Tinkering

A good photographer has the ability to identify and capture items from a different prespective.

There was a recent discussion about how you can pick a good photographer:

* Straight, standing upfront shots are avoided where necessary
* Use of natural front/background lighting (or use of another photographer's flash in your photo, depending on your timing)
* Angles
* Element of Risk (such as lying flat on your belly on a road, as a car is heading towards you, or climbing a tree that is bearing down a cliff-face to get a panoramic shot of the surrounding islands)

W has been tinkering with a few shots.

Home Alone (again)

I'm on me lonesome for the next couple of days whilst W is away in Sydney staying at a posh 5-star hotel in Darling Harbour.

He even had the guts to phone me when I got home from a hard day's work, to describe how fantastic his room is (top-most floor, even higher that the room his boss is staying in, two TVs, view of the harbour, washing machine (with laundry powder costing $2.50 a bag), complete kitchen, and his intentions on snatching the various little bottles of stuff from the bathroom.)

*meh* at least I can get some decent sleep for a little while..zzzzzz

Refresher

Just had some Nutrimetics pick-me-up stuff sprayed into my face by a workmate. All I can smell right now is an orange-citrus small wafting around my head.

Whilst I'm waiting for my third eye to appear, I'm thinking that this pick-me-up might come in handy on Saturday night.

I'm pondering on having an all-nighter after FiGS that night to watch the Aussies beat the Sri Lankans in the World Cup Final. A third eye might come in handy should my normal two become weary and require some rest.

We can also play fooze-ball and air hockey should we get really bored!! Any takers? :)

Had the pleasure of catching up with many people over the past week or so- O & V, D & A, R & E, R A-L, K & M, Shem, Andrew, Loz, Burdo, Rich, Steve amongst others.

Great bunch of people. We just don't do it enough. *sigh*

It is your destiny!

Was browsing the web as usual, and stumbled upon the Greatest 100 Movie Lines, as compiled by some American web contributor I've never heard of.

They have only released the bottom 50 so far, with the top 50 released sometime next week.

http://www.premiere.com/best/3713/the-100-greatest-movie-lines.html

"I'll be Back!" (#95) and please remember
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! It's the war room!" (#59) because
"I am Spartacus!" (#64)

Sugary Fun!

Us FiGS girl leaders decided to have a sleepover night last night at L's place as a FiGS girls social.

It was lots of fun. My mum rarely allowed me to have or go over to sleepovers when I was a kid, so this was for me some childhood-catchup thing.

One of our aims this year is to provide opportunities outside of normal bible study time, for the girls to fellowship with each other on a social basis.

There were 16 girls crammed together in the house, stuffing themselves with pretty much anything with sugar in it:
Tim Tams, chocolate, freshly-baked cupcakes, icing sugar, 100s and 1000s at night
Pancakes, waffles and ice-cream for brekky in the morning

A girly sleepover would not be complete with some chick flick screenings- Ever After (the girls' choice pick) and then before midnight, us leaders decided to initiate the younglings to "Princess Bride".

(sorry Joshi, I didn't get to watch the Aus vs England cup match on TV)

Although by 12:30 I was starting to feel very sleepy and feeling my age. Man, these girls can talk, not sleep and still look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning!

I guess increasing their daily sugar intake dramatically over a 36 hour period had something to do with it!

Tip-toe through the ladder

I'm getting into these tipping things.

Our work AFL tipping comp started yesterday, and I've been in the World Cup Cricket Dream Team on-line comp as well, with *ahem* a bunch of asian guys. Yes, I am the only girl who joined the league. (someone emailed me the link, so naturally I joined up, and it's free!!)

However that is not to say I join up on anything and everything on web........cricket comps are an exception :)

I must admit that whoever came up with the concept is pretty cool:

Running a comp where you pick your own Dream team, and your team scores points based on how the actual cricket players perform during the World Cup.

After a couple of games, you can then trade in the guys not scoring so well for those who are. (or you think will) Simple.

Now if only finding a house was that easy.......

Things to Do

Most people know I like fishing. Especially if I catch stuff!

Growing up where I believe is the best fishing spot(s), my family would take us to the beach 5-10 mins from home to Pallarenda in Townsville, to wet a line.
Otherwise, Lucinda, just north of Ingham would also get a good feed.

I've had my fair share of pufferfish and catfish catches, only because they were always swimming around your feet in ankle-deep water, or milling around the bottom of the jetty. There is something about the feeling of bringing them to the surface, and then either slapping them around on the ground, or putting a knife to them that is so enjoyable.

I'd like to go fishing again soon *hint* *hint*

We're also planning a week off in early July, where we'll take a driving holiday starting from Moree, NSW, through central NSW before heading back up the east coast towards home.

I only found out recently that Moree is the home of artesian bores! How stupid! (me, not artesian bores) Methinks I'll pack some bathers.

New and Exciting Role

I'm very, very tired this morning.

If I didn't have a presentation to do today and a client meeting I'd be home catching up on some sleep.

It all started on Thursday night at around 7:30pm, with 9 people gathering together for the first time over a meal in Mt Gravatt. Out of these 9 people, 7 of them have been called upon to be the inaugural organising committee for a new youth evangelistic event called RICE. (Rice Inter-Church Evangelism)

The RICE concept started amongst evangelical Sydney churches 7 years ago, with the aim to provide an event for youth to invite their non-believing friends along to a Christian event that is gospel-based and non-threatening.

This is their website: www.riceevent.org.au

The key here is gospel-based evangelism. The Sydney director stressed that if RICE were to become such an event where the gospel is not being shared in any way, the whole event would be shut down. I sense the passion this guy has, and the vision for an event to occur in Brisbane in the near future.

RICE encourages ownership amongst the churches that are involved, and also aims to help stream youth into the local church youth groups.

From the site (and the name for that matter) you could be forgiven for thinking it is purely an Asian evangelistic event.
With Brisbane's youth demographics, there is the opportunity to make it a cross-cultural evangelistic event, not limited to just Asian and Chinese churches.

Last night was the biggie, with this committee of 7 beginning their discussions on how this could be organised in our city. Both the Thursday night and last night's meetings finished around 12 midnight, hence my weariness this morning.

There are some challenging and exciting times ahead.

Going Hunting

Most people may know that we are on the hunt for a house purchase sometime this year.

It's all been pretty depressing every time we browse www.realestate.com.au, the local newspapers and the shop windows of the estate agents on our "sometime once-a-week" walk around the neighborhood.

The deposit isn't the depressing thing, but rather what is actually affordable and available out there. We don't mind putting in a little 'elbow grease', but those properties marketed as "Renovator's Delight!" or "Not for the Faint-Hearted!" sends shivers down me back.

One option (hehe), we could consider is get an architect student to build our house for us!

See this blog for his options:

http://j-dimension.blogspot.com/

Note: for those not aware, the various references to Darth Nola refer to my altar-ego. I think it goes back to one FiGS bible study where I was a pharisee in a skit, and was so evil that it was worthy enough to be given that link.

Latest Raffle Prize Idea

When staff raffles are held every now and then, typical prizes that are offered every few months include:

* Movie tickets

* Entertainment Books

* Westfield Gift Cards

* Booze Vouchers

* Picnic Hampers

* Meat Trays

Unusual items include:

* Tissue Box covered in $1 Instant Scratchies

* Man/Slave for a Day (although this option hasn't been used yet, as far as I know)

* 1 Hr Massage/Beauty session (not sure of the guy's equivalent- beard trim?)

One particular prize was raffled off without actually paying for anything. That is, they really wanted to get rid of it. Apparently this unused, rather unopened and unwanted prize was gathering dust in our upstairs cupboard at work. The view was, that a bunch of boring, overworked accountants wouldn't have the time to use it at the office.

Whaddya know, now I have to put up with THIS thing in the house:

(The air hockey surface doubles as a Munchkin playing surface)

You can also play this:

And this:

One of W's former housemates has gotten himself engaged over in Canada.

As he tells his story, he had to make some small references to the incidents that occurred during W's attempt in 2004.

http://burdo.livejournal.com/

*Sigh* was it really that long ago?

Not really in a mood to write.....

So maybe you can help me out, by thinking of suitable captions for the following:

What to do on a long weekend

I refer to my preceding post, and the conception of our two recent family additions.



Well, this was where they were conceived.



Despite being banned, the mexican wave made its way around the ground. (Notice the police officers spread around the stands, and a copy of the Briefing for the boring bits of the game)



It was also fitting to farewell one of our greatest fast bowlers ever.



And cheer on our beloved Roy!

There were no funny banners there this year, but the view of a beach ball slowly being inflated, thrown about and then promptly falling over the boundary and being confiscated remained.

Big Announcement!!!!!

After much blood, sweat and tears, we are proud to announce two (yes two!) new additions to our family!!

The answers to your questions:

1) No, we did not steal them


2) No alcohol was involved


3) No, we did not get them on EBay


4) No hospital visit was required


5) No, I am not pregnant























Introducing.............

Just Waiting

Have sent in the paperwork to an accounting body to see whether they like me enough to become a member.

Pondering what actual benefits I'll get:

* increased membership fee
* will actually have to go to seminars to keep my professional hours up to date
* increased mailouts for things such as briefcases, tax guides and conferences in Canada which I can't afford
* three extra letters on my business card

On a positive note, I have Friday off so I can go to the ODI to watch Roy smack his way around the ground yet again. Hopefully the Poms can lift their game as one-sided matches are extremely boring to watch, especially inside the stadium.

In Brief

The Set-up



The location



The Pack-up



The team

Festivities are over, time to get to it!

After two and a half wonderful Christmas gatherings with a few tribes today, it's finally the eve of the much anticipated event of the year.

The last couple of months slogging away will come to fruition (at least for a few people) tomorrow as we head off to Chinderah, NSW as the advance set-up party for our summer family mission.

Thinking back one one of my posts back in August/September which described the despair and frustration of not finding anyone to come on team, is a primary example of how our faith is tested. With the benefit of hindsight though I can say that deep down there was a small part of me that was telling me that God will provide the things required at the right time and place.

17 wonderful volunteers will spend the next 8 days running Kids Klub, Teens and Family Evening programs at a caravan park in NSW.

We have also been blessed to have a person from our church who will provide his services as a truck driver to transport all our heavy equipment down and back up again afterwards, in his 5 tonne truck. He even told us he had two 8 tonne trucks available also, but the 5 is more than enough for our needs. Gotta reflect on the goodwill of others that God uses to fulfil His plans.

Apart from the joy of spending quality time with the kids and families who attend our programs, there is one thing I have missed in the last two years since I last went..........Siesta zzzzzzzzzzzzz

I want a Boonie

Still waiting for someone to buy themselves a few cartons of VBs, and giving me the tokens for the Boonie.

Any takers?

Two weeks worth

We've witnessed a fantastic Ashes series so far.

Caught up with my high school friends.

Been to a family wedding

And an engagement party

Next lot of parties is our respective work Christmas shindigs this Saturday. Trust them to put them both on the same day and time but not location. However W has scored himself a 'date', whilst I'll have to go without :D

I wonder which party would be more fun, a beer bottle manufacturing plant party or an accountant's party.......

Bust a Toad

Toad busting becomes tax deductible

The Minister for the Environment and Heritage has announced that that two toad-busting Western Australian environment groups, the Kimberley Toad Busters Inc and the Stop the Toad Foundation Inc, have been granted deductible gift recipient status.

*POP*

It all begins today

Tis the season to be a fanatic.

Unfortunately we have no tickets to the 'game' that started today, but will be going to the ODI in January 2007.

Whilst all other wives moan and grumble, this one is happy that the best summer game season has started.

But I'm sure it won't be long until we're sick of watching the following TV commercials:

-VB
-Solo (the image of that guy racing after the garbage truck on a wheelie bin to retrieve his can of Solo)
-WeetBix
-Milo
-3 Mobile

Let's drink to the David Boon and Ian Botham figurines, thanks to VB's latest marketing ploy, and the humble but nostalgic 'baggy green'.

*btw, does anyone actually have one?

Bubs, Bubs, Bubs

It appears to be the week of bubs this week:

K & M had their baby girl on Tuesday

R & K had their baby boy on Monday

To cap it all off, both couples had their babies in the same hospital.

Although it didn't happen this week, A & S had their baby boy last month!

Is there anyone else that is having a bub that I should know about?

All expenses paid!

Last Friday night we went to a dinner at Michaels Riverside Restaurant that was thrown for two blokes who were retiring from duties at W's glass factory.

It's been a while since I've been to such work dinners where all expenses (including the taxi fare to the city) were paid for by the company......that also meant everyone was drinking to their hearts content. This also meant that almost every empty beer and wine bottle was scrutinised for the quality of the manufacture and defects. *rolls eyes*

It was also a fact that both W and myself were the youngest people there, amongst a bunch of 40-60 year-old people who have been working at the same company for at least 35 years! They even have 25 year and 40 year anniversaries for employees!

People nowadays don't last that long anymore. I mean, I can't see myself like that, must be generation-shift.

I surprisingly hit it off well with W's boss's wife, who's family has only been in Brisbane for 10 months. Bulk of the conversation was.....ahem.......fishing.....and them offering to take us out on their big boat into Moreton Bay for a weekend sometime. *rubs hands together with glee*

Family Movies

Current dilemma- finding a suitable family movie (preferably G-rated) for our mission's movie night.

My all time favourite children's movie is Toy Story 2, but we mainly showcase a new movie that has been released either this year or in the last 2 years.

Shortlist includes:

The Incredibles
Ice Age- The Meltdown
Over the Hedge
Shrek 2

I haven't seen the Meltdown or Over the Hedge yet.....methinks I need to pay a friendly visit to the local video store. $1 Tuesdays here I come!

The countdown begins

The jacarandas are blooming
Everyone at work is stressed and grumbling
D-Day is just over two weeks away
Time for hibernation, I say

See your smiling faces in November

Too Busy

Been too busy to have done anything really exciting in the last couple of weeks, although a few things to come to mind:

Made gingerbread men (and a woman and someone in a loincloth) and gingerbread houses with the girls last Saturday afternoon which was great fun. After most of the girls left, we sat around the house eating dinner and watching 'Nanny McPhee'. I know it is a kids movie, but truly.....how could anyone NOT WANT to watch a movie with Colin Firth and Emma Thompson in it??

Had dinner with a couple of high school friends on Thursday night, as one of them was down our way for work this week. The restaurant we went to had a comedy night that evening, but nothing exciting happened to my memory. Except the last person we heard as we were paying the bill, didn't get any laughs.....poor guy.

The most unfortunate news is that after 25 long years, I am officially short-sighted, to the degree of around.....100? (I don't think this is that bad...unless some other spectacle-wearing people think otherwise)

Today was spent looking for frames to suit my unusually-shaped face. As long as I do not look like a fly or gaudy Lee-Lin Chin I'll be happy.

Results

Rather than buying bait, why not test out your skills and try catching it instead, like this person below:



From there, the fish being caught got bigger..



and bigger...



until finally we got a legal sized fish we could take home with us.



Unfortunately, no matter how much chicken bones and calamari flesh we actually jammed into the crab pots, the mud crabs were off on their own holiday. They missed out on a feast BIG TIME!

Not too long now

A fishing we will go
A fishing we will go
Heigh Ho the derry-ho
A fishing we will go

Throwing in the towel

Why is it that after a reasonable break from study, things start piling up again when you start it all over again, hopefully for the last, last time. (study, that is)

I honestly thought, earlier this week, that it was the most stupidest idea to put our hands up for beach mission directorship this year. Initial response has been a lot slower than I had expected, past members not being available and a fundraiser or two has yet to be organised.

Despite the delay in response, and the fact that people are unable to commit at apparently too early a time, inspiration has come from some most unlikely of people. People I don't even know actually, or have only met once, previously.

One person who's contacts were provided to us through SU, sounded really enthusiastic, to the point that they enquired directly to SU about our particular mission. To think that out of 30 odd summer missions they decided to choose ours, one of the more smaller teams, to be involved.

Hopefully the responses will be positive in the next few weeks before the first, planned team meeting later this month.

Apart from this, study hasn't been as well as I'd like it to be. Maybe it's just because I'm soooooo close to finishing this once and for all, I'm getting slacker and slacker. People that know me well may think otherwise.

Whilst I am tempted, I don't think I'll give it all up just yet.

I am definitely looking forward to catching some good-sized and edible fish next weekend on our houseboat trip. Speaking of which.......we have invested in brand new gear- namely one spin combo and a baitcaster. Will see who has the more success.

I smell

Rain! The wholesome fragrance of sky juice.

Makes me feel sleepy.

Makes me want to curl up in bed and read a book.

Makes me remember what an awesome and gracious God we have, by answering our earnest prayers for rain.

How do you become famous?

Due to the overdose of media reports on a certain unsolved murder case from 10 years ago, and a rather heated debate on Weekend Sunrise between a pro-pageant American mum and anti-pageant Australian woman, I couldn't help but do some research into the alarming trend that is........children's beauty pageants.

One argument is that the parents are using their own children to express their own passions and dreams which they could not achieve when they were a child. This is not only quite sad, but also rather unloving of them as parents, to take away the innocence and joy of being a child. The years spent as a child are already few and far between, and to encourage them to grow up when they clearly are not ready may lead to the child becoming vain, selfish, spoilt, and even confused about who they really are.

It appears to really only be popular in the USA and steeped into the culture there, however with so many of our popular TV shows being exported from the USA to our shores, one can begin to imagine the possibility of these diffusing into our society.

Come to think of it, things such as the Dolly Model contests already pulls the pageant strings.

Some interesting facts I came across:

Kirsten Dunst- Kirsten started out in showbiz at the age of three, where she began filming television commercials, and was a Ford model as a child.

ELijah Wood- At an early age, Elijah showed a knack for entertaining and wowing audiences, and his mother decided to take him to Los Angeles for an Annual International Modeling and Talent Association Convention.

Kaite Holmes-As a teenager, she began attending modeling school.

Lindsay Lohan- She began her career at age three as a Ford model, and also made appearances in over sixty television commercials.

So it seems that 1) you need to be in one of those K-Mart catalogues wearing cheap clothes, or 2) Be prepared to endorse "Wok Star" stir-fry sauces on the idiot box to get your career break.

No thanks

Fill in the blanks

Here is a list of items beginning with B:

Bees
Bison
Baked Potato
Beefed-up Men
Bus Ticket
Bus Driver
Books
Bertie Beetle Showbags

Yesterday I went to the Ekka.

We wandered into the showbag pavilion, and whilst others were busy buying....... there, I forgoed this purchase and headed off to buy cheap .......instead.

After downing one of those iconic strawberry ice-cream cones (mmmmm), the next venue was a place where we watched ....... hacking at a hunk of wood.

No trip would be complete without visiting the honey pavilion to see the ....... and my in-laws.

I then downed a ....... before heading up to the main arena for the night program. One of the highlights I wanted to see were the .......

Although the absolute highlight of the day came earlier that afternoon, when I asked for a ....... from the .......

All I asked for was an off-peak ticket for 2 zones. I gave him $3.90 as expected, but he said it was only $2. On sitting down in our seats, we examined our....... together. He had to pay $3.90 for the same ticket and I only paid $2. The ....... actually issued me with a concession off-peak, without asking for any ID!!! HoHoHo!



Beefed-up Man

The westerley winds are here

Which also means that the Royal Brisbane Show is just around the corner.

Backtracking though, last weekend I purposely woke up earlier on the Sunday morning, grabbed a couple of green 'enviro' bags, jumped in the car and drove to the Mt Gravatt Showgrounds.

On getting there, I plus another 10 or so cars (and growing by the second) were met with two high school-aged girls standing on the corner waving big cardboard signs that said "No Markets or Golf". Puzzled, I got out of the car and enquired. I was told that it was because the Mt Gravatt Show was on that weekend.

Apparently, it was common knowledge even to people living down at Logan, a completely different city, that the Mt Gravatt Show is ALWAYS, ALWAYS two weekends before the Brisbane one starts. Not to me obviously.

Anyhoo, work has given us flexibility to choose when to have our show public holiday, apart from the actual Wednesday which is good as it gives us the option of taking either a Friday or Monday off, and have a long weekend amongst a time where public holidays are severely limited.

So, it's probably also time to provide some evidence that the show is definitely in town.



Here is a partial view of the Agricultural pavilion setting up on yesterday, namely the honey pavilion in the foreground and father-in-law in shot.

Weekend musings

I recall sharing previously about what activities can be done at a staff retreat. AS it turned out, there was no water-skiiing but certainly some drunken dancing.

Due to the music entertainment over dinner being so loud, I actually almost lost my voice from trying to talk over it. Best option was to sit down and not talk for about an hour, which wasn't hard to do considering I could still be amused by the partners downing many a glasses of beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages.

One thing though that I did which I haven't done for a long while, was play Speed. A good workmate of mine brought along a deck of cards to the retreat, so before dinner and after dinner around 11:30pm, we set-up shop in the foyer of the hotel/resort and played a few rounds. We then proceeded to teach the IT guy the game, but he said it was too hard, so instead we chose to play SNAP. Alas.... even he stuffed that up but by then it was too late so we tottered off to bed, whilst the partners stayed up until quarter to 3 in the morning.

Another thing we did last weekend was take the 2 hour winding road down to Lamington National Park, namely O'Reillys Guesthouse. The weather threatened to dampen our trip, but luckily the rain stayed away and we were able to enjoy a nice picnic lunch overlooking people feeding a mob of colourful parrots, and one little butcher bird called "Butch".


Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of "Butch"....but, this was one of the parrots.

As expected, a supposedly 30 minute walk turned out to be an hour walk.

The obligatory post about

FIGS Camp 2006.

It was already a week ago, but as someone else mentioned in their blog, there are so many memories and fun times from it.

We pray that this will become an annual feast of fellowship with the youth at church. I was especially encouraged by the little discussion group I had. Being the topic of relationships, it made sense to have girls/boys only discussion groups.

My little group had some very interesting discussions, and what really caught my attention, was the fact that some people were not afraid to share their feelings and thoughts to the rest of us, about singleness, dating and marriage.
Bearing in mind some of us had only barely introduced each other the previous night.

Panel discussion was interesting. After being sort of dobbed in to be the female married person on the panel, really challenged me to share the experience after only 9 months. I realised that although the questions being asked wanted a black or white response, it was actually not possible to give such an answer.

Truthfully though, I went into marriage with realistic expectations, in that the honeymoon period is limited, and the key is to work on the marriage, rather than having this false vision that all is going to be rosy, especially in the first year.

A book that we read together was "The most important year in a womans/man's life", which basically describes the first 12 months of marriage as being the hardest to work through.

Although some of the younger high school kids pretty much tuned out once marriage was mentioned in the talks, I do hope that the camp in its entirety has opened their hearts and minds to a greater understanding of God's marriage and love to the church.

Thanks again to Dan for presenting such insightful and challenging talks on the weekend.

And.......we're out :(

It hurts. It really hurts.

Not that I am a soccer fanatic, but Johann is commisserating with me over his mug of German beer and string of sausages.

Alas it is time to unstring the snags, put Johann to sleep and tear up the cloths making up the German flag and maybe dig them out later on this year at craft during Klub at mission.

argh, did I mention that 'M' word? Yes, it is official that the two of us will be co-directors of Tweed River Family Mission yet again this year.

So, will be likely to commence the team member search in the not-too-distant future. On the other hand, if I feel you are capable of being a team member, watch out.....I'll be after YOU!!!

We're still in!

Well, it's come down to the last four, and Germany is still in with a chance.

Johann is still sitting high above our work area, looking out towards our semi-final opponent.....Italy.

The teams in our office tipping comp are Germany, Italy, Argentina, England, Brazil and Australia. Only the first two teams are still standing.

Italy's soccer ball mysteriously disappeared from their office area after their win over Australia....and still has yet to be found.

Now, our Germany ball has disappeared from our area, after our win over Argentina....hmmmm.

We are keeping our eyes on Johann on Wednesday and Thursday, in case he is taken also from our area after we beat Italy! HeeHee

Bursting with excitement!

I am literally about to explode as a result of the last 3 hours or so.

It started out with a follow-up phone call to a person who made an enquiry through the church office about the upcoming FIGS Camp. Thinking we may be getting one extra person who doesn't usually come to FIGS was great.

As it turned out, we'll be getting 5 (yes, FIVE!) extra people coming, who don't usually come to church!! Such awesome answer to prayer!! Praise our mighty and everlasting God for his faithfulness and goodness.

These opportunities do not come everyday and it feels like the Holy Spirit within me has reignited its flame again.

How lethargic and lukewarm we can become with doing our things every day, and not have any real thirst and hunger for opportunities in ministry. Then again we should be asking for such opportunities everyday, and being prepared for when they do occur.

This is probably the best evidence yet to prove that ministry beckons right on our doorstep, and we need to make the effort and take the time to build these bridges and not let them fall away.

" The LORD is gravious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich to love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you.

They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendour of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.

The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made."

Psalm 145:8-13

I feel productive

It's been a busy but rather productive weekend.

Everything started with a dinner at a friend's place to catch up with them, and most importantly see for ourselves the beginning of a bulging tummy!! yay for Mel and Kevin!

The next day, Harbourtown was the place to go for a girly outing with our Aunt who is visiting from HK. Was rather disappointing though with the stock on sale, (summer stock already) however the scoop buy of yet another pair of shoes was made nonetheless at the end of the trip.

That evening was my staff function dinner at the Greek Club. It was considerably less packed than it was at a previous visit but still just as lively. The lone Greek accountant looked in his element, being coaxed up to dance with the belly-dancer, sharing with us his disappointment at the live music man for not playing any actual Greek music (when did Hotel California and What a Wonderful World become Greek?) drinking ouzo and burning up the dance floor with the rest of us doing the Zorba and Sousta.

Sunday after church was then spent back at the parent's place doing waitressing duties for a group of senior citizens over lunch. Brought back a few memories of a previous job in my younger years.

On top of that, FIGS camp is coming up very soon with a few late registrations being received and a recalculation of the funds but heck.......the more people the better!

Oh, and the word of the day is Mezethes. (hint: it is not pronounced the way it is spelt....GOOD LUCK!)

Blurgh!

Had to wake up at 5:30am this morning to take parents to the airport. *groan*

On the upside, sister gets back this week from Sydney with some goodies :) which however, may mainly be for Grandma.

I've blogged previously about the 8-step food smuggling process of getting food for Grandma:

Food Smugglers

All I need to do now is try and keep my eyes open and not get keyboard imprints on my forehead.

Office Decorations

I spent most of last night putting together some suitable decorations and props for the country our work team has chosen for the World Cup Tipping Comp.

Fortunately we had chosen Germany who should do well in the Cup.

After a bit of a brainstorm, we decided on a couple of things that emit the German spirit: beer, sausage, saurkraut and Adolf Hitler.
We however, decided against the last option as it was considered too offensive, and decided also to pass on the saurkraut in case it soured our country's chances of winning :)

After a quick trip to get some remnants and toy filling, it was time to start wrapping up the accused....a bear in mint condition, purchased for 50c at the recent Lifeline BookFest, and stuffing a pair of old stockings and manipulating them into strings of sausages.

A large beer mug kindly donated from a related male completed the piece.

On coming to work and placing the items strategically in the office, a considerable amount of murmurs wafed through as people pondered the items displayed. The 50c bear was then christened with the appropriate name of 'Johann'.

On coming back from lunch however, we found that another team has outdone us in the stakes by decorating their entire work area.

Although I reckon the sausages are still the best.

EDIT: Someone would like to see photos of this so here it is:

I was at a seminar yesterday in the city and got a bit of a surprise.

At morning tea, whilst I was chatting with some former workmates from HJB, another guy comes to the group and grabs my attention.

This guy happened to be a high school friend of mine from Townsville days, who I have not seen for about 8 years since I left the city. He recognised me first (then again, not that many Asians in Townsville) and smiled that really big smile of his, which made me remember his nickname........Smiley!

(Now I know there is another "Smiley" who is also in Townsville, but I'm quite certain I did not go to school with him)

Anyway, the compulsory "What have you been up to" etc questions are shared between us. There doesn't seem to be that much that has happened, apart from the odd spate of travelling. (Sweden for him, Asia for me) He believes that there is practically no-one left in Townsville from school, and that he'll be stuck there for rest of his life doing accounting, which was a subject we also shared.

He also somehow heard that I got married last year...although after some thought I'm quite certain who that person is :D

He then proceeds to tell me he is engaged also, to a Swedish girl he met at uni, with the wedding likely to be in Sweden. Good 'ol exchange/overseas student relationship.

Unfortunately, I can't help but think of that one-hit wonder woman from Sweden (Milky?) singing that song "doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, and something about just you way you are"?

When things are quiet

It's almost that time again... staff bonding session time.

Retreats, conferences, weekend getaway, jailtime, whatever you call this annual trek to somewhere supposedly nice and spend some supposedly good, relaxing time with your co-workers is meant to be just that. Although a Peppers retreat at Grandchester was pretty cool, with optional 1 hour massage session :D

In the past it's been a fairly mixed bag- skills training, motivational speaker (complete with 10-15 min hypnosis session......two years in a row...*good grief*), boules on the grass, Thai-cooking classes, yoga sessions and playing pool in a farm shed.

The dreaded things that always seem to crop up though which are never fully resolved, include time management skills, team-building exercises and handling stress in the workplace. Although people winge and whine about such topics, they aren't actually really interested in making the effort to overcome these issues.

The team behind this year's retreat have sent around an email asking us for ideas. That is, ideas on speakers, games, activities etc. Apparently the feedback from last year's retreat was so bad, the partners decided to get the staff themselves to form a committee to handle it :D

Somehow, when the topic of games is mentioned, I don't think some staff would appreciate being tied up hand and foot, dumped into a small plastic wash tub filled with soapy water and then have green porridge poured over their head.

Boating and waterskiing may be good.



Or maybe some dancing lessons.



NOTE: PEOPLE IN THESE PICTURES CAN REMAIN ANONYMOUS..UNLESS YOU CAN SOMEHOW DECIPHER WHO THEY ARE.

Yassou!

For the last 5 years, I have been meaning to attend Paniyiri, the local Greek Festival held every year in May.

Why Greek? Apart from sharing my cubicle wall with a Greek and the fantastic time had at a hens night a little while ago (hehe), I have been told of the various delicacies that has to be tried on such an occasion....."honey puffs".



Out of a small plate costing $3, I could really only handle 2 puffs, but since the price was paid, we had to force ourselves to scoff down the rest. They were quite oily and didn't have that much 'sweetness' from the honey. I was actually a bit disappointed by them.

Moving on to the lamb souvlaki, the service attendant managed to bypass the freshly made ones and give us the 2 driest skewers in the pavilion.

The food item that deserves special mention was the stuffed eggplant. (little shoes as the sign said) Basically you take one eggplant, slice it in half, scoop out the flesh, cook it with some mince, rice and other herbs, before stuffing it back into the shells, sprinkled with cheese and grilled. MMMMMMMMM

Another thing that I hadn't expected at the festival was a mini sideshow alley and amusement rides such as the Kamikaze, Alpine Express, Ferris Wheel, Giant Worms and something called Extreme Speed. Basically four people sit on either end of a long revolving pole (like the Kamikaze), and it swings you up, around, upside down in a circle as you experience some level of G-Force.

Whilst I would have liked to stick around to see Effie do her thing, alas FIGS ministry beckons.

OOOMPA!!!

Perusal Time

I hate exams. All the efforts leading up to 3 hours and 15 mins of immense concentration.

I must admit though that the location of this latest exam sitting was in an unusual place- a function room in a motel up at Boondall. Surely the professional association has enough funds to find a more central location. I'm paying $XXXXX in membership fees and course fees to them for crying out loud!

Whatever happened to the Exhibition Centre? ( have recently been informed that there is gardening expo there this week.....even better!! Why not sit your exam in a comfortable outdoor chair and patio table (large enough for all your books, folders, notes etc to be spread out) with the smell of blood and bone wafting through the room?

hmmm...I guess not.

Anyway, I walked into the room with 70 other people and noticed that only 55 tables were labelled there. What happened to seat no 68? (Yes, I'm an W now, not an M, which made it interesting when I was finding my name on the seating chart..........4th last on the sheet!) I then had to ask where my seat was, just to make sure it wasn't accidentally placed in the lush garden path of the motel complex. I was kindly told that I was in the "other" room. Fine then, so I wandered across the courtyard to the "other" room and was met with 2 very cheerful exam supervisors. The leftovers (surnames from W to Y) were all here, about 12 people. Great.

One thing that lightened up the first 5 minutes before the exam, was the supervisor drolling on about what we cannot do during perusal time. I had this argument earlier in the week with someone who insisted that you can use your fingernails to mark/imprint the exam paper during perusal. I disagreed with him, but was unsure if that was ever the case back at uni.

Lesson learnt for the day- even fingernail markings are not allowed in perusal time, according to this professional association.

Long Island Trip

Here are some piccies from our recent wandering in the Whitsundays.



This is overlooking Happy Bay, which is what the resort was known as back in 1934. Of course it's since been updated with a nightclub, restaurant, cafe, swim-up pool bar, beauty centre and other facilities typical of a beach resort.



We had to go to extremes to get some really good shots.



Such as this one. (I think this is Dent Island which is one of the many islands which is still uninhabited and undeveloped)



The resort pool by night.



Lazing in a hammock, listening to some very bad karaoke singing one night, by a bunch of drunken partygoers who were there for a beach wedding that afternoon.

Such is life.

Geez

I just saw the first half hour of Home Alone 2, and the last scene before going to a commercial break, was of Mr Culkin walking up the street towards the Twin Towers, and then an aerial shot of him standing on top of one them taking pictures on his camera.

My how times have changed since 1994.

First catch

Just recently I have been drawn again to the idea of fishing. Some people find it surprising that I would be interested in such a blokey pastime. I guess that was because I was brought up in Nth Qld, which boasts some of the best reef and estuary fishing in this country. (as well as cyclones)

I like fishing. Even more so if I actually catch anything.

I don't remember the last fish I caught. It must have been a silver bream up at Sweers Island, a small island in the Gulf of Carpentaria which is only accessible by a twin-engine (in our case, a single-engine) plane from Karumba. The route was quite scenic, however the thought of the engine on the little plane carrying 7 people over the big wide open sea suddenly failing kept our minds otherwise preoccupied.

*brain-wave*

Forgetting the last paragraph, I do believe the last fish caught was an undersize sand whiting off Wellington Point a couple of years back. Undersize being the size of a bait fish species. Thinking that I had more chance of getting something with live bait, I threw it back in.....only to promptly lose the bait as it somehow managed to unhook itself and swim away.

Another thing that I was thinking about last night.....if there are any fishing enthusiasts who actually read this blog, are there benefits of using a bait-caster, rather than an Alvey or spin-combo? I've only ever used the last two.

I should do this more often

There's nothing like waking up bright and early in the morning of a working day at 6:30AM to update your blog.

Rather, I had a few things to do which I didn't get a chance to do last night, as with Easter coming up as well as a tropical holiday, my priorities have been to get as much CPA study done as I possibly can.

Anyway, I'll see if this works:



This is taken from the ODI cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Gabba, back in February on Valentines Day.



We went with sister Leonie and Joshi, a mad sports fanatic who also has a blog. See my links section :)

From the pictures it seems quite obvious that the ratio of male to females in the crowd that day was around 10:3, at best guess.

Must eat brekky now and get to work!!

Stuff CPA, I'm gonna be a.....

Test car driver!!!!

Ok, maybe I should re-word that as the description sounds too blokey, too much like my hubby and other guys I know :)

Hmmmm......maybe it should be more of "a driver who simply has no choice but to drive the car that was been given to them, and have it changed on a weekly basis."

I guess I "could" handle that, especially if it's a nice car like a Mazda 6 or Mini Cooper.

Ever since my car was crashed into from behind, I've had the privilege of driving 3...actually 4 different cars in a three week period.

First car was a Nissan Pulsar. This was just your average rental vehicle, automatic, silver, no electric features, (e.g. no power windows, but it did have remote central locking) However, I finally got aquainted with "cruise control".

Not that I drive that much on the freeway anymore, but it certainly drew the attention and amusement of my hubby nonetheless.

Unfortunately after 10 days I had to give it back :(

I was then given my dad's old 1991 Nissan Patrol 4WD. Being the very first manual car I drove when I got my licence at 17 (*shucks*), I believed I was capable of driving this tank again.

However, it has become quite an antique, in that it only likes my dad driving it, and so when anyone else tries to drive it, it would just *chut* *chut* *chut*, refuse to start and also annoy the neighbours in the complex.

As a result, I was then given my mum's new Toyota RAV4, which was alot nicer and disciplined. Too bad I couldn't utilise the Handicap sign stuck to the front windscreen to my benefit, unless I had grandma in tow.

And finally, today is the 4th car, a Toyota Avalon sedan from a close family friend.

Does anyone else see a vehicle trend here?

Understanding but hard to accept

Have recently attempted to write an explanation of the oh-so-controversial topic of predestination to a group of young, adolescent Christians. Whilst the ending result was 3x A4 pages, the real challenge is trying to compress that into a suitable 2 minute explanation without leaving out the important stuff.

I guess I cheated a bit, by asking the recently-appointed Associate Pastor (Moore College trained, thank you very much) what his thoughts were.

This was probably the first time I remember hearing this topic explained so matter-oh-factly, without any hesitation and such confidence.

I've probably been trying to avoid the idea of explaining or addressing such a topic, but the truth of the matter is.....this question is what these young, adolescent Christians want answered. Some may understand it, but find it hard to accept. Others may not understand it at all so need the understanding, and others simply like to throw such challenges to the leaders and sit back and watch them either float, swim or drown.

It all comes back to the acceptance of God being God. That is, letting God be God. He is perfect in all ways, always just, always faithful to those who love Him. We are but mere, ordinary, selfish "mushrooms" that God has extended the invitation of eternal life with Him in heaven to. The choice is ours, and the choice we make, God will act accordingly.

As for trying to accept the ways and things that God does, which we may find to be unjust......who are the "mushrooms" to question God and what He does?

Simplicity

I like the simple things in life.

Unfortunately life is never simple. There is still work to be done, study to do, house to clean, clothes to wash, meals to be made, clients to call, hens night to plan, and of course, updating your blog :D

My favourite animal has always been a sea otter. I'm fascinated by how carefree and playful they are by themselves and each other. They move so gracefully and swiftly through the water hunting down their oysters, and floating on the water's surface, with a certain degree of contentment.




However, one should always be prepared to keep a lookout for what's behind them, otherwise they will be caught out! Just like this!

Raggle-tailed Guttersnipe!

Reminiscing on quotes from the movie classic "My Fair Lady": (a movie about a chauvanistic English professor who accepts a dare that he can pass off a Cockney flowergirl as a duchess at the grand Embassy Ball)

Professor Higgins: She's an owl, sickened by a few days of *my* sunshine.

Colonel Pickering: Have you NO morals, man?
Alfred P. Doolittle: Nah. Can't afford none. Neither could you, if you were as poor as me.

Professor Higgins: Women are irrational, that's all there is to that! Their heads are full of cotton, hay and rags. They're nothing but exasperating, irritating, vacillating, calculating, agitating, maddening and infuriating hags!

Eliza Doolittle: You ought a be stuffed with nails, you ought!

Professor Higgins: I've learned a great deal from your idiotic notions, I admit it humbly and gratefully.

Professor Higgins: The French don't care what they do actually, as long as they pronounce it properly.

Professor Higgins: There are even places where English completely disappears. In America they haven't used it for years.

Are bosses good managers?

That's the question being posed at work recently. All staff have been divided into project teams to help out the partners on this major management restructure project.

Scary topics such as firm vision, culture, values, internal processes are being pulled apart to reveal the inefficiencies that are in existence. Do they really exist? What are our inefficiencies? Why are people dissatisfied and leaving on mass?

I did some reflection late last year, and counted that it's been one person per month since I've been here, that has left the firm. (Who knows, maybe in yet another 3 years I'll be the longest serving staff member...AGAIN) So that makes it 12 people.
But namely those that have left are younger graduates or undergrads still at uni.
Apparently this is the norm, especially in our country with a shortage of bean counters, therefore we're in hot demand!!

But honestly, the poor grads and undergrads get given the brainless tasks of letters, simple tax returns, and if jobs are running extremely low, even filing and photocopying. That is considering we already have admin staff with a shortage of work, plus a full-time filing clerk.

I have noticed though, that within the accounting profession, especially public practice, that there are ten million ways in doing the same task to reach the same outcome. Why can't there be uniformity here???? However, the following joke does touch on a smidgen on uniformity:

Why did the accountants cross the road?
Because they looked in the file and that was what they did last year.

Until next time

Okay, feeling a bit bleary-eyed this morning but with good measure- We won the 2006 ODI series!

I was thinking my observations of this game would be similar to my January experience. Despite there being 10,000 less people there last night compared to January's game, did not mean a thing.

The smaller the crowd, the more rowdy they are. (unless it's really that the hard-core fans are the rowdy ones with no full-time jobs, or chucking a sickie from work. EDIT: I was good and went AFTER work)

Anyway, to the game....

1) It was made known that the the mexican wave is not permitted at the ground, and anyone caught instigating it would be immediately evicted. To say the least, some evictions took place and the rest of the crowd decided to keep it going and going, so it wouldn't stop. Hence no need to instigate it!

2) Being Valentines Day, a few banners were strategically placed around the ground by:

Males ditching their female counterparts for the game:
Sorry hon, we'll do dinner next year.

Ribbing the Sri Lankan team's defeat in the last game:
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue
Look out Murali, Roy's after you.

Hey Murali, reckon u can make a ton. How about it? 0 for 100.

And those with no relevance to the game whatsoever:
Hi Tokyo, Wombat Cricket Club.

3) A partially-clad man then raced onto the field and was crash-tackled by a security guard in spectacular fashion, and then cheered as he was taken away to a nice prison cell.

4) The game was halted for a few moments due to the mexican wave starting again, and rubbish being pelted onto the playing field. Whilst ground staff dealt with this, the Sri Lankan physio decided to play impromptu sprinter/cricket clown by racing out onto the field, giving a player a rub-down and then racing back and doing a well-executed leap over the fence into the player's area.

5) Murali being chanted at by the crowd to come back to the out-field to be abused for no-balls and general lack of bowling skill. (come back Murali, come back!)

And special mention must be made to our Andy 'Roy' Symonds for winning Player of the Series.

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Have just purchased tickets for the 3rd and deciding ODI final for this summer between Australia and Sri Lanka!!!!!!

Will post my observations of this game a little later.

Go Roy!

The Beach

It's been at least 4 years since I've swam at a beach. (Trying to paddle a canoe at Tangalooma or the occasional toe-dipping does not count)

What better way to celebrate Australia Day than going down to the beach of choice: Southport.

The waves were quite rough and strong for someone like me, although I was coaxed out into the deeper section of the waves so as to avoid the impact of the breaking waves on the shoreline. That did make a lot of sense.

However, that only lasted about 5 minutes, as I've forgotten how salty sea-water was, and whilst also feeling "bobbing water fatigue" starting to set in, I then allowed myself to be thrusted back to the seashore in a tumbling heap, to watch little kids on their boogie-boards riding the mini-waves.

Now you simply cannot go the beach without having a serving of freshly-made fish & chips.

We were bitterly disappointed however, to find out that Southport had nothing of the sort, apart from the Surf Club (which welcomed visitors, but not those in thongs or shorts), so therefore we had to be content with chicken & chips and sandwiches instead at a highly-inflated upmarket-ish convenience store.

Essence of Summer

Have just witnessed a rather profound event.
ODI Cricket Fever!

To truly embrace this, one has to understand that:

You must have patience (not only for the game, but also for those ppl constantly wanting to get past you, causing you to get up out of your seat, going for alcohol and overpriced meals every 15 minutes.)

Don't be alarmed when various chants arise, mostly in the form of obscene language abuse at the security guards on field and opposition team players.

Seeing people with various colourful headwear. (Most notably a bunch of guys wearing cut-out watermelons on their heads)

To pass time when the game is slow, to identify the many areas where beach balls, kangaroos, blow-up dolls, dolphins and Boonies are being thrown in the air, and subsequently going over the railing into the field and being confiscated by the security guards. (hence the abuse)

Being amused by a lone South African supporter in the stands being pelted with rubbish after a boundary is scored by the team.

Being even more amused when one spectator jumps the railing and sneaks into the area where the confiscated balls are placed, and throwing them back into the crowd, before sneaking back in and being booted out by the police.

Picking out the boys in blue who suss out one patron for throwing tennis balls all over the crowd, and seeing these donging onto people's heads.

Seeing those people in the licenced areas, trying to make a huge leaning tower made out of empty plastic beer cups.

And last of all...

Doing the mexican wave over and over again, with chips, and full cups of beer falling gracefully out of the sky and raining down on all unfortunate patrons below.

Luckily we were right up the top in the very back row in an UNLICENCED AREA, so we came out unscathed.

Happy 20,006 AD

I'm not sure if it was a typo, or there is some underlying meaning that I'm not aware of, but the first Unichurch bulletin on January 1 of said new year was dated:

1 January 20,006 AD.

Any valid explanation would be appreciated :D If it is simple, then yes, I would be a mushroom.

All these late nights I think are taking its toll, and rightly so when I go back to work today. Hmmph!

January every year has always had the reputation of being as busy as December. Namely due to camps. Whilst we only did a day visit to Tweed River Mission in late December, its either beach mission, CMS Summer School (yay!), QYC, KYLC, KYC. (yes, I know the last two mentioned are actually being held over the border with the Mexicans...*wink! but to prove my point.....they are camps!)

And January is also the time of..... ODI CRICKET!!!! January 15th should be fantastic, and hopefully we'll get a decent ODI match this time around at the Gabba.

*No Subject*

Some thoughts:
Christmas Day lunch at the bayside was not what was expected. It was by the coast, but had little or no sea-breeze, alresco dining in 38 degree heat, other patrons were sweating as much as the poor fellow in charge of the roast meat section, carving and slicing his way through many legs :D

Did not get many presents but that didn't matter to us. We felt spending Christmas with family is priceless.

Now it's off again today (Boxing Day) to the in-laws out at the farm this afternoon/evening for yet another Christmas feast!! Hopefully we can palm off some of the miscellenous "goodies" we received in our work Christmas hampers here as well.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

You know it's that time of year

....when a rather large tree is placed in reception and an email is sent around with the subject line "Secret Santa".

Also, contributions are called for the Christmas hampers available to be won in this month's raffle. The catch was, to get a raffle ticket you had to contribute an item to the hamper with a value between $5-$10. Easy solution.....Gloria Jeans coffee beans.

The raffle was drawn today at the morning tea.
Correction, I should have said "raffles", as there were 5 hampers up for grabs. It went down to the last hamper draw and who would have guessed that my name was pulled from the hat. No-one did, it was pure fluke.

Anyway, another event that happened recently was the work Christmas function last weekend. This was held at a place called the Brazilian Touch, which sounds like a strip joint. (it was located at Bowen Hills though so location-wise would make it valid)
As one work colleague described it, it was an UPMARKET strip joint.

But really, it was a cabaret restaurant with buffet dinner and a Brazilian dance show. I'm sure you can use your imagination from this point. Most work colleagues weren't that impressed with the place.

And to put more salt into the wound, one of the partners came around the office on Monday and asked how we thought the night went. One boldly responded "I hated the place".

Ssssssmokin!

Summer is definitely here.

But it's

NOT DUE TO THE FOLLOWING:
The fact that our house temp is a constant 35 degrees
The fact that "Rocky the Bulldog" (who lives in my car) has taken another step towards dying from skin cancer
That I'm planning to stay inside the office this week rather than going across the road, so as to avoid the stinking hot weather
The summer storms we've been having recently
I'm wearing summer PJs to bed
Using Fans and A/C
Dad has bought himself a big carton of beer
Pool Party and BBQ invitations

The ONLY proof I have that summer is here:

Is that I got that same stupid shoulder tan I got two years ago, which I only got rid off just before September this year!

Massive Nature

I've now experienced tropical cyclones, flash flooding, hailstorms and have now been in the epicentre of a spectacular electrical storm.

Whilst out visiting the in-laws at the somewhat greener farm, two massive black blobs made their way over Cunningham's Gap. Flashes and rumblings were only in the distance but then all of a sudden we were completely under it.

The 14 or so cows (including 3 very cute newborn calves) ran for cover, whilst we ran to the side verandah, sheltered only by corrugated iron roofing.

First strike was on a fence post about 25 metres away, splitting it in half. 10 seconds later a dead tree next to the fence was struck, giving a massive *BOOM* on impact, causing the tree to split and branches falling everywhere. Everything was pulsating and crackling and we were bracing ourselves for the house to be struck. Fortunately it missed but that was close enough.

5 minutes later the sun came out again and we ventured into the paddock to check out the damage. The dead tree had a crisp cut through the side where the lightning bolt had hit, and bits of wood and branches were lying everywhere and vertically embedded into the grass. The fence post was still standing, this time in two pieces rather than one, but the barb wiring fortunately had not been cut.

Now one other thing I've yet to witness is a cow giving birth, which I missed by a month. Oh well.

Id agamus meliores ut fiamus

At the present time I'm pondering all the various icons and objects that embraces the Latin and Spanish culture.

Here's the list so far:

Flamenco dresses
maraccas (recall that we had these in the shape of green frogs in childhood days)
ponchos
Siesta (YAY!!! Must become legislation)
Matadors
Rampaging Bulls
Inigo Montoya (prepare to die!)
red
yellow
orange
Speedy Gonzales (aribaaa!)
Spanish Inquisition

The big question is...how do I pick from this list and actually come up with a costume within 48 hours, without having to go to a fancy-dress shop or sew?

Rock-Step-Kick

Nothing much to report on, apart from me developing a sudden urge of stuffing myself with cheese. I was never a fan of cheese until the last 504 hours started.

Also, my car has been booted out of the garage to make way for the makeshift "work-shed" which was not included as a part of the townhouse facilities. Hmm..
I'm not complaining though about having someone in the house to fix the leaks and tend to the maintenance when required :)

On another topic, I did go swing dancing last Wednesday night with previously referred to German and husband. (mine, not the German). It was fun, and will likely go again this week.
Til next time.....Rock-step-kick..kick....rock-step-kick...kick....

[EDIT- 16/11/05] Looks like I can't make it to swing tonight due to husband being given 6 hours notice that he is due to fly to Melbourne for a training day. Wonder if that's part of the new IR legislation.

Ha! I kill me! ALF

I couldn't believe that so many of my friends (well, ahem, probably more like 2 male friends in particular) have a fetish (?) for all things 80s. Another quite bizarre thing is that both these friends have claimed or are claiming to be Asian. (one's Russian, the other German :)One of them has been giving me subliminal hints about going to swing dancing classes at Southbank on Wednesday nights.

I was planning on visiting the Brisbane Jive Club which meets at the local bowls club just up the road, but then doing jive at an old bowls club which has deteriorating membership (so I'm told) seems a bit out of place. (Anyone seen the movie Crackerjack?) At least Southbank has a bit more "oomph" in it's surroundings.

We also taught a bunch of Caucasians the brilliant game of Mahjong on Friday night. Although they failed to miss the point that when you shuffle the tiles it is meant to be LOUD!!!! YOu also are meant to SLAM down the tiles in frustration when you lose or have thrown out a tile you should have kept earlier and say "Aiya!"

Apparently mahjong tiles have another use: poker chips, as witnessed by 11:30pm that same night, being played by said German, an engineer, high school manual arts teacher and full-time bible college student.

Sublimally gassed

There's an awkward smell in the office here, that a workmate has pointed out this morning. Luckily I can't smell it in my 3-walled cubicle, however when I need to trot off to the printer the odour increases.

It apparently smells like a Korean BBQ, whatever that smells like. Almost like someone is gassing our part of the office, so we're all inhaling this substance/odour which could be fatal.

I don't think you can get rid of me that easily :D

As for those who thought of other potential office smells, shame on you!

Not sure of a Korean BBQ, but oh boy do I want a juicy steak....

It's all good.....

I didn't get food poisoning from the FIGS Iron Chef cook-off on the weekend.

I was actually quite impressed with the ability of all participants. Well done to everyone. I didn't think that toffee would become a dessert must-have on the night, despite the presence of a full block of chocolate. I was looking forward very much to having chocolate mousse for dessert though :P

Went to a Seventh-Day Adventist wedding ceremony yesterday in Ipswich. Quite different, in that the bride walked down the aisle to the Queensland Youth Choir, and the sister-in-law sang "Somewhere over the Rainbow" as a musical item.

The absolute highlight though of the ceremony, was when the celebrant began the ceremony by saying in a loud voice just one word......... "Marriage". He said it right, but someone else sitting beside me muttered it in another tone which made it difficult for me to muffle my laughter.

Twoo-Wuv eh?

Life on the M side

After a wonderful and windy wedding day, followed by an equally fantastic 2 week honeymoon, am finally settling into life as a Mrs.

On coming back, was bombarded with news and issues: one bridesmaid gets engaged,(that's not an issue), Warren's youngest brother is engaged,(again, not an issue) 2 members of staff at work have finished up, 2 new people have replaced them, workmates demand wedding photos, I forget my login password on my workstation, have to start writing thank-you letters, given an urgent job with a week turnaround, realising I should be using the initial JKW, not JKM on my workpapers, finding my old business cards have been placed in pot plants and other people's business card holders around my part of the office, etc..

You know, life isn't that different on the M side, really, apart from having someone stealing the blankets and doona during the night :)

Countdown....

The work whiteboard reads "Single Days remaining -12 Days" and counting.....

Contaminated Society

Went and watched The Island last night which I really enjoyed.

It was after all just a movie but the plot seemed too simple, but yet not really at the same time. Citizens of the Institute are led to believe that the world outside has been contaminated, and they are the survivors of a nuclear war or environment harard. They are also the special ones who will eventually be chosen by lottery to go to The Island.....the last non-contaminated site left in the world, to breed and create a new society.

However, Lincoln Six-Echo begins to question whether The Island is actually what people make it to be. There is no such thing as The Island. A nuclear war didn't happen. They don't have to wear matching white skin-tight suits and shoes. (you'll have to watch it to get this, but it's only a visual thing which you see alot in the movie anyway)

When the truth behind what the purpose of the Institute is for, you're suddenly thrust into the real world with the entire SWAT team chasing after you in the Arizona desert, eventually making it to Los Angeles. (complete with cable trains dangling in the air in downtown LA and videophones)

It's all about creating clones as life insurance policies for citizens living in the supposedly contaminated society.

One thing though that sprung to mind, was that the hope the people living in the Insitute was on making it to The Island, their paradise. It was scary in some aspects in that what they put their hope for was all a lie.

It does make me wonder how easy it is for skeptical people to think that the hope Christians believe in could also be a lie.

But my hope remains :D

Girls Day Out

Had an absolutely wonderful day with my girlfriends. I should once again especially thank my two ultra special bridesmaids on planning such a funfilled Kitchen Tea for me.

I knew I was going to be slightly emotional by the end of it, but it does make me realise that I don't do fun and silly stuff as much as I used to. The whole process of just being yourself, not caring how anyone else thinks of you and having a great time. I really do miss those times, and so........I should do it more!

Maybe not another Kitchen Tea, but more hanging out with my friends. I'm finding that is difficult, especially when you have a wedding to plan for. But, once that's over, I'll try hard to make sure I don't ditch any of my friends. Sure I'll have a husband to cook for and look after (hehehe) but there should be times where we both do our own things. (mmmm shopping!!)

Speaking of, a local public holiday is looming mid next week. I sense a cook-out and mahjong is on the cards for the day.

LOW

I've added another acronym to my growing list. BERT.

Now the first thing I think of when I look at that is Bert from Sesame Street. You know, the monobrow character with a long sausage face that nobody likes. Now, what BERT actually stands for is nothing too flash or fancy so I'm not going to say it here :)

The point is sooner or later, with more and more acronyms being developed we'll probably all starting talking in acronyms. I mean, doesn't that already happen with SMS?

Some sentences could be:

The AFES group in QLD decided to look at the topic of BGRs at their next MYC. This was also done by YF at CCCB.

or

Instead of working at CMS (*wink) or AFES, why not consider doing MTS at SDBC for 2 years before heading to MC, BCQ or SMBC?

and last one

We require your TFN to be able to lodge your ITR in order to receive an NOA. You'll also need an ABN to be able to register for the GST, FBT and PAYGW.

Ok, I'm now neck deep in oil, from drilling too far down. Can someone throw me a lifeline?

Stupid People

Sorry, but I just had the urge to put this link here.

How silly can some people be?

As for myself, I can be really silly, but not to this extent.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=56151

Give me the keys!

Went to the real estate agent yesterday to pick up our set of keys for the new property we're renting, and thought that it would be a simple set of house keys.

Wrong.

What we were given was a bunch of keys, (35 of them) hanging onto several keychains linked together.

And no, you're not having any of these keys!!

The joys of working in taxation

It's been relatively quiet so far this week as it's still too early for tax season to commence.

Nevertheless, I've found that there are some keen beans who are on the ball, and simply want to get this "certainty" out of the way as soon as possible. It does help reduce the grief that is meant to come shortly when the season begins.

Anyway, the point of this is really on false teeth.

False teeth you say?

The story is that I had a one of these keen bean clients send in their information to us this week. His tax affairs are probably the most simple as you could get, so since most of us in the office are sitting in our cubicles, twiddling our thumbs and doing nothing productive, why not get this simple tax return out of the way.

This client then decided to try and maximise his chances of getting a bigger refund, by asking whether he could claim the cost of replacing his false teeth, (He lost his first pair) costing $500. hmmmm...the short answer was no. Unless he paid more than $1500 for the replacement, then we have something to play with.

I wonder what other outrageous claims will be next.

*YAWN*

Mental Notes to self:

Must get some decent sleep.

Must go to sleep without thinking/worrying about something.

Must not try and find something to worry about later.

Must not keep thinking that today is the end of the year. (sorry, accountants tend to do this, especially today, in this country anyway)

Must stop babbling in my blog.

I'm recovering from my latest bout of winter blues, despite the occasional *cough*.

I must really be tired, as this post has to be the most boring post I've made on this blog so far.

Lesson learnt today: There is such a thing as cheap wedding shoes.

Now I've got it......I think....

As a perfect sequel to my previous post, I think I've caught the nasty winter bug :( bleugh!

Feeling sore and achy all over, and very tired. I don't have enough sick leave to take a day off either, so that's just great! (insert sarcastic tone here)

On some brighter news, we have a place to move into after the wedding, which is a big relief.

Now it's time to prove that my life can be fitted into a little cardboard box ;)

Lethargy sets in....

I think my body is telling me that it's time for me to have some R & R.
HA! Tough chance, not with so many things still yet to do.

Maybe it's crying for help from the strenuous and hectic last couple of weeks, or I'm just making up an excuse to bum around this weekend and do nothing. Again, that aint gonna happen!!

Work is having it's ups and downs. I still feel at times, that people forget that I have been working for 3 years and therefore has a good foundation of experience in what I do. Either they're are hesitant to give me more responsibility, or they're waiting for me to make the first move. I honestly don't know.

It's probably taking its toll on my health too, that I was doing more heavy labour work over the weekend, when I was helping my fiance move his stuff into the garage. (which I'm not complaining about either)
Despite that, I still did not reach the 10,000 steps a day. The closest I got to was 8,846.

No rest for the wicked, as the saying goes.

What happens when you notice.....

a black, sleek Alfa Romeo or Peugeot 407cc convertible drive past you in traffic?

You take a look at the male driver, who happens to have grey hair, wearing a beret (the passenger is also wearing something on his head) and a "cool" pair of sunnies.

Only thing left to confirm that this person is having a mid-life crisis, is whether they are wearing driving gloves. Pity that on proceeding to the on-ramp to the freeway they slam on the accelerator and drive off at a speed that my little Mazda 1.8L couldn't possibly handle. (or maybe...)

Is this the life of the male when the female is too busy having mood swings and hot flushes at home?? ;P