The early End-of-Year Concert at the music school I teach may be over, but for my second year music theory students, they have an exam to study for in a week's time!
None of them wanted to sit the actual ABRSM exam, so I decided I'd hold a 'mock' exam and get them to sit it under test conditions just to simulate an actual exam...and also partially for my own enjoyment! I'm just kidding.
Anyway I'm a little afraid as to how well they'll do. I've given them past papers to complete at home over the past few weeks, but only a couple of them have remembered to bring them to class for me to mark!
The last few weeks have been a bit of a rush, so despite having covered the whole syllabus, revision hasn't been ideal and I don't think the students have memorised the performance directions/symbols and Italian words completely!
I guess we'll have to see this Saturday! I've told them that the exam is one and a half hours long but they have to stay for at least 45 minutes, and use as much time to check, check, check and RE-CHECK!
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Spicy Birthday Dinner
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAMISH!
We decided to go to the restaurant in Mt Albert we regularly go to (the same one we went to just a few days ago on Sunday night!) to celebrate Hamish's 25th birthday after work.
We did visit Harvey Norman (or Andrew Norman as my dad likes to call it) to check out their special sale before we went though. Some salesman was trying to sell us an outdated laptop. What was worse was that it was a display model!
As he was talking, I started looking at the tablets and went to pick one up when I set the alarm off! That was embarrassing...
That was OK though, the food was still good and made us full!
Boy Hamish you're getting old!
Monday, 14 November 2011
When We're Together Snowmen Come to Life
I met up with Angie after work to check out a few shops and then to Starbucks as my treat since she had just finished her last exam, and that's where I tried this drink called the 'Gingerbread Latte'!
It tastes like gingerbread kisses!
It tastes like gingerbread kisses!
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Hacked!
This morning I had to lead children's worship, so I stayed up late last night till 3am practising a couple Chinese songs (looks like I'm not very good at dancing and singing at the same time, especially when I'm singing in Chinese!).
I also tried to come with something meaningful to link all the songs together instead of just singing one song after another:
In the Bible Jesus told his followers about two men. One was a wise man – he listened to Jesus and built his house on rocks. Another man was foolish – he didn’t listen to Jesus and he built his house on the sand. Who knows why he did, maybe he wanted to get a nice view of the ocean!
When the rain and the storm came along, the house that the wise man built on the rock stood firm and didn’t crumble. As for the foolish man’s house on the sand…well the rain came down and as the flood came up it washed his house away!
Jesus is the wise man who knows how to build good houses. More importantly, He knows the right way for us to live our lives, so if we listen to Him, we won't get into trouble like the wise man. If we ignore Jesus' wise instructions and try to live by our own rules, we may have a disaster and no one else will be able to help us.
SING WISE MAN BUILT HIS HOUSE UPON THE ROCKS
Hands up if you’ve ever felt saaaaad, like when when someone at school was being mean to you. You know, sometimes these kinds of things happen and you don’t know what to do, but one thing you can always rely on is Jesus being there for you, as long as you let him into your heart.
With Jesus in your heart, you can stay strong and overcome anything!
So the song we’re about to sing is about a time when Jesus got on a boat with some of his disciples. Now a storm came along and as Jesus slept in the boat, the disciples started to freak out! Jesus reassured them everything would be OK and Jesus being Jesus, he calmed the storm and everything was OK!
SING WITH CHRIST IN THE VESSEL
So when you don’t know what to do and you’re having a tough time, there will always be someone who can help you. He’s so great he created everything around you, the Earth, the stars, your mum, dad and even your cat!
Can anyone tell me who he is?
SING AH LORD GOD
God loves us so much and if we truly love him we should praise him. Make sure you let him into your heart, and love him with all you’ve got – pray to him and listen to what he wants you to do, as he knows what is best for you.
SING PRAISE HIM
Let me know what you think! The feedback I got from a couple of kids was they had learnt all this years ago! Well thank. You. Very. Much! Apparently my Chinese eeerrrrrmmm....I admit I forgot some of the Chinese words and mumbled through those songs. I told the kids to sing as loud as they could to cover me up!
Today was a special day, as it was Ada's farewell party after the service. Ada has been at our church for a long time, and was in fact Hamish and my first Sunday School teacher when we joined the church way back in 2002.
We sang a few songs to start off, then watched a photo slideshow which was quite touching (I was in one of the photos boo-yah!), before a few people came up to share their stories. (I'll post some photos as they become available)
People were still commenting on it even after I posted that it was a hoax when I got home! I don't think someone's messed with any of my social networking accounts since a few years ago when SHE changed my Bebo page!
As for the food, it was very nice! It didn't last too long once everyone came out!
We all had a mass group photo with Ada, before smaller groups had photos with her. Our youth group and our family managed to get photos taken together with her.
She's not leaving immediately so there's still a little time to say our goodbyes to Ada but hopefully she will do well in Hong Kong. We'll miss her!
After teaching the kids music, a few of us went to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant for an early dinner (and when I say early I mean 4pm EARLY!). I had a big bowl of meat noodle soup and felt full after it, but right now I'm starving!
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Growing the Family
Tonight the Andersons and the Brens all met together again for a big family dinner. There was a special reason for tonight's family dinner though - Martyn was bringing along Bronwyn (his new girlfriend) and her family along to meet all of us!
Martyn and his girlfriend along with her two younger sisters made a surprise visit on the night of the Rugby World Cup Grand Final, seeing our house in all its messy glory!
Anyway, once again we all got bloated eating wonderfully yummy food. I tried to pace myself so I wouldn't get bloated too soon, but after two plates I was already quite full, and there was dessert to come!
I really love dessert. There's always nice cakes, truffles, jelly and ice-cream! I'm just always too full to enjoy it!
We went outside to light...or watch our cousin Graeme light some fireworks.
They were from The Warehouse though so....think little fountain fireworks and those 12 shot fireworks!
We did have fun with the sparklers though, attempting to spell words in photos with them!
It was a great night catching up with the whole family tonight, and we might just be able to add South African to the growing list of nationalities that make up our extended family!
Martyn and his girlfriend along with her two younger sisters made a surprise visit on the night of the Rugby World Cup Grand Final, seeing our house in all its messy glory!
Anyway, once again we all got bloated eating wonderfully yummy food. I tried to pace myself so I wouldn't get bloated too soon, but after two plates I was already quite full, and there was dessert to come!
I really love dessert. There's always nice cakes, truffles, jelly and ice-cream! I'm just always too full to enjoy it!
We went outside to light...or watch our cousin Graeme light some fireworks.
They were from The Warehouse though so....think little fountain fireworks and those 12 shot fireworks!
It was a great night catching up with the whole family tonight, and we might just be able to add South African to the growing list of nationalities that make up our extended family!
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