Anzac Day Away!

Headed up to Port Stephens with some church friends on Tuesday night to get away for Anzac Day! We left Sydney around 8pm and after dinner at Maccas, reached our YHA accommodation around 11pm! It was pouring rain all the way which is probably why it took so long. Man it was heavy!

After sitting in the hostel carpark waiting for the rain to die down, we realised that it wasn't going to and made a run for it!

Our accommodation was small but cosy and comfortable and we were all quite tired after driving seemingly so far in difficult conditions. That didn't stop us from playing Big 2/Emperor's scum however into the early hours of the morning!

On Anzac Day the rain kept on coming! We soon realised that we wouldn't be able to go sandboarding as originally planned and resigned ourselves to thinking of fun indoor activities we could do! After initially entertaining the thought of a movie marathon at the local cinema, we decided instead to go to the nearby Hunter Valley to go wine tasting!

We grabbed a quick brunch at a local cafe and said farewell to Port Stephens which we didn't even see and drove 45 mins to Cessnock and the Hunter Valley. We visited 4 or 5 vineyards and each bought a couple of bottles of wine, mainly desserts and reds. Tempus Two had a fantastic Moscato which I regret not buying!

We left the Hunter Valley around 4pm and headed back to Sydney in still more rain to Bevo Hills to drop Col home. Then we grabbed dinner at a local noodle place run by this old Aussie lady. It was edible but not quite authentic! Oh well!

And so ended our Anzac Day away...it felt more like a day trip than an overnight trip but I guess the company made it fun and it was a welcome day off in the middle of a busy week at work!

First week of leave!

Monday - Shaun's 21st Paintball Party! Headed out nice and early to Heartbreak Ridge in Blacktown! Having played paintball once before, I knew what to expect...I just couldn't remember exactly how much it hurt to get hit! 6 games, 400 paintballs and a couple of bruises later, I remembered! All in all a fun day. The final score: St Mark's 3, Optom 3!

Tuesday - Spent the day with Teng. Headed up to Thornleigh to try the Malaysian place there called Makan @ Alices! I tried the laksa and Teng had the Wat Ton Hor Fun noodles. Both were not bad. The piece de resistance however was their awesome Cendol!!! Teng even said it was comparable to that found in Malaysia! After lunch we spent the arvo at Featherdale Wildlife Park where Teng enjoyed patting koalas and kangaroos. In the evening we headed back to the eastern suburbs to watch TMNT at the Ritz!

Wednesday - Woke up late and went with Teng and Jon to the Royal National Park for a bit of canoeing! Since there were 3 of us, we got one 2 person canoe and a 1 person kayak. The day was nice and warm and the river at Audley had more water than last time I was there. We enjoyed a nice water fight with me in the kayak and Teng and Jon in the canoe! At one point they were chasing me down the river trying to splash me and I swear I had never paddled so hard in my life!

Thursday - Headed out to the Royal Easter Show at Olympic Park with Jon and Teng. We met up with 2 of Jon's friends there and enjoyed the Aqua dive show, the food hall and bazaar halls and a sheepdog rounding exhibit. In the arvo we headed over to the carnival area where Jon's friends went on some super psycho ride! Teng was also excited by the prospect of an adrenaline rush and dragged Jon first onto a Tower type ride and then myself onto a Pirate ship type ride! Sucker for punishment man! The whole time I had my eyes closed and I felt nauseous all the way home!

Friday - Had lunch with Jimbo at Sinma Laksa house and then headed back to his place to watch some Chasers.

Saturday - Joe koko and Isabel + Teng came over for a nice family dinner.

Sunday - dropped Jon off at his friend's place whom he would be heading down to Albury with.. Then Teng and I headed to Bondi Junction to enjoy an easy way tea and some window shopping. Then it was off to church in the arvo!

And so ended my first week of leave this year - man it was hard waking up today!!!

To Whoop Whoop and back...!

Spent the easter long weekend going down to Albury to rescue Jonny boy from the evil clutches of the rural clinical training scheme!

Left early on Friday morning and with just one major stopover at Maccas, we reached Albury around 1pm. Jon had the townhouse to himself as his flatmate had gone home for the weekend. We made ourselves at home, we being Teng, the folks, and some Taiwanese family friends who came down with us.

After resting a bit, we visited the nearby Hume Dam, at 2% capacity apparently! We walked along the top of the dam to the other side and enjoyed jumping across state boundaries from NSW to Vic back and forth! Afterwards headed to a nice park near the Murray to enjoy a stroll and the autumn scenery.

Spent Saturday visiting Corowa, a small town 45 mins from Albury and supposedly the birthplace of federation. That day the Australian National Billy Cart Championships were being held there so that was something different!

The afternoon was spent visiting some wineries across the border in Victoria. We bought some dessert wines and even strawberry wine! Enjoyed some gourmet pies in the small town of Rutherglen before heading back to Albury! Dinner was at the local pub followed by a round of poker back at Jon's townhouse (no money involved!).

On Sunday we slept in and left Albury around midday. On the way home we made a slight detour via Batlow to buy some fresh apples from the orchards there! Got home around 10pm rather buggered. Jon was sure glad to be home!

And then there was light!

Took another NDO on Monday and took a spontaneous trip with Teng to the blue mountains!

She had already been there a few years back so we decided to skip all the tourist attractions and try and do some walks that the mountains are famous for!

We arrived in Leura around 1.30pm and decided to grab lunch. Cravings for fish and chips and a hamburger led us to the local takeaway shop!

After lunch we headed for Govett's Leap Lookout. We had hoped to do the Govett's Leap walking track to the bottom of a waterfall and back but to our dismay we found out that most of the tracks were closed due to recent bushfires. The only 2 left open were a 40min easy walk and a 3-4hr moderately difficult one.

We chose the easy one!

We enjoyed the fresh air and awesome views over untouched valleys! Although dark clouds threatened rain, the most we ever got were patches of light drizzle.

Later in the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds casting awesome patches of sunlight and shadow upon the valley!

Before heading home we enjoyed a mocha at a cozy cafe near Wentworth Falls.

All in all a nice day away!

St Mark's Combined HP 2007!

We had our annual combined congregation houseparty this weekend! It was at Rathane in the Royal National Park and it was jammed pack full of fun and fellowship!

It went from Friday night till Sunday lunchtime and included following:

4 talks by Mark Charleston on Mark's gospel! Key messages - Turn, Trust and Travel with Jesus!, 'Is my future radical enough for the Lord Jesus Christ?'

2 bible studies - I was in Jimmy and Siew Kee's group - had really challenging discussions!

1 seminar - on evangelism by Andrew.

1 free time - went canoeing with about 10 others from both AM and PM services! Had a cool water fight and got totally soaked!

1 evening of compulsory fun - participants were broken up into 3 teams for a mini olympics type night! I was in the group with all the kids - lotsa fun!

2 DMCs - 1 with a bunch of married couples, 1 with the guys until 2.30am in the morning after we had turned back the clocks!

So if you couldn't make it this year, that's just a small part of what you missed out on! But don't worry! Evening church houseparty is just around the corner...!

Schindler's Lift

I attended a beautiful wedding reception last night at Marigold Restaurant!

It was really encouraging to see the couple getting married, we were in good company and the food was great! We had this really social honky waiter, also called Ben!

Left around 11:30pm. Got into the lift with 7 other friends from church.

One of them says, "Hey, why don't we do that thing where we all jump just as the lift is reaching the ground floor?"

So we did it - twice!

Apparently this didn't agree with the lift cos it decided to stop!

At first we thought we were at ground floor and the door was just taking a while to open. Then we pressed the Door Open button.

Nothing happened.

We pressed the other buttons - 1st floor, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th!

Nothing happened - "Uh oh..." someone says.

Ya... right!

We rang the alarm bell and got connected to an operator. I was somewhat surprised that someone would tbe there at this late hour to assist us...I wonder if people get stuck in lifts so often that they have staff available 24hrs to help them get out!

We explained our situation (neglecting to mention the part about jumping up and down in the lift!). She said she'd send a mechanic and that it'd take about 30mins.

30 mins!!!

Man! It wasn't too cramp but it wasn't comfortable either! There was little ventilation and the lift down-lights were hot!

We tried pulling open the lift door and succeeded in opening it about half way. We found that we were actually between the ground and first floors. A small crack in the outside lift door allowed some air in.

To pass the time we listened to songs on my phone, sang along to a hymn, and started imagining all kinds of ways to get out of the lift... or what would happen if we didn't...!

One of the guys was more concerned about his umbrella he'd left behind at the restaurant!

Eventually the mechanic arrived (obviously not from the German Schindler manufacturer of the lift cos he was asian!). It still took him a good 15-20 minutes but eventually he managed to open the exterior door and we were freed!

We had to jump down to ground level a metre or so, but we didn't care! We were free! Ah...how good it was to feel fresh air blowing against my face!

And so we managed to escape Schindler's Lift...

Mmm...rock!

Picked up Di, Yokes and Sarah from the airport today after they returned from a 10 day trip to the south island of NZ.

Went for brekky at a nice Indian place in Strathfield near Sarah's place. Whilst waiting for our meals, Di offered me a 'lolly' from NZ!

I had a look at them, wondering whether to have one before brekky or after. Di was like, "Just try one now! But make sure you suck it cos they're kinda hard."

They looked awfully like rocks and I commented as much...

They tasted like rocks...

They were rocks!!!

Mmm...rocks! =P

Ki-ama!

Had a NDO (ninja day off!) on Monday, having worked on Sunday so decided to do something with my cuz Teng.

Initially we wanted to try out a Malaysian restaurant in Thornleigh but it was closed of course on the only day we both had off! So instead we just decided to go for a drive, despite the grey clouds and threatening weather! I definitely didn't want to spend the whole day in front of the tv!

We headed down south, taking a nice meandering drive along the coast. We did the scenic route starting at Stanwell Park and enjoyed amazing views from lookouts! We passed through a number of small seaside towns before spotting a fish and chips store! Can't remember the name of the town it was in but we were hungry and we wanted fish and chips so we got it!

Having satisfied our craving, we continued our drive down the coast, bypassing Wollongong and heading towards Kiama (or 'Kee-a-ma' as my cuz pronounced it!).

We arrived shortly and followed signs to the towns most famous tourist attraction, the blowhole!

Unfortunately the weather was awful and rain was peltering down but that wasn't going to stop us, having come all that way! Without any warm clothing, we huddled together under an umbrella and made our wet way toward the blowhole! There a few other silly dodos trying to admire the blowhole in that atrocious weather.

We didn't stay long! Took a couple of photos before running back to the sanctuary of the car!!

Afterwards, we found a nice cafe to have a mocha and warm up! Also found a nice ice cream place (never too cold for icecream!!!)!

The drive back was fraught with danger as we drove through dense fog!!! All the cars had their hazard lights on and they only had to go maybe 5-10 metres ahead of us and they'd disappear!!! Scary! But we made it back ok.

How's that for spontaneity! =P