Brief Holiday

Travelling at full speed, it's difficult to slow down sometimes. These last 2 months of the year have been crazy. I feel like there's been so much goin on, and the last 2 months have felt like the entire year! That's usually a sign it's time for a break of some sort.

A few of us managed to head away from the Big Smoke, for 5 days in one of the most beautiful parts of Western Australia. Needless to say, it was awesome, and i've included some photos here to show you proof of this.

So much to say, not enough time time to say it all, but as they say, "pictures say a thousand words."

things of love and hate

I've come to LOVE my new Macbook pro. I was so apprehensive about making the switch to apple, but am so glad to have done so!! Therefore, for all those considering the shift themselves, Just do it! :)

There are few things i really "HATE" as such, but i do hate being taken advantage of. Or even people i care about being taken advantage of. Like what happened on the weekend..... some dude was outside the restaurant asking everyone for money. When he asked us, we asked why, and he replied to buy food. Nothing unusual, right?

So we thought we'd help him out and buy him a meal, but he preferred cash. (of course he would) But we just said we would buy him a meal of what WE were eating. So he obliged.

Then he had the nerve to ask for the speciality of the house; a seafood noodles dish.

There always has to be one to spoil it for others....

Recommended Reading!

When i was younger, i used to find Time Magazine soooo boring. I mean, it just seemed so serious. I dont know if it's old age or what, but nowadays, i find the articles fascinating.

There is one topic i've always struggled with but have recently come to peace with. It's a very taboo topic to some who attend church or call themselves "christian", but this was very well covered and written by Time Magazine in September this year.

"Does God Want You to be Rich?"

The article is very well weighted i thought, and based its views on facts, not opinions. I like that they looked at the various biblical references supporting and disapproving wealth, but assuming that the people who wrote the article are not christians, the conclusion they came to was great.

If you have a spare 15min to read this article, i STRONGLY recommend having a read. It'll open your eyes to a topic that divide christians all around the world. But thankfully, despite this difference, there is still the one common denominator that holds the faith together, in Jesus Christ.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1533448,00.html

The finest day in September

Saturday the 30th September 2006 will forever stand as one of the most memorable days of my short life. The entire weekend was a hoot. For those interested, there are pics here and i've compiled a brief itinerary of my special weekend, one September in 2006.......

16.40; Thurs, 28th Sept: Had a mad day at work, supposed to have left work at 4.30pm to try to get to the airport for a 5.50 flight. Thanks heaps to Robbo for coming by work to pick me up and drop me off. A true mate and west coast supporter who was desperate to be there that one day in september but couldn't, but in turn helped another supporter get there himself. What a selfless act in the true spirit of footy.... :)

18.00; Thurs, 28th Sept: A FULL QANTAS 767 jet takes off for the skies in search of glory to the eastern seaboard of Australia. It was a plane load of West Coast supporters which also happened to have the non-playing 25 West Coast squad, trainers and coaching staff. The actual players themselves took the flight before. The vibe of the plane was electric, to say the least. Everyone knew everyone (I soon found out the whole plane was charted by the club, and was full of West Coast players, staff, admin, family, wives, etc.) and were chatting away, looking forward to 2 days time. Watched a pretty crap movie in Poseidon. (at least i got a movie and meal.... ;)

23.50; Thurs, 28th Sept: Landed in Melbourne, pretty stuffed. The fact that i worked the whole day, partook in a 3 hr flight had taken its toll....... i was running on adrenaline alone.

13.00; Fri, 29th Sept: walking around the streets of melbourne, the air was teeming with anticipation of 24 hrs into the future. West Coast supporters wore their guernsey and club gear with pride.... it's a wonder if any of us changed clothes that entire weekend.

12.30; Sat, 30th Sept: Got the call from leesz. Met up with her outside Gate 1 of the NEW Ponsford stand of the MCG. On the way to the MCG, had my Eagles scarf out the window of the car the whole way there. Passed a mob of sydney supporters on the way. That was interesting.

13.00; Sat 30th Sept: entered the Ponsford stand. I was in awe. The 'oh-so-few-hairs' on the back of my neck were standing up. I have arrived. Found our seats. They were awesome. Close enough to see all parts of the ground, yet not too far from the action. Also noticed a LOT of attractives females around my area.

14.29; Sat 30th Sept: After a very ordinary pre-match entertainment, which i struggle to remember what was on, the moment had arrived. The players gathered at their positions... the starting siren sounds....... Game on!

17.30ish; Sat 30th Sept: Final siren sounds at last! I dont think i've ever experienced such a multitude of emotions over a 20min period. But such euphoria at the end! Lots of hugging of strangers and highfive-ing. Realised how sore my throat was.......

18.15; Sat 30th Sept: Fought the crowds (both happy and sad) to meet up with Leon and the other perth crew in town. More hugging and screaming ensued...

19.00 - late; Sat 30th Sept: Never have I sung the West Coast Eagles song so many times in one night. West coast flags, scarves, hats, shirts were waved wherever you went. Footy's were kicked across the streets and tram lines. Strangers who would normally never even acknowledge each other were patting each other on the back, highfive-ing and sharing in each other's joy.

You'd think we'd just won a war. You'd think we'd won a presidential election. You'd think we'd saved the world from the evil of satan's army. In a sense we did....... and more. We'd won the AFL Grand Final!! And I was there for it.

10.45; Sun 1st Oct: The airport was crazy. Leesz and I were sitting having brekky and saw the crowd cheering the players as they walked thru the metal detectors. Autographs were requested by everyone. Cameras were flashing. I thought a plethora of hollywood stars had arrived. It was so unreal. Everywhere i looked, Eagles colours were ever present.

11.10; Sun 1st Oct: Boarded the plane for the journey home. Again, I was fortunate enough to be on the West Coast plane. This time however, the ENTIRE club was on this plane, including the 25 that played yesterday. Trevor Nisbett had the premiership cup 3 rows in front of me! It was ironic how something so precious was nonchanlantly chucked in the overheard compartment, only to be cushioned last minute by some pillows lying around.

The mood was rather mellow on the trip back. Might've been the fact everyone's probably hungover. I was looking forward to watching Nacho Libre on the way back, but guess what? Something even better was on instead.... Yes, they replayed the grand final. :D

13.10; Sun 1st oct: Disembarked the plane to a huge roaring crowd. Leesz had warned me of the welcoming crowd at the airport, but i could not picture what she meant. It was like our own mini subi oval within the airport! Even the road leading out of the airport was lined with people that had parked their cars to cheer their team. It was like a street parade down that road.

Needless to say, sleep was not really on offer that weekend. The anticipation and excitement leading up to the game and the sheer jubilation that followed didnt allow much sleep. I am just so esctatic and appreciative and blessed that i had the privilege of being there, the finest day in September.
:)

MCG, here I come!

It's confirmed.

I'm going to the 2006 AFL grand final.

I'm so excited I have no words to explain it.

I now have one of my "Things to do before i die" list completed.

I am blessed.


Carn the Eagles!!!

In Limbo

This has been the best weekend of the season ever.......... It was a terrific game on saturday, the way we overcame adversity to win our way to the grand final.

But alas, I now sit in limbo, awaiting to see if i get to witness this great spectacle.... that last saturday in september..........

I saw the sign..

I am definitely sure that i am overdue for my next trip. So many ppl around me have been travelling, going travelling or are currently travelling. The pictures on Al's site has just just confirmed it for me. What is so cool is that every single one of his photos, i've been there! I remember that! I've got the same photos!!

Especially Bratislava, where i did not have the best time coz of the weather, the streets he walked were soooo familar! I knew what was just around this corner or that corner. But it would've been nice to have the sunshine when i was there.

Can't wait to hit the WORLD scene again! :D

Oh yeah, i forgot.....

I mentioned something about melbourne photos, from when i went a few weeks ago......

Well, i've finally got around to putting them up.... Just look to the link on your right! =>

Debacle quelled.

I'm pleased to say that i didnt waste my tuesday this week clicking a mouse button continuously, trying to get my tickets to this week's Eagles final. I actually managed to get through within 10mins of logging onto the net. Either i'm extremely lucky or ticketmaster have lifted their game.

Either way, i still think it would be easier if the AFL would just let us keep our original seats.....

Now let's hope the good times continue, and we actually win this time!!!

Absurdity Amplified

Today was a total waste of a day. I have never felt so frustrated in a LONG time. Yes, i was happy and looking forward to this day, but spending the ENTIRE day (5 hours in total) in front of a computer and phone trying to get my freakin tickets to the Eagles V Swans qualifying final pushed my patience past its threshold.

I know what they will say. "You have to understand that with this volume of people trying to get tickets at the same time, there will be some waiting." But this is ridiculous. You would think that for as long as the AFL has been running, they would have learnt from the past, especially after LAST year. Yes, last year wasnt that long ago! Sure some common sense could prevail from such madness!?

The West Coast Eagles Football Club have one of the highest (if not THE highest) memberships in the league. You KNOW that EVERY single one of those members will be wanting tickets. And you KNOW that they'd like their usual seats. And you KNOW that 40000+ members will be battering your doors and website and phone lines today. Why not take action in anticipation of this? Or better still, devise a freaking logical system that takes the load off your staff, phones and website and allow original allocation of seating for a period of time, and if the member does NOT claim their seat within their time, then they lose it.

Wouldnt that prevent the mad rush of disgruntled members and the crashing of computer systems? Mr. AFL, you want this competition to be a "professional" sporting body, with hopes to become international and match the other codes such as the English Premier league, NBA, NFL, etc. You are a long, long, long way away from this, and the inability to learn from previous RECENT mistakes impedes any such growth as yet.

Suggestions?

I'm looking around for a new notebook computer. I've been looking, but i'm getting all the more confused and overwhelmed with the great variety in notebook computers these days. I know what i want......

- small and lightweight (but not super small or those ultra-portable ones)
- powerful and fast (i do a lot of photo imaging stuff)
- that super bright screen thingy (and i'm thinking nothing smaller than a 15.4" screen)
- long battery life

But i'm confused by all the new processors out at the moment and this and that. Dunno which is a good one. Does anyone know what the "top" one is at the moment, as a benchmark, so i have something to compare models to? :p

Syd

A couple of weeks ago, i was dragged kickin and screamin all the way to sydney for some conference i didnt really want to go to. When i first registered to go in January, i thought, "might as well, there's nothing better to do!" But when time came, i really couldnt be bothered. Not only that, but it coincided with a trip to Kenya my church was doing, which i really DID want to go on! But coz i had already paid and registered and all that, i couldnt really pull out. Hence i was really bummed and pissed that i had to go, and rocked up to the sydney ICMDA conference not in the best frame of mind.

Little did i know that it was to be the best thing i have done thus far in 2006.

The International Christian Medical & Dental Association World Congress in Sydney was a gathering of medical and dental people from around the WORLD. I held ZERO expectations upon arrival, and boy was i glad that was the case. The presence of hundreds of people in the healthcare industry with a massive passion for our God and how the two go hand in hand..... i dont think it's possible to describe it.

How does one describe one's "feeling" literally? I know i cant. I felt so spiritually uplifted, it was higher than any drug i've been on. Now i begin to understand what the day of Pentecost may have felt like. Meeting members of all nations in one place was overwhelming. Rubbing shoulders with fellow doctors/dentists from the congo, korea, zimbabwe, norway, usa, germany, holland, brazil..... the list goes on, was so surreal.

The greatest gift i recieved from this time were the many lessons recieved, both personally and professionally. Lessons gratefully accepted and forever remembered and treasured for the rest of my life.

Visual

A picture says a thousand words. Dunno how many words these pictures will say, but how can I sum up, the first half of this year?

LIfe goes on...

Wow. Didnt realise it's been so long since my last post. Obviously i havent been missed, coz noone's made any comment :) I guess quite a bit has happened in the time in my last post, but where do i start? I'll try lists, since i just love lists......

- finished my housesitting gig
- moved into my own place (still settling in)
- work's getting into a routine
- really relishing working in kids ministry
- got my 1st real compliment from a parent of one of the kids i teach
- loving the job i have as it allows me to stay up all nite to watch the world cup!
- spiritual life has been a real rollercoaster
- always knew, but never really wanted to believe that females are soooooo damn complicated. i give up.....
- Been real lazy of late, havent been cooking or eating well.
- i miss travelling. REAL bad.

It's funny. I know there's heaps that have been going on, but yet i sit here stuck on what to write.... sigh.

I'll try to post some photos up soon......... pictures say a thousand words, right?

F-R-A-G-I-L-E

Life is fragile.

And this became none more apparant to me until the last couple of weeks. To keep it brief, an absolute tragedy occured a couple of weeks ago. A tragedy likened to something you'd see in the movies. A dearly loved mother, a daughter, a sister and a friend, passed away 2 days after giving birth to a healthy baby daughter. She left behind a husband, and 4 children, all under the age of 5.

When i first heard this, i felt sorry for the family and people involved. But that's about it. I mean, i didnt know these people personally, so it's hard to feel any more. So when they were looking for volunteers to help in the memorial service last week, i put my hand up as i thought i'd be one of the few that wouldnt be too affected, as i didnt know them personally.

How I was wrong.

I havent been so sad for a long long time. By the end of the service, i felt emotionally drained, numb and extremely upset with a heavy heart. I could not begin to fathom how her husband must be. And i didnt even know her personally. But i did realise that i knew her children, which was the real heartbreaker for me. I am connected to the kids thru sunday school, and hence a wave of despair overcame me during the service, and the rest of the day.

I find it difficult to look at children and families now without this tragedy in mind. This was such a young family of promise, which was so easily broken just like that. I look at people and the world and realise how easily it could be broken. In a world where we LIKE to think we're in control, it goes to show just how little control over life we really do have.

No words or actions could ever express my condolesences to the family, but my heart bleeds for them. Now i have the slightest inkling of what Christ feels for us, why he died for us. May we remember what this long weekend signifies for us all.

Life is fragile indeed.

Life's luxuries

There's a something special about life's little luxuries, isnt there? And i think i've found another one of them.

When one goes grocery shopping, we always look for the cheapest deals, right? And that goes for mundane things like toilet paper. Well, i decided to go against the trend, and splurged on bog rolls. I bought the most expensive, thickest, multi-ply'd, fragrant paper i could find. I just had to find out if there really was ANY difference! I mean, at the end of the day, they all have the same purpose, and its purpose is pretty simple, so how different can companies make them!?

Let me say this...... it IS worth the extra dollar or two for super thick, quadruple ply, soft, pleasant smelling toilet paper. Tis indeed a luxury everyone should afford........ :)

phone freaks

Ever since that Seinfeld episode where a telemarketing call centre calls Jerry, and he toys with them over the phone, i've been wanting an opportunity to do the same. This morning, I HAD that opportunity..... :)

callcentre: Hello? May I speak to Mr Oh?
me: Sorry, he's not home at the moment, may i take a msg?
callcentre: Oh, no, i cant leave a msg, whom am i speaking to? Is that Mr Oh?
me: No, he's not in. can i take a msg?
callcentre: who am i speaking to?
me: who am I speaking to?
callcentre: I'm Angel, and you are......?
me: what can i do for you?
callcentre: If wont tell me who you are, i'll have to end this conversation...
me: fine. (end of conversation)

Who do they think they are!? They dont DEMAND i identify myself.... They called ME, i dont know who the heck they are, why should i identify MYself? I'll bloody well tell them my name if I FEEL like it, not coz i HAVE to. At least I'm a little satisfied now. :)

High Drama

I was at the post office on Monday, handing in my application for the government's new "Working With Children" card. Now it's a pretty sad state of affairs when it is required to register adults working with children because of all the sickos around, but that's another matter.....

Anyway, i thought it'd be a 5 minute job, in and out, maybe with a quick snapshot for the card.... But no, it took about an hour! How so u may ask? I guess when u take into account lining up, and all that, it could take awhile. But not an hour surely!?

Well it takes that long when u have to fill out the forms MORE than once. I'm not an idiot (i think) but apparantly there are such strict regulations on HOW to fill out the stupid form. And it aint short either. And i had to redo it THREE times! And have to goto my employer to get her to sign in THREE times. Can u see how it took an hour?

First time: "nup. Sorry. It's blue. You HAVE to use BLACK pen"
Second time: "nope, you signed OUTSIDE the box. Yup, even if it's 0.5 mm outside the box, u have to do it again"
Third time: "ok "

And u should've seen the drama it kicked up in the post office, as the lady showed various staff and superiors in the post office to confirm that i had to redo it again. The all stared at it for minutes, shaking their heads in disapproval, shocked at my discrepancy. Seriously ladies, it's only a bloody form with half a millimetre of my signature hanging out of the box, it's not exactly a terrorist bomb. Some people need a chill pill.........

Some things are better left unsaid.

Sometimes there are certain things in life you just dont want to know about. Knowledge that once attained, will ruin the image you had previously carved in your mind. Things that actually leave u feeling dumber than u were before. Just something u know you would be happier if u just did NOT know..... But when u take one of nature's true miracles, your perception is that its all dandy, beautiful and wonderful, until the reality of the situation is revealed to you.

At work, i'm surrounded by women. Some may say that's paradise. And in most cases, it is. But today, i learnt certain things about "women business" i didnt appreciate too much. The talk at lunch came down to babies and pregnancies, which is understandable since one of them is expecting her 1st child.

I dont want to scar some of you fellas out there, but lets say that the woman's body goes thru some unsavoury changes thru her pregnancy, that may not be so obvious to the outsider. U have the obvious lumps and bumps that appear that anyone can see, but there are other things so hideous and dark that it pains me to think about it. Apparantly the look on my face was priceless as the girls went on comparing pregnancy notes. I think my expression was one of sheer shock and disgust, similar to one suffering from a nauseating kick in the goolies, that left the girls laughing their heads off.

I guess u mums out there would know what these are, but lets just say, i'll never look at a pregnant lady the same way again.

Annual Review

Tis the time of the year again, well the START of a new year, so as with everyone else, it would be most appropriate to perform our annual review of 2005. Heck, if big corporations can do it, why cant I??

I know it's a big call, but 2005 has been the BEST year in my memory. I guess there has to be a "best" somewhere, and mine so happens to be very recent as compared to a long time ago. What would culminate 2005 to be the best yr in my very poor memory? Well I could mention a few....

- starting 2005 with backpacking around europe for the 1st 3mths of the year.

- built my 1st BIG snowman ever
- mission trip to madagascar and mauritius
- The forging of new friendships and deepening of existing friendships
- All the weddings!! Congrats Steve & Nicola, MayChin & Rob, Ron & Sara, Ivan & Angel.....

- The terrific new job i so badly needed. Thank God for saving me!
- The balance struck between work and play, I'm loving my roster!!- Full recovery from my back surgery

- And to top it all off, a terrific NYE spent down south, with me sleeping under the grandest night sky, bursting with more stars than I have EVER seen in my life.

I have been so blessed this year, and i thank EVERYONE and everything for being a part of it. And God wililng, may the good times rock on!!