friend from church) came by with her friends and noticed it was her high school friend (Eliza), science camp friend (Young-Bin) and church friend (Calum) all hanging out together! She had just finished her engineering exam and went off shortly after.
After that lunch though we went back to studying and thanks to them two I managed to get a seat at the Information Commons which is really full during exam period!
We also had dinner later in the evening with a couple of Eliza's orchestra friends who were pretty cool and entertaining! So we managed to fit in a bit of fun even amongst the study!
On Wednesday, the day before the exam, I had no popcorn but I bought one of those large 500mL cans of V and drank that for most of the day and I have to admit V has definitely been keeping me awake! I think it was a bit too much for me that day though. Towards the end of the night my mind was all over the place! I also happened to miss the 9.30pm bus that night and so had to endure sitting at the bus stop for an hour till the next bus came! That night I had all these dreams of chemical reactions and their reagents, none of which I think were entirely correct, but then again I can't even remember!
The chemistry exam was teeeerrrrible! It was really bad! Even the last stuff I covered didn't even fit in with what the questions were asking! Many of us pharmacy students came out of it not feeling too great about it, but then again some were not feeling too great about it because they thought they were going to lose ONE mark!!
I went to the toilet during the exam, and went into one of the cubicles. I could hear someone flicking through pages in the cubicle right next to me though! I was thinking maybe someone was doing a little bit of cheating...but when I came out the exam man was standing there waiting for me! I didn't realise he would come into the toilet with me!
Anyway the feeling of no more exams felt great, despite the possibility that we might have just failed! We all collected our pharmacy t-shirts from our class-rep Daniel and then a few of us wandered around looking for lunch. We ended up in a nearby Japanese restaurant where half of us had rice, the other had noodles and some others just had dumplings and octopus balls I think?
There was supposed to be a pharmacy picnic at a park near Grafton which we were planning on attending, but in the end we couldn't be bothered. The girls who were with us wanted to just Facebook (if you can use it as a verb!) and so us guys, with nothing better to do, went to play a bit of Foosball.
And that caps off another semester and another year at uni!
I can only really seem to study when I'm away from the house because of the TV, the internet and the fact that we don't have clear tables at home!
So for the past week I've been at uni drinking V (an energy drink) and studying as much as possible for the dreaded CHEM230 exam.
On Tuesday I caught up with Young-Bin and Eliza, two first year friends and went for lunch with them (which was just popcorn for me...I was being cheap that day!) when Jennifer (a friend from church) came by with her friends and noticed it was her high school friend (Eliza), science camp friend (Young-Bin) and church friend (Calum) all hanging out together! She had just finished her engineering exam and went off shortly after.
After that lunch though we went back to studying and thanks to them two I managed to get a seat at the Information Commons which is really full during exam period!
We also had dinner later in the evening with a couple of Eliza's orchestra friends who were pretty cool and entertaining! So we managed to fit in a bit of fun even amongst the study!
On Wednesday, the day before the exam, I had no popcorn but I bought one of those large 500mL cans of V and drank that for most of the day and I have to admit V has definitely been keeping me awake! I think it was a bit too much for me that day though. Towards the end of the night my mind was all over the place! I also happened to miss the 9.30pm bus that night and so had to endure sitting at the bus stop for an hour till the next bus came! That night I had all these dreams of chemical reactions and their reagents, none of which I think were entirely correct, but then again I can't even remember!
The chemistry exam was teeeerrrrible! It was really bad! Even the last stuff I covered didn't even fit in with what the questions were asking! Many of us pharmacy students came out of it not feeling too great about it, but then again some were not feeling too great about it because they thought they were going to lose ONE mark!!
I went to the toilet during the exam, and went into one of the cubicles. I could hear someone flicking through pages in the cubicle right next to me though! I was thinking maybe someone was doing a little bit of cheating...but when I came out the exam man was standing there waiting for me! I didn't realise he would come into the toilet with me!
Anyway the feeling of no more exams felt great, despite the possibility that we might have just failed! We all collected our pharmacy t-shirts from our class-rep Daniel and then a few of us wandered around looking for lunch. We ended up in a nearby Japanese restaurant where half of us had rice, the other had noodles and some others just had dumplings and octopus balls I think?
There was supposed to be a pharmacy picnic at a park near Grafton which we were planning on attending, but in the end we couldn't be bothered. The girls who were with us wanted to just Facebook (if you can use it as a verb!) and so us guys, with nothing better to do, went to play a bit of Foosball.
And that caps off another semester and another year at uni!
Sunday, 9 November 2008
The End of an Era
And that's it...Thank you Helen Clark for everything you've done for the country as prime minister, it's definitely going to feel very weird without you leading us!
As for John Key, all the best. Hopefully he does what's best for the country and doesn't let ROGER DOUGLAS get a word in!
You can probably guess I'm feeling a bit gutted right now, similar to how I felt when the All Blacks lost the world cup last year - not the result I wanted! I'm going to go have a cry in the corner and probably get depressed tomorrow morning when it truly sinks in but then I'll get over it!
Edit: For all those wondering, The Bill and Ben Party gained 0.51%, more than Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (0.36%), NZ Pacific Party (0.33%) and the Family Party (0.33%), but less than the Kiwi Party (0.56%).
At the bottom of the list is the Worker's Party (0.04%), RAM (0.02%), and the Republic of NZ Party (0.01%).
As for John Key, all the best. Hopefully he does what's best for the country and doesn't let ROGER DOUGLAS get a word in!
You can probably guess I'm feeling a bit gutted right now, similar to how I felt when the All Blacks lost the world cup last year - not the result I wanted! I'm going to go have a cry in the corner and probably get depressed tomorrow morning when it truly sinks in but then I'll get over it!
Edit: For all those wondering, The Bill and Ben Party gained 0.51%, more than Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (0.36%), NZ Pacific Party (0.33%) and the Family Party (0.33%), but less than the Kiwi Party (0.56%).
At the bottom of the list is the Worker's Party (0.04%), RAM (0.02%), and the Republic of NZ Party (0.01%).
Saturday, 8 November 2008
Fear for the Future
It really isn't looking too good and I don't even know which is worse - National on its own or National + ACT? I suppose having Peter Dunne in there will keep things closer towards the centre but he only holds one seat while ACT is likely to bring in five seats including....Roger Douglas!!
Things haven't looked too good out west. While David Cunliffe and Chris Carter are likely to win their seats Lynne Pillay is likely to be out, being about 1000 votes behind Paula Bennette of National with 81% of the vote being counted.
To make things worse the National party vote has outnumbered the Labour party vote in all three West Auckland electorates, even if it is by a hundred or so votes.
One of the weirdest things I heard on TV tonight was by an Indian guy voting for National -
"Labour's done a lot of good things for the country but it's time for a change."
He is, in Paul Henry's mind and words, a 'stupid voter'!
Things haven't looked too good out west. While David Cunliffe and Chris Carter are likely to win their seats Lynne Pillay is likely to be out, being about 1000 votes behind Paula Bennette of National with 81% of the vote being counted.
To make things worse the National party vote has outnumbered the Labour party vote in all three West Auckland electorates, even if it is by a hundred or so votes.
One of the weirdest things I heard on TV tonight was by an Indian guy voting for National -
"Labour's done a lot of good things for the country but it's time for a change."
He is, in Paul Henry's mind and words, a 'stupid voter'!
It's all On!!!
It's about twenty minutes till voting closes and the counting starts, talk about the excitement building! The election campaign has ended and we'll soon find out who will be leading our country for the next three years.
Yesterday saw a late flurry of campaigning with candidates and helpers waving banners and making a lot of noise at various intersections and round-abouts. I caught Tau Henare at the Te Atatu South round-about, while Labour supporters had the New Lynn intersection covered. I did my part by honking my horn as I went past them, only to have my mum shout at me for nearly colliding with the middle barrier!
This morning voting booths were open at the school I teach recorder, and so I taught the kids before I went to lose my voting virginity. Boy are some of those kids getting cheeky! I had one of the girls saying to me
"You're still single! Eeeeewwwwwwwwww!!!!!"
And before the conversation went started to be about me hitting on them (which I absolutely didn't!) I decided to completely change the topic and get them playing music!
Anyway in true Election Day spirit I conducted my own poll of 6-9 year old children (with a margin of error of...I have no idea...):
Yesterday saw a late flurry of campaigning with candidates and helpers waving banners and making a lot of noise at various intersections and round-abouts. I caught Tau Henare at the Te Atatu South round-about, while Labour supporters had the New Lynn intersection covered. I did my part by honking my horn as I went past them, only to have my mum shout at me for nearly colliding with the middle barrier!
This morning voting booths were open at the school I teach recorder, and so I taught the kids before I went to lose my voting virginity. Boy are some of those kids getting cheeky! I had one of the girls saying to me
"You're still single! Eeeeewwwwwwwwww!!!!!"
And before the conversation went started to be about me hitting on them (which I absolutely didn't!) I decided to completely change the topic and get them playing music!
Anyway in true Election Day spirit I conducted my own poll of 6-9 year old children (with a margin of error of...I have no idea...):
Calum's Election Day Poll of 9 - 11 Year Old Children
Labour 0
National 1
New Zealand First 0
Maori Party 1
Act 0
HUH???&% 4
Labour 0
National 1
New Zealand First 0
Maori Party 1
Act 0
HUH???&% 4
So according to these results the seats in parliament will be split 50/50 by the National and Maori Party. I'll report on the results and how accurate this poll turns out to be as results come to hand!
Finally after recorder lessons and the violin lesson, Hamish my mum and I finally got to voting. I went in and gave my two ticks to a certain political party and nearly put it in the wrong box but thanks to my mum who called out to me just in time I stopped myself and made my vote count!
Let's roll on the elections!!
Let's roll on the elections!!
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