A Second Farewell

Today was the last day of regular work at my pharmacy, which made it slightly sad. I've been working at Apollo doing the afternoon till evening shifts on Thursdays and Fridays for most of this past year, as well as covering for people when needed. That has seen me work a few Saturday and Sunday afternoons as well.

I guess the farewell wasn't as sad as there was a sense of deja vu, since I had farewelled everyone at the end of my internship last year. They also might call me back to do some work when some of the pharmacists go on holiday in the coming months...that's if I haven't found another job before then!

I will miss working there regularly though. Working three days initially then two days a week worked out OK for me. I admit that working Friday nights meant I'd come late to youth group, but I had gotten used to it and adjusted to it. I actually enjoyed working Thursday and Friday nights with Moses, the intern as you get a bit more freedom and can also test yourself since you have to rely on yourself when you're the only pharmacist in charge there.

I'll miss everyone!

As everyone was leaving around 6pm, they were all saying their goodbyes to me and joking that the next time they see me I'll hopefully have muscles! My manager who has been pushing me to get my full license all year, then reminded me that I still hadn't gotten my full license yet! Oops! Well next time they see me, hopefully I'll have a license and muscles! My manager reckons the license may be easier for me to get than the muscles!

Once I finish my postgraduate study in a months' time, I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with myself till my next job comes about! I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the next chapter has in store for me. I have to admit I'm a little apprehensive, seeing as whatever job it may be, it will be the first job I wouldn't hve done my internship at, so it will be a little different. It will be a good challenge for me though, and I guess it will help me grow further as a pharmacist.

Thanks for everything though, Pharmacy@Apollo! I won't forget you guys!

Farewell Benson and Derek!

Today was a sad day, as Benson one of the church deacons who has been with us for many years, and Derek, one of the guys at church who always brings us laughs, were both to be farewelled. Benson is going back to Hong Kong to study to become a pastor, while Derek is going to Hong Kong to work.

During the service, Benson was invited to come up on stage and sing a song with the pastor which was really nice! A few words were said and a powerpoint show with photos of Benson and his family were played.

The Siloam Fellowship, the fellowship that Benson has been helping lead then got up on stage and sang a song for him. It was really moving, and I could see quite a few of them getting a bit teary-eyed!

We had Sunday School as usual, but for lunch we had a special combined potluck lunch. There was a variety of food that everyone had brought. We all got our food before it was time for Oddfellows to perform a little song we had been practising for him!

We all got up and I had to say a few words before we got Benson, his family and Derek up front to sing a hymn to them. We were all in our nice Oddfellows t-shirts too! Well...most of us anyway! We got those who didn't have one or forgot to wear it to just stick Oddfellows written on a piece of paper on their shirts! REPRESENT

Once we finished, we all rushed to them for a group hug, and unfortunately upset poor Eliza who started crying! At least she'll have something to remember us by!

Other people came up one at a time to say a few words about Benson. There was also a video of Sherman who is currently over in Australia, who had a few words to say as well!

We will miss you Benson and Derek!

Not a Goodbye, but a Cya Soon

Tonight we had a farewell dinner for John, our Sunday School teacher, as he returns to China later in the coming week. He has to return to China to work while his family remains in New Zealand. Hopefully he returns in a few months' time though!

We all went to Aunty Stephanie's (one of our former Sunday School teachers) house for a shared dinner. We usually have good get-togethers at her house! We were one of the last to arrive, as we had to drop Grace home, then take Cham and Andrew food shopping before the dinner, then pick our mum up from home.

We blessed the food before we all dug in. There was a lot of good food there, such as chicken wings, sushi, mini-spring rolls, dumplings and fried rice!

All us young people all ate together and caught up with one another. Aonghas tried drawing Leonie in some dress on his new phone.

After dinner, it was time for the speeches! We all gathered in the lounge, and us students were asked first to give speeches. Because I earlier complained to Jenny that she always sounded so smart and put us to shame (jokingly of course!), I was egged on to speak first! I thanked him for always teaching us new things, keeping on time, and being there for us. Others shared how John is a gentle giant, and incredibly patient, putting up with the long silences in our Sunday School class!

Angie and Jenny then presented John with a card and farewell present on behalf of us, which was a book and a little backpack for his kids!

Some of the others gave some speeches and Tim presented a present on behalf of the church (he is in charge of English Sunday School at our church!)

before we concluded by singing a song based on Psalms. Aunty Stephanie then asked if I wanted to sing a song! She mistakenly thought I wanted to sing a song! I was a little caught off-guard, and all I could think of was that we sing Amazing Grace, so that ended up being the last song we sung!

It was time for supper! Jenny had baked some muffins which were quite nice! She did spoil it a little by telling us she used a muffin mix! That's OK, it took nothing away from how good it tasted! There was also some nice mango ice-cream that Time had brought too.

People were soon leaving as it got later. We had church the next day after all! As we were about to leave, we discovered Angie had left her phone behind! I guess it was up to me to return it to her again!

It'll be sad seeing John leave. He was a great teacher, and always had something insightful to share with us. I really do hope he comes back sometime in the not too distant future! All the best, John, no matter where the future leads you!

Farewell Phillip!

We were caught out a little last week when we were told by Phillip that he would be moving to Perth to live tomorrow! He was only going to be up in Auckland for a couple of days before then, so there was not much time to catch up with him one more time before he left. Because Aonghas would be working in the night, and I would be working during the day, the only time we could all meet up together was for breakfast this morning.

We picked him up early in the morning. We drove our new car, and so when we stopped beside him on the side of the road, he just stood there looking for us as he didn't recognise our car!

We got stuck in a long traffic jam along Lincoln Road, but somehow managed to make it onto the motorway in about ten minutes!

When we got to the city we walked down Queen Street looking for somewhere to have breakfast, but most places seemed to be closed at 7am in the morning except for the fast food joints! We eventually settled for Burger King.

I had this omelette burger combo that came with hash brown bites and a coffee which seemed to fill me up and made me quite wide awake for the morning at work which is a first!

I soon had to go to work, so I had to farewell Phillip with a few hugs and photos. :(

Fortunately work wasn't too bad and my preceptor made us cupcakes, and I was told I get Tuesday off work next week which means FIVE day weekend! Woohoo!

Take care Phillip, you've now given me a reason to visit Perth! Hopefully we'll continue to stay in touch!

Toni Turning Chinese

Tonight after work I met up with my high school friend Toni and a few others to farewell her, as she is leaving New Zealand for China next Monday to teach English over there!

I had some Burger King before I was going to meet them all at Shadows, the uni bar. As I was walking back up to uni though, I saw them walking down the road, and it turned out that Shadows was closed!

We all walked to some bar in Metro. When we got in and sat down, a staff member came over to tell us that they would be closing in 25 minutes! We would have to find somewhere else to go! There was only enough time for Evan, Toni's boyfriend and classmate, to have a game of pool!

Our third attempt to have a catch-up was at Father Ted's, an Irish pub. It was quite packed, probably because it was pub quiz night. We thought we might just enter a team! Our group was split into two, so all the high school friends of Toni's formed one group, along with a few others.

There were several sections to the pub quiz format. There was a section on movies/TV shows, sections 1 and 2 of Pot Luck, a page of logos we had to identify, and a section on music.

I have to admit I felt quite out of shape when hearing the questions and not being able to answer them! I was able to answer to a National Lampoon movie question, but for the rest of them we relied on Evan!

We got to the end of the questions, and handed them all in. We waited outside in the fresh air till an announcement was made on the winner of the pub quiz. We were expecting to come near the bottom, but as it turns out, we came second, only losing by ONE point! Maybe we should do this a bit more often!

Karaoke was just about to start, but it was getting late and I have work the next day, so I had to depart, but it was a good long-overdue catch-up with Toni and high school friends!

Hopefully Toni has a safe and life-changing experience in China! I'm sure she will gain so much out of it.

There goes another high school friend! Bye Toni!

Flying Off

Tonight members of our youth group got together at the airport to farewell Jireh and his family who are leaving for Singapore. Jireh won't be back for two years as he will undergo army training.

Jireh and I had to organise transport for the evening so I was hoping everyone would be able to get a ride to the airport. I think we just had enough seats!

Before we left, I had some business to settle with someone, and then Aonghas and I decided to spruce our new baby up before we picked people up in it, so we gave it a bit of a scrub and wiped the windows clean. I think it looked quite good afterwards!

We soon arrived at church, divided people up and left for the airport.

Aonghas's car and ours arrived half an hour before our parking was set to start, so we dropped off our passengers before driving off to the supermarket to wait for half an hour.

When we got to the airport, the Chans were already at the check-in counter, with a very long line behind them! It didn't take long for them to check in before they rejoined the rest of us standing around.

We then went upstairs to hang out by the shops. We just sat around talking, while the girls were playing I-Spy.

The guys soon felt like a big feast, so we headed over to KFC as you do, but it had just closed!

We moved over to McDonald's, where some of the girls bought a McFlurry (ice-cream), while us guys had proper meals like Big Macs, ice-cream sundaes and fries!

The pastor (Jireh's dad) soon indicated that it was time for them to board, so we grabbed what was left of our meal, and headed over to the departure gate where we took a few group photos, Jireh gave each of us a giant hug, and then we had to wave goodbye to them.

We ran over to the viewing area where we waited for them to pass through the duty-free shopping area. We saw them walk through and I think they were a bit lost! We exchanged waves, before they walked out of view.

Goodbye Jireh, we're going to miss you! We won't forget you, and don't forget us! We hope to see you again in two years' time!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g21nGy8jOgE)

Sharing the Love

Tonight was the last Oddfellows Youth Group for the night, and so we had a larger turnout than usual. That could also be attributed to the fact that we were exchanging Secret Santa gifts tonight as well! I had to organise it and so I was a little afraid that someone would receive two presents, or one person would get nothing. I got people to pick names and record them on a list without me knowing, so I didn't have any idea who had who!

We also decided to do something a little different for youth group worship too. I came up with an idea to form a band a couple weeks ago, as I knew it would be Jireh's last youth group and Jireh and I have always discussed and dreamt of having a band at church. I thought it would be a great idea to surprise him! We only had one practice a couple days ago though, so we weren't the most prepared. I had also spent most of the morning looking for a Secret Santa present, so I hadn't properly prepared a message to go along with the songs I was leading.

I was on bass guitar, but since I didn't have one at home and the last time I had practised on one was the first time at Grace's house, borrowing her brother's guitar! I just had to make it up on the spot!

I think we went OK, although the rest of the youth group (if you knew Oddfellows you'd think it was typical!) didn't show much enthusiasm. We sang You Won't Relent by Misty Edwards and Our God is Greater by Christ Tomlin to start off with, and they didn't sing too loudly. I could hear some people singing along to our last song Power of Your Love though, probably since they should be quite familiar with that song by now!

After worship, we all sat in a circle on stage to receive our Secret Santa presents! Quite a few people got soft toys.

Tim got a Doraemon soft toy (his favourite!), while some got necklaces, t-shirts/dresses and vouchers. I got Playboy cologne! Thanks Jenny! Apparently she had originally bought this t-shirt from Jay-Jays for me, but then saw me wearing it at camp!

The person I had to buy for was Lisa. I ended up getting her some jewellery. What was funny was that originally I had Jenny, and she had me, but Lisa asked if she could be included in Secret Santa, and so I gave her Jenny while I took Lisa!

We then went around the circle, sharing what we were grateful for this year. I said that I was grateful for friends and Oddfellows as they've given me a life this year, especially with full-time work.

We then finished the night with a farewell to Jireh. Some of us shared stories about him and what we've enjoyed and appreciated, and Jireh left us with a few words of advice about how we all should make time for God.

We presented our farewell present to him - a collage of past and current Oddfellows group photos, a Rugby World Cup soft toy with signatures on it, and a farewell card made by his sister Joylynn.

It was a great way to end the night and what made it even better was seeing one of the old Oddfellows members Brendan come to visit. We haven't seen him in quite a while! It's good to see that he's well.

Photos courtesy of Tim Sze

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)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zgmSTl_CEI)

Us Oddfellows had to leave slightly early to help set up tables and food for afterwards. This is where it all started...I let someone play with my phone and they got into my Facebook account and posted stuff on my wall:

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!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLZ13oG7iCM)

Rugby Reunion

Tonight all of us that participated in the Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony choir got back together for one last time to have a feed, perform and watch other groups perform, as well as just catch up with each other.

We arrived slightly late and so some performances had already started. Lucky we didn't miss the food though! We were all asked to bring some finger food initially, but then that got changed to bringing some 'food'!

The food though was quite good though, and there was plenty of it! The people sure are generous! There was deep-fried chicken, pizza, snack food, plenty of cake and other dessert!

After we got to the front of the line we decided to get two bowls of food, one with dinner and one with dessert just in case it took too long for us to get back to the front of the line again!

Once we got our food, the performances from different groups continued. Most of the different groups were from the various churches.

One of the church groups were really good, as they all sang quite passionately and in harmony. I can't quite remember which church they were from though!

There were a few speeches from our casting co-ordinator Desiree and Drew, one of the guys in charge of the whole opening ceremony. He made a few jokes about us not having to hear his voice in our ears again (we had to wear ear-pieces when we were out in the stadium on the night!).

For each of the choir leaders they would put on some music with the leader coming up to dance, and anyone else who wanted to could come up and dance with him. I'm not too sure if it's a traditional/cultural thing or not?

To finish off the night we all regrouped and sang our version of 'World in Union' for one last time, sounding as good as always!

It was a good way to end, and I'm sure going to miss our involvement in the Rugby World Cup!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3CptNePB8)

Farewell Jess

We received some shocking news at our family dinner about the passing of someone we knew. Even though we didn't know Jess Hosking too well, we remembered her and her family, as her parents used to teach us swimming.

Jess was a year younger than Aonghas, and went on an OE to France. She somehow got sick though and passed away in her sleep.

While we weren't that close to Jessica, we knew of her and had met her once or twice, and her parents had taught us swimming when we were much younger.

It's really sad, especially when the life of someone as young as Jessica passes. I'm sure she made the most of what time she had on Earth though, and it's very obvious she left her mark!

Some excerpts from the media:

Mrs Hosking said her daughter lived life to the fullest.
"She loved life, she enjoyed it. Anything can be achieved if you believe - that was her motto."

- NZ Herald

Piha Surf Life Saving president Peter Brown says Jess never backed away from a challenge.
"No matter how big the surf was she was in there – even if I was worried.
"She was brave, tough and silly."
Jess was one of 16 lifeguards involved in the rescue of a man in heavy surf at Piha in 2008.
The man was brought to shore unconscious but survived. The life savers won the club's rescue of the month award.

 - Western Leader

Someone's Leaving

One of the ladies at work is leaving this week. She's been working at the pharmacy for many years now, so for all my workmates it'll be pretty sad. It'll be pretty sad for me too as she's really nice and friendly and I've gotten to know her these past few months I've been working.

Today she brought a really nice cake and some other food to share with all of us!

I was hoping the change of ownership earlier this year would be the only major change in personnel during my internship but it looks like there will be more change to come...

A Farewell with Curry

Tonight a few of my high school friends and I got together at this Indian restaurant to have dinner and farewell Shen, as he is the latest one to be moving overseas to Singapore. He's scored a job with PriceWaterhouseCoopers over there! Go Shen!

On the way there I got stopped at a police checkpoint to have a breath-test. I spoke into the machine which said 

'No Alcohol'

I thought that was it till the policeman asked to see my license! Maybe he didn't trust me!

I got there slightly late because I had work, but everyone was already there when I got there, so I had to order quickly. I thought I'd give the goat curry a go, as well as some plain naan bread!

The food took a while to come out, so while we were waiting we caught up with each other and especially Shen. 

He brought this little booklet our class put together back in year 10, called 'Reflections of 10MT' (10MT was our form class back then). There were drawings of each of us in our future careers. My future career was as a court judge!

The food finally came out. I don't think I've tried any Indian food like it before! The rice were in bowls put in the middle of the table while we were each given a small bowl with the sauce. 

Fortunately my curry sauce was mild so it wasn't too hot. I tried dipping my naan bread into it and it tasted good!

I was sorta the last to finish since I decided to eat all the rice and finish my sauce. Once we all finished, Shen took photos with each of us before we decided to head out.

Now it was time to decide where to have dessert! It was almost 10pm and so we didn't know what places would be open, so we just decided to go over to McDonald's for dessert!

Shen and some of the girls ordered some cake while I ordered a thickshake. I ended up getting into a deep discussion with Evan about pharmaceutical funding in New Zealand which surprised me as I never knew I could talk so much about pharmacy despite it being my current occupation!

There was a bit group of people sitting at a nearby table making heaps of noise as they were watching the State of Origin on the large screen. I never knew they played live sport on TV at McDonald's! I should go there a bit more often to watch sports you can only see on Sky TV!

It was getting late and I couldn't drive home on my restricted license, so I called my dad to come pick me up. It was a good way to farewell Shen, and hopefully I'll be able to say goodbye to him one last time this Saturday when he departs New Zealand!

(http://youtu.be/EVAkzlKyXyI)