So what has Calum been doing during the holidays? Absolutely nothing...OK that's not absolutely true but most of the time has been spent doing nothing but wasting time watching TV or on the internet mucking around on Facebook (surprise surprise). In fact I just recently discovered games on Facebook which I'm sure to waste a bit of time on in the coming weeks!
On Friday though I went into the city for the Dessert Club AGM which didn't turn out to be much of an AGM in the end since half the committee members were late and the original location of our meeting was closed which meant we had to have it in Albert Park! A few speeches were read before we all decided we'd go for lunch.
We had lunch at this place (the name eludes me). We ordered things like cold oysters, a mussel pot and a metre long sausage! I'm usually hesitant when it comes to eating things like oysters and mussels because my dad has instilled this fear in me, but this time I thought to myself what-the-hey I might as well try! I had a few of each, but it was only towards the end when I heard one of the committee members mention that you're not supposed to eat mussels whose shells haven't opened fully! I instantly spat the remains of my mussel out and onto my tissue. For the rest of that night and the next morning I kept on the look-out for any signs of possible sickness but fortunately it's now Monday and I still haven't thrown up!
Yesterday after church Aonghas dropped me off in the city and I met up with my friend Eliza who had invited me to attend the Auckland Symphony Orchestra concert with her as she had a spare ticket, so we caught a bus over to the shore and her dad gave us a ride to the Bruce Mason Centre where the concert was held. We met up wth her mum and her siblings and the concert began! As usual the concert was great and I especially enjoyed the movie music at the end which featured music from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly! One of Eliza's friends who's really really good at the oboe and is only 16 years old performed this piece which is one of my favourites by Amici Forever called Nella Fantasia (of course instead of singing it was oboe playing!). Thanks Eliza for having me come along!
I have been doing a few other things these holidays and have started putting together a TO DO list as well. I've got to work on some Christmas music for the church's Christmas concert on Christmas Eve. I was asked if we could sort out something for ten minutes, and so I asked if we could maybe perform an accordion trio and then maybe form a string quartet/quintet along with some others from our youth group. This time since we've got a cello we'd be able to restrict it to strings rather than include random instruments like the recorder!!
Finding music is quite a task. I can only find string quartet arrangements of the more traditional carols when they want something more jazzy/contemporary frmo us! I'll probably have to end up arranging something.
Aonghas also has to put together a Leavers' DVD for his year at school similar to how we did one last year for the year 13's at Rutherford College. Aonghas has been bogged down with NCEA exams though and still has another four in the next two weeks! Therefore the task of doing a lot of the videos has once again been passed on to me. I really should get started on that...
Another thing on the TO DO list is to find a job. My mum has been telling me to try find a pharmacy-related job which was met by a less-than-enthusiastic response from me, which I will probably elaborate on in my next post!
Monday, 24 November 2008
Saturday, 22 November 2008
Jaws III
Maybe that should be Jaw. Anyway I got called to hospital for an appointment at very short notice (make it two hours notice) so they could take moulds, x-rays and photos of my jaw. They were going to enter all the data into some computer software so they can generate a 3D model of what I may look like after the surgery. They called me in two days later to redo a couple of moulds.
It turns out the new surgery date for me will be the 5th January (for now anyway unless they bump me off again). They're planning on operating on both of my jaws so that they don't have to move them as much as they would if they operated solely on my bottom jaw, and this will hopefully increase stability or something like that. It'll also mean I'll be in hospital for three-four days after surgery.
I haven't really thought much about the surgery but I guess I will the closer I get to it!
It turns out the new surgery date for me will be the 5th January (for now anyway unless they bump me off again). They're planning on operating on both of my jaws so that they don't have to move them as much as they would if they operated solely on my bottom jaw, and this will hopefully increase stability or something like that. It'll also mean I'll be in hospital for three-four days after surgery.
I haven't really thought much about the surgery but I guess I will the closer I get to it!
Monday, 17 November 2008
Three Seconds of Fame!
Tonight there was a news report on ONE News on the start of NCEA exams, and when I first saw it I thought oh not again they film Avondale flippin' College, but later on in the night I was pointed out by my friend Julia (she's Esther's sister for those of you who know her) that she appeared on ONE News for a few seconds in the background!
There she is, in the middle of that screenshot getting something out of her schoolbag!
--
In other news apparently some people got into the digger that's on the construction site of Rutherford College's new social sciences building, hot-wired it and went on a joy-ride around the school before going down the road in it. Someone reported seeing a digger travelling down the road to the police and that's when the joyriders ditched the digger! When they were driving round the school they managed to slightly damage C-Block a little bit too.
The digger was then broken into a few days later but they didn't manage to drive it anywhere after the builders took away the battery!
There have been some suggestions that these joyriders were copy-catting a similar scene in Outrageous Fortune the night before where a digger got broken into!
Only in West Auckland...
There she is, in the middle of that screenshot getting something out of her schoolbag!
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In other news apparently some people got into the digger that's on the construction site of Rutherford College's new social sciences building, hot-wired it and went on a joy-ride around the school before going down the road in it. Someone reported seeing a digger travelling down the road to the police and that's when the joyriders ditched the digger! When they were driving round the school they managed to slightly damage C-Block a little bit too.
The digger was then broken into a few days later but they didn't manage to drive it anywhere after the builders took away the battery!
There have been some suggestions that these joyriders were copy-catting a similar scene in Outrageous Fortune the night before where a digger got broken into!
Only in West Auckland...
Turning Japanese
It was a Japanese bonanza yesterday at the ASB Stadium in Kohimarama yesterday as everyone turned out to celebrate Japan Day! We skipped church just to attend. It didn't seem to be as big as previous years though.
When we got there there were food stalls outside and inside the building, as well as two stages, one inside and one outside. The lines of people at the food stalls were massive though! We didn't end up buying any food since it was quite expensive.
I came across a couple of my pharmacy friends Ai-Ping and Jamie and her boyfriend and then I caught up with Jacqueline, my old high school friend! We just talked for a while since she was bored (she was dragged along by her family!). It was good catching up with her since I hardly talk to many people from my old high school these days, or at least people in my year. I think they've all forgotten me after I've been spending a lot of my time in Grafton! hahaha According to Jacqueline the guys don't know where I've gotten up to and can't keep up with which degree I'm studying towards!
Anyway some of the performances were quite unique and entertaining, but that's what you'd expect from the Japanese (in a good way!). Some of the dances are pretty cool and the dancers are quite into it! I'll put up some videos.
One thing I noticed too was the number of people with dSLR (digital single-lense reflex) cameras there! dSLR's are those big fat professional cameras with those huge lenses! After outgrowing our digital camera we've been meaning to buy one but we're still at that stage of deciding which one to get. We've been Canon fanboys after having good experiences with their video cameras and scanners, and their SLR's seem quite good too, but we've heard that Nikon SLR's are quite good too, so we're still pondering! They're quite expensive too and the lenses can get quite expensive too! We're only amateurs though so we probably wouldn't spend thousands! If any of you know a lot more about SLR's feel free to share your opinions!
So back to Japan Day, we left late in the day but it was a good day. I think I learnt a bit more about Japanese culture!
When we got there there were food stalls outside and inside the building, as well as two stages, one inside and one outside. The lines of people at the food stalls were massive though! We didn't end up buying any food since it was quite expensive.
I came across a couple of my pharmacy friends Ai-Ping and Jamie and her boyfriend and then I caught up with Jacqueline, my old high school friend! We just talked for a while since she was bored (she was dragged along by her family!). It was good catching up with her since I hardly talk to many people from my old high school these days, or at least people in my year. I think they've all forgotten me after I've been spending a lot of my time in Grafton! hahaha According to Jacqueline the guys don't know where I've gotten up to and can't keep up with which degree I'm studying towards!
Anyway some of the performances were quite unique and entertaining, but that's what you'd expect from the Japanese (in a good way!). Some of the dances are pretty cool and the dancers are quite into it! I'll put up some videos.
One thing I noticed too was the number of people with dSLR (digital single-lense reflex) cameras there! dSLR's are those big fat professional cameras with those huge lenses! After outgrowing our digital camera we've been meaning to buy one but we're still at that stage of deciding which one to get. We've been Canon fanboys after having good experiences with their video cameras and scanners, and their SLR's seem quite good too, but we've heard that Nikon SLR's are quite good too, so we're still pondering! They're quite expensive too and the lenses can get quite expensive too! We're only amateurs though so we probably wouldn't spend thousands! If any of you know a lot more about SLR's feel free to share your opinions!
So back to Japan Day, we left late in the day but it was a good day. I think I learnt a bit more about Japanese culture!
Friday, 14 November 2008
The End of Another Year at Uni
I had an eight day gap between my last exam and yesterday's exam, so I ended up taking the first day off and just do nothing. The next day my mum got me to go shopping with her and so I didn't do anything for another day. The third day was Election Day of course!! I did a little studying on Saturday and Sunday but finally got started on Monday!
I can only really seem to study when I'm away from the house because of the TV, the internet and the fact that we don't have clear tables at home!
So for the past week I've been at uni drinking V (an energy drink) and studying as much as possible for the dreaded CHEM230 exam.
On Tuesday I caught up with Young-Bin and Eliza, two first year friends and went for lunch with them (which was just popcorn for me...I was being cheap that day!) when Jennifer (a friend from church) came by with her friends and noticed it was her high school friend (Eliza), science camp friend (Young-Bin) and church friend (Calum) all hanging out together! She had just finished her engineering exam and went off shortly after.
After that lunch though we went back to studying and thanks to them two I managed to get a seat at the Information Commons which is really full during exam period!
We also had dinner later in the evening with a couple of Eliza's orchestra friends who were pretty cool and entertaining! So we managed to fit in a bit of fun even amongst the study!
On Wednesday, the day before the exam, I had no popcorn but I bought one of those large 500mL cans of V and drank that for most of the day and I have to admit V has definitely been keeping me awake! I think it was a bit too much for me that day though. Towards the end of the night my mind was all over the place! I also happened to miss the 9.30pm bus that night and so had to endure sitting at the bus stop for an hour till the next bus came! That night I had all these dreams of chemical reactions and their reagents, none of which I think were entirely correct, but then again I can't even remember!
The chemistry exam was teeeerrrrible! It was really bad! Even the last stuff I covered didn't even fit in with what the questions were asking! Many of us pharmacy students came out of it not feeling too great about it, but then again some were not feeling too great about it because they thought they were going to lose ONE mark!!
I went to the toilet during the exam, and went into one of the cubicles. I could hear someone flicking through pages in the cubicle right next to me though! I was thinking maybe someone was doing a little bit of cheating...but when I came out the exam man was standing there waiting for me! I didn't realise he would come into the toilet with me!
Anyway the feeling of no more exams felt great, despite the possibility that we might have just failed! We all collected our pharmacy t-shirts from our class-rep Daniel and then a few of us wandered around looking for lunch. We ended up in a nearby Japanese restaurant where half of us had rice, the other had noodles and some others just had dumplings and octopus balls I think?
There was supposed to be a pharmacy picnic at a park near Grafton which we were planning on attending, but in the end we couldn't be bothered. The girls who were with us wanted to just Facebook (if you can use it as a verb!) and so us guys, with nothing better to do, went to play a bit of Foosball.
And that caps off another semester and another year at uni!
I can only really seem to study when I'm away from the house because of the TV, the internet and the fact that we don't have clear tables at home!
So for the past week I've been at uni drinking V (an energy drink) and studying as much as possible for the dreaded CHEM230 exam.
On Tuesday I caught up with Young-Bin and Eliza, two first year friends and went for lunch with them (which was just popcorn for me...I was being cheap that day!) when Jennifer (a friend from church) came by with her friends and noticed it was her high school friend (Eliza), science camp friend (Young-Bin) and church friend (Calum) all hanging out together! She had just finished her engineering exam and went off shortly after.
After that lunch though we went back to studying and thanks to them two I managed to get a seat at the Information Commons which is really full during exam period!
We also had dinner later in the evening with a couple of Eliza's orchestra friends who were pretty cool and entertaining! So we managed to fit in a bit of fun even amongst the study!
On Wednesday, the day before the exam, I had no popcorn but I bought one of those large 500mL cans of V and drank that for most of the day and I have to admit V has definitely been keeping me awake! I think it was a bit too much for me that day though. Towards the end of the night my mind was all over the place! I also happened to miss the 9.30pm bus that night and so had to endure sitting at the bus stop for an hour till the next bus came! That night I had all these dreams of chemical reactions and their reagents, none of which I think were entirely correct, but then again I can't even remember!
The chemistry exam was teeeerrrrible! It was really bad! Even the last stuff I covered didn't even fit in with what the questions were asking! Many of us pharmacy students came out of it not feeling too great about it, but then again some were not feeling too great about it because they thought they were going to lose ONE mark!!
I went to the toilet during the exam, and went into one of the cubicles. I could hear someone flicking through pages in the cubicle right next to me though! I was thinking maybe someone was doing a little bit of cheating...but when I came out the exam man was standing there waiting for me! I didn't realise he would come into the toilet with me!
Anyway the feeling of no more exams felt great, despite the possibility that we might have just failed! We all collected our pharmacy t-shirts from our class-rep Daniel and then a few of us wandered around looking for lunch. We ended up in a nearby Japanese restaurant where half of us had rice, the other had noodles and some others just had dumplings and octopus balls I think?
There was supposed to be a pharmacy picnic at a park near Grafton which we were planning on attending, but in the end we couldn't be bothered. The girls who were with us wanted to just Facebook (if you can use it as a verb!) and so us guys, with nothing better to do, went to play a bit of Foosball.
And that caps off another semester and another year at uni!
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