2010

I had the law students orientation yesterday. It started at 11:00am and each of the course advisors took their turns discussing what their papers would involve. It sounds quite exciting, to be honest. I'm doing criminal law and public law this year, each a year long. I thought that the criminal law co-ordinator made a really good point when she said that many aspects of law need a real appreciation of the finer details, a developed emotional maturity and an understanding of the wider issues. But that isn't the case with criminal law. Anyone and everyone has an opinion; it's an engaging subject so should be a really fun course.

I wore a t-shirt, shorts and jandals to try and make the most of the weather. As soon as I left the house, I noticed how menacing the clouds had become. I didn't really care; they went away eventually and I won't get a chance to see my legs or arms much during winter.

We had a barbeque after the hello from the key staff. It seems like an ok crowd - there are three hundred odd though so I'm not certain I'll be familiar with them all by the end of the year. Most of the people I knew who deserved to get through had, although a couple of friends had missed out. The GPA was the highest it's ever been to gain admission and there were 1600 odd students in the first semester. It is sort of ruthless like that. In my end of year exam, the guy next to me sat holding his temples as he stared at the exam paper for forty five minutes. Guts eh.

I want to go to the Lantern festival in Albert Park tonight. I saw them setting up on my way through to uni yesterday and it looks legit as. Whether or not I can convince anyone we'll see. I'm really keen to start university, but also kind of sad that summer is winding down. I had such a great time at Getaway, Parachute and all the other random little trips and hang outs. I've made a bunch of new friends and stuff so it's been great.

This year is going to be busy, that's for sure.

Awesome day; I spent most of it asleep on the sand.



Me creating a new facebook display picture.

Pretty cool imo

So I've just completed 9 days of full time work; fairly tired. It's been a grueling regime but I've really enjoyed it. I was very pleased that it was contrary to my expectations.

After completing my last day of work until next Saturday, the weekend before University, I was feeling festive. I got home from work, had a light dinner and met up with Nick, Sam, Bryn and Hailey for some basketball at my old school.

Nostalgia tickled me as I walked around. The paths all seemed smaller, but their unique cobbles no less enchanting. All the little plants, the classrooms and my favourite basketball hoops and hang out areas were all still there. I had rushes of emotion; I'm not sure of what exactly, as I looked at the staff room and its deck; the little pavilion that stole so many coins out of the excited hands of children laden with food.

We played basketball for a bit then went home and got changed before dinner.

We met at La Porchetta at 8:00. I had already had dinner at home to be polite; my parents had bought some fish and stuff especially. I ordered a small pizza dish which was good and had some brilliant gelato. Two scoops vanilla, one chocolate with vanilla sauce - just amazing. At the counter, my friend asked if they took credit card. The teller replied they do, just not American Express. I turned to Sean and said in an American accent: 'Man, it's crazy. Everywhere in the states takes AmEx but no one does over here.' I hadn't intended - but the teller then turned to me and said 'Yeah we have extra charges over here so they don't offer it as much.' I had to curtail the rest of the conversation with an American accent lolol.

We wanted to go to Mill Ponds, a large quarry that had been filled in. We drove an hour or so at 11:00 to get there, arriving at 12:00 to a closed 'electric' fence. We decided to go to Omaha Beach instead. We arrived a bit past 12:00. I got changed and went for a swim. The water was warm. Looking up, the stars were absolutely magnificent.



We played around for a bit, letting invisible waves hit us in the darkness, until I got a little cool. I went back to the others and was drying myself as I saw a massive shooting star streak through the sky. It left a fluorescent blue trail. Such an awesome sight.

We headed home soon enough. I had been awake since 7:00 and it was now 2:00 with an hour drive ahead. I was trying desperately not to feel sleepy, it didn't help all my 5 passengers were asleep. I got home and collapsed.

Today I just watched some of the winter olympics and snoozed. I washed the car, getting rid of all the sand from the beach. Hung out after church with Zac, Josh, Caleb and Ryan - sweet as times at Mc'y Ds.

Life is great :)

Went and saw Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief last night with Jason (my boi).

We were going to meet at the supermarket at 8 to stock up; I hit a massive detour, which I had to drive through several times as I spun around in circles; completely lost.

I got there right as the trailers were ending, only eight or so people had prevailed the roadwork gauntlet on a drizzly, Monday night.

I loved the movie since it had heaps of Greek mythology in it. I love Greek mythology; Ancient History is one of my majors in my BA. The movie had a few inaccurices but on the whole was still awesome.



The story itself wasn't bad. A young teenager who has dyslexia and ADHD finds out he is a demigod and must travel to the underworld to save his mother and retrieve the lightning bolt stolen by the Lightning Thief. Cool movie to chill out to on a Monday night.

After Primal on Thursday night, we all went to Circus Circus, a little cafe in Mt Eden. It used to be an old bungalow, added onto several times, giving it a distinct 'house in a shoe' feel, as each room gives way to another in a mysterious way.

Around forty of us went, with most of us tucking into a semi outdoor area that was up some slight stairs and through what I can only assume was an old parlour room. I shouted Estelle some food cause she was driving me home and got a Guava and Apple drink for myself, which was an excellent choice.

We sat and chatted for ages. I got home at around 10:30pm and went to sleep. I woke up before my alarm, at 5:45am. Even though It'd only been two days with my alarm at 5:50am, I was already waking before it. I wasn't especially tired though, and I have been enjoying work.

Last night, Carey and I went to Jason's 20th birthday party. We met a bunch of his friends, who were great. There were plenty of kebabs to go around; the cornerstone of any good barbeque.



I love this photo. There is so much energy and everyone looks so happy. I think it's a great capture of 'friendship.'

It's Valentines tomorrow and if you haven't already arranged something magnificent, it's probably too late now. However, you can join this facebook event. It's called 'Tell Her She's Beautiful' with the idea being that you just let friends know they are loved and treasured (not exclusive to either sex.) It has 1.2 million members already; being open invite. So if you don't have anyone special in mind, or even if you do, why don't you just let friends know you love them. No one will be around forever!

Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been quite busy.

Most of my holidays have been taken up with holidaying and now, working. It's a pretty brutal routine going to the gym at 6. It's still dark while I run up and it really feels more and more like winter. I'm working 9-5, get home and I'm completely trashed. I then get all my gear and clothes ready for the next morning. I can't work like this in my adult life. I'm really glad that it's only for a couple of weeks.

Last night though, we had a great picnic at Pt Chev. Sandwiches, watermelon and warm sunlight. We had a checkered blanket and everything. I lay back on the grass and looked at the sky, trying to sear the image into my mind; as a bulwark against the monotony of office life.

Thanks to Clare for a great photo. I can't wait until my work is finished and I can enjoy the last blip of holidays before university starts back up. If we haven't hung out yet this summer, hit me up, I'm keen!

Great game to watch. Even though I live in New Zealand, and American football really has no audience here, I can feel the excitment. I'm not an avid follower by any means, but it was great to watch millions and millions of dollars packed into a few hours of game time.

My favourite play was the intercept by Saints cornerback Tracy Porter. He secured the win for the Saints, against one of the 'great' quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, running 74 yards to the touchdown. You can see it here:



Nick came over, while my older brother had a superbowl party upstairs. Pretty fun day eh!

I really want to play a sport this year, if I can fit it in with everything, and gridiron seems like it would be balling.

I just finished reading The Shack by William Young earlier this week.

It is a really good book. It presents God in a completely fresh way. You don't have to be Christian or a theologian to appreciate what the author is trying to do. If you are curious about God, or you are already into him, it's definitely for you.

I'd check it out; you probably won't see God the same afterwards.

My last post finished with Friday night, we pick up with Saturday here.

We saw our friends' band, Kadet early in the evening. They were playing at the Apollo, their first time at parachute.



They were selected to play Mainstage on Monday morning, straight after Hillsong United (super big deal.) They were the best debut band, so had the awesome opportunity of playing to the full parachute crowd, somewhat diminished by the rain.



Awesome Ryan and Caleb!

Saturday night, Carey and I got really close to Switchfoot and enjoyed getting tossed around. I nearly lost my jandals a couple times.

They had massive birthday celebrations, including over 10,000 glowsticks that were distributed. After Switchfoot finished, a few people decided to toss their glowsticks forward. It erupted into a full blown spectacle of light bouncing up and down miraculously over the crowd. It looked like salmon swimming upstreaming covered in fluro, pretty awesome.

It rained hardout on Sunday, everything turned into a waterway. All our stuff was getting damp and juice from all sorts of meats and breads began to run through our chilly bin. We were going to hunker down, when at 12:00 that night, Jenny offered us a lift.

Johnny, the lead singer of the Primal band, our friend and her boyfriend, had artist transport from the camp to the carpark. It is over a kilometre up steep, muddy hills with gravel, that we'd had to have travelled a few times to take all our gear. Everything was sodden. The offer was way too good to pass up. Carey and I scrambled to pack everything in pouring rain. Being twins, we didn't hold our frustration back. It doesn't matter how much we abuse eachother, we will still be twins in the end. It's not like a boy/girlfriend or even a regular friend; you don't complete trust in the nature of your relationship. We do, so we got pretty ruthless as the rain poured down.

I slept all the way back and we arrived home at 3.00am Monday morning. I addressed the really wet stuff and then went to bed. I woke the next morning to find my parents had unpacked all my gear (I love you.)

Yesterday was an impromptu trip to Waiwera, to hang out with my old classmates from TDI. It was a great day, and the new kids in the class are cool. Had a great swim and spa; Carey and Allie jumped in the 'Lava Pool' of 48 degrees (previously occupied by old people, Eastern europeans and Asians.)

I've tied up a bunch of loose ends today and am looking forward to Primal tonight. Some more images of Parachute:


Hillsong United


Leeland

Our trip down was great. We zoomed through miles of country. On each side, as far as the eye could see, buttercups gently swayed in the breeze, glistening in their ashen glory. Karaoke streamed out of the car as we sung summer anthems.

We arrived in blistering heat; we set our tent up in front of the main stage, behind the stands. I didn't move for most of the afternoon. I gulped several bottles of water. My arms were burning from the kilometre or so from the car park to our spot. We'd taken several trips to ferry everything down; chilly bin, tent, cooker, clothes.

I got some pretty brutal blisters on my feet from my jandals. I decided to ignore them and the pain eventually subsided. I had a small dinner of a bread loaf dipped in feta and spinach dip, the heat had murdered my appetite.

Carey and I wandered up to the Village as the sun was going down. The bright carnival lights and whirling rides with the hustle and bustle induced a weird nostalgia in me. We hung out with Caleb who had tented nearby. We were pretty tired from our trip down, so we went to bed at around 12. As we were leaving Caleb's tent, we saw a lantern that was flying away, with a small fire burning in it. That was the sort of thing I'd have loved to watch as a kid.

I watched a few bands in between all of this; my favourites were yet to come. I jumped in my sleeping bag, with sand from new years still with me, and went to sleep.