Here we are...

Sorry this took so long BLINCO. Nice pictures? I think you look a bit scary! it was nice to see you. We should hang out more often!

Ice Skating!

It has been really hot the last week or so. I love it! The humidity however, is a bit nasty. To escape the stickiness for a while I decided to take Chaman ice skating for the first time! Being in a rush, we forgot to take socks so we had to borrow some from lost property. I think they were clean?? The only ones that fit me were a kids pair of stripey pink and black ones. The skates rubbed on my ankles alot because the socks were too short, needless to say I didn't keep them.

We had a lot of fun. Chaman's back side became well acquainted with the ice as they met quite frequently. I didn't hurt myself skating but then at the end of the afternoon we played air-hockey and the puck hit my thumb. It still hurts. Silly puck.

Anyway, it was a great activity for a hot summers day. Cold and lovely!

Australian's All Let us Rejoice

Kenny, (the infamous toilet man) used to think that the words to our anthem were: "Australians all let us ring Joyce, for she is young and free..." RUDE!


Anyway we're not all young... and we're not ever all free BUT we should rejoice anyway!

It makes me sad when people grumble about our lovely country. It's just so nice!

We have the fluffiest animals, the whitest beaches, the nicest people, the weirdest humour, the best cricket team, the cleanest cities, the prettiest reef, the lowest unemployment, the largest outback, the most sheep, the only vegimite and the prettiest girls!

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY.

Eat pavlova

Play cricket

Burn the sausages

Put on your thongs

Go to the beach

Have you ever?

There's a great game that is played at camps called "Have you Ever?" Everyone except one person is seated on chairs in a circle. The person remaining stands in the middle of the circle and begins a truthful sentence with "Have you ever.....?" by describing something interesting they have done that others may have also done. Example: "Have you ever been to Tahiti?" "Have you ever eaten green ants?" "Have you ever broken your toe?" The people who can answer "yes" to this question have to vacate their seats and find another one. The person in the middle joins the shuffling and another person will be left standing without a chair. Thus, the game proceeds.

I like this game but I don't like the awkwardness when no one answers "yes!" It is a strange feeling to describe something interesting or personal with the expectation that someone will stand up and say "Yes, I know exactly what you mean, I have done that!" but instead be left with vacant stares. Sure, there's a slight euphoria of feeling unique or special but what if this happened all the time? What if, after a while you didn't want to speak anymore for fear of being too different?

Let's play... "Have you ever been in love with an Afghan refugee?" "Have you ever been scared that he will go back?" "Have you ever been worried for his life - and your own?"

Have you ever?

So So

I work at an english language college. If you ask a student (particularly a Korean)how they feel and they aren't good they will never say so. Even if they are homesick, depressed, worried or fatigued they will politely reply "I am so so."

Well, today I am so so. Make of that what you will.

Happy Anniversary

Congratulations on 1 year and 2 days Rach and Joel! It is wonderful to see you growing closer to each other and I pray that your love will strengthen, your patience will grow and your commitment will be maintained. Joel, I am so pleased to have you as my brother-in-law. Thank you for taking care of my sister. May the God of love continue to use you both as an example to each other. With much love on this special occasion.

Holy Days

Well, the Holy season started with a BANG! Literally. Chaman and I had a car accident on the 15th of December after my staff party. Chaman was driving our car down the free-way on the way back to my place in Cleveland. It was raining and a couple or cars braked suddendly (as did we). The air-bags went off and both of us were pretty sure we going to meet Jesus. Fortunately, although I had a small burn on my face and bruising to my arms, we remained unscathed. It has been emotionally and financially draining on both of us but thank God that it was not more serious.

We had a few other parties to celebrate at the end of the school year. The students'are always the most fun to spend time with. The best part about this party was that I hardly had to organise anything. Just show up and have fun! I love these people!

CHRISTMAS

It was really great to have Rach and Joel (my sister and brother-in-law) stay with us over Christmas. We played a lot of games, went shopping, relaxed and enjoyed going to church together as a family. We had a family of 8 for Christmas day. Mum, Dad, Rach, Joel, Chaman, Altaf (a Christian friend from Afghanistan) Hannah and myself. Mum decided that we should all dress up in OP-Shop clothes after church so that was interesting.

It is so special to remember the incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus at Christmas time. Amidst all the silliness of the season I really enjoy simply worshipping the Lord as I mediate on the reason for the season - US! Jesus died for US! To join together as a family makes it even more precious. It may be the last time we will have Rach and Joel with us at Christmas time as Joel is studying to be a Pastor and will be rather tied up at Christmas time.

CAMPING TRIP

On Thursday the 28th of December Chaman, Altaf and I set off on an adventure in Altaf's little 2-door car. We crammed the car full of eskies, tents, sleeping gear and food and headed "north." Our first port of call was 1770 - a beautiful little town about 7 hours north of Brisbane. We only arrived late in the afternoon so we spent nearly 2 hours looking for a place that didn't have the sign "No Vacancy" out the front. Eventually we found a quiet little caravan park just outside of town and set up camp for the night.

The next day we packed up early and explored around 1770 and Agnes Water. We went to the beach and played in the rock pools then decided that we would travel further north. We drove to a place called Tannum Sands which is about 2 hours from 1770. After a sweaty, crowded and slightly frustrating time searching, we found a great spot out the back of a beautiful caravan park to set up camp. We were in the bush, across the road from a lovely beach and we also had access to a swimming pool and cooking facilities (although we preferred our own raging fire.)

Altaf burnt his hand really badly on the first night at Tannum Sands trying to encourage the fire with Kero. A bad move. I had to listen to Chaman say "I told you so" for the rest of the week. We bandaged him up after the enormous blister burst and he said it wasn't too bad although he slept with a bucket of cold water next to his bed for a couple of nights!

We stayed in Tannum sands for 3 mights. We did a lot of swimming, exploring, played cricket, collected fire-wood (Chaman's favourite activity) and relaxing. We joked that we would run into someone we knew because it was such an out-of-the-way kind of place. On the same night we were joking we went to wash the dishes at the camp kitchen and I ran into one of my high school teachers! Weird.



After a relaxing New Years dinner of KFC chicken and BBQed curry (in a kettle!)on a larger-than-normal fire we had a few beers and wine, played Yahtzee (we couldn't figure out Skip-Bo)and talked until the count-down. The next day we packed up the tents, went for a swim and set off for Yeppoon (another 2 hours North.) I was really excited because I had a vague recollection of Yeppoon from 10 years ago when we went as a family and I had loved it then. I could smell the palm trees already!

After stopping in Rockhampton for lunch and being bitten by a few bull-ants we could see the blue sky on the horizon and we were sure it would be sunnier in Yeppoon! It was. We visited the "i" and Shell World and drove around to look for the perfect place to pitch our tents. We stopped our search as soon as we found a National Park in Roslyn Bay. Gorgeous!!!

KEPPELL ISLAND

Personally, my favourite day of the holidays was when we went to Great Keppell Island. We caught the ferry over at 9am. The weather was perfect. We went kayaking, swimming, boom-netting and snorkelling. We had so much fun that we didn't want to stop for lunch - so we didn't. Chaman struggled with the snorkelling at first and freaked out when I told him that Steve Irwin was killed by "one of those" as I pointed about a metre away from his flipper. Eventually he figured out how to breathe and swim without scaring all the fish away (we nicknamed him the shark) and it was difficult to pry him away from the beautiful fish and coral so we could to make it to the last ferry. None of us wanted to leave!

The only reason we didn't go back to the island the next day was because we were red-raw with sunburn. I was wearing a dark pink skirt and it was difficult to see where the skirt ended and my legs started! Ouch! They are still inching a week later. It was ok though because we decided instead to explore around Yeppoon and Emu Park. Actually, our original plan was to stay in Yeppoon just for 2 days and go to Fraser Island... but we fell in love! We celebrated our last night of holidays ordering Thai and sitting on the beach at full moon. Ahhhh.

It took 8 hours to drive home last Thursday. 8 hours is quite a long time to play eye-spy and trivial pursuit (and especially to listen to Indian music!) Now I'm back at work but only until the week end!