white Christmas in july!

Today I took an early lunch break to fight the mighty snooze, and as I was in a shop, I heard really loud 'rain' start bashing down on the roof. When I walked out of the shop, I realised the 'rain' was actually hail - and loads of it!! The whole mall was covered in hail and from a distance it looked like snow!

What an unexpected blessing!

the perfection of culinary suspense

For the past few months I have become more and more addicted to Masterchef. And it's all going to come to an end tonight - in less than half an hour. I will confess right now that I absolutely love watching reality television and cooking shows - so when I heard about a reality television cooking show coming on to the tube, I was pretty excited.

I have to say, the show has passed all my expectations. It has made my mouth-water in every single episode, it's entertaining, it's moving, it's inspiring and it somehow makes something as plain as baking a cake into some kind of spectator sport. I remember a few weeks ago when watching the contestants make this...

It was so exciting hey. I was sitting at the edge of my seat the whole way. I sighed as they failed, rejoiced as they succeeded and felt their pain as they burnt their fingers. It was great television.

So it all ends tonight and either Julie or Poh will win. I want Julie to win because she is just so cute and I love how she breaks into a sweat every time she cooks! And I want Poh to win because she is Chinese and she made one of my favouritest foods - century egg congee - on national television!

May the best (wo)man win!

wiiii!

I treated myself to a new little toy on Friday. I've wanted a Wii for a while now and when I saw there was a deal at Dick Smith, I went after work on Friday to pick one up! I got a Wii console (which comes with Wii Sports), a Wii Fit, and a Moto GP game in a bundle. This was usually worth a total of around $600 (so I'm told), but I bought mine for $388. Not bad huh? If you hurry down to Dickies you can still probably grab the deal! Tell them Rowena sent you - no don't actually, otherwise they will look at you funny and ask whatcha talkin bout willis?

It's pretty cool. I'm very happy with it. I especially love my Wii Fit! It's so much fun, and I am actually doing exercise!! After about 90mins on Saturday night, I was sore all day Sunday and today! If it wasn't for me doing a bit more last night, I think I would be in even more pain today. It's totally dealt with my usual excuses for exercising - weather (too hot, too cold, too windy, too rainy, too sunny, too much hail, not cold enough, not warm enough, too dark, too early, too late) and having no one to exercise with. With my Wii, I can exercise in the comfort of my home and I can't make the excuse of no one to exercise with because I only have one remote anyway! hehe

I'm curious to know if the Wii will actually make a difference to my fitness - actually, I'm pretty sure it can - it's just my persistence (or lack of) which will interfere. Anyhoo, it's my new little toy, and so far, I'm loving it.

counting it joy

So the last few days I've been in a bit of a mood. I realised the other day that I was going to miss out again on an away day at work because they had scheduled the event on a day I couldn't go. Away Days are cool because we don't have to do any work, we get to go for a nice lunch and we get to knock off early! I've missed out so many times before, but this time I couldn't help but feel a little more miffed than usual, because I had been working pretty hard recently, and it just felt as though I wasn't being recognised for my efforts. I prayed that I could go, but it just felt that it wasn't going to happen.

Junk thoughts entered into my head, and as a result I felt discontented, disappointed, unappreciated, excluded, angry, and I even thought how I would take 'revenge' - take time off work as a 'sick day' or look for another job. Yep, junk thoughts through and through. I knew what I was thinking was not right and I just tried to get over it by trying to count it joy despite it not really being joy-worthy.

The song 'Count it Joy' was in my head for the last few days, and every time I was tempted to start mulling over some more junk thoughts I just heard in my head the Wilds Men's Choir Count it Joy Joy Joy, when you're faced with trials and tests - though that's all I could remember, it was enough.

So when I woke up this morning and I had to go to work, as much as I wanted to stay home, I just kept thinking Count It Joy as I got ready. And it really became easier. Every time I thought I had the right to be upset (i.e. when I didn't get a seat on the train because people who got to the train station later than me pushed in front and got a seat - well it didn't really give me the 'right' to be upset, but I still got upset!), God intervened (the lady I was standing next to got off at the next stop, and I got her seat). So I took that as God showing me what I was doing was right in His eyes.

Last but not least, when I got into work today, I found out I was able to go tomorrow to the Away Day after all. I was even told I HAD to go, and prior commitments would be rescheduled! So not only did Counting it Joy help me during my mini trial, my prayer was answered too! So I'm pretty happy and thankful to God.