It's always good when I go back up to Auckland to catch up with friends and family, and certainly Easter this year was no exception. The weather was warmer than Wellington, albeit a bit wet, but that didn't stop any of plans. Thursday night was spent at Momo's, naturally, and all of Friday I was helping my father build a deck. We made some pretty good progress - the remainder that we didn't finish required the use of a jig saw that we didn't have at the time.

On Saturday, I met up with Wellington-related people for yum cha: Jordan (current workmate), Bryce and Vaughan (ex workmates), Will (workmate's brother), Charlotte (flatmate), Jono (flatmate's boyfriend) and Mel (flatmate's boyfriend's ex-flatmate). The restaurant was extremely busy but we were finally seated at 12.50pm where we proceeded to enjoy a plethora of prawn and pork dishes. Excellent!

The Sidhe guys relocated to the Cock and Bull after lunch for a few drinks, until I left to return home via two bus routes. It surprised me that the Link bus now costs $1.80! I remember the good old days when it was $1. I met up with my CompSci friends at Sri Mahkota for dinner, and Movenpick in Newmarket for dessert.

On Easter Sunday, I was at KCC catching up with the old youth group and various other people, before heading to Wing Wahs for another yum cha, then Yifans and MCC in town for some gaming. DotA... so good. Sunday night was family dinner night, so I got to spend some time with my adorable three month old nephew.

Monday was pretty wet. I met Mat for a bromantic lunch in quite possibly the most inappropriate suburb for two males to socialise in - Ponsonby - and we made plans to meet up with Peter, visiting from Canada, that evening. I wanted to take them to KK but unfortunately that was closed so we ended up dining at the Thai restaurant across the road. We stopped by Ollies on the way to the airport, and then just like that, my four day escapade was over.

It's a busy time for me. Only three more days...

So I FINALLY FOUND MY BELOVED SOUR APPLE RINGS!!! They were in New Lynn Foodtown, and it was a huge effort trying to get to them. There were these teens standing outside Foodtown singing, of all things, lame songs from High School Musical, at an obscene volume, so I had to crank my iPod to maximum to try and drown them out. Yeah, I know, it's amazing I'm still alive. But it was worth the struggle for those sour apple rings :D Yeah I also have sour coke bottles and feijoa lollies too. Ahh, happiness comes in artifically flavoured gelatinous treats.

Yeah I managed to finish my Christmas shopping, once and for all. It was actually pretty hectic in the malls today. Lots of people, no parkin
g, long queues...eh. At least it's done and I don't have to worry about it. Oh wait, I still need to wrap everything -.- Ngoh. I suppose I'll do that tomorrow.

What else..oh yes, Sam invited me (and Matt and Sam) around to his house for a simple meal of spag bol. Following that, we went to Parnell for Chocolate Boutique, but once again we were disappointed by the huge crowd standing around. So we walked further down to Movenpick where I had a sticky date pudding :3



Also! I have updated the Gallery with more kitty pictures from Sam's Farewell. Soooo cute. I also have a few pictures to share from our end-of-year bash at Wenderholm:

"Free for dinner?" "OKAY!"

Yeah so we went to Renkon in Parnell for dinner - me, Amy, Bobby, Raymond and Dong Jin. Just randomly. It was nice, although I can't remember the name of the dish I had. Some beef with garlic sauce thingy on rice. And we had lots of sides too - baked octopus (takoyaki?), fried chicken and fried tofu, and they were really nice.

Of course, if we're in Parnell, it kinda means that we have to go to the Chocolate Boutique, but unfortunately for us, it was way too crowded. By this time DJ and Raymond decided to call it a night, so Amy, Bobby and I went to Movenpick instead. I had caramel ice cream with hot chocolate brownie. It was ridiculously sweet.

So like, Movenpick started closing around 11pm. And we had lots to talk about. The three of us can really talk about anything and everything. So we relocated to Momo's (<3) for some drinks and continued talking for an hour or so. I had a passionfruit nata. Yeah so it was just after midnight that I started chronically yawning, so we decided to call it a night and went home.

I feel better about things now. We'll see how things go, but I'm hopeful and optimistic.