Whew.

I showed off my holiday photos at work on Friday, before rushing off to meet Chris at the library to embark on our seven hour journey across the North Island. We only just missed the curfew at Mystery Creek, but we were fortunate to have accomodation in nearby Cambridge for Friday night. We set out for Parachute early on Saturday morning to make it for morning worship.

The weather was fantastic on Saturday, with a light breeze and plenty of cloud cover to shelter us from the blazing sun. It was still very warm but pleasantly so, unlike many Parachute weekends before. Nevertheless, I made the most of the heat and purchased two Danish ice creams that day. Awesome.

Saturday night's big line up included the eccentric Family Force Five and the popular Switchfoot, before the birthday celebrations of the 20th Parachute festival began. There were free drinks and ice creams, fireworks, lots of singing and dancing, and the atmosphere was wild and electrifying. We decided to skip Underoath for Nathan King in the Palladium, a decision I did not regret after hearing some feedback about the type of music Underoath play.

And then on Sunday morning...it began. The rain came and drenched the entire campsite, causing some minor floods. Fortunately, none of the tents took on major water, but the huge inconvenience of having everything soaking wet was a pain. We attended morning worship armed with umbrellas, and retreated hastily to the tents after the sermon.

We only emerged later for Late 80s, and they were fantastic - finally playing some songs I knew (I'm Yours <3333) as well as some classics like Zoot Suit Riot and Living on a Prayer. It was still raining at the end of Late 80s, so we congregated in one tent and played Mafia (YAY) until dinner time, when we equipped ourselves with wet-weather gear once more and headed to the mainstage for the epic Sunday night show.

And epic it was. The rain cleared slightly, allowing us to enjoy such acts as Steve Apirana who was clearly the most unexpected outstanding musician that weekend. As the Parachute Band took stage again, the rain intensified and the crowd began to diminish, but the strong endured until Hillsong United appeared on stage.

I was pretty sulky all this time because I didn't really know many of the songs, and I'm not the biggest fan of Hillsong songs because of the repetition, and it was pouring wet and I was cold. But as Joel Houston began singing... "A thousand times I've failed", I stood to my feet, defying the wind and the rain (and the lightning) and joined the crowd in singing From The Inside Out.

It was epic.

There is something about singing at the top of your voice with a thousand-strong crowd in stormy weather. I can't think of any other word to describe it. It was epic. The adrenaline of standing against the elements of nature coupled with the power of the song and the resonance of the crowd...simply epic.

We were blessed to have a fine day on Monday to pack up our gear. We had lunch at the infamous 4th-form-camp Burger King where I unexpectedly met somewhere whom I have not seen in eight years, before departing for our seven hour journey back to Wellington.

When I look back over the weekend's events, I think of how there are so many people who are ten years younger than me, I think of the crazy messages you hear from speakers, I think about the excessive choruses that worship bands sing and of course the retarded weather.

But despite all of this, I had a really good time. Thanks for a great weekend, Parachute.

A Flash Puzzle Platformer that Bob linked me to while I was bored. Pretty cool idea.

My thoughts on Avatar.

Warning: spoilers follow. If you wish to proceed, click here.

It's only taken me a whole week, but my gallery now supports subcategories so that I can easily classify the food and non-food photos.

In addition, I've also resized, rotated and cropped several pictures from my Malaysia trip, and 570 of them are available for viewing in the gallery. If you would like the original, let me know via the Contact Form.

Phew!

Arrived safely into New Zealand yesterday afternoon after a shorter-than-normal flight - it was less than 10 hours, and during that time I managed to sleep, watch the remainder of Bolt, see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Aristocats, enjoy a Nasi Lemak and horde some Ferrero Rocher.

I was surprisingly quick through New Zealand customs despite being questioned by three airport security staff. They all asked the same thing: can I see your passport (I guess...), what's in the box (an LCD monitor), and how much did it cost (dirt cheap). Was picked up by Reuben and we went to Cornwall Park to catch up with the rest of the church, who had conveniently decided to have a picnic that day.

Spent the rest of the afternoon with my sister and had dinner at her place before she dropped me at the airport for my flight back to Wellington. Unfortunately for me, Wellington had decided that summer sucks so it shrouded itself in dense fog, preventing the plane from landing and, an hour after we were supposed to land, we had to divert to bloody Palmerston North International Airport (I didn't know it was an international airport...) where Air NZ kindly put us on a very air conditioned bus back to Wellington.

Stupid city.

First day of work for the new year and not too bad really. It was really hard waking up this morning and until about 1pm I was quite groggy and not concentrating well. I think my colleagues appreciated the love letter rolls, the green tea and lemon lollies and the mango chewies. It's Spicy Food Tuesday tomorrow!

I am the proud owner of one of these delicious babies, which I bought at a BARGAIN (under $450 NZD), AND it kills two birds with one stone (I needed new speakers...). So the hard part is finding out how to take one of these back to New Zealand...

Summary of the past few days: went for tom yum, met up with Sunni, ate some good old Malaysian kueh, walked pasar malam, had roadside durian, tried cold longan tau foo fah, had mango milk tea, played badminton and bought dinner for my extended family.

I have to go home soon! T_T

Arrived from Hong Kong International Airport to KL's LCC Terminal in Sepang early yesterday morning after a week-long excursion to Guangzhou in China and then Hong Kong. These damn Air Asia flights might be cheap, but you pay for what you get. I got the seat on the aisle right by the toilet and at the back of the plane, so people were walking by often, it was noisy, and I couldn't recline the chair.

After arriving at Baiyun International Airport two Saturdays ago, we met some relatives for lunch and then they took us to the Lai Family "Village" where my grandparents used to live. My #1 auntie remembered playing in a little lane there, and I believe my #2 auntie was born there too. The "village" is more of a suburban block of houses with pedestrian lanes weaving between them. The entire block houses our extended family - all the people there have the same surname:



I think that's remarkable, and it was certainly a surreal experience.

The next day, we were taken to Guangzhou where all we did for the next few days was eat and sleep. However, we did visit Baiyun Mountain for a much needed walk. The pond there is home to thousands of hungry fish who will literally swarm in a blanket of gold, red, orange, white and black to whatever food you throw into the water. I have never seen so many fish in my life...

On Tuesday, we took the bus to Hong Kong. A two hour ride, the bus trip is rather boring and uneventful, save the customs and immigration offices that require everyone to unload their luggage and reload it once clearance has been obtained. We stayed on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong in Yau Ma Tei, but that night, we met one of dad's friends in Central for dinner and a quick sightseeing tour around town. Unfortunately for us, the mist had settled in, so we couldn't really see a lot.

The next day started off with shopping in the morning. I have exceeded my clothes budget for this decade. But seriously, NZ$1 is approximately HK$5 and the clothes there are excellent quality despite being dirty cheap. Two pairs of Giordano jeans cost me NZ$70 - that's a bargain!

After lunch, I visited the Space Museum with my dad - I think he enjoyed it more than I did, despite his silly injury at the harness of the Moon Gravity Simulator. We took a quick tour through the Art Museum too, and walked around the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront before heading back for a late steamboat dinner.

The next day, we wrapped up the shopping and met dad's friend down by the piers to take a ferry to Lamma Island, where there's a pretty exquisite seafood restaurant. The view of the two waterfronts was fantastic, I love the neon brillance of the Hong Kong sky line. The ride itself was exciting, despite the choppy waves, I had my arms stretched wide on the starboard bow, listening to an appropriately themed song about boats - don't you ever forget.

That night, we also visited the Avenue of Stars, which is basically the Hong Kong equivalent of Hollywood's Walk of Fame. We saw the plaques of heaps of awesome Chinese film stars, including Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Our final day in Hong Kong was Friday, which was mostly spent walking up the steep Old Peak Road after a wrong turn. Nevertheless, we made it to the Peak Tower for some breathtaking views of the city. We were blessed with clear weather that day, so we took lots of photos of the magnificent sights around us. We also took a gawk at the entrance to Madame Tussauds Hong Kong where I posed with Michelle Yeoh and the awesomeness that is Bruce Lee.

I even have something to say about Hong Kong International Airport! As can be expected with budget airlines, we were delayed for just under an hour, so there was plenty of time to walk around and see the shops at the airport. This one shop is full of those prize-draw slot machine things, where you insert a coin, turn the handle, and a little plastic container with a figurine pops out. Admist all the Japanese anime characters and whatever other things there were, there was a Kirby one, so I tried my luck and obtained a Bomb Kirby figurine, complete with Warp Star!

My last impressions of China and Hong Kong are a bit mixed, but mostly positive. There's a huge number of smokers in China and it's miraculous I didn't get lung cancer or something. What's worse is the driving - at one point, our driver was driving on the FOOTPATH on the LEFT side of the road, bearing in mind that people drive on the RIGHT in China. What's strange is that they drive on the left in Hong Kong, so it must have been weird for the bus driver from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.

The architecture in both is fantastic, with massively tall high-rise buildings in stylish and modern designs, not to mention at night time, when the neon lights come out. I was particularly fond of the MTR system in Hong Kong as well, and its very user-friendly navigation system onboard the train carriages.

I would have loved to spend a bit more time in Hong Kong, visiting the giant Buddha and I've also heard good things about Ocean Park. Ah well...next time.

Oh yeah, yesterday, I finally had the chance to go for a Japanese buffet at the Putrajaya Marriott Hotel, where I literally stuffed my stomach full of salmon and tuna sashimi, fresh oysters, tempura, teppanyaki, yakitori and delectable desserts.

Phew.

New Year's was pretty blah, we went for a good dinner then relocated to my uncle's house for more food and drinking. They had some really good pandan tofu fah which was served cold - nice and refreshing to counter the Malaysian heat. Midnight flew by pretty quickly with some epic booms heard in the distance, but alas, not many of the pyrotechnics could be seen.

Meanwhile, my cousins (who are 10 years younger than me) and their friends had gathered around the Wii and were playing Wii Sports and Mario Kart all night, and with nothing to do, I sat in with them and played along.

Whee.

I should go and pack - we're leaving for China tomorrow and I won't have Internet access, so see you in a week ¯\(º_o)/¯

Welcome to 2010 by the way.

It's New Year's Eve and I probably won't be making two blog posts today, so here it is, the last post of 2009.

In the two hours I have been awake, I have written up a 2009 Summary for your reading pleasures.

With that, have a Happy New Year and I'll see you in 2010!

Thanks to a speedy recovery from the food poisoning and all the other FML items, I was pretty much 100% yesterday - good enough to have a very good appetite and also play 3 hours of badminton.

Anyway I've been doing a bit of site work (zomg!) so that it's easier for people to contact me. I only just realised that the contacts page doesn't work so that needs to be fixed first and foremost. I also merged the Websites and Programs sections into my Portfolio to save room on the menu.

Edit: And the Contact Me page is now up and running again.