random quirks

Just thought it might be nice to share this with you.

And a new way to carry your child?

Well he seems to think it's a good idea.

the power of persuasion

Although I've been attending church for quite a few months now, I've not actually met any one there (as in friends). I've been meaning to join a cell group to get to start fellowshipping with people at church. I was hanging out with Anna on Monday and she persuaded me to write an email to the church office regarding the matter. I was a little hesitant but wrote it anyway. I got a response the next day and a phone call to confirm it too. Woohoo so I finally went to a cell group at Riverview. I have to say I'm so glad that I went. I can now say that I know people at Riverview church. Even got to sit with them at church tonight! Thanks Anna! (btw Rachel, I'm still working on the name!)

It's been great being able to spend heaps of time with my sister and my family as well. My sister is super wise and has taught me so much. Love you Sarah!

Oh here's a random carrot song & some recent pics...

coffee with the Sunset Coast girls & the Subway girls


mom acting like a silly elephant & my cheeky dad


my brother Moses & Sarah and her anzac biscuit


yumcha & jan and sarah


my beloved Lari the teacher & mmm... Dome's flat white


my cousin Min & Anna and the riverview


by the river & outside my new house with my cousin Zhen

in the eye of the storm

Been in Perth for almost 6 months now... quite a scary thought! At the moment, my family is starting to settle into Perth life. Our new house is now in the process of being renovated. Mom is getting used to long distance driving and reading street maps. Dad is a little more relaxed now that mom's in town. My sister has already anchored herself a job at Subway. Only now do I begin to have a deeper ambition to go back into the workforce and also go back to school.

Time and time again, people have asked me what I've been doing with my time, and I've been answering quite honestly... 'not much' (as in nothing spectacularly exciting). It's pretty shocking for some people, especially people who are used to constantly doing something (like life at HK pace). Perhaps I haven't been totally honest, I have been doing things, just not what people think as major things if you get my drift... I've been cleaning the house; cooking; washing laundry; being a tour guide taking mom and Sarah around town; hanging out with my cousins and my family; going to church - which I love; etc.

People also keep asking me when I'm going to be driving by myself, when I'm going to get a job, when I'm going to go back to uni... so many questions, that even I don't know how to explain. I'd describe my current mode as stationery yet prepared to accelerate. Although the external happenings in my life look rather stationery or clueless as some may like to call it, I find myself itching to move... Itching to move, yet not knowing where to step towards. I know that God has given me a purpose for my life. And I also know that there are dream thieves that would like to snatch the purpose and dream away from me. Robert Ferguson from Hillsongs spoke about 2 weeks ago at church about the topic and it really hit home for me. I found myself challenging my own motives & attitudes, I really want them to be approved by God. I don't want me to be the obstruction to my life purpose. Sometimes I get frustrated and I cry, cuz I want to move, I want to do things, I want to go places, but I feel grounded. I have to be honest with myself... I'm not perfect. Recently on many occasions I have felt God smiling at me when I have been so annoyed and irritated at things and the wise words "Patience, my dear!" keep coming up! Haha believe you me, I am learning...

just a few pics from Sydney

Happy scrolling!


The famous sydney harbour bridge + my cousin Nancy and I


Look what I found at Bondi Beach + a view of Sydney from Centrepoint


The ever gorgeous Mandylee and I + Sydney's town hall


Sydney's skyline from Taronga Zoo + Rhonda and Abbie


A curious Derek + a smiley Dan


Beautiful HKers - Laura, Yugo, Susan & DJ + Ann & Flic


The queue before a Hillsong Night Rally + my roommate Davina and I


Mmm... Karen enjoying corn at the Rocks + opera at the aquashell


The night lights of Sydney + waiting for the Night Rally to begin!


Mark appreciating the gift from his 'angel' + Abbie & the olympic fire urn

family reunited

It's been strange. My whole entire family is now living in the small apartment dad and I have been living in for the past few months - in PERTH.  The situation is pretty crammed as you can probably imagine. Lots of adjustments. We did a bit of a family trip thing down to Margaret River... didn't do anything there but it was pretty nice. Went to Riverview together last night and then watched King Arthur at the movies (I quite liked it). I just pray that we'll be able to get along well (well it's probably just me... my impatience and my attitude).

sydney in review

Where do I start.

Sydney was amazing. I was such a tourist. Hillsong conference was awesome. I've yet to fully digest all that I've heard and learnt. Bought heaps of sermon CDs so hopefully it'll help me process it all down. After the conference some of the 180 and SNAers stayed in the city for a few extra days, and we did all the touristy things...  went to Cockle Bay and watched an opera performance at the aquashell which had a firework show at the end (very anticlimax compared to HK Chinese New Year ones), lots of shopping, Taronga zoo, the opera house, more shopping, etc. (well at least I shopped lots)
 
It was really nice to have been able to meet up with lots of people from Hong Kong. I love you all very much. I think it's been pretty emotional for me, to have to say bye again to all these lovely people. But I know that God's ever humourous and was saying... Ann why are you so sad... I told you... Perth! I feel like I went back to square one! Not too bright I am... but I'm still learning!
 
Oh yeah btw, Jae did end up going to Hillsong's City church with Flic and I, and I think he actually enjoyed the service.

Rhonda was also a very amazing tour guide, we went to so many different locations, walked heaps and she didn't complain one bit... and she still came out to meet up with me on my last day in Sydney even though she was ill... love ya Rhondalove and thanks heaps! ($5 Jap beef curry rice rocks!)

sydney tidings

Rhonda has been an awesome tour guide. Since arriving on Tuesday morning, after catching up on the 2 hour jet lag, sleep deprivation from the flight, and settling into my brother's apartment 3 minutes away from Central station... I've been playing the tourist.

For all the HK people coming over to Sydney, Rhonda and I have found KRISPY KREME in the city! I think you can actually check Rhonda's site for the evidence. It's been tried and tested by ourselves and my brother and his flatmates... the verdict - APPROVED!

The main places I've visited:
- Bondi Junction
- Bondi Beach
- Chinatown
- Museum of Contemporary Art
- Krispy Kreme
- Boost Juice (various locations)
- Manly Beach
- Art Gallery of NSW
- Centrepoint aka Sydney Tower
- Coogee Beach
- My brother's uni (University of Technology Sydney)

I didn't get to spend much time with my brother cuz he left early Thursday morning to go back to Hong Kong to spend time with his friends and to help mom and Sarah with the house packing. But it was nice to spend the little time I had with him. And it's also really sweet of him to let me stay in his room while he's away. His flatmates are awesome too. And it was because of one of his flatemates, I got to go up to the Centrepoint with Rhonda on Thursday evening for free, just as the sun was starting to set. It was such an amazing sight to see... the Sydney landscape by day, and the nightlights when it got darker. It was such a blessing to be able to have seen it... if it wasn't for Rafael, I doubt I personally would have splurged and bought a ticket to see the wonderful view.

Anyway, tonight was even more fantastic. Rhonda and I met up with Flic at Central, and we went to the Hillsong church in the city. They have a program for the 18-25s called Powerhouse. We dropped our bags off in the auditorium and hung out in the foyer for a bit, and when we returned to our bags, guess who we found next to them?... MATT SNELGROVE! We were all shocked! Powerhouse was really wonderful and I felt really encouraged and excited by seeing over 400 youths hanging out together on a Friday night at church. We also got to meet Pastor John Snelgrove, his wife Sandra and Granddad at the end of the night. It was really thrilling seeing people I hadn't seen in months (Just a glimpse of what it will be like on Monday when the HK gang come over to join us for Hillsong)

I'm now very fired up to meet up with everyone from HK, and really looking forward to an energised week and a bit!

Oh, I better sign off now, but before I do, I just wanted to say I'm currently using my brother's flatmate's laptop. It was really nice of Jae to let me use it, cuz I was just going to go downstairs to the internet cafes and check my mail. This boy has been going to church with my brother occassionally. And tonight he asked if I wanted to go with him to church on Sunday cuz he hasn't gone in a while.... how awesome is that! I'll keep you posted.

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