Thoughts of Car-O-Line

Review: Smiths Vegemite Chips

2011-10-10T07:12:00.002+11:00

On the 7th of October 2011, I was perusing Coles in Carlingford with my mum when I noticed these smiths chips: Vegemite flavoured! At first I just walked past them thinking them to be a cruel joke of some sort but as I walked through every aisle of the store I couldn't stop thinking about them.

Could it be? Two of my favourite types of food (chips and Vegemite in case you were confused) put together to make one superior flavour experience? On the way out of the checkout, I did the classic impulse buy and threw a packet of Vegemite chips on the conveyor belt.

When I got home, I opened the bag. Aroma: a regular plain chip with a hint of Vegemite saltiness.

Eating experience: Very pleasant. Knowing that Vegemite is quite a strong flavour (this coming from someone who likes Vegemite on their toast thick) I feared that the flavour would be too overpowering and I was unsure if I could get through the 90g NET bag by myself (because Rob was certainly not going to have a try for himself). Though I was pleasantly surprised that as I got to the end of the bag, my tastebuds were still working and longing for more. The flavour is subtle enough that you don't feel like you are eating spoonfuls of Vegemite but by some act of ingenious they have been able to recreate that Vegemite tingly aftertaste.

If you like chips and you like Vegemite - you'll love Vegemite chips. As the packaging says "The ultimate Aussie flavour combo."

Cost: Personally too expensive for me at around $1.50 for the 90g (can't remember the exact cost)

For a limited time only (the grapevine tells me 12 weeks) and exclusive to Coles and Bi-Lo.

Highly recommended to Vegemite lovers - it will be an eating experience to remember.

WKC 11 Review

2011-09-21T14:55:00.002+10:00

Check out my review of the Women's Katoomba Convention here!

1 Cup Tea Cosy

2011-08-19T18:07:00.002+10:00

I just quickly whipped this up!

I was trying to knit a lining for another tea cosy but it didn't fit - though I realised that it fit my 1 cup tea pot perfectly! I've added the pattern here for you all so that you too can have a cosy for your cute little 1 cup tea pot.

Why not have a play around with different colours or stripes? You could also add a pom pom or flower on the top.

You could also take this plain pattern and adjust it to fit a tea pot of your own size.

Enjoy knitting!

Here is the pattern:

1 Cup Tea Cosy

Yarn: 8ply Easy Care (Heirloom) – uses less than one 50g ball

Using 2 sets of 4mm circular needles, cast on 73 stitches (72 plus 1 st, for joining in the round), placing 36 on one circular needle and 37 stitches on the other circular needle.

Rounds 1-8: *K2, P2, repeat from * to end of round.

Divide for the sides as follows:

Side One

Row 1 (wrong side): K3, purl to last 3 stitches, K3.

Row 2: Knit to end of row.

Repeat this 2-row pattern until you have completed 18 rows in total. Leave stitches on needle. Break off yarn to darn in later.

Side Two

With wrong side facing, join in the yarn to the stitches on the other needle and work Side Two to correspond with Side One.

Upper Body

Begin working in rounds again.

Round 1: *K7, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 2: Knit to end of round

Round 3: *K6, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Round 4: Knit to end of round

Round 5: *K5, K2tog, repeat from * to end of round

Continue in this decreasing pattern until 8 stitches remain (4 on each circular needle).

Knit one round.

Break off yarn and thread through remaining stitches. Draw up tightly and weave in all ends.

p.s: this is the first pattern I've done so if you have any comments or pick up on any mistakes just let me know.

p.p.s: This cosy is knitted on two pairs of circular needles - for more information on how to do this just search on youtube! There are plenty of videos there.

I'm in hufflepuff

2011-06-13T14:38:00.001+10:00

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

Fishy Tales

2011-01-05T17:56:00.000+11:00

At the end of last year I had:
-3 sunset platys
-2 red wag tail platys
-1 zebra dannio
-4 male guppies

Just before Christmas, Rob and I went away for a week. When we returned... the mystery begun.

You see, when we returned from our holiday we had:
-3 sunset platys
-2 red wag tail platys
-1 zebra dannio
-3 male guppies

I searched high and low for my lost male guppy but it was too late. It was nowhere to be seen and I could only assume that it had died and then been eaten by it's fishy "friends."

A few days after, I had:

-3 sunset platys

-2 red wag tail platys

-1 zebra dannio

-2 male guppies

Though this time I found the poor guppy dead at the bottom of the tank. Very sad - it was a very pretty guppy. Not only was this guppy dead but one of my other guppies had shredded fins. I had now worked out the culprit. The pretty blue fish was the one to blame. I saw it with my own eyes - he was attacking my poor little red and black guppy.

I decided to remove the little red and black guppy in order to let it's fins heal... but to my horror, the pretty blue guppy started chasing my platys and my dannio! So I put the little red and black platy back with his friends and isolated the blue guppy.

Unfortunately, the little red and black guppy did not survive the attack. It was in too much shock from his fin damage and could not swim properly so I let him rest in the freezer. RIP.

Did I also mention that one of my red wag tail platys was found dead in the morning as well? I can only assume it was a result of stress due to the bullying (or old age) as it had no fin damage or other signs of illness.

At this point I decided to let my bully blue guppy have one last chance... being the only guppy left, maybe it wouldn't be as aggressive. However this blue guppy would not give in and attacked my dannio, leaving a big painful looking bite in his back. So I took the meany blue guppy back to the fish shop and swapped him for a peaceful red and black guppy (in memory of it's predecessor).

I was going to get some medication for my dannio this morning to help his tail heal quicker... however alas by morning almost his whole back half had disintegrated so I let him rest in the freezer. RIP.

I still went to the fish shop this morning as planned and decided to get 4 female guppies for my remaining male guppy. Guppies are supposed to breed really easily and hopefully this will mean that I wont have to keep on buying fish to replace those that don't survive. They are so far swimming happily.

But will this fish tale have a happy ending? After putting the new guppies in the tank I noticed some white spots on one of the new guppies - oh no! White spot disease! I promptly put in the required medication. Hopefully there won't be any more fatalities. I've had fish with white spot disease before and they have survived... so let's hope so.

Now I have:

-3 sunset platys

-1 red wag tail platy

-1 male guppy

-4 female guppies

From Car-O-Line

Video of my fish before they all went

hello out there?

2010-12-10T15:31:00.002+11:00

Hey!

Are there people still out there there reading my blog? It would be nice to know.

Anyways... I have 2 more days of teaching left this year and then the staff christmas luncheon. I have sorta come to a point where I'm really glad that I'm finishing my teaching for the moment because these past few days/weeks have been really sucky. So that's kinda sad because it would have been nice to leave school on a brighter note.

From Car-O-Line

Get you started on Christmas

2010-12-01T17:23:00.001+11:00

Phillip Jensen & Kel Richards - Another angle on Christmas from Audio Advice on Vimeo.

a heads up

2010-11-12T09:03:00.003+11:00

Just letting you know that I have opened a tumblr blog and have been experimenting with it. That blog will most likely have to do with all things MTS related. So this blog shall live on another day.

From Car-O-Line

p.s: my tumblr will be released at a later date

EDIT: I decided to ditch the tumblr because it wasn't working out for me the way I wanted. My new blog is at carolinefreitag.blogspot.com :)

yucky pine nuts

2010-11-05T15:30:00.002+11:00

I had some pine nuts in the fridge which said that they expired in may... but I didn't believe it so I ate one. And it tasted disgusting... and now I can't get the taste out of my mouth! It's so gross!!!

In other news... I met up with Cler and Chris yesterday and we read a chapter from the book 1-2-1 Discipling by Christine Dillon. It was a good read. The chapter we were reading was encouraging us to take a broader view of discipling. Often we think of it as the formal 1 hour set apart for bible reading that happens once a week. But discipling can also be about sharing your life with someone else - letting them hang around as you do the mundane tasks and see how you live Christ-like lives in everything. It sets the challenge to strive to be more like Christ in everything and then so be willing to share your life with someone else. Think about this - Jesus disciples followed him around everywhere and lived, ate and breathed with him. That time would have been so valuable for them in learning how to live God honouring lives.

From Car-O-Line

Man's authority over women?

2010-10-27T11:48:00.004+11:00

Excerpt from: Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem

This point is often missed by evangelical feminists. They conclude that a difference in function necessarily involves a difference in essence; i.e., if men are in authority over women, then women must be inferior. The relationship between Christ and the Father shows us that this reasoning is flawed. One can possess a different function and still be equal in essence and worth. Women are equal to men in essence and in being; there is no ontological distinction, and yet they have a different function or role in church and home. Such differences do not logically imply inequality or inferiority, just as Christ’s subjection to the Father does not imply His inferiority. (pp120-121)

I find this paragraph cool. Do you?

From Car-O-Line

how to achieve zero jet lag

2010-10-07T09:48:00.005+11:00

Howdy there!

I just got back from a 3 week visit to the United States of America. My first stop was San Francisco where I stayed with my cousin Wai Mei and her husband Lawrence. San Francisco is a really cool city and it was really easy to get around... although some of the roads were really steep! You don't want to be walking up hill... always go down hill.

Then I went to Washington DC to visit my Yee Mah (my auntie) her children and grandchildren. There is heaps to see in DC. All the museums are free and there are a lot of museums. We went to a lot and we didn't even see half of them.

So... here are my tips for achieving zero jet lag. I feel confident in giving you these tips because on the way to America I was severely jet lagged from the trip over, whereas on the trip back I'd learned my lesson and suffered from no jet lag. Here they are:

1. As soon as you get on the plane, change your watch to the time zone of your destination and eat and sleep accordingly.

2. Don't even think about what time it would be back home... this will just put you out of sync.

3. Take a neck pillow and an eye mask... this will help you to sleep when you need to.

I don't think I'm going to blog about my trip to America much more than this because it will be too much. Love to talk to you all in person and tell you all about it.

From Car-O-Line

P.S. I have photos on my facebook from the whole trip which can also give you more of an insight into my trip.

Discipline

2010-08-09T16:40:00.003+10:00

I must admit, I'm not fantastic at discipline. At school I want to set rules and enforce them, but I also want to give a bit of leeway and be merciful. I think in the past I may have been a bit too lenient. Anyways, my year 7s had been really respectful for the first half of the year and had kept the rules so I let them have a bit more freedom. This term they have gone a bit crazy and I almost gave up on them. Though in the past two lessons I gave the class a seating plan and reiterated the rules. And it is paying off! Hooray! Discipline is important.

I'm glad I have a Father in heaven - God, who disciplines me because I am his child, he loves me and knows what is best for me. I hope I can have a well disciplined and orderly class so that they too will know that my discipline is done in love.

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." - Hebrews 12:7-11

From Car-O-Line

Food, Bible and Work

2010-08-06T09:36:00.004+10:00

I was just thinking to myself, that ever since Masterchef stopped screening on tv, my Bible reading has been going down. Because I was so religious in watching Masterchef that I had to make the point of having Bible before Masterchef.

Anyways, I did manage to read some Bible this morning. I was reading some proverbs that were talking about work - and the repeated idea in those proverbs was that you work so that you can eat (Prov 16:26, 19:15, 20:13, 27:23-27).

So yes, it has got me thinking about work. You see next year I'll be doing MTS at my church which is very exciting. However it also makes school work at the moment less exciting. Though I need to remember that I still need to work hard and not be idle at school as this is pleasing to God (2 Thes 3:6-10). I also need to not make an idol of work, seeking the kingdom of God before career. Does that make sense?

From Car-O-Line

better times

2010-08-04T14:46:00.002+10:00

Yesterday I had a really great day at school. I was pulling out all the rock instruments and jamming with my year 8 students. I also got to do some cool theory with my year 12s and then we celebrated by having an epic Queen sing-a-long. Such is the nature of teaching - good days and bad days. Praise God that it all seems to balance itself out.

I'm home today and have had a good day so far. I got to meet up with Anita and read the Bible together. Then I went over to Dad's place and went out to Maccas for lunch together. Then I came back home, did the laundry and read a bit more of the book A Call to Spiritual Reformation which is a totally awesome and challenging book.

Tonight I'm going to Cathedral Cross Training. I've been for the last 3 weeks and it's been really good. Philip Jensen has been giving a short talk on different issues Christians face and then there has been training time. I'm learning how to use Just for Starters to follow up a new Christian. It's proving to be a great set of studies and I look forward to be able to use them sometime.

From Car-O-Line

hard times

2010-08-02T16:32:00.002+10:00

Why does adolescence have to be so hard for teenagers, because seriously it makes teaching them a whole lot more frustrating. So, we're up to term 3 at school and so much changed over the holidays. For example, in my year 7 class, one girl has totally changed her friendship groups and is sitting at the opposite end of the classroom as her old best friend, the boys are pretending to be 'men' by throwing things and running around. Woe is me!

On a more positive note, I think my year 8s are becoming more mature which is lovely. They have already put me through a lot of crap this year and I think they are starting to respect me more because I've been patient with them.

Won't even bother talking about my year 12s.

From Car-O-Line

p.s: sorry for the whinge, I'll try to blog about more positive things next time.

epic exercise

2010-07-30T15:08:00.003+10:00

I have a new twitter so feel free to follow me on that: www.twitter.com/carolinefreitag

Yesterday I went for a swim, my first lap swimming in over a year. I only did 500m but it was such a good feeling. I already feel addicted to it again. I thought about going again today but I didn't want to look like a weirdo to the pool staff and thought consecutive days of swimming may be a bit much. So instead I went for an epic walk. There was a huge hill and the sun was beating down on me and I was in a sweat. But it felt good too.

After that bout of exercise, I went home. But then later I walked out to the shops again. I bought a ceramic tower heater and I've got it on now and it's working wonders. I have to say though it was pretty annoying to carry home.

At the moment I'm watching a doco called Life on ABC iView. There is some pretty amazing footage. They must have tiny tiny cameras because they've got images of a tadpole swimming in the centre of a fern which has a small amount of water. I like learning about living things (animals and plants).

From Car-O-Line

blogging

2010-07-28T11:31:00.003+10:00

I just spent an epic amount of time catching up on reading everyone's blog. It seems to me that people write shorter blogs more frequently now instead of writing one large post a month. For me I don't think my life is that interesting at the moment to allow for short frequent posts.

By the way, I wish to dedicate this post to Elsie who is still reading my blog despite my lack of posting.

Going back to school this term turned out to be quite depressing. I had such a lovely school holidays and got to go away for a weekend with Rob, and the contrast of holidays and school was just so great. But I've now got over myself and am happy to say that I've made it through the first 2 weeks of school.

Today I had a day off but I still woke up early (6:45). It feels good to have all this time in the morning. I cleaned up the study so that I can actually use the desk. It's quite a nice bright room too and it beats sitting on the couch with the laptop on my lap. It'll be better for my back too.

I don't know what else to blog so I think I'll just finish here.

From Car-O-Line

Recommendations

2010-07-08T11:59:00.003+10:00

Wow, I haven't posted anything on here for ages. Truth is... I don't really know what to be blogging about. I feel I've exhausted the topics of early marriage and the beginnings of a teaching career. But I thought about something to blog about today - YAY! I'd like to make some recommendations:

I would like to recommend "The Pilgrim's Podcast." Search it in iTunes or on Google and you'll find it. Basically it's two Christian guys who have a 30-40 minute chat with another Christian person about stuff. And it's really good! I'm not the kind of person who is good at listening to online talks or podcasts (I start staring out the window and lose concentration) but these 'chats' are really interesting and funny. I recently listened to them interviewing Andrew Thorburn (about SRE vs Ethics, as well as church planting), Col Marshall (about the book 'The Trellis and the Vine" as well as discipleship) and Steve Chong (about his church Kirkplace as well as how he encourages ministry in his congregation). From listening to those podcasts, I've been reminded about the importance of deep relationships in discipling as well as the importance of keep the Word central. You should go have a listen for yourselves. There are lots of different topics on offer.

I've also started reading te book "A call to spiritual reformation" by DA Carson. Rob has been bugging me for ages to read this book and I've finally started. And now I can see why he has been so excited about it. It's a really helpful read on how to pray. It looks at a few of Paul's prayers to see what were his priorities and motivations for his prayers. I tell you what... Paul is just an awesome person. God truly blessed him. I have to say though that reading this book is not always comfortable, as it often challenges me about my own prayers, what I pray for and what I don't pray for. But lets not get all depressed here... just read the book and put it into practise!

Now I don't know if this recommendation is worthy but hear me out, I've gone mental over MasterChef. Yes the show is great and I don't know why I love it so much but I'm a big fan. So much so that I realised that maybe I was starting to make it an idol in my life. So here's my recommendation - Bible before MasterChef. That is, now I'm making it a priority to read my Bible before MasterChef. It's a good thing to do.

From Car-O-Line

Holiday Projects

2010-01-02T17:12:00.004+11:00

So this holidays I've had two major projects going on. I found a dress pattern online that I wanted to make, and I set up a fish tank.

The Dress:
Here is the dress pattern, and here are my results. I still have to do the hemming and a few zig-zag stitches but it's pretty much done!

The Tank:
I got this fish tank from a friend and I've set it up ready for fish. Left the tank to settle for two weeks and today I went and bought the fishies! I got a ryukin which is the orange one - and I decided to name it 'Orange.' I also got a black moor which is the black one - and I let Rob pick the name for it. He's called it 'Scrambles the death dealer' which is a reference to Metalocalypse (some crazy heavy metal cartoon). Here's a video!

Now I just have to get some school work done.

From Car-O-Line

musings on 2009

2009-12-23T17:49:00.003+11:00

I guess it is a bit early for musings on 2009, but I thought I'd get a head start because lots of things have happened this year.

CHANGE. That pretty much sums up my whole year.

The year started with me being fresh out of university and waiting for the DET to tell me where they wanted me to teach. We were told that we'd get a call in January, yet no one got the call. So that was a bit of a bummer - 4 years of training and no jobs. So I used up my free time to write an impressive resume and lots and lots of cover letters. I applied for every single teaching job that came up even if they were in schools far away. And in God's providence, I ended up at Casula high. When I went in for my "interview" their intentions were clear - they were desperate and no one wanted the job. But being new and eager I took up the job - a one year placement. I'm really glad I did actually. It was a rougher school than I was used to but it really opened my eyes to the south-west and the people there and their needs. I was sad to find out that my placement was going to be cut short, but the school was gracious enough to hire me for the whole of term 2 as a support teacher. All the teachers there were lovely and gave me excellent support. It was like we all understood that Casula was a hard place to teach and we needed to keep on encouraging each other in order to persevere.

Something else very exciting also happened in January (gosh we'll never get to february, march, april....). Rob proposed to me and I gladly accepted. I must say it wasn't easy getting to that stage. Some thought the timing was not good but both Rob and I were ready.

Not only did Rob and I get engaged in 2009, but we also got married! On the 11th of July 2009 we were married at St. Andrews Anglican Wahroongha. At first the time between engagement and marriage seemed so small... but by the middle of June, my Mum was definately thanking God that the whole wedding planning fiasco was not going to be dragged out any longer. We easily planned our wedding in 6 months and had the most fabulous day. Everything went perfectly and I'll remember the day forever.

And so with marriage comes more change. I was no longer living with my parents but was now living with my husband. And with this brought so many new responsibilities that I had not had to think about before. There was grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, bills, etc! Not to mention living with Rob. But I do love it. It's great living with someone who you want to serve and who serves you. It's also nice having your own home and organising things the way that works for you. I love our flat and it's in such a convenient location. God has truly blessed us in this.

I also left my church of 22 years - Penno Baps, to join Rob at his church - St Andys Wahroongha. It has been very sad to leave my family church of Penno Baps. It's been good to visit or catch up with people there - it's always as if I've never left when I see them. However starting at St Andys has opened up opportunities for me to try out different ministries. I've started leading the pre-school to year 1 age group Sunday school which has been so much fun. I've always been scared about teaching little kids a dumbed-down gospel, but all the leaders there are so good at teaching a true fullness of the gospel - it has been a priviledge learning from them and being able to be a part of this very important ministry.

With only 2 terms of work at Casula, I was on the job search again. Now with some extra experience to add onto my resume, finding work was quite a bit easier. I had a few casual teaching stints at some local schools and a few interviews. Then I got a job at Crestwood High. It was only part time, but there was the possibility of it becoming permanent. I started at Crestwood in the middle of term 3 and am still there now... and am contracted for the next year as well. Although the culture is very different from Casula, I'm still enjoying it and thanking God for providing work for both Rob and I.

I probably shouldn't bore you with much else. Rob and I are still enjoying being married and have almost had a second honeymoon this past week as we are both on holidays and making an effort to do exciting things together. The next few days will be very busy as we have our first Christmas together and our first Christmas where we will be scooting around both sides of our family. We aren't sure exactly what 2010 will hold but we are excited to find out what God has in store for us. We praise God for his faithfulness to us in 2009. At this time of the year, we also thank God for his grace in giving us the Lord Jesus Christ who saves us from our sins and brings us into relationship with Him.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

From Car-O-Line

Your Kingdom Come

2009-11-26T11:40:00.003+11:00

So yeah... I've been married for almost 5 months now. Feels heaps longer than that! Rob will say though that it feels like it's been round about 5 months :P

We are very settled in now. So settled in that the our house is often very messy because we just chuck things down. Though every now and again we do a big clean and the house looks like brand new which is always exciting. I reckon we (meaning all people) subconsciously messy their houses so that they can then clean it, and then get that sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from putting in the hard work. Our place is quite messy at the moment. We'll probably clean it on the weekend. I just got out the leaf vacuum and cleaned our patio - it's leaf spotless now! Looks so good. Go me!

I'm such a handy wife! I can pull out the leaf blower, stack a dishwasher, vacuum inside, organise the house, wash clothes, hang clothes, collect clothes, fold clothes, iron clothes, cook, recycle, empty the rubbish, de-soap-scum the shower... the list goes on! I guess though most wives do that. In a matter of fact, Rob can do all that too! He's a handy husband.

I've also been learning the flute. Just because there was a flute in the house and I thought it might be cool. I watched some videos on youtube and now my embouchure is almost spot on every time which means that notes come out - it's amazing! I can also play the F major scale and I'm practising tonguing now. Man you need a lot of air to play flute. Youtube tells me that when you play flute, half your air is wasted because it just goes over the hole. So I've got to get bigger lungs or a stronger diaphram or something.

Rob and I have been doing this Moore College diploma in Biblical studies external course. We just got to Turramurra once a week for a 2-hr evening lecture. Our subject is ministry. It's been pretty good. We learned that ministry is about the gospel, it's about loving others, it's about creating unity in the body of Christ, it's about community, etc.

There has been one big thing from this course that has challenged me. Our lecturer was talking about the Lord's Prayer, and specifically the line "Your kingdom come." When we pray that line we are praying for God's kindom to come which is a good thing for Christians and something to look forward to. But also, we're praying that Jesus would come back and judge the world - meaning that some people, some of our friends and family, will be condemned. Which got us thinking... do we really want God's kingdom to come soon when some of our loved ones aren't saved yet? So how does this affect our ministry - well it makes our ministry more urgent! And it reminds us of our goal in ministry. Now everytime we say the Lord's Prayer in church, I'm reminded to keep on persevering in my ministry to my non-Christian friends and family, and to make use of every opportunity that I have. It is hard to bring up the gospel in random conversations, but lately I've been finding that opportunities have been springing up all the time. Thank God that he is merciful and loving and cares for his people. Gotta keep on trusting and praying to him.

So yeah... I hope that prayer "your kingdom come" challenges you to think more about your ministry to your non-Christian friends and family, because after all, we are all called to be ministers in our lives. It's not just our 'ministers' at church on Sunday who are called to do it.

Well this has been a bit of a different spiel from normal...

From Car-O-Line

I'm a villain, I'm an idiot

2009-10-20T15:21:00.000+11:00

"It is very hard to read the word of God and think that it endorses homosexual behaviour and when that happens we have to say no, I’m going to be faithful to the word of God, even though in terms of the popular culture I’m a villain or I’m an idiot or I’m all the other things that people say."

-Peter Jenson on ABC's Compass

womens stuff and stuff

2009-09-21T21:49:00.002+10:00

I just came back from Women's Katoomba Convention (WKC). It's a Christian conference for women and this year the topic was called "Designer Women." When I first heard the title I wasn't too sure exactly what it would about. I thought... "gosh that could be about a lot of things!" And man oh man it was about a lot of things. I gotta say I was very satisfied with it. One thing that I thought that was really good about WKC this year was that the speakers weren't afraid to put down the hard biblical word on tough topics like:

abortion
submitting to husbands
submitting to men
women preachers
roles of men and women
feminism
womens magazines, culture and advertising

It was huge and awesome! I was particularly encouraged to hear at the end of the weekend a woman share that:

I would have considered myself to be a feminist before, but now I can see that God's order and design is the best way for us as women. (paraphrased... I didn't write down her exact words but this is pretty much what she said).

The big thing that I was reminded of at WKC was that God is our designer, and he has designed us for specific purposes. And God's ways are perfect - he works for the good of those whom he has called for his purposes (Rom 8:28). So we should live a life of dependence on him and delight to read his word and pray to him.

Another good thing about WKC was being able to fellowship with the ladies from my previous church. I especially enjoyed catching up with the older women and talking with them about things we had heard and learned. They are so encouraging and full of wisdom, yet they also can learn from us which is an amazing thing.

Today I was back to work as usual. It's still going pretty alright. You always have your good and bad days. I recently got a hair cut and all the art (all female) teachers absolutely love it. It's pretty funny. My new hair is quite arty so I guess that's why they like it. Even though I've only been there for a few weeks they've held nothing back from me. I've got reports due very soon and I've done lots of assessing in the past two weeks. I've also had to write exams, upload info to the school intranet and create worksheets and lots of other stuff. It's nice to feel like a real proper teacher again.

Yay for Rob... he's been a good husband to me. Although I have been finding this passage to be very true:

"I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband." - 1 Corinthians 32-34.

Often I am occupied about thoughts of Rob and marriage stuff that I forget about my relationship with God which also needs to grow and be nurtured. An encouragement to the single: it truly is a blessing to be single and be able to have undivided attention to the Lord. But for me God has led me to marriage and I'm sure he is working his purposes out in me, even though I get lazy and forget about God. Thank God that Rob is there to remind me to not be lazy!

Anways I better go and leave you with this food for thought.

From Car-O-Line

downs and ups

2009-08-14T20:51:00.002+10:00

So right now I'm home alone while Rob is out at youth group. I never realised how boring Friday nights at home are because I used to be leading at my old youth group. So I have nothing better to do than blog. Other things I have already done tonight are stacking the dishwasher, turning on the dishwasher, hand washing things that didn't fit, watched lots of The Chaser's war on everything. So yes... blogging is the best option.

Last weekend was a very busy weekend... and both me and Rob didn't get much sleep... and hence we both got sick... which was sucky because I was working 5 days in the week and Rob had multiple assignments due. Spent a few nights just catching up on sleep and forgetting about doing uni work. So we quickly got better. But then the past few nights we've been staying up again doing Rob's assignments. I had to help him with editing and grammar. Last night we were up till 12 to do an assignment that was due at 12. Rob wasn't very happy with the end product. I was feeling a bit sad about it too because I think if we managed our time better we could have done a good assignment. Anyways it's gone now... hope Rob passes. He also had an assignment due today which he ended up finishing at uni... I think he'll do ok in that assignment.

On a happier note... we got our wedding photos!!! YAY!!! Linda and Chloe are the best!!! The photos are beautiful. There are actually a lot of photos! It took us quite a while to get through them. Actually, because Rob was doing assignments, he said I wasn't allowed to look at the photos until we could look at them together, so I had to wait to see them even though they were here in our possession. We're gonna display them on the computer when we have our house warming (finally got it planned).

I have found that ever since I've gotten married, I've become more and more impatient. Like I wanted to just look at the photos without Rob and I opened presents when Rob wasn't around and I just generally don't like waiting for things anymore. I'll be finding out something in two weeks and I just feel irritated that I can't know now. Also my new school hasn't called me since Friday to tell me more about what I'll be teaching. I also find I get more easily agitated with students at school... but maybe that's just because they are talkative annoying girls from a girls school.

Because I've been doing casual for the past week, I've had to supervise some religion classes. They use the Catholic Bible there because it's a Catholic school. I've never had a look in a Catholic Bible before so I had a read of Tobit. It's a weirdish book (from what I've read). I can see why it wasn't included in the Christian Bible. I can accept that what is in the book of Tobit may be true, but it doesn't seem like a very Bible-ish book... if you know what I mean. It doesn't seem like it serves a purpose, but is rather just an account of someone who lived in "Bible times."

I could probably go to sleep now. I am tired. Should I stay up for Rob to come home? Tomorrow I can sleep in YAY! If I don't go to sleep now, I'll have to find something else to do. Youtube is tempting. Eh... I'll get ready for bed.

From Car-O-Line

wireless down

2009-08-07T21:40:00.003+10:00

Ok, so my net is playing up at the moment. My mac's airport doesn't seem to like the walls in our apartment. But that's ok... because right now I'm writing up my blog in textedit and then later I'll copy and paste this into blogger... so never fear! You'll be able to read this blog :) (:O you're reading it now!!! I told you so!)

I have more exciting news today. But first... the back story...

Me and Rob (and various other people) have been praying that I get a more secure job. And it's really awesome how God has answered our prayers! If only we looked to God first all the time and trusted in him faithfully. So the day after we prayed, I went online and found about 5 music teacher jobs! Some of the applications were really frustrating to do. Some only required an email. I applied to all the jobs (I've applied to every job that has come up... let me tell you that's a lot of applications and rejections!). Then finally at the beginning of the week, two of the schools got into contact with me wanting interviews. I went to one interview yesterday and went to one interview today.

Yesterday's interview: I almost didn't make it... because they were a bit slow in telling me what day they wanted me to come in, and then when they did tell me what day to go in, it turned out to be a day that Rob needed the car to go to Wyong. Fortunately, the public transport was alright and I made it there in good time. The interview was so-so. Some of the questions really threw me off because they weren't questions I was expecting. I was a bit disappointed after that interview... but then again, it was my own fault for not preparing enough for it beforehand.

Today's interview: This time I had the car and got to the school early. I sat in the car so that I wasn't going to be super early. This school's interview process seemed better. They gave me the questions beforehand and gave me 10 minutes to write notes/answers to the questions. Then they had 2 people interview me... they also provided water (but I didn't need it). Then they asked me those questions and I gave my answers. They weren't intimidating and were very encouraging. They were saying to me that I could take my time and have some water if I needed to think about anything. Though because I prepared beforehand I had all my answers clear in my head and so the interview went by very speedily.

So yeah... 2 hours after my interview today the school I went to today told me I got the job! YAY!!! It's a temporary (maternity leave) part time (mon, wed, fri) music teacher job 30 minutes from my house. Praise God for his love and generosity. I don't know much about the students... they may be good or bad... but I can't be picky about that. I start in two weeks. In the meantime I'm working for the next two weeks at Loreto. Woo Hoo! I'm gonna get income!

Other exciting news for you... here are pictures of the quiche I made! Look at Rob he's so excited about the quiche he had to rock out on the guitar! Don't look at the pictures too close up though... because then it doesn't look like quiche.

We're having a busy weekend this weekend with people coming over. Should be nice to catch up with some people we haven't seen in a while. Hope it wont be too tiring. We still haven't had a house warming yet... that'll have to happen soon. I've also been pretty slow on the wedding thank you cards... hopefully they'll come in the next few weeks. Gosh I'm such a bad person... we've been married a month and no thank you cards sent yet!

That reminds me... me and Rob have been married for 1 month... that means 1 month of me living without a tv! Who would have thought I'd survive? It hasn't been that hard at all actually. I think because we don't have a tv, I've been able to blog more. LOL!!!

From Car-O-Line

Yay for the weekend!!!

2009-07-31T17:13:00.002+10:00

Yay I'm so excited because it's the end of the week and I don't have to go to work tomorrow! LOL!!! I've just been to school yesterday and today and already I'm looking forward to a break. I thought I'd post because many exciting things have been happening.

Like right now... I'm baking a quiche. And it's looking good! And the oven we have here works really well so I'm looking forward to the finished product. Quiche is so easy to make! I found this recipe on a website and it's so easy. Here I'll share it with you:

Easy Quiche

serves: 6
prep time: around 15 mins
cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients
4 eggs
1.5 cups milk
3 tbs melted butter
0.5 cup self-raising flour
1.5 cups grated cheese
2 cups filling of choice

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C.
2. Whisk together, in a bowl, eggs, milk, butter and flour.
3. Fold in cheese and fillings.
4. Pour into a 24cm quiche dish, or into ramekins.
5. Bake for 40 minutes or until set.
6. Serve hot with vegetables or cold with salad.

Recipe notes
This quiche forms its own base so there is no need for a pastry base! Also, some of your fillings should be pre-cooked (eg: meats like bacon,chicken,etc. as well as veggies such as mushrooms, onions, etc.) and then should be cooled before adding to the mixture.

You must all go try it and tell me what you think.

In other news, me and Rob (and various other people) have been praying that I get more work. And God has graciously (and quickly) answered our prayers! I've been given a 1 month block doing music at the end of term at a school which is less than a 10 minute drive from my house. So that is really good. Also, there have been a few job listings for music teachers coming up recently. So I've applied for them all. (Christine you'll be happy to know that one of the schools is in the south-ish-west... and it's permanent too... so I hope I get that).

Other exciting things that have happened:
- went on a road trip with Cler (see previous post)
- had dinner with my parents which was nice
- my parents are coming over for lunch tomorrow which will be nice
- my mum is doing my tax return and it's looking good
- Jet has been doing really well since I added a live plant to his bowl. He even swims through the plant now (he was very scared of it at first)
- at the end of three weeks - marriage is still good

Today at school I had much free time. In fact I had so much free time you're probably wondering why I'm tired and looking forward to the weekend. Well I'm reading a book called "Love in Hard Places" by Don Carson. It's a really good book (and a bit heavy too... in a brain explosion way). Took me two 50 minute periods to read the first chapter which was a discussion on different types of love and what God's love is. Then I started to read the second chapter which is discussing whether there is a contradiction between the Old Testament (which has a lot of 'hate your enemy') and the New Testament (where Jesus says 'love your neighbours, pray for your enemies'). And I've found out that it isn't a contradiction, but Jesus fulfilling the Law and the Prophets. I wont give too much more away because it's too hard to blog about... and anyways you should read the book for yourself!!! But yeah... reading tires me out (even though I find the topic interesting).

Gosh this has been a long post - though I guess I cheated with the recipe :P
Have a good weekend all!!!

From Car-O-Line

Not so newly married now...

2009-07-29T16:33:00.002+10:00

So I've been married for almost three weeks now. Things have been prodding along quite smoothly. The transition hasn't been too traumatic, though the other day I was feeling a bit sad and was missing my parents and my old home. Rob did a good job of comforting me which was lovely.

Today is my official last day of holidays. I go to school tomorrow. I got a phone call this afternoon from the teacher I'm replacing letting me know that I have a before-school duty. Wah!!! It's at 7:45am. That's a whole 45mins earlier than I was hoping to arrive at school. Hopefully I wont be yawning too much.

Yesterday I went on a road trip with Cler. We went up to the central coast to drop some eye drops to a doctor there. Then on our way back we decided to pop by the Forest of Tranquility... because we had always seen the sign but didn't know what it was. It was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't really a forest. It was like a animal/nature reserve. And we couldn't get in the gate because there was no one there. We saw a bush turkey which was lots of fun. I was chasing it around and Cler took a funny video which is on facebook.

I think I might be getting sick because I've got a weird feeling in my throat. Hope it passes quickly. I'm drinking lots of warm water. I'm also listening to Joss Stone who is very soulful. I also used Garnier Fructus Instant Melt-In Mask and I think my hair is looking pretty good today.

I went to Ikea today. I couldn't help feeling a little stupid because often I was noticing that I was making "excited child" faces. There is just so much cool stuff at Ikea! I was was like a little child in a candy store. I had to force myself to look normal. I was actually surprised how many people who weren't mothers-pram-ing-kids were there. So many people not working today. I was particularly surprised by the number of young-adult couples shopping there. Surely they would have work today?

Well... this has been a moderately-sized blog.

From Car-O-Line

I'm Married!!!

2009-07-23T09:11:00.002+10:00

"Good morning sunshine! The earth says hello!!!" (points for whoever knows what movie that quote comes from)

So much has changed in the last two weeks. I got married, went on a week-long honeymoon with my husband(!) and now I live in H_rns_y with Rob! I also am going to another church now! I also wake up at 7am without an alarm clock and the first thing I do once I get out of bed is have a drink (I normally would go straight to cereal). I also shower in the morning now! I thought I'd never become a morning showerer.

I've also become quite domestic. I've spent the last three days buying cleaning products, food, bath mats, bins, cling wrap, curtains, and more! I've also been cooking dinner heaps! I never thought I'd like being the domestic wife because when I was at my old home, I would hardly ever cook, hardly have to worry about washing dishes or clothes, let alone cleaning the bathroom. But the thing that I think has changed is that I just really love serving Rob. And Rob is super good at serving me too! I'm not back at work yet so I've had heaps of time to settle into my new home which has been a blessing. Rob is already back at work and uni. God has been very gracious towards our new life together. I was worried before that the change would be traumatic, but God has been so gracious towards me. Really I had nothing to fear.

Oh and the wedding day was fantastic. Everything went so smoothly and I had a really enjoyable (and not tiring) time. Nothing went wrong and I just loved being around all my family and friends, celebrating our marriage.

We honeymooned in the Hunter Valley. We stayed at three different locations. Rob planned it all and he did a great job. I'm glad the locations were close because it meant that we didn't get tired from traveling. And I'm glad that we went to three different locations because it meant we could always get excited about a new location. And all the places were beautiful and comfortable! We also read through Song of Songs and listened to Mark Driscoll Talks on Song of Songs. Mark Driscoll is pretty funny and can be quite challenging, but he sometimes also reads into the passage too much so it was good to be discussing it all with Rob. In spending 168 consecutive hours with Rob, I learned so much more about him that I didn't know before (and it was all good). Hopefully this honeymoon period/stage will last for all our years and we wont become jaded about marriage.

Everyone has been so generous towards us. Our place is fully functional (and not too messy). We hope to be able to be hospitable and have people over in the near future.

I wont bore you any more with my lovey-dovey feelings.

From Car-O-Line

Taronga's new baby elephant

2009-07-06T18:37:00.003+10:00

source: http://images.theage.com.au/2009/07/05/618305/0607ELEPHANT-200x0.jpg

Taronga Zoo welcomed a new baby elephant recently. And there is a competition going round for the best baby name for it. The catch - the name must be Thai. Me and mum were thinking up of ideas:

Phat: because it sounds like "fat" which is funny and it also looks like a Thai word
Pad Thai: "because everyone likes pad thai" - Mum
Siew: (as in Pad Siew) because it's Rob's favourite Thai dish
Chaing Mai: "call it Chiang Mai!" - Dad... he liked Chiang Mai when we went there

So what do you reckon? Vote! Or put down your own suggestions.

From
Car-O-Line

I'm changing...

2009-06-10T15:51:00.003+10:00

Hello!!! It has been a very long time since I posted. How sad for you all. It turns out that I have lots of free time today so I'm going to write about things.

Last weekend Rob and I had our pre-wedding photo shoot with Linda. It was an awesome fun time. Linda is very funny. And I don't really know why. She just makes me laugh a lot. Hello Linda if you are reading this :) - are you going to blog about me too? I hope so.

Other wedding planning stuff is boring and isn't going away yet. Oh well. I'm still very excited about the wedding and having a break from work and being able to settle into a new home. I was talking with Chris and she was asking me how I coped with change... because she said she doesn't cope with change well... and I'll be going through a lot of change. To tell you the truth, I haven't had to deal with much significant change throughout my life... so it will be interesting to see how I do cope with change. Please pray that all the big changes that are about to happen for me wont be too traumatic and that I'll cope well. Gotta keep on trusting in God - he's the best!

You may notice that I changed my blog header to a fully sick graffiti picture of my blog name. This is because I've been working down in the south west hood and I'm full gangsta now. But seriously... the kids at school showed me this website that changed any text to graffiti which is fun to play with. I'm getting used to it there... but it's not fun being the pleb casual teacher... so often I get put on to do the very annoying jobs. Work is toil.

In other news though... today I took a sick day from the south west and took a casual day at a local selective girls high school. OMGOSH it was such a change!!! The girls were actually self motivated and did all the work! And they knew stuff about music and were able to compose! And the teacher left actual work for me to teach to the classes (I took the music classes). It was pretty awesome. There were times when the girls were getting chatty... but they were actually discussing the work! THEY WERE DISCUSSING THE WORK!!! Such a culture shock. Hooray for now being in the school's casual teacher book... hopefully I'll get work in the future.

Tomorrow I'm picking up my wedding dress which is exciting. EXCITING! (I'm so excitable today... is that a proper grammatical sentence?)

Rob has been doing up our new place and now we have quite a good amount of furniture. So it's looking very homey and nice. Feels like you could live in it. Only 4 weeks to go! :O

Well I wont bore you any longer.

From Car-O-Line

Quick Post

2009-03-28T09:14:00.002+11:00

I've only got 15 minutes until I go to a 6 hour child protection training course so I must be quick.

I've been teaching at a school since week 5 of this term. It's a temporary position for a full time music teacher. So I've been teaching a lot of music. I like teaching, although, because I'm the temporary teacher I don't really get to teach what I want to teach. So sometimes I have to think really hard about how to teach something (like Indian music or HipHop or Rock). Every now and then I try to slip in some 19th Century music or Opera. Also because I'm a temporary, it's taken me a while to get a hold on some of the kids. It's pretty ok now... still about 2 classes who are just really disrespectful... and it's not nice to be disrespected. So that's a little frustrating. But anyways, next week is my last week there.

Wedding planning has been going smoothly too. We have bridesmaid dresses!

Not much else has been happening besides school. I've been reading Genesis, Proverbs and Luke. Genesis just keeps on reminding me that we are sinful but God is loving and faithful. Proverbs has some really funny things in it - but it also reminds me how much I need wisdom (especially as I teach in school). Luke has been a very exciting book to read. Jesus is a very surprising person.

From Car-O-Line

heat wave

2009-02-08T15:45:00.002+11:00

It is really really hot! Just thought I'd point out the obvious.

Did you know:
-Wedding dresses can take up to 6 months to make
-The cost of buying a suit is only slightly higher than the cost of hiring a suit
-You can receive a discount if you have a reception in winter. You also receive a discount if you have a reception in January

I'm all full of exciting information and insightful insights today.

From Car-O-Line

news

2009-02-04T19:53:00.002+11:00

It's been a while. So here is some news.

-I'm still unemployed but just recently had two interviews. Just waiting for some casual days to pop up too.
-I'm engaged to Rob :)
-Being engaged is kinda hectic because there is so much to plan and so many people to have to keep happy... but it's not too bad.

That's all from me. When there is more news to share I will. And hopefully my next post will be a bit more interesting.

From Car-O-Line

Gypsies and Birthdays

2009-01-23T12:22:00.004+11:00

Woo! Here are some pics from Jazz in the Domain (17/01/09). It was an awesome night of gypsy jazz music. I totally loved it. I love the thick brass sound and rhythmic energy. Check out www.myspace.com/dochgypsydance and www.myspace.com/fanfareciocarlia for a sample of what gypsy jazz is.

Yesterday was mum's birthday. So last night we had a party with people from her Bible study group. It was a heaps fun time. We ate lots of food and talked. Those ladies are so funny (and a bit cheeky at times). They got me to read out these jokes about senior citizens which were hilarious.

Today I decided to get back into the music culture thing... so I did some score reading of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Awesome piece of music. I'm into opera at the moment. I'm still a little sad I wont be able to go to Opera in the Domain.

From Car-O-Line

My Titanic Moment

2009-01-21T10:27:00.003+11:00

I love Dee Why beach. I went there yesterday and last Sunday. The water there is so blue and clear. And you can walk in 3 metres and the water is up to your shoulders already. A great beach for swimming. The waves are also a decent size and you can ride them. I rode a few waves and it's such an awesome feeling. You feel like you're flying on a cloud of whitewash water. It was a bit like a Titanic moment LOL.

A few music teacher jobs have recently popped up so I've been applying for them. One of them is for a private school and one is for a new government school. I'm still all for public education so hopefully I'll hear something soon.

I just finished reading the book of Zechariah using The Daily Reading Bible. Zechariah can be quite confusing at times. There is a lot of unusual imagery and lots of "he said: "thus he said..."" But I got through it. I think one of the overriding messages of Zechariah is that God is bringing his Kingdom and he wants you to draw near to him. One thing cool about reading Zechariah in light of the New Testament is that we see that Jesus brings about the Kingdom. So there is cause for much rejoicing. Heaps of Zechariah is quoted in the Gospels. In Zechariah you see God as loving, merciful, jealous, wrathful... it's jam packed and you should read it!!!

From Car-O-Line

P.S.: I have photos from Jazz in the Domain which was awesome! I'll blog about it next time.

photos for the week

2009-01-15T15:11:00.004+11:00

Today is an extremely hot day. I didn't open any curtains or windows at all in attempt to keep the heat on the outside... but it's still hot. I went for a swim this morning... did 1km. The pool was busy. Heaps of people escaping the heat (yet it is an indoor heated pool ).

Photo time:

Scared Jet with the flash... he's still doing good

My desk!!! Can you tell that I cleaned it?

My new laptop stand... need to get a keyboard to plug into it.

All my folders with units of works and resources... I just need a shelf that will fit them all now.

About a month ago I bought material to make a dress known as the infinity dress. The pattern looked so easy and the dress looked nice... so I bought material in haste. Yet I only ended up making it today. It was very very quick to make! Probably only 2 hours. There were a few fiddley bits... so next time I'll know what to do for an even better product. But I'm still pretty happy with it.

Same dress... different ways to wear it :O It's cool!!!

From Car-O-Line

buying, fishing, relaxing, reading, writing...

2009-01-14T21:44:00.002+11:00

I have spent a lot of money post-Christmas. I think I have a slight obsession with receiving packages in the mail/deliveries. I bought this awesome cake pan and a laptop stand off ebay. I've also bought clothes. And I bought a whole stack of folders and stationary to organise all my music resources. I'll post pictures sometime.

Update on Jettison... he's doing fine and swims around happily in his bowl. I've been spending a lot of time on the internet researching Betta Splendens. I've worked out a way of easily cleaning Jet's bowl whilst not disturbing him too much which is good. I'm hoping to video him (it'll be easier than taking a still photo) and then I'll upload it for you guys to see.

So far in my holidays... I've been to Muswellbrook to visit family with my parents and Rob for two days which was nice and relaxing. Had quite a bit of chill time at home. Spent a week away at Naomi's new place near Coffs Harbour - went to the beach and other general relaxing.

Two of my friends had engagement parties last weekend. They were fun and it was especially nice to catch up with high school friends.

I read the first two books in the Twilight series. I'm hooked. I wanna read more!!! I saw the movie too and I liked it (though the book was heaps better). I also saw High School Musical 3 and was surprisedly surprised at how good it was. It was awesome in fact!!!

I am currently reading through Zechariah and it's been a little tough and hard to understand... but where I'm up to now... it's a little clearer. Some of the visions in the earlier chapters of the book are just plain confusing! But as a whole... the book has a lot to say about Jesus... so that has been cool.

I'm also reading Prayer and the Voice of God. It is a very easy book to read and quite succinct. If you are having difficulties with prayer... I recommend this book. It has given me a new-found love for prayer and motivation to pray more.

This week I started writing "units of work" for my future music teaching. I've written units on 'the concepts of music,' 'instruments of the orchestra,' classical period, baroque period, romantic period, jazz and world music (some didn't take long to write though because I had models already for them). So hopefully I'll hear about a job soon. It's pretty annoying just waiting for the department to call me and tell me. I tried to call them the other day but the lines were busy so I had to leave a message. No doubt they are busy busy busy organising stuff before school resumes.

Holidays have been good so far. I better make the most of them. Swimming tomorrow :)

From Car-O-Line

New member to my family

2008-12-24T13:36:00.003+11:00

Introducing Jettison (Jet) Finn Barker. My early Christmas present from Cler. It's a Siamese Fighter fish and from my research I think it is a crown-tail breed (or possibly delta). It has beautiful colours and it is very difficult to take a picture of him. But here are my poor attempts anyways:

He's blue and red... and has a sometimes shiny silver colour.

Keep still I'm trying to take a photo!!!

Oooo nice silhouette.

From Car-O-Line

lets go fly a kite

2008-12-21T23:50:00.003+11:00

Yesterday on the 20/12 I went to Newport Beach with the young adults from church. We had a fun day of making sand castles, flying kites and swimming. The kite flying was an awesome idea (thanks to me). It's a wonder how something so simple and cheap can give so much enjoyment and fun. And all you do is hold a string and look up into the sky. Anyways... I'm on a photo-taking roll so here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

The sand castle that we made together. I made the awesome footbridge first... then we decided to turn it into a moat... so then it was only natural for us to build the castle in the middle.

Look at the kite!!! I was fortunate enough to get this image with the kite flyer and the kite in the same photo... afterwards the kite was so high that they couldn't fit both flyer and kite in the same picture.

It was a lovely day for kite flying. Lots of wind and a lovely blue sky.

From Car-O-Line

garlic goodness

2008-12-18T17:23:00.002+11:00

Just had to upload another photo. It tastes gooooooooood!

From Car-O-Line

promised photos

2008-12-18T16:06:00.005+11:00

Hooray! Here are the promised photos of my lemon cakes:

And the promised photos of the Christmas cards I made:

Today I made "Garlic Lover's Bread." It was cool roasting the garlic, making the paste, kneading the dough and watching it rise.

This is the start of the second rise

Slowly rising :)

Ready for the oven now!!! :D

Hooray!!! Fresh home cooked bread!!! MMMMMMmmmmmm!!!!

Cooking is fun.

From Car-O-Line

suGAH! :O

2008-12-16T20:31:00.003+11:00

Today I made lemon cupcakes with lemon icing and hundreds'o'thousands. They were quite tasty. I made them because some of the arts girls (and their friends) from CBS went to the chaplaincy to hang out, eat and make Christmas cards... I made 5-6 cards I think. It was fun. What am I going to do with them? (Especially considering the last post I wrote). I gave the nicest looking one to my parents and they liked it.

I took photos of the cupcakes and I'll take photos of the cards but at the moment my camera batteries are getting recharged. So the photos will come up in another post.

Last night I was reading back on some of my old posts... and quite a lot I've written something like "I'll write about last week in another post later" and then I never post about that event. How sad for you all. My deepest apologies.

From
Car-O-Line

P.S.: I ate way too much sugary foods today and now my head feels like it's about to explode.

Christmas cards...

2008-12-15T16:54:00.002+11:00

What are they for? Who do YOU send them to?

I find that Christmas cards are a waste of paper. In the past I sent Christmas cards to everyone... people I saw everyday. But now I'm starting to think that they are more for sending to people who you don't see often and want to wish them a merry Christmas. So what is the purpose of a Christmas card?

And what do you write on a Christmas card? Do you write a long spiel? Or do you just write a simple greeting. Or do you write a special Christmas letter update from your year with your card? I guess it depends on how many cards you are going to send.

And will you get offended if you don't get a Christmas card? I'm sure there are people who send me Christmas cards because I sent them one last year. Will you be offended if I don't reply with one?

Is there a history to Christmas cards? When was the first Christmas card sent? Why did they send it? What country do Christmas cards originate from?

Do you not send Christmas cards? Why don't you send Christmas cards? How did you decide that you weren't going to send them? Do you do something in place of sending Christmas cards?

What do you do with your Christmas cards after Christmas? Do you recycle them straight away? Do you keep them for a few years before you recycle them? Do you keep them forever and put them in a scrap book?

Is it ok to give a really good friend a Christmas present without a card attached?

Could you give someone a gospel of Luke instead of a Christmas card? Would it be the same as giving a Christmas card?

This year I'm giving hugs and smiles instead of cards... although I'll send some cards. I'm pretty lazy and usually feel compelled to write long messages in cards (yet I'm never sure of what to write) so it's easier to not write cards.

From
Car-O-Line

SPRTE and a sewing machine

2008-12-13T18:29:00.004+11:00

This blog is dedicated to Elsie... my most faithful blog follower.

SPRTE Canberra!!!
WOO! SPRTE (South Pacific Training Event) was very awesome. Because it was of the South Pacific... there were people from Vanuatu, PNG, NZ and Fiji (I hope I didn't forget a nation). Every night one group gave a presentation on student work in their country. They all sang and danced for us and it was very good. Aussies were totally put to shame for our lack of cultural song/dance... and also because of the cost (or lack of) we are willing to pay for the spread of the gospel. All the islanders told us stories of how they had been so affected by the cross of Christ that they were willing to go through sufferings (to the point of death) for the proclamation of the gospel... and we complain that we don't get funding from our student unions. So yes... they were all very encouraging. I also went to a Fijian sing-a-long where they taught us how to sing a song in Fijian and it sounded so beautiful.
Other highlights:
-taking a walk with the desire to get lost so that I could work my way back. I walked to Lake Burley Griffin by myself... no map or anything. I got there in speedy time... and made it back to uni via a different route. It's fun to go on walks without maps and just to wander around.
-Me, Kathy and Christine had a party in my room on the last night where we talked and painted our nails wacky colours. Ellen would of come but she had to sleep because she had to drive the next day.
-Strand group was hard... I was doing Strand 5. It was hard work. We were looking at Titus and planning a sermon series on it. Kudos to all the pastors out there who do it every week! We spent the first 4 days looking at the themes, theology, ethics and flow of the book, thinking about how to split the book up along the way. On the last day we sorta started to write a plan on one talk... but didn't really finish anything. So that was kinda sad because there wasn't any closure. But I've now got a framework for planning a sermon series. I can see that it's gonna take a lot more than a week to plan a series (let alone write the talks for that series!).
-The talks were awesome too. In the mornings we looked at sin, wrath and the cross... then in the evening we looked at Jesus' approach to the cross. It was really helpful spending time thinking about sin and wrath in order to realise how important the cross is and how great God's love is for us. Listen to them if you can get a chance.

SPRTE misssion THE LAKES!!!
Mission was so good and it was great to head back to the Lakes church to see how they are going. We did heaps more leafletting, doorknocking and contact with the community. We did a BBQ one day to tell people about stuff happening at the Lakes... and it was the hottest day which sucked majorly. But besides that... it was cool to see people from the church like the ministers and families that I had met last year. And the fellowship with the team from UNSW was really cool too. It was a very fun (and funny) team.

Sewing Machine!!!
A while back I bought an Amy Butler pattern for a dress... and the other day I went and bought fabric to make it. So I made it!!! It's the first dress I've made and I'm really proud of it. But it wasn't all easy... there were the usual dramas (like sewing the wrong thing and having to unpick everything) but there was an even bigger drama...
I had been sewing all day and was giving the sewing machine a break. Then I heard this bang... like something had rolled off the table. So I went to see what it was... and I saw all this yellow smoke pouring out of my sewing machine!!! So I quickly removed all the plugs. I was freaking out because it smelt really bad... and I didn't want the house to catch on fire. I was so close to calling the fire brigade. And I couldn't put the machine outside because it was raining. Luckily there was no fire... but the smell was bad... and I was mid project. So I was very sad that my sewing machine blew up (it was 20 years old... and I think it was its time). Thankfully I got to borrow a sewing machine from a church aunty... and I finished my dress!

(Apologies for the super posed photo)

Gosh this was long... I must blog more frequently. It's the least I could do for Elsie.

From
Car-O-Line

swim swim :)

2008-10-29T22:37:00.002+11:00

Ok... so today turned out to be very cold and very rainy... but I still got to go for a swim because it's an indoor heated pool. I swam 1.5km... which is really awesome because last time I only swam 1km (and it was not a particularly easy 1km). Everyone should take up swimming and if you want a swimming buddy let me know!

I started doing regular quiet times again. I'm reading through Psalms, and I have a devotion book on Psalms too. I chose Psalms because people always rave about it, and Rob is doing it at his youth group and he's always talking about it, but I don't know that much about it (at least I don't think I do). The first chapter was quite appropriate... because one of the challenges of that chapter was to delight in the law and to meditate on it day and night.

This evening I went back to choir. I've rejoined it to be in the Christmas concert. The songs we are singing are quite lovely... a lot of them are lullabies. We were singing them all so beautifully that it was making me feel a little drowsy! Tomorrow I'll be back in uni again for a handbells practice.

From Car-O-Line

remember remember the 5th of movember

2008-10-27T22:19:00.003+11:00

donate!!!

In other news... I've finished uni! No more assignments or exams or anything. It's all done. It hasn't really sunk in yet. Plus I'll still be able to go to uni because I have choir rehearsals and handbell rehearsals. But I wont be able to see everyone all the time now which is kinda sad.

The weather has been really uncomfortably hot. I hope I'll be able to go swimming tomorrow... do some laps of the pool. Swimming has got to be the most fun and enjoyable exercise ever. I really like it.

At church we've been doing a series on Matthew 24-25 called "Are you ready?" I never realised how jam packed the second half of Matthew 24 is. It's been really awesome. It's also been cool to see that my youth group girls have been challenged by the sermons, they ask me questions and talk about it at youth group on Fridays. I've been really enjoying leading them this year and seeing them grow.

Someone lent me the book "Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God" and said it was a really good book... but I haven't found it that great. It was also on the Equip book list. I feel like the language is a bit strange and it doesn't flow well. And I haven't seemed to have reached the point where it talks about how God is extraordinary (which I thought I would have got to by now). Maybe I just have to keep on reading.

I just finished reading "Guidance and the voice of God" and thought it was awesome. Biblical, easy to understand and challenging. Read it!

From Car-O-Line

All rising!

2008-10-15T15:51:00.001+11:00

Happy 216th post!!!

2008-09-21T22:28:00.003+10:00

I just been to Doug's blog and noticed that he is celebrating his 200th post (congratulations)... so I thought I'd check out where I was up to... turns out I missed celebrating my 200th post... but oh well. His blog also reminded me about something I've been trying to come to a decision about on Hillsong music.

Should evangelical churches use Hillsong music? The main argument I've heard, saying that we shouldn't is:
-By playing Hillsong music in our churches, we are supporting an organisation that preaches a false gospel.

But then I was thinking:
-how does this apply to secular music? music which has worldly views instead of heavenly views.

So... is using Hillsong music the same as buying an AC/DC cd?

I'm further confused by this topic because at Women's Katoomba Convention we sang a Hillsong song... and I have great respect for WKC (and KCC as a whole) and their Bible teaching.

From Car-O-Line

P.S.: WKC was really good... will post about it another time.

Caroline's looks

2008-09-16T14:03:00.002+10:00

A few people have commented to me that I give them looks... but they don't know what the look means. So they say to me "You gave me this look but I wasn't sure what it meant... what does it mean?" And I say "Really? You didn't understand what that look meant. Gosh!"

So it has come to my attention that I do tend to give looks... and that there are many different looks that I give which makes it hard for people to interpret my looks. I think I should write an illustrated book about the different looks that I give and their meanings. But for now... I will merely list some of the looks I give:

The "Are you ready to leave now" look
The "Let's move onto the next question in Bible study" look
The "I don't want to intimidate our study group members to answer questions so I'm looking at you" look
The "Answer the question... I know you know the answer" look
The "Get back to work" look (in the classroom)
The "I know that you know you are doing the wrong thing" look (in the classroom)
The "You should be proud of yourself but I'm not going to say it publicly because you'll get a big head" look
The "I'm disappointed" look
The "I don't know... why are you looking at me" look
The "I'm not sure" look
The "meh" look
The "I'm nervous" look
The "I'm not nervous but you are looking at me like I am nervous which is starting to make me nervous" look
The "Excited" look
The "I'm sick but I'm trying to look well" look

Those are just 15 looks... but I can think of a few more. So next time I give you a look... consider the above looks.

From Car-O-Line

Test: What look is this??? Comment your answers!!!

big sigh of relief!!!

2008-07-11T12:35:00.003+10:00

I passed everything in my uni results!!! In fact I did quite well overall!!! I'm so happy! I'm on the home stretch to graduating now.

The subject I was most worried about was "stress and anxiety." It was the subject I was most stressed about. And I got a high credit for it. All praise must go to God for that one... I was seriously worried that I might have failed and would have to stay back at uni for another semester. Now that I think about it... I'm not quite sure how I did so well in that course... I must have done really well in the multiple choice final exam.

Gifted and Talented students was a bit of a disappointment... but I did super well in Special Ed - HD. I think Special Ed was one of my favourite subjects ever... I wonder if I should do further study in it. I also did well in Ethics (where I did a focus on Music Education in Special Education) but wasn't as high as I hoped... I think my essay let me down a little bit.

Essays suck... they always seem to bring my marks down... but hip hip hooray... I don't have any more essays to write!!! (Unless I do a masters or honours... which I think I'd like to do for Music Ed in Special Ed). At least there will be no more essays for the rest of this year.

In other news... I'm in my third relapse of the flu which really sucks. I'm keeping myself inside so that I can recover quickly. I have MYC next week with Rob and wanna be well for that.

Also... I've officially left PizzaCutters. I have to say it's been an alright 1.5 years there... lots of interesting things and conversations. It'll be sad to not have those deep conversations about religion any more. I sorta wish I made more of an effort to talk about that stuff now. Maybe it'll be easier to talk to them when I visit about them, now that I'm out of the "work" context. I must say that I wont miss all the washing up and mopping the floor every night. My trackie pants will be much better off without the bleach splashing on them.

I'm so happy! I feel much freer now that I know my uni results. Next term I go on my 7-week block teaching practicum. So I may be out of it for a while.

From Car-O-Line

Got this in the mail today

2008-07-02T15:57:00.001+10:00

wordle!!!

2008-06-21T21:16:00.004+10:00

Wordle is a thing that takes your text and picks out the most used words to make a word cloud. It's great fun! Here are some that I did (click to enlarge):

wordle of this blog

wordle of my ethics essay about music education for the hearing impaired

wordle of the special education lecture notes

wordle of a talk a did on contentment

From Car-O-Line

arpdayette

2008-06-15T17:24:00.003+10:00

I haven't blogged in a while... I miss blogging.

Yesterday I went to a sci-fi/fantasy 21st party. Me and Rob dressed as star trek people. I may have photos eventually. It's fun to dress up.

I've been sick for the past week. Had a killer throat for a few days... then I lost my voice. I'm slowly getting my voice back.

The other day I was thinking about blogging something interesting... but I've forgotten what that was now.

Cler made me sign up to this thing called twitter. My twitter site is www.twitter.com/carolinebarker

I'm organising the Women's Katoomba Convention group from my church and it's proving to be a challenging task. But it's not that stressful... I think switch camp organising was more stressful.

Next semester I'll be on prac. I've basically finished my university education which is sorta sad. I didn't really realise it when I finished last session that I wouldn't really see a lot of my uni friends any time soon. Must do things in the holidays. I'll be back at uni in September.

Tonight, Battle of the Choirs is on. I'm excited about it :) I've been really into choral music lately. There is a song called The Boxer which I reckon would be good for a boys choir. I've also been feeling like orchestration. What I really should be doing is studying for my exams.

This has been a quick and mediocre update
From Car-O-Line

on a blog roll

2008-04-04T23:16:00.002+11:00

If you actually visit my blog site, you'll notice that the whole layout/background/style has changed. I'm glad I did computer studies in high school and did that website design general education course at uni because now I'm quite familiar with html stuff... and even though I may not know the exact codes needed, I know how to organise tags which blogger provides and put them in the right places. One thing that's been baffling me though is getting the title of each blog post become a link to the permament site of the post. I looked at the codes needed and included these in... but it hasn't been working. If anyone knows what I should do... please send me a message.

Tonight at youth group we had a girls night (while the boys did manly things). One thing us girls did was do facials. I had this lovely cucumber and yoghurt mask... and it felt really good. I felt so awake after it... if you are tired I recommend you try it.

Cucumber and Yoghurt facial recipe:
blend 1/2 a cumcumber with 2 tablespoons of plain yoghurt. Then put it on your face.

Very simple! A good website with very easy facial recipes is http://www.wittyliving.com/recipes/facial-mask-recipes.html

Tomorrow I have two 21st birthday parties. The first one that I'm going to has a 'bogan' theme, and the second party has a 'chic' theme. I have two different costumes for both, just gotta try and work out when I'm going to change. It's going to be a little tight travelling between the parties.

I finished another uni assignment today which was good. Now just got to do a lot of reading. I also need to try and neaten up my lecture notes so that they are understandable.

From Car-O-Line

blog redesign

2008-04-03T00:10:00.003+11:00

Decided to change the layout of my blog. It's pretty simple... I think it's alright.

The hecticness of uni has officially started now... I've already handed in my first assignment, and got one due today (which I've already done thankfully). I'll have to be working constantly from now on. Although it is nice to be able to take a break and blog and surf the internet... something I've learned from my "stress and anxiety" course (as long as I don't blog/surf for too long).

URGENT things to do:
-get C's 21st speech on paper
-write birthday cards
-read the 6 journal articles on 'music for the hearing impaired' that I downloaded
-skim read the 3 books that I borrowed from the library on 'music for the hearing impaired'
-write my proposal for the ethics assignment
-compose the bibliography for ethics

not so urgent things to do:
-go fabric shopping
-learn advanced origami from youtube
-embroider a cushion
-read frankie magazine
-surf myspace for indie music
-crochet a soft toy

From Car-O-Line

p.s: I've been looking at myspace music sites and have found some pretty cool artists... so in a future blog I'm going to give my list of musicians you should check out (much like my last blog on craft websites)

procrastination list

2008-03-16T16:53:00.004+11:00

I saw Chris T on the train the other day... hadn't seen her since my birthday party. We got chatting about what we did in our holidays and I told her about how I learned how to do a lot of craft stuff from the internet. So I sent her (and Haze) some links to some of my favourite sites. And I got thinking today... why don't I share them with the world? So here is my Top 12 list for sites to procrastinate with...

1
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=9639 - cute crochet patterns to buy

2
http://www.amigurumipatterns.blogspot.com/ - the blog of the above person... sometimes there are FREE patterns :)

3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mypapercrane/sets/749058/ - really cute plush... maybe a place to find some inspiration

4
http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTfetching.html - a long term craft goal for me

5
http://www.mintd.com/ - aussie version of etsy... cool indie designs

6
http://pinkchalkstudio.com/blog/2006/07/10/whiplash-challenge-water-bottle-carrier/ - cute water bottle carrier tutorial

7
http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/how_to_make_this_pursebag/index.html - where I learned how to make bags. I subscribe to this blog because it's so good and she updates it with free tutorials very frequently

8
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5347491 - super cute amigurumi dolls!!!

9
http://www.forestprints.com/ - lots of cute designs, bags, clothes, toys, etc

10
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5071142 - lino print art

11
http://www.madeit.com.au/ - awesome handmade craft shop online

12
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=19929 - I like this person's boxy pouches

From Car-O-Line

notes on the 'other' part of Australia

2008-02-12T15:16:00.000+11:00

well... i've been to tasmania now. took quite a few photos. the scenery was very beautiful... and the weather wasn't too bad... just freezing cold!

it was nice to go on bush walks and smell the trees. the air is so fresh there.

it sucked not being able to drive at all though (my parents drove... i wasn't allowed because of the hire car insurance). which meant i had to persevere through the very slow, and often scary driving of my parents. it also meant that i had to do the directions... which i was happy to do as i feel very comfortable reading a map... but it's difficult when they don't listen to you... meaning you end up somewhere you weren't supposed to... and i got the blame...????

so general thoughts on tasmania
-it smells really really good
-the road signs are too small
-what's with all the one way streets? confusing!
-they have nice wood crafts there
-it's cold cold cold

From Car-O-Line

it is done

2008-01-23T16:31:00.001+11:00

Bertie's Standing Point

a new project (and a short blog)

2008-01-17T22:34:00.000+11:00

well... so much has been going on recently. I've been enjoying myself... that is all you need to know. (also... I can't be bothered to write everything that's been happening... and I can't really remember either).

so... yesterday I went to Ikea and bought one of those artist's dummies (because it was cheap, and I've always thought they were pretty cool). so here is my new project...

change the pose of the dummy (which will now be referred to as bertie - because it was the first thing that came into my head when I was thinking of names) highly frequently (hopefully daily, but I doubt that), take a picture and post it on my blog. if all goes well... I may even set up a new blog dedicated to bertie and his many postures.

the first pose!!!

From Car-O-Line

Chritstmas and New Years fun

2008-01-09T11:50:00.000+11:00

I haven't been home much since Christmas, so I haven't really been able to blog about it yet... but now I'm home and bored so I can blog about it!

Christmas eve:
Went to the Chong's for their annual Christmas eve dinner which was lovely as usual. I ended up arriving 45mins early because I wasn't sure what time it started, so I assumed it would start at 6pm (a regular dinner time)... I arrived at 6:15... I was rushing too because I thought I was late. When infact it started at 7pm. LOL.
After that I went to Rob's church for their 11pm service. It was a pretty good service. Good talk. It was very refreshing to hear about the real meaning of Christmas and to be reminded about God's love, amidst all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season.

Christmas day:
Went to church in the morning for another good Christmas service. Then came home, and my whole family had a nap over lunch (seeing that we weren't having a Christmas lunch this year). I slept for about 4 hours. It was a good rest. Then me and mum started prepping for Christmas dinner. We decided to go easy on ourselves and have a BBQ, so me and mum just had to make salads and chop fruit. We had about 10 people over which was nice. Good to catch up with family and see little Rhys growing up and eating tasty food. Poor Rob was sick as a dog and slept most of the evening. When he did get up and come out... he was like a zombie. LOL.

Boxing day:
Went up to Muswellbrook to see dad's side of the family. Stayed the night there. Didn't do much there. The weather was warm but I forgot to take my swimmers so that was a bit of a bummer watching the kids swim in the pool and not being able to. I almost jumped in with my clothes on... it was so tempting. We drove around the country a bit. I did a lot of driving up and down.

A few days after that:
Me and Cler were supposed to go out shopping and movie-ing, but I was really sick. Couldn't stand up for long periods of time and feverish. So Cler came over instead and we watched "The Little Mermaid" and just caught up and stuff which was nice. She brought gifts from Hong Kong, including these cute stylus' for my DS. Unfortunately I had to go to work that night which probably wasn't the best idea, but everyone else was on holidays so I had to go in. By 7pm I was feeling so crook that I asked if I could go home soon, so the boss let me go. Lucky the nice boss was working.

30th of December 07:
Rob came and picked me up, and then we went and picked Erin up, and we set off on our road trip!!! We drove through Wollongong to Jervis Bay where we picked up Sarah M. We had lunch there which was really good after sitting down in the car for so long. And then we set off again to the Bega Valley (yes... Bega... as in Bega cheese). It was a pretty long drive, and it was hot. And we didn't really stop much because Rob just wanted to get there as quickly as possible. We were staying at Dan W's house which is in Bemboka, a little bit out of Bega. It was a really nice place and the family were very hospitable. Had a nice dinner and then got settled in for bed.

New Years Eve:
Started the day by getting a tour of the farm. Steve drove us in the ute while Rob and Dan stood in the tray. It was the full country experience, we had to stop and move trees which had fallen across the fire trail. After lunch, we drove to Warren's house. Then we all went to Merimbula beach for a swim. It was freezing! And I probably shouldn't have because I was still a little sick. We had pizza for dinner (and I criticised it as a pizzacutter does) and then went to the fun world there. We did lazer zone (for an amazing $8 only!)... it was my first time. It was fun. I came second last though (no teams). I'd do it again though. We did other games too. Dan and Steve did DDR and it was kinda freaky watching the twins doing the same moves... they are so alike and so cute together!!! There were fireworks on Merimbula beach which were really good (better than Sydney because there is no smog) and then we just chilled on the beach for a bit... doing acrobatics and normal stuff like that. Then we went back to Warren's hosue to count down the new year. Watched the Sydney fireworks on tv.

New Years morning:
After Warren's we came back to Dan's and saw a wombat in his driveway... we were chasing it with the car... it ran pretty fast... and then it went into the bushes. It was very cute. Then we all just sat around the dining table chatting and stuff. Then we went to bed.

Later that day:
We decided to start the New Year by going across the boarder - to Victoria. We also decided that 2008 would be "the year of the dance" so we did a few moves in the lounge room. So we drove to Pembula on a very empty tank, Rob probably had about 1.4L left in his car... so got petrol there (after passing two petrol stations that were closed... it was getting desperate). Went to Eden for lunch, fish and chips overlooking the sea. When we got to the boarder we stopped by the side of the road to take pictures. Sarah celebrated her first time in Victoria by moonwalking across the boarder. After all that fun, we decided to drive on further into Victoria, only to find that Warrren's car wasn't starting. And we had no phone reception. Luckily Rob's car was working still, so we drove to the nearest town... about 15kms away, and Warren called his Dad... his Dad knew what was wrong because it had happened before so we went back and fixed the car. So we head off again. Rob let me drive his car! It was only the second time that I had ever driven a manual. And I crunched it pretty hard at one stage... but once I made it into 5th gear I was sweet. It was funny... everytime we approached a town, I freaked out because it meant that I would have to change gears. I drove to Boydtown (not Boytown) where we stopped to check out the beach and had coffee, then drove back to Bega. We picked up some videos, then Rob drove back to Bemboka. That evening we watched "Hoodwinked."

2/1/08:
Drove Dan to work at the Bega cheese factory, and had a look around as well. Then the rest of us went to Tathra where we ate lunch, and then went for a swim in the lagoon. The water was really nice this time, but as it got deeper it was cold... but that was alright. Erin, Sarah, Steve and I were the only ones to go in and we had fun talking about open and closed ears, and other random things. Went back to Warren's for dinner, then picked up Dan when he finished work. Watched "Dodgeball" back at Bemboka (because Dan had never seen it) and also "The Bourne Ultimatum" which was a good movie (considering I haven't seen the first 2 Bourne's).

3/1/08:
Our last full day in Bega. We hung around the house a bit, then went to the cheese factory to meet Steve there and we got milkshakes. Then we moved onto Warren's house and watched his family home movies. By that time, Dan had finished work, so we went to Merimbula and saw "I am Legend." I'm not sure if I liked it. It was very freaky and it was done in a weird way, the story was a bit empty too. It was alright though. To counteract the freaky/scariness of the movie, we watched "Zoolander" back at Dan's house.

4/1/08:
Left Bega at 12:30 and took Steve with us. It was a nicer drive back because the weather wasn't as hot. Stopped at Goulburn for lunch and then dropped Steve off at the bus stop. Got back to Sydney for dinner, it was a little sad leaving Bega, but still quite nice to be home.

5/1-now:
Home is boring, we had a very fun time at Bega. I've been so bored I've had to resort to ebay and westfield. I've also been back at work which has been very quiet. I did get these new sandals though with the Christmas money mum gave me (which was specifically for sandals). This friday I'm starting a gen-ed at uni on the Silk Roads. Found out on Sunday that there is a reader that I should have finished reading before the course starts... which sucks because I don't like reading. I used to pick subjects based on if there was a reader or not... but I didn't realise this course had a reader. Oh well... I bought it from the uni bookshop and had it sent to me... and it came very quickly! The day after I ordered it :) So I been reading that. Some parts are interesting and some are really boring. I wonder what the lectures will be like... it is a short course, so the lectures go from 10am - 6pm! Yikes!
Tomorrow I'm going to see the filming of "Gladiators" in Sydney Olympic park. I got free tickets off a friend. I'm excited about it. It should be really cool. I remember watching "Gladiators" on tv when I was younger.

From Car-O-Line

P.S.: kudos to whoever has made it this far... sorry for the very loooooong blog. I will blog more frequently from now on.

sound bites

2007-12-14T00:05:00.000+11:00

so much has been happening recently. thought I'd make a quick blog to fill you in on the exciting parts.

I have a nodule in my hand... and it's been there for a while. So I went to the hand surgeon... and he goes:
"it's quite simple to remove, I'll just stick a needle in and pop it"
and then I go:
"ok then"
and he goes:
*smiles* [gives me one of those... "I don't think you understand what I'm saying" looks]
and then I go
"oh... you mean right now???"
and he goes:
"yeah."

so... to cut a long and boring conversation short, he sticks the syringe into my hand... and moves it around. And it hurts. Then he takes the needle out... has a feel of the nodule (which is still there)... and the needle goes back in. This happens a few times. He also squirted this medicine stuff in there. He came to the conclusion that the nodule is too small and too mobile to pinpoint with the needle. So I'm going to wait for a few weeks to see if the medicine stuff makes it go away. It was hurting for a few days... but doesn't hurt now.

Yesterday, me and Rob made a gingerbread house for his mum's birthday. It was fun to do. Neither of us are too skilled with icing... it was going everywhere. But it's the thought that counts... and it does taste nice too. PHOTOS!!!

And that's not the only thing I've been making. I've been sewing... but I wont be able to show the fruits of my labour until after christmas. I'm quite proud of myself. If I wasn't so bad at cutting material, I'd sew more often. Prepping material annoys me... but putting it all together is very fun.

I've also been back at work. It's been pretty boring. No famous people coming in. Although I did get a strange call today (note: this is only an extract of what was a very very very long call):
Caller: I want a pizza with potato
Me: ok then... so there is a vege roast and a beef royale that has potato on it
Caller: no no no that's not what it's called. it's called *incomprehensible*
Me: hmmm... well what toppings exactly were you looking for?
Caller: I want potato and cheese
Me: [thinks this is a weird person] Would you like a pizza with just cheese and potato on it then? We can make one up for you
Caller: no no no it has a name. a pizza with potato on it
Me: do you have the internet? we have a menu online
Caller: no no no... don't you know the pizza with cheese and potato on it?
Me: I'm sorry we don't have a pizza with just potato and cheese on it
Caller: are you in wahroonga?
Me: Yes, at the rear of Redleaf ave, we're called Pizza cutters
Caller: OOOOOOOOOoooooo... I got the wrong place. Goodbye.

O.O
why would anyone just want potato and cheese on their pizza??? what kinda weird shop in wahroonga sells a potato and cheese pizza?!?!?!?!?!

From Car-O-Line

a journey around NSW

2007-12-10T21:35:00.000+11:00

so so so so so so so much has happened since I last blogged. It'll take me forever to write it down... and I'm looking forward to enjoying my holidays... so I'm going to KISS (keep it simple, stupid).

Beyond the Line:
is a program where the DET pays for a trip to a school in western NSW... in the hope of encouraging us to teach in a country school. I went to Nyngan High School. It's a town with the population of 3000, and there were about 170 kids in the high school. The kids are basically the same as Sydney students, just with a bit of extra baggage (family problems, etc). It was fun to go there. The teachers were really nice and also really skilled. I picked up a lot of things by watching their lessons. In conclusion to the trip, I would consider going to teach in western NSW because I can see that it can be a very satisfying job and that you can make a real difference to the kids there. One thing that worried me was the lack of Christian teachers, or Christians in general - their values and behaviours are quite different to mine. In a sense it would be good to go there for that reason... to build up the community and spread the gospel. We'll see what happens.

NTE Canberra:
National Training Event. Rob picked me up from Central station with Becky and we drove to Canberra, arriving at 11:15pm... and staying at the YHA (which was very snazzy indeed). Warren, Erin and Dan were there too. So it was a very long day... because I had been in the coach from Bourke for 12 hrs... then straight back in the car to NTE.
NTE was awesome. Good teaching from God's word - Hebrews was preached on and Hebrews is like the best book in the Bible. I love it that Jesus is our great High Priest. And I was very happy when we sang "Before the Throne of God Above" which is like a reinforcement of Hebrews... very moving. We were also taught about the Bible... sounds vague... but we saw that the Bible is (in my best rapper voice):
"Receiving God's word, written for his people, written by his Spirit, about his Son" - WORD!
I also was in strand 4 - Ethics of Work. We discussed a definition of work (and non-work), asked questions on whether it is better to do secular or gospel work, and debated what the Bible said about work. For the first four days we were basically putting out lots of questions, without getting answers. And then on the last day, we wrapped everything together and it was so satisfying!!! We covered a lot of things... and I think it would be pointless for me to write everything I learned there... it's really something that you have to go through yourself and wrestle with from reading the Bible and asking the questions yourself.

NTE Mission - The Lakes Evangelical Church Central Coast
We travelled from Canberra to Tumbi Umbi, Central Coast. Spent a whole lot of time in the church office with the lovely ministry team of the church. Ate so much BBQ but also had many tasty salads and veggies. Some of the things I did was letterbox drops, door knocking, scripture to the yr 7s and kids church. We were go-go-going for the whole week. We went to church on Sunday morning which was really cool. It was a very good experience. We were encouraged to think about how we can be supporting church plants (like the possibility of moving there to help build up the church).

So overall... the past 2 and a half weeks have been really awesome, and challenging too. I've been challenged to use my teaching skills in a western NSW school. I've been challenged to make my work decisions based on what God and his words says, and I've also been challenged to take part in church plants in the building of God's kingdom in Australia. Lots to think about the future.

From Car-O-Line

p.s.: this has been a very short and crappy blog about events where I've learned heaps and heaps of stuff. talk to me in the flesh about it to find out the full story.

to blog or not to blog...

2007-11-23T23:53:00.000+11:00

that is the question.

I definitely feel the need to blog. I want to blog. And I have lots of things to blog about. And if I don't blog now, I may not be able to blog for two weeks, in which case I'll have to write a most giant blog (because I'll have to fit in Bourke and NTE stuff).

But I am tired. I will try to blog properly tomorrow.

I've just decided in a split second that I'll do a mini blog now.

This week was the 'crazy choir week.' I had rehearsal at 6-9pm on monday and wednesday, and also had rehearsal on thursday, before the actual concert. I think the concert went quite alright. It was fun.

Because I was around uni so much, I got to hang with people (notably Rob). Cler slept over on Sunday night, we got crafty and made a present for a certain 21 year old. It took a little longer than either of us expected... so we didn't get to finish our LOTR (extended edition) marathon, or listen to another 'Love, Sex and Marriage' talk.

And yes... got to hang with Rob a lot. He also had study to do... but now he has no study to do. HOORAY! (yes... this is going to be a very concise blog)

Also before choir concert, I went to Erin's house to make gingerbread people for the choir concert. Warren helped too. We made some hilarious looking things. And also had fun exploding jubes in the oven.

All week I had been writing up a talk on contentment for youth group. I did it tonight. I think it was ok. It was my first ever talk so I think I just need a bit more practice. I think the content was good... and I myself learned a lot just writing the talk. I enjoy writing Bible talks/studies because I learn heaps from it.

Tomorrow is voting day. Elections frustrate me because it's so frustrating. I've been reading stuff on all the parties to be able to make an informed decision. What bugs me is how everything is biased. But then again... bias can sometimes be a good thing. I'm going to attempt to fill in all the boxes below the line again.

well... that's concise enough.

From Car-O-Line

If only I had a proper exam period

2007-11-12T21:39:00.000+11:00

Last week was the final week of uni work for 2007 for me. Now before all you students out there start getting jealous that I'm already done, you need to hear me out. On Monday, me and Rob travelled to the State library. It's a pretty scary place... all these forms you need to fill in. And you have to put all your posessions in lockers. And it was so quiet. And for all that travelling... I got to look at one book which was hardly helpful. We then had lunch in hyde park which was very nice. Then we split and I went to visit Cler. We were going to study, but ended up talking about things instead. On Tuesday, I read journal articles like crazy, and wrote a few words. Tried to make up a coherent hypothesis for my essay... but wasn't finalised yet. On Wednesday, I drove to Cler's house and we actually studied... and I wrote a considerable amount of my essay. Unfortunately I forgot to take the music score with me so I was unable to do some analysis (which was going to be a large part of the essay). I then went to uni for choir which was pretty fun. Then me and Erin went to the Rege for some tasty chicken schnitzel... with the best pepper sauce. Then we picked up Warren and his friend and went to get a free slurpee... because it was 7-eleven day. And we got free slurpees! It was very exciting. So exciting that we decided it would be fun to go to a cold park and drink our cold slurpees. Yes... it was freezing. But the swings were good quality. On Thursday, I went to the con library and met Naomi there. I found a whole 3 good books... they were very good... so I photocopied lots of things and highlighted lots of things... and referenced them (no plagiarism for me!). Then we split and I went to Atarmon, where Cler picked me up, and we drove to Rob's house were we had lunch of soup with Rob, Steve and (female-)Sam. It was impressive for guy-cooking. Then Steve brought out his whip and cracked it and we all had to study. It was pretty intense. I got a lot more of my essay done (had the score this time). Then people left... and me and Rob made a dash to the shops to buy some little things... then we started cooking... and people came over! We had dinner and chatted and watched "This is Spinal Tap." It was a fun night... and here is where it gets messy...
Friday. Woke up... quickly wrote the conclusion to my essay which put me within the word limit (yes!) and did a quick edit. Then I had to photocopy score examples and cut and paste them into my essay, then photocopy that, then label them. Then I did the footnoting. I HATE FOOTNOTES!!! I had never done footnoting before... so I got this "how to footnote" guide from the library... and it was pretty clear and easy to understand. But it took such a long long time to get all the references in. I had to run (literally) to the train station to catch the train I needed to catch. I was doing the bibliography on the train and the bus... right up until I got to the main walkway of uni. And even then the assignment wasn't finished... cuz I had to now print off the bibliography... and then I had to put together the listening examples. So my assignment got in 20mins late... I'm still pondering whether I should have just left it to Monday... I can vouch that I didn't do a good job on the assignment on a whole. And after I handed in the assignment and was halfway home... I realised that I had forgot to put on the running word count. GRAWH! I emailed my lecturer to tell him the word count. I just hope I pass this course and wont have to redo it... and that I wont have to resubmit the assignment because that would suck!

I got home just on 6:45... ate dinner quickly, and then went to Thornleigh Baps because they were holding this youth event. It was a weird event. There was all this wussy rock music, and the band were saying "we're all here to worship God" yet none of us knew any of the songs... and the song leaders weren't leading the singing... they were swaying. Then there was a gospel talk... it started with a very very very long story... which was hard to follow... and it didn't help that the speaker had a "70s porno mo" (yes... he called it that). Then when he came to the crunch point... yes... in our leader feedback none of us could agree on what the actual main point was. And I'm not too sure if it was actually sound...

On Saturday I went to Erin's house with Rob and other arts/colleges people to say farewell to Elsie (although no one said farewell... and she was late... and she happily read the newspaper in the corner as we all socialised with each other). Erin and Hayley put on a very very nice spread of food. And we were all stuffed... I didn't need lunch. The weather was nice too.

I'm glad that the weather is looking nicer now. I got to go for a walk today, and hang out the washing... and it was nice to get some sun. Tomorrow is me and Rob's 2 month anniversary. He's got something planned for Wednesday... but I'm not exactly sure what. Should be good :)

From Car-O-Line

who would have thought???

2007-11-11T00:00:00.001+11:00

Cash Advance Loans

to do:

2007-11-10T23:42:00.000+11:00

just a quick blog to say that i am now free of uni for this year... and i need to blog about:

-studying with Cler, Rob, Steve and Sam
-the drama of my last assignment
-back 2 basics youth event thing
-elsie's brunch

From Car-O-Line

i am alive

2007-11-03T17:05:00.000+11:00

please forgive me for neglecting you - my beautiful blog. I do still love you. Although I didn't realise that I still loved you. It was only until I commented back on my post 2 posts ago that my excitement of blogging and it's usefulness in procrastination was revitalised in my mind. Oh and I can write really long sentences which make no sense to anyone but me and my blog will love me for it. oh what a wonderful blog.

so....

yesterday was my last day at uni for the year! (officially... I still have to trek in next friday to hand in an assignment). So I can waste time now! or maybe not quite yet. Gotta write this essay first... but then it'll be holidays. YAY!!! Here are my holiday plans:

-make a bag
-make a dress/skirt
-finish reading "disciplines of a godly woman"
-finish reading "nothing in my hand I bring"
-read either "knowing God" or "decision making and the will of God" (or both... depending on how reading excited I get)
-finish reading my "Bible in a year" (which I was supposed to finish last year... I'm halfway through december at the moment)
-hang out with Rob
-get into a good sleep pattern
-clean my room
-get a filing cabinet for my bountiful amounts of teaching resources
-cut pizzas
-drink tea
-have a bbq
-meet with friends
-go away with friends
-go away with family
-blog about everything

So there you have it.... my "Holiday Blogging" series. Hope you will get excited about it.

I'll also be going to Bourke for this school visit thing.. so I should blog about that too. And there is also NTE (definitely blog-worthy).

From Car-O-Line

p.s: Elsie... this blog was for you :)

Hello!

2007-09-24T15:33:00.000+10:00

I haven't blogged in a long long time (although the last time I blogged... it was a very very long blog)

This session at uni, me and Elsie have been reading Ecclesiastes together and finding that the writer is particularly depressed. Reading one chapter a fortnight has made me question if the writer should just get over himself and start looking at the positive. Yesterday at church we had a sermon on Ecclesiastes. We saw that the writer is just giving a true depiction of the world. We live in a fallen world and it isn't that nice. We then came to realise that we seem to have very high expectations of the world. We always want to gain more from it, we want excitement and new things... yet the world we live in can get quite monotonous - we wake up, go to uni, come home, sleep, wake up, go to uni, come home, sleep, etc. Turning to Romans 8:18-21, we are reminded that God has subjected us to this world, so that we have reason to hope for something better. A time when we can be with God forever. It's exciting to know that we can be in relationship with God and that he is preparing a place for us.

From Car-O-Line

Google Maps - UNSW

2007-08-31T18:35:00.000+10:00

Have any of you seen google maps lately? It's pretty good... and you can get good directions too... it shows you pictures of the streets and all that jazz.

In my procrastination... I looked up UNSW. Take a look at this pic:
Can anyone explain what the huge black wall is???

From Car-O-Line

an update!!!

2007-08-10T16:09:00.000+10:00

so... what's been going on since my last blog? So much!!!

switch camp:
For switch camp Doug came and spoke to us about Thomas (from the book of John) and what we could learn from him. We talked a lot about the different reactions that people have when they experience Jesus. A lot of the kids were struck by the fact that it's easy to say you follow Jesus, but harder to actually follow him. We're all keeping each other accountable now. We also had fun games and good music.

uni holidays:
before and after switch camp (although not during camp) I was sick. One week of a terrible sore throat (I suspect aa UPTI) and then a week of a flu.

Bob and Nicole's wedding:
Bob and Nicole got married on the 7/7/7. I drove Daniella, Veronica and Simon from my place to Engadine... it was a very long, fun, interesting and revealing trip.

Twin Cellos:
Me and Veronica went to the City Recital hall on the 13/7/7 to see the twin cellists play. They were really good. They played 4 different pieces, my favourite was the Rachmaninov cello sonata (solo cello) and the Elena Kats Chernin - "Phoenix Story."

Rice Planning:
there have been 2 planning days so far. I'm going to be on admin team and post-rally team. It's kinda a scary experience. So much planning and so much organising to be done. Everyone is praying that the BDO (which is tomorrow) wont be rained out.

MYC!!!
Definitely the highlight of my holidays. The topic for this year was "guidance" and grimmo gave some awesome talks. I actually went up to MYC the day before (for pre-myc) which was nice. We got everything organised and prayed and thought about how we can be looking out for those who might be anxious about myc. I had awesome room buddies for myc. In my room was Verity, Erin, Jess O, Carlie, Naomi and Anne. We all got along very well and had fun.
highlights of the week:
-seeing naomi come to myc!!!
-meeting all the first year arts (and the other arts people who I've never met before)
-free time - our girl/gui-dance - this was so funny! we basically all got together at free time and freestyled until we worked out some dance moves that we liked. Everyone in the arts faculty took part which was awesome. And there was an inter-faculty competition... and arts won!!! We are the best faculty ever!!!
-D&M's with erin, verity and naomi
-mafia in the prayer tower - we cramped in 11 people into one of those tiny rooms!
Things I learned from the talks:
-one thing that I never really thought about much before was that God is the one who made the world futile. This sorta shocked me at first but it's a really awesome that he did it... in fact it was an act of mercy!!!
-the only guidance we need is guidance on how to be married to Christ. And God has given us all the guidance that we need now.

Pizza at Alistair's:
Alistair makes really nice pizza... and really nice ice cream.... drool! We watched "The Devil Wears Prada." A movie that has always confused me... is it a happy or sad ending???

Anna's 21st/farewell:
straight after work I drove to Anna's party. It was a good party. The theme was "any wee thing Scottish" so I wore a wee bit of Scottish tartan (in the form of my red scarf :P). There were some really awesome speeches... like there was this whole presentation with audience participation. And there was dancing. There was a jukebox so we got to choose some songs. We all had a fun time dancing. It was kinda scary seeing people like Lindsay know all the lyrics to spice girls songs. Oh and Warren and Dan blue-zinc-ed half of their faces braveheart style... and at the end they were rubbing it on everyone. Very funny.

Parent's holiday:
after getting home from anna's and sleeping at 1am... I had to wake up at 4am to go to the airport with parents... then drive myself home at 5:30am. Needless to say I was tired. Parents went up to sunny townsville for a holiday without me... but that was ok. Cler came over a few times and we watched a stack of movies (including Harry Potter... before I finished reading the book).

Back to uni:
First day back at uni was really awesome. I was wearing my mission hoodie from myc... and I saw all these people I met at myc wearing their hoodies too. I even had some of my friends asking me what it was all about which was cool... although that was the only time they asked about it (after quickly realising that it was a christian thing). We also had our first prof prac class with Christine Logan. She's really encouraging and eases your nervousness. She talked a lot about our recitals... I'm excited about mine now.

post-Choir fun:
Me, Naomi and Erin are at it again. The first choir night back we went to the spot for pizza and then saw harry potter (again) with Dan W, Lindsay, Warren and Dave. Watching it again lets you pick up on things you missed the first time. I slept over at naomi's house that night (didn't have to go home because parents weren't home) and we stayed up talking and chatting with erin on msn.

chai chai time:
is sorta happening... something that I'm finding really sucky this session is that I have class after cbs on both monday and thursday... so I can't really hang around and talk to people. As soon as me and naomi finish class... we rush to chai chai to see if people are still there.

arts hang:
is happening a bit more than chai chai time. The only thing about arts hang time at the moment is that people keep on going to the wrong location lol. I've got some good feelings about arts hang though... I'm sure it'll work out soon enough.

prof prac preliminary:
played half of one of my recital pieces in class. first time my class mates have seen me so "angry" (ie: focused and serious). It was sorta fun playing for them... I must admit it was a pretty unpolished performance but that's ok... I like the piece and it should be good for recital time :)

other uni classes:
there is so much reading it's unbelievable!!! I've never had to read so much a week ever!!! And I don't like it! The thing is... our readings get checked... so I have to do the readings!!! GAH!

21st party research:
planning a 21st is the most difficult and confusing thing I've ever done (not really but I feel like exaggerating). I think I've finally got a place and a date that will be good-ish. Too many people are having their 21st in september which makes it hard.

Blood of Kings:
After choir I met up with Alistair and watched this play called "Blood of Kings" which was written by Alistair's, brother's girlfriend. It was a really good play! So cool that she (Clairie Ormiston) could write something like that. From what I gathered... it's a play about the tension between truth and thought.

CBS mission talk:
The 'first' mission talk was entitled "Why do Camels have more hope than Bill Gates." Chales Gajus gave the talk... and it was really good. I brought one of my class mates along and introed him to an arts guy so that they could talk. The talk was about "who can get into heaven." Talk about tough answers!!!

and there it is... my life so far :P

from Car-O-Line

shocking news

2007-07-10T15:48:00.001+10:00

I am in shock!

So.... I've been trying very hard to read Harry Potter 5 before the movie comes out... I get up to chapter 27.... turn the page... and find out that I'm rereading something from chapter 11! So... I wonder if this is some sorta weird trick JKR has done to give the illusion of real 'magic' but it's a printing error!!! Pages 529-576 has been replaced by a repeat of pages 193-240. HOW BAD IS THAT!!! You'd think there would be some sort of quality control or something. So yes... I've got a bad feeling I wont be able to exchange the book because I bought it in Feburary... but I'll give it a go. In the meantime... I can't read on... and it was getting mildly exciting. Has this ever happened to someone before?

From Car-O-Line

p.s: if someone wants to lend me a book so I can read pp529-576 that would be cool

man talk

2007-06-28T11:24:00.000+10:00

I have a soft toy sore throat:I also have a very real sore throat... and I sound like a man. I can sing a D below middle C to be precise. It's very troubling... but I'm trying to remain calm because I know the cause of this sore throat was stress in the first place.

And funnily enough I didn't get my sore throat from screaming at misbehaved boys on prac. In fact... prac was awesome. The boys were all very obedient and I had a good time teaching them. I went back on tuesday night to help mark their trial HSC performances and I had a good time. They are all very talented musically. I'm going to miss going there every day... I also felt like I bonded really well with the teachers there. I'm gonna go to the 'evening of music' to catch up and see how everything is going.

On the other hand... switch camp is stressing me out like there is no tomorrow! I fully had a breakdown last night. Mum says that I'm taking it all a bit too seriously... and I am. I thought it would be easier this year because I had done it last year... but it's been so much more hectic this year. I've been reminded that I can't just rely on my own efforts but that I really need to rely on God.

In more exciting (and cute) news. I bought three watermelon slices which can be seen here. They are going to be my future inspiration for making cute toys. In fact I would have already started my craft escapades if it wasn't for my stupid sickness which is keeping me stuck in this dreary house.

From Car-O-Line

This blog is rated...

2007-06-24T22:27:00.000+10:00

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

kill (5x)
death (1x)

2007-06-17T22:34:00.000+10:00

SWITCH CAMP!!!

Uni over!!!

2007-06-03T15:17:00.000+10:00

I have no more uni work to do, except for one assignment - which I'm not counting as an assignment because I'm looking forward to doing it - it's fun (it's an orchestral arrangement).
[while typing the above... I accidentally swallowed a spearmint eclipse mint. Should I take another one???]

Tomorrow I start on prac. So I wont be at uni for a long time. It's kinda sad that I'll be missing the last week of uni. I feel like I haven't said a proper goodbye to my uni friends. Luckily for me I'll see most of them not too far away at MYC!!! I'm super excited about MYC. I'm feeling the need for a bit of guidance... especially since Elsie gave me a 5 year plan to write up.

Anyways... back to prac. I visited the school and now I'm really excited about teaching there. It's a boys school so I'm sure many weird and funny things will happen and that I'll learn a lot of stuff. The music teachers there are very nice. Friendly too. [hmmm... does nice assume friendly???]

I'm excited about the holidays... I'm going to go craft crazy! I have patterns printed out already... just need to get fabric. I'm going to make lots of cushions and plus toys. I've talked about my germs before... I want to make things like my germs... but maybe I'll make animals. You have to check out this cool site... so cute!!! (to see more go here)

Well... gives you enough stuff to browse over and comment about. I'll end here [p.s: I did decide to have another mint]

From Car-O-Line

[don't worry Doug... my games blog is coming!!! - you may have to keep on bugging me though]

I...

2007-05-25T16:47:00.000+10:00

I am officially behind in my work (yet I blog). I got home from uni at 10:30pm after choir practise and went to bed. Then this morning I had to go to the doctors with dad in St Leonards so I couldn't get anything done this morning. I am glad though that I went with dad because he was very nervous and I think he appreciated me being there. The doc said that they have no idea what is wrong with dad because the test results and symptoms don't add up. If only House was a real doctor. I also had my trumpet test today... had a little time to practise before going to the doctors (may have woken up neighbours) and then I practised just before my test. I think I practised too much because when I got into the exam my throat just closed up and my lips wouldn't stay tight... I didn't do too bad though. So yes... I'm going to hand in my essay on monday. I figured I could hand it in today, unedited, way under word count, crappy but Iain would probably just then get me to resubmit it... so hopefully I'll do some good on it this weekend (I actually don't have much time this weekend either... got my violin test on monday morning).

well I have to go tutor... sigh... but my student recently came first in her class. I'm so proud.

From Car-O-Line

My promised blog to Jen

2007-05-18T23:22:00.000+10:00

Well I haven't blogged in ages... I've been trying to be good and restrict internet activity so that I could do uni assignments. I've done quite a few so far... but still got heaps to go (after this week it will be cruisy-er)

At the moment... this is the most exciting thing happening in my life:

Doesn't it look the coolest?

Anyways... I've been having some dramas... For a long while I didn't have a prac school to go teach at but I've got one now which is very comforting (but scary at the same time). I'm also a bit behind on my work. This weekend I was supposed to go to this weekend away for CBS-stuff but I decided that I should stay home and do work. It's sad that I can't go... but I think I need the weekend at home. I also wont be working for the next week at pizzacutters.

Next week I have choir rehearsals almost every night (and quite late too). Hopefully I'll get a lot of things dones this weekend so that I wont have to stress during the week. Lack of sleep hasn't been too good either.

I've also been finding it sad not having a personal bible quiet time. I'm so close to finishing reading the whole entire bible... but still so far. I have been getting a lot of bible reading done daily though (with church, switch, bible study and CBS stuff)... but you get a little something different from a personal quiet time.

Uni holidays and MYC are coming up rapidly... they are my motivation for getting stuff done now!

The other day someone asked me how I was going in my singleness... and I guess I'm doing smashingly well. It hasn't really crossed my mind lately that I'm single and that it may be a problem. I'm content with life.

PLUG! COLLEGIUM MUSICUM CHOIR CONCERT 27 MAY 5-7:30.
We are singing Handel's Samson which is sounding quite nice.
Tickets are $20/$17/$14 (adults/senior/concession)
we are singing with a professional orchestra so it will be rocking!

I am so into craft at the moment. I recently made something... but I cannot share it on the internet because it's 'special.'

My bed calls....

From Car-O-Line

A night in the life of a Pizza Cutter...

2007-04-17T23:27:00.000+10:00

Today Barry O'Farrell came into the store and ordered a BBQ meat lovers:
-I thought he was on a diet!
-I've met him before when he lived near church... and he has more white hairs now
-he was looking healthy though

I think I offended him because I asked what his name was to put on the docket... even though I did know who he was... I just needed to make sure it was him... and I didn't want to look starstruck.

me: can I get a name for that?
him: no that's ok
me: (huh? oh he must have misheard me) OH I just need a name for the order
him: OH! It's O'Farrell, Barry, I'm Barry O'Farrell
me: ok thanks... *tries not to look stupid in front of a famous person*

He didn't seem to be in a good mood either... maybe he just got back from a big yelling session with all the other politicians... plus... he's a big leader now! It was a pity though... cuz I wanted to ask him what he did with those agapantha's my dad gave him (among other random questions and friendly chit chat).

Hopefully he liked the pizza and I'll see him again.

From Car-O-Line

Guy Love

2007-04-12T20:56:00.000+10:00

This is really funny... it reminds me of the Backstreet Boys.

Oh Happy Day!

2007-04-11T17:50:00.000+10:00

Had an awesome day with my junior girls today. To see all the awesome photos... go here.

Here are some photos to tempt your tastebuds:

From Car-O-Line

The Games Manual!

2007-04-07T14:07:00.000+10:00

Doug asked me to write a post on instructions of cool games (because those science games are so lame :P)
But alas, I know so many games! So, I'll just list the games I know, and then you can request certain games.

chicken game
watermelon game
big tractor
bucky bunny
pass the beat a round the room
stupid
orchestra game with conductor
carrots
alien
pear
G'Day Bruce
Grand Master Sensei
Giants, Wizards and Pixies
I'm a celebrity
Evolution
Family Serious

From Car-O-Line

p.s: I went to an "all the meat you can eat" restaurant the other day with Naomi... and it made me think of all my guy friends who would have loved it so much.

hmmm...

2007-03-24T23:15:00.000+11:00

I was looking over my ACG Super Blog (look below) and I noticed that there is no link for people to write comments. Where did it go?

Then I checked the settings for that post and saw that somehow it automatically disallowed comments... so I fixed it now. I am expecting EVERYONE who reads that post to comment on it. After all I did spend a lot of my sleep time writing it. Plus, I like reading comments... you guys are funny.

From Car-O-Line

p.s: no one updated their blogs today... I'm very disappointed (and bored).

words...

2007-03-22T23:05:00.000+11:00

BLUE STEEL! (or magnum... you decide)
back row: Dan, Dave, Gu, Darn, Felix, Meray, Kate Martin, Gary, Warren, Lindsay.
front row: Elsie, Kathy, Doris, Me, Anna, Meredith.

Words cannot express the funness that was Arts Colleges Getaway 07... well actually... that's a half-lie... I could express the funness in words... but you may not feel from reading these words that it was fun:

On friday arvo... I dropped off my stuff at Felix's place. Then I had trumpet. Then I met Elsie at her house, and I helped her carry more things to Felix's room. It was a lot smaller than I had expected it to be... and also a little messier... but that was probably because he had everyone's luggage on his floor.

Then me and Elsie went to Central Station to meet up with some other people: Doris, Kathy, Meredith, Dan (Darn), Lindsay and Warren. We bought Hungry Jacks for dinner and got on a very crowded train to Campbelltown. At first me, Doris and Elsie were sitting down the bottom of the carriage while the other stood in the middle... Elsie was worried that the other weren't talking to Cathy (the new girl). But they were. :)

Once we got closer to Campbelltown, me, Doris and Elsie moved to the middle of the carriage with the others where we all got a seat. Since we were all together we decided to play a game of mafia... and it begun! In the first round, I had my head down, waiting to be woken up... when I felt someones finger poke me in the head! I was shocked! To my disgust, I was killed off in the first round. Before I officially died though... I told everyone that someone poked me to kill me... meaing that Warren, Lindsay or Elsie were mafia. Evil evil Warren was the one who killed me... lol.

Warren looking very shifty... (with George, the neckless giraffe)

From that round on... I was always the first person to be killed off. *sigh*
When we got to Campbelltown... we swapped trains to get to Tahmoor. And our mafia game continued. Luckily, we all got seats next to each other. After a few rounds of me getting killed off first every time (unless I was mafia), I decided to be narrator... and then it begun. Doris got killed off first this time... so it was always either me or Doris getting killed off first. It was funny because whenever we wanted to kill people, we would be like "LETS KILL KATHY" or "LETS KILL LINDSAY" etc. And the train carriage was pretty full... there was this one lady very close by giving us very weird looks... haha. On another note, the scenery was very beautiful around Tahmoor... sweeping hills with a very nice purple/pink sunset. awww.

When we got to Tahmoor... we had to wait for people to pick us up in cars to take us to the campsite. To kill time, we played a few old classic games like big tractor and alien.

Playing Alien when we finally got to the house
clockwise from left: Lindsay, Felix, Darn, Dan and the back of my head.

Then, Warren and Kathy decided to play this game on us... one of those games where you have to work out what the rule is. It took me over an hour to work it out. The problem with those games is that you try and overcomplicate the rule when the rule is quite easy. Poor Meredith was too tired to work it out. But oh the liberation when you finally worked out the rule.

Over an hour later, Dan (Dan) picked us up. As we left, we heard a train honk... we knew it was honking at Doris... cuz she had been dangling her feet over the platform. The place we were staying at was really nice. It was like a house. We all stayed in the same house which made it nice and cosy. In my room was Kathy, Doris and Elsie. After hot chocolate and games (a couple of long rounds of mafia... thanks Warren for saving me this time), we slept.

On Saturday, I reluctantly got out of bed after a quite uncomfortable sleep. After breakfast we had our first session from Ron Serje. YAY for Ron! He was our MTS person last year (with Elsie). The topic of the weekend was Resurrection (1 Cor 15). It was full on stuff... but basically... the resurrection is important because:
-since Christ was raised, we can be raised.
-if Christ wasn't raised, our way of life (faith) is absurd.

Then, we had morning tea... then we had seminars. The college boys went off and did a seminar on "being Christians in colleges" while the arts people did a seminar on "being Christians in arts" and also talked a bit about good purposes for travelling overseas.

Then we had free time! It was raining, so I stayed indoors with most other people, although some people did go play tennis in the rain and some people went for a swim.

Tennis in the Rain
l-r: Lindsay, Anna, Darn, Dan

Indoors we played lots of card games. We played a lot of "Emperors and Scums." Then Doris straightened Nicole's hair. We tried to convince the boys to let us straighten their hair... but they refused.

Before dinner, we had a missionary spot about some missionaries in Russia. It was run a bit like a quiz competition which was fun. It was very informative too.

After dinner, we had the ACG SUPER CHALLENGE run by Lindsay. This was a giant trivia evening with sections such "super sudoku," "super taboo" and "the music game." There were also other general trivia questions. It was very well planned. I think my team came third... which was quite good seeing that we only knew about 5 of the 60 countries of Africa. LOL! My team's name was "Darn we're good" because Darn (ie: Dan Wilton... yes... he has a new nickname now) was in our group.

Look its Darn!

Look it's Elsie, Dan and me (now you will forever be able to tell the difference between Dan and Darn)

After trivia, we chilled in the lounge room a bit. We were all pretty tired but too excited to go to sleep... which was a good thing because we convinced Lindsay to let us straighten his hair! It was so funny... I'll let you look at the pictures.

Lindsay Before and After
with Doris looking very proud of her efforts

Once Lindsay got his hair straightened... all the other guys agreed to having their hair straightened. It was so funny and fun. We tried to flatten down Darn and Warren's 'Tin Tin" fringe... but it didn't work... their fringes stubbornly stay up. Once all the boys hair was straightened out... we went to sleep.

Prim and Proper People have Straight Hair
l-r: Dave, Darn, Lindsay, Martin, Anna, Meredith and Gu

To our disappointment, all the guys' hair was back to normal in the morning. We had leaderless bible study groups in the morning about "the bodily resurrection" (Luke 24) and then Ron gave his second talk on the Resurrection. I learned:
-The kingdom of God wont accept our lowly bodies, we need an imperishable body.
-because we are in Christ (who was raised), our bodies will be radically transformed when he returns, this is the conquest of death.

Then we had lunch and went home. Meray drove me, Kathy, Meredith and Doris. Me and Kathy got dropped off at strathfield where we caught a train home together. The train ride was... interesting... gotta love public transport (not).

And that was it.

From Car-O-Line

Waiting for Dan to pick us from Tahmoor Station
l-r: Warren, Me, Kathy, Elsie and Darn

ACG is over :(

2007-03-18T17:47:00.000+11:00

Arts/Colleges Getaway has been and gone. It was so much fun and I miss everyone already.

Once I overcome my sorrows of not being there... I'll post a blog on all the very interesting and fun things that happened.

From Car-O-Line

to do: stuff

2007-03-14T12:05:00.000+11:00

I got my trumpet yesterday! It's shiny and colourful. I played it for a bit this morning... some notes actually came out... and some of them sounded good! I'm happy.

So on the weekend I had my church camp in Morriset. The topic was on prayer and our guest speaker was Anthony Petterson. We talked about why people struggle with prayer nowadays... mainly that culture discourages prayer. Anthony taught us that our understanding of God shapes our understanding and practice of prayer. He explained to us the importance that God has a name: I AM, and what it means... because it always baffled me that someones name could be I AM. To explain what it means... we looked at the footnote reference: "I will be who I will be" which shows that God is who he reveals himself to be. The fact that God has a name also shows that he is a very personal God. Which is awesome. I was saying in a previous post how I think people take prayer for granted. At camp... Anthony pointed out that prayer is a gift by God's grace, it is our relationship with God in action. How cool to be directly in contact with God... through Jesus, in the Spirit.

Those were the big points that stuck out for me. There was other stuff too.

I think I've already realised that uni is going to be a lot busier this year, but I haven't really done anything to make it less busy. There is quite a bit of work that I should be doing now... but I keep on putting it off. I should practice my violin now too. I also need to stop shopping and buying summer clothes... I need winter clothes now.

I bought canvas ages ago to paint something... but I dunno what to paint. I saw some nice tulips at IKEA... I might paint those. Any other ideas? I'm a big fan of still art.

Gah... just realised I should practice for choir too.

This weekend I got the Arts/Colleges getaway. I'm excited. It should be lots of fun! Apparently Lindsay spent 9 hours working out the Saturday night activity... I wonder what it is!

Once I get photos from Church camp... I'll post them up. There are some good ones of the girls in my cabin... kekeke.

From Caroline

Uni has begun

2007-03-08T23:14:00.000+11:00

Well... I haven't posted in quite a long time.

I'm back at uni now... 2 whole weeks gone. My classes seem to be going quite well. They are all interesting and I think they will be useful for when I start teaching. I can't wait to do full time teaching now. Having my own classes and being able to use all the really good resources I've got so far. I'm sure all the other teachers out there will be thinking that I'm crazy... but I'm sure it'll be fun for the first few days.

Tomorrow I'm going to church camp. My first camp for the year... I can't believe it! It will surely be lots of fun. I just hope that the storms will hold out on Saturday so that I can go canoeing and that we can have the bonfire. Our Guest speaker is Anthony Petterson and the topic is going to be on prayer... I've heard only good things about this guy... and I'm looking forward to learning heaps and heaps more about prayer. I guess prayer is a thing that you sometimes take for granted.

Tomorrow is my first trumpet class. EXCITING!!! I know it's going to be a very noisy class... I thought clarinet was loud... but surely trumpet is louder. Hopefully the office lady will find out what's going on and Ill get my trumpet tomorrow.

Currently listening to "Barwon River Love Song" by "The Andre Ellis River Band." It's very sweet. The lead is one of my class mates.

Me and my parents went to IKEA the other day (I still wanna go with you Jen) and I got a new desk. It's long and skinny so it fits nicely in my room and I can sprawl all my stuff over it which is nice. If anyone wants my old desk (at a negotiable price) let me know... it's one of those study IKEA primary school study desks which everyone has (you know you want to conform too!) and its in basically perfect condition. It was just a bit short for me.

LOL!!! I always get distracted when I blog... I just temporarily disappeard to listen to Aboriginal music for uni. I have to transcribe it... it doesn't sound too hard which is good. Although I wouldn't be able to transcribe the lyrics... I find it hard enough to work out lyrics of pop songs on the radio.

I joined choir at uni this year. It's been really good... I'm so bad though... I'm so out of practice in choral singing. Like I sing in church... but that's nothing compared to choir... like you have to pronounce everything in a certain way and you need to sight sing and do all these super big leaps. Choir is going to be very handy for when I go to a school because then I will be able to conduct choirs. I tried to do some choir conducting at my last prac and that didn't turn out very well.

I guess I should sleep soon... because sleep is good.

From Car-O-Line

P.S: my new favourite threadless shirt... which I got in the mail today:
note to self: don't do anymore shopping unless it's for pants, ie: no more tops!

Fresh Start Mission

2007-02-24T22:16:00.000+11:00

"I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
My soul will boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together."

-Psalm 34:1-3

If you hadn't noticed... I have been away all week. Last Sunday night I 'moved' to Kensington into the Hodgkinson household. It was such a lovely house and I was given a very nice room (I've been inspired to clean my room up). I went to St Matthias church in Padington and met Jess who is one of the Hodgkinsons... as well as many other people. After church we went to a tasty tasty thai restaurant called Chao Praya... only cost us $10 each!

Monday was my first day of "fresh start" mission. This was where people from Campus Bible Study (CBS) came to uni everyday to meet new students and invite them to study the Bible on campus this year... it was O-week so there were stacks of people there and a lot of people signed up to join CBS and find out more about God and the Bible. At first I was quite anxious about walking up to strangers and talking to them about Christianity... but praise God... he helped me out so much.

What I found from 0-week mission was that God is fully in control of everything. At times when I was tired and unmotivated to go talk to people... people would just walk up to me and start asking me about what CBS was. It was so encouraging. And even after approaching heaps of people and being rejected, God would bring along a person who I could have a really good conversation with and that would get me excited again about ministering to the people on campus.

Not only were we working hard to meet people and organise BBQs and the like... we were being trained by John Chapman and Paul Grimmond. We learned about God's will for evangelism and how to do it better. We learned about God's love for people and his desire for people to be saved. And I was encouraged to keep on trusting in God... not relying on my own works... but on God because he is Almighty and Sovereign. Chappo also gave us a good talk on 1 Cor 8 & 9 which was very helpful in thinking about how to encourage other Christians in our deeds.

One thing I really loved about o-week mission was that all the 50 CBS people who came and stayed locally grew as a team and as a family. During the evenings we ate dinner together or went out to get coffee and we were able to reflect on our experiences and pray a lot together. I love all my brothers and sisters in Christ who I served with during o-week. They were so supportive and encouraged us to take breaks when we were doing too much and told jokes and made funny faces to cheer us up. How will I ever forget:

-our night at Tea Scapes where Doris showed us how she could plug her nose and where Becky found it difficult to lift her pinky
-the large amounts of slab cake and plums consumed (thank you Steph!)
-those sickingly sweet cadbury creme eggs which we often ate for breakfast
-evil Dan (Wilt) painting us with cornflour glue
-water guns and water fights, seeing Grimmo going crazy with his water bottle
-Morris (leader-Dan) doing some amazing impersonations of Napoleon Dynamite
-pegging grapes at everyone
-bountiful amounts of free stuff with Doris picking up double so that she could give it to Elsie

I'm sad it's over but I'm excited about seeing new people at CBS and hopefully growing together in Christ.

From Car-O-Line

I've had an epiphany! (or a few more)

2007-02-06T17:06:00.000+11:00

Ok... so people have been asking where I've been during the day... and here is the answer!

I've been at uni doing my summer course. And my first epiphany for this blog is that it is so boring! There are people in the class who know a lot more than my lecturer... including me. So the course is called "Introduction to the internet and e-commerce." The e-commerce part of it is that businesses have webpages (woo!) and the internet part is... "google is a search engine... to search something... just type it and click search." Today we did a bit of html which was a little more exciting (although I do know the basic html already... so it was a bit of revision). Now... onto more exciting epiphanies:

On my first day of my summer course... (get ready for epiphany no. 2) I got there at 9am ready for my lab... and then realised (along with the other 40 people in the course) that there was no lab for the first day... so we were all 3hrs early for our lecture. So I took the bus to Bondi Westfield. Man that place is a cool place. And I found the most awesome shop! Epiphany no. 3 - Smiggle!!! It has all this really cool and cute stuff. They had all these notebooks and journals... I wanted to buy them all. But since I have many notebooks/journals already (epiphany no.4) I decided to buy something that I didn't have...

2 blue mini highlighters, blue staples, a stapler and an elephant cut out punch.

I went on the smiggle website today and they have so much more stuff that I didn't see. Lucky for me they have a store in Hornsby (epiphany no.5) so I can go browse there if I want. Their pencils/crayons/textas look very cool. I'm thinking of getting some new coloured pencils and one of their pencil sharpeners.

Today is one of the days that I'll actually be home for dinner with the parents this week. Tomorrow is CBS summer edition... thursday is work and friday I will be rushing to go to switch (plus tutoring before that). I'll also be working saturday. I think my parents miss me.

From Car-O-Line

busyness

2007-02-03T23:09:00.000+11:00

I've been busy catching up with school friends which has been awesome. Yesterday Me, Jen and Jenny watched movies at Jenny's house. Haven't seen Jenny in possibly a year... so it was good to catch up. I took lots of pics:

Me shocked and Jen striking a pose

Me, Jenny and Jen.... then Me and half of Jenny

Sexy Jen... and not so sexy Jen

Happy Jenny... and not so happy Jenny

Jen's eye.... she blinked.... or was in the middle of the blink

Then today I went to Steve's house for a fare-thee-well party for Sarah who is going overseas for 5 weeks! I saw Sarah and Bec and Jen and Elly and other people. We played a bit of e-toy "play sports" and had a very fun round of carrots, stupid, big tractor and g'day Bruce. Then Jen, Jono and Sarah got in the pool (sometimes thrown in) and they had an interpretive handstand competition which was very amusing. We had crossaints and raisin toast and multiple spreads, plus coffee, tea and orange juice (with and without pulp! oh the choices!!!) and we also had pizza for lunch. They have 2 very cute king-cavalier spaniel doggies... Ronny and Ginny. Ronny is very sweet. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures there.

This evening I worked for a bit in pizza cutters. Pretty ordinary.

From Car-O-Line

the Corinthians???

2007-02-01T23:09:00.000+11:00

Ok... So I sorta didn't finish up my 'read a bible in a year' last year... I'm currently a month behind. So yeah... I've sorta been trying to read more quicker to get it done... which hasn't really been helpful. Today I finished reading the letters to the Corinthians... and I'm totally confused. I have no idea what it's about. Well... I do understand parts of it (all the little passages that you do in sunday school and stuff). There are just parts where Paul seems like a complete weirdo... not sure what he's trying to say. So... let me share a confusing verse with you:

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven." - 2 Cor 12:2

To give you some context... Paul had just been talking about boasting for about 3 whole chapters. In the context of the passage... Paul's above example makes some sense but my question is... what is this third heaven?!?!

Paul is too deep for me. Once I finish my reading plan I think I'll have to come back to the Corinthians and read it a whole lot slower (I basically read it all in 4 days?!). Yeah... reading fast just doesn't work for me.

From Car-O-Line

Sunday Pizza

2007-01-30T10:14:00.000+11:00

On Sunday, Sarah, Steve, Jono, Jen, Jess and Tom came to my place, we decided which pizza's we wanted to eat and ordered them over the phone. Then we drove up to Pizza Cutters and picked up our pizzas. Saul was very nice and gave us free drinks. We were gonna come back to my place, but decided that it would be nice to eat in the park since it was still daylight. After devouring our
-Beef Royale
-Margerita
-Hawaiian
-BBQ Chicken
-Berrylicious
-Caramello
We decided to play some games. We were quite loud and everyone else in the park thought we were strange. But we had a lot of fun. I taught them all my crazy youth group games and they taught me a really cool game called "the music game." The games we played were:
-big tractor (always entertaining)
-stupid (which Jen loved!)
-the music game (a super cool new game which I'm dying to teach my youth group girls)
-carrots (much loved by Jess and Tom)
-alien (my personal favourite)
-pear (which Jono had a bit of trouble with)
-G'day Bruce (which Steve was very very good at, Sarah did quite well too)
hmmm... I feel like I'm missing a game. Oh Well. Once we had enough of embarassing ourselves (it was very tiring) we left to go our separate ways. I had a nice sleep that night.

From Car-O-Line

Turandot and the Giant Walking Emo

2007-01-28T15:47:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I went to 'Opera in the Domain' with my parents. It was a pretty good night. We got there at 5 and there was still plenty of space (not like Symphony in the Domain). It was quite cold though... there was a lot of wind. We were all hungry so we had our dinner. Then we wanted snacks but we didn't bring any. So I walked to the 7/11 near Wynyard and bought some expensive chips. It was cool because I saw this giant walking emo puppet walking. There were these huge ropes and one man working an arm while another person was working a leg and a forklift truck moving the emo puppet forward etc. There was a whole japanese film crew... so if you next see a giant emo puppet in a japanese movie... it was in Martin Place... and I was there!!!
The opera they were showing was Turandot by Puccini... my first ever live opera. It's the story of the very beautiful Princess Turandot who kills those who love her. [fummy moment! The people behind us were saying "but she's not even beautiful! Why would he go after her?] She sets them riddles and if they can't get it... they get their heads chopped off. Along comes this clever guy Calaf... and when he first sees her he falls in love and summons her to give him the riddles. At the other end of the story, Liu has fallen in love with Calaf and doesn't want him to risk his life for Turandot (because death seemed to be a certainty). But Calaf gets all the riddles right... but now Turandot doesn't really want to marry this stranger. So... Calaf sets her a challenge... if she can guess his name by morning... she can kill him. You may not have heard of Turandot but it's the opera where Nessum Dorma comes from (the song that Australian Idol Damien Leith sang... badly). The music in it is very very good! The orchestra was amazing! Afterwards me and mum were saying that it was slightly cruel to drag dad along to this cultured soap-opera. [funny moment! The people behind us were saying "now I know that operas usually have really out-there plots, but this one... really takes the cake!"] Dad was funny and said "It was very sad when that girl died... it was very... emotional... it almost brought a tear to my eye." Hahaha!!! He was being sarcastic... although I think he enjoyed opera in the domain more than he would have enjoyed symphony because he could read the surtitles and follow along (because he's hearing impaired).

PHOTO TIME:

Dad and Mum enjoy the evening

The giant walking emo.

Check out that beautiful sky

the beautiful sky looking not so beautiful

From Car-O-Line

riddle time care of Turandot:
1. what is born each night and dies each dawn?
2. what flickers red and warm like a flame, yet is not fire?
3. what is like ice but burns?

So many good memories... [1986]

2007-01-26T20:35:00.000+11:00

Anybody under the age of 13 should not read this, and if you do, you should
not repost this.

Just because you were born in '97 doesn't mean you're a 90's kid.

It's not like you could remember the original Simpsons. I am sorry but three
conscious years of the 90's just wont cut it.

You're a 90's kid if:

You remember tazos.

You can finish this [ice ice _ _ _ _ ]

You remember watching Doug and Ren & Stimpy

AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!

You had a favourite member from FIVE.

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence . . . not

when everyhting was settled by rock paper scissors

when we played Hide and go seek until our legs grew numb.

when we used to obey our parents

You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE
song of ALL time.

video hits was actually good.

"Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was both a game and a TV game
show.

Captain Planet. He's a Hero.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green ranger, were
meant to be together.

You remember when Super Nintendos and Sega Genisis became popular.

You always wanted to send in a tape to Australiass Funniest Home Videos . .
.. but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching Home Alone 1, 2 , and 3 . . . and tried to pull the
pranks on "intruders"

you had a fringe at some point. none of this side fringe crap, a real fringe

You remember those Where's Wally books.

You remember eating Warheads.

You remember watching the Aladin, and Ninja Turtles,.

You remember Ring Pops.

If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"

You remember walkmans

Writing M.A.S.H. notes.

You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The
Bell".

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere.

.. . . Furbies.

You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.

And Windows 98 was the best.

You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers, and Ninja
Turtles.

When Goth (NOT EMO) was crazy cool! Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, the good
bands.

You remember Bewitched, Jump 5, S-Club 7, and that whole period with the boy
bands and pop divas.

You remember exactly where you were and what you were doing the first time
you saw a Britney Spears or N'SYNC video.

Michael Jordan was a king.

no one had brand pencilcases

You collected those Beanie Babies.

Carebears

Lambchop

sesame st was actually good.

You collected all the Troll dolls

You owned a portable tape player.

You know the Macarena and the nutbush by heart.

"Talk to the hand" . . . enough said

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You went to McDonald's to play in the playplace.

Before the MySpace frenzy . . .

Before the Internet & text messaging . . .

Before iPods . . .

Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX . . .

Before Spongebob . . .

when you got one sheet of homework for the whole week.

When light up sneakers were cool.

When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.

when Caller ID was a new thing.

When we recorded stuff on VCRs.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off of our
walkmans.

When the Chicago Bulls were the best team ever.

Way back.

When it was all about N64.

WHEN YOU TRADED POKEMON CARDS FOR A LIVING.

Before we realized all this would eventually disappear.

Who would have thought you'd miss the 90's so much!!!!!

Post this in your bulletin if you remember these days . . . .

Post with the year you were born

the evidence

2007-01-24T11:22:00.000+11:00

Ok... so here is my thumb post doctor visit. She used this really nifty thing that I've never seen before to put the bandage on. I thought it was cool. The slice seemed to have stuck back together pretty well which is good... but from looking at how deep the cut is... doc reckons I nipped the nerve (hence that's why it hurt and the tip of my thumb is numb).

I also made another huge discovery at the doctors today! When you mix red onion juice with band-aid glue, it turns green! So my thumb is green underneath (man I should have taken a picture of that too!!!). And yes... my hands still smell of onion.

From Car-O-Line

crazy day

2007-01-23T22:44:00.000+11:00

got some bible study work done today which was really good. it was kinda hard to do... must wrestle with it more later.

Tonight at work... I sliced my thumb while cutting onions. Man it really stung. And there was all this blood coming out. Now I don't know what's been up with me lately... but I basically fainted. I didn't fully black out but I couldn't hear anything, I went all pale and couldn't stand up. So after dressing my thumb I went out and sat in the bathroom and drank some good sugary coca-cola (they should pay me for saying that). I think I gave my boss a good scare... either because he hadn't seen me so pale before, or because he didn't want me to sue him (I think it was a combination of both). Another guy at work also cut the same thumb that I cut today too... but he didn't do the whole 'damsel in distress' thing... he was more of a man and got back to work a lot quicker. Those stupid onions! They cause me so much grief!!! I'm glad I wont be working tomorrow... I need a lil break from it. My hands stink. I don't think I'll need stitches... but then again I don't know what constitutes the need for stitches... so I better go get it checked out by the doctor tomorrow.

CBS SUMMER EDITION TOMORROW!!! YAY!!!

Driving home from work there was a huge storm with scary lightning and bucketing rain. It should be good for the nearby bushfires. Seeing the lightning and rain reminded me of how powerful God is and the fact that he is able to destroy the whole world in an instant. This both scared me and made me feel awe-ed by God. I'm reminded of that C.S Lewis quote about Aslan that everyone quotes... goes along the lines of... Aslan (God) is dangerous - but wonderful.

From Car-O-Line

update!!!

2007-01-22T22:42:00.001+11:00

I forgot to say that Morris Iemma said may-es-tro instead of maestro at the Domain. How silly.

A Mad Weekend

2007-01-22T13:38:00.000+11:00

Saturday:
I met Jen and Bess at Penno at 2:10 and we took the train to St James station where we then walked to the NSW Art Gallery! We got there at 3:30, then decided to look at the paintings. The security guard was quite funny... When we walked in I was saying to Jen "Should we leave our bags at the front?" and the guard was crazilly nodding his head. Hehe... also after we left he was like... "is there something happening over at the Domain today? We heard some music practice before." Poor security guards at the art gallery just sitting in the same place... must be boring at times. There were some really good artworks. I think the one I liked the most was the awesomely huge picture of British cavalry. There was so much depth to it. I also liked this really cool aboriginal painting... I think it was called something like "my paradise." It was really vibrant and beautiful. There were some pretty weird artworks there too... especially this one of this bubble which had a weird face projected on it... and it was saying things like "kill me... kill me now!" There was a funny old lady saying "what is it saying? I can't hear it." Lol. After having all that culture... we went to get our spot for the Symphony in the Domain.
We had a pretty nice spot. We were in full sun from 4 till when the sun went down (possibly 6-7). But none of us got burnt!!! I love sunscreen!!!

Jen in full sun... but not sunburnt!

People who joined us later were Jen's parents, her brother Andrew and Jono. Also some people from the coast that they knew came too. We had a nice picnic dinner of bbq chook and salad on rolls. I also brought some nice cheeses... hehehe... so much culture for one day. Before the music started... me, Jen, Jono and Andrew/MC Rocker/Nathan played 500. I hadn't played 500 in ages! I love it... so much fun. I used to play 500 every free period at school with Jen and Bec. There was a funny round where I think everyone had quite bad cards for anything... I was first to bid... I bid 6 hearts... then the bid was changed to 7 clubs... Jono my partner seemed not happy with hearts of clubs at all... so I then changed the bid to 7 spades. We had a good laugh about it cuz it was such a crazy bid. We almost won! Lost by 2 tricks which was quite surprising.

Does this flash work?

Jen and Caro having fun!

I must say I was quite pleased with the music. And this year they got the fireworks sync-ed really well with the 1812 overture. The cannons are always cool too. Then Jenfaffle's parents drove me home. Ah it was an awesome day.

Caught!

Sunday:
Church in the morning. Maitland Mission people still not back... so was quiet again.
I went to work in the evening. It was such a crazy crazy night! The first bad thing that happened was the F3 was closed... which meant all traffic around our shop was at a standstill... which meant delivery drivers were in a big dilemma... which meant we had a huge huge line up of pizzas that was just building up and up... and not enough oven to get that all done... so delivery times escalated to 1hr (usually 35 mins)... so people decided to get pick up instead... which meant we had a huge rush of people coming to get their pizzas... which put pick up time to 35 mins (usually 15 mins)... and being a sunday (normally a quiet night)... there were only 2 girls on front (could have easily used 3 girls)... which meant at the end of the night... which I was closing... had a stack of washing and dirt all over the floor. Oh and I forgot to mention the scorching heat... which made our computers overheat... which made them reboot twice... meaning we lost some orders... which meant we had to call back people and handwrite orders. Also lots of people must have had their air con on heaps... which caused a power-surge where our oven kept on starting and stopping. I think our boss nearly had a heart attack... and he's trying to quit smoking! I don't think last night helped. LoL.

Well... I hope that was exciting for all of you.

From Car-O-Line

sudden urge to blog

2007-01-16T00:02:00.000+11:00

wow.. it's like 12:02am on a tuesday morning and I just got the sudden urge to blog... don't know why.

I watched V for Vendetta yesterday. I think it's a very good movie that a lot of people should see. I also think that Christians should watch it because of the confronting ideas that are raised in it (eg: Christians are under a totallian regime and have no free thought). I thought one important message in the movie is that your faith can't be a product of something someones told you. You need to know why you believe.

I watched another movie today... well... it wasn't really a movie... but it went on for 90 mins... and it wasn't a tv show either... so I hear you say: "what was it?" It was the presentation of the new iphone by Steve Jobs at the mac conference. Gosh I didn't expect it to go on for so long... I must admit that I drifted off a couple of times... but it is an AWESOME phone/ipod/internet-thing. And what surprised me the most was that it would sell for US$499 which is pretty cheap for something with those features (including multi-touch screen... which is so cool!!!). Ok... so does this make me a nerd?

I was also thinking this arvo that I could be a much better leader to my youth group girls. Compared to my old leader who was awesome... I think I need to be bolder and not be afraid too confront my girls with things I think they do which don't honour God... man being a leader has heaps of responsibilities... it's like being a parent to 15 kids. I'm not ready to be a parent!!! I should talk to old people more on how to lead the kids better.

I realised today that I'll need to fork out at least $400 bucks this month... so no more spending for me. It's very good I have a job now... but I'm worried about how things will pan out once uni starts. The last time I had a job alongside uni was in first year... and I quitted that job because it was too hard to keep up. But maybe now that I'm used to the whole uni thing... it'll be ok. I've told the boss I'll be available 3 days a week... which leaves me one free day... which'll probably be taken by a church bible study. I considered not going to a church bible study... but Cler said I should. I'm thinking 2 shifts of work a week will be good.

Can't remember if I blogged this (I'm always having deja vu nowadays)... but my uni timetable screwed up again... because they cancelled the tute that I picked. So I had to go searching for another subject. There were no music or education (my arts) subjects that fitted... so I decided to have a look back at linguistics (an arts subject that I did in first year)... and there were 2 interesting courses available. I picked the one which allowed me to have a day off keke. It'll be my last arts subject anyways... so I don't really care (I just need to pass!)

haha... I read back on my diary from last year... and I was such a nerd! I was always studying and writing plans and to-do lists... no wonder my results improved. I should keep up with that.

man... i'm really going to have to make an effort to fit in violin practice. And need to fit in some one-on-one times. I'll have to do all my work on the train and at uni.

ok... my blogging urge has gone (I know this because for 5 mins I just forgot that I was blogging and got distracted by my timetable... kekeke)

From Car-O-Line

My Exciting New Year

2007-01-07T21:44:00.000+11:00

Monday 1st
Me and Cler slept at about 4am (after she dropped Euge and Mark home). So we were pretty buggered. Unfortunately... my aunt from the US wanted to wish us a happy new year at 8am... and mum (tucked in bed) let me run out of bed to pick up the phone. Then mum and her sister chatted (very loudly... in true malasian/asian female manner) for an hour... so I sorta just lay in bed for that hour half asleep (me and Cler remember laughing at something my mum and aunt said... but forgot what it was... haha!). I got out of bed at about 9.30... Mum and Elsie were having a lovely chat about me and other things. As soon as they saw me... topic changed! LoL. Cler and Jess came out a little later. Jess and Elsie left at about 12... then I just lazed around... Cler went back to sleep. After visiting my uncle and his dogs (and the rest of the family) me and Cler went to Tashie's 20th birthday party. (Oh no... I'm getting the feeling that I've already blogged about this before! A double post!!! What will I do? Meh...). We ate some lovely food... then we played pictionary. Then we ate some tasty cake. Then we sat around and chatted. Then some people left... and the party crew (ie church people) stayed and took some funny photos. It was a fun time.

Tuesday 2nd
yeah... lack of sleep = I can't remember what I did on this day. Chances are that I just sat on the couch and stared aimlessly into the sky.

Wednesday 3rd
I spent about 2 hours trying to enroll for uni. It took me so long because I had to pick which courses to do... then find out that they wouldn't fit my timetable... then pick new courses... then find out I wasn't allowed to do them... then pick new courses... and decide I didn't like going to uni for 5 days with only 10 hours... then pick new courses... and get an ok timetable. It's looking like I'll have Mondays off (which is nice) and 18 hours (including subjects, cbs stuff and music ensembles). Now just gotta work out which day I wanna have bible study and which day I wanna have violin lesson... and which day I can tutor my neighbour and teach violin to Grace. Oh the dilemma of organising yourself.

Thursday 4th
Went to Cler's house in the late afternoon... then we travelled by train to Cathy's house... before setting out for Ichi-ban Boshi in the Galleries Victoria. While waiting to be seated for dinner... we browsed kinokunyia (sp?) which I've never been to before. It's an awesome store... I reckon it's better than Borders! I wanna go back and buy stuff now. Then we had our tasty dinner. We possibly ordered too much because we were starving (but we could have ordered more entree... luckily we didn't). Then we browsed JB Hi Fi for a little while. Jen will be proud to know that I bought Human Nature's Mowtown album. I figured it would be good as a teaching aid. I also got Coldplay Rush of Blood to the Head. Then... since our food had digested... we went to Gloria Jeans for coffee (or should I say wannabe coffee?). Then we walked back to Cathy's place... played this funny National Geographic game... then me and Cler went back to her place. We both journalled... then we sorta went to bed... chatted for a while... Cler introduced me to all her soft toys (and boy there were a lot!) and then she introduced me to Mandy's giant microbes. They are so cool! I so wanna collect them now!!! Will cost me a fortune though... they cost $8.06 from uni and there are over 20 different microbes. Me and Cler ended up staying up till 3am.

Friday 5th
Woke up surprisingly early from Cler's bright bright room. Had breakfast and then walked to Chatty Westfield. Went to this awesome craft store (I wanna start scrapbooking now) and bought all this nice paper and charms and stickers for Tashie's birthday present. We made her a personalised journal with photos and musical charms and a spot for her CD of the week and some spare blank manuscript for when she gets creative. It was very pretty and both me and Cler decided that we wanted one. LOL.

Saturday 6th
Woke up later than I should have... then walked to Elly's house for a girly hang-out to celebrate Elly's birthday. We watched 3 movies (Raising Helen, Take the Lead and In Good Company) and ate lots of fried food. It was a nice time. Take the Lead is a pretty cool movie. We all got into a dancing mood so we danced to Kylie's greatest hits. We also took lots of silly photos with Elly's phone.

Sunday 7th
The first church service for the new year... which also meant a new starting time of 1oam. I was on music so I had to be there early... turned out when I got there no one else was there... so I think I just sat there for 20mins waiting for other musos to come. We looked at the importance of prayer. Our church camp theme is also going to be on prayer. I'm looking forward to having a prayer focus at church. Then I had a lovely nap in the afternoon... set my alram clock for 3am so I wouldn't be late for switch leaders meeting... was woken up by an sms from Cler asking where I was... realised that I should have set my alarm for 3pm. Made it to the meeting only 30mins late. We talked about what we wanted to do with our kids this year based on where we saw their needs were. It's sounding quite exciting. I'm looking forward to it. I reckon I'll be learning a lot with them as well.

and now I'm here.

From Car-O-Line

2006-2007

2007-01-03T00:00:00.000+11:00

Here are my reflections on 2006:

It started out awesome... I was at Cler's house with a bunch of other church people and we played eye-toy till the early hours of the morning.
The year was a very busy year (even though I didn't have a real job). Uni became a lot harder and on top of that I received a lot more responsibilities. In the middle of the year... I was booked for 3 camps in 3 consecutive weeks (among other camps in the year). I was also holding a main role in organising two of those camps. My immune system seemed to fail me for a bit too... I had food poisoning twice in two months. It didn't take me long to realise that I needed to plan for 2007 a lot better. I also set a new years resolution to read the bible in a year (using one of those guides). Half-way through the year I became a lil slack... but persevered on. I'm currently 2 months behind... but I'm still going slowly.

My highlights for the year:

switch - we had a lot of new junior girls join us and I think a majority of them were non-christians. It was so interesting seeing how they matured and changed in their thinking during the year. They started off coming to youth group only for the games... and little by little they became more interested in the Bible and then really growing in godliness. At first they were a bit of trouble to lead... but I'm so thankful that I got to get to know them and lead them.

switch camp - My first time at organising a camp. Some parts were easy and some were hard. From this experience I learned how great it is to fully trust God and rely on him in our prayers. We had issues looking for a speaker... and it was 1.5 weeks before the camp, at a switch meeting... that we prayed for a speaker... and then Anthony walked in the room... we asked him... and he said YES!!! An awesome answer to prayer. His talks were really great and the kids learned a lot.

ISCF Conference - this conference is always a blast. For once I wasn't too sick (I did lose my voice) and could get closer to the kids. I especially enjoyed running workshops in encouragement and "yr 12 and beyond" where I got to encourage and develop friendships with some of the older teens. I was also encouraged to see a guy from youth group go and make friends and learn skills in christian leadership. It is such a fulfilling camp.

MYC - I came to this camp right after ISCF conference and I was buggered! I think for most of the talks I wasn't fully concentrating but from listening to the talks again on cd... I've learned so much. One of the best things about MYC was getting to know my fellow brothers and sisters from CBS a whole lot better and even having some deep and meaningfuls with some of the MTSers. The topic this year was on Relationships... and boy did I need it after having relationship problems in the beginning of the year. All through the week I was constantly challenged to glorify God in my whole life (including relationships).

Switch Leaders Retreat (SLR) - At this retreat we had 2 extra people come... one who already decided to join the leader team and one who was just questioning. We had an awesome fun time and I really enjoyed praying for each other and also for our kids. Switch definately brought along lots of different challenges for everyone this year and it was nice to reflect, praise God and pray for the future.

Muso Bible Study - This was something me and Dan wanted to do for a while since there were lots of music students who were christians. We started off with a huge number of people who somewhere along the line dropped off... but it was still cool reading the bible with those who stayed.

Music Education - this year we all seemed to be a whole lot more relaxed with everyone. We made more of an effort to see each other and we hanged out alot outside of uni. Especially fun was going to see Sam and his band play at the brass monkey. My marks also improved this year which was nice. Prac at Tangara wasn't as I had expected it to be... but I learned so much... and got so many resources... I'm excited about developing my own programs and using those resources in my own classroom one day.

CBS - I fully threw myself into CBS this year and I'm so glad I did. After not really getting involved in first year... I had the most awesome time this year. Elsie my MTSer has been such a great friend and mentor this year. She always encouraged me to keep on meeting together with the other christians at uni which was great. I made so many new christian friends this year which has made uni double as excellent. Volunteering for CBS was a surprise treat for me... postering early in the mornings wasn't as embarassing as I thought it would be and in fact I made friends with people doing it too.

One on One - towards the end of the year my friend from music and I got into a really good conversation about christian stuff. This wasn't odd as we talked about this stuff alot. I knew I should have invited her to cbs or asked to read the Bible with her but I was scared that she would say no. But God's plan was that I would read with her... and during that good conversation... she asked if we could read the Bible together. How could I say no?! This was very exciting for me. We started reading through Mark which taught us a lot about the character of Jesus. Although we failed to meet towards the end of the year... I'm praying that we can read some more stuff about God's love and his plan for salvation. Psalm 130 is good.

points of learning - I discovered a lot about myself this year. Especially areas of my life where I was discontent. Praying about this and reading the bible, and christian journals, helped me to become content with what God has presented me with. I thought God was being slack to me... but really... God has been AWESOME!

Well that is my particularly long rant. And my new years resolution: Learn how to serve God well (and not wear myself out).

Thoughts of Car-O-Line

Review: Smiths Vegemite Chips

WKC 11 Review

1 Cup Tea Cosy

I'm in hufflepuff

Fishy Tales

hello out there?

Get you started on Christmas

a heads up

yucky pine nuts

Man's authority over women?

how to achieve zero jet lag

Discipline

Food, Bible and Work

better times

hard times

epic exercise

blogging

Recommendations

Holiday Projects

musings on 2009

Your Kingdom Come

I'm a villain, I'm an idiot

womens stuff and stuff

downs and ups

wireless down

Yay for the weekend!!!

Not so newly married now...

I'm Married!!!

Taronga's new baby elephant

I'm changing...

Quick Post

heat wave

news

Gypsies and Birthdays

My Titanic Moment

photos for the week

buying, fishing, relaxing, reading, writing...

New member to my family

lets go fly a kite

garlic goodness

promised photos

suGAH! :O

Christmas cards...

SPRTE and a sewing machine

swim swim :)

remember remember the 5th of movember

All rising!

Happy 216th post!!!

Caroline's looks

*big sigh of relief!!!*

Got this in the mail today

wordle!!!

arpdayette

on a blog roll

blog redesign

procrastination list

notes on the 'other' part of Australia

it is done

a new project (and a short blog)

Chritstmas and New Years fun

sound bites

a journey around NSW

to blog or not to blog...

If only I had a proper exam period

who would have thought???

to do:

i am alive

Hello!

Google Maps - UNSW

an update!!!

shocking news

man talk

This blog is rated...

Uni over!!!

I...

My promised blog to Jen

A night in the life of a Pizza Cutter...

Guy Love

Oh Happy Day!

big sigh of relief!!!