Giving without Return!

This happened just this morning after the church service. After getting some groceries from Wollies I went straight to the bus stop to wait for the bus, as usual. While listening to Don Moen worship songs, I suddenly felt someone poking on my left shoulder. To my surprise when I turned my head over, I saw an old lady with shabby clothes on. She started asking me about the bus detail going to some kind of hospital name, etc and I knew the conversation would always end up with getting some spare change. True enough, she asked for a dollar for bus ride. Normally I DON'T entertain such 'rubbish'.

You know we are always being taught that if the person is physically well, he or she should work and stop begging! While I was thinking about giving or not giving, God just reminded me of the testimony in the church this morning; it was about being generous. The testimony has encouraged me a lot and mmm...it was a testing time, wasn't it? I'm not sure... but when my heart tells me to give, I just give and yes a dollar is not much by the way, but that's not the issue. While waiting for the bus to come we had about 15 minutes to chat. I started asking her a lot of questions; where do you live, do you pay rent, what do you do for living, etc. All the answers sounded alright till I asked her how many children does she have? Guess what she answered me; 100!!! Oh my my my...! She added on saying she had 50 boys and 50 girls. I asked her further how old they were and she told me they were in teens... 'wah piang ehh'... she's actually a psycho... sad isn't it, yes sad. She is also most probably a homeless old lady. Man, how blessed I am when I think about it. Aren't you blessed too?

The Riverview church here just recently did a great community work for the homeless people. Guess what they did! 80 volunteers from the church participated in helping the homeless by setting up sections to 'service' the homeless people. The idea is very interesting. There are hair trimming section, new clothes section, shower section etc. Can you imagine how happy the homeless people are when they have their hair cut, took shower and putting on their new clothing?! What a good community project! If you are reading this, why don't you try to bless the local community in certain creative ways?

I'm blessed and so you are!

After 15 years...

One of my housemates suggested to another housemate and I last night to go for an Indian meal today. It's a vegetarian restaurant located right at the back of Bell Tower, next to the Swan River, overlooking the river and the city. They have a funny concept. You can eat all you want, and pay whatever your heart tells you. So, we went!

The last time I when I was here was 15 years ago.

A bus stop near my place

I don't have the Metro card, so by paying cash you'll get this!

Perth City from Swan River

We missed the earlier bus but when we arrived at the restaurant we only waited for 2 minutes before it opened! We didn't realize we were the 1st few. Soon after us, we started to see many more others coming in; Indian, white Aussies, Asian and many more...

Not bad hey!

Had a short walk in the city after dinner; my housemate thought Thursday night is a late night shopping in the city. I was quite sure that Friday is the night for the city and Thursday is for the suburbs. True enough, most the shops were close tonight!

I don't remember this place 'London Court'. It's quite a nice place. Very English-looking arcade, where tourists are the main business here.

Ahh...I grabbed 2 packs of chips from Woollies before catching the bus home. Not too bad, we still managed to make use of the 2-hour ticket for our trip home.

1st Hair Cut in WA!

It's Saturday!!!

I was battling within myself to decide whether to trim my hair today. It's my 8th week in the Lala-land. Since it's winter now I thought I could just leave it long. However the amount of hair is just too much and it's annoying especially I wake up in the morning! So, I decided a week ago to get it 'chopped' today!

Tried Goo Goo's Char Kueh Tiaw & Beehive Cake, before going for the hair cut!

My cousin got me booked with this Singaporean lady who does her 'hairy' business at home. Her saloon is just right next to the car porch. When we arrived another auntie-looking lady just came out from her place and when it was my turn, she only asked me one question; 你要这么剪？(how would you like your hair to be cut?) I told her I only want it to be trimmed a little. As soon as she heard that she quickly got her scissors etc & starting mowing.

Guess what?! She was so-de-fast-de! It only took him less than 10 minutes, to be exactly, I think it was only 6-7 minutes. This lady is no-nonsense lady. She doesn't waste time, nor like to hear you mmm, umm, ahh ahh... when she asks you questions. She got a long list of daily booking. She probably earn more than many professionals out there. 10 minutes for AUD$13... not bad hey?! Those who are interested in coming to Australia to work, do consider this field. Hairdressing is still on the top of the high-demand job list here.

My hair still looks long, however it's much thinner now. The amount of hair that was trimmed was a lot! See, no difference huh?

There you go, this is my story of my 1st hair cut ever in W.A.

I could't resist Aussie Chocolates!!!

What am I gonna do tonight? Staying overnight at my cousin's place and going to church with them tomorrow and at the same time meeting up with another auntie and her family :@)

Just had a great homecook dinner... yum!!!

Week 1 in W.A

Okay, time for more updates. This is my first week of school! Thing

s are going well. so far so good, praise the Lord! I finally had the chance to use my little white MacBook. It's really quite cool :@)

I mainly use itunes to rip the cd into mp3 and play them as part of my teaching. I've found it really useful. The problem is, many sites are blocked by the school; gmail, youtubes and definitely facebook are all restricted here. I'm still try to figure out how to forward my gmail to the school's Outlook Express. I did some setting change, however it is still not working! Anyone of any expertise here?

Pictures showing the Lower Ground; where my Thursdays & Fridays duties are...I will be walking around with my bright shinning orange vest!

This is how my school looks like. It's not too huge nor small; 'ngam-ngam ho'. The size of the primary school is about 500+ which is about the same as my previous school. The kids are generally very nice. I call themlittle people.

My badge; very smart idea, the magnetic badge works perfect!

On my very 1st day of official school, I forgot to put on my badge! Hehehe...nothing's new to Mr. Clumsy like me, I know.

This is my Music Room! I spend 90% of my time here. The other 10% in the library, hall & staff room. The staff are generally extremely supportive. They are amazing people, really. The kids here are really blessed & I'm blessed too to have them as my colleagues.

This is the school hall where the assembly is held. Once a week I'm using this space for the Year 3 choir too. Guess how big the choir is; 90 of them!

Fraser Park; located right opposite where I stay now. The city Council has been very generous; they let the school to have the space during sport time for free. It's a nice open space where many people walk their dogs at about 4pm. When I'm more settled, I'll want to spend some time reading here too...

Look at this monster; it's a black & white laser printer/photocopier. I love it! You can print from any spot in the school coz it's wireless enabled. Likewise there is a colour laser copier too!

I think I'm destined to be in Green House forever. Back in Tunku, I was in the Green team tool; the team that always wins, seriously. I hope Tunku Green House will win in the sport event next month! GO HIJAUUUUUU!!!

Blessing in God's Delay...

I remember Ps. Ian shared this in his previous sharing; there is blessing in God's delay. I just wanna share something simple yet meaningful to me. Just before I came to Perth my sister suggested me to get a type of microwave container that cooks rice and I do remember seeing one of those but somehow I just couldn't find it! I went to few shopping places in Perth, still couldn't find it. That was before I moved into the new place here. You know I won't want to get a rice cooker here that would be too troublesome knowing that I'm staying by myself. And guess what... when I reached my new place I realized that EVERYTHING is provided. I just have to bring my clothing. Literally everything is provided. You name it, I've got it! Yes, there is a rice cooker there. How wonderful that is. God's arranged everything for me :@)

It's so true when the His word says His ways are higher than ours!

For those who are waiting... yes there is Blessing in God's delay...

God, You've Done It Again!

God is just simply AWESOME!!! Ready for some updates again? Oh yes! I went to meet the Deputy yesterday afternoon & at the same time managed to visit the school and meet other staff. They are very nice people! The primary school has a beautiful campus too. The 'little people' are very cute hehehe...

God gave me another visitation yesterday.While checking my mail in the morning, I finally got a reply from the landlord of the exact address of the place that I might be renting. The story goes like this. After I was offered the job last Friday, I spent half a day thinking about the offer, and another day looking for a place to stay. In fact it would be tough for me to get any room at this moment because my working contract offer is only for 6 months. Normally people would want to rent it out for minimum of 12 months. Anyway, I searched & searched in Gumtree and found one very special room. It only requires a minimum of 3 months contract and it's located on the same street as the school + the rental includes all bills! Finally today with my cousin driving me around we managed to find the house. At 1st I thought this must be the place; old timber kinda house, neat & quite livable! It's really near to the school; just 2 blocks away.

A is the school, B is the rental place!

I thought this was the house!

Later we found out the address that we got was wrong. Instead of No. 78, it's actually No. 74. When we check again, to my real surprise the actual place that I wanted to rent is directly next to the school!!! How good can that be?!

God is so good; He makes me & my school neighbours!

Today has been a long long day. Another new colleague and I were introduced by the principal during the assembly this morning. It was my 1st time listening to the school song as well as singing the Australian anthem. Will I forget our Negaraku & Ibu Pertiwiku? Never! Not that I like it, but the State anthem sounds really nice. I had to meet 2 heads of school to talk about stuff, met up with more staff, busy filling up more paper work especially to get my teacher registration done etc. And hey, just before I left the school, I was given a white Mac Book! Yoohooo...does that mean it's a sign for me to learn how to use Mac? Erm... I have no choice but to learn it because all the documents and emails are only can be accessed through this Mac Book. Not my Dell anymore... The school worries about virus & other security issues...

Woot! Epal!

Thanks to my cousin who drove me around 1st to the school, 2nd to the the WACOT, 3rd to Westfield Carosel mall, the list just goes on and on...

Let me promote my little cousin, Alvin.

After all the ding-dongs, I finally moved into my new place. It's easier to settle down this time round. Just within an hour I managed to get everything organized.

I really feel like as if I'm a student again...

Now who are my housemates then. The angmoh landlord stays there too, together with his Japanese wife and naother 2 rooms are rented to 2 mainland Chinese girls. This is another shocking news I received just now. Guess what! One of the mainland Chinese girl is from the province of Foo Jian. And when I introduced myself as Foochow from the same province as hers, she said she's a Foochow too!!! I could understand her Foochow! is this an coincidence? Nah...can't be...God must be so 'bored' that He engineered all this!

Ah...tomorrow is another long day. I got heaps of stuff to read, plan, etc etc etc... I'll just let it flows and see what God is going to do next! :@)

The Foochow mainland Chinese girl cooked the soup - now can you guys see how Foochow this is???