Noosa Jazz Festival

Friday 5th - Sunday 7th September

I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked to this weekend. But it was a fabulous weekend!

We got to QLD at about midday. I got to drive one of the two mini-buses from the airport to Noosa itself. The accommodation was amazing and I really want to find something similar for Camp Happy someday. The students played three gigs on the main stage and then one gig on a wharf at a small wine and tea bar. It was amazing.

I got to spend time with Soong's super lovely colleagues. I got to spend time with Soong's super lovely students. I got to know them a bit better.

We ate out lots and I didn't stress about food all weekend. It was awesome.

There was dancing, and live music, and more dancing and more live music and it was just a great weekend away. It's so nice to take part in Soong's world like that.

The Block

Friday 29th August

Today I wrote my James bible study - which was a real challenging one - and went to the gym. Youth group was pretty fun as well.

Saturday 30th August

Today we spent the day helping Mum renovate her house to prepare for Lana and Simon moving in. We ate together, pulled up carpet, laid new flooring, painted, helped carry boxes and sort stuff and we were there until very late. Then on the way home we stopped in to visit Soong's parents which was fun. His dad bought a new TV and was setting it up so he was very excited haha.

Sunday 31st August

Church and youth group leaders meeting, followed by grocery shopping (yay) and dinner.

School and Shire Stuff (well and truly past half way)

Thursday 21st August
Madness happened tonight! Went to the Kinsey's for dinner. I went early with the intention of having a nap, but ended up playing blocks with Phin. We had meatballs and pasta for dinner with veggies. Pat brought chocolate for dessert, of course. We didn't stay around long though because I had to get home and finish writing my talk.

Friday 22nd August
MTS again today. Decided to catch the train everywhere today and take advantage of my free travel with Opal, instead of driving, worrying about parking, etc. No lunch with M today because he had to head to Canberra halfway through the day. Still came into the office to see me though so still a sweetheart. Caught the train from Hurstville to Livo and got to the cafe early. It's my new favourite cafe and I'm planning on  modelling my backyard after the cute courtyard they have! It's decided - my backyard (once concreted) is going to look like the back courtyard of an inner city cafe. Erin and Helen came and we had a really nice afternoon tea, was super fun. We're planning on doing it again at some point (although it might be easier to do this sometimes at someone's house??? Future plans for future days). 

Youth group talk went well. I didn't think it went that great, but everyone else seems to say it went well. I recorded it and had a listen back afterwards and it wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be! Yay hooray!

Saturday 23rd August
Well today was BUSY. I'm not really a fan of busy busy busy rushy days but this one was quite enjoyable. We went to our friends engagement party in the morning, and it was super cute. It was a brunch party, and so they had different food stations. Inside they had muffins, and muesli and yoghurt parfaits, then outside they had a coffee station with a barista, a pancakes station and they had bacon and egg rolls being cooked on the barbecue - so delicious. We spent all morning chatting with some old friends of ours who now live in Wagga. Was lovely to catch up.

I went home and had a long nap that afternoon, super tired from my long week of staying up late and working on my talk.

That evening we had Soong's school trivia fundraising night. It was lots of fun, I got to hang out and talk with all of Soong's work colleagues, we played some trivia and I got to watch Soong play some funky tunes in between rounds.  Soong and I bid on some items in the silent auction as well. Soong got into the zone and won a gift voucher to a music store, but then decided he actually didn't want it! I won a hair dressing voucher, so I'm pretty pleased with that. I'm planning on using it before Christmas this year. Not sure what I will do with my hair. Thinking that it's time for a change (realised the other day I've had this same haircut since I was in year 12! and I've now been red for almost 5 years!)

Sunday 24th August
Church was all about how we use our words from James 3. It was really challenging. I realised JUST HOW MUCH I use my words to hurt others. It's kind of overwhelming how bad I speak about others and so it's this awkward gap between feeling really burdened and guilty and like I'm drowning in sin, and then feeling the weight off my shoulders because Jesus has taken the punishment for me.

We rushed off to go on a school excursion with Soong. His choir was performing in Glebe, so that was really good fun. His choir performed wonderfully and it was a really well attended choir concert. After the excursion we went out to dinner with Mel and had (overpriced) Thai food in the Shire. Super fun times.

Falling Behind

It's harder to recap what I did on the weekend when it becomes "a few weeks ago"! But on the positive, it's also harder to recall the things that bummed me out, and so therefore easier to only write about the happy things. That's the point of this blog, right?

Thursday 14th August
Tonight we celebrated Thom's birthday with a dinner at Erin and Matt's house. That was really fun. Ez made her super yummy potato bake, we had salad and meat and bread rolls and then an amazing peanut butter cheesecake for dessert. I brought a real camera along and so we took a group photo with the cake (typical self timer, awkward angle, squished in, missing key people from Madness shot.) We hung out, drank tea, chatted, and it was lots of fun.

Friday 15th August
I went into MTS today (am doing this for two weeks) to help out. A is away in NYC with her husband, and has just had a very full on few weeks so I went in to continue monitoring registrations and making sure that we didn't sell out of beds for SPUR conference. It went okay. Was nice to meet G the new PA and hang out with my favourite whale. M and I went to lunch and we had noodles together. He wants to take me to lunch again soon which is lovely. I love seeing M, he is a delight and makes me so happy.

Then we had youth group tonight which was fabulous. Christine did a really good talk. Had some good discussions with our kids. We handed out youth group jumpers and everyone loved them.

Saturday 16th August
This was such a great Saturday. I SLEPT IN. FOR AGES. IT WAS AMAZING.
Then I went and moved a whole bunch of stuff out of my Dad's house, including two book cases and books and DVDs and CDs. So now my living room is slightly more crowded, but slightly more organised as well which is nice. I spent the afternoon unpacking boxes, rearranging my living room, sorting shelves, cleaning out cupboards, and managed to make time to drop food off to Mandy and Jason and see Ollie for a while. Then Soong, Ryan and I hung out in the evening. It was so much fun. I love hanging out with Ryan heaps. We were going to get Taiwanese Fried Chicken from the city, but it was raining and motivation was low so we got KFC instead, then headed to Cabramatta for Bubble Tea.

Sunday 17th August
Today was church, which was good and challenging as usual. Then after church it was my step-sister's kitchen tea. I won a prize for knowing her the best (which surprised me but was awesome). Then we played a few really good kitchen tea games, including a handbag game that I'd never played before but must keep on file for another time! After the kitchen tea was over we had a quiet night at home (rare and strange!).

The company of loved ones

The last weekend ticked all my boxes for having a great weekend.

Thursday 7th August
Christine and I were meant to head out for dinner and a dance party after work tonight. We had gotten all dressed up in tights and were all prepared to hit up No Lights No Lycra, a dance party with no drugs alcohol and seedy guys. People go in their gym gear just to dance and have a good time. Our plan was simple: hit up Lentil As Anything, the new charity vegan pay-by-donation restaurant, and then dance away those carbs. But we never made it out of the restaurant. It was awesome, the food was delicious and tasty and as much as I love everything non-vegan (meat, dairy etc), I didn't miss it at all from my meal.

The restaurant aims to promote community, so they sat another guy at our table who we had never met before. We got chatting, and ended up spending the evening sharing our testimonies and why we believe in Jesus. Woo! Who needs dance parties to have an exciting night?

Oh, and I also got caught in the train station barricade. It closed on my leg and it really hurt. 

Friday 8th August
I spent the day with Erin and Matt, and then had youth group

Saturday 9th August

I took a road trip to Goulburn today and caught up with Weasel. It was amazing. We walked and talked for hours and then had ice cream together in McDonalds. Then when I got back to Sydney we took Ryan out for his birthday. 

Sunday 10th August 

Today it was Victorias birthday so she was meant to come over and have dinner at our place. She was really sick though so we took dinner to her place and spoiled her there. 

Whoops, skipped one there

Let's go back for a weekend to the first weekend of August. I didn't mean to skip it, but next thing you know it's almost the middle of the month!

Friday 1st August
I worked today. Working on a Friday is a strange thing, but am planning on doing this more often to work up some hours and take time off for HSC Lockdown (which is also incredibly soon!). Youth group was good that week, I did an overview of the 5 first books of the Bible and we looked at the first chapter of Joshua.

Saturday 2nd August
I spent today with Lana. We went shopping and bought her beach mission costume (getting organised in August - well done!). We had sushi for lunch and we hung out at her house with Simon. Mum came over in the afternoon and bought a birthday cake for Simon. That evening we took Madness to Huong Xua to get beef pho. Cheap, delicious and fun times.

Sunday 3rd August
Church was great. Looked at James 1 and anger, and I was confronted by the fact that I often get angry and shouldn't. Had the youth group leaders over for lunch afterwards and cooked lasagna and chicken wings with salad. It was wonderful. We spent the afternoon chatting about how to encourage and equip our kids to share the gospel with their friends. That evening we had a family dinner for Grace's and Simon's birthdays at my Aunty Liza's house which was good fun. Got to see and spend time with family. 

Food, friends, festivities

THURS 24th

Guthrie Govan. Shred guitarist. Super nice guy. Ryan and I helped out with the Thump Music Guthrie clinic in Sydney. We took tickets and organized crowds and we wore Thump Music hats and hung out and chatted. Guthrie was lovely a lot more down to earth than Satriani. Then we caught the train home with Tan and chatted lots. Good times

FRIDAY 25th

Today was a day filled with friends. It was lovely. I got up early and finished my Ephesians talk and was reminded about how amazing Gods love is. I caught up with Peter Lin and got the chance to pick his brain about issues which was nice. Then I went to THAC and gave the talk at the year 7-8 girls Christian group which was a really sweet group. After that I was meant to go gym, but ended up spending the afternoon with Lana and Dad. Then I met with Estelle for afternoon tea, rushed home and made dinner for Soong and also for Felix and Laura. Youth group was awesome, good discussions and good times. 

SATURDAY 26th

Pancake madness! We hung out and ate pancakes. People stayed all day. We built park benches and we cleaned my house and drank tea and ate bacon. Love those guys. The evening was Christmas in July and so Helen and I went and ate lots and lots of food. Oh and Mandy gave birth!

SUNDAY 27th 

Church was good. Got to have some great conversations with people who we don't normally talk to. Tristan and Thomas came over for lunch. We got to visit Mandy and Jason and baby Oliver in the evening as well. So fun!!! It was Ez Lau's birthday so he organized for people to go out to Marconi all you can eat for dinner. I don't enjoy all you can eats but I enjoyed spending time with people from church!