Steamboat Tenpin

I bet the owner of this locker feels special

I went to my second Student Life action group meeting this morning. Josh couldn’t join us because he had a test/assignment that he needed to work on, but Nesta and Chris were both there. Today we looked at "Stepping from Being Unable to Empowered". We talked about sme frustrations we have as Christians and different struggles we come across. We read a passage from 1 Corinthians 2:9-3:3 about Paul discussing the power or ability needed to understand God’s truth.

This afternoon I was pleasantly surprised when I bumped into Caragh Taylor after my last lecture. Since I hadn’t caught up with her for ages, I decided I’d walk with her to her next lecture so we could have a chat at the same time. Turnsout her lecture didn’t start for another 40 minutes so we sat outside OGG and shared the latest goss in our lives. Before long Rebecca Cunniffe joined us coincidentally; she had just come back from a trip. We had a pretty nice conversation before Caragh had to leave for her lecture. After we left Caragh, Rebecca and I walked to her locker under the quad. I was amazed when I found out Rebecca’s locker was almost opposite locker #1! I just had to get a photo of it while I was there. Don’t judge me, I live for the little things okay!

Fiona and Gabrielle cooked up a storm

Tonight’s programme for Youth Group was activity night. The plan was to have a steamboat dinner at church first, before going to Westgate to play two games of ten-pin bowling. When we arrived at church just before 6:30, most of the preparation had already been done; the food was all laid out on the tables with the gas cookers at the ready. The food that was on offer ranged from crabmeat to meatballs to fish balls to noodles and cabbage. Since I didn’t trust myself cooking anything properly, I let the experts (the females) take control of the cooking pot. Before tonight I didn’t really know what a steamboat dinner was, but it was an interesting way to share dinner with the others.

We cleaned up after dinner before heading to Westgate Tenpin. As well as Angie, we also gave Claire a life to Westgate. Because Claire was riding shotgun, she got to decide what radio station we listened to. If you’ve been in Calum’s car before, you’ll know that the radio is really dodgy and displays random things like "CD" even though there is no CD player. So it was a bit of a mish for Claire to decipher the whackjob of a stereo system, eventually tuning into her desired station, Radio Hauraki. Fortunately we were nearly at Westgate by that time, so we didn’t have to listen to that for long… just kidding! It wasn’t too bad

Everyone looks on at Westgate Tenpin

We split ourselves into four groups and changed into the trendy bowling shoes. I always thought I was a size 8 at bowling, but as it turned out, the size 9 shoes actually fit better. So I’ll have to make a mental note to remember that for next time. In my group we had Samuel (NOOB), Cleo (CHINY), Claire (URMUM), me (ANGUI), Carmen (ZOMBI) and Grace (PUFLY). Not having played bowling since that time our ex-neighbour Phillip took us out (the time I scored my personal best of 146!), I was feeling a bit rusty, and it showed. I missed all the pins in both my bowls of the first set. Luckily I started to improve, very slowly. I ended up with one strike and two spares in my first game, a total score of 104.

(video)

I started the second game off a bit better than the first, though I only managed to knock six pins down on my first bowl. Throughout the middle section of the game I started to dwindle in points scoring, even coming last at one stage I think. The real climax of the game came down to the last set however. Cleo had bowled her last set and ended with a score of 84, the highest in our group so far. After my ninth round, I was sitting on 75 – 9 points under Cleo’s final score. So in order to win, I had to get a strike or at least a spare to finish with 85 points. The pressure was on. I hadn’t bowled any strikes in this current game so far, so the odds were already against me. I calmed myself and went for my last bowl and… STRIKE! I knocked them all down! And I got to have another bowl as well?! I went for my extra bowl and I never thought it would happen, but I got another strike! AND I got to have another bowl after that too for some reason! In the end I finished with a score of 102 for my second game, I really didn’t expect that at all. If only luck was on my side earlier in the game.

Group photo (of the ones who were left when we finished our game)

Here is the full table of scores for our group:

Game One

Name	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total
NOOB	6	3	-	1	3	4	S8	-	-	5	5	-	S8	-	-	5	1	3	-	6	58
	9		10		17		25		30		35		43		48		52		58
CHINY	-	-	1	-	6	-	-	1	-	-	1	1	-	1	-	7	-	6	9	-	33
			1		7		8		8		10		11		18		24		33
URMUM	5	-	-	5	-	1	1	4	7	-		X	S8	1	8	1	-	1	-	7	68
	5		10		11		16		23		42		51		60		80		97
ANGUI	-	-	S7	-	-	7	S8	1	9	-	1	/	9	-		X	7	/	7	-	104
			7		14		23		32		51		60		80		97		104
ZOMBI	-	-	-	6	2	1	-	3	-	4	-	-	-	-	S6	2	5	-	-	-	29
			6		9		12		16		16		16		24		29		29
PUFLY	1	-	6	-	8	-	8	1		X	9	/	-	1	7	-	-	5	-	7	74
	1		7		15		24		44		54		55		62		67		74

Game Two

Name	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total
NOOB	-	-	9	-	-	1	3	-	-	1	5	3	-	8	9	-	-	9	-	-	48
			9		10		13		14		22		30		39		48		48
CHINY	3	-	1	8	S8	-	-	5	-	7	9	/	7	-	-	9	-	/	E-	9	84
	3		12		20		25		32		49		56		65		75		84
URMUM	-	/	6	-	7	-	-	8	E3	-	7	-	7	1	1	-	S8	-	8	1	73
	16		22		29		37		40		47		55		56		64		73
ANGUI	6	-	8	1	4	-	3	-	8	-	8	/	9	/	5	-	6	-	X	X 7	102
	6		15		19		22		30		49		64		69		75		102
ZOMBI	6	-	-	1	6	-	-	5	-	-	-	8	-	9	-	-	-	-	-	-	35
	6		7		13		18		18		26		35		35		35		35
PUFLY	-	-	-	4	5	3	9	-	3	-	8	1	-	/	-	5	6	-	6	-	60
			4		12		21		24		33		43		48		54		60