vrooooooooooooooommmm!

The constant vrooooooooooom! outside can only mean one thing - we are either under attack by terrorists or the Red Bull Air Race is back in town!


It's hard to concentrate, especially if you are in an office 37 floors above the ground with full view of the river. Good thing today was my last Chevron day for the week!

I am quite excited about it this year because I will actually be able to go on the weekend! Last year We had something on on the day and subsequently missed out. The ballon cones are up and running and there are cool little reminders around the city that the race is on - there is a little display at the Causeway entrance to the city, a runway at Langley Park, a watchtower in Sounth Perth, ballon-cones on barges all over the Swan River, and a big PERTH sign near the Narrows bridge. It's all very exciting.

Here are some videos I found on the tube :D

bad days

Everybody has them. I've had a few in the years gone by. The other day was one of them. Nothing really bad happened, I guess it was just a day that I didn't particularly enjoy. For starters, at work I was super busy and the busyness had come really suddenly too. Only a week ago I was twiddling my thumbs looking for work to do and then BAM! reports as far as the eye can see, early mornings, late finishes, heaps of stuff that needed to be done yesterday, not enough people to do it all, files being handed over to me, diary filling up fast, paperwork piles getting higher and hogher, in-tray getting fuller and fuller, running from appointment to appointment (getting lost along the way) producing yet even more work... and then going home worrying about all the stuff that should've been done.

To top it all off, when I eventually got home I found a letter addressed to me from the Tax Office. Thinking it was my cheque for the $36 dollars promised to me when I submitted my e-tax, I opened it. Inside was a piece of paper with a line printed in bold at the bottom that read 'Amount Due: $10418' - I am dead serious. And no, I didn't leave any decimal points out.

You could appreciate that I was quite perplexed as to how this may have happened. And to come home to something like this after a long day at work, you could imagine that I didn't quite see the humour of the situation (I do now =D).

The stress of it all kinda took it's toll on me as I ended up in bed at 9pm that night feeling stressed and emotional. I kept thinking of what I needed to do and I just felt absolutely overwhelmed. There was just so much that needed to be done. I prayed asking God to give me the strength to get through this all, knowing that He was the only One who could help me out. And as I opened my eyes again, immediately, the suffocating feeling of anxiety left me and I felt relaxed. I was then able to have a good sleep and gain the energy to battle it out the next day. By His grace, I got through a fair amount of work and I have also been able to sort out my little issue at the Tax Office.

I called Tax up after work and after 40 minutes of being told my call had progressed in the queue and being thanked for my patience, I finally got to talk to a friendly guy named Tim. This guy told me that I had stated my income twice on my e-tax and I had also done my medicare thing wrong too. He dictated to me a letter that I needed to write to fix the problem and told me that everything should be alright after that. What a relief. Who knows, after all of this, the Tax Office - if God moves their heart to be generous - may even want to give me some of my tax money back! :D

Well, work is still crazy, but I do feel more in control of everything. It's gonna be a tough few weeks coming up, but I do enjoy being busy (to a point). I have even come to enjoy the times spent at the office alone - everything is so quiet and I can actually concentrate (there's no one that I can gasbag to).

In the end, I am thankful that I can find strength in the most powerful One of all - and that this One, my Lord and God, loves me so much and cares for me more than anyone on earth (even my family!) ever could. There's so much comfort in knowing that.

the bees' knees

This is just a little post to show off some little guests in our garden. My folks have developed green thumbs recently and have bought a whole heap of flowers and have been growing more plants etc. The other day, my Dad excitedly came to me after I got back from work and told me to come outside and look at something. And this is what that something was...

BEES! A whole freakin hive of them!! Gross! They moved into our barbeque in the space of a day or two! I got a little bit excited and started to talk to Mum about how we would have free honey! But as I thought about ways in which I could get my hands on that sweet sweeeeet honey without being stung to death, but before I could say Wescobee-eat-your-heart-out, my Mum told me that she had asked a friend about the whole bee situation and apprently, if the bees don't reckon the new hive is the bees' knees, they will pack up and move on to another location... (Phew! that was a long sentence!) And lo and behold, today as I went out to check on the hive, the bees had moved in behind our fishpond. No pictures of that, it was too dark back there, you could only see them fly out of the hole.

So that's my story about the bees. No stings, no deadly swarms, no photos (of the bees' new place) and no honey. But it was pretty cool anyway - don't ya reckon?

like a vapour

Rising temperatures, warmer nights, earlier sunrises, daylight savings kicking in on Sunday, more flies coming out of nowhere, the sound of cicadas at dusk... It can only mean one thing, another hot Aussie summer is just around the corner.... Although most Aussies will talk about how great Summer is, I personally, would much prefer a freezing cold and rainy winter day than a stinky-hot and sweaty summer. It's just plain unpleasant.

Though summer does have it's bonuses - grapes and mangoes are in season, the sun sets later, it's great BBQ weather, and there's always an excuse to have ice cream! I guess it's not all that bad in the end. :)

With the whole thought of summer being just around the corner, the thought came to me as well that Christmas is nearly here too! A bit scary really. This year has gone by really REALLY fast. I was thinking about this and just wondering what I had really done this year for God, and I really don't think it was much at all. At times I feel as if the weeks and months have passed by so quickly and it just seems as though I have been standing still watching everything fly past me.

But as I really reflect about what has happened this year, I think I have gained a lot more of an understanding of the Word and I have been able to just get some basic concepts right in my heart. God has shown me some really awesome things and has given me some revelations in my understanding of who He is. So really, I guess it has been a good year so far in that sense, but the more I understand who God is, the more I realise the need to do more for Him. There's still time this year to do more! And there is always the rest of my life too :)

God, please remind me every day to value each day and see it as an opportunity to serve You. Knowing that Your return is soon, and that every day that You allow me to have on this earth is another expression of Your grace to an unworthy servant. In Jesus' name, Amen.

eileen & seb sitting in a tree...

The two love-birds, Eileen & Seb, got married a week ago, but I have been too busy to blog some pics until now. It was a really nice ceremony, but kinda sad in a way because we all knew that Eileen was going to run away with ol Sebbo to Singapore :(. It was a little strange not seeing her in church today, but I think as time goes by, it will feel even weirder. Well good thing is that Seb is a pilot so he can fly her back here on a regular basis :D. But we will all definitely miss her in the meantime.

OK here are the pics! (taken by yours truly... and yes, I AM available to take photos for your wedding. Make sure you book early! After having a look at these pics, I'm gonna get booked out really soon! haha)

Isn't she loooovely...
Why yes, I AM!

vows - do you?
she does!

food & cake

Daz the flower-boy with the men of Regen

Regen and Mr & Mrs Tan

The Chengs and the Tans

The after-party @ Merchant hehe..

sixty-six clickety-clix

A package came for me today. It looked like this...

Inside was a box that looked like this...
I was excited... Inside was this...
It was my new toy - the iriver clix 2
isn't it preeeeeetty?
it even has games
and...
and the power to outshine the competition!

guitar stuff

I got me a new guitar strap today. It's kinda cool. When I use it, I look and feel like a pro-guitar player (just don't really sound like one!). At first I thought I had to get another strap pin installed on the top of the body but I managed to figure out a neat little way of attaching the strap to my guitar (with the adaptation of an idea insipired by a google search). I tied a button around the neck of my guitar with a shoestring and buttoned the strap onto the guitar. It doesn't look as povo that it sounds! You can see how I did it by looking closely at the pictures. Cool huh? The best thing is that I can take the strap on and off easily and quickly - just need to unbotton it :)

Another cool purchase was this little pick-dispenser.

It attaches onto the guitar and can hold all your guitar picks. Cool thing is that the picks can slip in and out really quickly so I will never have to ask around for a spare pick any more!

Lastly, while on the whole guitar accessories thing, I might just share this little site with you all. It's a wiki-how on how to make your own guitar picks from old bank cards etc.

san angelo

There's a song by Third Day called San Angelo. It kinda sums up the don't-know-why-I-feel-a-bit-down feeling I get sometimes. I'm not sure why I experience such low feelings, I guess sometimes I just get overwhelmed by self-pity and forget that God's love for me is unchanging.

I think feelings like this can commonly be experienced if we don't monitor the internal thought processes we have. I think I remember reading somewhere that Mac Powell (who penned the lyrics) actually wrote this song during a time when they had been on tour for a while and he had started to feel a bit 'over it' and homesick. I can relate in a sense because often I feel just a bit over it - people don't act the way you want them to, decisions are made that you don't agree with and sometimes you just feel so different to everyone else that even though there are so many people in your life, you just feel alone.

I think that's why this song speaks to me quite a lot. But at the same time, it's always good to remind myself of just how constant God is and how unchanging His nature is. As a Christian, that is so comforting, and even when the cloud of discouragement looms, I am just thankful that though all the people around me may forsake me, God will always be there for me until I meet Him face to face.

So back to the song that inspired this post! The lyrics go like this...

Forever seems so distant
Much further than today
You turn around and in an instant
You find that you are just as far from yesterday

The day it feels like winter
The night it feels like stone
You turn around and you remember
When you're surrounded
You can still feel so alone

But it's in between the start and end
I find myself once again
Questioning this place
Calling out your name

San Angelo
What do you know
And tell me do you have something to say
Don't get me wrong
But I miss my home
And it feels like I'm a million miles away
San Angelo

Why do I ask these questions
How come I have these doubts
Cause I find every situation
It always seems to have
It's way of working out

But it's in between the start and end
I find myself once again
Questioning this place
Calling out your name

hayfever

Why do we get hayfever when we live in the city - there isn't even any hay!

For the last few weeks, I have been getting what I have self-diagnosed as hayfever symptoms. REALLY itchy eyes (so itchy in fact, that my right eye is currently a shade of pink), occasional runny nose, and sneezing on the half-hour (like some kind of weird egg-timer). It's by no means debilitating, as a matter of fact, I am writing this while also thinking about how not-serious the problem is - it's just really, REALLY annoying.

Especially because I have never really suffered from hayfever. My mum reckons it's cos I got the flu-jab this year - I'm not convinced of the theory, but it does have some credibility (allergies being a result of an over-active immune system - and the flu-jab being something that helps the immune system prepare for the flu virus.. maybe the immune system has slacked off and has subsequently had extra energy to get all hayfever-ish on me... man, my mum might be on to something here...). Crap, she might be right...

Whatever the cause, in the words of a controversial, red-headed, most-likely-racist, politician-wannabe - 'I don't like it'. There are no words of wisdom or purpose for this blog entry - I just needed to voice my frustration - and explain why (if you have seen me recently) I might have looked like I had been on drugs (dazed and confused with red eyes).

the show must go on

Wooohooo! I went to the Royal Show yesterday for the first time in ages! What a blast haha! Well not really, it was alright, but it has seriously been a while since I last went - at least a few years. I managed to stick to my budget and give out tracts along the way, so in the end, it was a pretty fun and fulfiling day.

Me, Lilian and JD from 98.5

Me and my friend Butterscotch

Lilian, Mr Curly and Me

Mr Curly's blue steel

Some of my other friends

and their little birthday presents

Sideshow Alley at Dawn

The fireworks (photos don't do justice - this was COOL!)

Earlier in the day, I also got to go to the Sunday School Picnic which was a blast. We have some real characters in Sunday School - and the kids are can be quite funny too. :D In the end, my Public Holiday (which is observed every year by the State of Western Australia for my Birthday) was spent very well. :)