Today Last Year (Part 2)

Farewell with some of our best friends ...

The Final farewell in the airport ...

The guy in uniform actually sent us all the way to Melbourne, no kidding. I will show you proof in my next blog.

(More to follow on what happened after we arrived in Melbourne).

Today Last Year (Part 1)

Well, today last year we were packing and going to the airport to take a plane to leave home. Yes, it is exactly one year today that we left. The year seems to have passed by very quickly. Here are some pictures leading up to the moment we left. Bring back some fond memories of good friends and colleagues that we have had over the years.

It was just after my son's birthday ...

Farewell from family friend.

Farewell from our care group.

Farewell from the church and good friends.

Farewell from good friends and church friends.

Farewell lunch from my colleagues.

Farewell from old friends.

From the church.

Our home

One of the church friends asks us about the new house that we are staying in. I didn't have the time to upload any photos until today. So, sorry SP for the late photos.

The first picture is the front of the house as one walks down the pedestrian path.

The house is right beside a park. The park extends back much further, and it's actually quite big.

And this is the front door to the house.

As you walk into the house, the first thing you see is the lounge. You can see how "lived in" and how messy it is.

This is the kitchen.

And the backyard.

Now, you have completed a tour of my house! Except, of course, the bedrooms, which are too messy to be shown ....

Happy Birthday, Tim

We recently celebrated Timothy's birthday. It is amazing how much he has grown over the space of one year! He was still a kid when we had our farewell in KL - and that was just after his birthday. We are here almost a year, and he has just celebrated his birthday again.

Happy birthday, Tim.

Catching Up (Part 4)

And finally, during this mid-year winter break, I took a week off - hence the time to catch up with my blog. We also went to the zoo and spent a good half a day there. The next day we went to the cinema to watch Karate Kid, acted by Jaden Smith and Jacky Chan. The plot was essentially the same as the old Karate Kid, but the kids enjoyed it tremendously.

Well, we have been for a good 11 months now. By the end of July, we would have been here for a year. The year has gone by very very quickly.

Catching Up (Part 3)

My parents came to visit us during the Easter holiday this year. They stayed for only 2 weeks, but even then they found the weather here too cold to their liking.

We brought them to look around Melbourne, and since there was not much to see, we drove by the beach and stopped at a spot or two. We then visited my old Year 12 college and popped by the flats I used to stay as a first year overseas student.

We wanted to bring them to the Phillips Island to watch the penguin parade, but the cold was too much for them, so they followed my brother and sister-in-law to the Dandenongs and went cherry picking.

We were rather disappointed that the penguins did not return in droves, apparently because there were sharks just outside the island. There is also a colony of penguins in the St. Kilda piers, right near the heart of down town Melbourne.

Apart from the penguin parade we also dropped by the koala reserve. It was scary to see how human activities have decimated the breeding grounds of penguins and koala bear just a little over 100 years.

Catching Up (Part 2)

And in February this year we moved house. We moved a few streets down from where we lived so that the kids would not have to walk too far when they get off the school bus. They used to walk up to 2 km; but now they walked only about 100 m. For most part of the year the walking probably did they some good, but in the hot summer and cold winter, they were actually quite miserable.

After moving in, we have some family members coming over for ho

use warming. The biggest group would be Belinda's cousins, nephews and nieces. It was a great time catching up with them, since the last time we met was when Belinda's grandmother was very sick, and that would have been more than 12 years ago.

That night all 4 families from Belinda's family side turned up; the fellowship was very warm and we all had a good time.

Since coming over, we (actually Belinda and Nicole) have also learnt some tricks in cooking; it is surprising how much one can do with canned sauces. We had a good "laksa" night.

Catching Up (Part 1)

It has been quite awhile since I last found time to jot down my thoughts. Work has been busy - well, that is a lie - but, life has been busy. There's work, there's church, there's family, and life was rather full, until this week. This is the beginning of the kids' winter holiday, and I took a week off to babysit them (not that they need me to).

When did I last blog? Back in the beginning of the year. And that is a fatal mistake - people who follow my blog would likely to give up if I have left it half dead for months. And for your coming back - I am indeed grateful.

Quite a few things happened since. (And that is an understatement - when I need to split this blog into a few parts just to catch up).

Earlier in the year we celebrated my brother's birthday.

Back in April, during the fall break, my parents came over for about 2 weeks. Regretted that we didn't bring them around much. Their main reason of coming though, is to catch up with us and see how we are. They were happy at the end of the visit.

We did bring them looking around Melbourne beach front. It was cold. We then dropped by the secondary college I attended when I first came. There were lots of memory when we toured the old college ground. The school itself has many improvements since - a heated swimming pool, and dedicated gymnasium, new buildings, new common rooms for the Year 12 students etc ...

We then drove past the block of flats I stayed in as a Year 12 student.

It was good to show my parents the school they sent me to, but driving back, I could not hold back the memories of a first year, wild eye, overseas students facing a major examination at the end of the year in a school where there was less than half a dozen of overseas students. Having come from a small town in Malaysia where speaking English is considered pretentious, I had a hard time struggling with my English. My first winter was bitterly cold - apparently the coldest winter in 10 years before that; and I remember seeing my first day of snow peering out of the library window during my English lesson. That year, it actually snowed in suburban Melbourne. There was so much uncertainties and anxieties - would I do well in my exam? What happen if I don't? Was it the right decision to come?

Thank God I made it through and did rather well at the end of the year.

Looking forward, there are many similarities, too, comparing this year with the first year I was here. This winter has been the coldest in 10 years; there was so much adjustment at work; so much to get use to, so much to learn. But if the past is anything to go by - God shows His faithfulness today by showing us how faithful He has been in the past - then I would have all the confidence that things will work out fine; all the confidence in my God.