SMASHING GRANNY!

did I ever mention that Jordan's paternal grandma (my mum-in-law) is now 81 years old and is as fit as a fiddle? A rare lady of tremendous resilience and a sharp KL Stock Exchange investor of blue chip counters. Everyday, she walks out, catches a cab to the monorail then takes the train down to Times Square to monitor her portfolio.

Jordie got a chance to know her better and called her his 'sporty' grandma.. here's why... She took up playing badminton with him during his stay at KL over the holidays and Jordie had lotsa fun with her... she didn't have another racket to play with him and at first, used folded newspapers, then eventually found an electric mosquito killer which looks like a racket, and the action took off! Now that's what I call, 'sporty' and 'sporting' alright. Jordan is amazed at what old ladies are actually capable of.

Episode 19: Jordan in Year 3

Well, Jordan finally went back to school on Tuesday, Jan 27th after a nice long break and holiday in Malaysia. He's grown so fast, can't believe he is now in Year 3, (equivalent of std 2 in Malaysia). 1st day back to school was chaos. It's been raining cats and dogs daily in Gold Coast, summertime is rainy season usually... so 1st day morning, it looked cloudy, I had aimed to be early b'cos afraid of 1st day back to school traffic jam, but tough luck, getting back into preparing meals momentum had not picked up for me, so... we were running late.

Neighbour Tyler knocked on our door asking can he pretty please thumb a lift with us as his mum had gone to work and auntie Justine whom he rides with regularly had left early. So sure, why not. By the time we got there, it was pouring and luckily Tyler was around to bring Jordan to his class, as I couldn't even find parking. But I think Jordan got confused and ended up in the wrong class so I 'repositioned' him back with his class, 3 Silver. Each class has its own name, 3 Aqua, 3 Maroon, whatever... His class looked smaller this year tho, shrunk in cubic metres and number of students. ,, which is good, better personal attention by teacher Jane Norman... who specialises in botany. so mebe this year, Jordie gets a huge dose of outdoor flower sniffing and leaf analysis..

BACK HOME AT LAST!

I didn't know I would miss home in GC,, been away for a month and Jordan & I flew back leaving Samuel behind in Malaysia as he had to attend to business. It's been a great month away in KL, catching up with old friends, family, food, shopping, paperwork and blah blah, but generally, I had mixed feelings being in both lands. To be away from home and to be back at 'home' and then not knowing which one you miss the most. GC/ KL? Was switching accommodation in and out of hotels, friends' houses, families, that it was quite disorientating, but I enjoyed being back, relating and being Malaysian, and I think Jordan also enjoyed himself lots with .... cousins, relatives, friends, food & fun...

Reunited~ Jordan and his beloved coffee bun from 'rotiboy' in KL

Oh, definitely realised we did not miss the public toilets and their pong and wet goo, plus paying 20cents for their use..!!

This trip back was like a tying up of loose ends, applying for monies to be withdrawn, chasing on house sale transaction, closing accounts, companies, etc. After that, I felt the next half year of my life in OZ will unfold different chapters. dunno what to expect, just praying and hoping for the best.

EPISODE 18: OUR 1st CHRISTMAS AT GC

Well, today is our 1st Christmas spent in Australia.

Yesterday, we had a nice quiet family dinner, just we 3 " kings of orient" are.. We had seafood pasta alfredo, (white sauce) + spinach&cheese puff pastry+salmon pate on rice crackers. Simple evening meal, but totally pressed down, shaken together & flowing over...Then we had a good time of singing christmas songs and afterwards a short worship session unto the Lord. We were so used to rushing like mad during christmas eve for service and then getting ready for the next morning, so this was a nice change being able to relate as a family together and fully appreciate the meaning of Christmas and also teaching Jordan about true meaning of Christmas.

Woke up this morning, & had a hurried breakfast & went for early church service at Genesis, then brought Mum Beryl back to have lunch with us at our place. She brought along some christmas crackers (read more on what crackers are on web link if interested) which she said was lots of fun to pull before a meal.

It's really nice to spend time with Beryl, relate and share with her our hopes & visions and she likewise. She's a real blessing to our lives.

After that what? Busily sending out SMS xmas wishes, and now in a frenzy packing to fly off to Malaysia tomorrow. We will be away till Jan 14th 2009.

TREATS FOR CHRISTMAS

Neil gave us this nice fruitcake for x'mas and we have already started eating it.. can't wait. Actually, a xmas fruitcake is like a must-have xmas staple over here.. much like loveletters for the chinese during CNY. And to indulge some more in the xmas mood, we baked some christmas cookies. So, MERRY X'MAS TO FRIENDS & FAMILY, wherever you are! May God bless all of you in a real special way during this season and for the year to come...

I'VE GOT THE BLUES

Introducing the blue-tongued alien from planet 'ILIKESLUSH'.... aka slurpee from 7eleven. the flavour is raspberry but the colour is sure off!

CHRISTMAS CONCERT@MOVIE WORLD

Well, we never made it into the theme park itself today, but at Karen Young's encouragement "You gotta get yourself out there. It'll be fun! come on!" to go see the christmas show held at the Movie World car park/field area, we decided ya, why not? Just to also experience some of the OZ culture and love for outdoor stage performances.

The Christmas celebration event is held at Movie World for the 2nd time this year, and we didn't know it but it turns out, Karen, Peter Young's wife was the emcee for the event. Movie World is one of the sponsors, and sponsors the venue, stage props and the fireworks display for this event, but the main sponsor is the Gold Coast City Council.

We got sidetracked to the fun & games being held on the same grounds because Jordie was super-interested in these fun rides. He decided against the dangerous looking ones like rock-climbing and super slide and opted for this ride instead - the harnessed bouncer (Intro to scary rides in theme parks 101). He liked it, bouncing up & down ala trampoline style.

They had nice-looking foodstalls too, but we didn't want hotdogs for dinner...

So, we decided to leave earlier because our stomachs voted for dinner over the fireworks, and didn't even get to watch the carols, but hey, at least we pulled ourselves out of the house for another cultural experience....

THE COMMON DEFINITION OF AGE

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m four and a half!’ You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m gonna be 16!’ You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life .. You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re Just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80’s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30 ; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; ‘I Was JUST 92.’

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. ‘I’m 100 and a half!’

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!