The Lunch Room

Of late, it has been mega difficult to be sitting in our newly "renovated" lunch room. Well, not quite what you think renovated is. All we did for the past few months during our lunch breaks was to clear the crowded area near the lift, throw out 1950s and 1960s Australian standards, relocate unused cabinet files, and rearrange the drafters' precious equipments. And voila! Finally we have a designated area where we can have lunch, and not at our desks where we frequently drop crumbs that remain under the keyboard for rats to feast at night. I'm not kidding. During the colder winter days, rat droppings have been sighted on the desks (not mine, thank god!) that prompted an immediate response to tie food scraps in bags and a corrective action to get a long awaited lunch room up and running.

Well after all that typing above, I have not even dug into what I initially wanted to say. Anyway, I was mentioning how hard it is to be seated in the lunch room, listening to all sorts of swear words as my colleagues went about describing their spicy stories of the past. Seriously, I totally understand how exciting your story is, but cut the crap with the swearing, will ya? Geez. But, I said nothing because many a times, I have the opportunity to talk about Jesus - how cool is that? Among the regulars, one is particularly inquisitive about Jesus. Although he's had two bad experiences at a catholic church, and the only times that he's ever visited a church, he remains the curious cat. I appreciate this window of opportunity I have, and don't mind sitting down at the lunch room every day.

Jesus, be my strength.

Gifts are meant to be unwrapped

Hello!

I have just returned from a regional leaders meeting at the Novotel, feeling fresh and nourished with new revelations on how to become an effective leader and how not to stuff up as a leader. Leaders need people who are willing, people who are using their gifts effectively and not leave them in their Christmas gift boxes.

Pastor Ashley Evans, of Paradise Church in Adelaide, explained the FIVE mentalities that leaders need to be aware of that refrain people from being willing and available - an important all-time power factor that grows a church.

Mentality 1
I used to be willing, but not anymore.
Bad experiences or encouragement into the wrong area of ministry where people are not actually gifted will put people off.

Mentality 2
I am willing, but there are already other people doing it.
The assumption that leads to people watching at the sidelines.

Mentality 3
I am willing, but don't hurt me.
The truth to know is that we must expect turbulence in close relationships that can happen at church, even in your own family.

Mentality 4
I am willing, but I don't know what to do about it.
The practical side to ensure people discover their gifts.

Mentality 5
I am willing, but I can't see the value
The reminder to nourish and encourage volunteers in the church.

Here are some of the many ways that were suggested to help leaders will people into being willing.
> Be a surgeon - take the slow route in encouraging/developing people
> Be a Moses - make changes slowly
> Be picky, slowly - want volunteers, but never show you need them
> Be loving - smile, touch, remember names
> Be positive - always think WIN WIN

Awesome talk!

And finally, my first NRL game

A ticket to the footy game is not cheap. If there is a group of four, my friends were scheming to get away with family passes - as if we can pretend to look like parents with kids in their teens. But a few hours before the game started, I found out that we got free tickets! Hoorah!

Imagine not knowing what a try or a scrum is after all these years living in Australia. It's quite pathetic, I know, but you can't blame me for being plain ignorant. Rugby isn't a popular sport in Victoria and I only started picking up these jargons from watching the annual State of Origin game between the Blues and the Maroons since moving to NSW. So that makes TWO footy games that I've watched on telly, and I can't be sure if I even had my bum on the couch for the full game. Probably not.

The view of WIN stadium from the hillside

But it was an insane first live footy game ever for me. It was pouring cats and dogs just five minutes before the game was due to kick off. Thankfully, I had an umbrella but you can't quite keep dry when you are sharing space under one shelter. And then, there was the wear-the-wrong-type-of-shoes-because-you-want-to-look-good syndrome. What was I thinking! To make matters worse, the free standing area was on a hillside. Great! Just the perfect landscape for toe blisters. And then, there was the never-have-enough-clothes-on-to-keep-warm dilemma. On my way to the stadium, I overheard the dee jay reminding people to bring their doonas. I was confused, but found out soon enough why.

But it was all worth it to finally watch a rugby game and madly yelling out in support of the Dragons, whose existence was only known to me the day before. And the fact that they had five straight losses and one win over the past six weeks isn't very encouraging. Everyone wants to support a winning team, and the Dragons did not let me down (18-4 win against the Sharks), save for a ruffle in the second half where one player from each team was sent off. The crowd was just screaming "OUT! OUT! OUT!" the whole time, obviously unhappy with the error-riddled game in the rain.

Well, one of my To-Do list is now striked out. Need to see if I can hunt a free entry to an AFL game.

It was my American friend's first footy game too!

updates

>> tuesday was thai dinner day with my ex-colleague from melbourne. It was good to finally catch up with him, after months of assurance that he will come visit some day. I don't get many interstate visitors, some of which come as close to sydney but never made the trip down south thinking that wollongong is some ulu place many thousand kilometres away. in case you aren't aware, i am only an hour plus drive away from the fringe of the big city.

>> russell fragar made a special appearance at our wednesday band practice night. he has since lost quite a bit of weight from the last time i took a photo with him five years ago. nevertheless, he's looking better than ever, and has been leading the creative ministry at a church in virginia for the past five years since moving on from hillsong church.

>> finals of the uni band competition took off on thursday. i rocked up at seven only to find out that the band i came to support had been drawn to play last, which means i had three and a half hours to kill. but i was so glad i stayed on, not to mention another half hour wait for the results, none of that mattered because the free agent crew won! more than three quarters of the dance floor was, for certain, jam packed with people like us from church supporting that band, four of which are brothers whom we came to cheer on. it was a good time of hip hop, funk and reggae music. they certainly won by a mile. go boys! they will now progress to the nsw southern region semi final to be played out at uni next month. we've got home ground advantage, so come support!

>> draggy friday - that's what it felt like. combination of sleep deprivation and dateline stress in the name of an active social life. i think it's important, otherwise i'll become stupid. serious. i went out later that night for dinner and drinks with my colleagues - to celebrate and farewell DM who is moving on to a different area of the company. there will be many more farewells to come until the group can shrink to a sustainable level. and what is wrong with cranberry vodka?

>> sunny saturday in sydney. went shopping at bondi junction but shockingly did not buy anything, again. maybe that's a good thing because seriously, i have not finish cycling the clothes i have in my wardrobe. i don't have that many, but have learnt to mix and match pretty well. we hopped over to a friend's housewarming party in zetland after that. it is true that if you space out your food intake, your tummy has the chance to register that and inform your brain that it's close to being stuffed - and all i had was a snag, a small beef steak, three tiny sushi rolls, a few spoonfuls of curry chicken on mashies, and two glasses of coke over a four hour period. oh, and not to mention a very nice cocktail concoction made by the hostess, but still to feel the effects the next day was really, unbelievable. i must do this more often, spacing out my food intake, otherwise i will continue to be an unnecessarily overstocked food vessel.

>> i love sundays. and i learnt about paradoxes today. the bible is filled with paradoxes, which are seemingly contradictory statements that may nonetheless be true. you are richest when you are poorest. jesus died so we can live. give away so you can keep.

>> monday madness happens quite often. i'll be struggling to find my feet, search for documents, remember what i did last week and what i need to do this week. and i found out that my colleague's son had developed chicken pox on saturday. what can i do? where can i run? he could be carrying the contagious virus with him. don't laugh, i have yet to be infected and i don't intend to have any rashes or blisters on me, thank you very much. i hope you get the hint to stay home with your son. and we got badly beaten by more than thirty goals tonight by the top team in the ladder. we aren't doing that bad either - on second. the departure of our goal defender due to injury and the random replacement who obviously did not care less was such a demoralising experience. enough said.

When were you last grateful for a glass of clean water

He was only six when his Grade One teacher told him that many people in Africa were dying because they did not have clean water to drink. Deeply moved to help build a well, he went home to ask his parents for $70. They brushed his request off, and continued making dinner. Day after day, this child persisted to ask for money and his parents finally consented to give him money in exchange for household chores.

Four months later, he finally earned $70 and brought it to a non-profit organisation to build a well. He later found out that he really needed $2000 to build a proper working well. From there on, his efforts snowballed into a huge project, now known as Ryan's Well Foundation.

Ryan and his family are currently in Australia, specifically Wollongong (ahem!) and at my church yesterday to talk about his work. Some of my girl friends think he's pretty hot, six foot four. And he's only fifteen.

How much water do we use a day?
30 litres of water for a 10 minute shower.
10 litres of water if you brush your teeth with the tap running.
40 litres of water for a normal washing machine load.

Pork soup and pineapples won't do it

teng: would you like to help throw the rubbish after dinner?

she: okay, where do you throw the rubbish?

teng: *scratch head* urm, the rubbish bins are outside near the entrance of our driveway. you can't miss them.

she: which bin do we put it in?

teng: there is a unit number on each bin. it doesn't really matter which bin.

And after dinner, she disappears into her room with her guest, and I'm left to throw the garbage, which I purposefully left tied in the bin for four days, along with two of her temporary rubbish bags hung on the pantry door, one of which was leaking. Don't test my patience - today will be the last day I clean the stove you messed up and wipe the dining table you soiled.

And she made the fourth one in a week

Carrots were awfully cheap today. At 49cents a kilo, I grabbed two bags without second thoughts. Avocados were 49cents each, and so was a whole 2.5kg bag of oranges at an incredible 99cents. In they went into my shopping cart and before I knew it, I had spent a whoppping century figure today for groceries. Mum used to tease my fully-stocked pantry, as if I was preparing for the end of the world. But I like a filled pantry.

My maiden attempt at a carrot cake (well what else can I make? I've got tonnes of carrots now) almost went awry. Seconds after I gleefully closed the oven door, I realised that I had not used the baking powder and bi carb soda! Alarm bells rang, triggering an immediate retrieval of the dough from the oven. Quickly and evenly, I mixed the two missing ingredients into the cake mix and returned the pan into the oven. Thankfully, all was not lost and my carrot cake is yet, another success.

I should also mention that I attempted a roast pork today. Though absent-mindedly forgetting to wrap the bacon around the pork as per the recipe, it scores a pass by my standards. Guess it deserves a photo too.

Freak spout

We have our own water twister.

Featured on the evening news today was the spectacular formation of a water sprout, mini twister style. It was caught on camera while the news crew was making their way around the La Perouse area. The little menace tore the roof off a Sydney apartment and also happily severed power lines as it ran down the street.

If I can get hold of the video, I'll post it. Meanwhile, you'll have to make do with this. I should also remind myself that I live very near the beach. As a matter of fact, too close for comfort.

The girl next door

It has been a full four weeks of this new inhabitance. The new resident has a few quirky behaviours - frequently disappearing into her room, constant phone chats, mono syllable answers and inexpandable friendly conversations. I tried. Very hard. Success seems far away.

I do have some expectations around living with other people. It's a natural thing to help out with house chores, don't you think? The stove is not cleaned up after all cooking attempts, dishes are not kept away, and the garbage has never been taken out. No, not once. Don't get me wrong, she's real neat and tidy but only cleans her individual items and minds her own individual space. Leading by example doesn't seem to quite work.

So I evilly schemed a test two days ago by tying up the garbage bag and leaving it for a couple of days to see if it can initiate some sort of conscience. Upon reaching home today, to my dismay, the garbage was still happily sitting in the bin.

I need a better plan.