As history unfolded three days ago as America watched its first African-American President be elected, so too the winds of change have swept over New Zealand as John Key, leader of the National Party, becomes our Prime Minister-elect. Gracious in defeat was Helen Clark, who highlighted the good nine years of Labour government, and announced her resignation as leader.

But I must say.

The changes don't stop there. We are watching the face of New Zealand politics change like never before, as New Zealand First fail to meet the 5% party vote threshold, and both Winston Peters and Ron Mark fail to win their electorate seats, sealing the fate of the party as it no longer has any seats in Parliament.

I can say only one thing.

Buy your copy now, and I'll autograph it for free!

As the poem goes, the city of Wellington celebrated Guy Fawkes Day with a fantastic display of pyrotechnics streaming from the harbour.



But for some, these fireworks meant more than watching a myriad of chemicals combust in the sky. These fireworked heralded a change. A change that attracted the interest of the entire globe as we followed the US Presidential Race during the later hours of the afternoon, until its pinnacle as Senator Barack Obama claims the 44th Presidency of the United States of America, defeating rival John McCain, 338 electoral college votes to 156. It is certainly a phenomenal landmark in the history books as America gets set to crown its first African-American President.

But of course, my project team and I were busy discussing important matters at our team meeting.



¬.¬

I had a fantastic Labour Weekend. So good catching up with all my friends. As a result of the excessive fun, I have caught a cold and am suffering at work. Today was terrible, I couldn't concentrate and I kept sneezing and after drinking that disgusting Lemsip crap I felt like throwing up.

Anyway.

I finished up at work on Friday and met Laura and Raymond at Cha for dinner. It was still relatively early, so Raymond and I went back to his apartment and Laura went back to hers at around 7.40pm. Then Raymond wanted to have a shower and by the time he finished...it was 8.05pm.
Picked up Laura at 8.10pm
Got to the flat at 8.15pm
Picked up Jono at 8.25pm
Arrived at the airport at 8.30pm
Boarded the plane at 8.40pm
Took off for Auckland at 8.50pm

Yeah, rushed, much. In the chaos I left my keys at the flat, but that wasn't too big an issue. I got picked up by Casey at the other end and met Bob, Ted, Amber and Han at Momo's, where I proceeded to knock my glass over and cut my hand in the process. After bleeding profusely, they decided to give me a free drink (YAY).

I turned up at church on Saturday morning, much to the surprise of the music team (apparently Jin hadn't told them I was on). So yeah, I got to play piano, and that was great jamming with the boys again. So much fun, far more fun than at Central Baptist. Afterwards, we distributed some flyers for the Light Party before I headed over to St Heliers to meet the Grammar Gang for lunch at La Vista. Great food there, so good to catch up with everyone. I was free for the rest of the afternoon and it was still early, so we went down the road to play Mini Golf. There were so many fails there, it was awesome. Props to Amnon for beating Richard!

It was still early in the day so we went back to Mat's flat and just hung around for a while, watching Family Guy and playing some Smash Bros Brawl. I really can't stand the Wii control scheme (and that's not because I've been working with it for the past week). The Wiimote has so few controller buttons that they could not possibly encapsulate all the techniques into a user-friendly scheme. Once I started with the Gamecube controller, it felt so much better. MetaKnight and Dedede are awesome! :3

Left the flat and went to Cinta's place for dinner with her, Alice, Jo and Reuben. We had apricot chicken, some cheese and cauliflower, boiled vegetables and roast potato, and Oreo cheesecake for dessert. Awesome stuff. We spent the rest of the night solving those stupid take-apart-shape-and-put-them-together-again puzzles.

Sunday morning was church, had heaps of fun on the piano but it wasn't my best day (I screwed up the offering piece) but I think people just appreciated me being back on the piano, which was really nice. We had testimonies from our group heading to Cambodia for a short term mission, as well as a delicious curry lunch for fundraising. I hung around for a few hours for BASIC and then the guys went to play pool. All I can say is... black ball fail.

I went out with Dad and Uncle Tony and family to this teppanyaki place in Ponsonby called Fuji. Entertainment was fantastic, food was delicious, but unfortunately not as filling as I would have liked. Really had to work for our food as well! I caught a piece of egg in my mouth, and two bowls of rice flung in my general direction.

Met up with the youth group guys at Momo's (haha, again). I didn't cut my hand this time, which was great. I had a taro milkshake with mango pudding, but didn't feel like eating much more. We were keen on going out after that, but nothing happened and we just went to bed.

But Matt, Sam and I ventured out the next day in the blazing sun to Mission Bay, where we enjoyed some unhealthy breakfasts in the form of ice cream, waffles and pancakes. We hung around Bastion Point before heading into town. We took at stop at Yifans where Matt played the new Street Fighter - I really like the art style, with the black paint strokes. I had to rush off soon after to meet Casey, Bob, Laura and Raymond for yum char at China. Good food, again, but unfortunately I was still a bit stuffed from breakfast. However, I did manage to cram a durian puff and a mango puff, so all is well.

Spent the rest of the afternoon fixing dad's computer, then met up with my sister for a chit chat. Her cat is adorable <3 and very vocal too. Being the awesome sister that she is, she managed to get me this:



It was a quick dinner at Uncle Tony's before heading to the airport. What a weekend. Catch all the action in the gallery.

IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED

I was walking home from work today when I came upon this construction site. A concrete wall was half demolished, and some people had graffitied on it.



I find this amusing.

As I said earlier, I was on music again at Central Baptist yesterday. I arrived at 9am, as usual, and practiced the songs. All good, all well, seems the dynamics and the timing were all in shape.

We were stuck for an offering song, so I decided to play a song I'd never played at Central before.

It was quite possibly the most inappropriate song to play during an offertory.

It was certainly a song that smashed the boundaries of Central's realm of hymns and contemplative music.

Just as the offering was announced, I broke out the hugest grin ever. This is the most mischief you can have during a church service. When all was quiet, I took a quick breath... and started off with a piano slide into the jazzy Em7 and Amaj7 chords of My Redeemer Lives.

It was awesome. I had so much fun.

Anyway, after the service, we had lunch at Nando's, dessert at Kaffee Eis, and then I met Ray who had just arrived in Wellington for a three week work spell. We met Peter at Butlers on Willis for a quick drink, and made some dinner plans.

Raymond hadn't eaten anything all day, so he got a curry from Reading Cinemas, and I wasn't feeling that hungry so I got a banana-kiwifruit-orange-apple thing from the juice bar. But of course I felt hungry afterwards, so we skipped straight to dessert.



So good.

I'd been speaking to my parents on Tuesday night (as I always do) and one of the topics I brought up was the music at Central Baptist. I mentioned that the music was very conservative and not as lively or modern as Kelston, and that's something I lament. Songs like Be Unto Your Name, Majesty (Here I Am), Amazing Love, Complete, All the Earth, Who Am I... they're awesome songs and incredibly rich in both their message and their musical structure.

I felt a bit empty after playing on Sunday, because I wasn't enjoying myself as much as I did at Kelston. I was off beat and not enthusiastic. I miss being able to jam with Reuben, Matt, Cinta, Mary Ann, Sam, Ben (when he used to play), Steven and Andrew. Now that I think about it, I think it's because I felt restricted in what I can do because the lead singing isn't as strong as it could be, and as a result, I have to lead with precision in the melody.

Well, today was different.

I got a call on Tuesday night from one of the ladies at Central, asking if I could be the pianist for this Sunday as well. I said sure, why not. Practice was today at 6pm.

And what a practice it was. It was a joy being able to play some familiar songs like Jesus God's Righteousness Revealed, I Will Give Thanks to Thee, Great is Thy Faithfulness and Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart. It was awesome being able to play how I wanted to play...to wander with the notes and play different beats. The two lead singers have fantastic, powerful voices and they harmonise so well. It was really uplifting.

Church music for the win.

Time to clear out some photos from my phone. As I said on Monday, we celebrated the announcement of Rugby League 2: World Cup Edition, my first game at Sidhe Interactive. The company took us out for some nibbles and drinks. Meet the team!





Those Wellingtonians seemed pretty happy that they beat Auckland for that Ranfurly Shield, so they held a parade for the players.



I was owned by the bus strikes on Wednesday and arrived at work 30mins late, so that night, I planned to stay at the Hub and walked to work the next morning. Good weather for it as well! On Friday night, I met with Jono and Dave at this Malaysian restaurant where we had the awesomest grilled prawns. A bit pricey, and not very big portions, but delicious.



Today, music at church - daylight savings meant I had to get up at what was really 7am. Then I met Laura for yum char at Majestic. I need to stay awake and not nap to keep this sleep schedule intact.

We got the announcement that the game we've been working on for the PS2 finally got the green light from our publishers.

So that means that at the end of October or the beginning of November, you can go out into New Zealand stores and buy a copy of my first game.

That's right, you can play the game, flick to the credits and point and shout when my name appears on screen.

While personally, it's not my kind of genre, I wholeheartedly endorse and promote this game to give you a fantastic gaming experience.

And without further delay, Sidhe Interactive presents...