Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Hopefully you lot aren't spending Christmas on the computer, especially reading this because that's pretty sad! Hopefully you're having fun in the sun and spending time with the family instead! :D

I've just had a three hour sleep after spending all night emailing and wishing people a Merry Christmas and having a nice conversation about waxing legs with Grace o.O I don't even know why I did this but I guess it's become a Calum tradition! If I haven't gotten to you then it's because I haven't finished, or I don't have your email/cellphone number!

I've got to go to church and be in charge of children's singing at the children's service today since Gabrielle who usually does it is a bit preoccupied with something else. It's the first time Aonghas and I will have led children's singing on our own, so hopefully it doesn't turn to custard!

I'll talk about the Christmas Eve concert and my Christmas day a little later!

Preparing for Christmas

In the lead-up to Christmas my brothers and I have mainly been preparing for the Christmas Eve concert at our church, in which we'll be performing (as an accordion trio) Good King Wenceslas and the first movement of Spring by Vivald. We'll also be joining two others Jireh and Jenny from our youth gruop to form a string group to perform You Raise Me Up, Humoresque by Dvorak, Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

We've had several rehearsals for the string group and it hasn't been too bad. We all performed You Raise Me Up at an earlier wedding, only instead of Jenny we had Miriam, another girl from our youth group playing with us so we've had to get Jenny up to speed (which is probably no trouble for her!).

After one of our rehearsals Tim, the guy at church who is in charge of the Christmas concert, wanted to hear our accordion trio. I stupidly took both pieces a little too fast and we screwed it up. I couldn't stop apologising afterwards as I felt we had put on a bad show! When we got home I was seriously considering changing the Four Seasons piece to something else, possibly The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. With only a week to learn and memorise it though, it was looking unlikely that we'd be able to switch pieces, so we had to persevere with it.

We had our dress rehearsal last night before the big concert tonight. Our accordion trio went a lot better than the first time we played it to them, but the string group was slightly rusty, so hopefully we'll be able to do some practice together tonight before the concert! Aonghas is working at the moment as well, or else we'd be practising our accordion trio right now!

Last Friday night was also our last youth group for the year. While it was a little sad, we still get to see each other at church on Sunday anyway and we'll be helping out with the children's summer programmer in January anyway!

Our youth group did Secret Santa and so each of us had to buy a present for someone else, while not knowing who would be buying a present for us. My brothers and I all checked to make sure we didn't get each other, so we'd be able to tell each other who we got and it'd be so much easier to look for presents. I got an easy person to buy for (well...when I say easy, as in I know that person well!) and Aonghas's person wasn't so bad, but we didn't know Hamish's person so well!

We spent almost a day wandering around the shopping mall looking for a good present! There was one shop that sold soda-can telephones, which I thought was really cool! Wouldn't it be cool answering your Coke can telephone? It was too expensive to buy for Secret Santa though.

We eventually found a present for our people. I won't say what it is just yet. I've heard though that a lot of people just bought chocolate for their person though, which is a little sad as it takes away the uniqueness of the present! Whether I'll be getting chocolate or not...I guess I'll be finding out tonight!

For our last youth group, we handed in our Secret Santa presents before playing a few Christmas games, such as one that involved charades and a bit of pictionary. Aonghas had to rip a newspaper to help people guess what his Christmas-related 'phrase' was, and I managed to guess it was 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'! OK I admit I cheated and heard someone else guessing it and I just called it out louder.

We also played another game where each of the teams had to come up with their own version of the 12 Day of Christmas. One team did theirs based on 'numerical facts' such as '12 months in a year' and 'nine months of pregnancy' which was quite cool. The next group did theirs based on people in our youth group such as 'nine Calums skipping', but they stole our idea of 'a 20 foot cannabis tree'! We changed ours to an eight metre cannabis tree so there! Ours was pharmaceutical-related, like only pharmacists do! (one of the other guys in our group is a pharmacist!). The last group did theirs based on our youth group camp earlier this year.

We then went for supper where youth group leader Gabrielle brought this big chocolate cake from work, and On, another youth group leader had two chocolate cakes that he had brought. Sadly no one ate his...they were probably all full after Gabrielle's cake!

On the following Sunday morning the children were to perform two songs to the adults at the church service, so Aonghas and I were asked if we could come early in the morning to help out. Unfortunately, Aonghas woke up and started vomiting! We suspect he got food poisoning from this Christmas party he attended the night before, so in the end it was just me who went. Gabrielle and I went through the songs with the children before going back to the service for a little while.

Just before the service was finished, we went back to help the children put on their ribbons and lead them to the hall. They sang a lot quieter than earlier in the morning! Then again I suppose they were probably nervous in front of an audience. As usual one random kid wandered off the stage and started walking around the place as the others sang.

After the service we had a combined Sunday School where we had some food and discussed some challenges we had faced as Christians this year, before it was lunch and I went to join the girls singing group (yes I help a little girls singing group!) for a little food. I got a little toy from one of the girls and a candy cane from another! Yay!!

To end the day, we had a music practice for the Christmas Eve concert. When we finished, Hamish and I didn't realise that we had to call our mum to come pick us up, and we ended up talking to Jenny and Jireh, the other two in the group, for quite a while about all sorts of stuff. Let's just say it was interesting, both what was said and what wasn't said ;)

Anyway I should get on to writing Christmas cards and sending out Christmas emails or else I'll be up all night. It's Christmas tomorrow afterall!

A Tribute to Alice

I think my parents are finally loosening the chains on me! My mum let me go out to my good friend Alice's 21st birthday at this karaoke place last night. Usually she doesn't let me go out to far-away places late at night (which will explain if I couldn't make it to your 21st!!), but she actually let me this time! Of course I had to catch a bus there and back.

After my music practice in the morning, I dropped Aonghas off at work before I did a bit of shopping for her birthday present. It was a bit of a rush because I originally didn't think I had enough money to buy anything and was going to add her to my IOU list, but then I thought just in case I don't see her in a while I better buy her something!

I got home after buying the present and fell asleep! I got a headache and a bit of a pain in my jaw which has been recurring for the past few days which is a little worrying. When I woke up I discovered the time and I had missed the bus I had originally planned to catch! Fortunately there was a later one that would get me into the city in time as well, so I caught that one.

I arrived late as usual, but people were just singing so that was OK. There were quite a few people there, and thank goodness I knew a couple people from pharmacy like Nick and Lun Shen, as well as Lisa, one of Alice's friends, I met her at the beginning of the year through Alice. She was tasked with taking all the photos that night.

People took turns at singing songs, and since Alice had heard of the time I sang Britney Spears at the Lantern Festival a couple years ago, she made me sing it again this time! I also did a little bit of Taylor Swift later on, which was fun too.

By 10pm it was time for the birthday cake to be brought in and for all of us to sing Happy Birthday to Alice! Everyone was given a little glass with some alcoholic drink in it (I can't remember what it was) and they all drank it before the cake was cut and we all had a slice. I was about to leave before 10.30 to catch my bus, but Alice asked me to stay as they were yet to have the speeches, so I stayed for a little while longer to hear the speeches.

Lisa, Lun Shen and this other guy (I can't remember his name...sorry!) each gave a speech, and from what we heard, Alice is a really great, supportive friend...which she really is! I now regret not giving a speech when everyone was asked if anyone else wanted to give a speech, as by the time I got home I thought about how Alice and I met.

Alice first added me as a friend on MSN through my other good friend Diane, way back in 2002. At that time they were good friends. While I had only met Diane once, I had never met Alice. I had only chatted to her maybe once or twice.

Usually every year at Christmas time I would email each person on my contact list individually and wish them a Merry Christmas and thank them for all sorts of stuff. Even though I hardly talked to Alice and didn't even know her that well, I still emailed her every year wishing her a Merry Christmas. To my surprise, I would always receive a nice reply from her wishing me a Merry Christmas too!

Being the keen stalker that she is, she regularly followed my blog and so knew a little bit more about me. When we all started uni, I somehow came across her on campus, and throughout that year I kept bumping into her! Eventually we hung out more regularly and got to know each other well!

This really goes to show just how nice a person and a great friend Alice is! She's also a great financial advisor ;)

After the speeches the karaoke continued, and I discovered one of Alice's schoolmates from Mt Roskill Grammar recognised me from the bus (apparently we always catch the same bus!). He just recently moved back to Henderson, after moving to the city. He had also attended the same intermediate school as me for the first year before moving to the city and attending Mt Roskill Grammar! That was quite cool. I'll have to look out for him the next time I catch the bus!

I eventually had to leave the fun to catch the bus home. It was really great being able to celebrate Alice's 21st and hopefully she will continue to achieve great things and keep on inspiring me!

Left in Auckland

It's been over a month now since holidays started and besides performing at a wedding and a few other places, I've been at home trying to find something productive to do! Because I don't get student allowance anymore since uni has finished, and I'm on holiday from teaching, I don't have any money coming in and have had to survive on not much money! I really should be looking for a job, but first I've got to fix up my CV, which I haven't gotten around to yet...I have applied for one job though, but applications close in January before interviews are held.

Our friends from our Sunday School class, Nadine, Winston and Leonie all left for Singapore earlier this month on a Sunday, but before they did we were determined to catch up with them at least one more time before they left! Leonie was graduating from AUT and had her graduation ceremony on the Thursday of that week, so we drove into the city and caught up with them briefly to take some photos with Leonie in her gown, before they went off to go shopping and us three Anderson brothers went for lunch. Our mum couldn't catch up with them though because she was preoccupied with something else.

We got to catch up with them again the next day though when my mum was available. Leonie, her mum and her aunty (who won't be returning from Singapore!) were going shopping in Lynn Mall so our mum thought we'd go shopping before catching up with them for lunch. Well, we woke up too late to do any shopping and instead went straight to lunch with them! It was the first time I had food from Long John Silver!

After lunch they were about to go off to Dress Mart to do some shopping. My mum decided we'd go too, so we ended up going all the way to South Auckland to check out Dress Mart. This was the first time I'd ever been to Dress Mart as well! I've never seen so many clothes stores in one building before! I originally thought they'd all be cheap since many of the stores were meant to be outlet stores, but with a lot of them being big brand names like Adidas and Nike, a lot of the clothes were quite expensive! We even saw this one dress that cost about $800! Then again, most of my clothes are hand-me-downs, from The Warehouse or the op shop!

After an hour or two of wandering around the stores with Leonie, we met up with the parents and eventually left just after closing time!

A Musical Christmas

Usually our violin teacher (who is the leader of the viola section of the Auckland Symphony) invites us to join the Auckland Symphony Orchestra for their annual Christmas concert at the Town Hall to fill in for a few of their regular players since they go away on holiday during that time. This year was no different! I ended up joining the viola section while Hamish and Aonghas joined the second violins.

We had to attend a couple of their rehearsals to run through the pieces, before having a final dress rehearsal at the Town Hall the night before and then..the concert! The programme was more-or-less the same as every other year. I think this year is the tenth year the concert has been running. I'm sure we've played in at least three or four of them and the programme has changed very little!

What was cool about playing in the orchestra this time was I got to catch up with my old intermediate school friend Mischa, who plays the cello in the orchestra. The last time we played together in the orchestra I think we knew each other but we hadn't talked to each other in years since intermediate school! We've been in touch in the past year thanks to Facebook though, so this time we were able to talk to each other at orchestra rehearsal! It was also cool how the conductor Gary Daverne came over and welcomed us back during the break.

The dress rehearsal was quite fun and short because Gary wanted to get home. We were sent to the dressing room to unpack out instruments and get ready, but hadn't realised that most of the orchestra were in the Green Room, which meant we got the dressing room to ourselves!

The night of the concert coincided with our final carolling practice at church, but they'd be OK without us! It was a wet night and we arrived later than usual since our mum came home late. When we got to the Town Hall, the underground carpark was almost full! Fortunately we found this carpark which was a little tight but anything was better than nothing. Once we parked though, we realised there were a whole lot of other free carparks on the other side!

We got to the dressing rooms to prepare which were a lot more crowded than the night before. The word around was that 80 of the choir were all on a bus stuck in traffic on the motorway, with ten minutes till the concert was due to start! Fortunately they made it, even if the concert had to be delayed slightly.

The concert was pretty fun. My mum made me wear a t-shirt underneath the orchestra uniform since I had to return the uniform after the concert, and she thought I'd get cold. I never knew it would be unbearably hot on stage though! After the first piece I didn't know how I'd last to the end of the concert!

I had accidentally taken this other viola player's seat in the second row at one of the rehearsals since he came late, and thought I was meant to sit there right up till the concert. It was only till the dress rehearsal that I found out! I asked the man (who was sitting right at the back in front of the percussion) if he wanted to switch seats, but he said the handsome people should be seen (haha yeah right!), and so I got to sit in the second row which is the closest I've been to the front!

After the concert we took a walk down Queen Street in the dark and the rain before picking our dad up from work and having Wendy's on the way home!

The very next day after teaching music classes for the last time this year, we went to church to prepare for carolling at Waitakere Hospital. This year mainly people from our youth group would be carolling this year. The other fellowship have been busy preparing a play/video skit for the church's Christmas Eve concert.

Because it was Cleo's birthday, I had this plan that in the middle of our carolling practice we'd suddenly break into Happy Birthday and surprise her! After talking around, we were about to practise the first carol when Aonghas and I started playing Happy Birthday and we all joined in. I think you could say she was surprised!

The carolling went well. We didn't go to as many wards as the previous year, such as the children's ward, but we did go to a few. Most of the lounges we performed in were empty though. There was one lounge where a Chinese man was watching Chinese TV, and upon our arrival he got up and left! When we told him he should stay and enjoy our carols, he said he was fine! I think he came back once we left!

After singing in one corridor there was a request for us to sing in one of the wards! As we were singing, there was one patient who started shouting and raising her hands. At first I thought she was joining in but I think she was trying to call for someone. After we had finished singing and this European lady came into the ward, this funny conversation ensued:

Crazy patient: "The white lady, I recognise you from somewhere. Where do I know you from?"

Lady: "I'm coming to see her" (another patient in the ward)

Crazy patient: "Where do I know you from?"

Crazy patient: "Do you know who I know? I know Jesus"

Lady: "Well I know a lot more than that!"

The following Saturday we were meant to go carolling outside the local Chinese fruit shop and Tofu Shop after a meeting about the upcoming Summer programme at church next month, but because the weather wasn't too great, it was called off. We still got pizza for lunch and some of us ended up staying at church just talking for a while. We were so kind that we ended up staying and helping out Claire (this girl from our youth group who gets paid for cleaning the church) clean the church!

Some people who thought they'd be able to get out of carolling were then lucky to hear that we were going to do carolling the very next day in the afternoon after church! Because it was the last Sunday school class of the year, some of the classes got to go to Burger Fuel while our class had a little interesting discussion.

There was also a new girl to our church. Usually new people are really shy, but not this girl! She actually talked quite a bit! Jireh and I were going to get our groove out, but that was till we discovered she was only 11! Backing off, backing off backing off...

Carolling outside the fruit shop and the Tofu Shop wasn't actually that bad or shameful! We had people come by and take photos and videos with their cellphone!

It was quite fun and hopefully we spread a little Christmas cheer!