MEETING WITH ELIJAH

Elijah was in town recently and we met once yesterday for dinner and again today at Carol & David's place for a worship gathering. it was a good meeting. Kerrie who mentors the Fijian church, Neil, Beryl, Peter & Karen Young, the Rowlands and ourselves were there.

He said that it was an interesting cross-section of people among us that day - and almost as if we were on the verge of breaking into something new & exciting. Very casual, subdued but meaningful and productive because we all came out of it, sensing that God could use every one of us in His own special way for this city.

Like Abraham, when he was promised descendants as many as the stars & died only seeing Isaac, we may not live to see the end results of what God can do to change a place or nation, but to know that we could be starting to pray for this change right now for future generations and things to come .. that is a promise and a vision we need to hold on to,.. incidentally Gold Coast's ethos is the city of vision.

The shops seemed to be closed for lunch so Caroline nicely whipped up a lunch of salad & pasta for all of us, resourceful & fantastic lady!

GET THE LINGO, MATE

Takes some getting used to, but slangs over here are among some of the things that help ease you into the culture & everyday life in ozland.... some of them may already be familiar to most, but some are uniquely aussie.

How ya goin'? : Instead of asking "How ya doin'?" or "How are things going?"

Hay? : Like a Canadian's Ay?

No Drama: Not a problem at all

No Worries: Not a problem at all

Piss off : Go away

It's stuffed : it's broken

That's a dodgy little thing: It doesn't really work well

You're cheeky, aren't you? : Cute, sometimes good cute, sometimes acting too cute depends on how it is said.

Whack some on there : Put some on

Heaps: a lot

Straight away : right away

Good on you: Good job

I reckon : I would think so

Aw-righ or Right-o : All Right

I'll ring you: I'll call you

Tucker : food

Dunny, Toilet, Lou : all words for the place where you do your duty, if you ask for the bathroom you may be directed to a room with just a sink and bath.

Lost the plot : no sense of direction, clueless

Macky's :McDonald's

Brekky : Breakfast

CUPCAKES

Jordan had been pining for some cupcakes, so I decided to bake some this weekend. He was recruited as baker's assistant.

Jordie cracked 4 eggs neatly into the bowl, only one piece of shell fell in. The 1st batch rose too quickly and 'over spilled' it looked like it was a clam sticking out its tongue.... too ugly! The next batch turned out okay, and we had fun piling on the blue, pink and mocha frosting.

Cupcakes are great for baking therapy and creativity outlet, you can do practically anything you want with it. I must confess I got lazy so I did not whip out my piping set, so I just did some casual spreading with the knife & used other stuff to decorate... For adult consumption, I did something more sophisticated, butter frosting mixed with a little Milo and nescafe espresso, then sprinkled some nescafe granules on it and viola... mocha espresso cupcake to go with your favourite cuppa! Jordan did his with some M&M's, wonka candies and candy stars... I also did a smiley face one using toothpick to spread out nutella on plain white icing and a M&M red colour as the nose...

EPISODE 12: HAILSTORM!

Today was stormy weather, and heavy showers everywhere on Gold Coast. Jordan told me after school that he and his friends saw 'ice cubes' falling from sky, I thought he was joking. Then, it happened at about 5pm today - the rain came and sounded pretty noisy so I looked out the door, and to our surprise, it was actually raining hail, showers of mini ping pong-like ice balls falling everywhere.

A small hailstorm but rather fascinating to watch, .. this is probably as close as it gets to snow in Gold Coast.... here's how it looks like....

EPISODE 11: FINALLY PASSED!

YES! ..finally I passed my driving test today. The much coveted for piece of photo ID in this land. My 4th & final attempt today at Queensland driving test carried much nail-biting nerves & stress because yesterday, as I was on my way to Broadbeach for a training, the car started shuddering, and I was thinking oh-oh, not good, because I was going to use it for today's exam. So no car, how brown cow?

We decided the best option was to call up the Rightway driving school and rent their car for the test. Then my husband could send the car to workshop and no time limit.

Praise the Lord, they had one available for that time slot! Of course, I had to pay like $120 for the fee including last minute pointers from the instructor and pickup and dropoff service, but who cares... he felt confident that I could pass and somehow I did too, even though it was going to be an unfamiliar car.. Except for a few minor mistakes like overtaking a truck and then braking in front of it, a little over speed limit, but these were still okay by the examiner, who was a totally different guy from the past 3 exams I took, so thank God for that also... He was nice and even took my photo for me and passed me my licence himself. How's that for nice closure! I think God set us up with this car trouble last minute so that I would be forced to take the Rightway car (kinda appropriate name too!) as exam car, and in a sense, that lent some credibility and favour during the exam,.. but how do I feel now? so relieved this is over, so, so happy, thrilled and glad this episode is over & done with and on to the next...

I will cook seafood tomyam soup for my hubby to celebrate this victory. He's been absolutely supportive thru all these failures and never complained that I had to spend more money on taking a couple of classes. He's been the best and I appreciate him for his patience and praying for me and helping me overcome all these failure mindsets to keep trying and trying again and to have the right attitude to drive safely, not just to pass the exam. Presenting, THE DOCUMENT ...in my hands...TADA!

TIM TAMS: CHOCOLATE RELIGION IN AUSTRALIA

You will not believe the popularity of this brand TIM TAM over here in Australia. Every supermarket stocks them. They are the official chocolate coated 'biccy' (biscuit) of the country. It is religion on chocolate, ..every 21/2 inches per piece of it delivers satisfaction. Butter toffee or whatever divine filling sandwiched between biscuit & cream, coated with milk chocolate.

I love this treat, notice, I said treat, not meal! Cannot afford its calories. But just ogle at it in supermarkets... I used to get occasional treats of it from friends and family who bought it from oz on their trips back. They have a wide range of flavours for it now, the latest being Pink Wish - Jordie's favourite. His eyes roll in esctasy and he goes into spasms after every bite....

EPISODE 10: JORDIE'S 7TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

YES, ah-boy is now 7 years old. Wow, amazing how kids grow and how time flies. Samuel & I, we have both enjoyed Jordan so much during his growing years and even now, we both dote on him, cuddle him every night before he goes to bed and let him know he's special. We love him so very much....

After recovering from sea-sickness from whale watching, we held a party for him the following day on Sunday, attended by neighbourhood kids, who are his favourite friends and playmates. Being 'kiasu' parents, we were a little worried that kids being kids, they would forget what time it was or that there was even a party, so I faithfully went around knocking at doors making sure the kids remembered to show up at 3pm!

The party food was a disaster though... I burnt the pizza, Samuel baked the birthday cake but the icing turned too watery, so he had to rescue wordings with Smarties candy.... the konnyaku jelly was to goo-ey, yikes.... nothing seemed edible, except the gumballs....but the games and candies were a hit. What can I say, food isnt priority, so if you ever plan birthday parties for 7 year olds, ensure lots of activities, games, gum balls, candies and popcorn,... they are ever so thrilled.

Halfway through the party, little Lilly, Alex's kid sister suddenly decided to remove all her clothes and the 3 older boys upstairs came rushing down in hysteria & disbelief... I don't know what happened but she had apparently poo-ed in her pants... okay, stay calm, we will get her out of there and big brother alex must escort her back to her mummy, WITH HER CLOTHES ON....

They had fun, we could tell, and Jordan said this was his best-est party ever.

Whale Watching

Off we go to Marina Mirage pier for boarding the boat ECLIPSE for our 1st whale-watching experience. Today is Jordan's 7th birthday, so it was an exciting treat for him. Muffins were available for breakfast, and he had two.

At first, the cruise wasn't too bad but after we passed the stone embankments, the sea got too choppy and yikes,.. we all started turning green. Poor Jordie could not take it, he was the 1st to vomit, followed by daddy, then mummy. Between the three of us, we used up 9 barf bags and lots of napkins!!

So as shown in pictures, we all looked pretty green, but we managed to still gather energy to enjoy the view of the whales doing 'breaching' (diving into sea, then flicking their tail upwards) - a courting or (ahem) mating ritual. Whales can weigh from 45-50 tonnes, and the females are usually larger than males.

we were told to make lots of noise to attract the whales towards the ship, so they would leave their 'date' and come to us out of curiousity...

INTERESTING TO KNOW: Now, here's the interesting trivia: the natural selection process is also quite amazing, dunno how true this is, but the captain told us, female whales select their mates by going for the strongest and largest male, and after she mates with the male, she goes on to find other males and if she does find one larger and stronger than the first, she will choose that one to mate with. So this natural selection process in pursuit of the best & finest genes for next generation continues... and we are told the male whale can send in at least 40 litres worth of sperm each round, a jet powerful enough to flush out all of the previous male's sperms!! Amazing....jaw-dropping.... WHALE-WATCHING is definitely recommended for 1st time novelty, but I don't think I want to go again..... and Jordan, my dear sonny boy....HAPPY 'BARF'DAY TO U!! He said he enjoyed it, but the only disaster was the barfing & throwing up....