Ready for Graduation

So graduation is next Wednesday and I haven't sorted anything out! No gown, no graduation photos or anything! 

Because I had the day off today for ANZAC Day/Easter Monday, I thought I'd try give the shop a call to see if they were open, and to my surprise they were! As soon as Aonghas came home from work we were off!

My family and I got there and was shown all the photo displays before I had to book a time for the photo shoot and pay the deposit. I don't think I've had a photo shoot since I was a little kid!

Because I won't have time to pick up the gown on Thursday, my dad will have to. That meant I had to try on the gown then. I went for the large gown so it drooped closer to the ground. The cap is quite heavy too! The hood colour of greyish-green wasn't too bad though!

Once I got the gown sorted we were about to go when we found out the graduation soft toys were only $12 each! There was Doraemon, Winnie the Pooh, a few teddy bears and chipmunks, and a pig! I had a tough time deciding which to get, but in the end I went with...piggy! 

Afterwards we went window-shopping in Newmarket since parking was free today, and I came across an Asian gift shop and they were selling graduation Mushimaro! Nooooooooo!!!! Oh well piggy is still cool I guess.

Anyway I think I'm all sorted for graduation now! Only just over a week to go!

A Canton Dinner

Today after church a lot of the people stayed behind for a meeting, while I taught some kids recorder and my mum and some other parents did some dancing before sitting around chatting.

This went on for quite a while that by the time everyone decided it was time to go, it was quite late! Usually when this happens we all just decide to go out for dinner together, and this is what happened this time too!

We went to this restaurant called Dragon Gourmet in Epsom. It was quite posh but the serving size was huge!

Tim had been to the restaurant before so he helped us order. 

I ended up choosing some chicken cutlets (I think?) with spaghetti and cream sauce. It was quite huge but very yummy, especially the chicken since it was boneless!

We took up quite a bit of the restaurant! We had about four tables pushed together!

After dinner, Aonghas and I ordered a Hong Kong milk tea which had a very confusing taste, was it milk or was it tea? 

As we were leaving though, I thought I recognised a girl who was an old primary school friend who was sitting at a nearby table. I thought I must be seeing things though as I was sure she moved to Macau not too long ago. I later found out that it was her! I wish I said 'Hi' to her now, as I haven't talked to her in person since primary school! At least she recognised me too though!

(http://youtu.be/KGkci3R0f3Q)

A Helping Hand

Today was a combined Easter baptism service at our church, so three of our 'sister' churches joined us to celebrate Easter and the people getting baptised. I was sitting right at the back with some of the guys and it was kind of hard to hear!

The service eventually finished though, and we were introduced to a new girl called Katie! Hopefully she joins our youth group!

Gabrielle, one of our youth group leaders came over to me during lunch, and gave me a little present she said was from her and her husband Tim. She told me it wasn't a baptism present but something she hoped would help.

When I unwrapped it a little later while I was on my own, I discovered it to be...

A guide to dating for Christian guys!

Hahahaha! I think it's becoming like an Oddfellows inside joke/goal, to see Calum get a girlfriend! Well guys, I won't disappoint you ;)

I was reading the book in a corner by myself for a little while till one of the girls came over to see what I was doing, snatched my book and ran off into the toilet with it!

Walking Through the Bush

My mum's church group decided to go on a little outing today since it's Easter and All! Our destination: Waitakere Ranges!

We all met up at church just to check if everyone knew where to go. Of course we were once again the last to arrive. They were about to leave without us! 

Aonghas had his GPS so we used that to help us get to the park, while we had a car or two following us!

We got to the park and others were already there. Once we got our stuff sorted, it was time to hike!

Before we could enter the bushes though we had to wash our shoes with some special chemicals that were at the entrance to prevent the spread of some sort of disease or something.

The bush walk was quite relaxing, with the trees and nature all around us, and the forest noise around us!

Our first destination was the Cascade Falls. We had high expectations of some great waterfall, but as soon as we got to the rocks we had to climb over to get to, we realised it wasn't much of a waterfall, more like a piddle of water! 

The rocks were quite slippery and so it was a little dangerous climbing up them just to see that small little waterfall. Some got quite high up though!

We made our way back into the forest, not really having any aim now except to make it to the end of the walk and back to our cars for lunch!

We came across the Anderson Track along the way as well!

 Once we made it out of the forest, we got our lunch out and all sat together in the park to eat. We happened to find an area that was sloping and full of bees and wasps so it wasn't the most pleasant places to eat!

We started off with some singing before we all got into our food.

After lunch we just played around on the field, trying to find creative ways to entertain ourselves. We tried rolling a soccer ball down the hill and between the legs of someone at the bottom of the hill. We also played rollie-pollies!

(http://youtu.be/hO2ihytR9Wo)

Finally we had a game of capture the flag! That took a lot of out of me! I probably should step it up a bit at the gym!

It was still quite early when everyone decided it was time to go home. For us younger people though we felt as if the day wasn't over just yet! Some of us guys decided to meet up later this evening (with Grace joining in) to watch a movie. We had a hard time deciding what to watch between Sucker Punch and Fast and the Furious 5 (we couldn't watch Paul as it was R13 and I forgot my ID!). Even our coin and iPod couldn't make a decision for us! We ended up going with Sucker Punch and it wasn't too bad!

A Very Good Friday

On the first day of my five day weekend, I had to wake up early to go to church for the Good Friday service! My brothers, Jenny and I were playing as a string quartet for the service!

The service was sombre, and I suppose that's how it's meant to be when it's about the death of Jesus Christ.

After the service some of us from our youth group hung out while Aonghas and a few others went out to buy lunch for us.

They eventually came back with KFC and takeaways! Yum yum! We all ate for a while before we packed up and headed to the main hall for youth group. Because this week was film study, we were going to watch...Tangled! It's the movie we've all been looking forward to!

Once again Tangled didn't disappoint!

We had movie discussion afterwards and when each of us were asked what our dream was, people answered mine for me before I could, saying my dream was to get a girlfriend! What is this!!

Sadly youth group had to end, but before we went home we helped Ben clean the church (he gets paid to do it) so he'd be free to join us on an outing to the Waitakere Ranges tomorrow.

What a good way to start the long Easter weekend!