2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I kept a few but not too many! I'll make some more for next year and will try do better!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Don't think so (although please forgive me if I've forgotten you!) although I know a couple who are pregnant, such as my accordion teacher's wife

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Fortunately no..I don't think

5. What countries did you visit?
None besides New Zealand

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Definitely direction!

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Probably the day that Korean guy went on a shooting rampage at that American university, the only thing is I can't remember the date of the day that happened, so I guess it won't remain etched upon my memory!

Maybe then ...(thinking off the top of my head...) 7th January - the twins left for Korea forever. The first date of this year I could recall from my limited memory!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not a lot to choose from...

9. What was your biggest failure?
My uni results, I guess I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but will be looking to make amends next year!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I got food poisoning I think on one Sunday and spent the day vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Probably my laptop or the video camera. Not so much my phone though as it seems to be buggy! Next time it'll be a Nokia!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Chen for starting to open up to me. About time, seeing as we've known each other for about ten years now! haha

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Hmmm....I won't name the person...I probably don't have to! Although I wouldn't say it's too bad

14. Where did most of your money go?
My laptop and the video camera!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Diane getting into vet school, Alice getting into law school is all I can think of so far!

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
How to Save a Life by The Fray, or Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol I suppose, that's if you go by songs played in 2007 (they don't really have much relevance to 2007 though!). I can't really think of one!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder?
I'll say neutral. Some things made me happier while others made me sadder, and it all balances out!

18. Thinner or fatter?
I'm probably about the same, but I think I've lost weight since last year. Must be because we have less food in the house these days!

19. Richer or poorer?
Definitely poorer!!! Student allowance has been my lifeline!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Studying, hanging out with friends as well as making more friends

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Studying inefficiently, wasting time at uni, spending money on food at the Munchie Mart and that place I buy fries from, jumping on the internet as soon as I got home every day, reading the newspaper at the library and falling asleep while studying in the library!

20. How will you be spending christmas?
It already passed but I ended up performing at the church's Christmas service and then going over to the neighbours for dinner

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Probably not quite fall in love! I did like someone this year though

22. How many one-night stands?
None haha

23. What was your favourite TV programme?
24, Lost, Scrubs, Eating Media Lunch, Power of One,

24. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
Nah not really, but I probably understand someone less now than this time last year though, sadly

25. What was the best book you read?
I don't think I've read any books beside textbooks this year, so I'll have to say the best one out of those was Psychology - New Zealand Edition. Very very sad!

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Charconne from The Fairy Queen by Purcell...that sorta discovery?

27. What did you want and get?
A cellphone! But I had to buy that myself though!

28. What did you want and not get?
Nothing material, but I guess I could say a cellphone that worked properly!

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
I only saw three - Fantastic 4, Shrek 3 and The Golden Compass and I have to say Shrek 3 probably wasn't my favourite!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 18 this year and did nothing on my birthday, but Melissa and Kat dropped off a small birthday present for me (top-up yay!!) which was cool and my mum filled the house with smoke after her soup evaporated while left unattended. A couple days later though Gwen and Chen had organised a surprise birthday outing for me together with Alex, Zahir, Angie and Aonghas which was really cool and something I won't forget! We hung out at Gwen's house before going to the city to watch Night at the Museum.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having gotten better grades and possibly one other thing I won't mention...

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Long-sleeved and baggy shorts - my 2005 wardrobe lives on!

33. What kept you sane?
Knowing I could text and talk to my friends whenever I was in need of company or support! Thanks guys!

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Don't think I had one but I can say the celebrity furtherest from being fancied by me would have to be Paris Hilton. - we definitely reached peak Paris this year!

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Possibly either the anti-smacking bill or the terrorist raids (if that can be considered as a political issue)

36. Who did you miss?
Probably Hyun and Joon and the others left back at Rutherford this year

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Probably Alice!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007?
One mistake can screw you over big time so you better be at the top of your game at all times!

39. Sum up your year in a sentence:
A bit of a waste of a year, going in no direction with very little progress made!!!

Sun 31st Dec & Mon 31st Dec?

The evil girl had a friend. She gave this friend my cellphone number and she ended up texting me and commenting on my Bebo page regularly. Her phone ran out of credit so she used her mum's Telecom phone to text me and got me to reply to her Vodafone phone. One day though she texted me with her mum's phone and I accidentally replied to her mum's phone. Her mum got her phone back before I replied, and when she saw my text, she rang me. I answered the phone, thinking it was the girl, but it turned out to be the mum! Apparently, later that night her mum was crying and so distressed as she thought her daughter had been talking to much older, dodgy guys! The mum was so angry at her daughter that she grounded her for the next several months. What made things worse was that the holidays just started and so she wouldn't be able to go out with her friends. Her friends were really annoyed with me because they blamed me for getting her in trouble. The girl didn't hate me though and didn't blame me for anything but because her friends did and were angry she was still communicating with me through Bebo, she had to stop to keep her friends happy and to avoid getting into more trouble with her mum. I haven't talked to her since!

We then had a wander around West City helping Chen and Aonghas find something to buy some girl in their class who's leaving New Zealand at the end of the week.

While having lunch in the food court a little later on, we were witness to an Ambulance pulling up right by the mall entrance and ambulance staff coming to the aid of some lady who was lying on the floor by McDonald's. She was taken away on a stretcher. She was holding her head so I'm guessing it must've been a fall!

Boxing Day - the busiest shopping day of the year, and I missed it because I slept in! Oh well there wasn't really much I wanted to buy anyway, nor would I be able to afford to buy it either!

We caught up with our old neighbour Phillip and his girlfriend Lee in the afternoon at West City after a year. He's come up from Palmerston North for a few Christmas to visit family...and us of course! haha We had a little walk to the new city council buildings and had a look at the Japanese garden as well as playing with the water fountains. The buildings had been finished since Phillip last came up to Auckland so he had never seen them before.

We then went back to West City to have dinner, and since it was Phillip's shout, we just went along with what he had been having for the last few days - kebabs. That was the first kebab I had tried! I've always thought a kebab is when you stick beef, vegetables and fruit on a stick, but never knew it was beef and vegetables wrapped up in some sort of bread which tasted pretty good! I never knew how much they could fit into it! That together with a bottle of Coke went down well. That was followed by an hour of sharing stories about being pulled over by police (maybe that was just Phillip and me..) and reckless driving...Hamish!

Tonight was also probably the first time I've asked someone if they wanted to hang out with me. OK, with my brothers and Chen too! I have to admit it was a little nerve-wracking as I wasn't sure what the reply would be like, and for a while I wasn't too sure what the final outcome would be but fortunately it turned out OK! Hopefully she didn't get the wrong impression! I know I sound frigid but I'm getting there. I've got a lot to learn! Amongst all the children's Christmas movies I watched during this week (funnily enough quite a few of them - Santa Clause 2 and Single Santa Seeks Mrs Claus - saw Santa trying to find a wife or else...) there was a quote in the movie Single Santa Seeks Mrs Claus that went something along the lines of:

"If you don't go into the kitchen you won't get burnt, but soon you will go hungry"

which I found to be quite true! Well there you go Julie, I've asked someone to hang out with me (oh and with a few other people), now I've just got to try do that more often!

Christmas 07 has been a very mixed bag. My brothers and I just got money for Christmas and a cow...or hippo?? soft toy from our neighbour Szelin, which was cool. What also made Christmas cool were all those people who sent me emails and texts wishing me a Merry Christmas! Thanks guys I must say I haven't received that many texts in one morning for such a long time!

Some of the highs:
- Found out that I'm still friends with someone I originally thought had cut all ties with me for some unknown reason!
- After being shocked by something a really good friend had told me, we had a little 'heart to heart' and I discovered how much I meant to her
- The same friend found someone (although this also caused her a lot of grief at the same time which made her Christmas miserable!)
- Being able to catch up with Esther and Julia at the get-together at the neighbours' 

- This was the first year I had sent Alice a Christmas email actually knowing who she is after having met her throughout the year! For the past couple of years I have sent her random Merry Christmas emails despite knowing nothing about her and having never talked to her before. This year I passed on my random Christmas cheer to some other person I’ve never actually talked to who kindly replied! I’ll have to figure out who she is some day!

And the lows:
- The rain!
- My friend was having a miserable Christmas

I ended up staying up till 4am finishing off typing Christmas emails to people before trying to get some sleep. That didn't last long though, as we all had to wake up early to prepare to go to church earlier than usual as we were to perform at the Christmas service.

We got there slightly late and had our last ever music group practice as a group which was kinda sad! The service opened with our group performing. This time round we didn't screw up despite playing slightly slower than we had practiced! As soon as we finished, Aonghas, Hamish and I had to go back in.

The sermon was given, with Aonghas constantly falling asleep! I kept having to kick his foot to wake him up, as it wasn't such a great look if we were seen falling asleep during others' 'performances'. They might end up falling asleep when we perform!

Eventually the sermon finished, and it was time for the group who sang carols at Waitakere Hospital to perform to the congregation. Us three brothers stood at the side to play music. We performed three pieces, including the infamous rendition of O Happy Day!

Not so soon after we had to go back up to perform Hark! The Herald Angels Sing as an accordion trio. Because the programme for the service was all in Chinese, we were really confused as to when we were to perform and had to rely on others to cue us in!

Performing our accordion trio was a bit weird. It was at the end of the service so we thought everyone would be mixing and mingling and leaving while were playing, but instead everyone remained in their seats and stayed silent! I'm not too sure if it was the acoustics but I couldn't hear Aonghas playing and he was sitting a couple metres away from me! As soon as we finished though, there was applause and we sat down, expecting everyone to start moving, but they all remained silent! We just got up and left the stage!

There was a shared lunch afterwards in the main hall/gym. We could keep going back up for more once were finished until the food ran out, but I ended up getting full after not too long. I got to the point where I just couldn't eat anymore, which wasn't good because we were going to the neighbours later that afternoon for dinner where we would be expected to eat and eat and eat! For some reason though little kids kept coming up to me! I had this boy stand in front of me while I was eating, and so I wished him Merry Christmas and asked him what he got for Christmas. He told me he got Transformers before running off. Then when I was in the foyer later on this little girl came over and said

"Hi"

to which I wished her Merry Christmas and she then ran off. This boy then came up to me and wished me Merry Christmas! It must be the Christmas spirit surely!

We got home and probably spent a good couple of hours doing nothing but listening to the radio, talking to Chen on the phone or texting, until 5pm when we went over to the neighbours for dinner. Szelin had her boyfriend over and so she didn't really talk much so we hung out with Esther and Julia, these two sisters we know.

After dinner Esther, Julia, Aonghas, Hamish and I all sat down and just talked for a few hours about all sorts of stuff. We were trying to crack the girls and get them to open up but they're pretty tough! They were also quizzing us on how we would approach girls we like and stuff like that. Zippo and her boyfriend soon came along.

The evil girls were there too, and despite trying to be nice by saying 'hi' to them and wishing them a Merry Christmas, I just got disgusted faces in return!

Soon it got late and when people started leaving, we took Esther and Julia over to our messy house to show them the Leavers DVD as Esther and her mum (who teaches at Rutherford) features in it. We talked for a while longer, showed them the sort of stuff I've done at uni this year as Esther will probably do something like that next year, got them to play the piano for us, and by then it was 11pm! Time to take them home!

So Christmas 2007 wasn't at all bad. The rain outside meant we were slightly more limited as to what we could do compared to past Christmases, but all-in-all it wasn't as bad as I thought it was after having typed this post!

On the night of Christmas Eve our church held a Christmas concert, where there would be performances by different church groups, such as a children's and adults' play, children's dance, the church choir and our little music group. It was to start at 7.30pm and we were meant to get to church by 6.30pm. However, being the Andersons, we arrived there at 7pm! Our shirts were smelling really bad as when my mum washed them yesterday morning and then went out, I completely forgot about them and didn't hang them out to dry! So we attempted to spray as much deodorant on ourselves to cover the stink!

We got to church to find the back gate locked, so we were going to walk to the next closest gate only to find it locked as well! We ended up having to walk right around the church building to get in while carrying our numerous musical instruments. We got straight into music rehearsal mode when we got inside.

Once the concert started though, we had to move to the library which was a room further away from the main hall so our sound wouldn't be heard.

Our big moment: putting on the lipstick! We were expecting to have to do our own lipstick, but then I managed to get the lady in charge of us to do it for me so that was good. It didn't look too bad actually, as it didn't stand out too much. It sorta tasted good too!

We ended up waiting in the library for about an hour doing nothing, except for telling jokes, or gloating about the quality of our school orchestra (if you were Jenny or Lisa! haha).

When it was finally our turn to perform, we went into the hall to watch the choir perform just before us. Once it was us, we got up on stage and did our thing. People were really amused and started to laugh a bit when Aonghas and I kept changing instruments, but it was only once I put down my viola, and quickly grabbed my accordon (the third instrument change!) that people started clapping! Just as well though, as it covered up Aonghas's big screw-up on the trumpet.As Aonghas put it, he added the Aonghas touch to the song!

After the performance we went back to the library for a group photo. This time it was a funny one and I jumped in between the girls but accidentally stood on one of their feet! The photo turned our all right though ;)

There was a little bit of supper after the concert. Some of the new people who came to the performance were being talked to in the library during then. They were probably trying to convert them! They spent a lot of time in there anyway!

We can't rest now though, as the next morning (Christmas morning) we have to play the music again, as well as perform what we performed at Waitakere Hospital, and then play Hark! The Herald Angels Sing as an accordion trio at the Christmas service!

Today after Aonghas finished work Hamish and I joined him to browse through shops, and we were in one shop that sold Christmas clothes for dogs! It came with this red shirt and a mini santa hat. Aonghas thought maybe we could try dress our cat up in that!

When we got home Aonghas got hold of the cat and put the shirt on her.The cat then got free and was walking around the house for a while wearing a shirt! Someone left the door open though and it ran out! We lost sight of the cat and so for the rest of the day this black and white cat with clothes on was probably wandering the neighbourhood!

We came home after the church Christmas concert wondering where the cat was, as usually she rushes to the door whenever we get home. We were starting to think that maybe putting the cclothes on the cat traumatised her or scared her away! It was not till about 11pm Maomao finally arrived home, minus her clothes!

Aonghas was working last night and lost his cellphone! He was pretty gutted about that, but he thinks there was something more sinister about the loss of his cellphone. When he first tried to ring it, the phone started ringing, but later on when he tried again it went straight to the voicemail box, which obviously means whoever took it must've turned the phone off.

He thinks this guy, a Polynesian in his 20's may know something about it as he looked very dodgy when supposedly helping Aonghas in trying to find the phone around the shop.

With his shoddy talent Aonghas has managed to come up with a rough sketch of his face. So if you've seen someone who looks anything like this badly drawn sketch of the questionable man, let us know, not that there's anything we can probably do about it!

We've already got the number barred and blacklisted the phone as well as disable it, so hopefully whoever has it now will enjoy their paperweight ;)

When you've got nothing better to do, then shop! Well that's what Hamish and I decided to do on Saturday. Aonghas and my dad had to work, and our mum was going to some friend's for most of the day. Because our house is so low on food supplies, she told us boys to walk down to Pak N' Save after our church music rehearsal to buy some lunch.

Once we finished church music rehearsal (which was a struggle waking up for at 9am in the morning!), we got back home, mowed our neighbour's lawn, then started walking down to West City. Aonghas had to go to work so Hamish and I walked with him to West City and just decided we'd just walk around there to pass the time away.

We first went over to Pak N' Save and basically cleared the Reduced to Clear shelf. We then returned to the food court to eat our Pak N' Save lunch which only cost us $5 in total!

We then walked around West City another several times looking around and doing nothing. It was really packed, as you'd expect on Christmas Eve eve eve. We finally deciding we'd buy a tub of ice-cream and then go home. First we went to Countdown to check how much they were, then walked back to Pak N' Save to see if they were any cheaper, but they weren't so we walked back to Countdown. At 5pm, we finally walked home!

It's amazing just how many people you come across in the shopping mall. Most of them were working though, which is kinda sad when you can't find a job yourself! It's really awkward though when someone calls your name out, you turn around to see who it is and then you see the person in the distance and wave and shout hi back to them, but then you're not sure whether you should go over and start a conversation with them or just to keep walking!

Later that night though when our mum came back, she wanted to go out…shopping! We went to the Lincoln Pak N' Save to buy some food before coming back to West City and shopping at The Warehouse while waiting for Aonghas to close up the shop. I then came across Casey (I hope I didn't spell her name wrong!) which was the first time I had seen her in ages!

 I have to admit it was pretty tiring walking around shops, and that I'm officially sick of West City…for the time being!

 --

Calum's annual Christmas time donation went to SAFE. I donated 20c to a woman dressed in a pig suit!

How coincidental is this? Bunnings staff received Monopoly board games and were pretty ticked off by receiving that instead of a pay increase.

Well guess what Air New Zealand staff will be getting for Christmas?

I've had nothing to do for the past few days, so I've had to find things to do to keep myself occupied. Since my last post on Tuesday, I went into the city for a meeting (see my previous post) on Wednesday. After I had finished my meeting, my family came to pick me up from the city and we all went to the new shopping mall in Albany on the following Wednesday which is huge. Of course everything is expensive there, so we didn't end up buying much. We bought some cheap food from Pak N' Save though and had a good family lunch inside the car which was parked in the underground Pak N' Save car park! There was background music going on and so it was a nice setting.

We saw these cakes on display at the bakery section. There was a dog cake, a cat cake, and a hedgehog cake, and they all looked so yummy! That day was also the first time we had been along that new motorway in Albany. I'm not too sure what it's called but it was pretty much like any other motorway.

On Thursday night we had a music rehearsal at church. Us violins remained in the main hall to practise together while Aonghas was led to another room to practise his trumpet alone with the lady in charge. This girl who recently joined the group brought SCALES for us to play! Fortunately that didn't last long! We ended up finishing before Aonghas was done, so we were just mucking around....in silence. I decided I'd try break the silence and start a conversation, so I asked the minister's son if his dad practised his sermons at home. Hamish then joined in by asking what happened once his dad finished the Bible! I also got talking to this new girl. It turns out that she (her name is Jenny) is a year 11 student at Epsom Girls Grammar School. OK posh...

We had another rehearsal on Saturday morning but we didn't get too far before it was midday. The lady kept talking though and so we were held back till about half an hour after midday. By then we had to quickly rush off to accordion lessons over in North Shore. We didn't realise it was our last lesson for the year and so we had to go buy a present at the nearby shopping mall and then wrap it up in the car before giving it to our accordion teacher. He unwrapped the present to find chocolate and returned the surprise by telling us that he wouldn't be able to share the chocolate with his wife because...she's pregnant! Congratulations to them!

On Sunday church service was...church service. I was sorta looking forward to Sunday School because it was going to be a fun Sunday School with a quiz against other Sunday School classes. OK it was based on Acts, but hey you've got to be happy it's a quiz! It was also Jennifer's last class before she went to Hong Kong on holiday with her family. The lady in charge of the music group came to ask us if we wanted to have lunch during Sunday School though so we could start another rehearsal early! I was faced with a tough decision...stay for the quiz, which could possibly be fun...or not...or go with the others to Burger King and have lunch with them and possibly get to know the others better. Well in the end, Burger King and the attraction of getting to know the other people won me over.

(It's ke kou ke le!! That's Coca-Cola in Chinese!)

Burger King was pretty good, even though it was pretty expensive! I also got to know the others a bit better too. I have to admit I drank a little too much fizzy drink though, and when I got back to church for rehearsal I kept having to go to the toilet! The 'Burger King bonding' helped me to enjoy the music rehearsal a bit more!

For the rest of Sunday while Aonghas went over to a friend's house to console him, I just went shopping at various Chinese vegetable shops with my mum.

Yesterday was tidying day though. We pretty much spent most of the day tidying the house up, finishing off the day by washing my car. I admit it was only a half-baked job, but I will do a proper job in the next few days! I also got my second Christmas card from Kelvin. Thanks Kelvin! Oh and I forgot to thank Gwen for giving me my first Christmas card several weeks ago! Thanks Gwen too for that! I'll be giving you one when you return to NZ next year! That reminds me that I've got to send Christmas emails soon! (Sounds a bit weird...I just have a tradition of sending people Christmas emails!). I can't believe Christmas is so soon!