October Baby

Tonight a group of us from church met up to watch October Baby:

"A college freshman's world is rocked when she learns she is the adopted survivor of an attempted abortion."

This was the only screening in Auckland, and I think it was organised by Mana, a Christian book store. There were limited tickets and we got the last eight! Apparently there were only seven left, but the man at the store kindly gave up his ticket!

Winston and I quickly bought some popcorn at Countdown while waiting for the others. Wei hadn't arrived, so I gave him a call. He was still at home and thought the movie was next week!

While we were at Countdown looking for There were those Coke bottles with the custom names on them. There was a whole shelf of bottles with 'Raj' on it, with a few with 'Feng' and 'Sione'! Very multicultural!

When we got into the theatre, it was quite full, and we had to sit in third row from the front! It wasn't too bad though. I just slouched in my seat so I wouldn't get a sore neck! I admit it was a little hard to eat! Winston and I ended up being some of the messiest people in the theatre!

There were a few laugh-out-loud scenes, with some guy laughing randomly at some things!

At the end of the movie there was a round of applause before everyone started leaving. It did leave me rethinking my ambivalence towards the whole issue. I've never really thought much about the issue, but I think it's really time I formed a viewpoint on issues such as this!

We went across the carpark to Burger King afterwards for dinner. Wei and I split a dinner meal, which meant I got two burgers! I sure was full afterwards! I think I'll need to do extra exercise this week to burn all that fat off!

Cleaning the Church

The gym and kindergarten side of the church has almost been renovated, so we spent most of this weekend dusting the gym, shifting all the kindergarten furniture and equipment back into the renovated kindergarten, and unpacking stuff from the giant metal storage container.

Our first job was to shift all this stuff back into a shed, before moving kindergarten back into the renovated kindergarten. It was tiring work!

 

After that, we took out all the tables from the giant metal storage container and put them back together in the new classroom before it was time for the best part of the day - lunch!

My mum and a couple others had prepared sausages, vegetables and bread for us. There was quite a lot of sausages, so we got plenty to eat!

We did a bit more work after lunch, including shifting some of the playground equipment. Boy was that hard work!

We finally called it a day by 6pm and that's when Winston invited my brothers and I to go watch Tin Tin as he had won a double pass! When we got to Westgate, we discovered his double pass was only valid during the week. Fortunately, he tried asking if they would accept it and they kindly agreed to.

The movie was pretty good, and the animation was impressive! I won't say anymore to avoid spoiling it for anyone.

We finished off the night with dinner at Burger King where we ate and talked till late.

Finding Inner Peace

Tonight I went with my youth group to watch Kung Fu Panda 2. To be honest, I wasn't too sure what to expect as I hadn't seen the first Kung Fu Panda movie, and remember when it was playing on TV that I wasn't all that interested. That was probably because I was busy doing something or just too tired to pay attention!

I only just got to the cinemas in time after having to catch a bus directly to West City to meet up with everyone.

I have to say I came away from the movie keen to learn martial arts or to learn some sort of traditional Chinese dance or skill, something to bring out my Chinese roots!

The main message of the movie was about finding your inner peace, along with other things. We returned to church to discuss this and talk about Christian messages we could derive from the movie. Our group of Tim, Jireh, Cleo and Joylynn actually had a pretty good discussion! It reminded me of the good old days of Oddfellows when we were a lot smaller and more open!

The weather outside has been terrible and we're meant to go on an outing to the zoo tomorrow. I'm not so sure it'll be such a good idea anymore though... Please prove me wrong God!

A Movie Premiere to End all Worlds

Just a week after hanging out with my high school friends to farewell Lindsey, we all got together again, this time at Toni and Evan's house to watch a short film Nick and some of his classmates put together for a paper they were taking (they study film!). Nick arrived late with Shen though so we all watched Grand Designs Australia together (first time I've ever watched that!)

Their short film 'Continuum' was about this guy who can give people the ability to live an extra day during the week (that's probably not the best plot summary!). It was pretty good! Nick wrote two of the six episodes of it. Evan had arranged his couches in tiered seating so we could all get a good view!

Since the short film was only about eight minutes long, we had enough time to watch another movie - The Road. It's about this father and son who are one of the last few people left on the world and it tells of their struggle to survive. It was quite appropriate, seeing as tonight was the night the world was supposed to end!

When the movie was over, it was all time to go and fortunately the world outside was still in tact! It was just a little chilly...

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!

Tangled Situation

Today a couple guys from my youth group had planned a get-together over karaoke in the city but our old neighbour had a day off and so we were going to catch up with him over breakfast or lunch. Our neighbour pulled out at the last minute though and the Chins invited us to go watch Tangled with them, so we decided to go since it was going to be at West City and it also wasn't too long, so we could get back home before our mum did!

I didn't really know what Tangled was about, except it was another Disney fairytale movie in 3D, but I have to say it was pretty good! The animation was much quite impressive! The story was a typical princess fairytale story . I won't say too much so I don't spoil it for people, but I have to admit the main character Repunzel was not too bad looking for a cartoon character if I may say so myself! (That sounds a little creepy doesn't it?)

We just hung out at the food court and had something to eat after the movie but it's definitely worth seeing, even if you're a guy!

This was probably one of my favourite songs from the movie, I See the Light by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5iFxpkz40o)

Celebrating the Last Day of the Year

To celebrate the last ever day of 2010, some of us from our youth group got together at Westgate Cinemas to watch the latest Chronicles of Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. To be honest, I haven't been the most enthusiastic fan of the Narnia series, and so haven't really watched the first two movies of the series properly. Being in the cinemas though and watching this third movie in 3D though made me have to pay attention and it wasn't that bad! One character in the movie even looked like one of the boys at our church!

After the movie finished, we all got rides back to church where we had dinner, which consisted of pizza, KFC and takeaways! There was quite a bit so I was pretty full afterwards! We all just hung around talking to each other when Jenny arrived with a Pavlova for dessert!

Someone mentioned the Trusts Stadium and the athletics track being open to the public, so a group of us walked down there after dinner to just play around. I was too full to go running, so I just headed to the playground with some of the girls!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U8dEY2nu2Y)

We were soon called back so we headed back to church where we went into the hall to play this game called 'The Appreciation Game'. We all got into groups and had to roll the dice to get through the course, while answering questions that required us to share a little bit about ourselves. It was interesting hearing what others had to say! There was even a spinning wheel which required you to share a fond memory of a particular person, depending on where the arrow stopped! I had to talk about my appreciation for my parents and for one of my neighbours in another round!

There were some questions on love, fond memories and other things. Andrew always seemed to get the deep questions, and always had a deep answer to reply with!

After the game ended, Gabrielle started off the sharing regarding the youth group this year. We then took turns talking about what we liked about youth group this year, which was nice to hear. Some talked about the performances we gave this year, such as the Mother's Day performance, Karvin's farewell and the Christmas play. Others talked about the random birthday surprises. Someone also brought up church camp and how they weren't allowed to stay up...WHEN WILL THEY LET IT GO?!?! (I'm kidding I don't mind I was following orders! haha).

It was also up to me to settle a score with Rebecca. Earlier in the week she challenged me to make her scream today, and so I tried during a supposedly scary part in the movie but it didn't work! She then got me back when she shook me and...I admit I let out a teeny weeny yelp! Well when we were leaving, I grabbed Joylynn's jandals, crept up behind her and tried to scare her but it didn't work! 

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

So here's my punishment...

It was getting late, and so it was time to leave church. A few of us though were going to head off to Jireh's house to see in the New Year.

At Jireh's house we all had a bit to eat and had Sound of Music on TV (we gave in to Jenny) while we played Scrabble. I have to say I'm surprised at how fun Scrabble could be! I suppose it's more fun when you're with more people.

Phillip and I were on the same team, up against Hamish, Andrew and Ben on one team, and Jenny and Grace on the girls' team. At first it didn't look too good with us behind in terms of score. 

We took a break right on midnight to welcome in the New Year. We used the countdown on TV and watched the fireworks that followed (on TV too). Hopefully it was live and not delayed! Jireh gave us all party poppers so we popped those and made some noise as we crossed into 2011! 

To start off the year in style, Phillip and I overtook the girls (who had been leading the game of Scrabble for the majority of the time) and won! Wooo go guys!

The guys who were staying the night started playing card games, while the girls, Hamish and I left for home not too long after.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUWSPSUvv3Q)

What a way to finish one year and start the other, with friends, Sound of Music and a game of Scrabble! Happy New Year everyone! 

Am I Dreaming?

Today the uni students in my youth group and I finally managed to find a time to hang out together for lunch at uni. The night before, Angie and I were sorting it out, and originally thought about all going to watch Inception, but we couldn't find a time we could all go together. We ended up agreeing to just hang out together for lunch.

I had two lectures in the morning, one was actually quite interesting in which an accountant who specialises in pharmacies talked to us about owning our own pharmacy! I think I might buy a pharmacy one day!

Once the lectures were over though, I walked over to the city through the terrible weather. When I got to the city campus, I discovered it was Jesus Week! One of the Christian groups was offering free Milo, which was nice for the wet and cold weather we were in! I met Elena, an old intermediate school friend who was helping out!

I went over to the Quad where there were some music performances, people trying to get my vote for some student elections (bribing me with free badges!) and a free sausage sizzle being held by another one of the Christian groups, along. The catch was you had to answer three questions! I think they were more targeted at non-believers, like

'If Jesus came to New Zealand, where would you take him?'


I did answer all the questions but I didn't have time to line up for the sausage, as I was to meet up with the others outside the uni library at 12.30! Jenny, Aonghas and Claire were already there, so once I joined them we went over to the Quad to have lunch.

Angie showed up at 1pm and Aonghas had to leave for his class. In the middle of our conversation, this random Asian guy came over, sat at our table and started talking to Angie! She and the other girls were a bit weirded out and looked at me, wondering if I knew who he was! They ended up just carrying on with the conversation without him, and I felt a little bad about it. I sort of wanted to try talk to him a little at least. What if I was him, and everyone just ignored him? He soon left though.

That's when we started discussing when we should all go see Inception! We couldn't watch it on any other day in the week since others wouldn't be free, so we thought about watching it later tonight. Jenny went ahead and rang her mum who gave her permission, and offered to take her and the girls home afterwards. Getting transport home for my brothers and I would be a problem though, since it'd be late and it'd be a long wait to catch the next bus home for us. We had to part ways before it was confirmed as to whether we'd be watching Inception that night. That meant it was up to me to sort it all out!

I rang home and only my dad was home, so he agreed to let us go...phew! I then tried texting my brothers, and after a while they replied saying they had tests and assignments due the next day, so they wouldn't be coming. It looked like it'd just be me and the girls then! When I booked the tickets for the movie at 3pm, the cinema was almost sold out except for the first two rows. The best I could do were the seats in the middle of the second row.

I just read my law book for a while before jumping on a computer to watch part of my Taiwanese drama, before I realised it was almost 6pm and I had to be down at the cinemas to get the tickets! When I got there, the foyer was busy and something was going wrong with one of the ticket kiosks. After a while of waiting, I got the tickets and met up with Jenny and Claire and eventually Angie who somehow made it from her class in five minutes!

As we were sitting there eating our leftover lunch, I spotted my Dessert Club friends who were going to see Inception at the same time as us! That was pretty cool!

We then decided to go in to the theatre. By then the whole theatre was sold out! This was the first time I'd ever been in a full theatre!

Now I won't tell you what Inception is all about. All I'll say is that it is definitely worth it, and that you've got to pay attention during the whole movie! The ending was also quite good too. I enjoyed the audience's gasp right at the end!

As I was getting up, someone further back in the theatre called out my name, and I spotted a whole row of 3rd year pharmacy students! Wow, everyone was seeing Inception tonight!

When we got out of the cinema and waited for Jenny's dad to pick us up, everything just felt weird! We couldn't stop discussing the movie!

It was a good day and a good movie! My brothers will check it out in a couple of days so I can discuss it with them then, and hopefully these get-togethers will become a regular thing!