Sydney Blackmores Half~ Over the bridge!!

Well! The must do on my list No 1 was to sign up for the half marathon in Sydney and run over the Harbour bridge. I had my first marathon in Singapore but I decided to spare myself from all the ache I had after my Standard Chartered run so I signed up for the half marathon.


Sydney Running Festival- Sydney marathon 2007!Start : Milsons Point End: Opera HouseMy route of 21km

The pair of feet that will bring me across the bridge and to the streets of Sydney:)

Onn suk took me to the race site in the morning and I headed for my run.
I gave myself a restriction and that is not to run with music. So all I did was pluck in my earphones and left it as that. Amazingly, I endured at least 75% of the run w/o music and I had music in when I was goin to die out.

I had to self seed myself as a slow runner- because if you run more than 2 hrs you are considered slow. Not only that, you will have to complet it in 2 hrs and 45 mins.LOL.. I was praying so hard that God will carry me through the race, especially with the aching legs.

Running my first half in a foreign land was pretty exciting:) There was a lot that I wanted to experience and I am glad that I ran. They had gummies as like energy food and they were the ones that kept me goin in my race.

Running is like a grounding activity for myself. Whenever I am lost or confused, upset or just feeling real crap, taking a run becomes an inevitable option to get away from everything. Those scary days when I had to handle the things that happened in Australia about my house and sorts, I just had only running and God to depend on.
In a marathon, you know that it will be a long journey and you might have to go the " extra mile". Whichever way, your aim to finish at the ending point never change and the little things like 'gummies" that will keep you going. I pray that it is the same for you and my faith in our Lord: that our aim to finish well at the ending point will never change :)

Surprise!

It was the last week of school for the first part of the semester and I headed out to town as usual for Blue Sky. It was THE WEEKEND because I was going to run my first half marathon in my life, in Sydney. hee+ So I decided to stay put in town to have easy access to Milsons point where the race will be starting.
The Eastlakes gang gathered at onn suk's place as usual for dinner. However, the usual males were missing because kah fei overslept and neng suk got quite upset that we did not start dinner on time and he had a date at the casinos. So we only had like 5 of us having dinner-that's munee, may ku ma, onn suk, auntie jeanette and myself. I stayed home on the entire saturday because i wanted to rest for sunday's race and "Nua" as much as possible. I visited Aldi for grocery shopping and went for a 15min run before I had to go and poo poo. I think I had not had my farting habit cured..active bowel movements..LOL.

We had dinner- sumptuous one! Roasted lamb shank, mixed vegetables, baked dory fillets and salmon with red eggs. It's a tradition in my dad's family to eat red eggs on birthdays so I innocently asked whose birthday was it. Then Auntie jeantte looked at me and said, " U LO." hahahah..I was quite embarrassed to be told that my birthday is coming. I kinda forgotten about it actually. I was intending to give a celebration a miss since am alone here. So there u go! They wanted to throw a birthday dinner to celebrate my birthday:)=**) Here's the spread on the table by our chef of the day- Auntie Jeanette and May ku ma

Then it was birthday cake party!!..lol. It was so funny. I felt like i was back in kindergarten where we had tidbits and cakes and presents. Auntie Jeanette made fruit muffins in the afternoon * i stole some recipes and tips from her* to go for the party. I was on the brink of breaking the dam! birthday song, birthday cake and birthday presents at Eastlakes. The birthday cake was caramel mud cake from Michel's hahahah..OTs don't you gals think that sounds familiar. IT's the FA GUI we had for Elain's birthday!!Brings back memories ah~

I felt enormous amount of love from my relatives over here for celebrating my birthday. The fact that they remembered and gathered to celebrate, though not all were here, the presence of the few was significant. As I would slowly learn to grow be less dependent, a part of me just reminded myself that it might be close to impossible to be solely independent in all things. That happiness and excitement or even the pitfalls in life..somehow having someone on the road with you will make the experience significant. It's the people that makes the event memorable. People- the best creation on planet earth by God. (That's why when God made man, He said that it was excellent in all ways.)

Back from MIAing

Hello peeps!

So sorry for not updating for quite some time..must be kinda boring looking at the old stuff ey~

I had a whole long week of adventure and fun..in the midst to reward myself for surviving in Australia for 3 months..LOL. Fast isnt it..time just "fries" Excluding the extra week of school that was quite redundant because we had really nothing much to cover on except the evaluation of conference week, it was a good week to conclude on.

Gonna update my blogs on the following!
1) Surprise!
2)Blackmores Sydney Marathon 2007
3)mooncake Festival party@6A Georges Avenue
4)Blue mountains adventure~

Before that..gotta hit some lunch now..hehe..*hungry*

Beach Tour Series 1

I headed for my first beach experience in Australia. Known for their endless range of beaches by the eastern coast, I had to go check out at least one after being here in Sydney for 3 months. It really is quite pathetic that I have not had seen most of sydney except Lidcombe, Auburn, Paramatte, Burwood and Town.LOL..and the occasional tim sum treats. Oon suk drove and showed me Coogee Beach- near Terence's mum place.I took my time to view the scenery cuz I attempted to run along coogee beach- the steep hills and tall flight of steps were extremely daunting but thank God for spring's arrival the weather was good.. breezy and sunny. :)Pretty flowers by the cliff~This plaque was mounted on the hill of Coogee beach to remember the randwick residents who died in the Bali Bomb Blast in 2002.


The Beach was really a place where i get to see the old and the young moving and getting on with their leisure activities. I saw this father running after his son and I realised something interesting about him. He never once ran before his son but always keeping a close distance from behind while his baby boy kept on running to the shop a distance ahead. Somehow,I recalled of the days when my dad used to chase after me or even my mum when I ran about. It must have been tiring for them. Then something hit me from behind. Hm. That my God is always at my back. The days when I just kept on running towards where I wanted to go- He just came along from the back and watching me by the sides to make sure I do not hurt myself and He will be there pick when I fall. He could have ran ahead and stopped me and demanded His way- but He allowed me to explore and let the Holy spirit do the work of conviction whenever I am not a good girl or a nauti imp that wants to play punk with God. With my Father in Heaven, I can hold the skies up when it falls and fly through the seasons of hardships on the winds of grace.

Conference week finale!

Dated:14th september 2007~

I finished my conference week finally!! had to do 4 presentations out of the 5 days of consecutive seminars... my tongue was gonna drop out any time. We had an early celebration at Paramatta on thursday night to celebrate cynthia's birthday:)
Boy, am i relieved all the mad rush late nights to do the slides and scripts are over.
I had come to learn about how to handle people and their working styles and generally in Australia, they are swift workers. Fast work, fast rehearse. Cut the hassle. Being brought up in a systematic way of doing things, I had to adopt the spontaneous way of doing things.so yea~ thank God for His covering throughout the period..that i didn't fall sick:)

So I headed to town for Blue Sky(it's every Friday at seven in city) and cooked dinner before I left for home for my girlfriends. packed good dinner *thanks to cai* and ate on the train..LOL. It was an exciting time at Blue Sky because they brought in 4 speakers to share about the community outreach programs they have in NSW. It was like some seminar style. I kinda concluded it's just the season to talk and hear people talk. They had 4- Student Life for the uni outreach, Reiby Juvenile Detention Centre for the youths at risk, LC community for drug addicts in Long Chuan, Yunan China and a Thailand Missions trip 2008 talk. I went for the JDC and the LC community talk.
JDC was inspiring. This lady, Lee Bromley, is a chaplain in a jail for youths who have committed petty to serious crimes. She has been in there for a number of years and hearing her share about how she became a Christian and how her boys became "churchies" and the respect she commands really blew me. What really triggered my thoughts was when she shared how broken these people * most of them are Aboriginal people* yet they are not people who ask for the world but all they need is love and your presence- it makes me feel for them so much. Mind you~ she's a white. * here to easily differentiate people with same names, we call them asians or white* I just felt this tugging to sign up and join them. It's your guess if I did eventually.In fact, when I sat there in my chair hearing her share- I was reminded of what P.Gary prayed for me at the airport.
After church, I had time to talk to Jo and Quin. Jo was crying when she came* she came late because of work* She had problems remembering the fruits and vegetables and the price..and it's like 30 over stuff she has gotta remember. Her limitations in english was a problem to her picking up the trades. But she's a joyful girl soon..she was smilin and laughin and we were all talkin about korean dramas, pop groups and songs.
I was in my picture taking mode~ so here's HOWEE!! my first friend in church. She's the first friend i made in Wesley and the closest to me in church. I kinda felt her helplessness when I told I will be in Australia for a year. She had close friends who moved away from OZ after a year or two and the close bonds formed were kinda lost. So Howee!! if u are reading- valued friendships stand the test of time, though when i get back to singapore i might be too busy to talk to u but if u ever come by I will make sure I will not miss you:)

Relievin the days I got rid of NYP:)

HEre are some late updates- time capsule in reverse.

05/07/07- Graduation day @NYP.

It was the day when we can say goodbye to the school-finally. After enduring three years of lousy schedules and endless works, coping with the demands and the quirkiness of groupmates and lecturers, it was time to say sayonara to all these.
*Not that I did not received my load of it in Sydney as well*
So here are some pictures for you to savour the day when U had or u will graduate:) in the gown~ for me..it will be an additional hat in 9more months time!!Mei en.me.cai.wen:) the karoke buddiesMy class girls:)Jinwei and me- she has gone to be in sales.not a PT..LOLFood for the day.Kat （老公） and ISu and I-she's one of the top students:)Ping, me and jun~Papa, mum and I:) so glad they came~

Blessed birthday silvanna!!

Hey sil!! happy belated birthday..LOL..was a pity i missed the good steak and pumpkin soup, pasta and vegetables you had for dinner:(

Next time okei!!