Letter to Mommy Bird

I'm sorry, Mommy bird, but your baby flew away,
It has flown to a place where it's happy and it's safe.
Don't be too sad, for I know how you feel,
But you'll see it again soon, and this time it's for real.


I'm sorry to see it go, I'd bring it back if I could,
I hope you don't hate me, but I'd understand if you would.
The truth is, I loved it, as if it were my own,
I'm glad it had a really good day, before it was gone.


It was fed by it's Mommy, all the food there was to eat,
It was out in the wild, the way it was born to be.
And hopped on the ground, learning to fly,
Then it jumped up all over me, and sat by my side.


Lord, I pray you bless it's soul, it was a sweet little bird,
I pray that you give me strength, I pray my prayers are heard.
Mommy bird, please be happy, for your baby was too,
Thank you, baby bird, letting me watch you as you grew.


I'm sorry, baby bird, for my careless act,
Now I know how my actions can cause an impact.
Baby bird, I've given you all the things you treasure,
And may the peace you rest in be beyond any measure.

Sweet Cottage

On Monday, we took a trip to Coromandel, on the East coast of the North Island. After five hours of driving and stopping, we had finally arrived at Coromandel town, and started to look for the right motel to stay at.  The plan had been to stay at Coromandel for one night, head down South towards Waihi, and stay they second night at Tauranga.

The first Motel we looked at had names for each cabin, with spa baths in each of the units.  It was cute, but the price for 3 people was $155/night! We told the host that we'd talk about it.  The second one we stopped at was quite spacious. The unit had a living room, a bedroom with a king size bed in it, and another bedroom with two single beds in it. And of course, with a room that large, the price couldn't have been cheap! It was $165 per night.  We carried on looking.


After driving through the Coromandel town three times and seeing a sign for a motel up a long hill, we finally decided we would stop there and ask for the price.  The sign for the motel said "Celadon Cottages". We had no idea what to expect of a cottage.  In the office, the host and his (probably about 21 year old) daughter were friendly and warm. The daughter showed us a room that would be $105 a night for the three of us.  As soon as I walked into the room, I was stunned speachless! It was a block of rooms, with all of the rooms connected to each ther by doors.  There was even a sun deck.  This room was just too cute!


As the 21 year old girl showed us another room that would $95 a night, I waved at my dad, who was in the car, for him to come look at this room. I told him that I could not even describe it! I asked the girl if we could see the other room again, and when dad saw it, we decided that this was the place we wanted to stay.  I felt bad that we had to lie to the owners about sneaking in a dog, since they had been so friendly and hospitible, so we told them that we had a dog.  She said that it was fine, it's only an extra $10 for the cleaning! So the cutest cottage unit stay ever, and it costed $30 less than all the other motels! It's just amazing!


Unfortunately, the weather was quite terrible, so we only ended up staying the one night in Coromandel, then headed back to Auckland the next day.  On the way back to Auckland, we visited the Train and Pottery show, which was pretty cute.  I really enjoyed it.

Heart of Worship

When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come

Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart

I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required

You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus

I'm sorry, Lord for the thing I've made it
And it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve

Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath

It's all about You...

I really wish I could find the sheet musci to this song. I'd really like to play this on the piano, but all I can find are guitar tabs. The people that play this on youtube don't provide sheet music either.

Japanese Feast

It's mum's birthday on Wednesday, so I decided to make her a grand Japanese feast, as an early birthday present (that way she can make her own plans for the night of her birthday!)

Here's a really short video of the dishes that I served for her big dinner!

It turned out to be a fantastic dinner! More perfect than I could have hoped for!

Dishes included were:

* Teryiaki Chicken

* Agedashi Tofu

* Fried Prawns

* Grilled Salmon

* Shreded Carrots and Parsnip

* Salad, and Chicken Soup (I didn't make Miso Soup, which is the only not-so-perfect thing).  

* And of course, rice to go with the meal. 

It all worked out surprisingly well! We even had a gold table cloth and oriental tissue box lying around, which was perfect for the theme!

And here's what it looked like once we were done!

This whole meal was first inspired by the Agedashi Tofu.  

Thanks to the lovely recipe found at http://www.grouprecipes.com/23040/agedashi-tofu.html.

Auckland!

The view of the Auckland Harbour Bridge from a cute, fancy looking, yet-to-open restaurant called The Wharf.

 Auckland City behind the Auckland Harbour Bridge!

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New China Town 中國城

When Mum and Dad came home one day from shopping, Dad handed me a flier and told me that a new China Town was under construction, and was due to be open in October.  At the end of September, we went to look at the progress it was under, and what we expect it to look like once is up and running. It was an exciting event, as we've never had an actual "China Town" in our area before! 

When we'd arrived, the outside  was some what of a mess. On the grass on either side of the driveway sat two large concret basins. At the front gates were two fish made out of marble, each in a wooden crate.  My dad and I speculated on whether the fish were to go on top of the basins.  "These are marble statues of LiYu" mum and dad told me.  LiYu is an Asian carp, which symbolises an elevated social status and success.

In front of both front doors, on either sides of the building sat two fierce looking lions - or so I thought.  "They aren't lions," my dad told me, "it's a Pi Xiu". Pi xiu, is a Chinese mystical hybrid that looks like a lion, but hads wings. It is said to live on land and in the sea. The symbolism of this creature is wealth, and it is said to have a great appetite for gold and silver.

 As we went inside, the workers and store owners painted, fixed, and set up their rented stalls, preparing for the soon coming opening of their stores.  We were excited to see what everything would look like once it was up and running and filled with stock!

After October, we went back to check things out, and to see if our speculations were right.  As soon as we walked in, we saw a display of wooden carvings four horses with a man in a chariot in tow, and laterns above it on the ceiling.  It was a carving of Qin Shi Huang and his bronze chariot and four horses.  Qin Shi Huang was the first emperior of China, considered to be the founder of the Qin Dynasty (246-221 BC).

The stores and stalls in China Town were a little bit disappointing.  It wasn't as we expected.  It wasnt traditional Chinese stores, it was more stores for Europeans, or European adapted Chinese styles.

 

However, I did manage to find my favorite store! The bubble tea store! I haven't tried it yet though, I hope it's good, like the ones I have in Taiwan. But for now, at least I know it's there!

On a Bad Day

I had a pretty bad day today. I was terribly tired, with the 3 assignments to hand in, 2 of which weren't done yet. Traffic on the way to uni was usually jammed, parallel parked in between two very tightly parked cars (do these people not know to either leave no gap, or enough room for one WHOLE car?!), paid 2 hours of parking ($4/hr!) for a 2 hour class which only lasted 10 minutes!

After class, i had to move my car to the $10/hr section, which was a 20 minute walk from the Uni campus, and went back up with my laptop to find somewhere to work. I won't even mention the trouble with my laptop I had that I tried to fix for almost 2 hours! At 2.15pm, I had to print all my work out and get to the other side of campus to hand my assignment in, on an already damaged foot. By the end of the day, I swear my foot was crying...

Anyway, it was a fairly horrible day for me, and I was in a very sour mood. I listened to the radio in the vain hope that a song might appear on the radio that would lighten my mood. It didn't happen. I put my iPod on and had it play my entire song list. Eventually, I'm Yours came on, and it instantly relaxed my and made me feel much better.

This is just one of those songs that, even though it doesn't make much sense, it does wonders to lift your mood, even if just for the duration of the song.

Like I said, I had a bad day. Make me feel better, leave me some comments! :P

Enjoy reading and listening :)

Nana - MichellePhan

Panic and Frustration!

Welp! It's that time of the semester again! Last couple of weeks of classes, one month before exams!  I'm piled up to my eyes with assignments! Eeep! I have two assignments due on Wednesday, a test that same night, and another assignment due Thursday afternoon! Why am I blogging you ask? Well... this is just part of my procrastination I suppose... Along with twitter, facebook, and restaurant city (now there's a game you can just sit and watch for hours on end!). 

My Wednesday morning assignment is a lab report, and to be honest, I really don't care how I do anymore... I'm just to the point where I am so confused and frustrated that I just don't care.  It's a results and discussion section of the report write up.  We never really did the experiment... the tutors did it, and they just told us about it and gave us the results. And we're suppose to write about it?  We didn't do the first few bits (introduction, methods, etc) either!

Wednesday afternoon is the Statistics assignment number 3! This one's worth 8% of the final grade.  Not much to say about that assignment... it's math.  I don't like math.  I'm not much good at it...

Now the Thursday assignment... that's one that I do have quite a bit of interest in.  Its a research/literature review on the "theraputic alliance".  Basically the relationship between a counsellor and his/her clients, and the way it affects the results.  I've done a bit of research and reading about it, and I've really found it quite interesting!  That is the one assignment that I actually want to do.  With that said, I haven't actually started writing it yet.  And it's a 2500 word essay, and it's worth 40% of the final grade! There are no exams for this paper, thats why.

*sigh* I guess I should get back to it huh...

My New Life - Pt. 1

As a child growing up in Taiwan, there were many things my brother and I were deprived of. Childhood was tough, and corporal punishment lined our everyday. As soon as we started school, we were told to be “the best”. Every day was stressful, starting school at 7.30am, and finishing each day at 5pm.

The year I turned eight, my parents decided it was time we immigrated to a new place. My brother had just finished elementary school, and I had only finished my third year. We didn’t really understand what was happening, but we packed for travel like we were told to, as excitement seeped through our every move.

I must have been asleep when we were at the airport’s check-in desk, as I don’t remember it. By the time I was conscious, we were waiting in a large room with tall glass windows, and outside sat planes bigger than I had ever imagined them. “Look! That’s the plane we’re going to be riding in!” My brother exclaimed to me enthusiastically. “Look how big it is!” My father, who was a pilot, explained to me what each of the big parts of a plane does, and my mother smiled as she watched my eyes widen with wonder.

A lady made an announcement, and we started to walk towards a tunnel. By the time we got to the end of the tunnel, I could smell the strong stench of airplane diesel. The stench slowly turned into the scent of coffee as the tunnel turned into a small room filled with seats, with tiny windows along both walls. My parents took me and my brother through each cabin, until we found our seats and put our bags away.

The flight was fairly empty. There were roughly 10 people in each cabin. My brother sat at a window seat, and I snuggled in the seat behind him, while my parents parked themselves next to us. I watched in great anticipation while the flight attendants preformed the safety procedures, and followed them as they taught me how to fasten and undo my seatbelt. “When we take off, you will feel some pressure in your ears”, my mother explained to me. “When you do, just swallow some saliva, you’ll feel a lot better”. I nodded in response. As the plane started its rolling taxi, I sat back and watched the ground pass behind us, and slowly I felt the gravity below us strengthen as we left the ground. Sure enough, my ears started to pop.

The flight was calm. My brother and I played magnetic travel board games that we had prepared for the flight, to kill the 14 hours of boredom. The flight attendant also brought us some puzzles and packs of poker cards, and my brother showed me some magic tricks. Before the landing, the flight attendant came around with a basket full of lollies for us to choose from, and told us that it was to help with the pressure in our ears when we start to descend. She was right! It did wonders! I looked out the window as we started to lower, and saw green meadows and forests, the green grass contrasted by little white dots. “Those are sheep” my mother told me. “They look like silkworms sitting on mulberry leaves!” I responded.

My New Life - Pt. 2

When we finally arrived at the airport of the new country, we were nervous, hungry and excited all at the same time! Once we were outside, we took a deep breath of fresh air. “Welcome to New Zealand!” My father smiled in content.

The taxi driver dropped us off at a large motel named The Half Moon Bay Marine Motel next to a wharf, where we dropped off our bags and made some food to eat. “So!” My father jumped up once we were done with our lunch, “Who wants to go see our house?” We all hopped into our car, which had already been parked at the motel, and a real estate agent led us to our house. My jaw dropped as soon as I saw the house. “It’s a mansion!” I gasped. “It has grass! Lots of grass! It’s a field!” The moment I got out of the car, I ran to the yard and cart wheeled on the green grass, and laid on it with my legs and arms wide spread, like I’ve seen only on television. The grass wasn’t great. It wasn’t soft, like I had imagined it would be. But that didn’t matter. The fact is it was grass. I had never seen grass. You didn’t see grass in Taiwan.

The real estate agent led us into our house. Even though the house was free of furniture, I was ecstatic! “Which is my room?” My brother and I questioned in unison. “Down the hall, second room on the left, the one next to the bathroom, that’s your room.” My mother smiled calmly to my brother. “And yours is upstairs, the one on the left”, she said to me. My brother and I sprinted to his room first, then upstairs to see mine. “Is that a farm?” My brother enquired, looking out my window. “Are those cows?” I pointed. When we were satisfied with our rooms, we went back downstairs.

Not soon after, we were on the road again. The real estate agent took us to see some schools. We drove to a primary school with a sign that said “Pigeon Mountain Primary School” at the gate, a large field in the front, a playground laid with bark, and little buildings that were classrooms. “This will be your school” my mother pointed to me. As we drove back out of the school, my brother noticed people across the street, “What are those kids doing there?” “That,” my mother answered, “will be your school. Bucklands Beach Intermediate. BBI for short.”

On the way home, my dad said that it was time we were given English names. “What name would you like?” He asked me. “I chose a name in my English class when I was in Kindergarten. Other people wanted it, but my teacher gave it to me. I think I want to keep that name. My name will be Ruby.”

That afternoon, we went back to our house. I laid a blanket on the floor in the room next to my brother’s, and took a nap. “This is my new home” I thought to myself, as I started to fall asleep. “This is my new life”. I was satisfied.

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THE ARRIVAL

I didn't take the Thursday morning traffic into consideration when I decided to wake up at 7am and leave by 7.30. By the time I arrived at the airport, it was 8.40 and he was already out in the arrivals lobby.

I ran into the lobby and saw a tall man in a black sweater and dark blue jeans, carrying, what it looked like by the way he walked, a large heavy backpack, walking towards the payphone. "Oh no!" I thought to myself, "he's going to try and call me!" I sprinted up to the payphone, slowing down just before I appeared next to him so I didn't look so strange... incase it wasn't him.

I stood next to the tall man for 2 seconds, peering up at him to make sure I had the right person. He looked down at me, and I grinned. "Hi... I'm so sorry I'm late" I sighed. "Oh hey!" His tone bounced, "it's okay. Wow... You are short!" "Shut up!" I whined as I smiled in embarrassment, "lets go."

We walked out of the lobby and towards the car. On the way, I stopped in front of a pay machine, pulled out my parking ticket, looked at the machine, and frowned. The machine only takes cash. I rummaged through my wallet, and sure enough, I had no cash. I looked at Karl, embarrassed. He sighed and pulled his wallet out of his pocket. "How much is it?" I shrugged as I pushed the parking card into the machine. The words "0 dollars" appeared on the display screen. My eyes widened. "Nevermind. I guess that's the good thing about being late!" I pulled the card back out, and started walking again, too embarrassed about my disorganisation to look at Karl.

And that was the first moments I met my boyfriend... physically. Great start, huh.

Karma

On the way home from university today, Karyn and I saw a car pulled over on the side of the motorway with its hazard lights flashing. Since the traffic was fairly slow, I asked Karyn if we should stop and help. After some discussion, we decided that, for many reasons, we shouldn't, mainly because there was nothing we could have done.

Upon arriving home, I received a phone call from my mum. Her voice was full of distress as she told me that her car had stopped on the side of the road. She explained to me that the car was out of petrol, and she needed me to come rescue her with a spare tank we had sitting at home.

With much thought about the situation, I wondered to myself if this was the law of karma at work. Was it because I didn't stop to help that car on the motorway so my parents' car got stuck on the road?

We had been talking about diffusion of responsibility in our social psych class. When there are many people present, it is less likely for one individual to stop and help someone because everyone thinks that someone else can help. After these lectures, I had decided that in order to do the 'right' thing, I should help people out when there are large populations and no one would stop and help.

Maybe karma doesn't have anything to do with it at all. My mum could have called me any other day and said she had run out of petrol and I wouldn't have thought karma had anything to do with it. Subconsciously I felt guilty about not doing what I morally thought was right to do, which is why I linked my mums car incident with the one we saw on the motorway.

Religion

At dinner one night, my dad asked me if I believe in God. A girl who use to be a Sunday School leader is now unsure of how to answer this question.

Do I believe in God? As I grow and learn more about people, society, history, and the world, more and more evidence has appeared on the subject of religion. How do I know what to trust and what not to?

Sure, I believe in a higher power. I believe that there are things in the world that is out of my control. I believe that someone is in charge of everything. I also believe that everything happens for a reason, good or bad. We don't always know what that reason is, but there always is one.

There are psychological research done on epilepsy and how it is related to religious beliefs. I know that The Da Vinci Code is fictional, but it makes people unsure of what's really there. It makes me wonder if the Christian religion actually exists.

When I heard the song Doubting Thomas by Nickle Creek, I felt so connected to it. Almost like it was exactly how I felt. Especially the bridge. "Can I be used to help others find truth when I'm scared I'll find proof that it's a lie? Can I be led down a trail dropping breadcrumbs to proof I'm not ready to die?" And the chorus "I'm a doubting Thomas, I can't keep my promises, cause I don't know what's safe. Oh me of little faith."

Oh, me of little faith. I want to have faith, but I don't know what I can and cannot believe. How do I ever know what's real and what's not? How do I decide? Or is that just what faith is, to believe something even without proof of it's actual existance? To trust, to worship?

Doubting Thomas

What will be left when I've drawn my last breath

Besides the folks I've met and the folks who've known me

Will I discover a soul-saving love

Or just the dirt above and below me

I'm a doubting Thomas

I took a promise

But I do not feel safe

Oh me of little faith

Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face

Then I beg to be spared cause I'm a coward

If there's a master of death

I bet he's holding his breath

As I show the blind and tell the deaf about his power

I'm a doubting Thomas

I can't keep my promises

Cause I don't know what's safe

Oh me of little faith

Can I be use to help others find truth

When I'm scared I'll find proof that it's a lie

Can I be led down a trail dropping bread crumbs

That prove I'm not ready to die

Please give me time to decipher the signs

Please forgive me for time that I've wasted

I'm a doubting Thomas

I'll take your promise

Though I know nothing's safe

Oh me of little faith

Dream Come True

Saturday night, May 10th 2008, will go down as one of the most memorable nights of mylife. A concert that my bestfriend, Karyn, and I had been waiting for for almost 10 years, finally happened. Westlife came to New Zealand! At 8pm, thousands of people gathered in the Auckland Vector Arena, New Zealand, waiting with anticipation, for Westlife to appear on the stage and sing our favorite songs. And Karyn and I were, of course, one of those people.

Sitting in row 13, we chatted to the blonde lady sitting next to us, Renee. She shook as she told us that she had just met Westlife! We couldn't believe it! She told us all about meeting them, and getting signatures from them. Karyn and I were so jealous! But, the night is still young...

Excitement built up in our stomachs as the lights dimmed in the arena. Screams started roaring in the stadium, coloured spot lights beamed and bass beats drummed. A large curtain appeared on the stage, and purple lights shone on it. We could see tour slim shadows behind the curtain, and suddenly... "WHAT! Like HOW! Like WHO! Hit you with the real thing!" The curtain dropped, and our four Irish boys appeared just 30 metres in front of us! Everybody screamed. The opening of the show was breath-taking.

The first person to say their greetings was Kian. We all wondered if Kian would say Hello New Zealand, or would he be personal enough to say Auckland. "Hello Auckland!" Kian shouted. "How's everybody feeling tonight, alright?" Kians four best words from every dvd. The crowd screamed with excitement! During one of the songs, Nicky gave us his signature salute. We've watched all the Westlife DVDs to know that Nicky does the best salutes, and here he was, saluting at us! It just made me melt.

Shane sang Mandy, and at the end of the song, where the words were "You came and you gave without taking, I need you today, oh Mandy." He sang "I need you to day, oh Auckland"! Mark was pretty cute too. I especially liked it when Nicky was saying "hey Mark, these girls wanna take you to their place tonight" and shyly, Mark said, "I think it's time for another soooong!" and Nicky laughed.

Saturday night was the best night of my life so far. I still can't believe they were really there, standing in front of us, talking, singing and laughing to us!

I bought a westlife T-Shirt (which I plan to frame and put up on my wall) and a Westlife program. In the program, each of the boys wrote a message, in their own handwriting, thanking everybody. At the end of Nicky's message, he wrote "le grā, go deo - Nicky". It was Spanish, and it meant "with love, forever - Nicky". He said with love forever to us!

Age-ism

What is the meaning of discrimination?

I sit in the bank watching people wait in line and I notice a number of people with walking sticks. I wanted to offer them a seat while I waited in line in their place. Suddenly, it occurred to me that wanting to do something different for a person with disabilities than to the others means that I am treating them specially. Doesn’t treating a person differently lead to discrimination?

Everyday, we try to live our lives by doing the right thing. But what is the right thing? Is it right to help those who are weaker than us or is it only fair to treat them like any other person standing in line? If you wanted to help the disabled because you think they are weaker than non-disabled people, are you guilty of ableism? If you helped the disabled, and not anybody else, are you discriminating against the disabled, or the non-disabled people?

When you walk past someone in a wheel chair, do you look at them and try to figure out why they’re in a wheel chair, nod and smile as they pass you, or do you ignore them and pretend you never saw them? How do you ever know what’s the right thing to do in order to not discriminate against anybody?