5 April, 2010 in Holidays by Aonghas

Leonie’s New Shop

Since I wasn’t working today and we didn’t have anything else to do, my mum suggested we go to St. Lukes Mall to visit Leonie at her new shop. Leonie (from church) bought the Obsessions shop at St. Lukes a couple of months ago and she’s going to change the name to Gl’amour soon. Since all the shops were closed yesterday for Easter, the streets were packed with cars when we left the house at midday. Finding a carpark was no easy task either. We circled the top carpark at St. Lukes for a good five minutes before we finally spotted a vacancy.

Leonie bought the "Obsessions" shop at St. Lukes Mall

We weren’t sure exactly where Leonie’s shop was inside the mall, so we decided we’d just have a little walk around to try and find it. Initially we saw a jewellery store that we thought might have been Leonie’s shop, but upon closer inspection there was a different girl behind the counter. Then we saw the sign “Obsessions” in front of the customer service desk where Leonie was working. Leonie’s mum was also there helping her out at her shop. Leonie looked pretty surprised to see us and she showed us all the new jewellery she bought for her shop while she was overseas last month. While we were talking to Leonie, Cleo and her mum showed up; they had just bought a ball dress for Cleo. She showed me the dress they bought at a nearby store. It was purple and looked quite nice. I’m looking forward to seeing photos afterwards!

All the primary school teachers had this stamp

My mum decided to let Leonie get back to work so we had a walk around the mall. We ended up at Kmart where we saw really cheap toilet paper. We also found a whole lot of stationery in boxes for $1. I also saw a stamp that reminded me of primary school – it was one of those smiley face stamps that all our teachers used to use! Later on my mum and Leonie’s mum went for a walk around the mall, so Hamish Calum and I went off on our own to have a look around the different stores as well. We had lunch at McDonald’s downstairs before checking out random shops to pass time. At Nature’s Window Calum spotted a sign that said “Angus’ Room” which was pretty cool, seeing as my name (despite the difference in spelling) is rarely seen in those kind of shops.

It's rare to see my name on a sign in a shop

At Living and Giving we also saw this thing called a “banana saver”. It’s this hard-case container shaped like a banana to keep your banana from being squashed I’m guessing. Quite an innovative idea, but pretty purpose-specific.

This could come in handy

We ended up staying at the mall until it closed, by which time it was just after 6pm. The daylight saving time change yesterday sure is having an effect; it was already dark when we got outside!

4 April, 2010 in Church, Personal by Aonghas

Easter Baptism

We had a combined service today with the other Chinese churches so we were expecting the carpark to be packed when we arrived at church. Sure enough, when we got there, the cars were backed up nearly all the way to the Bible College. Luckily we weren’t the only ones who were late; as we were walking back to church, the Chin family arrived as well. There were hardly any seats left in the gym either so Calum and I created a couple of extra rows of chairs at the back. The highlight of today’s service (for our Sunday School class anyway) was Jennifer’s baptism. When she was being baptised, I went up front to join the entourage of photographers all crowded around the stage to film her.

From left: Sherman, Aunty Stephanie, Nadine, Jennifer, Calum, Hamish, Claire and Aonghas

There wasn’t any Sunday School after service today, we just went straight to lunch. I always like special occasions like today because we get free lunch in a box with a variety of different treats. In today’s box we had a tea egg, a piece of chocolate cake, this Asian sweet thing (I don’t know what it’s made out of) and a nice sandwich.

I always look forward to these free lunches

Primary light colour shoes

While I was sitting with Carmen and Claire, we realised our shoes were similar (except for the fact that mine are from Cotton On while theirs are actually real Converse Chucks) but different in colour. Cleo decided to join in with her white shoe as well. I thought it was a pretty cool photo actually, especially since in terms of light colour, the coloured shoes around the outside (red, green, blue) combine to make the white coloured shoe in the centre. Coincidence?

This afternoon I went to the Waikumete Cemetery with my parents to visit my grandparents’ headstone. It had been a long time since I last visited, and I think it was quite fitting to go back to remember them on Easter Sunday. The engraving on the headstone had become dull and despite my dad’s efforts, we couldn’t clean off all the dirt with a piece of tissue. Nevertheless I took a photo.

My grandparents' headstone at the Waikumete Cemetery

I really like the quote at the bottom of their headstone:

Unseen, unheard but always near.

Mt Erebus Air Disaster Memorial

It’s a reassuring reminder that the ones you love who have passed away are always closer than you think. We also had a brief walk around the cemetery to look at some of the other graves, notably the Mt Erebus Air Disaster memorial that was set up after the plane crash on my birthday in 1979. The cemetery is such a peaceful place. Next time we visit I want to polish my grandparents’ headstone and make it shiny again!

2 April, 2010 in Church, Youth Group by Aonghas

Odd Time for Oddfellows

Today was Good Friday – the day remembered for Jesus’ death on the cross. As was customary, we attended church this morning for the special Good Friday service. Pastor Chan invited us to play accompaniment music on our accordions for the prelude as well as the Holy Communion. The song was called “Old Rugged Cross” and we played together with Tim on piano and Jenny on violin. The chairs in the auditorium were arranged to face the centre where there was the table for Holy Communion. We sat through the sermon before having refreshments afterwards.

We had pizza for lunch after the Good Friday church service

Because of the morning service, our youth group “Oddfellows” was shifted to earlier in the day instead of tonight. We all had pizza together for lunch before going into the church library for the youth group programme. Today Karvin led the programme by showing us a video about Jesus’ death on the cross. It looked like quite an old video and it was a bit cheesy in parts but on the whole I think it delivered quite a strong message and there were parts of the video I never realised about Jesus’ death before. When we were having supper after the programme, Cleo and I decided to swap jackets to see how they looked on us…

Apparently I looked like a Mexican gangster, or a cholo. After looking online, I found this article about how to become a cholo. I didn’t realise there were so many steps to consider in order to be one. I wonder if anyone actually takes them seriously.

1 April, 2010 in University by Aonghas

A Week of Tests

I’ve been pretty slack posting for the last week because I’ve been pretty bogged down trying to study/cram for all the tests that seemed to have sprung up on me out of nowhere. My first test was last Friday night – the test I was probably least prepared for. More than half the content was about semiconductors and conduction while the rest of the test was about diodes. I managed to wade my way through most of the questions and I was glad to see the end of that test. After that test I had to rush back to church for youth group because they were watching the movie “Up” tonight. I walked in halfway through the movie so I didn’t really know what was going on, but I kind of picked up a few things along the way.

In some ways I looking forward to this week, but in other ways I was waiting for it to be over. The last week was supposed to be a way for me to cool down and get ready for the mid-semester break, but instead my week was plagued with three more tests… on consecutive days too! Computer Systems on Tuesday, Mathematical Modelling on Wednesday and Electronic Circuits today. Overall they didn’t go too badly (fingers crossed!) but I don’t want to think about them anymore because it’s mid-semester break now. This year is just going by faster and faster everyday I swear!