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.