heading off to Sydney...

Here's some random mish-mash...

I'm going to Sydney tonight. It's going to be pretty exciting! Will be there for just over 2 weeks. Going to be staying at my brother's place in the city for a week before meeting up with the Hong Kong gang to go to the Hillsong conference together... woohoo living in the city will be lots of fun!

hmm... I forgot to mention that last Saturday was Riverview's live worship recording for its latest CD recording called Encounter. It was a really awesome experience to be able to worship for over two hours with the whole church. And on Tuesday night the church and pastor Phil were in an interview on the ABC in a program kindda like 60 minutes. The interview was pretty positive and was talking about church and the modern world and perhaps the two can actually be compatible.

As I've been reading Purpose Driven Life, I've been learning about life applications. Man I tell you it's been really tough for me. Some of the issues the book has been discussing have been issues that I thought I had dealt with in my life but somehow have crept back up again. And being the stubborn person I am, I tried to ignore it till God prodded me so hard I had to give in. It's been an interesting experience for me. To be humble (IMHO) means being squished to a pulp, trying to gasp for a breathe of air and wonder what had happened. Then only to find out that the whole time the focus is not supposed to be on myself but others. And I still have so much to learn! sigh!

I'm excited about the 180 forum being back online.

Anyway, I'm going to miss Rachel. When I return from my 2 week holiday, she'd have flown back to South Carolina. She's been an amazing friend, full of insight, wisdom, encouragement and tonnes of joy... gosh and I think we just yap on and on every time we chat, sometimes at bubble tea sessions, over asian food, beer, the ywam canteen, at '228' (Rachel's ywam abode) with random people dropping by to say hi. As a last get-together, we went to the Hyatt Regency for its lunch buffet today with Rachel's mother who flew in yesterday after a 30+ hour journey from the US... we ate like kings! Had way too many oysters, prawns, crab legs, stick date pudding etc.


mmm... Rachel enjoying her bubble tea + the '228' resident and Shaeffen the bread thief

Happy Birthday Rachel - 30th June! love ya and have a safe trip back to the US!

r.i.p. little Muz

Just found out from Nathan Baker that (little) Muz who I had the priviledge of knowing at Deakin Hall has passed away on Thursday after 7 weeks in intensive care, due to pneumonia complications during his chemotherapy battling against cancer. He will be greatly missed by me and all the other Deakinites. I will remember how he always spread sunshine and laughter. It will be the biggest Deakin Hall reunion on Wednesday for the funeral service. May God bless and comfort his family during this time.

horrible way to start your Saturdays

Recently I've been realising that every Saturday morning I wake up to horrible music... Last week it was really painful country music from next door. Today, it's my upstairs neighbour with equally bad taste - awful folk started the morning, now it's new age-y gothic type music that just seems to resonate through the whole entire floor! Shudder shudder! It's really creepy sounding. And you thought living in a topnotch environment would mean slightly more sophisticated music listeners! Hmm I think I'll just have to counter it by blasting my own music while I busy myself cleaning the apartment!

Dad left this morning to go back to HK for a week. I'm quite jealous that he's going back. But I'm not jealous of his jam-packed schedule which includes a conference in China!


the riverview from my apartment

no chocolate fondue

The HK girls decided to meet up again this Saturday... this time for chocolate fondue in Northbridge (after footy seemed a tedious event to organise). Ruth wanted to check out Room Nineteen - the restaurant that won the Channel 7 My Restaurant Rules competition. Anyway we were a tad slow with the reservations so by the time we tried to make reservations, the place was already booked out. Supposingly all the other restaurants nearby have also newly added fondue in their menus, but as we walked around we didn't see a single restaurant with it on their menus. A little defeated, the posse (Ruth, Rachel, Anna, Sana, Meredith and I) decided to just go to Dome Cafe. We soon forgot that we were on a fondue mission after sighting the glorious display of cakes and coffees. Converations flowed as we sampled carrot cake, chocolate cake, coffees, ciabattini, turkish bread and potato wedges. The outcome - a well spent 3 hours and very satisfied and content cafe customers.


Ruth and Rachel waiting for more food & "...the chocolate cake is not for sharing" - Meredith


Anna just hours away from her 4am work shift & Sana - Rachel's other half of the course

I was supposed to meet a girl named Diana, introduced to be by Bonnie Poon via email, on Friday at the YWAM base but I had celebrate my cousin's birthday. Amidst the bustling conversations, out of the blue, Rachel went, "Ooh, it's Diana who you're supposed to meet". It just so happened that Diana was having coffee with her friends a table away from us. So I finally got to meet the infamous girl!


I finally met Diana!

It was my cousin Jac's birthday on Friday. Gosh I think we cooked up a storm (Justin and Syl got to take back lots of leftovers), we all ate like pigs, and to top it off there was the Baskin & Robbins cookies 'n' cream ice-cream cake... Yum!


Jac (in black) with her sisters & brotherinlaw

Currently listening to: David Crowder Band - The Lime CD; Third Day - Wire; Soul Survivor 2003 - Anthem of the Free

brain fluff

Check this out... Petals Around the Rose for those of you that have figured it out, please don't give away the answer. (It's been said the smarter the person is, the longer it takes for them to figure it out)

a very HK weekend

This weekend has been just FANTASTIC! I totally thank God for getting me out of my depressing agro whinge fest. I've been very encouraged this week reading The Purpose Driven Life and have been questioning my motives, my reason for being in Perth, my future, my passion and just basically my purpose in life.

Friday evening, I went to the YWAM base in Claisebrook and joined Rachel and her whole entire base for dinner. Then I got a tour of the place; went to visit Rachel's current abode (the self made cubby hole)in a funky cosy warehouse-turned-residence called "228"; and joined the Friday night worship meeting. It was at the worship meeting that I finally met up with Yumi Erikson, (another girl I met in HK whilst she was working at Mother's Choice) who had been doing a course here at YWAM. Although the girl who recently returned from her mission outreach, and had contracted malaria twice during the trip, and lost 7kgs hence became even tinier than I last remembered her, Yumi was still bubbly, vibrant and cute as ever. Thankfully I finally got to catch up with her on the eve of her departure to go back to the US. I really miss that girl.


Yumi and I

Saturday, I met up with Rachel in the city, after grocery shopping and hanging out at my cousin's Subway, we finally met up with Ruth and Anna who graced us for a brief time at the train station. It was so amazing being able to hangout with HK 180 girls in Perth!


Rachel and Ruth


the HK (re)union

It was also a blessing to have been able to fellowship with Rachel over the weekend. We just talked and talked and talked. After the HK reunion, the two of us sauntered towards Chinatown for Vietnamese noodles and bubble tea. Rachel also got to stay over at my place for the night, and got to chat to Dan, Derek, Mark and Nate via MSN audio, an experience she described like "actually hanging out with the HK boys". Seriously though, I felt that God answered my prayers this weekend. I had felt rather disassociated with Perth (being stuck at home all day), and wanted to meet new people, people I could relate with and fellowship with and who weren't my relatives. And I was given an angel - Rachel, who encouraged, inspired and hung out with me all weekend, and also introduced me to numerous people on the YWAM base.

productivity/ purpose

I've had some totally imbalanced up and down emotional days lately (which is not something pleasant and nothing you want to see), and I feel sorry for dad who has to deal with me on a day to day basis. As for productivity, I've finally picked out the tiles that will be used for my bathroom... if only dad will decide on his! I've been using the newly acquired steam/ vacuum cleaner... it's been rather interesting... it looks like something from one of those Danoz Direct telemarketing gizmos but this thing actually works, well, that was until it died on me while I was happily cleaning the kitchen's extractor fan... perhaps the extractor fan wasn't too pretty looking and it didn't like it much, but it just beeped non-stop at it and stopped steaming. Luckily I got a new one from the steamer cleaner company to replace the dead one. So it's Ann the steam cleaner back in action once again!

After much slacking and bludging, I've finally picked up the copy of "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren given to me by Nate. I'm enjoying reading it and spending time pondering on life's questions. It's a challenge for me to be reading these days, normally my eyes begin to blur after a page or so and then they just don't seem to focus (alright they may look a bit cross-eyed) and I begin to feel sleepy. But I've made a committment to finishing this book, so I will complete it in 40 days. I really need to read more...

This is a little something for all you American Idol fans: (no Dan, that's NOT my brother)

William Hung

blink and that's it

On our way back home from the city today, we (my cousin Syl, Jan and I) witnessed a serious car crash. As we were approaching an intersection, the motorcyclist in front of us sped up to cross the amber light, just then a car came from the intersecting road and the motorcyclist rammed straight into the side of the car and the motorist flew off and landed on the side of the road. It was rather graphic. Luckily there were people at the scene immediately and were contacting the police and paramedics. After a minute or so, the motorist was moving his leg and arm, so I was very relieved. My cousin Syl who was driving was in total shock and drove quite slowly back home after that. It all just made me realise what can happen in just a blink of an eye. The incident made me think about how priviledged I am to be living - the lifestyle I'm currently living, to be blessed with all the things I have, my family, my friends, etc. I feel very lucky to be alive! It made me think, how am I worthy of all these things. And if I'm not careful it can all be taken away from me just like that. It made me realise I have to be a faithful steward with not just my belongings, but also with time. Hmm more humble pie for me here in Perth!

watch out Perth roads!

Guess what? I finally got my Ls (learners driving permit)today... now I need to take driving lessons, then take the driving test, do a log book of 25 hours and finally pass the hazard perception test and then it'll be me Ann Ong on the roads by myself! How scary is that!


the L plate

my God loves mobile phones too!

My friend Rachel who I met in Hong Kong FINALLY got to meet up here in Perth yesterday. She's doing a course here and have just recently come back from an overseas trip. It was pretty trippy how we were living in the same city but because she didn't have direct access to a phone we had to communicate via email! Anyway we got to talk on the phone the morning before we met up and when she mentioned that it was pretty hard to communicate with people here without a phone, I confidently told her I would give her my old phone to use. When I checked out the phone it wouldn't switch on. I figured the battery was probably dead cuz I hadn't used it in a while. So I plugged it into the adapter to charge it, but I couldn't see any reaction to it... I started getting a little figgety then and tried using another adapter, the reaction... the phone still wasn't charging. Uh oh, I thought "man I told Rachel I would give her my phone but this phone is totally busted, what am I going to do!" Anyway as I was getting ready to go out, I was reminded that back in HK once when I prayed for my phone it was back in action within no time... and I remembered the same thing with Lolly and Mandy's phones. So I decided to pray for my phone, I really wanted to be able to give it to Rachel. The phone still didn't switch on though... I was quite bummed out... anyway as I continued with my getting ready to go out routine, something in me just told me to plug the phone into the socket and leave it for a while, and so I did... After I finished getting ready, I went and checked on the phone... guess what.... it was CHARGING! yay! I was sooooo thrilled. Some people may believe that it was just me using my extra brain cell, but I believe that God gave me that extra bit of wisdom and helped get my phone working again.

Later in the afternoon I met up with Rachel in the city and I was able to give her the phone! We got her a phone card, and now she's a true city gal! Wow it was so awesome being able to hang out and catch up with her.


Rachel & I

I was supposed to go to the footy at Subi with Ruth & Anna yesterday too, but it was a plan postponed... till the next game!

My cousin Syl and I went out with her colleagues last night, it was the first time I went to a pub/ club in Perth... was very fun hanging out with them!


Liz, Cousin Syl, Ashley & Shelley

it's a challenge... beauty parlour

To put it mildly, I had major issues with my dad this week, and it wasn't a pretty site. I was a mess, and frustrated with the things I was supposed to be doing and questioned my reasons for doing them etc. In the end, I knew the problem was yet again... ME! When will I learn... Things are better now, thank God for that. As my cousin Sharon would say, "it's a challenge... beauty parlour"

rather amusing...

I just thought I'd share this with you.

who would have thought...

Just wanted to say I have finally got myself a blog site. Never thought I'd get one, but then again never say never... Then again, I never thought I would be living in Australia again, and here I am in Perth as a permanent resident.

I've learnt alot since being here - about myself, my dad, my relatives, my new house which we will be moving into in July, renovations, colour combination, Malaysian food, and about the city which I now call home. It's hard not to compare everything with what I have previously known. It's strange that I'm not working, and I sometimes feel guilty for being able to relax while the rest of the world is busy slaving away making money and doing productive things. Honestly, being here has been a truly humbling experience for me. Initially I had to totally depend on my relatives to get to from point A to point B. It then dawned on me that I couldn't do all the things I liked to do because I had to depend on people here, it was really frustrating. About 3 weeks ago I finally cracked it. I had a panic attack. I was really upset, depressed, I chucked a tantrum at my dad for no good reason. I was miserable. At the end of the day, I prayed that the horrible feeling would go away and that I would be able to target it. "Helplessness" was the word, the answer that I got the next morning. Once I was able to figure out what was bothering me, I was able to pray about it and immediately I began to feel a sense of peace in me that I did not have the day before. I'm learning to be more of a servant, laying down the pride and arrogance. I never thought I had issues with becoming a servant until I came to Perth. These days I have become the housekeeper, the secretary, the investigator, etc. Initially I felt as if I was doing slave work, but then after a chat with my sister I realised the reason I came to Perth before my mom and my sister (who will be arriving late July) was to help my dad and to support him. I had been too preoccupied with all the 'me' benefits, I had forgotten my purpose. With all these realisations, I pray that I will be able to change and settle better into my new environment. I have also been checking out Riverview Church. It's really huge, but it's also really fun and funky. Hopefully will be able to settle into a church soon.

I'll leave you with a list of "who would have thought I would ..." rambling:
- Live in the same city as my Malaysian & Singporean relatives
- Not be able to shop on Sundays cuz all the shops are closed then
- Live next to a river... the Swan River to top it all off
- Soon be living in the most Chinese sounding suburb ever - 'Leeming'
- Meet so many Malaysians in Perth... hence some people call Perth 'mini Malaysia'
- Be so domesticated (cooking, cleaning, washing laundry, etc)