I had my STATS test on Friday and so I got Aonghas to take me to uni and he could sort out his timetable at the same time. On our way to the city we noticed four police cars, including two mufti cars, shooting in the opposite direction. At the time we thought it was quite unusual to see four police cars going by! We didn't think much of it at the time though.

I went in for my test which didn't seem too bad. It was all multi-choice and was pretty much the same format as the practice papers.

When I came out, Aonghas wanted to visit some people at the Science Forum thing that was on at O' Rorke Hall (he attended it last year) so while he went to get the car I went on the uni computers and read of the shooting/car hijacking that took place on the North-Western Motorway! 21 police cars and a police helicopter were after this guy!

So Aonghas drove us to O' Rorke Hall and parked in a carpark without having paid for it. He said he'd only be gone for about five minutes, so I waited for him in the driver's seat just in case a parking warden came by. Guess what? One did come along! I quickly started the car and got it going. I turned the corner and got stuck in traffic. I was too scared to change lanes because there were so many cars around and I wasn't used to driving in the city so I just stuck to the lane I was in. Well I ended up driving all the way to Mt Eden! I was texting Aonghas along the way (don't worry I wasn't moving that fast...I was stuck in traffic for most of the time!) asking him for help and telling him to hurry up. I finally managed to find a side street to turn into and was about to turn onto the main street and head back into the city when I saw Aonghas running down the road! He had run all the way from the city to Mt Eden! It's just lucky we met up!

What ensued was an extremely long ride home, thanks to the motorway being closed off both ways which caused traffic chaos!! The on-ramps were blocked off by police cars and there was a helicopter hovering over the closed-off motorway.

Aonghas and I were listening to Newstalk ZB while waiting in the car, anxiously waiting to hear the latest news. I had read earlier on the internet that a man had been taken into custody and that one man was shot. That's when I feared worst, that an innocent man had been shot dead. I also noticed how the police emphasised the fact they could not confirm who shot the man. That's when I also feared the police had accidentally shot the innocent man. It turns out an innocent man was accidentally shot dead by police!

Well Aonghas and I managed to get all the way to Western Springs when we heard that west-bound lanes had reopened so we got on the motorway. The motorway was relatively clear since it only just reopened, so it was a quick trip home from that point.

Fortunately we made it home just in time to get ready to go to church for a combined Fellowship BBQ and games night. We grabbed the food our mum cooked and went off to church where we started off with the food. We ate, talked and played hacky-sack with a samosa for a little while before going to play some games.

The first game was where we got in groups of ten and had to tie our legs together and run from one end of the hall to the other to write Chinese characters, and keep doing it until we completed the sentence. The more people we had legs tied together to, the more points we'd get for the character we wrote. Yeah I'm probably making it sound a bit more complicated than it really is! We also played a game where the person in charge called out a list of stuff we had to give them. The first team to give them all the stuff they called out won. That was a bit of a weird game...

I had a bit of a weird..and embarrassing experience at my surgery pre-admission appointment at the Manukau Super Clinic on Thursday. According to the letter I received in the mail about it, the purpose of the appointment was so that the doctor could check my health to see if I was fit enough for surgery and would be answering any questions and addressing any concerns I had.

Well it was a lot different when I got there. After rushing to finish my stats assignment in the morning my dad took me into the city to hand it in (after having to run all the way to wherever my mum was to use her car when he discovered our other car wasn't working!) before going to the Super Clinic. The clinics inside were arranged in 'modules'. We went to Module 9, which was for plastic surgery patients or something like that.

After waiting a while it was my turn. After the nurses recorded my height, weight and blood pressure, I went in to see the doctor, who had none of my patient records and knew nothing of my situation! So he just listened to my heart beat with his stethoscope before determining my health was fine and sending me off to get a blood sample taken just in case I would require a blood transfusion during surgery.

The nursing co-ordinator of the 'module' wanted to see us before we left for the blood tests at another 'module' to give me a letter and provide a few more details of the surgery. We sat down with her to talk a little about what to do before and after surgery. It was then when I started to feel a little light-headed and my sight began to get dimmer! I was about to faint!!!! ...and for no apparent reason! Either it was because I was so hungry or I was worried about surgery. The only time I've fainted and the times I've come close to fainting have had something to do with blood...

Saturday saw the first of a few events being held in Auckland to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year - the Chinese New Year Festival at the ASB Showgrounds. We got there relatively early in the morning when it was quite packed in some areas! They had rearranged the stage to another corner of another exhibition hall while the halls generally seemed to have fewer stalls than last year.

Us three brothers split from our parents for a little while to check out all the stalls. Most seemed to be selling food so they weren't too interesting. There were a few interesting stalls selling little toys and Asian things which were kinda cool though.

There was also this World Vision stand where a guy told us about sponsoring a child. It sounds really cool! I always think of the movie About Schmidt when I think about sponsoring a child! I wouldn't mind sponsoring a child, but first I'd have to get my finances in order!

So because there wasn't as much to see at the Chinese New Year Festival this year as past years, we decided to ask some questions at various stalls.

At the ACC stall:

"With National now in government..."

"Oh sorry we're not allowed to answer questions like those"

At the Skykiwi stall:

"Do you have any plans to translate the website in English?"

"I don't know...you go to the Henderson church don't you?"

"Yep. Yeah I wanted to have a look at the website but we can't read Chinese"

"Maybe this would be a good opportunity to learn!!"

At the World Vision stall:

"Is it still $1 a day to sponsor a child?"

"Well....now it's $1.35, but surely you can afford 0.35c!"

We spent most of the rest of the time at the festival watching the performances. There was some guy from an acrobatic troupe who made 'simulating sounds', pretending he was a bird and then pretending he was carrying a baby. There was this girl who balanced a jug of milk on a rod on her face, and there was a guy who played some traditional Chinese instrument and balanced a plate on top of a rod on top of this instrument! Judging by some in the audience his music didn't seem to appeal as much as his balancing skills!

The festival was finally about to close, so that's when my mum went loose and checked out all the food stalls outside for cheap food to buy! She managed to buy several containers of dumplings for a few dollars. The organisers were shouting into their megaphones asking stall owners to close as we ate at a picnic table. These people who were wheeling away boxes filled with lucky red envelopes that had one Chinese Yuan in each of them accidentally tipped over their box and some of the envelopes scattered along the ground. We originally sent Aonghas to fetch some, and initially he intended to return the envelopes to them but they left before he could! He got about ten envelopes so I'd say that makes about NZ$1?

We spent the evening at a dinner held for my mum's church group at one of the members' houses. Our mum was busy cooking and didn't have time to find the address so she told me the surname and I searched for it (or what I thought it was!) in the White Pages. We jumped in the car and drove there, only for Aonghas to realise that was his friend's house and not where the dinner would be! I tried texting and ringing a few people but to no avail, until Jenny from my youth group came to our rescue and texted me the address.

We arrived late as usual and joined in the dinner. Gabrielle, our youth group leader and Jenny were already there and we joined them when Angie, her sister and her cousin arrived later. Angie soon joined us and we all chatted into the night! Well...until the mosquitos came out and we all decided to call it a night!

For all of last week Hamish, Aonghas and I dedicated our mornings to helping out with our church's Children's Summer Programme. The theme this year was 'Amazing Animals', so the programme for each day would involve singing songs, playing games, telling stories and doing craftwork that revolved around that theme.

On the first Monday we found out our group colour and it turned out that I would be in the pink group! I was helping out the group with this boy and Jenny, this other girl from my youth group. We got along most of the time...except for when we were teasing each other! We had a group of 9 and 10 year olds so they weren't too bad, although there was this NZ European girl who asked me if she could annoy me and then throughout the week persisted in annoying me (which didn't really succeed! haha). There was also this boy who was also slightly anti-social, but then again he was only one of three boys out of twelve in our group!

We started the first day by playing games. I decided to join in and we played that game where we have to try reach the person at the front without him catching us moving, and if he does we have to go to the back. Because I got on all fours and crawled behind one of the kids I was able to get there and win!! But I decided to just let another kid win so they could play.

Jenny and Cleo did a little talk to the kids on the platypus...I learned a lot about the platypus from them! We sang some songs and played some games before ending the day with craftwork, getting the kids to make elephant bookmarks.

I didn't come on Tuesday because of my hospital appointment but I wish I did, as they got to make lion biscuits!! Aonghas was also giving a talk on sheep to the kids that day too!

I came back on Wednesday though and this time Aonghas wanted me to take more photos, so I was wandering around the place taking photos of the kids. Sometimes the shutter sound of the camera does get a little annoying and does make it a little harder to take more discreet photos! (Not in the dodgy way of course!).

That day we made animal armbands for craft while Jireh did a talk on giraffes with his little giraffe friend Jan/Jack (we got a little gender-confused!). That afternoon after the programme we visited a few material/fabric shops for my mum to check out some fabric she could use to make my skirt...on the last day of the programme I would be talking to the kids about butterflies and I wanted to dress up as one! We also visited The Warehouse for women's pink tops to go with my skirt. That was a little embarrassing, having my mum hold up women's tops in front of me to see if they fit me! We ended up managing to find a top that our mum would be able to wear afterwards, as well as some cheap hot pink stockings to go with it!

Thursday was the breakthrough day - the first day I've ever worn a pink T-shirt! I was originally going to wear a grey polo t-shirt but at the last minute realised I had a pink one in my drawer, so I decided to wear that - pink group represent!!! I was a little weary of wearing it as it was slightly tight and I thought it might make me a little gay or feminine. I got a few compliments though (they probably liked the t-shirt more than me wearing it though!), which was cool, although I got one comment

"My aunty has a t-shirt like that!"

Along with the songs, games and stories, Lisa talked to the kids about birds with Jireh dressing up as one. Lisa was pretty good with the kids! She's a natural with them. She helps out with children's Sunday School so I can see why! It was a little funny at the end Jireh ran off with the little kids chasing him. A few minutes later the kids came back to the mat saying they got told the bird died!

We made animal masks with the kids towards the end of the day which was probably one of the most challenging activities they had to do all week! A lot of the kids in our group wanted to make cat masks, although there were a couple pandas, dogs and rabbits. I was complimenting Jenny on a mask she helped fix (pretty much do) when one of the kids accused me of liking her, which was the second time it happened after she and I had a little argument over Twilight the day before! Ahh..naive kids...

Friday, the last day was probably the most fun and the weirdest for me personally. It was dress-up day and I was also giving a talk on butterflies, so we spent most of the night preparing the costumes...well my mum sewed my skirt for me while Aonghas managed to create a costume with the stuff we had a home. He grabbed a wash basket, bought a $2 bag of shoulder pads and some green fabric. He put them all together to form a tortoise costume!

We arrived in our normal clothes though since we had to get there early so they could show a slideshow of our photos. During the games I went and grabbed my costume from the car and went into the room adjacent to the hall to get dressed. I got caught out by a few of the helpers, so it wasn't much of a surprise to a few of them afterwards! I also printed out my face to attach to the end of a long green balloon (to look like a caterpillar...right?) but the balloon popped when I tried inflating it, so I had to grab some paper to form the body!

It was finally my time to come out and so I came out and did my little speech. I asked them what animal they thought I was. The first person I asked said fairy, although I thought I heard hairy! Another person said fairy before someone finally said butterfly!!

I remained in my costume for the rest of the day and got a lot of the little kids calling me 'fairy', 'hairy fairy', and calling me a girl/fafa/gay! All in good fun though! Some of the kids dressed up, while some of the helpers dressed up too. There was Jireh the cat/leopard, Jenny the rabbit, Lisa the cat, and Cleo the hippo/mouse!

Daniel, the other boy with Jenny and me helping the pink group used the print-out of my face as a mask and walked around wearing it and apparently it caused some kids to cry!!! Actually when I saw the photos afterwards I was a little disturbed at the sight of myself completely in pink as well!

The last craftwork for the day was making caterpillar magnets with pipe tubes, or is it tube pipes? Anyway we were trying to get them to make their craftwork but because I had the camera all the kids kept wanting to have a turn at taking a photo!

We ended the programme with a group photo and a bit of a prize-giving. By the end of the programme we were all exhausted and tired and it was finally over! We're going to have a barbeque for the helpers in a couple weeks to relive those memories though!

On Friday I finally got to see one of my best friends for the first time in almost a year! Every holidays when Diane comes back up from Palmerston North where she studies vet down there we say that we're going to catch up but she always ends up being too busy, and it was looking like the same thing would be happening again these holidays as she had to work most of the holidays till she was going to China. Fortunately though she was able to get off work last Friday which was supposed to be her last day at work.

Unfortunately though Chen and Aonghas were originally going to join us but because they were hanging out with some other high school friends that day so they couldn't hang out with us (actually I was going to hang out with them too but decided to hang out with Diane instead since this opportunity doesn't come that often!).

I caught the bus into the city with Chen, Aonghas and a few others who had caught it at an earlier bus stop. I happened to meet Zahir, another high school friend, at my bus stop as well, so the bus was filled with ex-Rutherford guys!

I got off and went to Sky City Metro where I was going to meet up with Diane to watch 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'. Before I did though I quickly wrote a birthday card for her. The day before, after I dropped Aonghas off at work I went to buy Diane a birthday present. It was all a bit rushed and I wasn't able to put as much thought as I would've liked into it, but in the end just bought a necklace. I came out of Aonghas's shop after showing it to him, when my mum came by! I was originally going to keep it a secret from her because she likes asking heaps of questions, but because she already saw, I ended up just coming clean with her. She gave me hell for it for the rest of the night, asking why I was buying necklaces for girls!!

Anyway I originally thought I beat Diane to the cinemas but it turns out she was originally waiting for me in the foyer!! We talked for a little while before we bought food and went in. We were expecting a lot more people to come into the cinema but in the end there was only one couple at the back and us two! As for the movie, I was a little concerned that at slightly over two and a half hours it would be too long, but it was pretty cool and the idea was quite original! You should go see it!

After the movie, Diane and I tried finding the pool place behind the Town Hall, but after realising I had no idea where it was we ended up walking all the way to the one opposite Sky City and played for a couple hours. I hate to admit it but she wasted me! She ended up winning about 8 games to my 3!

We were in the middle of one game when I noticed this big group of people come in off the street. Oh no...it was Aonghas and all the group! I'm sure they saw me as when they walked past they were smiling at me and Angie had a little chat with me!

We finished our second hour not too long after they arrived and we left and just wandered around checking out various shops. It was a bit weird walking into some women's clothes (and other...stuff) shops but I tried to show interest ;)

Somehow time flew by and it reached 5pm when Diane had to catch her bus home. I finally took out the card and present I had kept in my pocket during the whole day and gave it to her just before she got on the bus. We hugged and she left.

That's when I walked all the way back down Queen St and joined Aonghas and the group who were at a karaoke place. That was quite fun! We sang a few songs and danced around the place.

I got a lot of funny looks and comments from the people when I joined them! After when we were walking to the bus Angie asked me

"So how was your date?"

I tried to downplay it, replying

"Oh you mean how was my day?"

The last week continued to be busy when our old neighbours Phillip and Kenneth came over to visit on Wednesday. They had driven all the way up from good old Palmerston North for the week to visit family and friends and we were lucky to be on their list!

They came over and we had a bit of a chat, a tour around our jungle of a backyard (it's a lot better now that I've mowed the lawn!) before going off to Wendy's for lunch where we continued our chat over upsized combos.

We then went over to Westgate to check out that new round-about with multiple traffic lights and then on to the Whenuapai Airbase with the hope of watching an Air Force plane taking off. Unfortunately the plane just travelled along the runway before turning around and going in the opposite direction!

We paid a visit to the Speedway to check out the track before heading back home.

We're going to have to visit them down in Palmerston North sometime this year as payback!

We spent the first few days of 2009 painting walls which was extremely tiring and boring! I didn't expect it to be that tedious! The walls had such a dark colour which meant we had to cover them with several coatings.

To make things worse, our mum wasn't too keen on having music played while we were painting. We started with the radio playing 91ZM. Not too long later, our mum was calling out to us

"Change the music!!! Too noisy!!"

So we change it to More FM, which is more of a classic hits station with less hard-out music. Our mum then called out again

"Don't you have anything better to listen to???!"

So we ended up on The Breeze, and even then our mum wasn't too happy with the music! She would have probably preferred something like Concert FM!

Anyway we managed to get all the painting done in four days, but boy were the paint fumes strong!

So while everyone was out partying or on holiday wherever, I was watching Runaway Bride up till 15 minutes before midnight when my brothers and I jumped in the car, crossed the bridge over to Te Atatu Peninsula to watch the fireworks from the side of the road (the Peninsula's got some good views! That's why some of those houses are worth millions of dollars!).

We weren't the only ones though, as there were quite a few gathered around the place waiting for the fireworks. I'm sure a few of them were intoxicated! We brought along our camera to try get some photos. I don't think they turned out so well though. We still haven't learnt how to use the camera properly!

Anyway when the clock struck midnight the fireworks came shooting off the top of the Sky Tower, passing cars honked and the people inside them shouted out

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!"

I tried sending 'Happy New Year' texts right after midnight, and that's when I realised why some people sent texts half a day ahead...so many people must've been trying to send texts that it made sending texts difficult and slow!

We got back home and spent the next couple hours watching some Taiwanese New Years show on Chinese TV since it was too hot to sleep. I texted my friend Angie for what seemed to be the longest period of time since a year ago which was weird!

We spent New Years Day shopping for paint to paint our house. We had originally planned on starting the painting that day but realised we didn't have paint! We were at Mitre 10 looking for paint when I got a text from Angie saying she was all alone at her work with nothing to do, and it was just a coincidence that her work was across the road! So Hamish and I crossed the road and said 'hi' to her. Her boss let her off early so she drove us back to Pak N' Save where our mum went shopping.

So it was a very uneventful New Years for us! Hopefully the rest of the year is a bit more exciting!