The Final Lesson

This weekend marked the last music lessons I had to teach for the year.

Yesterday after having spent all night awake at my youth group's sleepover to farewell Jireh, I was quite worn out when I had to go straight to the music school to teach the kids.

I spent most of the classes playing games with my students - Music Bingo! I tried to get my students to come up with a more interesting word than 'Bingo' to call out. One student came up with

'Mexico New Zealand All Blacks Binga Bingo!'

so that's what they shouted out when they thought they had won!

I did start to doze off in my last couple of classes, especially when I sat down to teach in one of my classes. We were playing Bingo, and I was calling out numbers when I started to drift a little, and said something like

'Fifteen.....to the waterfront....'


I think I realised what I had said after I snapped out of it and just hoped the students didn't notice!

It was a tad sad teaching the students this time around, as I knew that quite a few of my students won't be back next year. Most of my students were second year students and so I've taught them since they first started music. I've become quite proud of them, and it's such a shame to lose them so early! I know they won't be lost entirely, as they are all going on to learn other instruments such as the violin, flute and guitar and I've reminded them all to remember me when they become professional musicians, and to come say 'hi' to me whenever they're around, as I definitely won't forget them!

One message I left with them was that

'Perfect practice makes perfect'


no matter which musical instrument they learn. There's no point practising the wrong thing!

Two sisters I teach who are moving on to another instrument next year gave me a Christmas card and a present which was really nice of them! I haven't opened one of the presents yet, but they also gave me a snow globe, which is pretty cool!

The message they wrote on the card also meant a lot to me as well.

It was also the last lesson I was teaching at church today, and two of my students (brother and sister) gave me a present and card as well. I'll open the present on Christmas Day just so I'll have something to surprise me, but the card they gave me had quite a few amusing messages:

 

and my favourite...

Keeping Those Eyes Wide Open

Last night our youth group had a sleepover at Karvin's old house (one of our youth group's leaders) as he's just moved houses and his house is currently empty. What a perfect opportunity to make the most of it! The sleepover was also a good occasion to farewell Jireh, even though he won't be leaving for another month.

We were late as usual, being one of the last to arrive. When we got there, the girls were doing up Rebecca's hair while the guys were hanging out together. We all hung out in the lounge with our sleeping bags in a separate bedroom while all the other rooms were bare.

 We soon had dinner and there was plenty to eat! On and Fiona, who brought their daughter Abigail with them, brought some KFC while there was plenty of noodles, salad and deep-fried chicken!

The girls all sat together in the lounge to eat while the guys sat outside on the deck. I find it funny how after all this time, the guys and girls still segregate!

After dinner we all gathered in the lounge to start the proper youth group programme, which was Bible study for this week. Jenny and Eva led worship, and I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were actually singing!

Karvin then led us in Bible study, focusing on some verses in 2nd Timothy. We followed that by splitting into groups to discuss what we had just read. Our group, led by Gabrielle had to go into a separate room.

After our discussion and prayer requests, we had our first run-through of the song our youth group will be performing at camp, 'What Can I Give to the King'. Surprisingly everyone picked it up quite fast!

We only had to have a couple run-throughs before we finished the youth group programme for the night and it was free time till the morning!

The guys got their Playstation 3 out, while a few others got together to sing along to Cleo playing on the guitar, and others played cards or talked. As for me, I had to start on my reports for my students! I was going to have my last music classes for the year the next morning and I had left my reports to the last minute! A few of the girls helped me out with coming up with comments for my students! It made me sometimes wonder what my teachers at school did when coming up with comments for their students!

I eventually finished, and the guys decided to watch a movie. They chose some basketball documentary/movie. I didn't exactly follow it closely, and ended up catching up with Eva!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzDO1M7yYlo)

Once the movie finished, Eva made us some coffee to keep us going! The girls wanted a lighter movie to watch, so 500 Days of Summer it was! While the guys played cards, a few of us watched 500 Days of Summer. The first time I tried watching this movie on the bus I almost fell asleep, and I was almost about to again but I pulled through and got to the end!

Once the movie was over, I decided it was time to plan my music lessons! I decided I'd just make them all play my version of music Bingo! I also set myself the challenge of teaching Eva how to read music by the end of the sleepover. I think I achieved that in about 10 minutes. Hopefully she hasn't forgotten by now though!

The guys returned to playing Tekken on the Playstation as the sun rose! I was surprised at how soon it was! I guess that's Daylight Saving for you.

A few people didn't make it through the night and ended up sleeping on the couch. My brothers and I had to leave early to go to music lessons though. Boy did I feel wasted for the rest of the day though!

Full of Faults

So in the past couple days, I've been made aware of all my faults by various people.

It's a little hard hearing bad things about you, but I've come to appreciate it when people are honest to me and tell me directly.

I know I've often been sad about the way things have turned out with friends, but now I'm fully aware that I must be just as bad. I guess it's what comes around, goes around!

I'll have to do better to be a better person and friend to people

Calling Dr Chen!

Congratulations to my good friend Diane, who's passed all her exams in her fifth and final year of vet! All her years of hard work have finally paid off and she's finally going to become a fully-fled veterinarian!

Go you, Diane!

Celebrating Aonghas's 21st

Aonghas has finally hit the 21 mark, and and so we decided to celebrate like only we know how - have dinner together!

Originally we were thinking about going to the place in Mt Albert that we always go to, but Aonghas wanted to try somewhere different, so we went to this food court in the CBD.

There were so many different food stalls to choose from, all with different types of food - Malaysian, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indonesian and of course Chinese!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H7UJYPTqfo)

It took a while for all of us to choose what we wanted, but in the end we all made our own decisions. My dad went Malaysian, Hamish had Thai, Aonghas chose Korean, my mum had Chinese and I ended up having Japanese, or Teriyaki Salmon Don to be more specific! 

Hamish struggled with his dish as it was quite spicy. He went back to ask for a cup of water, and an on-looker commented that he looked like he was struggling!

My dish tasted quite nice and there weren't any bones in my salmon! I had a hard time asking the lady before paying if there were any bones. She would just smile and say it was good. I don't think she understood me!

After dinner we decided to walk down Queen Street to Smith and Caughey's to check out the Christmas display with the moving dolls. 

We got side-tracked by this new Japanese store along the way, that was still open at 9.30pm at night! It was sort of underground as we had to go down the stairs to check it out. 

While we were there I skyped with Amy who was at the airport, about to depart for China! I was amazed at how well that went, considering I was using mobile internet and haven't had the best experience in the past.

After almost half an hour of wandering around the store, then waiting for our mum to wander around the store looking at stuff, we finally left the store and made our way to Smith and Caughey's.

I always like these displays they put up in their shop windows each year. They must spend quite a bit on them, but it really does get you into the Christmas spirit!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oovPK8YkIbE)

So hopefully Aonghas had a good birthday and a true start to adulthood. The celebration isn't over though. He'll probably have a proper celebration a little later on!