Daylight Saving

From 27th September 2009 onwards, New Zealand will be 5 hours ahead of Malaysia. Which means we, here, are going to set our clocks one hour forward. That's one hour less of sleep for us and one hour less to get ready for church. Haha.

According to sources, it starts at 2am on the 4th Sunday of September. I don't know why 2am, I haven't researched on that.

Although it's 12am now, I would like to think that it's already 1am. It's the same anyway, I don't have to wait till 2am to set my clock. I mean, I'll have to wake up an hour earlier than what I used to wake up but it's still the 'same time'. If I usually wake up at 8am on Sundays, then I'll have to wake up at 7am, last week's time, but it's going to be 8am.

:D

I'm having a cold now. At one point I was sure that I was going to have blisters or the skin under my nose peeled due to over-blowing. Fortunately, that has not happened yet. Toilet paper was my best friend today (Sorry, people). It is not fun at all especially when mucous builds up in my nasal cavity. Although the mucous is meant to protect me, it can get annoying as my respiratory passage way gets blocked and I'd have to breathe through my mouth. Hence, my mouth would be open all the time which sort of makes me look like a retard. Ooh, harsh.

I just searched on paracetamol and mucous. I'm going to read on those sometime soon because they sound interesting. It's Biology (and Chemistry)! I love human biology, learning about the human body, how it works and the functions of this and that. There are many long and hard names though, I have to admit. Sacrum and coccyx, who can ever forget those two.

I now have one hour less to sleep.


xoxovon
I sat by the piano and figure out Beautiful Saviour in under 30 minutes or so.
Joy :)

Gratitude

What position am I in to complain when compared to those who are less fortunate than I am?

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, mainly thoughts about life. I start telling myself to complain less and as humans, we tend to complain about things (a lot of things). Even the smallest of the smallest issue such as the (stupid) machine that does not want to work when you want it to work (because you cannot operate it). What an analogy, I know. Anyway, you get my point.

I've been facing quite a number of problems lately, most of them are related to my studies. I think it's safe to say that ALL of them are related to my education. I planned to do Summer School so that I could start 1st Year in Feb 2010 but it doesn't seem likely now. So I have to opt for the Feb-July Foundation Semester and this will allow me to start 1st Year in July 2010 instead. However, more problems emerged as time goes by. Whether it's the paper not being offered, the entrance requirements, the time or just me worrying too much. This is where I let out a big sigh.

Today, someone told me that it might take me more than a year to do 1st Year. I almost cried. Seriously. In my head, I went "WHAT?!". I've told myself (and some other people) that I didn't want to grow old studying, that I want to finish university quickly. Then, at a friend's birthday dinner: "No matter how old you are, you'll still be learning...". That's so true. And some say that when the time comes, you won't even realise it. 3 years will go by just like that. For instance, my brother is already doing his final year. I've been in NZ for almost 3 months and it sure doesn't feel like it although I miss things back home.

Then comes the big question: Shouldn't I be grateful that I am able to have education, from kindergarten all the way to where I am now? Yes, I am thankful for that. Hallelujah. :) Hence, I shall not complain, rather, I should find ways to overcome my current problems. So what if it takes me longer? (Actually, I do care because time is precious and more years means more money spent) I've got the opportunity to attend Uni. I'm blessed. :)

I believe that every time we're faced with challenges, those trials somewhat prepare us for something much bigger in the time to come.

It has been raining all day long and the winds aren't of any help at all. A combination of those two makes the day wet, cold and depressing. Thus, you can tell how my mood has been today. Despite all that, I do try to cheer myself up. Positive thinking helps :) There's always hope and God is hope for the hopeless! Father to the fatherless, Love to the loveless!

Here's a picture of the Sun's ray shining through the Earth's atmosphere, reaching the ground and me. Lighting up the wide and open sky, warming up a cold day of September Spring in Palmerston North. How I long for another day like that after a rainy week. :)

I feel happy when the Sun shines.
Warmth... :)

I'll continue about Gratitude another time. It's getting late.
Just keep in mind to be thankful for every second, minute, hour, day and year of life.
It's life, shit happens. Get up, wipe that dust off and move on. :) And.. things are of course easier said than done. Hehe.
Have a goodnight.

Feeling better and blessed.

xoxovon
Looking forward to OCF AGM. Although I haven't fully recovered from my sickness, I'm not gonna let that stop me from having fun with my brothers and sisters. =D

Spring Raya

I haven't blogged in 2 weeks. That's just intolerable! haha. This goes to show just how 'busy' I've been. By the way, it's SPRING! Winter's over! It's still cold though. Ahh, NZ.

Oh well. As usual, many things or events had occurred during my time here in The Land of the Long White Clouds, New Zealand. Last Saturday, I went to my friend's trial class for Body Combat. It was fun, man! Great workout. 10 tracks, more than an hour of jabbing, punching, elbows, knees, kicks, etc. Moreover, it was free :D I'm not a gym member yet so I can't go to the classes and use the gym anytime I want to. I can only use the courts for badminton and so on..

Raya's coming very very soon aye? I kid you not, I miss Raya cakes and cookies :/ ...but I've already put on weight so I can just forget about them. haha. Otherwise I'll have to purchase to seats on the plane when I fly back :P Last year's Raya is still fresh in my mind. I miss home.

I'm also trying to learn more about God. Slowly, taking small steps everytime and each step that I take will push me forward, into the right direction of course, hopefully. Today's study was about Wisdom and we discussed how wisdom and knowledge are two different things which at often times, we assume it's somehow similar to each other; that both touch on learning. Well, knowledge is basically something that we can obtain by reading, it's simply 'head knowledge'. We can memorise it, use it to answer questions but not know how to apply it in life whereas wisdom is acquired from an external source, e.g. God, experience. Wisdom is seen as something much greater than knowledge, to me. Ahh, I still need time to disect and digest this topic and with wisdom, I shall be able to understand it better :)

Neece sent me something. So sweeeeeeeeeet she caused my diabetes and obesity. Don't know to be happy or sad here. haha. I love my Will. Ngaiti, that totally 'washed my eyes clean clean clear clear' man. LMAO ah. I'm wearing the jandals now (yeah, in the house on carpeted floor), trying to make them stretch, flexible and bigger. :D Thank you so much *hearts*

I'm not posting up any pictures now due to inconvenience of Bluetooth-ing 'em photos from my lovely phone (and laziness). I've got new photos up on my Facebook though. Go check them out. Patience, good stuff takes time to be produced. My camera battery is being charged now because there's Sakura Festival on Saturday and I hope I can snap photos to share with you guys and because I feel like giving my phone a break from taking photos.

Till next time, cheers :)


xoxovon
Emmanuel's gonna fly next week. Jia you!

Mid-sem break

I just talked to my mom for almost an hour. It was fun. Mother-daughter conversation session, I haven't had that in a while.

My mid-sem break is almost over. I'll have to go back to class on Monday. It's a =( for everyone for sure. But I should feel grateful and I thank God for everything that has happened, for that I am alive to experience new things in my life, for the awesome people around me, for that I'm able to be 18 and for just about everything. Our God is an awesome God :)

I had 2 weeks of break and now there's only 2 days left. Time flies when you're having fun.. so they say. I went snowboarding during the first week and that was something I really looked forward to although I was a bit scared, I have to admit, after hearing news about skiers dying on the mountains due to avalanches and so on. I went with 15 other people, including my brother. A convoy of 4 cars making their way to Mt Ruapehu and I was riding shotgun.

It was August 25th, the weather looked fine in the morning but it started to look more cloudy once we reached higher altitudes. Then, it drizzled. =( You won't have fun if you limit your budget so tightly, so I put $200 in my card for this trip. Haha. It was that darn adult ticket that cost me extra when I could have bought the youth ticket. Maybe I was just too excited. The snowboarding lesson went on for more than an hour I think, so it was worth it. We snowboarded the whole afternoon.

Yvonne sitting on her bum...after she fell.

Falling on ice is not that bad compared to falling on cement ground.

We stayed overnight at someone's house and the next day was my 18th birthday. I didn't expect a big celebration but my friends surprised me that morning. How did you guys hide the cakes? haha. Thanks, people! When I woke up, I checked my phone and there were a few text messages. Thank you :) Someone sent twice, wah. <3.>

Aviator shades are not for me :/
Beatrice & I in shades that don't belong to us. We're both 18 now, at least until October comes.

On the way back, we stopped by at the Raukawa Falls lookout to look at what else if not the waterfall itself. It's a small one though. Ah, nature is pretty :)

Raukawa Falls

No one warned us about the upcoming road block. It was out of the blue!

A herd of sheep!! My bro said they were moving to another paddock, which was just across the road. So that was a free sheep show for us all. haha.

Sheep ass. Run, sheep, run!!!

Sheep on the run!

My housemate made me kuih salat in a shape of a cake.

With housemates. Thank you :)

After dinner, I went to my friend's place to hang out. Their place is pretty :) I can't really recall what I did for the next few days except... potluck, church, eat-out and Amy's birthday on Merdeka day. We went to Himatangi beach.. in the middle of the night, kinda. It was fun though. I don't know when I'll ever get to do that again. Only in NZ! haha.

Made a trip up to Hamilton on Wednesday, came back last night. NZ is such a great place to have a road trip. There's always somewhere to go or some place to stop, just to look around and take pictures. It took us 7 hours (according to my timer) to get from Palmy to Hamilton and this includes toilet breaks, stops and other random stuff. Oh ya, stopped by Puzzlng World after Taupo.

The weather was amazing and beautiful that day! The sky was clear and sunny.. indescribable! God's wonder. I just wanted to stand under the sky and do nothing..but I was in sitting in the car.

Place your fingers on the screen, you can almost touch the snowy mountain.
The view of Mt Ruapehu from the car. So clear and beautiful! What a good day to go snowboarding but unfortunately, we couldn't fit it into our schedule :(

Stopped by McDonald's in Taupo for toilet break and had $2 Deluxe Cheeseburger.

Does the next picture look familiar? hmmm.

Me, Amy: 2nd Sept.


YY & Sabrina: June/July

haha. Nooo! Wrong timing=different shadows. And also slight difference of standing position =P

In the plane, having our burgers.

Hamilton!!

Lake Rotoroa, Hamilton at sunset

Then we went to Hamilton Gardens. It was cool bro. I wished we could have spent more time in Hamilton.

Celebrating my bro's 21st. Dinner was good, yummy food! :)

On the way back, we witnessed snowfall! It was snowing along Desert Road! I put my hand out of the window to feel and play with the snow. I even stuck my tongue out of the window a bit. haha.

Snowy Desert Road.

Happy 21st Birthday, bro. :)

I hope I can use the remaining non-schooling days wisely. It's gonna be a long 6 weeks till semester comes to an end. WWJD?


xoxovon
I need to work out.