Mid-Autumn Festival Awks

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was being held across the road from our church at the Trusts Stadium today, and so after church we had a shorted choir rehearsal so that we could go across to check it out...or so I thought...

The minister's wife who is also in the choir showed everyone these cool little pens with a piece of paper you can pull out and it talks about God and Jesus. I initially thought...phew OK it's in Chinese. I'll be off the hook since I don't understand what's on the pen. That's when they showed the other side to reveal the English side!

I've never gone and done outreach before, as I never feel like I'm ready or would be able to say the right things, so I thought I might just give this time a pass as well.

When I got across to the stadium though, I found all the church people there and in the end they persuaded me to give it a go! They taught me how to say

'Happy Mid-Autumn Festival' 

and

'Jesus loves you!'

in Chinese. I tried approaching some people and saying that to them as they walked by, but was completely ignored the first three times, as if I didn't even exist!

My first success was a little child. To be honest I just asked her if she would like a free pen!

I bumped into my old pharmacy friend Ai Ping and had a bit of a catch-up, which was pretty cool! She didn't want a pen!

Half way through, I realised I wasn't saying the right thing in Chinese to people, and then without thinking wished someone a Happy Chinese New Year!

Realising I was failing on my own, I decided to pair up with Antonia who did the talking and I handed out the pens. We were much more successful! I think people are more willing to listen to a girl than some ugly old guy like me!

When we had finally given everything out, it was time to go exploring! We went inside the stadium to check out what was going on, but it didn't seem as though much was actually happening. Everyone had gathered around the stage, but we couldn't tell what for.

We decided to go back outside and check out the food stalls. We caught up with Claire, someone we haven't seen in a while. It was so good catching up with people!

I was starting to get phone calls from the adults wanting their children back, so we had to rush to find something to eat. I offered to shout everyone squid, but it seemed as though every stall had sold out of squid! We eventually found a stall that sold it. It was a little spicy but it was OK!

Once we returned to church to reunite some of the people with their parents, we went back across the road to the festival, hoping for some discounts on food since it was almost the end of the festival. Sadly we were disappointed.

It's good to see WTV holding some Chinese festivals out west though. Usually they're held in the city or out in South Auckland. I don't think I'd ever seen as many Chinese people in one area in a long time as I did today! Hopefully there'll be more festivals to come!

(http://youtu.be/bDq9r7J7neU)

A Brief Lantern Festival Experience

Tonight we went to the Lantern Festival, but we arrived quite late that we only had a limited amount of time to check out all the lanterns! Our parents went out and didn't come home till about 7pm, so we arrived at the Lantern Festival at about 8-9pm.

We parked quite a while away so we had to walk all the way to Albert Park!

When we got there, Princes Street was lined with food and toy stalls, and the road was packed with people! We didn't spend much time there as we went straight into the park to look at the different lanterns.

There were quite a few new lanterns this year, such as the farm animals (which also made noises!).

We were checking out some lanterns and then moved on, when we lost Aonghas! We spent quite a while looking for him and trying to ring him. It didn't help that I ran out of credit to ring him either! We were going to meet him at one point but we ended up moving to another point so it complicated things a bit.

While we were waiting beside the karaoke stage for Aonghas, we briefly met up with the minister's family before they moved on. Aonghas soon caught up with us. It turns out he caught up with an old friend!

I really wanted to sing on the karaoke stage after last doing it a few years ago, but after finding Aonghas, it seemed as though it was too late. I guess I'll have to try again next year.

We caught up with some of our church friends Andrew and Ben and watched some of the performances on the main stage, before they had to go.

Our family decided to try have a look around despite the park being really, really packed before the fireworks were lit. We visited this stand where we each had to answer a question regarding customs and what you can and can't bring into the country, and got a puzzle for answering the question correctly!

It was soon time for fireworks, and we noticed everyone sitting on the bank so we just joined them, assuming they were facing the direction in which the fireworks would be taking off. We bumped into our other church friends Antonia and her family!

We all sat together to watch the fireworks which were quite good, despite the trees slightly blocking our view!

As soon as the fireworks were over, everyone started filing out of the park, which gave us a chance to check out the lanterns a bit more easily before we left too.

(http://youtu.be/qWJ18BTSpDY)

Chinese New Year Festival!

Today was the annual Chinese New Year Festival organised by the Auckland Chinese Community Centre at the ASB Showgrounds, one of the events that make me feel so much more Chinese than usual. 

The weather wasn't the greatest and was a little gloomy when we got there. Fortunately it held up for most of the day before the rain arrived at the end of the day.

When we got there, we couldn't see anyone in the parking lot where the food stalls usually are, and started to wonder if we showed up on the wrong day! It turned out that they had relocated all the food stalls around the corner! There was also a crowd of people gathered around some Chinese yo-yo performances and dragon dance.

We watched for a while before going inside to check out the stalls. I don't think there were as many as last year but there were still plenty to see and heaps of people!

I actually got to catch up with a few pharmacy friends who I hadn't seen since Completion Ceremony in November last year, like Ai Ping, Nick and Stephanie! 

I also caught up with Anzie, a friend I met in the Kiwi Asian Club! She was promoting her performing arts organisation, which also saw her dressed up in a penguin suit!

I did see others from church as well, and also my old high school Chinese teacher Miss Ho, who is now part of the ACCC. It was good catching up with her, and from what she said it sounds like a few of my classmates have continued studying Chinese at uni!

We spent most of the day wandering around checking out the stalls. There were quite a few businesses advertising their products and services, as well as stalls selling food and other things like giant teddy bears. It's funny how everyone would say to me

"Buy one for yourself and one for your girlfriend!"

I'm glad they thought highly enough of me to think I've got one! They probably just wanted to try sell two!

There were some people playing Chinese chess...

The Sky City stand had some computers for people to sign up to their e-newsletter and then gave people a chance to pick a ball out of a bag. If they picked the right ball they got a chance to spin the wheel and win a prize. Hamish and I didn't have such luck, but Aonghas did and got to spin the wheel! He won a $10 voucher at first, but fortunately they ran out of those and so he got to spin again and this time won a $20 voucher to a restaurant at Sky City. I don't know whether he'll be using that though, considering each dish is almost $20!

We also had a go at spinning a lucky wheel at the National Bank stand, but my dad, brothers and I only got a fortune cookie each for our troubles. We all got the same message as well!

There was also a stage with performances, and usually when we get bored we'd just sit around and watch the performances, but this year we didn't really bother. Our dad who got bored of wandering around and shopping sat there and watched some of the performances while we continued to wander around though.

Towards the end of the day we decided to check out the food stalls outside just before it started raining. For some reason they decided to shift the food stalls to a much more narrow area, and so it was quite crowded! Therefore we decided to let our mum go wandering around checking out the food stalls as she knows what's good value for money, and she can also fit into small spaces!

Food was quite expensive but we still managed to afford a few dumplings to eat!

By 4pm the guy started warning stall owners to clear up and for the public to leave as the festival wrapped up. We didn't buy as much this year, but it was still good fun!

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

What Should I Sacrifice?

Yesterday I went to this Auckland Cultural Festival at Potters Park in Mt Eden. There were heaps of ethnicities represented, predominantly from Africa, South-east Asia and South America. 

The performances were interesting, including this Japanese guy whose Australian visa expired and so he came over to New Zealand. He tried busking down Queen St but was told that it was against the law to use an amplifier on the side of the road. So instead, he decided to busk at this festival! I have to admit he was pretty good. The small little Indian musical instrument he was playing made these BOOINNGGYY BOOOIINGGGY sounds which sounded really good when dance/techo music was played in the background. This other really cool performance was this Bolivian guy who played the panpipes and guitar all at the same time. The only downside was the weather. Even though we usually complain about too much rain, yesterday was pretty much TOO MUCH SUN! It was so hot, and when most of the stalls are selling hot food, it ain’t that great.

Today wasn’t so bad. I realised I did my Physics experiment write-up completely wrong. Apart from that though, the cello/string ensemble teacher was in a good mood, and I signed up for the 40 Hour Famine. I still haven’t decided what I’ll sacrifice for 40 hours though. So far some ideas and suggestions from others have been:

• Sleeping in a cardboard box for two nights
• Asking girls out for 40 hours (not so sure about this one, I might run out of girls to ask and my safety wouldn’t be guaranteed if I turned to the streets)
• Forgoing technology for 40 hours (did this one last year)
• Not eating for 40 hours
• Not studying for 40 hours

Anyway I’ll try think of some more and decide before the time comes.

I’m hoping things are getting better between Zippo and me. She has thought of me as weird and disturbing (for some reason…must be something I said), so I’m really trying hard to get back in her good books. I decided to part with my $5 and fulfil the bet I made with her (actually it’s money from Young Enterprise but don’t tell the twins! I’ll pay the business back when I find enough loose change around the house). I like to think of it as compensation for whatever psychological damage I’ve caused her. I’ve talked to her on the phone a few times in the past week which is hopefully a good sign, and let’s hope things get better.

I’ve realised how important friends are recently, and so I’m determined to keep the friends I’ve got so far, and hopefully in thirty decades’ time, I’ll still be close friends with them.

U-Turn

On the night of my birthday (two days ago) I got a phone call from Zippo who was at her friend Kylie's place for a sleepover. I was offered a deal, but I agreed not to disclose it on this website so I won't say anything more about what happened. I did talk to Alison on the phone - yip the girl who I TRIED to kiss last year but missed. It was the first time since that incident that I had made contact with her. I apologised for the whole thing, and thankfully (!!) she said that it was okay and that it was just her friends trying to be stupid. That night too Zippo admitted that she did make me do it, so I now can rest assured that it wasn't my idea!

Yesterday morning I went along with my family to this Chinese New Year Festival at the Auckland Showgrounds. Every year they have heaps of stalls selling food and other cheap things. In previous yeras there has always been some stands selling cheap Western and Asian DVD and VCD movies and music, but this year there wasn't any. I suppose since both Prime Minister Helen Clark and National leader Don Barsh visited, they were all too scared to appear! I saw Phoebe and a few others there. I was going to say hi to her but a second later she had disappeared! No surprise though. The crowds were massive and you had to push your way through just to get anywhere! 

After that we had a Muir Family Reunion…

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Man there is so much to talk about. Yesterday (Friday 31 December) I was invited by my Korean twin friends Hyun and Joon to go to the movies with them. Surprisingly, my mum gave me permission to go! We watched National Treasure (starring Nicholas Cage and Sean Bean). It turned out to be a great movie! Nicholas Cage was good as usual. My brothers came with me and we stayed right to the end, even after the credits had finished, as we wanted to make the most of our $7.50 ticket. Hamish and I bought children’s tickets. Hyun went up to buy one and the person at the counter asked him how old he was. He answered:

“I’m um…….about 12….”

That sounds pretty convincing! Anyway, fortunately they believed him. I can now say that in 2004, I watched ONE movie! Yay!!! On the very last day of the year as well! The last movie I had seen was Looney Tunes in December 2003 with Chen and his cousin Diane.

We spent last night at the First Light 2005 Event at Aotea Square. The main thing that impresses me is the fact that the event is alcohol and drug-free. How do they control this you may ask, especially in today’s world, full of people influenced by such heinous things? They put up a fence right around the whole building and square, with a few guarded entrances. The guards would search your bags for any alcohol, etc. You may think that it would’ve felt like we were trapped within a fence, but you could barely notice it, and the absence of an alcoholic smell was very refreshing. Now if only it could be smokefree…

We watched a few Classical Chinese performances of people playing Chinese instruments. After that, we checked out the stalls and other stages. There was a karaoke stage with this really HORRIBLE singer. However, on the main stage outside there were performances by Deceptikonz, Tadpole, Adeaze and Goodshirt. I was really looking forward to Adeaze because I’m still not sick of their song ‘Getting Stronger’!

I met a really good friend last night as well…Teresa! The last time I met her was when she dressed up as a student from Rutherford College and visited us one day when she had a day off from her real school. Although she pretended to be a student visiting for a day, she sure had the teachers fooled. Last night she was with her boyfriend Steve (I hope I got his name right!), but yeah it was pretty cool catching up and seeing her again.

When the clock struck midnight, fireworks shot out from the Sky Tower in all different directions! It was great. There were many couples all round the place hugging each other as they watched the fireworks, it was really cool. On our way back to the car we witnessed a guy and a girl round a corner beginning to make out!

Anyway, it’s 2am now and I’ve got to get off to bed so I can start off the new year 2005!