Henry the maori

Man, If there's one thing allied can supply you with, its a nice handful of the strangest people you will ever meet. All of them hardcases, all of them so lovable. Ha ha. Like the big maori guy, henry, who always has a baleful look on his face, hides his earmuffs up in the ceiling, you have to stand on a toilet to get at them. He was a bit gutted when he couldnt find em. lol. Hold that thought. So to sign in and out (and get paid) you have to wander into this office area, strangly located at the heart of our section (Raw side) and sign in and out on this little time sheet. Thing is at some point someone nicked off with the pen (Which was tied down so no one WOULD steal it(Which just made it more of a challenge I think.))
So now you gotta go hunting through these offices to find a pen. It feelings real dodge running around in the office, I always feel real guilty. In my last day in there Henry Grabbed a pen which was hidden up high above this notice board thing. Apparently he hid a pen there to, because its difficult enough as it is to sign out.
It made me laugh and wonder what his house looks like. Before he leaves he compulsivly puts all valuables just above head hight to put bad guys off from nicking everything. His computers probably nailed to the ceiling. "Screw that, I'm not lifting my arms to get all that stuff.."
Im doing filing for DOC at the moment, just on the corner of K road. Mean beast oi.

Oh yea, ANOTHER CARTOON ALREADY! Yay, this one involves a bit of brain power. Meaning, dont watch it late at night if your tired. YES Leanna, you have to watch it again. Ha ha.

Prepository

The title probably transmorgified itself into a different word cause I'm to smart to just write preperation.
So I got back from headspace, now. TO LIFE!
I got busy and animated, did a few trial animations then released my first biggy since before Thailand. Its the first cartoon in what I hope to be a life time goal. Making animations, comics, and just about any media I can get my hands on and master to glorify the big guy in the sky. Check it out, I'm rather proud of it. Hopefully you can desifer what I mean by broken Champagne bottles (should be relativly easy if you keep in mind this is my cartoon thats launching it all.)
Anyway, I spent a few fevered weeks doing that while also getting my act together, and more importantly my portfolio. Which was bundled off to Massey uni. I had a killer time with the Interviewer there. Whos luck near the end ran out, so she spent a while looking for her pen, then eventually gave up and brought out a handful more pens. Pens are so glorious, yet so annoying, they just dissappear. Either that or everyone assumes they're free. Or they steal them because what goes around comes around. And they have had enough of it going on around them.
Then I had an ever better time meeting one of the head honchos of the Design department. He was pretty cool. We got talking about burma and Thailand cause he lives in that area. Oh man, The news lately.. If you have been watching it, its been pretty intense. I was like, woa, those streets look familiar. Although most of the highways in Bangkok look the same. But I definatly recognized the airport. Ha ha. Hopefully the king will kindly suggest that the prime minister fulla stands down, so people will calm down. Man, Imagine if NZers ever got so passionate about stuff hitting the fan. Our idea of a revolt is driving a tractor up the steps of parlament.
Anyway.. They liked my portfolio of artwork etc. So the design school thinks Im in. Now its a matter of what Masseys beurocrats think of me. Thats the dodge part cause my NCEA stuff is not quite what you would call sterling. Although art is kick ass through the roof.
Hmmm, I gotta go dry dishes, and then go to a meeting about the philipeans. Ill type more junk into this later if your interested.

Jenny Doll Part 1

The kick off, I think I was talking to Hanna, and this was a spin off from our discussion on whether or not people were responsible for what they watched. You can see I am of the opinion your totally responsible for what you say, watch, and do. You can't palm it off onto somebody else and do an "Im the victim" mentality now can you?

Jenny doll ep3

We made a number of vids over the course of this year, im slowly gonna put snippets up for your viewing pleasure, or for your squemish pleasure. I dunno, some of these are a bit graphic. ha ha.

Gone Gone And Coming From

The final weeks flew by. We did the last of our perspectives. Looking back they were a little bit of a drag. But somewhere along the way they did a bit of magic in me somewhere. I want to take on the world, live a missional life, here in a comfortable home, but also in the wide wide world. How can we as christians just sit around and do nothing with what we have been given? Lets use what skills we have to impact the world around us! Lets pray! Lets read our bible. Lets laugh about how we can take the discriptions of the song of solomon literally and think he's courting a woman who is a gazelle with honey dripping out of its mouth and myhr coming out of its hooves! Ha ha. Poetry is fun to rip to shreds mercilessly (also keeps some particularly raunchy imagery at bay.)

When we werent studying (Which wasn't really all that often to be honest) We were running around like headless chickens with blood shot eyes (yea, without a head, but with eyes never the less) staring into computer screens (Yes, Running around, but also being in a static position.) wrestling with non commital programs to make the year book and end of year celebrations a possibility. Ok, quick side note about the year books for the gappers that read this. I was talking to John (If thats his name), the head honcho who deals with all the cash at GCIM, about the pictures. A few picture files were missing from the year book. It was a giant montage of the begining of the year and the Philipeans. Ok so they were apparently ditched because they were so full of kick ass awesomeness that they weren't able to be sent over email (Since their file size verged on mammoth.) the girls spent FOREVER doing them. So I think he's gonna try and print em off himself and send them all to us. So maybe we should be prepared for a little surprise in the mail. Woops. Its not a surprise anymore, well act surprised, so you don't hurt his feelings or something.

Us guys got devious, and a little bored. So we decided to take the girls shower curtains (The showers are in like a corridor so they need to walk past each other.) and then steal their lights out of the toilet, and then the lights out of their room area places. I can't remember if it was before or after that Amy got a pair of Peakies boxers, and a pair of Jess's grundies and stuck them up the flag pole. Unfortunatly for them the camp inspector came that day to check some stuff out at camp. And to him putting undies up the scout flag pole is like sacralage. He was FUMING, muttering under his breath etc. Oops, oh well. Guess the christian gap year program won't be going back to Albany. ha ha. Oh yea. Then we got a pair of amys delicates and pinned them to the ceiling so it looked sorta like a half naked person stuck to the ceiling of the dining room. Funny idea if nothing else. We did a few more but they were a little to mundane to write down. But lets skip forward, back to the narrows. Us guys went to have dinner with Steven and Trisha (Our host parents from doing kiwi fruit.) While we were gone the girls collectively pranked the crap out of us. Im actually quite proud of them. It started with Frank noticing the glad wrap on the toilet seats. and the red bloodied tampons hanging on every single object, and the pads screwed up and pushed into our beds. Girls in general, don't bother with the glad wrap on the toilet seat trick, it doesn't really work with guys, We don't really use the seat. And its survival instinct to look in the toilet first, some guys don't flush. ha ha. Then we found confetti all through our bags, its spread out all over my room at the moment actually. (Don't worry, I actually vacuumed it up.) Then we found and disarmed their (was it?) disinfectant in the shower thingies, oh no, were gonna wash ourselves even more while washing ourselves! Not well thought out ah well. Then there was the salt (or something, I never tasted it) on our tooth brushes (Teeth brushes?) Now that one was a good one. But we didn't fall victim. Now my Fav one they did to us was the Vegemite on the light bulbs, it started smelling funky in our rooms for a while before we figured out what it was. We just nabbed their bulbs and switched em... move back to when frank found the glad wrap in the toilet. Its time for action! Us men had to take a deciseve counter attack, IMMEDIATELY, no time to loose. So we used the glad wrap they so handely left us and got peaky to (Girls, your aloud to skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to read about vulgarity.) take a massive crap in it, and then put it in their sink. The girls came out from watch Mamma mia, seeing we had found their tricks they all were giggling and hiding in their room, I guess they didn't know what to do. Then they started to go into their bathroom. I followed with the camera. Their faces were hilarious! They gagged, they screamed, they ran in shock, They exclaimed, oh my goodness it was worth it. sigh..

That story over lets go back to Albany. Im skating around the building, down a narrow path with a hand rail to my left, my board quickly picks up speed, the gravel, doubled with the incline going to the left makes my board slide out from under me, my legs at about knee hight slam into one of the posts for the hand rail, they then come back onto the path and help to slow me down. A piece of gravel sits neatly at the end of a streak of blue jean scraped onto the concrete. Yay a new hole. I lie on the ground yelling profanities. Frank runs around the corner, " and you wanted me to do that lying down on the skateboard??" "YeeeeesssAAah.. Hang on.. I just gotta walk it off." I try standing, "AAAH, I can't walk it off!" I say as I give up that bad idea. So I then spend the next few days hobbling around like an old man. Stairs were particularly embarrassing to get up and down on. Heh heh. It still sorta hurts when I bend my knees. But don't worry I'm still skating strong. As J was saying about Emo's skating "Yea, of course Emos skate. Its like a new method of self harm."

I dont know what to say now. Things happened so quickly. So many precious memories I should probably write down Im going to leave unspoken, and unwritten. They were good times. We did the end of year celebrations with our parents there. At the end we gathered around and sung. We sung our hearts out for the lord and each other. The girls cried, the guys laughed and played it off. But inside all of us were loosing a huge part of our lives every time someone walked out with all their bags. I lost the community that we had that day, and for 10 months before. People that I had grown with, people that understand EXACTLY where I'm coming from, know almost exactly how I have changed. They shared the life changing God experiences with me. They shared the millions of laughs we had. From Mount Eden to Thailand, they were there beside me. Egging each other on to do Gods work. If at the begining you had asked me if Headspace would change me, I would probably say yes, on an academic level probably. But I didn't think my heart would be ripped out and replaced with an entirely new one. One which would want to serve God hard out. To do his will. To do the huge great big things he wants me to do. To live in a godly relationship, to live a godly life. I didn't just give one year, I gave my entire life. If I had full control over the catch phrase of Headspace it would probably look like this.

Welly and the Narrows

First off, Sarah, my numbers *******. call me. *wink*
Second, Hey thanks for the welcome back Quin. But I told you never to talk about those dvds! No illegal sex workers for you! Bad. BAD!

So I finished up my stay at home and took off to Cambridge. We picked up Zac on the way. It felt kinda cool getting the team back together. We have quite a spirit of comradery. We all met up in cambridge and then loaded into vans and took a 7 hour trip to Wellington. there was quite a bit of silence on the way down, but thats the way the guys van usually goes. It was only breafly punctuated by talk of the latest games and metalgear solid.
We were based in a little scout camp in the lower hutt. So we had a lot of bush to run around in shooting each other with our BB guns. Fortunatly ye old faithful which I got from the Wessels years and years ago still serves me well. (The Wessels were this really cool family me and the Holdings hung out with. Really great people.)
We spent a week in Welly. I love that place. The graff is awesome. And I found alley ways full of sticker art. and there are so many skaters there to. Awesomeness.
We got a few lectures in this time. But it wasn't heavy going. We gave short presentations of pictures from our respective countries.
I got to use my Dads suit again on Emma-lees 21st. Its amusing to see how much you can make her do, she's like a sillier version of me. She put a bra on over her dress. So shocking. lol. We all went to dinner at this Thai restaurant. Really nice place. Although it didn't actually taste to thai at all.
Sorry, Im not giving a huge exposay and a million anicdotes. I guess I just want to get this post over with.
We visited the bee hive and got to check out parliment. Man, the main chamber is tiny as, I thought it was way massive. They have economy class seating I swear. I found it a facinating place to check out. There was one man on our tour who was a real dick to our guide (an elderly lady who had an impecable english accent.) Every time we seemed to mention the maori parts of the building he seemed to get really anti, and started argueing at the guide (As if its her fault that its customary to speak maori in the special maori room thing.) She handled it admiraly I do have to say, she probably deals with them a lot. His comments were pretty.. awkward though. I think most of us wanted him to shut up, while I generally laughed at how innappropriate and red neckish he was acting. Later turned out he was an Auzzy. A sad representation of australia, but I guess it just goes to show there are still full blooded racists around. (yay /sarcasm)
The other thing I noticed about wellington, its a giant freakin slope. I caned myself more than once on my board. I had a gnarly as graze running down my arm.and I fell flat on my side and pushed blood out of my hand after trying to go down a flight of stairs. But that one was more my fault I guess. I didn't have to... But I did.

After welly we went back to Cambridge area. We stayed in the narrows. Which is a spit of land between Cambridge and the tron.
It had nice grass to lax out in and play the guitar. Loved it. thats all I have to say for now. I have the weekend off, so Be seeing you around probably.

To work, to leave.

The English camp went well. Every now and again, me, Franks, and Jesses, lesson would bomb, but thats to be expected. So I didn't get to cut up about it. We were in charge of the Drama station (One of the many stations at the english camp, all of which were planned and operated by us gappers.)
I have to say, that most of the time It didn't look like drama at all. But thats fine. We still had a wail of a time. At the end we were all acuosted by every single girl at the camp. And I swear I signed a million books and stuff. by the end of it I was like, Ok screw pictures now, Im over camera phones, Im over cameras, Im over portraits painted in seconds (That last one didn't actually exist.)
That night we celebrated with the teachers, so out came the Karakoe machine and the alcohol, Which they got smashed on, while we sung our hearts out. Bohemian Rhapsody FTW*.
The next night we showed our appreciation to The Ngao Hostel. The leadership decided that a bit of spontanious "Gender Roll" switching would be in order. So guys were in charge of making salads, while girls were gonna do the firewood for the bomb fire. I wasn't pleased at all with this. But it didn't matter in the end. Because we all helped each other out anyway and.. *looks around carefully*.. The guys carried most of the firewood anyway. lol
The next day we headed back to Chang Mai (Where the Juniper tree is) and stayed at this trendy hotel thing with a pool. But I didn't get to see much of it, because who did I find sitting by the pool with 3 kids? John and Bex! Woot. So I got to see my nephew and nieces again. Its the first time in my life I have met Baby Sarah.
We hung out, had dinner at this american place (Kinda expensive) met some Burmese friends of theirs who worked at the night markets. Funnily enough they thought because I was related I could speak Burmese, Fortunatly I could speak a little Thai to them. anyway we got a Dvd, took it home and watched it before leaving for the hotel and crashing.
After a quick session at the Net cafe the next day we packed our junk, went to the airport and got frisked.. Because Peaky had a BB gun. -_-
We zoomed over to Bangkok airport, spent an hour walking to the next terminal (I swear that airport is the size of Hamilton)
We then shot over Australia and landed in the Auckland terminal.

Thailand experience... OVER.

Boy, our airport seems so scary in comparison. Police standing at the entrance of the plane (As if we would suddenly snap and kill everyone on New Zealand soil or something)
Not to mention our airport looks like it was originally meant to be a hospital or something. So depressing.
I had my welcoming party of Steven and Trisha, Zara, Phil, Sarah, and Aimee. Yay, thanks guys.
The rest of the day was still packed, hanging out, then going to a philipeans meeting. Yea thats right. My overseas invasion isn't over for the year yet kids.
I then crashed and didn't wake up till 2 in the afternoon the next day. Jet lag 1, Izak, nill.