12 March, 2010 in Family, Personal by Aonghas

Puncture!

Punctured tyre!

We were on the way home today from Piano Traders and I was sitting next to Calum in the front passenger’s seat. I don’t know what caught my attention, but as we were driving back up the hill from Mt. Eden, I peered out the window and saw the back wheel squashed down on the road. We immediately pulled over to find the tyre nearly flat on the ground! We spotted the cause after a quick inspection of the tyre and noticed a screw that had punctured the tyre and gone all the way through. Not knowing how to change a tyre, the four of us (Mum, Hamish, Calum and me) stood around hoping someone would come to our rescue. We had a spare space saver  tyre in the boot but we didn’t have a jack to lift the car up. Luckily we were parked across the road from an auto-electrical car garage so we popped in to see if anyone there could help us. The manager, by the looks of it, offered to help us change the tyre, albeit not with the friendliest of attitudes. It didn’t take him very long though, and we were back up and running within a few minutes. Only problem now is that we have to get the tyre replaced at some stage soon!

We found a screw that had gone right in!

29 November, 2009 in Personal by Aonghas

Birthday Wishes

It always feels good when people remember your birthday and pass on their birthday wishes. Yesterday I was overwhelmed by the number of people who wished me happy birthday and I would like to thank the following people who sent their regards (in approximate chronological order):

• Amanda Teo
• Fiona Ho
• John Luong
• On Tsui
• Carmen Chin
• Grace Wong
• Cleo Chin
• Rose He
• Nick Miller
• Szelin Yap
• Mercury Keomahavong
• Carey Sizer
• Serenne Fang
• Ruby Jang
• Kayemm Chan
• Chris Kim
• Chelsea Robinson
• John Kingi
• Johnny Wu
• Ella Tunnicliffe-Glass
• Anne Yu
• Ari Osborne
• Luke Sizer
• Marianely Ngangom
• Kassandra King
• Szepo Yap
• Yvonne Tse
• Rachel Jury
• Chandre Smith
• Caragh Taylor
• Phoebe Chong
• Rebecca Cunniffe
• Sophie Kaulima
• Alexandra Siu
• Menglu Rao
• Mengyun Rao
• Sarah Bailey
• Qi-Wern Chi Chi Lim
• All my TDI buddies
• Joon Suk Oh
• Brendan Su
• Mohaimen Ibne Mizan
• Jireh Chan
• Jesse Peeters
• Amanda Koo
• Hyun Suk Oh
• Stephanie Tsang
• Vanessa Gao
• Becky Li
• Johann Jungwirth
• Josephine Mak
• Rhea Peters
• Oceane Jossomme
• Albane Jossomme
• George Song
• Julian Tang
• Ying Tan

I hope I haven’t missed anyone! Let me know if I have! Thanks everyone once again.

28 November, 2009 in Holidays, Home, Personal by Aonghas

Nineteen Years On…

It’s a little bit scary to think that I was born on this day nineteen years ago. I hadn’t even had a chance to properly adjust to to being 18, and now I’m another year older! My day started pretty early this morning with my violin lesson at 8 o’clock. We waited for Calum to finish teaching his recorder classes before we picked him up and went to Sherman’s hostel in town to see John’s new baby. We met up with Nadine, Winston and Aunty Stephanie when we arrived, before being let into the hostel by John’s wife Pauline.

The new baby was only 10 days old but he already had quite a lot of hair on his head. I’m not sure of the baby’s name though (I’m not even sure if they have named him yet!). Since we arrived slightly late, we couldn’t stay for long since we had made reservations at the Dynasty Yumcha restaurant across the road for 12 o’clock. We told Pauline that we would come back to see the baby afterwards.

I had lunch at Yumcha with my Sunday School class

The Yumcha restaurant had really fast customer service; the waiters and waitresses were coming in from every angle with all sorts of food just moments after we sat down! Knowing me, I just HAD to embarrass myself at some stage today – and sure enough I did. Just as I was picking up my little cup of tea (it was still hot!), I knocked the cup over and made a huge wet patch on the tablecloth. Luckily it didn’t spill over the side so I didn’t get wet. Even more surprisingly, the wetness dried pretty quickly too and I nearly didn’t even notice it after about 10 minutes. The prawns I tried were interesting to eat. I wasn’t sure of the proper technique to eat them, but apparently I was supposed to “suck” the flavour out of it before I peeled the shell off the prawn. In the end I just made a bit of a mess on my plate with all the prawn shells, but I managed to get through all of the fleshy stuff (with greasy hands afterwards of course!).

After lunch we went back to Sherman’s hostel. The baby had just been sleeping so he was pretty calm when we arrived. When Pauline brought the baby out into the dining room, we all took turns holding the baby. It was actually the first time I’ve held a real baby that small I think! He was so soft and a little wriggly when I held him. Everything about him was so tiny, like his hands and feet and nose and ears! I guess that’s what expected from a baby though…

My first time holding a baby!

We dropped Calum off at his friend’s birthday party on the way home. Meanwhile Hamish and I played a bit of basketball in the back yard. I had a short rest in the lounge afterwards before I decided to text Chelsea and ask when the TDI Farewell Evening started tonight. Thinking it started at 7:30pm, I thought I would still have time to get ready, but I got a shock when Chelsea texted me back and told me it started at 6pm (which was in less than 5 minutes!). I rushed out the door, jumped in the car and zoomed off to Rutherford!

When I arrived at Rutherford, I was greeted at the door by Hohepa and Helena. They gave me a a programme and invited me inside. It felt pretty good being back at my old school and seeing all my old TDI buddies from last year. I mingled with a few peeps over dinner and met up with Chen and Mathew as well. When dinner was over, we all took our seats and the official programme started. Michele and Caleb van Beynen, the Head Students for next year, were the MCs for the evening and they did a stellar job! Every student in TDI was acknowledged for their achievements this year, and the Year 13s were all given their speeches by their Year 12 underlings. I was so proud of all the speakers tonight because all their speeches were really touching, as well as humorous in their own way. It was such a nice way to end my birthday, so thank you everyone in TDI for reminding me of the good days at Rutherford. You have all grown so much.

Overall my 19th birthday was very enjoyable. This is my last teenage year so I’m going to try and live it up as much as I can while I still can!