"So... What Have You Been Up To?"

I'm often being asked this question and/or the like, both in Singapore (as soon as they know I've left my job) and in Brissy (since I have not begin to look for work yet). At each gathering of people, I could be asked this question potentially at least 3 times. But yeah I've learnt to appreciate people's concern for me by asking those questions and its also a way to get to know me better. So here's a (long) summary of what I have been up to since my last blog entry :p

1) Made/learnt how to make steamed buns (bao 包) from future MIL. The healthier option of wholemeal flour was used instead of normal white flour. Minced beef with carrots and potatoes were used for stuffing. Looks really easy to make! The freshly steamed 包s were really yummy!!


2) Brisbane Leadership Training. Attended the weekend retreat from 17 to 19 August. I have attended retreat last year when I was here in Brisbane over the same period of time. BLT aims to bring good biblical teaching to its attendees and to challenge them to be future leaders through equipping them and encouraging them. The topic was on the Holy Spirit and to clear up any misconceptions and misunderstandings of the Holy Spirit. The bible expositions on the role of HS in churches and in our lives, were really good and clear. I have learnt quite a bit more about the Holy Spirit (I mean we should not give up learning God's word better right?). And of cos I also got to know a few more people better this time.

I was reminded that where God's word is, there the Holy Spirit is. No mention of the "Holy Spirit" does not mean that it does not exist in our lives nor our churches. Holy Spirit is present where God's word is, whether we acknowledge it or not. The Holy Spirit's only role is to point us to Jesus Christ. The Spirit leads and guides us in our lives and living out God's word but ultimately, it is to point us to Jesus. What also struck me was that having joy is not an emotion. Whether we feel happy or sad, we can still have joy, simply because we have the hope and confidence in Jesus Christ and His coming again to bring us to him.

3) W and I had a good and helpful session of Pre-Marriage Counselling with Pastor and Mrs Chia. Really thankful for them to be in Brisbane and we can have this privilege of 1-to-1 counselling and preparation.

4) My furthest drive in Brisbane so thus was from home to airport. It takes about 20-30 minutes. But on my return trip, I send someone to the city and then I had to make my way back home. Had to send someone to airport to help W's mum as she wasn't free to do so. This is part of ministry :)

5) I was given a Korean DVD drama of Full House. I watch bits of it almost everyday and is completing the 16-episode drama soon :)

6) I finally could obtain sufficient documents and evidence for me to apply for a Queensland Driving Licence. The authorities required proof that I am living and staying in Queensland. Thankfully I don't need to take further tests for it. My licence now is valid for 5 years (yes, only 5 years!). Singapore's photocard licence is valid for life!

7) Since I came, I have also tried to cook and bake some stuff. Other than pasta, salad and my usual cakes, I gave a shot to cook braised pork ribs. And I was happy that it turned out better than what I expected! :)


8) It is also the 'culture' here that people will help one another shift house. Last Saturday, we helped S move house. It was a good time of workout and we were rewarded with lots of pizza after that!


9) W's paternal grandma turned 89 recently. The extended family gathered for potluck dinner. Other than me getting overwhelmed by the huge family and all the faces, names and connection ties to remember, I was really blessed and encouraged by the time there (and enjoyed all the yummy Asian-cum-Western food)

Families with young kids had to leave early. The adults left behind gathered and sang hymns to each other. There was testimonial sharing of how grandma has been to them (grandma's children), how God has given and blessed, and sang songs and prayed prayers that speak of God's goodness and His providence. This was the first time I gathered in a family to have a 'mini church service' of sort.

I was also greatly moved and encouraged to hear how grandma raised her children up in the ways of God, telling them stories of Jesus when they were young. Grandma has been faithfully praying for her children, grandchildren and great-grand children daily. Wow! I pray I will also be faithful in doing so for my future generations!


10) I have also started to knit again. This time I am knitting a cool sweater for myself :) Although my needles have not arrived with my belongings sent over from Singapore, I borrowed a needed pair from my future SIL.

11) About 2.5 days ago, I decided to join Facebook. Within those hours, I now have hooked up with 115 friends! That was a really fast rate! I have been resisting to join FB and have since been a little bit addicted to it. Boy, I have linked up with many of my school friends!

12) Last evening, I went to Brisbane Powerhouse for an Acapella concert with some folks from church. The quartet is known as "Idea of North". I really enjoyed it... Have not heard live Acapella singing for some time and these folks were really good!

Amidst doing all that, I have also spent good time in doing some reading books and God's Word and praying. Ocassionally, I also flip through bridal magazines, newspapers and shopping catalogues, help out in some cooking and taking afternoon naps. And to answer most curious people, yes I am hoping to find work soon... need to earn a living... ;p

Before I end, here's to leave you a picture of some beautiful flowers in the front lawn of where I'm living :) And mind you, they grew beautifully even when watered with recycled water from the washing machine :p

What I Like/Don't Like About Living in Brisbane

It has been 2 weeks since I got here. Just a list of what I like and dislike about living here thus far...

Likes:

1. Shopping catalogues
2. Huge shopping malls
   
3. Fascinating variety of groceries at supermarket
4. Eating places to chill out
5. Christian radio station
6. Culture of using shopping bags (as supposed to plastic/paper bags)
7. Beautiful parks
   

Dislikes:

1. The safety of some places
   
2. People around me not speaking Singlish :p
3. Shops closed early!
   

Shopping catalogues get dumped into our mail boxes everyday. It makes me happy just to browse through them and see what's on sale and what's available :)

When I walk into the supermarkets, I am just happy to walk around and browse the products and items. And it excites me to see a huge variety and choice of food (including Asian food products) on the shelves. But I cannot say the same for boutiques and most other shops :p

I am also happy to see people using shopping bags instead of plastic/paper bags. I like to see people recycle stuff :)

My face also lights up when I see a row of big shopping brands which are located in a warehouse-like building. Just in case you think I'm on a shopping spree, I'm not :p Browsing makes me happy too :)


In the car and at home, the radio plays FM 96.5 "96Five" station. This station is mainly focused on Christian family living and there are also the usual features like news, weather reports, traffic reports and some competitions. They will play Christian songs, play sermons at certain time slots, read a Bible verse, discuss/talk about Christian life/living. Its amazing to have a radio station like this, freely played and able to reach people at large.


Over the last 2 days, I went out and had meals at places where it was really relaxing and chance to chill out (or was it that every other place here is like that? :p) Visited the huge Ikea store (as big, if not bigger than the Singapore Tampines store) 15 mins' drive away from where I stay. It was Ekka public holiday on Wednesday but the store was not crowded. This is so unlike Singapore, where many Singaporeans would crowd the Ikea stores during public holidays. Sitting outside the alfresco dining place at Ikea having my meat balls in the cool evening... its such an enjoyment :) Yesterday I had lunch with Y at Paddington. Paddington has many small cute shops and a few unique cafes. Y and I went to the Paddington Flower & Cafe where the shop front is a flower shop with beautiful fresh flowers and the back of the shop is a cafe. The cafe also features canvas paintings of flowers and they are for sale. The cafe served breakfast all day long (amidst other food) at very reasonable portions and prices.

Dining at Ikea (Logan)

Lastly I like to visit Koorong Book Store. I think I prefer the West Ryde branch at Sydney where there is a cafe in it and I can sit down for a cuppa and read some books there. Anyhow, I finally went to the branch just outside the Brisbane city and spent a good 2 hours there myself to read. Unlike the Christian bookstores in Singapore, there are comfortable sitting areas for people to sit down and even a small indoor playground for children to be kept occupied with. Isn't it family-friendly?

So what is it that I dislike? There are apparently some places where it is not safe to drive and park there at night. This means that some parks are maybe not that safe to go to at night. And if I were to go to places at night, I won't feel safe to be walking in the dark streets by myself. Even alone at home at night makes me a bit paranoid. I think I am used and really appreciate the general safety in Singapore...

Shops close early here. Most of them close 4-5pm. Every Thursday is late night shopping, and it means some shops extend their hours to 6pm? 8pm? Good thing is that supermarkets close at 9pm. They only close slightly earlier like 7pm on Sundays. So this means that if I need something at night, I won't be able to get them that easily...

And yah lor, I need to get used to people here who don't speak Singlish!! Good thing I can some daily dosage of it with W :p

How My Day Typically Looks

Life's still been pretty much the same... I mean, I'm not working and have not been working for the past 2.5 months. I realised that I can get down to be pretty lazy to begin work again... or perhaps, I've just been accustomed to the Aussie lifestyle? :p

W's parents have travelled to another city in Australia for a few days. Being a free-loafer in the house, I thought that I should contribute in same ways like cooking, doing housework and the like. I wake up early (about 7am) and gets tired about 11pm even with a nap in the afternoon. I would make lunch, prepare breakfast, feed the fish, water the garden, wash the clothes, hang out the clothes, wash the dishes, do tiny weeny bit of gardening work, prepare dinner, send/pick W from work.

Clothes dry up very fast even though its winter, due to the bright sun and dry weather. Fresh (and organic) huge lettuce and bak choy that I can just harvest and cook them to eat. This is amidst the garden-full of other produce and greens.

Just in case you start to think that I am domesticated at home (which is half true), I also blog, check emails, research/read up on info that I need to know to settle down, shop/look around at a huge shopping mall nearby (they've got shops like K Mart, Big W, Coles, Woolworths, Harvey Norman, etc.. and I haven't got enough of them! :p Am just happy to browse and not buy), meet up a few people (not too many yet), driving around to familiarise myself with the roads. Occasionally, I also watch some Korean drama dvd, compliments from Yummy Mummy. At night after dinner, I will just chill out... :)

One discipline I need to get into is to spend quality time to read the Bible and pray by myself, other than praying with W every night. Also hope to do other reading... You can pray that for me :) Also pray for me as I settle down with many other details to sort out and hoping to find work some time *soon*. Pray for us as we look into wedding preparations and more importantly, planning for our future like our house-search, etc. Thanks for praying :)

Settling In A Local Church

For those who are concerned how I've been faring in Brissy, finally here's an update! :)

The moment I touched down on 3 August evening, I went to a bible study straight from the airport. W attends a fellowship group for young adults, know as "CLAY". Clay meets every Friday evening and now, they are studying a study book "Six Steps to Encouragement". Having attended 2 sessions since, it encourages me to see 15-20 of them gathering every Friday to study God's word and encouraging each other in their walk. There's not much difffernece between Clay and my DG group back in Singapore. Except that they gathered in church and because the group was getting too big, they spilt up into 2 and I'm in the group where the church's young pastor and his wife are in. W leads the other group with someone else. Clay has grown since I first attended one session last year. Now, there's also another group of Clay that meets at the other branch location of the same church.

In case you are wondering which church I've been mentioning above, its the Chinese Christian Church of Brisbane (CCCB) 布里斯本华人基督教会. CCCB has 2 locations - St Lucia (where University of Queensland is)and Coopers Plains (nearer to where I am staying). W attends the St Lucia branch and so I follow suit. The SL location has been there for long time. The English congregation averages 80 people each Sunday. I think the Chinese congregation is slightly larger. For the CP location, the English congregation is larger than that in SL and the Chinese congregation is probably just as big. The young 'ang mo' pastoring over the SL congregation was a graduate from SMBC and he preaches as well as pastors from my home church in Singapore. But compared with church back home, CCCB is small in size. Its people are very loving and warmth. It probably looks like ARPC in its old days where it was small and almost everyone knows everyone.

Just on my 2nd weekend in Brissy, I actually served in the music team singing with W (coincidentally, my music team in ARPC was also serving the same weekend) . There are only 3 teams and each are only about 5-6 people, including the singers. In the team I served in, there was a drummer, a pianist, 2 singers (me included) and the song leader (they call them "Chairperson" because he/she pretty much chairs the entire service except for preaching the sermon) who also played the guitar and leads the service. It was really nice to be able to serve. In short, I'm somewhat refreshed to serve God and seems to be motivated in a different way as never before. Maybe its the different people and different culture. But it surely is worshipping the same God and I'm glad that the pulpit work is similiar to ARPC's.

The same Sunday afternoon, the CCCB at CP had a dedication service. The CP location and building were newly acquired. The folks have had been worhsipping at various locations and moving around over the years. But by God' grace, they finally was able to find a building which was previously a car showroom, to have a permanent place to congregate and grow. They have only recently obtained a license to be able to operate as a church at the premise. Most of the SL congregation also gathered there together for the service. And what was best for me, was to be able to see my pastor (APRC) there! Pastor was there for a sabbatical and he has been invited to be the guest speaker at the dedication service. It was really nice to be able to see him and hear him preach again and especially when all others back in Singapore don't get to hear him because he has been on sabbatical :p Of course I also got to catch up with pastor and wife a bit. Will be meeting them again soon before they head back to Singapore next month.

See those familiar faces?

The combined SL and CP music team. They had 2 flutists, 2 violinists, 1 pianist, 1 keyboardist, 1 guitarist and a drummer. W was backup singing. The musicians were a really talented bunch.

I am not sure if I will eventually settle down and serve in CCCB. There's probably a great possibility that I will. Will pray through about this and see where the Lord leads.

I Am A Simpson

Yummy Mummy got her and her family simpsonized. I thought I would try too and this is what I got.

Does it look like me? ;p

Try it yourself here!

A Morning With the Old Folks

Greetings from down under - sunny Queensland! Brissy's winter is really nice... cool and sunny. Sometimes its cold but it is mostly not too cold. I love the cold weather, although some nights were a little too cold that its difficult to sleep. Originally I didn't want to use the heater since I had 2 blankets already. One night, I was so cold that I refuse to get up to go toilet, didn't want to barge a single bit to even to switch on the heater because my bed will end up colder if I move. So I relied on my own body heat to warm myself up slowly and try to fall back to sleep again.

Life here hasn't been too different as yet. I mean I haven't been working for 2 months and now in Brissy, I'm also leading the life of an unemployed. But of cos I kinda do different things here. I wake up very early (sun wakes me up about 6am+), try to take a nap in afternoon and sleep about 12midnight. Sun sets at about 5-6pm (like now) and it feels like the night is long and the day is short. Ask me what I do in the day? Its a bit hard to tell you something substantial. Anyway, I'm sure life will change more and more as I gear up for my new life ahead. Actually there's many things to do but I'm taking it slow and needs extra inspiration to blog :p

This morning, I followed my future MIL to "长青团契" or "Evergreen Fellowship". This is a gathering of Christian Asian old folks ranging from mostly 50s to the 80s. Most of them averages 60-70 years old and they belong to the Chinese congregation of the Chinese Christian Church of Brisbane (CCCB) at Coopers Plains (a suburb in Brisbane). These uncles and aunties (quite a handful of them are old enough to be my grandparents) were all migrants to Australia when they were young. There were some who migrated in their retirement years... This gathering takes place weekly and sometimes takes place on Wednesday and sometimes Saturday. Today, the gathering is specially held at a park. We set off one hour before the appointed time and went to various venues to pick up various people from their homes. In my car itself, there were Chinese, previously from different countries - Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and China. They were all migrants from a long time ago (except for me :p).

Parks in winter is really good - bright and sunny but cool enough to walk around. The 34 of us (I was obviously the youngest :p) gathered in a pavilion. We sang Chinese Christian songs, did a bit of physical activity, reading of scriptures, sharing of testimony and celebrated birthdays for the folks born from May-August. I was more like an observer and snapping photos away... You could see the folks really enjoyed themselves chatting with each other and encouraging each other. At one time, the Chairperson suggested to sing "The more we get together". The chinese version that we sang goes like this... (see video below)

当我们同在一起，在一起，在一起
当我们同在一起，既快乐无比
你对着我笑嘻嘻，我对着我笑哈哈
当我们同在一起，既快乐无比

I used to sing this song as a little girl. One old lady stood up and said that she learnt this song when she was 9 and now she's 81!

Looking at the folks, I pray that when I grow old, 40-50 years down the road, I will continue to have that joy and faith in the Lord. One birthday lady (also from Singapore) shared how God changed her life many years, when she was at a point of depression. She shared in Mandarin with so much conviction and thanksgiving, its just really very encouraging. It warmed my heart and a few times, I was almost touched to tears. This lady and I spoke a bit... her hubby has the same chinese surname as I. So she's Mrs XX and I'm Ms XX. And her chinese name is almost very similar to mine too!!

When they read Psalms 19 in chinese, the Bible verses seemed to come out much nicer and the words really seems more powerful. The prayers prayed in mandarin was also very moving. I thank God for being the creator God and a God whom we all can praise and worship all our lives. Psalm 19:14 says "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." How true this speaks of the folks I see today. Somehow, I do feel a bit ashamed because they seemed more 'on' than me. I am no where near them...

I am thankful to be able to have a glimpse of how (hopefully and prayerfully) I will be when I grow old. It helps me not to take for granted, my life now... and seek to praise and worship my Heavenly Father all of my days on earth.

2nd Anniversay - Renovation in Progress

Its been exactly 2 years of blogging... Has blogging changed my life? I am sure has...

1. Made me write less of my own journal book. My current book has been 2 years old and I've not used up the book! For the past 12 years of journaling, I discovered that I have kept about 10 books or more of thoughts and reflections.
2. Blogging has allowed me to know people, in specifically, someone whom I will be getting married to in 3.5 months' time! ;)
3. Blogging has kept me somewhat accountable, although I don't share the full details. This is so that I can maintain some confidentiality and privacy. I have been true and genuine in penning down my thoughts.
4. It is a platform for me to update friends about what's happening to me. This updating platform will serve in greater use in 2 days' time.

Notice that the outlook of my blog has changed? Hmm... I am not totally pleased with it yet. So do look out for further changes when I have more time :)

Stay posted next from the land of Oz!