it's springtime!

Can't believe that it's spring already. Winter didn't seem very long this year, it wasn't even that cold... It's been raining on and off for the past few weeks and often rainbows can be seen in the sky. There's something amazing about rainbows, perhaps it's the bright splash of colours against an often dull grey coloured sky that just makes me marvel everytime I see one. The new blooms are out now, tulips, lavender, azaleas etc... It's still weird seeing azaleas (杜鵑花) and cherry blossoms (梅花) blooming in season in September, as I've always associated them with Chinese New Year...

Sometimes I think we just get too caught up in our own thoughts, own worries, own issues, own world, that we forget to take time to look around us, and see what else has been happening apart from ourselves. The other day my sister came back home from work and noticed a new vase full of birds of paradise (the flowers), she stared at them and asked, 'Are those from our garden? I hadn't seen them there before!' The flowers had been growing in our front garden for the past 2 weeks!

It looks like my 5-day temp job has become so much more than a 5-day stint. I'm still working there and really loving it! The team I'm working with has also grown from just five people to 29 people within the short period of three months. My contract has been extended to the end of November and it has the possibility of extending further (more news about that later when I find out more about it) But seriously, I feel so blessed... I can now enjoy eating and shopping on Thursday nights (late night shopping - yes HKers the shops aren't always open to 9pm here!) and Saturdays without feeling like my bank account is about to go bust.

I'm feeling so pampered right now... went into the city today after driving Sarah into work... went to Myer's Kit Cosmetics and one of the ladies told me that they were doing a special promo - free hand pampering session... sold! haha My hands got a yummy grape seed scrub exfoliation, moisturised by a honey and melon smelling cream, and hot summery pink nail polish to top it all off... bliss!

Anyway currently loving:

• Gourmet yoghurt
• Ikea's new catalogue
• The Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers - I'm totally addicted to her books
• The new season of spring blossoms
• Rainbows
  
• My sister's new car
• Kit Cosmetics - it's got some gorgeous creams and colours (to pamper my cosmetics craving)
• Ohnamiya - a delicious japanese restaurant that serves bento

Here are some pics recently uploaded onto my computer:

new shoots sprouting outside my office + the haircut i had over two months ago (i now really need a new haircut cuz the fringe is poking into my eyes)

manon's 18th birthday party + pink azaleas outside my office

a cutest looking tree + this is where i work haha

white azaleas outside the office + clare and jess playing a soulful session of air guitar

girls' night at clares + new baby leaves

generousity

The theme at Riverview for the month of July was 'A Generous Life', and Phil concluded the month's theme with his sermon on 'Seven Keys to Building Our Generous World'... Here are the seven keys:

1. Get permission (to prosper)
2. Know your priorities (giving our first to God)
3. Develop a plan (especially our financial future)
4. It starts with work (be diligent and self-motiviated)
5. Plant before your eat (storing up for the future)
6. Be frugal (being wise with your money)
7. Be patient (be disciplined and content)

It's quite interesting, as I have been thinking about how to use my money more wisely, and how I was to also to become more generous with my life in general.... and that sermon just totally blew my mind.... it really made me think lots, challenging me with my priorities and my planning techniques or the lack of tactics I've got for it.... (I think you can podcast the sermons these days on the Riverview website)

Anyway, what else has been happening with me? I've joined the gym at the department of education and training (where I am currently working), and the best thing is it's free!!! God totally answered my prayer... I really wanted to join a gym but didn't want to fork out $60 each month knowing that I wouldn't be going to it every single day... and now I get to go for zero dollars!!! yippee!

Here are the latest things I've discovered and is loving:
- Francine Rivers - read 'Redeeming Love' and just finished 'A Lineage of Grace' (amazing books)
- Robbie Seay Band
- Shane & Shane - Upstairs
- Tiger Tiger Coffee Bar (serves delicious coffee and has brown sugar cubes!)
- Gelato Amico (yummy hand-made gelato served so generously that you can't even see the cone & is found in the heart of the city)
- This blog I found called Print & Pattern ... it's got some very beautiful kitschy patterns.... I love it!
- Sanna Annukka (the illustrator for keane's latest album 'Under the Iron Sea')

patterns from 'print & pattern' + keane's new album cover

about the job - finally the update!

Finally the update about my job situation... so here's a long update!

After writing about job hunting for many months... starting to wonder if all my efforts were in vain, getting paranoid on numerous occasions and wondering if I sent the wrong resume, or if I had misspelled words etc... I am now finally working! yay! And how it came about was just a blessing. About eight weeks ago I had just about given up hope finding a decent job. Anyway a former colleague of mine from my Hong Kong working days and I were chatting online, and out of the blue she said to me, "Ann, I've been meaning to tell you something for a while now & I should have told you earlier but I was really hesitant... I've been praying for you and I feel that you'll be getting a job in the education sector." I was really gobsmacked when I read what she wrote, yet somehow funnily I felt a sense of peace over the situation but searching for a job for months I tried not to give it too much thought (didn't want to give myself false hopes!) Anyway a few days later I had an interview with a recruitment agency, within a week I got a job! It wasn't the job the agency had originally got lined up for me... but I somehow ended up with a temp job in the Department of Education... It was originally a 5-day long job, but that has changed and I'm still currently working there with the possibility of staying on till December. I'm really enjoying the job too! So I may not want to be a teacher just yet, but it doesn't mean I can't be doing stuff related to education! haha how humourous is that! Sheesh what a blessing! I feel like I've been pampered by God.

Well here are some of the lessons I learnt from my crazy job hunting experience:
- My God is patient, even when I'm not. I guess being a city girl who's used to everything being "instant", having to wait was just agonizing. I prayed for a job, and believed that I would get a job, but when I didn't get an immediate result I panicked, I doubted.
- God wants to communicate to me. I think often I just tell God what's been happening and what I would like etc, and especially when I started feeling pressured about not having found work, my communication with God was even less. And because I wasn't communicating well with God, He used my friend in Hong Kong to speak to me.
- Reflecting back on the whole situation just makes me enjoy my work even more.
- Reminds me that - God is always working for us, despite us.
- Psalm 37:4-5 "Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you."

I was able to share this story with my church a month ago (just two weeks into the job)... the crazier thing was that I was supposed to share something (it's a scheduled segment for young adults to share something that's been on their heart, that happens every couple of weeks in the Sunday evening service) a few weeks before that, but in all honesty I felt like I had nothing to share cuz my world was just looking so grey and the events coordinator just so happened to ask if it was alright if I could postpone the date because of other events happening at church around that time. It was just timely, more like God's timing, that my world got turned around before I was supposed to go up on stage to share... I was pretty nervous and felt burdened that Sunday morning I was to share the testimony and my cell leader prayed for me at church and as I was driving home for lunch I began to feel freer, and by the time I got to church for the evening service I was actually feeling pumped... It later reminded me of the scripture in 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

Anyway here are some pics from the past month:

ann on stage (view from the big screen) + my newly knit white scarf

the trees outside church by day + by night

my friend carlos came over to perth for a business trip + my connect group girls dressed as our favourite hero and villain outfits for the end of term 2 youth

happy belated tuen ng festival

Being away from a community that celebrates lots of the Chinese lunar festivities, and living on a totally opposite hemisphere that often confuses me ie: Mid-Autumn festival is in Spring here in OZ... it's very easy to forget when the Chinese festivals are. Luckily Mom knows when all the dates are each year. Last Wednesday (31st May), was 端午節 Tuen Ng Festival, also known as Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong (cuz of the dragon boat races etc), and traditionally a bamboo leaf wrapped rice dumpling called 粽子 'zong' in Cantonese or 'zong zi' in Mandarin would be eaten that day too. Anyway after my cell group (we watched '50 First Dates' on a huge projector screen aka Dom's living room wall, had a gourmet dessert party that included apple pie and ice-cream + marshmallow and chocolate fondue, and even a take-away coffee van arrive at our cell's doorstep to serve us) I went back home and had my much craved favourite 'gan sui zong'. I felt very in touch with my Chinese heritage (although I would have loved to have had the public holiday too)... Anyway here's a picture of a 'zong'...

Sorry for the rather random post, but my brain is very fried... oh btw I got a temp job... that's another amazing story... will post about it very soon!

autumn is setting in

We went to Jackie Pullinger's meeting last week. She brought a team from HK with her, and some of them only spoke in Cantonese... really made me remember the days we went to bilingual church services. Anyway something that Jackie said really stuck with me, 'How can you minister to the poor, if you don't know that you yourself are poor?' That quote has been running through my mind constantly for the past few days...

On a much lighter note... The weather has been cooling down recently, the low humidity has made my scalp go crazy, hopefully it'll calm down soon... I'm really loving the colours of the autumnal trees with their shades of red and gold, just the other day Sarah and I were driving into the city and noticed a whole row of trees that had turned gold and then down another road where we drove under some reddened trees..... we were both in awe, gushing and cooing ahhh how gorgeous are those trees! Perhaps the gardeners may not appreciate having to rake the leaves that have malted off, but I'm sure the changing colours of the leaves must make them happy... well it makes me happy at least... How cool is it that God made trees that change colour to keep me gushing over how amazing He is! Anyway the change in season has prompted me to start knitting again... just finished a grey scarf! Below is also a picture of the poster that I helped Sarah do for one of her projects... I didn't choose the quote (I personally don't think it makes much sense) but it was fun helping my sister design and do this cut 'n' paste job...

the grey scarf + sarah's poster

It was Kym's birthday on Saturday... we had the honour of celebrating it with her... what a night! Below are a few pics from the evening... sorry didn't take many pics... but check Andrea and Bryce's blogs for heaps more pics of the festive night.

birthday girl and ray + the sun shining out of b00f's bum

adam jess and clare + conservative dancing with cushions as buffers

jackie pullinger-to is coming to perth!

I have known this amazing woman of God for over two decades! I'm excited she's going to be town... going to be speaking in South Perth on Thursday and Friday... really looking forward to it!

click on the image to view the enlarged version (unless you have really really good eye sight!)

highlights of the week

Lots happened this week... among the many things... Nathan and Aaron, Sarah's friend's from HK who are now studying over on the East coast, came over to stay with us for the Easter break. During their stay, we were able to go to the Perth Zoo... had an afternoon with the animals; had dinner at Leo's twice during their stay; went to Sizzler twice... ate way too much each time; went to Brendan's parents' restaurant for fantastic Thai cuisine; saw Sarah in action at Subway during the lunch rush; watched 'Inside Man' at the movies; went down south for the Young Adult Retreat; we did heaps more but I'll stop rambling on about them for now...

We had the Young Adult Retreat over the weekend (Fri 21st - Sun 23rd April) in Dwellingup. I was a little nervous at first about the retreat as I had been helping out with some of the admin beforehand and wasn't sure if things were going to go as we had planned. Luckily it all went well... The atmosphere of the whole retreat was really amazing... There were lots of new people that I hadn't met previously and it was just brilliant getting to know them and seeing them all get connected to other people. The acoustic worship and speakers were really encouraging, helping me crave to get back to the basics, trying to keep it real in my worship. The location of the retreat was great too, the lush green surrounding was quite different from the city scape and helped me experience God differently. Anyways that's just a bit of what I got out of the retreat... (And some pics of the weekend below.)

the hermitage cottage + dave and the girls

b00f + simone

cathy and marje + chilling out by the fireplace

troy + jono brendan

nancy ryan jonathan jay marje + meal time out on the verandah

josh dunjey's baptism in the river

My friend Yoshi gave birth to a beautiful baby girl - Imogen Sayuri Monck, on the 21st April. I got to visit her at the hospital the other day... Imogen slept angelically through the visit (she was awake for most of the night the night before!). Congratulations JP and Yoshi!

proud parents yoshi jp and imogen + yoshi baby and ann

auntie ann + yoshi and her baby girl

easter - a brief picture summary

From one of my favourite comics: bc comic - 14th april 2006

The front cover of the West Australian and the page 11 article that went with the picture - Saturday 15th April. (click on the image to enlarge the article)

a cloud of randomness

It's late, I'm tired but I decided I should update a little, so here goes... I love what Pastor Zhenya from the Hillsong Kiev Church said tonight - we need to have a spirit of appreciation, especially for things/ people we may often take for granted. Anyway here's a random mish-mesh of thoughts from this past week: I'm really loving my cell group, it's quite a mix bag of characters but it just adds an element of interest and I reckon we're all learning from each other!... Can't believe that lots of the youth worship team guys have actually written songs. We finally got to listen and share them last week! It's so wonderful hearing the different styles of music and yet they have the same focus. Keep the tunes rolling guys!... I actually helped design and paint the new set design for April. (Yeah what the!?!) For a person who could never paint or design well in high school this has been a major achievement. I was actually quite scared especially being appointed the 'project manager' for the set. I was super priviledged to have been able to work alongside Belinda who is a Fine Arts graduate. She knew which colours to use, and how to mix them etc (I hadn't a clue about that kind of stuff!) Thank you God for helping us through it... I'm really looking forward to what the Young Adult ministry is capable of doing, there is so much potential that's yet to be unleashed. I reckon the retreat is going to rock! (Oh by the way the last Young Adult Social went very well... biskiting at the Narrows... twas a fun-filled afternoon with pictures to prove!)

josh jono clare + getting ready for a ride on the swan

the umbrella + jason candice

nahum jo + grace

jordan marje + sarah

ann + boys and their handstands