Happy Birthday Stuart

Today Stu turns 36! We've had a nice relaxing day at home catching up after spending a week and a half apart while I was on NTE.

I baked a carrot cake - we haven't tasted it yet but it looks awesome, I hope it tastes as good as it looks.

Back in the Real World

I'm finally back in the real world, after a week and a half of AFES NTE (ie. Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, National Training Event) and related conferences. As always NTE was a great time of learning about God and really really tiring! I was blessed with a great mission team though (above) who put in a lot of hard work - and it showed! Another great blessing was my billet family Colyn and her daughter Jo, they helped to feel relaxed in their house and treat it as my own, which is what I needed after a week in student accomodation in Canberra.

UTS had the fun (and immense!) job of ushering 1100 people into their seats on NTE, here we all are in our yellow ushers shirts receiving instructions from our ushering guru, Jodi.

But they're so cute!

In the last week or so we've noticed a bird's nest on the window sill of the window next to my desk in the office. Unfortunately the birds that built the nest are Indian Mynah birds, aka "the flying rat". Indian Mynah's are a common pest in Australia and often kill native Australian birds, see this transcript of a report by the 730 report for more info.

We did think about destroying the eggs (Stuart suggested boiling them and putting them back in the nest - very mean!) but there's something about being able to watch the progress of new life being formed...

Yesterday 2 of the eggs hatched!
It's hard to tell but there are 2 little birds there... They can barely hold up their heads and are really, really cute! Again, we had the conversation about killing them but now it's even harder to contemplate!

What would you do?

I like Chocolate

Another SMH article about chocolate

I Like Georgette Heyer

Especially on days like today when I am sick in bed, just found this you tube clip of Stephen Fry talking about his love of Georgette Heyer



Her son died last week, I met him in 2002 when I went to England on a Georgette Heyer fan club tour - we had a posthumous 100th Birthday party for her and he was there. His obituary is here.

Stereotypes

Generally, I think of stereotypes as being bad, often just an inaccurate way of putting some one or ones into a box. However, there are times when it's very easy to see why stereotypes exist.

For example, when the members of my extended "Greek" family get together, it can sometimes feels as though I've been transported onto the set of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

Last night, I went with my sister to one of her Nutrimetics spa's, it was on at 9pm at a place and with people she didn't know and so I was her moral support. We arrived at a massive house (that looked more like an apartment block), complete with fountain and a security doorbell at the front gate.

And then we embarked on the most stereotypical adventure of my life! The room was full of middle-aged Indian ladies talking about their daughters, husbands and food. It was like a scene from a Gurinda Chadha movie!

Belinda was a bit overwhelmed and I guess it wasn't the best Nutrimetics spa she'd ever done - but it was fun to watch. It made me think about why stereotypes exist and realise that they aren't always a bad thing. I guess it's when we refuse to see the individual and his/her own personality because we're to busy putting them into our own little stereotypical box that stereotypes become less than helpful.

Mmmm Chocolate

The more I discover about bacteria and other micro-organisms the more I am amazed at how something so small can have so much power over the human body! They can even make you want to eat chocolate! Read this article from SMH.

More Mongolian People

Greg gave me some of the photos he took in Mongolia, they are so much nicer than mine. Sigh.

This is Tseegi & Muggi, two of the girls in my class. They were also the best English speakers and would often help us by translating for the rest of the class.

Tseegi's sister is one of the doctors in Ulziit, both of her parents are teachers. She wasn't to be a teacher when she grows up.

They also taught me to "coo" when the horses approach the finish line at the Naadam races.

I'm on track again :-)

Thanks to an anonymous comment I discovered that Google analytics wasn't working on my blog because the tracking script was missing. I think that probably happened when I changed my template a month or so ago. So it seems that you were all still visiting my page I just didn't know it!

I have added the script again and it should all work now - prepare to be tracked!

Must do work...

Have you ever had those mornings when you spend an hour at your computer but aren't really sure what you were doing?

I know I should do work, and I know I have work to do, I guess I should just do it...

In other news, I have managed to stay on top of my exercise regime - I even exercised 5 times last week without going to the gym!

I have had 2 days of extreme socialness, Trivia and the biggest schnitzels you've ever seen at The White Cockatoo in Petersham on Tuesday night with Bible Study; Yum Cha yesterday with Credo SaNers and last night I went to a Nutrimetics training evening with my sister! (No I'm not becoming a nutrimetics salesperson, I just went because she said it would be fun and I got free stuff).

The nutrimetics thing was surprisingly fun, I guess that's what happens when you put 30 women in a room and give them beauty products to play with.

So now, back to work - or maybe I should find a pretty picture to put with this post... This is the younger generation of my family from Left to right, Liz, Chloe with mum Belinda, Stuart, Jono & his fiance Katie :-)

Where have all the people gone?

According to google analytics no one has visited my page at all in September :-( There is probably a direct link between that and how often I have updated it I suppose...

I'm very tempted to blame facebook for taking up all my web time but perhaps I have just been slack... Or caught up with things outside of cyberspace. I will try to post more from now on - I promise :-)

It's all part of the job...

Need I say more?

How Much do I Miss Mongolia?

You may have heard me say, or read somewhere, that I miss Mongolia... I really do, I miss the people mostly but also the simplicity of life in the Countryside and the animals.

Apparently I don't have to miss the animals to much because I managed to bring one home with me-meet Giardia (pictured right) who (or some other similar protozoan) is currently having a party inside my intestines.

I had been really proud of the fact that I didn't get sick while I was away... Oh well...

Someone I really do miss is Zula (pronounced Zola), she is a 19year old Mongolian student who spent her summer teaching English with VETNet in Ulziit. She also looked after us very well during the 2 weeks that we stayed with her.

Zula has an amazing story, her father died when she was young and her family moved in with her Uncle who is very opposed to Christianity. I don't want to say too much online but through some hard times Zula came to know Jesus and finds her family relationships very hard at times. This is something that is very common for Mongolian Christians, opposition from, usually Buddhist, family members.

Please pray for Zula that she will remain strong in her faith and deal with her family wisely, also that I and the others who met her can be a good support network for her even though we are so far away.

Mongolian Pinnochio

I've been back in Australia for 4 weeks and I guess it's about time I wrote something about Mongolia.

Above is a video of the Ulziit Children's Intermediate English class performing their version of Pinnochio at our English Party. I asked them to write a play about English class and this is what they came up with. Stu says this task was too post modern for high school students, let alone high school students who speak english as a second language, perhaps he was right...

I miss my Ulziit class, we spent 2 weeks together, which really wasn't enough time to get to know them all. I hope and pray the time I spent with helps them to understand how much Jesus loves them.

Update

Thanks to everyone who has commented, both in cyberspace and face to face, on the loss of my wallet etc. I'm amazed at how generous people have been.

Just so you know we are not starving and so far have enough money to survive, even though it takes 21 days for the bank to process the form I filled in to tell them that they gave my money to a complete stranger :-)

The Case of the Unknown Gym Member - Part 2

Ok, so now I'm really grumpy... The person who stole my purse withdrew all the money in our bank account, over the counter which means she had to show photo ID, which means the person at the bank has very bad eyesight.

And I can't do anything about it until Monday when I have to prove that I didn't withdraw the money myself...

The Case of the Unknown Gym Member

While I was in Mongolia I was very security conscious, we were all warned about making sure we kept our belongings close to us and not leaving anything valuable in our pockets etc etc. I caught myself in Eastgardens last week making sure my bag was close by and really safe (a good thing to do I know but generally there aren't so many bag thieves in Australia).

But sometimes no matter what you do your things will stolen!

Yesterday afternoon I went to the gym a bit earlier than usual so that I could get a lift home with Stu. I got changed and locked my bag in my locker, after my workout (I ran on the treadmill which is very exciting as I was a bit scared of running on a fast moving machine) I went back to the locker to get my bag. The locker was open, which was a bit strange but as the lock mechanism was still locked I thought perhaps I'd not closed it properly. Then I realised that my bag was not in the same position I'd left it in, I had a minor panic and checked to see if anything was missing.

Thank God my laptop, pda and phone were still in my bag, my purse however was not. I went to reception and told them what had happened, all the Fernwood girls were very shocked! They phoned security and the police, and I phoned Stu who was waiting for me outside.

It turns out that a women had signed in with someone else's membership card and broke into at least 2 lockers (another girl's purse was stolen as well). She ran out of the gym but no one really thought much of it at the time.

While I was waiting for the police to arrive I rang to cancel my credit card and discovered that the unknown woman had used it! I also went to check the time and remembered I wasn't wearing my watch but had in fact put it in the locker and it was also missing.

It's kind of ironic that I travelled through Mongolia and China for 4 weeks and managed not to have anything stolen but when I get home...

I'm Back!!!

It's been almost a week! What can I say? It's almost impossible to describe four weeks in one blog post and I haven't quite worked out how to communicate everything to you, or even if I should ;-)

For now here are a few links to some photo albums I've created - enjoy!

General photos of Mongolia
Ulziit - the first place we taught English
Naadam - The yearly festival of "Manly Sports"
Burd - The second town we stayed in
How to Build a Ger - the tentlike structure many people in the countryside live in
Making Buzz - very yummy dumplings

The photos have fairly detailed comments and give a good idea of what we did, hopefully I'll get around to posting some reflections of what I learnt.

17 Hours to go

And I haven't started packing yet!! I'm not sure what the countdown timer will do when it hits zero, maybe it will start to count up?

So, I shall say goodbye, not sure when I'll get to write next. Pray for me and the team.

See you in 4 weeks :-)

My relationship with cooking

Most of you who know me have probably heard me say more than once that "I'm not good at cooking and I don't like it." Which, for the most part is true, however, every now and then I have a cooking splurge where I spend hours reading recipies and preparing food.

My most successful so far have been:

Christmas Puddings
Pumpkin Scones
Dahl

and hopefully pumpkin & ricotta conchiole and my favourite Greek dish pastitio (both are pasta bake dishes which I prepared tonight to cook tomorrow for lunch with my siblings).

The crazy thing is, I don't actually like pumpkin and it features in two of these dishes!

It took four hours tonight to cook pasta, pumpkin, mince etc and assemble it ready to cook tomorrow, hopefully the time & effort were worth it.

Who's idea was it to visit the Hunter Valley in the Middle of a State Emergency?

Actually, I think it was mine... It's been fairly safe in Cessnock at Mum & Dad's but it's a bit scary to think about what's happening only 30 minutes away (in all directions).

Last night we ate dinner by candle light - not out of ascetic pleasure but out of necessity. The power went out just as we sat down to eat and ironically came back on just as we got into bed.

Mongolia Itinerary

We know where we're going and when now :-)

Check out the Credo Mongolia blog to see our itinerary.

Catching up on the news

Well, it's been a while so I thought I should write something down.
My news so far:
1. My brother is now engaged to Katie, and he didn't tell me :-( but I'm over it now ;- )
2. He also bought a cute little red Alfa Romeo
3. My dad found out he broke his knee when he tripped over a pallet in a hardware shop more than a month ago. (Knees seem to feature a lot in my life lately - one of our Mongolia team members is also having knee trouble)
4. I'm going to Monogolia in just over 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5. The Uni semester is coming to an end and I'm going to miss seeing all the Credoites in the next 2 months (although get to hang out with Mongolia team credoites - cool!)
6. I made Dahl for dinner and it was good (restored my faith in lentils)
7. In preparation for painting our lounge room, Stu and I rearranged our house today, we now have a temporary lounge room in the massive space we use as a kitchen/dining/sun room
8. We also pulled the board off the fireplace in our bedroom and found a really old cute gas stove thingy
9. I have been to 4 Nutrimetics parties in the last 2 months (my excuse is my sister became a consultant)
10. I keep waking up early and not being able to go back to sleep because I'm thinking about Mongolia
11. Did I mention I'm going to Mongolia in just over 3 weeks?!

Diet, Exercise and Diabetes

On Friday I went to see my endocrinologist for my 6 monthly check up to see how my Insulin Resistance is going, usually that involves me stepping on the scales to see if I've lost any weight but this time he got me to do a glucose tolerance test the week before.

A GTT is very boring, usually you rock up to the pathology collection centre feeling very hungry (on account of having to fast since 8pm the night before) and needing to go to the toilet. Once there you give a urine sample and the nice lady takes some blood out of your arm and outs it into little tubes. Then she gives you a glucose drink to finish in the next five minutes and you go sit in the waiting room.

An hour later she takes more blood, puts it into little tubes and sends you back to the waiting room, an hour after that she takes more blood and sends you out to find breakfast, which by then is practically lunch.

The purpose is to find out how your body reacts to being fed glucose (sugar), and if it processes it properly.

Anyway, it turns out that my body has become worse at processing sugar than it was 2 years ago when I first went to see Dr Kidson. Which is a bit depressing considering I take 7 tablets a day and have worked really hard at eating right and exercising regularly.

To be truthful though, I have been a bit slack with the whole diet and exercise thing lately so now I have a reason to get back on track.

Why is it so important? Well, insulin resistance means that my body produces insulin in response to when I eat carbohydrates (a pretty normal reaction) but instead of my cells using the insulin to turn the carbs into energy they get confused and don't do anything. The end result is lack of energy, crazy reactions from a number of other hormones and overproduction of insulin which will eventually tire out the insulin producing cells in my pancreas and they will stop producing insulin altogether ie. I will become diabetic.

Exercise encourages my cells to use the insulin (sorry don't know why) as it should be used, it also burns up fat - fat cells produce hormones that affect how insulin is produced and used (again, my biochemistry knowledge doesn't stretch that far)- so getting rid of fat is good. Eating healthily ie. low GI carbs (and less carbs in general) means I don't produce too much insulin and eating less fat means I grow less fat cells.

Simple isn't it?

I am telling you this so that those who know me can help me eat right and exercise and so that those who don't know me can learn more about insulin resistance. Believe it or not, this is just a summary of what it means to have this problem, there are lot more symptoms and struggles I could talk about.

Anyway, thanks for listening, apologies to any endocrinologists, biochemists and others who are cringing at my poor scientific explanations.

Now I'm 29

I'm not sure what I was thinking here, perhaps hoping that mum wouldn't guess where I was hiding?

About 2 weeks ago I turned 29 (and would probably break the washing basket if I sat in it). 29 does not really feel any different to 28 or 27.

Hmm, as you can tell I don't really have much to say...

Last night I slept under the railway bridge in Woolloomooloo

It was an amazing, scary, humbling, uncomfortable, terrible, learning, exciting experience...

Now don't freak out, I didn't just decide to run away from home and become homeless for a night. I was on an Urban Xpose tour with Hope St ministries. The idea is to spend some time in Woolloomooloo with the homeless and marginalised communities in order to find out what it is like to live that way and learn about the different things the churches in the area are doing to help.

Our tour started on Saturday afternoon with a brief introduction to Hope St and what they do. Then we walked around Woolloomooloo, Darlinghurst and Kings Cross learning about the different facilities run by Hope St and others in the area. Among them were Rough Edges cafe (more about this later), The Women's Space (a drop-in Centre for female sex workers), Table for 20 (not so much for homeless people as for other lonely and marginalised people in the area).

At the Women's space we met Kevin and Theresa who told us their stories, both had been in trouble with the law, both had lived on the streets and both had found their feet through meeting Jesus and the people at Hope St. It was really brave of them and encouraging to hear their stories.

We then split into smaller groups and headed out on to the streets for the night. Our group wandered over to midnight Basketball, a competition put on by the Commonwealth Bank and Cook & Phillip Park for kids aged 13-18, as somewhere safe for them to go. We didn't get to talk to many of the kids but watched the game for a bit.

After basketball we headed to Rough Edges cafe for dinner, Rough Edges is run by St John's Anglican church in Darlinghurst. It's basically a safe place where people can hang out, watch tv, play chess and get a free meal and some cheap drinks (non-alcoholic). The food is donated by Govinda's restaurant which is just down the road - the food was great!

I played chess with a guy called John who was very patient with my silly mistakes... I think this was one the highlights of the weekend for me, I had been feeling fairly insecure and scared by the whole hanging out with homeless people thing and I think John could sense this and went out of his way to make me feel at ease. I realised that these guys are just people like me who like to hang out with their friends and play a game occasionally. BTW John said it was the easiest game of chess he's ever played.

After Rough Edges we headed out to the railway bridge to sleep. The guys who were set up there were great, they had no problems with sharing their space with a bunch of middle class uni students who thought sleeping out would be a great idea.

I was really struck by the contrast between these homeless guys who were mostly friendly and polite and let us sleep with them and the party goers and clubbers on their way home who taunted and made fun of us - the "homeless people". We got yelled at and told to get a job, at one point I heard someone say "here are some bricks, and here are some homeless people" as though they were intending on throwing the bricks at us.

Throughout the weekend this was a common theme - the idea of living in fear, always watching your back and never knowing who would attack you, maybe just for fun, maybe to steal your stuff... And you could really feel the fear.

Needless to say, between the partiers, the bright lights in the park, the trains and cars going past we didn't get much sleep.

In the morning we headed back to Hope St and helped serve breakfast to a few of the guys we'd slept with and a lot of others. Again members of the group had lots of interesting conversations with people.

After breakfast we attended Woolloomooloo Baptist Fellowship which was an outdoor service and very informal reminds me of mum and dad's church at Cessnock) with lots of congregational participation. It was exciting to see the different ways the service leaders used in order to get the congregation involved - again helping people who wouldn't necessarily be able to concentrate throughout a regular church service.

I think the big thing I've taken away from the weekend is the idea that those living on the streets and in public housing need more than just a bed and some food - in fact giving them those things doesn't fix the problem. They need to feel as though they are cared for and loved and part of a community.

Everyone you talk to doesn't want to be homeless but because of circumstances, addiction, mental illness they've ended up on the street, and have lost, or never had the motivation and social skills to get out. This isn't an excuse for those who have made the wrong decisions and ended up where they are but unless they feel they are people who are worth something to someone they won't have the motivation to learn the skills they need to get off the streets.

So what? Well, now it's my turn to work out how to love them like God does and what does that mean for me next time a homeless person asks me for money...

Who will you vote for?

This Saturday March 24 is the NSW State Election. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about voting, if/why it matters? and can I make a difference?

Someone once said that in a democratic society nothing ever gets done, it makes sense when you think about it, but it also makes voting seem slightly futile, especially when I look at the choice of candidates in my electorate.

Do I vote for the two who don't actually live in my electorate? For the two who represent the two major parties? Or for the guy who doesn't want the National Art School to be amalgamated with UNSW?

As much as I want to walk in to the polling booth on Saturday and scribble something incoherent on my ballot paper, I can't help but remember the millions of people in the world who don't have the freedom to vote. Not only them but also the women who protested and died only 100 years or so ago so that I, a women of the 21st century could help choose those who run our country.

God tells us in the Bible to pray for those in government over us and I think if the early Christians could have voted the Bible would also tell us to think carefully and pray about who we vote for.

I'll leave you with something I learnt long ago in year 12 from "Looking for Alibrandi" one of the main characters in a debating speech says "it's not about voting to put the best guys in but to keep the worst guys out."

Ultimate Mongolian Adventure

We're going to Mongolia!

2 years ago Credo started their first overseas short term mission trip as part of mid year evangelism (MYE). Each year in the July holidays Credoites are encouraged to spend part of their holidays sharing Christ’s love with others at uni, in their community and further a-field.

This year I was chosen to lead the team to Mongolia, we are going to join a Christian organisation called VETnet, who are part of Christian Veterinary Mission , they do a lot of veterinary work and a lot of other stuff as well. We will be teaching English in summer schools that are set up in rural areas for the nomad/herder people of Mongolia. Check out this National Geographic page to see pictures and a description of how they live.

We are leaving on Tuesday 26th June (see countdown timer on right for how many days are left).

Pray that we will prepare well, that we would be a blessing to the people of Mongolia, that we would learn more abour God and rely on Him, that God would provide the extra finances that we need.

Stay tuned for mre updates :-)

Big boats in the harbour

On Tuesday 20/2/07 the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 passed each other in Sydney Harbour.

Rosie had the great idea to turn our annual St Barnabas Terraces Senior residents and Concil dinner into a Harbour Cruise to see the two fine ladies.

The QE2 is in the top picture she was pretty big but not as big as her sister the QM2 below.



It was a major event on the Harbour, there were boats everywhere and people lined up along the shorelines just to see these two cruise ships! I hadn't expected it to be such a big thing for the people of Sydney.

As it got dark there were even fireworks - I have never been so close to fireworks in my life, we were right underneath them and the noise was incredible!

It was a really fun night!

Koliva and bread

Koliva and bread are two very important ingredients in a Greek Orthodox Memorial Service. There are a number of services that can be attended after someone dies in the GO church, a couple of weeks ago I attended the 40th day service for my Grandma. According to Phylis Mensel Onest, the 40th day service is a tradition going back to the Old Testament Joseph ourned is father for 40 days, and the Israelites did the same for Moses.

Being an Evangelical Protestant Christian the world of Orthodoxy is slightly strange to me, it continues to amaze me how many different ways our brothers and sisters of different Christian denominations find to express their love for Jesus.

The service we went to is a regualr Saturday affair at the GO Chapel in Rookwood, I was suprised at how many people were there. There were people like us who had lost loved ones recently but also others remembering the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th Anniversary of their loved ones death. The Chapel was packed and there was a large crowd of people waiting outside. Occasionaly someone would push past the crowd and force their way inside to light a candle and watch what was happening... Being timid Australians Stu and I (albeit with Greek descent) waited outside looking lost.

Eventually we found Peter who as he has told me my attendance was compulsary so I could write this decided I needed to be inside the Chapel. So he weaved his way around many small old Greek women dressed in black with me following behind hoping I didn't step on anyone.

We ended up in the balcony seats and so had a pretty good view of the front of the room. There were two tables piled high with Koliva - a sweet wheat mixture decorated with nuts and sugar that represents John 12:24 "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit." Phylis Mensel Onest, says Jesus is talking about His death and resurrection here but on reading the whole chapter I'm not sure if he's talking about Himself or His followers as the next sentence seems to be talking about others. (Note to self - do inductive bible study on John 12 sometime).

Beind the tables was a Priest reading names of all those whose family were present one by one, this took a long time and members of the congregation started to get restless, at one point he stopped and told them to shut up or go outside! (in Greek of course)

We missed the beginning of the service which included communion so it seemed over very quickly. When the names were all read out it was time to dish out Kolivia and bread to everyone in attendance, again the Priest reminded everyone why they were there and asked them to do things in an orderly fashion but I'm not sure anyone was listening. A torrent of small Greek ladies pushed their way to the front of the church where they proceeded to take their dish of Koliva it was amazing how quickly it disappeared. Especially as I didn't think it tasted all that nice anyway...

I'm not sure what I think of the whole thing, it's good to remember those who have gone before us but that's hard to do in an unfamiliar environment. I think I struggle with the fact that in all the GO services I've been to there seems to be no opportunity for the congregation member to interact with others or with God, the Priest does it all for you. This is very different to what I've grown up with and what I experience every Sunday.

Well Peter, not sure if this is what you were expecting I'd write about but it's done :-) Thanks for making me go and thanks for lunch in the park too.

Why I need to learn how to drive and have my own car... Part Two

Read Part 1 first...

So I got up early and head out on the train to Lidcombe, it was rather a pleasant journey and not too long but then... After getting off the train I discovered that regular streets don't really look like the streets on whereis.com, it looked like I would have to walk down a long stretch of busy road beside the graveyard with no footpath to be seen anywhere. I phoned Stuart who looked at a map and confirmed that I was heading in the right direction.

Half an hour later, hot and sweaty and still recovering from a nervous dash across the busy road without the aid of a pedestrian crossing I arrived at the repair place. I handed my laptop over and was told it would be ready to pick up in 3-5days (nb. the words "pick up" are very important to the rest of the story).

Just in case I asked Mr Acer-repair-man if Lidcombe was in fact the closest train station, to my dismay it turned out it was not, Flemington was much closer... It was also a much nicer walk, there were footpaths and pedestrian crossings and everything!

6 days later, I phoned to find out if my laptop was ready yet, it had been 3-5days and I had heard nothing. The lady on the other end of the phone assured me "yes, it had been finished yesterday" "so," I said, "I can go and pick it up?" again I was assured, yes.

The next day I once again began a trek to the Acer repair place, this time getting off at Flemington station and walking . It was I knew going to ake 2-3hours out of my day and although I had many things to do before staff retreat the next day it would be worth it to have my laptop back.

The nice man behind the desk looked up my laptop on his computer "oh", he said, "it was couriered on Monday" he didn't seem like such a nice man after that. After more investigation it turned out it had not infact been couriered on Monday (3days ago) but in fact had left the warehouse just 20mins before I arrived. It would be delivered to my work sometime between 3-5pm.

I headed back to the train station feeling more than a little bit grumpy...

At the office I waited... 2pm...3pm...4pm... At 5.05pm I phoned Acer, who could phone the courier company but they would be closed right now, I could try and call them if I wanted. I did want so I got the necessary numbers and phoned. Someone answered the phone so I assume they were open... It turns out my computer was stil in the couriers warehouse, there was something wrong with the package and they would send it back to Acer in the morning! I asked if instead it could be sent to me, she said she'd try so I gave her my details and hoped for the best.

It did indeed arrive the next day and now the whole drama doesn't seem like such a big deal after all...

Why I need to learn how to drive and have my own car...

Yes it's true, I'm 28 (almost 29) and I still don't have a drivers licence. Last year I sat for my L's and passed so now I have my third Learners Permit, although the last one I had expired in 1999. Learning to drive is just something I haven't really gotten round to doing yet.

I also have a lovely little Acer Aspire 3620 Laptop, not the most sophisticated piece of technology but it does all I need it to do and recently I've discovered it's kind of hard to do my job without it.

How are these two things related? I hear you ask. Well, Ihave had my laptop for about 8 months and for most of that time it has had a small gray splodge on the screen (aka an abnormal block of colours), it's speakers also made a high pitched buzzing noise whenever there was nothing playing through them. As I have a 12 month warranty policy I decided I should ring the Acer support people and see if they would be kind enough to fix my computer. They said they would, however...

The Acer repair place is located in Flemington, opening hours 9am to 5pm, and it was my task to get my computer to them. This is where the whole drivers licence plus car thing would be helpful, my usual chauffer (aka Stuart, aka husband) was unable to asisst me as he has other regular commitments between 9-5 on weekdays (aka full time employment).

My only option then was... Public Transport!

On the map it looked like the place I was going to was very close to Lidcombe station, convieniently located on the Inner West Line, as is Stanmore where I live. I packed all I would need for such a long intense journey and set out.

What will happen next? Will Bec survive her trek to Lidcombe? Wil her computer be repaired? Stay tuned to find out more...

The Gym is Flooded!

As some of you would know, for the past year and a half I've been going to the Fernwood Fitness Centre at Broadway at least 3 times a week if not more.

Usually I enjoy being at the gym, especially boxing and belly dancing classes! Although sometimes it can take a real effort to get me there. The last couple of months have been months where I've had a less than optimal gym attendance record - ok so I went twice after NTE and havent been back since...

However last Tuesday I was really excited about getting back into a routine and taking my new shoes to the gym for a break-in workout. I left work early, met up with my brother and left him early to head to the gym. Alas, when I got there the doors were shut and the lights were off! Due to the recent construction work at Broadway there was a servere pumbing malfunction which caused major flooding. Apparently water was pouring in through the airconditioning vents!

Since then the gym has been closed and I've really missed going (sounds strange after choosing not to be there for 4 weeks I know).

To top everything off, this afternoon I got a phone call from Pearly (one of the Personal Trainers and my boxing instructor) to say that she is leaving and so won't be able to train me.

Oh well, I have still managed to give my new shoes a workout - I've walked home from work a few times in lieu of my gym workout.

Isis Despinidic - My Grandma

These are pictures of my grandmother Isis Despinidic, she was my Dad's mum. She died two weeks ago on Christmas day, we held her funeral today.

My grandparents are Greek and so my grandfather wanted her to be buried in the Greek Orthodox section of Rookwood Cemetery.
This meant she had a Greek Orthodox funeral followed by a memorial service at the Baptist church in Landilo, where she was a regular attender.

The GO ceremony was very formal, all the liturgy was sung by the Priest and another man (not sure what his formal title is). It was also mostly in Greek, although the priest translated some of the most important prayers etc. into English, his sermon was also in English as most people there were not Greek speakers.

It was rather strange as there was no sense of who grandma was at this service and no mention of her life, rather all the prayers were for God to look after her soul now that she was dead. At the end of the service family and friends walk to the coffin and say goodbye by kissing it or in their own way, then the coffin is carried to the graveside. Those attending the funeral follow the coffin and at the graveside there are more prayers and then the coffin is lowered into the grave and flowers and dirt are thrown into the grave.

The memorial service at the Baptist church was very different, it was all about celebrating grandma's life, how she affected the people around her, thanking God for her life and for the fact that she is now with Him.

It was great to hear the different stories of how Grandma has influenced her family and her friends at church. I realised that I really didn't know her very well, but I was proud to be her Granddaughter!

Please pray for my Grandpa, who has lost his wife of 56 years and for my Dad's family that they wll know God's comfort and love.

Sydney NYE 2007

Happy New Year everybody! This year Stu and I went to Polly's place after church to watch the fireworks (thanks Ang for driving!). She lives on the 24th floor of an apartment block in Darlinghurst and has a great view of the Harbour, it was a really nice relaxing night and this is what we got to see (thanks Brad for the photos).