I was asked by a friend today as Tina and I celebrated our first year wedding anniversary and the dedication of baby Nazareth in service today, if I have problems about the complaints from people in our apartment complex because we're always having people over at our place, and we're always laughing and having a ball. I thought about NZ for a moment...

Sheesh, I do miss laughing with my friends back in NZ: not that I don't like laughing with my friends here in Singapore... it's just that when we laugh - especially us polynesians, y'all can hear us from the other side of the block! But because there is so much space between you and your neighbour, you don't sweat the fact that you and your "mates" sound like a bunch of hyenas with your ever crescendoing laughter!

Singapore though is home to me now. I love it here. I visited the NZ embassy here in the Takashimaya building on Orchard Road on Friday. Pleasantly greeted by a middle aged assistant there at the counter. I asked her what her thoughts were on Singapore comparatively with NZ. She said, it is a bit claustrophobic here for us NZ giants. What prompted me to write this though was when I saw all the "Kiwiana" at the office. Maori carvings. Copies of Metro and North and South magazines. and of course a wooden buzzy bee. If you don't know now you know.

I thank God for my upbringing in NZ. 4.2 million people, and 75 million sheep. Worthy is the lamb... I thank God for the Otara Fleamarket bargains, and the rolling hills of green that enables the best dairy products in the world. No one makes better butter, milk, chocolate, or even ice cream than that which comes from Aotearoa. Oh and did I mention - FRESH FISH AND CHIPS with fish that was caught on the same morning!?

I thank God for NZ jazz, dub and roots reggae - I miss grooving to Fat Freddys Drop at a Bar BQ out there at Long Bay while my Tongan friends are practising their spikes on an uneven volleyball court on, yes, yet another rolling hill leading out to the beach. I miss Georgie Pie and L&P - even if it is just sprite with a dash of coke. I miss hearing Brooke Fraser, the Finn Brothers, Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn, Ardijah and Che Fu on the regular!

I'm thankful that I was born and raised in NZ. I love the fact that I am of Samoan heritage, but I was born and raised in Kiwiland. And though it was a great 30+ years - we move forward - and I'm SO BLESSED to be where I am now. In a great city, with great friends, a great job, with a great church, married to a great woman, with an absolutely adorable daughter - GROWING AS A MAN... I LOVE LIFE!

We'll always have Mt Wellington though... and the Rugby World Cup!