Ready or not

This is the street on which my eldest brother, Brad, lives on. It's in an area called 'Islington' in North London. The whole city has heaps of character.

P.S. Photo taken by my mum.

What the sky looked like this evening from the deck. Read my latest post below..It's the first one I've posted in a while.

Well I've decided to fire up this blog again. I was inspired by my friend who is going to Pakistan in a few days, and he is going to be video-taping around Pakistan, for a documentary that TVNZ wants to make regarding the earthquake. Anyway, this blog will serve to be a daily (hopefully) diary of my and my family's doings in the UK over Christmas. I'll also try to put up as many pictures as possible during my stay. Most of them will have family members in them. I think it will be cool, as when I'm back in NZ, I can come back to this blog and read about my experiences in London. I am getting really excited about it.

I am looking forward to, surprisingly, the flight(s) as well. I'll give you guys the details:
-Ok, so on Tuesday December 15th, we depart Auckland at 10:30 and we arrive in Hong Kong at 17:30 (their time), making the flying time 11 hours 30 minutes.
-We then spend +/- 5 hours in HK, then we leave HK at 23:35 to arrive at London Heathrow at 04:50 (so early!! eek!)

So here it is diagrammatically:
Auckland 10:30 ----> Hong Kong 17:00 (Air New Zealand) 11 hours 30 minutes
Hong Kong 23:35 ----> London 04:50 (Virgin Atlantic Airways) 13 hours 15 minutes

I'm excited to be flying Virgin, because I've heard it's a really cool airline, and I really hope we have our own little screens on seat backs, because those are just cool. Some people just dislike flying (like my dad), but me, I love it! This is going to make me sound SO lazy, but I just love sitting on my ass, watching TV and having a trolley wheeled around with drinks that I can choose from. But I am definitely going to take on board all the DVT stuff, so I shall be walking around on that plane, getting my exercise. I don't foresee a lot of sleeping occurring with me...too much excitement. I remember the first time I went on a plane, it was from Johannesburg to London funnily enough, fly British Airways. I was blown away by all the 'free stuff', like those eye covering sleep thingies (SO cool at the time!), the little toothbrush and the teeny little toothpaste container. And the smell...sort of reminiscent of a hospital, but more like the smell of newly opened plastic toys...the smell of excitement. All the long-haul flights I have been on have been at night, as well. So I'm quite excited to be flying in the day to Hong Kong, if I grab a window seat I’ll be able to see islands and stuff (hopefully). I do really enjoy flying, mostly because of the excitement of going to the new destination, and for me flying adds to the whole 'vacation' thing, its just adds to the excitement. In short, I love flying! =)

When we come back from England, the route is exactly the same, except shorter stop-over in HK. Here's the diagram:
London 21:30 ----> Hong Kong 17:50 (Virgin Atlantic Airways) 12 hours 20 minutes
Hong Kong 19:10 ----> Auckland 11:15 (Air New Zealand) 11 hours 5 minutes

It's going to be so sad leaving England, but as always, it will be good to get back home, and share the experiences with friends. Unfortunately, when we get back, my exam results would have probably arrived, and I don't think they will be the greatest (understatement!!!). So although going to the UK is going to be absolutely INCREDIBLE, it will be overshadowed with that lingering thought of exam results. But I think I'll just forget about them most of the time I'm there.

Anyway, I think that's all I have to say for myself at this point. I might update tomorrow, but I think I'll be studying for my music exam, my final exam of the year.

Talk to you guys later!!!

Evan

Experimenting with PhotoShop. Tree in garden.

Yesterday (Tuesday) the Westlake Concert band and Big Band participated in the KBB Secondary Schools Band and Orchestra Festival. We had to be at school at 7:45am. I got there at 7:00 because my dad has to be at work early, and he goes past my school, so he dropped me off. Eventually people start milling in until the music block was a hive of activity. Some idiot had brought his computer speakers and connected his cd player (or mp3 player, couldn’t see) to them. He blasted everyone with his CRAP taste in music. We all helped to load the bus with various items of percussion and then we boarded the bus. Bus trip into the city was uneventful. By the way, the competition was held in Auckland Town Hall (good venue!) The concert band was the first band of the day, so we had a lot of time to set up the stage to our liking. Eventually it was time to play for the adjudicator. To say the least, we didn't play as well as we did last year. Lots of timing issues, late entrances, early entrances. After we played, we moved off the stage and went to go watch the Big Band. While waiting for the previous band to finish, we were waiting outside the concert chamber and what did we see? A bus being towed away!!! It looked absolutely ridiculous. After all that extreme excitement we watched our Big Band, which rocked, as usual.
A new rule was introduced this year for the competition. It stipulates that all bands in their session have to watch all the other bands in their same session or risk getting disqualified. So we then traipsed back into the great hall to watch the other bands. Our main competition, Manurewa High's senior concert band was the first other band we saw. Last year they achieved a 'Gold' award and the 'Most Outstanding' award. I wasn't impressed this year. They played alright, but their flutes were out of tune and their pieces were really boring. Then we watched Avondale Concert Band (it's actually a junior concert band and this performance was their first time in the competition). It was painful!!! But everyone has to start somewhere. Then there was St. Peters Concert Band. Wow...didn't realise an all boys school's music group could be so good. I think the reason they are so good is because of their conductor, Antun Poljanich, is an international conductor, practically. He conducts the Academy of Music's orchestra, so he is really good. He's from Europe, so of course he will be good :-P. The last band we heard was Avondale's Premier concert band. It was ok, but I think we did better than them. After hearing all these bands, we were allowed to go to IMAX to get something to eat. After lunch, it was back to school for us. We arrived just in time for period six (English for me).
While doing my homework last night, I got a phone call from Mrs James (our concert band conductor) to tell me that the Concert Band AND the Big Band got into the final. That was good news. So on Sunday afternoon, we'll be playing again and receiving our award. Don't know what award we'll be getting, but I'm betting it's not going to be gold.

Yesterday was the first day back at school, as many of you will know. Surprisingly, it didn't take a lot to wake me from my still holiday-like slumber. Went through the shower-getting ready ritual without a hitch (amazing!) I was quite apprehensive to get back to school, mostly because what people will say about my face. The results were varied...of course my friends were understanding, Alan just laughed at me, and one guy got grossed out, heh. Only two teachers asked what happened to me, the other two didn't even mention it. Strange...Had double chemistry first. Of course, our teacher gave us heaps of work to do without teaching much (her style). After morning tea, had music. Nowadays, music is my favourite subject, mostly because all we are doing is watching 'West Side Story', so not much work involved at the moment, although an essay will be coming up for us to write a comparison between Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro' and 'West Side Story'. That shouldn't be too bad. After music, had a study period. Study periods are always fun. Normally I just do unfinished homework, sometimes I might study, but lately I have been watching my classmates play checkers (I don't participate in the weekly tournament because I *can't* play checkers.)
Lunch time was normal, sat at the picnic table eating lunch and talking with friends., and getting over a few insect scares. After lunch I had Maths then English. Maths was ok, started Integration which I had done already. In English we were supposed to be working on our group assignments, but I don't think anybody did anything regarding the assignment (which is now due THIS Thursday, as opposed to the 2nd week back...eek!!!) Got bus home and installed new anti-virus program on my PC. Then got ready for my Chinese lesson. Chinese teacher was late, so our lesson (which was supposed to finish at 6:00) finished at 7:15. Got home, put some finishing touches on the anti-virus and got to work on my homework. I didn't finish all of it, mostly because there was something good on T.V. to watch (it always happens...I need to grow some...self-discipline!) Then I went to bed...Sorry for the boring post, but that was my first day back at school.

My bus leaves for my friends house at 10:36. The stop is up the road, about 400 meters. I get out the door of my house at 10:27. Am I late? Most definitely. Nearly there, I start to run. Get to the bus stop, bus has gone. The a strange but familiar feeling come over me: light-headedness, nauseous feeling. I realised what it was way too late. I was about to faint. I woke up on the side of the road (seriously!), my left eye and upper lip are throbbing. Obviously I don't have a mirror with me, and there was no blood so I think nothing of it. I get on the next bus and arrive at my friends place 20 minutes late. My Chinese teacher (who is also a Radiologist) looks at my face and asks with concern in her voice, 'What happened?'. I told them that I tripped while running for my bus (I didn't want to say I fainted). Well, my friend's mother put some antibacterial cream on the scraped skin to the left of my left eye and put a gauze on it.

The actual Chinese stuff was cool, which helped take my mind off my mutilated face. We watched a Chinese cartoon called "学问猫教汉字" (Knowledgeable Cat teachers Chinese characters) where this cat teaches 2 tigers (and thereby teaches the audience) all about Chinese characters. It was quite interesting, actually. And for lunch we had fried rice! :-) By the end of the day, my upper lip was swollen (no flute playing for a while). Luckily, I didn't have to catch a bus home. I don't like buses as much as I used to now...


This story is based on fact

Well I just woke up to discover this long conversation that occurred presumably at midnight between sumguy_, unpredictable_mess and hotp0tat0 (have used these names to protect the innocent :-P)It was really random.. and no, I wasn't eating (WTF?) and no I wasn't asleep at my keyboard. I was actually asleep in my bed. Normally I put my ‘away’ sign up to signify that I am, for some inexplicable reason, away! Crazy, aint it? I don't actually sign out, I just go ‘away’ (the joys of broadband.)

Anyway, today’s plan. Going to a friend's house and having a Chinese day! 'YAY!!' I hear you all scream. Well I'm excited. We are going to watch Chinese movies and talk in Chinese and have a Chinese lunch. Very Chinese *nods head*. I've got to find a bus now to my friends place. Will give a full account when I get back from 'Chinese Day'. Catch ya later!

It's 10.23pm thursday. My bro and his girlfriend left about half an hour ago. They came for dinner. We had a stew/meatball/dumpling thingie. It was really good. Im listening to coldplay's 'Speed of Sound'. It's really good chillout music. Just thought I'd give my fans out there (heh, yeh right!) who already don't belong to screwed.™ the link to it. It's a cool forum.


P.S. please can you put your name down if you are making a comment, just so I know who is speaking to me :) cheers

Edit: When you post a comment, click on the 'other' option, and it should give you spaces to fill in your name and your own blog address.

Hey people. I've decided to ditch my space, mostly because this blog has more flexibility when it comes to design (ie, you can design your own, practically!!!) and also because my flickr site can communicate with this blog (whereas it couldn't with my space) So you all will just have to get over it...sorry!