And Now Back to the Cold
Sunday March 2, 2025
It’s been a wonderful but busy eleven weeks - eleven weeks! Gone by already! - and as I leave Aotearoa, my home of 30 years, I’m full of gratitude for all the people I got to see and the food I got to eat.
When I went down to Wellington last month, I was reminded of the great lifestyle I had while I lived here; the great eateries, the walkable city, the beautiful night sky, the lush greenery and the sounds of native birds chirping in the trees. But as my friends have slowly left the city for the suburbs or even completely new cities, the vibe has changed and even I know deep down that my heart is in Toronto. Wellington will always be special to me, and I will be back in the future.
In amongst my usual weekly activities like Thirsty Thursday and Spicy Food Thursday, I also attended Owen and Bea’s wedding in Waikanae, literally on the other side of the world from where I had seen them last. It was nice to chat with people and explore Nga Manu Nature Reserve, but I was home early enough to catch the Dragon Dance and Chinese New Year fireworks at Frank Kitts Park. Today, I played piano at Central Baptist, a lovely reminder of my roots and a tribute to the community that has helped me so much.
Back up in Auckland, I was at Sam and Chara’s wedding with a bunch of my old friends from my church in Kelston, catching up with people who I hadn’t seen in over five years. My stepmum, who had been badly injured from a fall and surgery for a fracture, but is now in much less pain and discomfort than before, also arrived back from Malaysia. I caught up with Deanna, elusive Chief Cookie Officer of Moustache and got a private behind-the-scenes tour of the new premises. There were lunches and dinners with ex colleagues and old school mates and Uni friends, a Chinese New Year dinner with the all-important yee sang salad that we decorated with a snake made of cucumber, we celebrated Dad’s 70th at Lilian with a fantastic meal and exquisite cake, and William’s 39th at his place with a hilarious slapstick comedy about beavers, and three Jeremys. There was Auckland Pride, weekly badminton (my physio had told me I could play if I took it easy but still managed to evade injury after going a bit competitive), and a trip out to Muriwai with Alfie who was visiting from Toronto/Hong Kong.
Last weekend, I took my parents out to New Plymouth for a couple of days. My sister had recently been with her family over New Years, and after seeing the photos that they took, my parents decided they wanted to go too. The scenery and weather was fantastic. There were beautiful gardens to walk around, as well as the coastal walkway where the Wind Wand was. There were some magnificent views of the mountain, Maunga Taranaki, especially from Paritutu Rock, which was a steep climb on stairs for the first half, and then rock with a chain to hoist yourself up. I was impressed that Dad made it up there, and he was surprised by his own ability too. We caught the sunset up there on Sunday evening and the colours around the sky were majestic as they contrasted against the silhouette of the mountain.
The food was pretty decent too. On the first night, we went to the Orangery, famous for its tableside flambé menu. We had a great breakfast at the Arborio in the museum, and some nice Japanese-style bites for dinner at the Snug Lounge. All in all, it was nice to get away from the big city and enjoy the scenery in the countryside, and it really goes to show just how lucky Kiwis are to have this in their backyard.
In my final week here, my parents cooked abalone from Japan that had been dried and stored for 40 years. Dad had brought it to New Zealand from his father’s shop in Malaysia and I suppose it was finally a good time to eat it. The next night, I took them for an exquisite Middle Eastern meal at Advieh and had an amazing experience. And finally last night, we celebrated my birthday with a family barbeque. It’s been amazing. But unfortunately it’s time to return to the cold lingering winter of the northern hemisphere; but I’ll be back another day.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:19am on Sunday March 2, 2025 :: 0 comments :: 
Return to Newfoundland
Wednesday July 31, 2024
Last year in August, we spent a week in Newfoundland, travelling all around the island and sampling the best of what it had to offer. What we discovered was a magnificent island with untouched beauty and so much fewer people than tourist hotspots like Banff. We vowed to come back, and this year, here we are again, only visiting the west side but getting the opportunity to revisit a bunch of places and cover some more of the remote areas. A week ago, we flew into Deer Lake, picked up our rental vehicles, did some grocery shopping, and settled into our Airbnb. Wifi was spotty and I could hear literally everything happening in the kitchen, but it was comfortable at least.
Thanks to my recent Canadian citizenship, I was able to get free entry for the whole car to Gros Morne National Park. We started off with the Green Gardens hike, a trail which leads to some rugged shoreline and some lush landscapes. In the afternoon, we hiked to Baker Brooks Falls. Both were a warmup for the next day’s hike to the top of the Tablelands.
Said to be a part of the exposed mantle, the landscape of the Tablelands is mostly barren and almost like an alien world, littered with interesting rocks and minerals. On the drive over, I spotted a female moose on the side of the road, which I found incredibly exciting and felt like my Canadianess had increased as a result. The start of the hike began on a boardwalk, and we continued past the end by following the main stream and began the ascent to the plateau. I find this kind of terrain interesting for hiking, and my long legs help me climb rocks with ease. At the plateau, we waited for the rest of the group to catch up and then crossed to the other side of the gorge to begin the descent. This terrain was unpleasant to walk on, and this was worsened by several black flies that perpetually buzzed around our heads. After an hour or so, we began the descent by following another stream back to the boardwalk. All in all, the hike took around six hours to complete. This was far less enjoyable than Gros Morne, but still an achievement to be proud of. We relocated to Rocky Harbour for our accommodation, where the Wifi was strong but I was on the sofa bed and had no privacy and no curtains to block the 5am sun.
With the major hikes out of the way, we did the Western Brook Pond boat tour, a cruise around a glacial carved valley with some fantastic cliffs and waterfalls adorning them. We were lucky that the morning rain had stopped in time for us to enjoy the time on the boat, and the clouds began to part slightly at the end of the cruise as well. We ended the day with a short hike around Berry Hill, and a sunset viewing at Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse.
On Tuesday, we started the long drive to the northern tip of the island. We stopped by Arches Provincial Park for a breather and continued to Port au Choix, where we saw several caribou (also known as reindeer!). Our Airbnb was in St Lunaire Griquet, and though I had a room to myself, the heating was dependent on the controls in the other room, and worse, the water smelt extremely metallic and unpleasant.
Originally we had planned to cover the historical Viking site L’Anse aux Meadows on Thursday, but since the forecast was looking wet, we brought it forward to Wednesday. We had also abandoned plans to visit Labrador due to complications with the ferry. It was fascinating to learn about the Viking settlement. Since migrating in different directions from Africa thousands of years ago, the arrival of these Norsemen marked the reunion of the Western European world with the Eastern travellers that colonised Russia and North America. We spent some time at Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve before returning to L’Anse aux Meadows for dinner at the Norseman Restaurant.
The clouds and cold rolled in on Thursday. We spent some time in St Anthony, admiring the view from Fishing Point. We spotted two icebergs floating in the sea, and drove to St Anthony’s Bight to take a closer look at one of them. We tried to follow the road along the coast to find the other, but that area was so devoid of accessible roads that we couldn’t really find a good viewing point, so we just went home and rested. Dinner was at a restaurant just five minutes away, and by that time, the rain was really bucketing down.
Our drive back to Deer Lake was long and boring, but we finished off our time in Newfoundland was a visit to the Insectarium. This was surprisingly interesting, and well worth the $15 and one hour we spent there. The butterfly garden lets you get up close with several colourful species of butterfly, and on the main exhibit floor, the staff were happy to take many of the live insects out for you to hold, including stick insects, millipedes and cockroaches! It’s been a wonderful week but I’m looking forward to being back in comfort in my own bed and apartment. Next week is a short week for work with both Canada Day and Independence Day being holidays for us.
Summer has been busy so far. I visited Little Canada, did Doors Open, saw Hadestown, and went to African Lion Safari. Matt visited from Cleveland and we went to the Illuminarium at the Distillery District, the cat cafe in Scarborough, and the fireworks for Victoria Day at Woodbine Beach. I had a very boujie dinner at Louis Louix thanks to FuzzyBot, and Korean barbeque lunch to farewell John, Tina and May. I finally finished the main story of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but still have a bunch of side quests to complete. In the meantime, I’m determined to make the most of the magnificent weather while I can, and it feels like I’ve accomplished so much already.
Posted by Jeremy at 2:11pm on Wednesday July 31, 2024 :: 0 comments ::
Canadaversary
Tuesday July 31, 2018
Tomorrow marks one year since I landed in Canada to start a new life. It's gone by pretty quickly, but I'm still thoroughly enjoying my job and the city - and especially now that it's summer, it's incredibly exciting to experience all the events and sights that Toronto has to offer. Each weekend has been filled with something to do, something to eat, something to see. I shared 100 oysters for $100 with three others, had All You Can Eat Peking Duck, tried Xinjiang and Teochew cuisines; there was dim sum, office breakfasts, birthday dinners and barbeques in the park. There was karaoke, a hike around the Niagara Falls Whirlpools, Canada Day fireworks by the beach and a road trip to the Blue Mountains, where I drove on the right side of the road for the first time. I caught up with Dionte and we walked around Graffiti Alley. The company had its General Assembly last Friday, where we partied until midnight.
Last weekend I was in Chicago catching up with Loic, Dana and Marc. I went to a baseball game, which went exactly how I thought it would, in true American fashion: the hand on the heart thing for the national anthem, the sloppy greasy food and cheap beer, the whole atmosphere of Wrigley Stadium was just like I had seen on TV or in the movies. It did rain a bit though, and it would persist throughout the time I was in Chicago. We also explored Wicker Park, the area around our AirBnB, and I even snuck in some time to do a few Zapdos raids in Millennium Park. The four of us did a escape room, then watched the fireworks off Navy Pier. Of course, I had the famous deep dish pizza from Pizzeria Uno too - I wouldn't have left the city without it!
My weekends are so packed that the weekdays need to be quiet so I can relax and chill out. But I love it. I need to maximise my time before winter comes.
Posted by Jeremy at 4:26am on Tuesday July 31, 2018 :: 0 comments ::
London: The Finale
Monday July 31, 2017
This is it. The final few minutes in London.
I managed to catch up with Jono and Charlotte before I left, which was good, considering Charlotte's based in Oxford. We had a barbeque in the rain out at Jono's flat, which I'm told is a very British thing to do. I admire the British resilience when it comes to weather, but I suppose they do have to make the most of summer while it lasts.
On Sunday, I went for a bike ride with Aaron around Teddington and up to Ham House, where we stopped at the cafe for tea and scones with clotted cream and jam. Clotted cream is exactly that - cream so thick that it will clot your arteries. I found it quite sweet and perhaps a bit sickening.
My final dinner was spent with Theo in Hammersmith at a random Italian restaurant. We walked down to the Thames and followed it back to Chiswick where we parted ways.
It's strange. I'm excited and nervous, moreso that when I left New Zealand. I'm actually going for work now, as opposed to going for a holiday. It's getting real. I'll have to find a place to rent, sort out utilities, get a SIM card, pay tax - all those adult things. I'm going to work for an amazing company at what is only my second job. It's a big life-changing moment for me but I'm looking forward to it.
Posted by Jeremy at 1:23pm on Monday July 31, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
On the move again
Tuesday June 20, 2017
I'm at Luton Airport with Theo, ready for a big five week tour of Eastern Europe. It's stinking hot in London today, and made worse by the lack of any airflow whatsoever on the bus from London Victoria to Luton. So many people were completely miserable, myself included, just frustrated at how badly this country handles weather like this.
The past few days have been uneventful, save for a barbeque out in Teddington on Saturday. As I said, the weather has been extremely hot, which is very good for barbeques and certain outdoor activities, but horrible for sleeping and sitting in buses. I spent most of my time finalising my plans for this next holiday, and also indulging in a bit of Starcraft II when I got bored. I've also introduced a new feature to my blog called Scribbles, which is kind of like an antisocial version of Twitter where I can dump all my random thoughts and observations as I'm on the road, as opposed to sitting down and writing a more formalised blog.
It was good to catch up with Aaron and Louise out at their place in Teddington. Aaron had purchased a massive gas cooker and paella dish, and was busy getting that to work when I arrived. A massive paella hot plate filled with stock, herbs, spices, chicken, and chorizo bubbled away; he later added rice, squid and peas for some colour. The result was a delicious but perhaps slightly inauthentic paella that was enjoyed by all there. There was also a charcoal barbeque working, and lots of salads and drinks to go around.
I'm excited to cover this last leg, but also somewhat nervous about my next moves. Nervous in the sense I'm going to be in unknown territory again, a kind of excited nervous as opposed to anxious nervous. It's not 100% official but very close to it, and I'll write more about this once I get some certainty around dates and timing.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:39am on Tuesday June 20, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
It's Christmas
Sunday December 27, 2015
The last month of work has been pretty manic, with builds of all our games going out on various platforms and systems all at once. In our last week, we had our annual game jam, which was pretty manic, but the end result was a quality set of very impressive games from all teams.
Social wise, there's been a lot happening too. There was Campbell and Linda's wedding, we got some kittens delivered to the office thanks to Uber, we went out to Cape Palliser for a miniroad trip, there was the 80's Party IV and Jordan's 30th, and we had a week-long set of Christmas events to round out the end of the year.
Last Saturday, six of us began our roadtrip up to Auckland via Owhango, where we stayed the night. On Sunday, we headed to Tauranga for some white water rafting down the Wairoa River, only open 26 days a year due to it being controlled by a hydroelectric dam. However, due to some problems with the booking system, we had to be rebooked for 1.30pm instead of 11.30am, so we went up to Mount Maunganui for a squizz at the beach. I've never actually been there before, but the sand and water were fantastic and inviting. Eventually we returned to our white water rafting meeting point and geared up for an exhilarating ride down two Grade V waterfalls. It was an amazing experience and one to be remembered for a long time!
I didn't really make any plans with people before I arrived in Auckland, but as was expected, my calendar started filling up very quickly. On Monday, I was pretty tired from the roadtrip, so spent most of the time at home. On Tuesday, I met Mat and Will in town for lunch at Ortolanas and we got some take away Milse too. I went to the cat cafe on Queens St with Reagan and Erica, then met Mana out in East Tamaki for Korean BBQ. On Wednesday, I met up with all the Wellington crew for dinner at Kushi, dessert at Giapo and drinks at the Belgian Beer Cafe, before going for a quick drive down Franklin Road - and by quick, I mean a very slow paced crawl from all the traffic. On Thursday, I was at my sister's house catching with my nephews and then off to Tatsumi with my parents for an amazing eight course degustation.
Friday was Christmas, and that was double dinner at my sister's and then a family friend's house nearby. On Boxing Day, I was at Long Bay Beach with my schoolmates, and a good old traditional Kiwi barbeque at Mat's, and today I've been hanging with the guys from KCC. There's been mafia, Love Letter and Dota, and it's been pretty full on!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:11am on Sunday December 27, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
What a Weekend
Sunday March 2, 2014
The weekend started out with a few drinks and pizza at the Sprig and Fern, and some healthy discussion on mildly controversial and polarising religious opinions. Following that, we headed back to the Greenhouse for some delicious black forest cake to celebrate a non-descript March holiday which happened to coincide with World Civil Defense Day. I had my suspicions but I was still pleasantly surprised and a little embarrassed with the attention, but the night was thoroughly enjoyable.
On Saturday, we had the PikPok Family Day Barbeque at the Mt Victoria Bowls Club. Though the day was a bit windy, the sun was glorious and the atmosphere chilled and relaxed. Charlie had found out about the aforementioned non-descript March holiday and had brought in some candles to stick in the cupcakes, it was very sweet. Thanks to a sign she had written, people well-wished me as the day progressed, again very touched by the sentiments but a little embarrassed with the attention, teehee. It was awesome to spend the day with cool people doing cool things, just out in the sun chit-chatting and playing bowls.
We ended up at the Gryphon Theatre at 8pm to catch the final night of the Fringe at the Gryphon, with three improv shows: Brooks and Brown in Literally Anything, Sketchual Healing and Here's a Thing. Mind-blowingly funny, absolutely amazing performances by all involved and just damn entertaining, capping off what was a brilliant day.
I've been house-sitting at Charles's place too, with his two kittens Hugs and Kisses. Adorable but so mischievous! They like following me around the house and they're extremely playful. I left the pantry open and they snuck in to have a look around; they got stuck in one of the large drawers in the kitchen as well. They'd go into my room and I'd try to carry them out, but since there's two, I'd get rid of one only to have the other sneak in, and repeat. Still, heaps of fun to play with, and I think they liked the attention too.
I've also been following Twitch Plays Pokemon, a social experiment giving 60,000 people the chance to control a Gameboy Emulator playing Pokemon Red. After 16 days, they've finally beaten the Elite Four and Champion but spawned several memes and a joke religion - Lord Helix the Omastar, Bird Jesus the Pidgeot, Flareon the False Prophet, so on and so forth. Highlight of the Elite Four battles would be level 36 Venomoth (nickname ATV, or All Terrain Venomoth) versus Lance's level 62 Dragonite. Due to some questionable AI programming, Dragonite kept using Barrier and Agility as they were "Psychic" attacks super-effective against Venomoth, and Venomoth had managed to Disable Hyper Beam and Poisonpowder Dragonite. Totally epic, and absolutely fascinating to watch the whole game unfold at the hands of thousands of people like that. A new adventure begins in just over two hours - what could it be!?
Today I was at church for the final in the series of "Things I Wish Jesus Never Said", and then out to Lyall Bay for Ekim Burgers with Jimmy and Charlie. After a solid afternoon nap, I was at Laundry with Jono, Andrew and Wei for dinner, then Fidel's for dessert.
My weekend has been super busy but full of amazing friends and fun times. Thanks guys, you rock.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:45am on Sunday March 2, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
March Misadventures
Wednesday March 6, 2013
A year older, a year wiser?
The days are shortening and the southerlies are definitely more noticeable. Summer has paved the way for autumn, though we may still see some more of that warm sunshine that we were blessed with this year.
Comet Pan-STARRS has been supposedly visible in southern hemisphere skies for the past week or so. Always in search for an adventure, I recruited Mitchell, Chloe and Hayden (while he was down here) and we went out to Owhiro Bay to see if we could spot the comet. No such luck, as we presume the southwestern hills around Red Rocks were in the way. We headed out to Titahi Bay, but still no luck. Today, we drove to Makara but there were still hills in the way; we decided we weren\'t going to leave without a quick exploration of the area, so we followed the track to Opau Bay and the wind turbine farm for about 15 minutes, putting us just over the western ridge of Makara beach and giving us splendid views of the Tasman Sea. As night fell, we gazed aimlessly at the stars, watching the brilliance of Jupiter in the north and seeing the Milky Way arching overhead. Then, in a moment of sheer magic, we caught two shooting stars streaking across the northern sky!
But no comet. Oh well.
Last weekend was pretty busy for me. Mark\'s last day with us was on Friday, and we had a \"final\" game of Battlestar Galactica. With Rob\'s horrendous dice rolling putting the humans dangerously low on population count, it looked like Team Cylon - Mark and myself, and Mitchell, kinda - might have clinched victory, but some sweet blind jumping from Jordan netted a destination 3 card which put them on the home stretch. Not about to be outdone, I shot Rob in the face and caused Tim to die in the same turn, but sadly that wasn\'t enough to pull morale down to 0. It all rested on a final dice roll, and Team Human took away the victory with a strong 8 roll. Epic!
After our regular Saturday morning badminton, I met Damon, Joe, Chloe and Mitchell for some hot drinks at Milk Crate, and we relocated to Caffe L\'affare for brunch. Afterwards, the group minus Damon visited Jos and Ian at Garage Project headquarters, before heading home to find Smudge - with little success. We trekked over to Central Park to play on the swings and flying fox, but there was some kid\'s birthday party going on and it felt awkward just shoving them off the playground, so we went our separate ways. I met up with Damon, Joe and Mitchell again for dinner at Oriental Thai, and we joined Alan and Aaron at their place by Chaffers Docks, right where Homegrown was on. Rocking times!
We had an \"autumnal celebration\" barbeque at the Treehouse, full of fantastic meats everywhere - my kilogram of roast pork that I had purchased from Yan\'s was very popular. There were sausages and skewers and steaks to be had, and for dessert, Charlotte\'s scheming resulted in a deliciously moist and rich chocolate cake with fancy sparkly candles, decorated as if it was someone\'s birthday celebration.
It\'s going to be a busy month, with both my work and social calendars full of events and deadlines to meet. Looking forward to time off over Easter, then the South Island trip early next month!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:33am on Wednesday March 6, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Social Butterfly
Sunday February 24, 2013
I have been doing too many things with my life.
That\'s okay though, I have thoroughly enjoyed the fun times and the awesome people I\'ve been hanging out with over the past two weekends. Now is the time to make the most of the sun before it fades away behind the abysmal weather so typical of Wellington for ten months of the year. Summer has been great and it\'s sad (if not alarming) that it is March very, very soon.
Last weekend, we went out to Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt to watch some jousting after badminton. It\'s not particularly like what you would imagine (or what Hollywood would have you imagine). The tips of the jousting lances are fragile and break easily, and are colour-coded for each person. The idea is to land a hit against your opponent (with rules around where you can and can\'t hit - no hitting the horse!) and points are given based off aforementioned criteria. As the lances break, the resulting fragments are clearly identified by their colour to assist in the judging. There were also longbow displays and sword fighting re-enactments, but none as exciting as the jousting.
The next day, we were out at Adrenaline Forest in Porirua for part one of Ben\'s birthday celebration. Swinging, climbing, gliding and shuffling (often struggling) our way through the treetops proved quite the physical challenge at times; not so much the mental challenge I was expecting since I was so focused on the obstacles, I barely had time to look down at the ground. Unlike previous ropes courses I\'d been on, this one is more individually managed so you clip yourself onto safety ropes to traverse the trees instead of being belayed by a group of people on the ground. Additionally, you\'re equipped with your own pulley and hook system so you can clip yourself onto the wire and ride the gradient to the other side with some gravitational help. There\'s some great Indiana Jones-type swings, including one into a large spider web of ropes on course six!
Part two was competitive go-karting - teams of two doing 30 laps each. Jordan and I paired up to deliver a relatively unrisky and consistent display that landed us fourth place out of eight (not last, yay!). The karts supposedly reach 50kph and handle pretty well, though my skidding and sliding were not as masterful as I would have liked. I kept feeling like I was going to topple the kart over. There were fortunately no coloured turtle shells on the track.
I went for an improv show at the Gryphon Theatre on Ghuznee St, then to dinner at the Matterhorn on Friday night. I was last at the Matterhorn in 2009 and they have changed the menu and the style of eating since. The intention is that you order a selection of plates to share instead of having individual meals. Essentially it is like yum cha, except ten times the price. We found the concept complicated and were a bit nervous when the waitress asked us if she could have the authority to place food on our tab without our explicit permission. We shared some oysters with champagne sorbet, crispy pig tails, deer fillet with blackberry, potatoes with roast almonds and various other plates that I can\'t recall off the top of my head. The company was great and the food was good, but the messy logistics put me off and wouldn\'t recommend it - would have been much better if we had just had individual meals and maybe some sides to share.
Yesterday after badminton, we had the PikPok Barbeque at the Mt Victoria Lawn Bowls club. It was a family-friendly event, with a kids-only bouncy castle (much to the disappointment of many of my workmates), face painting and board games available. There was of course the lawn bowls outside, and in defiance of the Wellington wind, beer pong on a table decked out with some fantastic Flick Kick Football artwork. Time passed quickly and it got a bit chilly around 6pm so I left for another barbeque out in Island Bay with my church\'s family group. Though it was a brief event, it was good to catch up with various people and I was absolutely smitten with the two guinea pigs called Pip and Squeak. I ended the day over at Andrew\'s flat in Roseneath, taking one hour to set up a new board game called CO2 and three hours to play. Would not recommend.
Finally, to finish it off, I celebrated Chap Goh Mei, the last day of Chinese New Year, at Big Thumb in style, with plates of chicken, pork and seafood in dumplings, buns, rice noodles and deep fried!
Though we don\'t have the fireworks and fantastic lion and dragon dance displays that the Auckland Lantern Festival provides, I\'ve had fun celebrating Chinese New Year in my own way. This will be memorable for years to come.
<<edit>> Okay we just got fireworks. Yay!
![jousting](\"/gallery/pictures/chinesenewyear-feb2013/IMG_3510.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Adrenaline Forest](\"/gallery/pictures/chinesenewyear-feb2013/IMG_3546.jpg\"){kind=link}
Posted by Jeremy at 7:33am on Sunday February 24, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
The Definition of Wellington's Summer
Sunday January 27, 2013
The Metservice says that we're supposed to have a sunny spell for a whopping ten days in a row. Not sure if this is unprecedented for Wellington, but it certainly seems like something novel since I've been here. Plenty of things have been happening to take advantage of the summer weather!
After badminton yesterday, I celebrated Australia Day with a few of my workmates with a low-key barbeque. There was plenty of fine meats to be had, and lots of good old fashioned Australian racism too (JOKE). I was sad I couldn't stay for longer as I had to rush to the Sprig and Fern for Matt and Claire's engagement party. Good to catch up with people and form some sort of plan for the trip down south in April. Looking forward to it!
Last weekend was Wellington anniversary, and I went to the Game Master exhibition at Te Papa with Jordan and Loic. Highly recommend it and had heaps of fun there - there's an impressive collection of video games there dating back to the old arcade-style games to the newest consoles - Wii, PS3 and Xbox360 - and with the advent of mobile gaming in the past few years, some iOS and Android games as well. I was blown away by how well some of the arcade games had aged; while some were very difficult to play, they're still incredibly fun and it was interesting to play them with their original control schemes - joysticks and track balls galore.
The exhibition really brought back the nostalgia, with Sonic 1, Sonic 2 and Super Mario Brothers showcasing the pinnacle of platformers in the 1990s, and in comparison how these IPs have evolved and branched out to Sonic Generations in 3D on the Playstation 3 (though I was having a bad time with this) and New Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo DS. Moving on from the Sega and the Nintendo sections, there was Blizzard (Starcraft 2 and Warcraft III), Will Wright (Sim City... and then his later games like Spore and The Sims which I didn't care about), Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island), a large open area for Dance Central, Singstar and Rockband, then a section for Indie games and mobile games, including Castle Crashers, Braid, Flower, Flow, Journey, Minecraft, Fruit Ninja Kinect, Jetpack Joyride, Chopper 2 and of course, Sidhe's own brick-breaking phenomenon, Shatter!
There was some kid playing Shatter when I arrived and he was playing it wrong. I suggested he hit the Right Ctrl button to unleash Shard Storm against the first boss, but he ignored me and continued being wrong. Jerk.
I have been playing Sonic 4 for a while, which I bought on Steam over Christmas, and like Sonic Generations at Game Masters, I was having a bad time with it. The physics are all wrong and there's no sense of momentum in the game. The trajectory of Sonic as he runs and jumps feels difficult and nothing like what his good old 16-bit days felt like. Though the game is pretty, it simply doesn't compare to Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 on the Genesis, and it's a pity that the series has devolved to this state. Frustrated from this experience, I turned to Lego Lord of the Rings. The game has some great humour and lots of content, but is quite easy and the first few stories can feel tedious and grindy. I've progressed to the point where I have lots of abilities, so it's much more interesting and fun now.
Works has been going well. Before I left for the US, I was supposed to be on a particular "barfing rainbows" project; I was reassigned onto Rise of the Guardians on my return and since its completion in November, I have been maintaining the company's core code base - as well as the fantastic Game Jam week we had to finish the year. Though the barfing rainbows project was also supposed to finish in November, it's been extended until March and I'm fortunate enough to be put back on that project. Most of the game is there and functioning, but it's a very valuable IP so we want to make sure that the metagame and the UI system are high quality and well polished. Looking forward to seeing this out on the App Store!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:17am on Sunday January 27, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Labour Weekend
Tuesday October 26, 2010
Despite its notoriety for having terrible weather whenever there is a long weekend, Auckland produced some outstanding warmth and sun over Labour Weekend this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time up there - especially with my new car!
After work on Friday night, Juliann and I headed to Cha for dinner (apparently it's tradition, or something) and then to the airport for our flights. I was picked up at the other end of the plane ride by Cinta and Alice, and we were joined by Reuben, Matt and Sam at where else, but Momo's for a good old Taro Milkshake with Mango Pudding. Somehow, I got recruited for the Light Party flier drop on Saturday morning, so the next day, it was up and early to KCC for a few hours to run around Kelston and deliver fliers to the letterboxes.
I met my sister and her husband for lunch at Moto on Paramount Drive before chilling out at her place for a little while. They had been spraying some anti-mould stuff on the walls so they had to keep the poor cat locked up inside, so he was rather agitated. We guessed that he was suspecting to be taken to the vet or be given a flea shot (since he was locked inside), so he was understandably more antisocial than normal, but after a while, he settled down. Mrowr!
That night, I turned up (semi-uninvited) to Heong's housewarming where they were understandably surprised at my unannounced arrival. We spent some time getting the silly charcoal barbeque to work but it was worth it once it was going. He's got a nice quiet place overlooking west Auckland, with a bit of land and a deck at the back of the house, and even a self-contained sleepout for an extra tenant! And potentially a slingshot to shoot stuff and/or people at Fahad's old house.
Sunday was church as usual, and then lunch at (disgustingly good) Wendy's. I spent the remainder of the afternoon at Matt's house playing on the PS3 and dozing off, as I usually do on Sunday afternoons, and when the time came around, Matt, Sam, Steven and I bundled into my car and we went back to Paramount Drive for some Vietnamese at Pho Bien. Not fully satisfied, we drove to Parnell for some absolutely delicious Chocolate Boutique where we shared a Share Indulgence and a Chocolate Fondue. The night was still young, so we visited our old haunts, Yifans and Cue City before heading back home... via Momo's.
On Monday, I met up with the remnants of my schoolmates - namely, Mat and Graeme - for brunch in Mt. Eden and ice cream at Ollies, and since Graeme and I hadn't been to Mat's flat on the shore, we followed his SUV over the bridge, maintaining a safe distance to prevent my car being overwhelmed with gas fumes and smoke. We played some table tennis for a while, and even got some awesome rallies going (but they were shortlived because Mat kept stuffing them up) and I would have loved to continue but I had to drop Graeme back home.
I had a simple meal with dad before heading to the airport and arrived back in cold, overcast Wellington.
Sigh.
Oh well, at least it's a short week this week, and also, I'll be up in Auckland this weekend anyway.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:04am on Tuesday October 26, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
Trucks and Cake, Rucks and Fakes
Saturday July 5, 2008
I wanted to make sure I got to work on time on Friday, so I spent Thursday night at the Hub because of the trucks protest. They took so long coming down State Highway 1 that they only got to town around 8.30am, so there wasn't any traffic at all. But once they got in...there was epic honking and blasting of horns. They certainly made their presence known in Central Wellington. I heard there was mayhem in Auckland as they blocked up the Southern Motorway and Queen St too.
We'd also learned that Team Puppyguts, led by some guys at work, had won the 48 Hour Film Festival. Congratulations to them! In celebration, the company got a treat.
I spent most of the day finishing up the Ignite Website..and sneaking in a few games of DotA. Sigh I'm so rusty. But the website itself is making good progress, and Ignite Youths 2.0 will definitely release on time :p
I just got back from watching the game at JJ Murphy's. What an epic game!
We had a good meal as well. They were unfortunately out of steaks, so I ordered some delicious lamb shanks. Still a little bit hungry, Sunni, Andrew and I decided to share a chocolate mud cake (We were looking at Raewyn enjoying hers and wanted one too). My first comment upon its arrival:
"...This tastes meaty...."
Yeah. Some one had confused chocolate sauce with barbeque sauce. Awesome.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:15am on Saturday July 5, 2008 :: 3 comments ::
A Week to Go
Saturday March 15, 2008
It's less than a week to Easter, which means I get to fly back to Auckland to visit my youth group and my parents. It also means our current sprint for work is wrapping up, so I'd better finish all my work!
Today we had a flat barbeque, for no apparent reason whatsoever. But it's always good to have a flat barbeque. At least there wasn't any dancing this time. Rather, we played Mafia! Hooray. We had a twist on the game where we only two of the sheriff, doctor and sniper would be active, but it would be random and no one would know which one had been left out. So it makes it interesting when someone attempts to pass themselves off as something they aren't. Yeah, it was quite intense, but Jono kept making the wrong decisions and I think the Mafia got away with a lot more than they should have.
Oh yeah, as a followup to my last post, the three most common responses to the story have been:
3. Sleeping? And listening to your iPod? Let me note this down
2. So, the bridge you say? I think I'll go check it out some time
1. You said WHAT? You should have said "I'm taken, but here's my friend's number!"
Posted by Jeremy at 10:51am on Saturday March 15, 2008 :: 3 comments ::
Meat
Sunday February 17, 2008
Yesterday we had a flat barbeque. I suppose it's kind of a flat warming, since it's the first big party since the four of us moved in together. Despite the cold weather, the food and alcohol proved a big hit, and people were having a good time. So good in fact, that they started cranking out the Ceroc moves on the lounge floor. Yes. Quite.
At 10pm, we whizzed off to Te Papa to see the fireworks, as part of their 10th anniversary. Check the Gallery for the pictures I took.
Today I went back to the Streets for the morning service, with Andrew and Bjorn. I have to say, the morning service was a lot more welcoming and familiar than the night service, even if I didn't know any of the songs. It's a similar structure to KCC and we also had communion, which was good. Yeah, much better atmosphere in the morning...but it's still a little big and intimidating, haha.
After that, we met up with some others and had a barbeque/roast meat lunch. Roast duck, roast pork, barbeque pork and spicy chicken wings! :3
I also took the opportunity to try a honey milk tea, which was very average. Although it was better than the one from Cha (See my post a few days ago), it still doesn't compare to Momo's. Sigh.
Finally, I forgot to post this a few days ago, but here is the Wat Tan Hor I had from K.K. Malaysian Restaurant.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:10am on Sunday February 17, 2008 :: 1 comment ::
Dragon Ball Z
Saturday December 22, 2007
It was Jess's birthday two weeks ago, so what better to do than to celebrate with a barbeque at his flat? I didn't actually know it was his birthday (I think it's his 21st too) until Daniela brought a cake from Michel's saying "Happy Birthday" (And a delicious one it was too!).
Anyway, I have rediscovered that the Wii is really really fun, even though you don't know what you're doing half the time. And it's better than way, because when you do something right, it's incredibly rewarding and funny at the same time. We played WarioWare, Brain Academy, Wii Sports, Super Monkey Ball....and DRAGON BALL Z YEAH. Yeah, even though I kept getting sassed in Dragon Ball Z, the main objective is NOT actually to beat your opponent, but rather, to see how many times you can yell OVER 9000!!!!!! or KAMEHAMEHAMEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I think I won on those grounds. Damn right.
Tomorrow is the Christmas skit >_< I really need to revise my lines, but we have guests over at the moment and I don't want to look like a nincompoop just randomly yelling things like "Would you mind sharing your Christmas cheer with us???".
Oh yes, I sense that some people are at Momo's right now. ¬.¬
Posted by Jeremy at 9:28am on Saturday December 22, 2007 :: 0 comments ::
Sigh
Saturday December 15, 2007
So, today looked promising. It was cloudy, but there weren't any rain clouds in the sky. It was windy, but it wasn't a chilling wind. So with the weather holding out, the youth group went off to Orewa for our end-of-year party.
Unfortunately, the barbeques at Orewa require 50c to operate. Unfortunately, by 50c, I mean the old oversized 50c. So we didn't have one, obviously, so we decided to go to Wenderholm. Lucky for us, there was a spare barbeque, so we set ourselves up and started cooking food.
Food was great. There was so much meat. And there was salad and fruits and cake and *drool* and oh it was delicious. I helped to cook so I didn't overeat, and as a result, I was able to run around and go for a swim. The water was really nice. We were catching waves and stuff, but then it suddenly turned cold (I think it was a change in wind) and we headed back out onto dry land.
We continued to play a few games... beat vortex (Where you throw to someone, and they have to clap before they catch it. When you lose all your lives, you lie in the middle of the circle and everyone else gets to biff the vortex at you), and we also played EPIC TWISTER where we had a mat of 14 Twister dots. Yeah. It was epic. Epic, I tell you. It got to the stage where it was just me and Deanna, and Cinta, the spinner, had given up spinning and was just calling out random limbs and random colours.
Of course, since we're so close to Orewa, we couldn't resist going to Plantations for some ice cream. So we did! I had a double-scoop of gingerbread and cookies & cream on a waffle cone. <3
We were unpacking things at church, when some things happened, that should have never happened. It really soured what was an awesome day. I really don't know. I feel so helpless and depressed...even though I'm not involved. All I can do is support those who are affected. So, those of you who know what I'm talking about and are reading this...please, please don't carry all your burdens by yourself. We're like a family, and we're here to support each other in whatever way we can.
Posted by Jeremy at 7:46am on Saturday December 15, 2007 :: 0 comments ::
Phew
Sunday December 9, 2007
It's been very tiring lately.
Friday we had a BASIC Group dinner, and that was nice: we had teriyaki pork with stirfry veges on rice, and Cinta's famous chocolate pudding. We also played some Pictionary and had brainteasers from the Cranium card pack, and we were still keen to do something, so we went to Momo's <3 I had a Taro Milk Tea with Mango Pudding.
Saturday was busy too, music in the morning (only four songs so we were done quite quickly) then the church BBQ in the afternoon. So much food, it was awesome. There was meat of all kinds, satay, curry chicken, meatloaf, potato salads, coleslaw.... and for dessert there was cheesecake, fresh fruit, sago pudding, apple crumble, lemon tart....mmm. And THEN, after that, we went to Momo's. Again <3 I had a Blueberry Nata.
Today we had our last BASIC for the year (probably forever, for me), and we didn't have any songs prepared so we had a "Free Choice" where you just picked whatever song you wanted. And since we were sitting out in the front anyway, I decided to play the piano and I stuffed the intro for the third song, but otherwise it went really well. I felt a bit cheated after not playing for Open Worship last week, so this makes up for it. Then during discussion, we had some really interesting questions brought up, so props to Uncle Paul and Uncle Lye Chye for their explanations and sharing.
Finally we had skit practice where everyone got to hit me with some kind of inanimate object. Blah.
I spent some time on Saturday night resolving some conflicts. It's really quite tiring, physically and emotionally. But I don't mind it, because it means were resolve what's bad and look forward to more fun times. I'm glad we had that talk to sort things out.
Tonight, a couple of my step-mum's friends are coming over, so I guess I should be helping to prepare. But I feel like sleeping.
Posted by Jeremy at 4:24am on Sunday December 9, 2007 :: 0 comments ::
Lately
Saturday December 1, 2007
So I've had a real busy two days. On Friday I went out for dinner with my sister to this Japanese place called Moto on Paramount Drive (It connects Central Park and Lincoln Road) and we ate so much, and it was really good as well. We both had a bento box, except I had beef and she had chicken. The bento came with sashmi, sushi, teriyaki chicken skewers, tempura and some miso. We also shared 8 dumplings and a tofu salad. Of course, my sister couldn't finish some stuff so I had to finish it for her. I think the only thing left on the table were my two sushi, so we did a pretty good job.
After that we went walking around West City for present ideas. We came out empty handed. West City was about to close anyway, so yeah.
Then I went to pick Bobby up and we went to town for Linh's birthday thingy. Her Facebook invite thingy said 9pm, so we were a bit surprised that she was..um..not there when we arrived at 10pm. She was "running late"...haha. Poor Linh. We had a good time though. The music was a bit loud and it was hard to hear people talking, but it was good to catch up and meet new people. Half the time I didn't know the person's name, because you know, you introduce yourself over the loud music and then you spend the rest of the night trying to figure out what they said... and whether you got it right. Oh, we got her a drinks set where you add your favourite alcohol, freeze the mix, and then you have an instant cocktail. She also got this punching bag thingy that swears each time you hit it. O_o
Today, my CS friends went to Wenderholm for a picnic thingy. As usual, Amy organised a huge amount of food, so we were exceptionally well fed. We had fun cooking on the barbeques, and kicking soccer balls around, and lazing about, and catching waves in the water (It was cold, but wasn't unbearable, yet Ted came out shivering like he had hypothermia). Raymond kept washing things. Al and Ted "wrestled" on the grass. There was a turd in the urinal. No one ate the "kerosene sausages". We fail at capturing ducks. Pics and video of Al and Ted at Casey's blog.
In the evening, we had nothing to do, so we made a stop to Plantations in Orewa and had some ice cream before going to Al's house and play PS2 and Mafia. Ah Mafia. I haven't played Mafia in ages. And today I was reminded as to why I hate it so much. Everytime I'm mafia, the sheriff investigates me, then reveals himself and points the finger at me, so I die. Everytime I'm not mafia, the mafia kill me. So that leaves me with two places left - when I'm the doctor, I get to heal myself all the time; also, when I'm the sniper, I get to randomly kill someone. Han also introduced a "Joker" who has a one-per-game ability to either shoot, save or investigate someone. I guess it opens possibilities, but in the end, I suppose people just shoot for fun.
Eh. It was a good day. I'm tired. I'm on piano at church tomorrow so I have to get up early.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:33am on Saturday December 1, 2007 :: 0 comments ::