baby mania

I can't believe it's been over a month since the last post and the irony is that I've been on holidays (vacation)! Anyway, I thought a Christmas post would be in order. It has been a busy time for me with a Christmas production (photos to come), Christmas shopping and visiting friends' babies.

In the last two weeks, I've visited 3 newborn babies, and have one other newbie to visit! I've been a busy aunty!! Here I am with 2 of them:

with Madeline Stonehouse and Imogen Dombroski (holding the toy dog)

with Bethany Wong

Yes I'm in the same top and have the same cheesy delighted grin in both photos - I made the visits on consecutive days. Anyway, with all this newborn exposure, two things really stood out to me: 1) how precious they are and 2) how vulnerable they are.

The other cool thing that I got to do in the last two weeks was to attend the end of year party of a local radio program Open House which was broadcast live. Apart from the beautiful ambience, riveting interviews, great music and yummy coffee and cake, I was most struck by presenter extraordinaire Sheridan's closing comment which went something like this:"2000 years ago, a baby was born. That baby grew up to become a boy and that boy grew up to become a man but he was so much more than just a man."

It was amazing for me visiting these gorgeous newborns and imagining that baby boy born 2000 years ago in a stable in the little town of Bethlehem.

How vulnerable he must have been - the Word become flesh.

How precious he is - a gift from the Father to all people.

Fill us with the wonder of that first Christmas night.

Much love to you and yours this Christmas!

the big THREE-O!

Well it's official. I'm now into a new decade. Bring on the thirties!!! Thanks to Bernee for the link to another blog with other peoples' reflections on turning thirty. It was eye-opening. There are people out there who panic and do drastic things like leave their husbands, quit their jobs or get tattoos. Don't worry, I'm not about to do anything crazy. I cut my fringe - that's about as radical as it gets!

A few weeks ago, at dinner with some friends, we were talking about someone who got married at age 22 - which we all thought was young. One friend commented 'I can't imagine being married at 22!' to which I responded 'yeah and when I was 22 I couldn't imagine NOT being married at 30!!!!' Yes when I think back to my last milestone birthday (21) I realise how much I've changed and how differently my life has turned out to what I imagined. I definitely am not as 'settled' as I thought I would be.

But do I regret anything? In Edith Piaf style I say 'non, je ne regrette rien'! I regret nothing. I never could have imagined that Father would take me on this exciting journey of living and working overseas, meeting fascinating people, doing what I love and learning to trust him more and more on a daily basis. He truly has done 'far more abundantly that I could have asked or imagined'! And I look forward to what he has in store...

This year, I'm so grateful that I've had the opportunity to be with my sister Melissa to share our special day together. Here are some pics from Saturday:


To see these pictures as larger images, click on the links in the slideshow. To see other pics from the picnic BBQ 'Flourish' with other friends on Sat (not our birthday party, it just happened to be on the same day), click here. One of my favourite little boys, Jacob, is the the star of that show!

i'm a twentysomething

well i have just a few more days of being a twentysomething. there are still a couple of things on my to-do-before-i-turn-30 list like get another piercing in my ear and learn to play guitar better (or should i say learn another strum pattern) but with just three days left and with an exam coming up next week, these things will just have to wait till sometime in my thirties!

this is what one of my favourite musician/songwriters, Jamie Cullum, had to say about being a twentysomething:

After years of expensive education,
a car full of books and anticipation,
I’m an expert on Shakespeare and that’s a hell of a lot
but the world don't need scholars as much as I thought.

Maybe I'll go travelling for a year,
finding myself or start a career.
I could work for the poor though I’m hungry for fame
we all seem so different but we're just the same.

Maybe I'll go to the gym, so I don't get fat,
aren't things more easy with a tight six pack?
Who knows the answers? Who do you trust?
I can't even separate love from lust.

Maybe I’ll move back home and pay off my loans,
working nine to five answering phones.
Don't make me live for my friday nights,
drinking eight pints and getting in fights.

I don't want to get up, just let me lie in,
leave me alone, I'm a twenty something.

Maybe I'll just fall in love that could solve it all,
philosophers say that that’s enough,
there surely must be more. Ooooh

Love ain’t the answer nor is work,
the truth eludes me so much it hurts.
But I’m still having fun and I guess that's the key,
I'm a twenty something and I'll keep being me.

OK so not all of it is exactly my lifestyle (I can't remember the last time I drank eight pints and got into fights) but it's still a fun song. Anyway, they say 40 is the new 30, and I definitely know a good number of thirtysomethings who are living like Jamie here.

what do melinda and justin timberlake have in common?

Tonight, watching a TV interview he did with Rove, I discovered that JT is also an avid hater of magpies! He had been attacked in Brisbane. He described them as 'dive bombing gangsters of the air' (or something to that effect - I can't remember exactly). See it's proof! Magpies are evil. Aussie magpies are evil. I'm not alone.

This is such significant news that my blog drought has been broken!

i'm still alive!

A combination of Facebook, busyness and lack of inspiration has kept me from blogging though I promise there's more to come very soon. Stay tuned, listeners!

more photos

Of course one of the main highlights of my trip to Asia was catching up with my friends' children. Click on 'cuties in asia' to see some of their pics.

I've also posted some photos on Facebook of 'Amy and Jonathan's wedding'. I think this should be accessible to non-Facebookers. This was a lovely wedding I attended the night before I headed out to Thailand. It was great being able to celebrate with friends.

land of smiles

i'm back from a lovely time in chiangmai and singapore. apart from the joy of meeting up with friends and the encouragement of getting to know some likeminded people, these were some more amusing highlights:

• officially the worst hotel bathroom i've ever had - a baby gecko who kept me company in the shower, then when someone upstairs took a shower one night it started raining in OUR bathroom, and an invasion of a swarm of flies/tiny insects when their eggs hatched in our shower area. i also had ants in my bed.
• my first up close and personal sighting of a live snake, 'in the wild' (on the path to our hotel room) - since i'm not bindi erwin, i fled!
• this has to be some sort of record. i had 2 days in Chiangmai town during which i made 2 visits to 'Love at First Bite' cafe (quiche on day one and macadamia pie on day two) and 2 visits to 'Dukes' (Chicago style restaurant - i wouldn't go for the garlic chicken pizza again but i'd definitely highly recommend the warm spinach and bacon salad!)
• watching 'hairspray' the movie compliments of singapore airlines
• speaking of singapore airlines, i very much appreciated the magnum ice creams for dessert! i also love the new online check-in system that allows you to show up just 60 minutes before the flight to check your bags in.
• they actually have shoes small enough to fit me in singapore - and i didn't even buy the smallest size!!! amazing!

evil magpies

thanks to Neil who has assured me that there are only THREE evil magpies in Australia! By doing a Flickr search, he found 12,913 results for 'Magpie' then narrowed it down to 855 Australian Magpies and then just 3 evil Australian Magpies!!! Now I can go on my walks in peace especially since second only to Google, Flickr is the source of all knowledge.

Well, two of those three evil aussie magpies were caught in action in this ad:

See, they ARE evil! It's proof...
And the one remaining evil aussie magpie happens to live in my neighbourhood!!

so many things to ask

There are a few things I think I will never understand in my lifetime. Today, I thought of two:
1. How someone could think to feed a cat coffee beans, wait for them to pass through the cat's digestive system, shift through its poo, clean the beans (I hope!), grind them, brew the grind and then DRINK it!
2. Deal or no deal - I just don't get it. Is there really no skill involved at all?

By the way, the title of this post is taken from my friend Dale's song 'So many things to ask' which is one of my favourites.

spring youth concert

Saturday afternoon was rainy and a bit cold for a spring day but we still went ahead with our Spring Youth Concert in the park. I had fun, especially hearing and meeting the other performers. Go here to see photos of me and some of my friends performing.

And yes, after lots of blog comments (by a certain 'anonymous' person) and being blackmailed with embarrassing photos on the 'Get Melinda onto Facebook' group, I've signed up for Facebook. There you go - I give in!

the things you learn at college...

In class yesterday my lecturer said one of the funniest things I've ever heard in a class (in my nearly 8 years of tertiary study - yes, that's right 8 years). He was telling us about the man who wrote the article we were looking at, and he (my lecturer) said that when he first met this writer he had to hold back the giggles cause he looked so much like a garden gnome!!! My lecturer even thought they might have modelled all garden gnomes after his likeness. Too funny.

In the same class we also talked about cow psychology and Rainman.

what to do if you meet a magpie on a lonely walking trail

I've mentioned before how the walks I take are my times of taking in beauty, talking to Father, reflecting on life and getting some exercise. The last few times I've been on my walk, I've been increasingly aware of a looming possible problem. Twice now, I've seen a big magpie on my walking route.

For those of you who don't know, I am TERRIFIED of birds and especially of magpies. This was accentuated by the times I've been swooped on by a magpie a few years ago. They're evil!!!

So yeah, as spring (and magpie swooping season) approaches, I may have to:
a) find an alternative (and free) form of exercise
b) find another walking route that has 100% no risk of running into magpies
c) get a stackhat (trans: bike helmet) and draw eyes in the back of my head

Any suggestions on how to avoid swooping magpies? I'm compiling a list of 'What to do if you meet a magpie on a lonely walking trail'.

game over!

Not ONE voluntary mention of 'facebook' today! I waited and waited all day but no, no one talked about it. A friend did bring it up over Skype but just in response to this blog. I told him it didn't count and he said I would make a good politician cause I make up the rules as I go along!

So yeah...that didn't last very long. There goes my theory. We'll see when 'facebook' gets a mention again and how long that will last for. Maybe it won't happen for days in a row again...

On another note, I don't think I had three fall-in-love moments today but I definitely had at least one - when I was feeling my pregnant friend Aimee's tummy! What an amazing thing new life and childbirth is. It was so surreal thinking there was a whole other living being INSIDE her. Congratulations Tim and Aimee!!! I know you'll be wonderful parents.

new look mel-star

I look the same but this is a new look blog. I love the colours on this template! I feel so refreshed whenever I look at it. And because I'm an ESFJ (if you speak 'Myers-Briggs' personality types), I love boxes and categories. I also like the efficient use of space in this template. So there you go: new look aussie girl!

book-keeping

I'm keeping a mental count of how often I hear someone talk about 'facebook'. So far it's been at least once a day for the last three days! I'm going to see how long this goes for before the series is broken. At about 9pm this evening, I was at a dinner party and realised that I hadn't heard the word 'facebook' once today. I thought to tell the other guests how amazed I was about this fact but I decided to wait out the evening and see if it would get a mention without me bringing it up and sure enough, it came up! Even on Monday when I was home all day and didn't interact with many people, it was on the news. Let's see how long this goes for...

Disclaimer: I don't have anything against facebook - I'm just not on it myself cause I don't need anymore distractions in my life :)

Other random thoughts related to technology:

• 'google' is a verb
• 'email' is in spellcheck ( I remember a time when it wasn't)

today's dose

I'm still on a campaign to 'fall in love' three times each day, but it is kind of hard to do when I'm sitting in front of a computer for most of the day or doing my readings for school. I do go on walks a couple of times a week though, and that's when I mostly have these moments. I usually walk to a hill in my local area - it's hard to explain what it is exactly. It's a man-made hill that I think has been constructed specially for people to walk/bike up. I think it's called a 'marker' (whatever that means!). 2 of my 3 fall-in-love moments are pretty much guaranteed whenever I go on this walk:

1. The view: when I get to the top of the hill, I take in the view of the surrounding area. Now, I wouldn't place it in the top 5 best views that I've seen (or top 10 for that matter), but there is something peaceful about being able to watch the world go by from up high somewhere. It also looks out over a creek and I love watching the sun glisten and dance on top of the water.
2. Lavendar: on the way back from my walk I usually walk past a lavendar bush and I'll pick off a leaf and sniff on it till I get home. I LOVE the smell of lavendar! It's so therapeutic.

Today's third moment was while I was walking up the hill and watching the sun start to set in the west. I'll have to bring my camera along one day.

I'm learning to enjoy the little things in life and to take in their beauty on an everyday basis. In my small group, we've been looking at the book of Genesis. I'm understanding more and more why our Creator looked at what he had made and said that it was good. And this is a fallen world too. I can't wait to see 'the real thing'. In the meantime, I'm going to just enjoy little bits of heaven here on earth.

how sweet the sound

I finally got to watch 'Amazing Grace' last night. It was as moving and inspiring as expected. What an incredible story of a world-changer who dedicated his life to abolishing slavery. Made me think about how this sort of oppression of humans by other humans still goes on today. Maybe I should be drinking Fair Trade Coffee...

If you haven't seen the film yet (although it seems like most people have seen it by now), I'd highly recommend it.

Mel rating: 8/10

three times a day

In my class on 'Spirituality' we've been learning about a brand of spirituality that was a pre-cursor to New Age, called 'Creation Spirituality'. While I don't agree with most of what its founder Matthew Fox has to say, he has at least one point that I like and agree with. He says that we should 'fall in love' at least three times a day. He doesn't mean falling in love in a 'romantic' way but in a more general way. Here are my three things from yesterday:

1. The 4 year old girl I was minding yesterday wanted me to have the sticker off her mandarin, and the little 3 year old boy offered me a piece of mandarin. (it's easy to have these 'fall in love' moments when you work with kids!) That sticker stayed on my hand all day.
2. Listening to the drum pattern of one of my favourite songs (Molly Johnson's 'Ooh Child/Redemption's Song')
3. Watching a waiter at the Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant I was dining at last night, reading the paper in Vietnamese to his aging mother.

On a day like today when I've been in front of the computer all day, I haven't had three moments yet. Have you had three fall-in-love moments today?

By the way, I'm sure it's a different Matthew Fox from Charlie of Party of Five a.k.a. Jack of Lost.

lessons from a dog

Earlier in the year I was on my way to college in a friend's car when we saw a small dog running for his life down the other side of the road with a long line up of cars behind him driving very slowly. I guess he had somehow gotten onto the road and now he was running to keep up with the cars and trying not to get run over. Poor puppy, his tongue was hanging out and he looked so tired. If he had just stopped and looked around he may have realised that he just had to escape onto the footpath (trans: sidewalk) and he would have been safe. But he just kept on running, I guess cause he didn't know what else to do. Or maybe he was enjoying the chase and thought it was all a game? We drove off and I'm not sure how that situation eventually resolved itself. I really hope he didn't get run over when he got to the intersection.

Since I've been back in Australia, I've noticed how our lives are often that way. We try to keep up with life and just keep on running hard in an effort not to get run over. But if we just STOP and look around, we'll see that there is an alternate route and that we're able to get off the treadmill (mixing metaphors now). Life here is so much busier than in China. People are on the go ALL the time and don't seem to have much time to rest. People seem to be valued not for who they are but for how much they are doing and contributing. It seems that most things here are based on schedules and activities rather than relationships and community.

So we keep running cause all we can do is look straight ahead, rather than look around. And it may kind of seem like we're surviving till we get to a crossroad...

I hope that in your life, you are finding time to stop, rest and look around at other alternative routes if the road you're on is too much for you.

holiday fun!

These holidays ('vacation'/'winter break') seem to have gone really quickly (we're back to school next week) but one of the highlights has been spending time with family, especially with my cousin Grace who was here visiting for the last week.

Here are some photos from her visit, featuring our day at Luna Park with second cousins (or is that twice removed or once removed or something?) Kezia and Kayleigh. To take a closer look at these pics, click on the slideshow below.


Credits
Star poser: Grace
Transport: Melissa (sponsored by Beep Beep Barina)
Giggle champion: Kayleigh
Shopping queen: Kezia

Creating the Creator

Let us not shape Him into who we want Him to be
Let us not mould Him into One who exists only to achieve our purposes
Let us not make Him in our own image
Rather let us allow ourselves to be continually crafted in His likeness
Let us allow Him to reveal to us who He really is
Let us allow the Son to show us the Father
Let HIM do the inventing, the creating, the shaping, the moulding, the crafting, the transformation in us, and not us of Him.

Random Compliments

Recently I was told by six year old girl that I 'sorta look like Pocahontas', which thrilled me to BITS! Another time, I was invited to become an 'honorary guy' which I think was MEANT as a compliment.

Yet another time, my good friend Natalie told me that I have a 'good palate' and Jioji added that I have a 'good soft palate'. It was a first for both compliments but I think the latter wins the prize for the most random compliment I've ever received. (See Jioji, I told you I'd manage to weave that into my blog somehow and I hope I spelt your name right!)

I'd like to hear your random compliments - whether or not you believe them to be true. Post your comments now! (don't let me down)

And so it continues...

This is my first post in a while. Somehow, I've been too busy being on holidays (trans: 'vacation')! In the meanwhile, I've thought up a name for my dad's silver Toyota Avalon as well. This is the automatic car that I've been driving since I'm still not manual-savvy yet! The Avalon is also Japanese so I've decided to name him after Hiro's friend Ando, on the TV series 'Heroes' (on the left in the picture below):

Ando is better looking, taller and slicker than his mate Hiro. Funnily enough, my dad hasn't quite taken to the name!

More holiday-fun-blogs and photos to come...

And the winner is...(fanfare)...

All right, all right, somehow in the midst of studying for my (one) exam, I've managed to find time to judge the car naming competition! There have been a number of good entries. Melissa's suggestion of 'Blue Steel' was apt since he IS blue, steely and really really good looking! But unfortunately, she decided to name one her fish that, and we can't have two things in the same family with the same name! It would be too confusing. Nat's entry of 'Joey' from NKOTB also came very close since he WAS my favourite and at some stage I had a plan to marry him one day (what happened?).

'Tim Junior' was never really an option...'Wazza' made me laugh and 'Nemo' was cute. I also just thought of 'Ferris' (yes I am a true child of the late 80s/early 90s). Sadly however, there can only be one winner and taking into consideration that it is a Japanese brand car and it will (hopefully) be transporting me from place to place (but not through time!), the winner is indeed Hiro, named after Hiro Nakamura from the TV show Heroes:

Congratulations Kev! What will it be? A Mars bar? Twix? Bounty? I'll even personally deliver it to you in Singapore!!! Quoting Hiro: Yatta!!!!!!

it's hot and it's in a pot!

It's HOTPOT! Yummo!!! This is one of my favourite activity-meals (next to Korean barbeque and Malaysian popiah) and thankfully they have it here in Sydney too! And yes, it's 'hot' in every way. This was not as spicy as some I've had (the one I had in Chengdu by far tops the list) but still it was good enough. This restaurant provided an authentic China experience with slow service and me fumbling to order in Chinese! I had a great time though - good food and wonderful company, what else can you ask for? For more pics, go here.

aussie girl in chinatown

I had a FANtastic 'China night out' last weekend with three girlfriends. First stop was a Uyghur restaurant in Chinatown. For those who don't know, Uyghurs are an ethnic minority group in the far northwest of China. We had 大盘鸡 dapanji (literally, a big plate of chicken. This is one of my favourite dishes, made with chicken, potatoes, chilli and garlic. Well we didn't actually get a big serving, we ordered a small one making it a 小盘鸡 xiaopanji 'small plate of chicken'), 烤羊肉串 kaoyangrou chuan (lamb kebabs - with about 50 times the amount of meat per stick than in China!) and 抓饭 zhuafan (or 'polo' in Uyhgur which is also another one of my favourites - a rice dish cooked with carrots and meat). And we also had the classic China vegie dish - stir fried broccoli. Yummy!This place was so authentic it even had fake grapes and vines hanging off the ceiling. I wish I had taken photos! Oh well, I'll just have to go back sometime to get some photos.

Our China night didn't end there. This was followed by 'dessert' at a cafe where I enjoyed a hot pearl milk tea and others had redbean ice type drink-desserts. THEN we made our way to a karaoke place complete with all the chinese pop songs that the world has ever heard (none of which I am able to sing)!!!! Sad to say, 'Love Shack' and 'Eternal Flame' were the highlights (for me at least)!

To top it all off, we stopped at Krispy Kreme for doughnuts...which was totally unchinese. But yummy all the same. Thanks girls for helping me get over some of the 'home-sickness'. I had a great time!

(BTW, the winner of the car naming comp will be announced soon, once I'm sure that all the entries are in)

Happy Birthday Andy!

It's my brother-in-law Andy's birthday today.

So here is a limerick in your honour, Andy. It may be the first limerick I've ever written, or at least that I remember writing:

There once was a young man named Andy
Who didn't like to drink brandy
Chicko rolls were his choice
He has a great voice
And I think he likes to eat candy!

OK it doesn't make much sense but at least it rhymes. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!

Car Naming Competition!

As I said, I don't have any kids to post pics of but I do have a car!

Those of you who know about my car saga will know that I have been blessed to have been given a car to use during my year back in Sydney. It's a GREAT car with lots of extra features like leather seats, central locking, power windows, power mirrors and a CD (including mp3 and wav) player but...I can't drive it yet! It happens to be a manual (trans: stick shift) and I have previously only driven auto. So I'm in the process of learning (or should I say stalling)!

To celebrate this wonderful gift, I need your help in naming the car! I'm thinking 'Jonah' after my ex-flatmate's ex-german shepherd puppy - since they are both boys that I can't control! See the 'In memory of' section in the side panel.

Please enter your name suggestions by making a comment. The prize (there should always be a prize) is a chocolate bar of your choice. If you're not in Australia, you will receive it the next time I see you (may be a while yet for some of you)!

Another way you can be involved: my car needs 'healing' as the air-conditioner is broken and will be too expensive to fix. Since it is 'winter' (Xining spring) now, it won't be a problem for a while but when the summer comes around, it's going to get quite sweaty. So please be asking that somehow (by divine intervention?) that the air-con will be fixed.

My very first blog!

OK this is my very first blog. Yay! I'm currently working on a class presentation for Thursday. It's on my observation of Eastwood Square. I have called it 'The Asianisation of Eastwood or the Aussification of Asians?' For non-Sydneysiders, Eastwood is a suburb dominated by Asians - mainly Chinese mainlanders and Koreans.

Speaking of Asians made Aussie and then re-Asianised (twisted!), here Melissa and I are in 'national dress'. Identity crisis? Full on!!!