Saturday, March 11th, 2006
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11:08 am - Goodbye LJ
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Monday, February 6th, 2006
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1:16 pm - And Another Thing...
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Thanks to those people who dressed up H and made him look silly (and do silly things) on Saturday. He had heaps of fun. Plus I got to hear cool stories about how some kid teased him and about streakings etc. I wish I was there... but I guess that would have been a bit wrong. :)
To those who 'popped' me, however, a curse on you and your house. :P
current mood: a bit better...
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10:36 am - The Incredible Journey
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It's one of those stories you hear people repeat at parties...funny to reminice... but incredibly painful at the time..
So we spent Saturday night at H's parents place after a yummy Chinese New Year dinner. We had planned this to conincide with our need to travel to Nowra the following morning therefore shaving 1/2 an hour off our journey.
I must mention that we were going to Nowra to see my grandfather and in order to sign a particularly important piece of paper that would allow us to get married.
So I start driving and Haoran was exhausted so he told me to keep driving until I saw a sign for a turn off to Wollongong and promptly fell asleep. I kept driving. And driving... and driving. No signs for Wollongong... anywhere. Haoran wakes up an hour later and says 'where are we?'. I looked at him, I looked at the road... I realised that we were nowhere near the coast. In fact we had no idea where we were.
We decided that the best course of action was to drive until we saw signs of life (we were driving past farmland at this point). Eventually we turned up in Moss Vale. At this stage we knew we were way...way off. We went cross country, through Kangaroo Valley, Fitzroy Falls and Berry. It was beautiful scenery however all this time I am getting increasingly stressed, we have this small window of opportunity to see them and my poor grandparents are waiting for us to turn up. Plus the roads we had to take were of the windy cliff-edge variety.... headlines kept flashing through my mind. "Young Couple Dashed on the Cliffs Two Weeks Before they Wed" and similar nonsense.
Anyway we estimate that we took the longest way EVER. Instead of turning up at 12.30... we got there at 2.15. Just in time to swallow a few salad sandwiches whole and sign a bit of paper.
After some time out with a couple of ginger beers by the river (accompanied by about a billion mozzies)we set off home. Driving through Wollongong I said something in passing about my aunty who had just moved back to Australia... 2 minutes later she called and said she was in Wollongong and would we like some couches? We said yes please and can we come round and see them?
And so, a short and pleasant detour and a drive home just in time to catch the last song of the 7pm service. :/
current mood:  stressed
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Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
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8:38 am
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Back at work this week... it's been good considering the last few weeks (save last week) have been spent sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring.
Although it's not a huge change.. instead of sitting at home and doing nothing. I come here, sit at a desk and do nothing. Their company policy seems to be 'appear as if the office is full of hard working people' - which means I get called in just so there's a bum on the empty seat of the person who's sick. Not that I'm complaining - They are paying me :).
I also scored a office cubicle which is shoved into a corner... so instead of looking like I'm doing work, I can read my book. I've finally finished the CS Lewis sci-fi trilogy which was very interesting - although the second book gave me nightmares and most of the third book put me to sleep. Today I'm starting 'Life of Pi'. I have no idea what it's about but H gave it to me to read last night. I kinda like not knowing what the book it going to be about before I read it. I always takes ages to pick a book to read or a DVD to watch because I can never make up my mind what mood I'm in. So it's better not to know at all...
I had a dream last night that I had to ride a motorbike. I got ready by putting a plastic bike helmet on... but I woke up before I got to ride it. I hate that.
Haoran is sick. I haven't had to cope with him being sick before. The closest I've gotten was when he had his knee done. Anyway I feel quite helpless and I wish he was well again. :( Meanwhile, he's eating the chilli's from the chilli plant in the backyard in an attempt to get rid of it. I'm not sure how it helps, but he insists...
17 days!!
current mood:  calm
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Monday, January 30th, 2006
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9:24 am - Conferenced-out...
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I'm back... again. Get ready for a big one.
I spent last week and the weekend just gone in Katoomba doing the conference thing.
KYLC: Katoomba Youth Leadership Convention (Strand 3)
KYC: Katoomba Youth Convention
Although I was fiance-less for most of the week I managed much better than I thought I would. And despite being there with 5 others for KYLC - we didn't spend a huge amount of time together. The majority of the time we quite happy doing our own thing. I tried to sit with at least one of them during talks though. There's nothing lonelier that sitting in an auditorium full of people by yourself.
I slipped back into Beach Mission routine a bit - craving siestas after lunch and sleeping through free time. I did have a minor sleeping setback and had to invest in some earplugs after sleeping only two hours the first night. Generally I spent alot of time thinking and reading and reflecting in the in-between times. I was good... and probably needed.
The actual conference was excellent as usual. The music was up a notch on last year, although they had a bit of a jerky start. Kirk Patston (sp?) did a series of talks on Ezekial which were really interesting. His first talk was almost a skit - he put himself into the position of Ezekial's brother-in-law and basically monologued. Later on in a question time he explained his method of preaching. Something new he was trying, based on his Speech Pathology background, where a message has three levels.
1. The basics/what is says. eg. 'I'm going shopping.'
2. The context in which it is said. eg. 'I need shoes. I'm going shopping.'
3. The 'emotion' or motive behind it. eg. coercion, deception, happiness, fear.
So he is trying to preach the third level which is rarely preached in Evangelical circles. I did feel a bit lost in his talks and had no idea what notes to write down... but he definately got the emotion across. I felt cynical about the whole thing at first and then I realised that the interpretation of the emotion behind the scripture wouldn't be much different to the interpretation of the passage itself, and in fact the three levels can intertwine.
Another thing that I realised was that I automatically separate emotions and God in my mind. Probably affected by a brief dabble in Charismaticism in my teens, I always told myself that emotions could not be trusted because we are sinful. This is true, but in reading through Psalms recently I was confused by the repetition of strong emotions often sounding blasphemous.
Still working through it - but I guess I understand two things.
- Emotions in response to God's Word are not wrong
- God is a God with emotions (we are made in His image)
The other speaker was a man from South Africa named Grant (no idea of the last name - sorry!). He spoke on Matthew and challenged us alot on leadership etc. Unfortunately he wasn't as memorable (although very good) and I can't really say much more without my notes :).
My strand group was also excellent. I managed to score a group of five girls led by Kara Gilbert. We always ran out of time and we only just got through the material, but it was great. I learned how to write a topical study/talk and graduated! Although I was very upset to discover that we didn't get a certificate at the end. I bumped into Nic afterwards and he consoled me by giving me a $10 Gift Voucher for Matthias Media that was about 5 years old.
KYC was a bit up and down and jumbled. Weekend conferences are always like that for me - and it probably didn't help that it followed immediately after KYLC. Haoran came up on Friday night with a bit of cold and went back on Saturday afternoon when it didn't get any better. So I decided that burying myself in my sleeping bag and moping won out over a swim at the Katoomba pool.
Ray Galea's talks in paticular were excellent. Especially his talk on the sovereignty of God. Given, I did reconise alot of the material from 'How Long O Lord', however I don't know whether that was intentional or not. I liked his idea of God's truths being juggling balls. His Saturday night evangelistic talk hit home as well. It's so easy to dull down Jesus' pain on the cross. I re-realised that Jesus' pain was not just physical, but that it was a result of a separation between him and God. Sounds obvious - I know... but I guess I never understood the pain of a 'break-up' before. Imagine the worst break-up you ever had and then times it by a billion. Imagine that severed relationship... a relationship that is closer that we will ever know in terms of human relationships.
We came home to a hot and muggy house, I had a shower, and tried to avoid thinking wedding stuff for as long as possible. I really can't wait... but our 'to-do list' is becoming an annoying urgent reality. With Haoran out for the count I'm feeling a little panicked... Anyone got any bonboniere ideas that would fit into little noodle boxes??
19 days! *grin*
current mood:  tired
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Friday, January 20th, 2006
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12:09 pm - Online again....
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So, so much to say. We have the internet!!!!!! Our set up CD came in the mail and it was quite amusing to watch H put it together last night and getting frustrated at the interactive guy reading the instructions slowly and clearly... tee hee..
Meh I can't be bothered re-hashing Christmas and stuff... it was such a long time ago and who really wants to hear about it anyway? Beach mission was really good. I loved the huge kitchen I got to work in (seriously - huge) and getting to know some Haoran's friends well. Actually that was the best part. It's nice to be able to call them 'my friends' as well now. We had some fun weather as well... The wind storm was fun - I got stuck in the kitchen with pots and pans flying and somehow made myself legendary by catching a pot of fried onion.
Since being back it's been alot more relaxing than I imagined. People have been so helpful with arrangements for the wedding that I feel lazy! Plus work hasn't been coming in. I guess it's quiet period in the world of temping but it's quite disillusioning after having such a fantastic start.
But for now... 4 weeks and 1 day to go!!!!! :D
current mood:  happy
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Monday, December 12th, 2005
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3:59 pm - Offline
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There may be a considerable amount of silence for a while. My assignment at the extremely-generous-company-who-let-me-have-free-reign-of-the-net has come to an end.
And now comes the packing and cleaning and moving. Not to mention everything else! But I am relatively cheerful knowing that it's not impossible and we are on schedule with most things. Although it will be a little strange knocking about alone in a huge 4 bedroom house this week.. :/
The weekend was most satisfactory - involving shopping, catching up with friends, the TAFE Ministry Supporters Dinner and a small amount of clearing and cleaning.
Plus my HUGE achievement last night of thwarting Haoran at the Train Game and finishing in first place!!!!! *grin*
Fun times...
I shall be back with wild tales of Christmas craziness and Beach Misson madness. :)
Bye!
current mood:  cheerful
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Friday, December 9th, 2005
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12:35 pm - Prayer Answered!!
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We have a house at last and we're moving on the 19th and it's perfect!!!!! God is so good :D
current mood: excited
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Wednesday, December 7th, 2005
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3:31 pm - Joy...
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is a bear hug
is a newly cleaned floor
is delicious nutty chocolate
is stretching just before you go to sleep
is the feeling of accomplishment after exercise
is knowing God is in control
is learning how to love better
is reassurance
current mood:  grateful
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Tuesday, December 6th, 2005
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10:46 am
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Things have been.... interesting and fun.
On Saturday, after having our famous egg-and-bacon-greasefest, we set out to do our worst. First on the agenda... apply to rent ANOTHER house. We figure you apply for as many as possible and eventually we'll score. Problem is: there is a decided lack of rental houses in QH. So it's been kinda like looking for a needle in a haystack. Plus we're competing against the 50 billion OTHER people who are looking.
The real estate lady took her time with the photocopier causing us to be late for our advertising seminar which would score us either a holiday or some sort of appliance. Haoran got this random letter and we had decided to go so we could get the free stuff - but try not to listen to the hard-sell. But, of course, we were late and they had closed their doors, so we decided to can it and book our honeymoon.
Travel agents are weird. Maybe it's coz I really haven't dealt with them much... but we ended up with this chick who didn't talk to us, didn't listen, avoided eye-contact and managed to basically re-quote the stuff we'd already been quoted on anyway. We almost walked out, but ended up booking half of it anyway. I wonder whether I take the quality of customer service I get a little too seriously....
Then I learnt that dragging a boy through Spotlight for 20 mins is not the way to stay in the good books so I earnt back favour with muffins and promising to drive us to our next destination.
I hadn't been to Koorong for a while... it amused and puzzeled me to see 'The Prayer of Jabez' on the sale table as I walked in. It actually reminded me to be deserning as I looked around.
I guess one thing I realised while I was there was that there is a clear lack of decent Australian books and devotions for early teenage girls. What is there is either outdated or inappropriate or not at the right level. I didn't recognise the American authors and found most of the language to be 'Americanised' as well. It was a little frustrating when trying to select gifts.
Finally my body decided it had had enough and my head started throbbing and rendered me unconscious for the rest of the night. I did emerge briefly (after the pain-killers numbed most of my body) to try Haoran's delicious new salad recipe however! (mangoes...... mmmmm)
This week we're still looking for houses, making invitations and hosting a few NTE mission peoples! And I'll be trying to stay sane...
current mood: stressed
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Thursday, December 1st, 2005
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9:44 am - Ticking things off the list...
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1. House. House applied for. It's ok. It has everything we need. It has some traffic noise but I'll cope. Visitor parking is shocking too.... my poor visitors.. Next: set a moving date and find lots of muscley guys to move my stuff.
2. Invitations. Have paper - have prototype. It's on the agenda to argue about the wording. Next: set up invitation-making-session with willing and able friends.
2. Rings. We know what we want! (I think) Next: appointment with designer tonight.
3. Beach Mission Prep. In progress. Almost finished in fact. Next: Write up To Do lists and Shopping lists for each day.
4. Christmas Shopping. Made a dent in it yesterday thank goodness. Mostly done :D Next: What to buy Grandparents??
This is what my brain looks like at the moment. Literally. I woke up yesterday, after having several stressful dreams with a billion things running through my head and wrote them all down - which is always the best thing to do in that situation.
This is my goal for the next three months (79 days to be more specific): go to Beach Mission, KYLC, KYC, work in between... and get married.
This is my automated response: organisation frenzy and stress.
A Certain Other Person's response is: ok... so you/we need to do all this stuff. But we don't need to stress about it. We'll get it done soon enough.
My response to that is: We need to do it now! We have no time! Aaaarrgh!!!
So I give myself a pep-talk...
Ok.. take a step back. Get some perspective. You're not just going to Beach Mission. You're going to help a team of people tell the gospel to people by getting them fed. You're not just going to Katoomba conventions, you're going to stretch your mind and learn how to write better Bible Studies plus gain a whole lotta Bible teaching. And getting married is not about one day that has to be perfect, you're committing yourself to another person, to love them and be faithful to them, for the rest of your life. That is huge - but not incomprehensible. Get yourself together!
*sigh*
current mood: scattered
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Friday, November 25th, 2005
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4:24 pm - News from the front...
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The business is going under and we have been withdrawn by the agency... not surprised in the least. :/
current mood:  cynical
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11:50 am - Dodgy?... or just dumb....?
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Work stuff again:
The place I'm working for at the moment is... for want of a better word... strange.
The job was described to me as a customer service officer who answered calls for road service for NRMA's road service competitor. So, naturally I expect to turn up to a call centre of sorts with procedures and guidelines on what to say etc.
Buh Bow! Tuesday morning, another temp and I turned up to the office and wondered where everyone was! It was unstaffed, unorganised and untidy. And here am I thinking: it's a clean slate, we can clean up and get things on track.... wrong again.
Turns out the business has been done over - not once - but twice by groups of employees defrauding the company. The last case involved the accountant, PA, receptionist, and a rep. So obviously they all got fired. Not only that, but one employee is off having broken his leg in four places, another has injured her back and still another has been off sick with a mysterious illness for months on end!
But still we soldiered on, feeling quite sorry for these poor people to which all these terrible things have happened...
But then the abusive phone calls started. Call after call from companies asking when their bills will be paid. We take messages for the 'accountant who will be coming in on Tuesday' and wonder whether they will ever be called...
And THEN... we turn up this morning to discover that the locks have been changed by the landlord and we're locked out! We eventually were let inside but are still wondering whether the lock change was due to the dispute with the landlord or the fact that the fradulent parties still had keys.
But in the meantime it keeps things interesting I guess! Thank goodness the agency pays us or I'd be a bit worried!
current mood: relaxed
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Thursday, November 17th, 2005
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12:14 pm - Books
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I am reading so many books at the moment - it's ridiculous!
'Inside Out' by Larry Crabb
About a 1/4 of the way through...
I'm finding it interesting to read about the practicalities of changing for the better. We're always talking about the life we should lead and becoming more Christ-like.... I guess it's just nice to understand the inner workings and to realise that change is gradual and hard. Having been a Christian my whole life - I always thought I'd failed in some way in having not achieved the level of godliess I thought I should have by now. This book is sort of a comfort (as in - not being alone in my struggle) but also a challenge to be proactive in changing to be more like Christ.
'Sandman' series by Neil Gaiman
About to start book V...
Hmmm... an attempt to delve into my fiancé's twisted mind...:) After watching 'Sin City' earlier this year, my opinion of all things comic went down the plug hole... but I started reading this series when I was home sick and although I'm still finding my way through the fantasy maze, it's been interesting at the very least. I still find it hard to equate the frequent nudity, language and generally violent behaviour with 'tame entertainment'. But I guess these books are a little less of that and a little more of the fantasy-type.
'The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams
Just started - but powering through...
This book is my current 'just before bed' reading. Anyway apparently I am ignorant and uneducated unless I read this book - and so H bought it for me the other day and I've been enjoying it immensely. It certainly explains the movie just a little bit. :)
'Let Me Be a Woman' by Elizabeth Eliot
Kindly recommended and lent by the lovely Mary....
Started this one only yesterday. Full of imagery and comforting thoughts. Not much more to say till I've read a bit more of it.
I THINK I'm in the middle of 'Going the Distance' by Peter Brain... hard one to get through I guess - well, I got bogged down. It's directed at 'pastors' but had some relevant things to say to lay people. I also could refer to it a little in light of the fact that I will be a person in full time ministry's wife in not so long... Might think about picking it up again later.
Hmmm... seems like more than that.
I did just finish the complete works of 'Bone'... which I really liked. I particularly liked the irony of the fact that the cartoon-like bone characters lived in the real world as opposed to the humans living in the fantasy world.
Oh... and I watched almost all of Lucy's Kath and Kim DVD's and as a result perfected the 'Kim-flick' and memorised several new quotes to send people nuts :D
current mood:  mischievous
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Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
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1:34 pm - I'm still here!
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So yeah - things have been interesting. :) Sporadic posts from now on due to limited internet access...
Well I left work a week or two ago. It was ok. My boss gave me a present and a 1/2 hour off in the afternoon to bid my collegues farewell... and I was gone.
I spent the following week traipsing all over the city going to no less than 7 interviews and registering myself at temp agencies. And you know what? It's not that bad going for interviews when you're feeling confident about yourself. I used to hate it - but I kind of enjoyed it this time around.
Anyway as a result of all that I am currently on my second temp assignment. I have to say that so far I am enjoying it alot... although I'm sure it may grind on me at times. But there are so many pro's! I've gotten assignments close to home so far - I get home before 5.30 which is luxury! Plus the work is usually straightforward and practical.
It's almost like running your own business! You have a choice of what kind of assignments they present to you and they call you up and ask whether you'd like to take them!
Meh... it'scool...
Had a hectic but nice weekend. Saturday was allocated as a 'get stuff done for the wedding day'.... yeah it went ok. We managed to make progress on about half of our to do list... but didn't actually get anything done...:S But the bonus was being able to drop in on a few people and crash the last part of G and M's Thanksgiving dinner.
Meanwhile we're doing our marriage prep weekend away this weekend. I don't think either of us know what to expect! Should be fun and hopefully we'll be a little more prepared when we get back!
Side note: I really should pray more, praying puts so many things in perspective and grounds you like nothing else.
current mood: calm
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Tuesday, November 1st, 2005
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1:56 pm - One of those days....
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Wouldn't you know it.... we, being completely typical, left doing our tax until YESTERDAY. And of course, my group certificate went missing in my room/jungle.
Anyway, the drama ended somewhat happily when we crashed G and M's place and had an incredibly yummy impromptu dinner and hyjacked their computer.
Getting home was not so fun and took all of two hours (we made it tolerable by browsing through travel brochures!!). But with day light saving and the fact I still had washing to do when I got home.... I'm stuffed.
I started making a calendar of the next four months, to prevent me from going nuts. It's not looking too crazy yet... but I'm sure that won't last long.
It's my last week of work... and I'm ok with that. I'm looking forward .... I don't know what's going to happen, but I know that I can handle whatever it is because I have a wonderful fiancé behind me [insert mush-mush here]and a God I can trust completely.
current mood:  groggy
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Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
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10:54 am - Party on dude.
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So the party was excellent!!... here are some small windows into the day:
- Being woken up at 6.30am by H's mum bashing around in the kitchen..
- me still running around in my pj's at 8.30am trying to figure out what to wear...
- waking up my sisters by rushing into the room and declaring 'it's a billion-o-clock!!'
- cutting into a watermelon and narrowly escaping being covered in the gooey mushiness that gushed out. It smelled pretty bad.
- Discovering that our premium-quality biodegradable blue balloons had started to biodegrade...
- making soy pancakes and telling my cousin that it was soy when he was half-way through :P
- Haoran's uncle introducing himself by saying 'Hi, can I take your picture?'
- Mine and Haoran's dads having a D & M about pond-water or something... ?
- Jo hosting a conversation about the delecacies of what defines a meal... i.e. if you sleep in till 2pm and get up and eat something - is it still called breakfast?
- Discovering that Rob and Karina will be on the same marriage prep weekend as us!!
- Figuring out the politics of opening the presents together. (He likes to rip... I like to save paper)
- Watching Haoran have the time of his life talking to billions of people.
But yeah I'm pretty tired.... I didn't feel like I could sit down and relax at all on saturday!! There was always something I could see that needed doing.
On Sunday I was a bit late for Youth Church and managed to get through the lesson. Went over to Haoran's and relaxed and read the paper... realised after the 1 billionth sneeze that I probably had hayfever and curled up on the lounge. I went to 5CCC and did the bible reading which happened to be the whole of Daniel 2 - with a blocked nose!
Tried to start on the thankyou cards last night and discovered that tiredness = no inspiration and watched Super Nanny instead.
Work is slightly strange - the rumour has done it's course and most people know I'm leaving though they don't say much.
Job hunting is going average I guess. I got a few 'sorry - you didn't make the shortlist' letters yesterday - and I'm waiting on about 6 other answers. Keep praying...
current mood: sleepy
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Friday, October 21st, 2005
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3:01 pm - I Quit!
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I handed my resignation to my employer today.
Never done that one before!!
I was a weird experience. I was all jittery, wondering what her reaction might be after my loyal service to the company for almost 5 years.
But it was all professionalism and courtesy, and I actually walked out feeling sad I had to go!
Although this has always been my problem. I go through bad period and almost quit. And then there's a good period and I assume that it's blown over. Then it cycles through again. I just let it go on for too long.
So... I am free as a [baleted] and slightly nervous about what is to come.... yay for being able to trust in God!!
current mood:  giddy
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Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
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2:49 pm - Tee Hee --- how did they know??
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| You Are 24 Years Old | 
Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.
13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.
20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.
30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!
40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax. |
current mood:  weird
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9:09 am - ??
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| Your Hair Should Be Pink | 
Hyper, insane, and a boatload of fun.
You're a traveling party that everyone loves to follow. |
Well.... The colour is understandable... but the description??
current mood: morning-type
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