27 December 2010

Christmas is over once again

My cousins and I



I am relieved Christmas is over.
Although, I have to say that this year's Christmas has been one of the more bearable ones.
For one thing, I didn't get off-my-face drunk like I have in previous years, and all my cousins and I seemed to get along quite well too, which hasn't always been the case.

The boil-up style lunch we had wasn't my favourite, but I managed to scrounge a few vegetables here and there. To be honest I've never been a fan of the boil up but hey, its one day out of the whole year where I had to eat it so I just sucked it up and got over it hehe.

Last year's lunch was awesome!!!! We had apple and grapetiser (always a must for fancy occasions!) and my mum even put vegie bacon in this one dish she made. Oh, did I mention last year's Christmas was at my house? (This year's was in Kerikeri) When Christmas is at your house its better because you can do what you like, I'm pretty sure I went to my room and played guitar when I got bored.

My boy cousins were being anti-social and playing Age of Empires inside the house while the rest of us sat around outside. It wasn't the big happy family reunion I had expected, but it was alright.
Another reason it was weird was because my older brother Cecil wasn't even there. He's down south right now. I can't imagine the day would have been too much different with him there but he may have encouraged all the guys to come outside and stop hermitting away in the house.

I was also mocked very little about being a vegetarian this year, most of the family is shocked that I've been one for so long.
Hmmm. Since its over now I can stop being annoyed by all the advertisements on TV screaming at me to buy their stuff. I DON'T WANT TO BUY IT, OK!
Also my present this year was pretty fantastic, a pearl necklace, bracelet and earrings!!!
I am trying to embrace my 20-ness. It has been a hard transition.
I feel like if I try to get out of my teenaged mindset it will be a lot better for me.
Wearing pearls is the first step to me becoming an adult.
And with that, I will end my blog.

I'm off to Nelson on a Student Life mission trip for two weeks so I won't be able to write until I get back.

Oh and before I forget, I'd also just like to point out that during our Christmas shin-dig in Kerikeri, I ate almost all the chips.

23 December 2010

When you're bored this is what happens...

Its hard for me to admit to this but I was bored on the internet today and so I started looking at random stuff, like "What Celebrities Look Like Without Make-Up" and "Miley Cyrus' 6 Most Embarrassing Moments".
I'm not usually the kind of person who does this stuff unless I'm REALLY bored, but I stumbled on some pictures of Miley Cyrus smoking a bong and it just got me thinking "What the heck is wrong with the world today?" and wondering why she might be doing this sort of thing.
I'm only disturbed by the video of Miley getting high and swearing because as someone in the public spotlight, and who has proclaimed herself to be a follower of Jesus, I don't understand how she would allow herself to be videotaped behaving in this way.
Its really sad. She is still pretty young, only 18 after all. When I was 18 I wasn't much better, I can admit to that. I was probably a whole lot worse than she is, but she is in the public eye and she is going to get absolutely destroyed by the media and by angry parental backlash. Its really sad.
I wasn't looking for this information when I was wasting time on the internet today, yet this is what I found.
I'm unsure of how everyone is going to react to this, probably the same way they've been reacting to other things she has done (racy photographs, "pole dancing" etc).
But overall, all this is telling me is that it doesn't matter what your beliefs are, in our society there is so much pressure to conform to what everyone else is doing that its really hard not to. Since people are watching Miley's every move and waiting for her to screw up, these things are always going to come out in the media.
The internet is really scary sometimes.
People shouldn't totally blame Miley for this, maybe we should all just look at the society we're living in and blame it on that. Yes, she should've been more careful if she was going to be videotaped smoking a bong, but maybe she should ask herself: Would Jesus want me to smoke a bong? I don't think He would want that, but I'm only going off what I've read in the Bible here.
As Christians, we need to be accountable for our actions and show people what a life with God really looks like, I think its way too easy for us to forget that sometimes.
Lucky for us God is patient and forgiving, so we just have to continue to work on it. I know Miley will never read this, but I suppose it can apply to when "average" people screw up too. After all, we're all the same in God's eyes.

22 December 2010

THE FIRST BLOG ENTRY

Wow ok, well I've never actually had a proper blog before so this should be interesting...
I'm still residing in Kaitaia, I've been here for over six weeks. It is actually crazy to think I've been here for so long.
At first it was total culture shock coming back here after living in Dunedin for nine months. My goodness. The most significant thing I noticed from the get-go was the intense temperature difference (Kaitaia is absolutely SCORCHING!) and also the cleanliness of my parents' house. I had just left a disgusting Scarfie flat so being in a place that wasn't covered in mould and dirt was a nice change.
Six weeks later I am still here. I have been into Kaitaia's economically stagnant town centre only a handful of times. When I first got back it was to find a job, and since then I have accompanied my mother on various errands, and met up with a small number of friends, but that is basically it.
I try to stay out of Kaitaia, because for whatever reason the people of this town appear really intimidating to me and not as friendly as my fellow Dunedinites. I don't know what it is. I feel like I'm the minority here. In Dunedin I'm just another student, but here, people know you when you don't know them. This is a small town after all, about 5,000 people live in the town, and more live in the surrounding countryside so pretty much everybody knows everybody.
In my very minimal visits to town, I have seen a lot of people that I know from when I used to live here.
It just goes to show that this town never changes, and even if you're only here 3 months out of the year, people that you used to know will still be here when you get back.
Take that as a positive or a negative, I just take it as a fact.