The weekend started with a wedding.
The son of Ces (who taught my punkrock parents about The Church and helped get them baptised) and Kim (long time manager of Centreplace cinemas and longer time family friend) - Young Connor McQueen married the lovely soccer girl Krisieta. Highlights of the event were Curtis's 'we're not racists' comment and the EXCELLENT McQueen family thriller dance. Here are some photo's of the fam at the reception ..
Kashykins and I left the wedding early to pay our respects to the street rat Evelyn Hinewaka who turned 21 that day.
Sunday was Churchday. And my birthday eve. Church always makes Sunday a big day, espesh with my current calling. It was the first Sunday of the month which meant testimony meeting and it was so nice to be a part of it, I love the YSA ward's testimony meetings, they are always uplifting however truth be told I was feeling a little perturbed about another year older etc.
So after church Cam and I headed for the hills and drove to Auckland to forget my troubles. There was no solid plan except to go to the chinese lantern festival however when we got there it was still light. So we went time travelling- I had a hankering to visit the street I used to live on when I was a little girl. So we scaled the harbour bridge and headed for the North Shore.
What is it about the places you lived at when you were little being SO MUCH bigger in your memory? seriously the mile long street I used to live on and hike up - was in reality a tiny cul-de-sac with a slight incline. I felt like gulliver in lilliput. We drove around the shore for a bit and checked out my old school and kindy. Walking around Browns Bay primary with Cam in tow felt a little surreal - like we were visitors from another lifetime or dimension.or something.
We also visited the street Cammo used to live on when he was a kid a mere 20 minutes away from where I used to live - par for course though - Cam's house was as huge as he remembered.
Auckland was full of people, I had no idea the lantern festival was that popular, it was almost like being back in Hong Kong it was so crowded. almost. It took forever to find a park and when we did find one the pay and display machine wasnt working - both us and the group of 20-somethings in the carpark next to us left notes to avoid fines on our cars.Their car got a fine.
All of a sudden it was Monday and despite valiant efforts on my behalf to stay in bed all day I only made it till 11am due to the constant buzzing of happy birthday texts and facebook notifications on my iPhone. Just incase you didnt notice I was just letting you know how popular I am. Actually though it was cool for people to remember (or be reminded by facebook) and made me feel a little bit special.
I got some pretty sweet presents this year too - Rose gave me a book of prints by french illustrator blexbolex called seasons. I love it.
Johanna made me a literal tray of vegan cupcakes that were delish and thus were obliterated she also gave me some A-mazing earrings. Gay made me a rad Rainbow Brite Pillow. RAINBOW BRITE. Thats whats up.
All these treks down memory lane let me pull the birthday card and ask dad to get out the photo box - which is a box of literally all our family's photos. Mum hates us getting them out because they often get ruined, go missing or at least make a giant mess as we ferret through them creating piles of photos all over the living room. As it was my birthday they could not deny me. Here are some photos I stole.
So all in all, good weekend - and as the sun set beautifully yesterday night and I stood out on my parents balcony taking photos of the sunset with my iPhone I thought: Ok. another year. I can do this.
I’m the kind of person who likes to make lists. At the top of a piece of paper Ill write List, underline it and then number the points 1, 2 and so on. I think because I’m so very very very unorganised it gives me a sense of being organised.
Also I have this friend who regularly texts me “anything fun?” or “fun things?” which is fine because it just means they must think I’m a person who is up to fun stuff (which is what texting and social media is all about right? Proving how fun your life is when really you are sitting in your pyjamas at 9 on a Friday night eating pears out of a can watching the history channel – oh that’s just me?.......)
equals one hot friday night. oh yeah.
In this vein here are five fun things that might be interesting.........
1. My sister is an actual real reporter for an actual real newspaper.
An example of the Moxy
My sister Kashka has what you would call moxy, if she wants something she will fearlessly do everything in her power to get it. A few years back she decided she wanted to be a journalist and switched degrees and schools. There were some haters and people who said it would be hard to get a job in journalism. Kash is a determined little thing though and she finished her degree just this past November and gave the Waikato times who she had interned with an ultimatum to give her a job. They gave her a job. It is way awesome to see my sisters name in print. Check out some of her stories here, here and here.
2. Autobiography of Steve Jobs
In recent years I’ve become something of a Mac enthusiast. Though I think there has always been a bit of loyalty to the brand ever since my friend Meredith’s grown up cousin bought a Macintosh when we were like 6 and we used to sneak into his room and play a game called real estate agents, pretending to keep records on his computer. YeahI know, what the hell kind of game was that ? Anyway we used to get caught and kicked out of there all the time but that beige beauty’s siren call kept us going back.
The tan temptress
20 or so years on I own my very own Mac products and proselyte like a zealot about how awesome they are to anyone who will stand to listen to me.
So of course it follows that this Mac lovin’ hipster would be given a copy of Steve Jobs autobiography for Christmas.
Prior to reading the book my knowledge of Steve Jobs was limited to the following youtube clips;
and also the general knowledge that he was a bad tempered bully and also of course the fact he had sadly died of cancer in October 2011.
After reading the autobiography – yeah all that stuff is on point but there was so much more to Steve Jobs and the way he went about doing business that reflects the age we live in and shows how thinking differently can take you to a place beyond your wildest dreams. The coolest thing about this book is that unlike some other PR-driven drivel machine – Jobs gave the writer license to write the truth as he saw fit –including the opinions of those who he had clashed with over the years. He didn’t even want to read the book before it was published. The book is so honest and in many ways raw that you can see yourself reflected in the imperfect andoften egotistical character Jobs was, he failed many times before he succeeded and then at the height of success he failed again but only to come back stronger than ever. Its inspiring.
I read the book in my down time when I was in the Gold Coast over new yearsand it was probably the best thing that I did while I was there.
3. Safe store savouries
Something else about Steve Jobs you might not know is that he was a committed vegan for most of his life. This year I’m also committed to veganism for various reasons that don’t include any hippie agendas, I promise.
Its flippin hard though, especially when you are a young single adult who bases eating decisions on convenience and speed. Anyone who is vegan knows that eating vegan is neither convenient or speedy. That why its cool that the safe store in Auckland sells vegan convenience food that mimics the less healthy options that we as a nation love to consume – the pastry.
New Zealanders are obsessed with pies, we even have colloquial slogans like “Who ate all the pies?” and “Always blow on the pie”
and the safe store stocks probably the most delicious pies I’ve eaten in a really long time, that even my meat eating flatmate says “smell truly delicious” and the best thing is they are 100% vegan.
4. Cher Lloyd
Mindlessly flipping through MTV late one night a couple weeks ago I came across this cute video and promptly forgot about it
Everywhere I went for the next little while I found myself humming the dah dah dah dah dum dum dah dumdum but couldn’t for the life of me figure out where I’d heard the tune. Until I saw the video by chance again. Curious about the cutie with the side mullet (that I myself once sported) I googled Cher Lloyd and found out that she was an x-factor contestant and that instead of being a manufactured popsicle like I thought was in fact way original, cool and super young.
Watch this awesome audition where she does her own spin of Coldplay’s viva la vida.
Obviously its not perfect, but I reckon there are some mad cool elements of the song shes singing also she straight up has the most amazing swagger. Love her.
5. My Study Notebook
As I’ve been preparing to teach about Scripture study this year at institute I’ve been broadly looking at connecting to the innovative and different ways we read the scriptures today that are different from say 10 years ago, which is when the manual was written that I'm teaching from.
Even in the last year my personal scripture study has changed drastically from reading from my traditional paper scriptures to either using my iphone’s scripture app or going online to knock out my daily scripture study. On Sundays I have started to prefer to just take along the iphone to church rather than remember to cart my scriptures along. With this change in how I read from the standard works, preparing to teach Studying the Scriptures poses a problem around what tools are available to those who prefer to use the technology they have on hand for whatever reason.
Iiiiiiiiiiin the left corner your old mission scriptures!,sentimental and marked in a way only you can interpret!, In the right corner - The iPhone! convenient, making you look cool and in your bag anyway........
As I’ve occasionally read a chapter or two online at lds.org I’ve actually noticed a new tool in the drop down menu called ‘my study notebook’ previously I was too lazy to find out what it was but recently in the last couple of weeks with the motivation of finding out new study techniques for my institute class I’ve checked it out.
‘My Study Notebook’ has revolutionised my personal Scripture Study.
Like I mentioned earlier – currently I’m all about convenience and having everything Im studying and interested in on a handy, user-friendly, readily accessible site not only helps me study what I need to but reminds me of the other things I should be studying and preparing too.
Its early days in my relationship with this online tool, but so far I’ve prepared a talk, my Visiting Teaching message and gotten excited about the lessons I have to prepare in the future, spending more time than I usually would bookmarking and highlighting linking articles and scriptures. As well as completing my weekly Book of Mormon readings.‘My Study Notebook’ is A.C.E.
Hello February 2012. You crept up fast didn’t you? You’re kind of a big deal –here’s why…
Masters of Arts
All Im saying is, its about time this happened. I finished my degree from Liverpool in 2005. straight up, 2005. Obviously serving an LDS mission straight after that or thereabouts was a clear win in terms of 'good things to do with my life' and straight after that I landed the job of my dreams, which I hold to blame as the reason I havent got back to tertiary study. Until now.
Curse you job where I get to play all day and stick shiny things onto other things
Last year, when I went back to England and presented that paper I realised that many of the people I related to and aspired to become like all have further tertiary education. I also realised I like academia. like, alot. So after some investigation, oh and prayer and fasting, I chose a Masters programme, applied for and got one day a week study leave from work, filled out 2 million forms and enrolled - So simple. So what is this Masters programme that youll be talking about for the next two years while I tune out and think about other things I faintly hear you ask?
Kind of cool story about this that I will share in person if you care that much to know. Upshot of it is Im teaching institute this year and am so super ridiculously excited about it. Alreadly I feel the blessing of it in my life as I read and prepare the lessons Ill be teaching, as I am suck a geek Ive already planned a questionaire, activities,handouts and media presentation for the first couple of lessons. Seriously its going to be a way cool class.
Heres the 411 - Im teaching Scripture Study- The Power of the Word
The class is on Tuesday nights at 6:30pm and starts at the end of the month. Oh, whats that? you want to see one of the media presentations Im working on ? Ok I guess so, If you really want...
Almost every cool person I know has a birthday in February or is at least related to a febirthday-ite (the official name) according to Dr. Louis Turi a person I just looked up on the internet "people born in February are the most original people walking this earth. Aquarius has produced many eccentric people and great inventors. You are blessed with curious stars and you are attracted to science, research, electronics, psychology, the police force and Astropsychology to name a few.Aquarius rules aeronautics, avionics, television, the Internet and advanced computers. The option to reach fame and fortune is a high probability during the course of your life if you service the world in an advanced and original way.The motion picture Back to the Future is one of the best ways to illustrate your ingenuity in terms of creative art. Strong and fixed, you have inherited from the stars an accurate intuition, a tremendous common sense, ingeniousness, and a powerful will. Yet you must learn to listen to others and participate in conversations with equality.
Even when the ideas being presented are not of your own making, much knowledge can still be learned. Lend your full ear and do not race ahead with only thoughts of what you need to say.
Those born in February must also learn to positively direct Uranus' innovative mental power for the improvement and well-being of the world. Acting eccentric and without forethought is a sure downfall for you.
You can handle the difficulties of life with a smile and transcend setbacks by using celestial knowledge to your benefit. The women of this sign are original, independent, beautiful, intellectual, and make good use of their incredible magnetic sexuality to reach their purposes. As a rule, women born in February produce extraordinarily intelligent children or twins." You cant make that stuff up.
Waitangi Day
As inferred above, its my birthday in February. What you may not know however, is that my birthday is actually a national holiday. Every year on the 6th of February the entire nation of New Zealand has the day off work, imposes a stupid 15% service tax on food in restaurants and either feels neutral about why they are on holiday or feels VERY CONFLICTED about why they are on holiday. Thats because the 6th of February is the day that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840. Im too scared to explain it so just click here if you want to know about it.
Last Year Kash and I went to the place Waitangi on Waitangi day and it was awesome.
This time written in November but never finished - just enjoy the photos after mildly enjoying the writing. If you haven’t got the trilogy of 4 thing yet seriously please refer yourself to Douglas Adams immediately.
So I’m back in New Zealand and it was quite the launch back in to life with a shock announcement of 2 flat mates leaving the house, a Stake activity to help organise, getting a job working for the elections – doing my own canvassing for new roommates,a beat-up broken down car and a beat-up broken down ankle and various other work and church commitments have kept me busy and of course all manner of internet trolling and MTV watching. So as follows a highlights reel of the last few weeks….
Zombie Run (YSA ran it for the youth, was awesome and involved a 4 hour trip to the hospital)
The Great Clean up and Move out (Soul Destroying)
MySkyHDI ( Love.It.)
Stupid Car ( $800 of repairs and hundreds of dollars of fines for no warrant - for the 4 days I didn't have one)
Stupid Ankle ( my ankle hates me)
The Elections ( why?)
Let me know if I missed anything out Photos of the zombie run follow..
