31.03.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:50 am by Sarah
It’s my birfday tomorrow!!!
One of the things I’ve had to repeat all my life (actually, it’s in the same catagory as ‘I’m not frowning or unhappy, this is just the way my face looks, unfortunately’):
‘Yes, isn’t it funny, April Fools, ha ha… oh my gosh, get over it!’Â Only the most solid sense of humour can cope with 25 years of jibes and jokes. Mine’s been wearing thin for a while…
 For those obsessively interested – the background of April Fools Day…
 The origin of this fool-making custom, like that of may other of our oldest customs, is involved in considerable doubt and uncertainty. It prevails, in Scotland, Germany, Sweden, and France—in which latter place the victims of the jokes are styled poissons d’Avril, or April fishes. But in none of these countries is its origin reasonably explained. Some suppose it to be derived from the abduction of the Sabine women by the Romans under Romulus, at the feast in honor of Neptune, which occurred on the 1st of April; others trace it from the mockery of our Saviour by the Jews ; while still others ascribe it to the act of old father Noah, in sending out the dove from the ark before the waters of the deluge had subsided.
Thank you Google.
There are other theories involving historic kingdoms and changes of calendar and jesters… Meh. It’s a bit of a non-day really, we don’t really know what it’s for and we don’t even get a holiday!
Meanwhile, yay for birthdays, a husband to share it with, and a church-arranged board games night that happens to be on tomorrow night!!
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30.03.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:16 am by Sarah
Sitting in on the AVM last night I realised the amount of balance that is involved in running a church.  No one hesitates to agree that spreading the gospel should be the main focus of any church. But other factors seem to cloud that focus fairly rapidly.
Which brings me to the issue: Should a church look pretty?
I’m not saying; don’t do what needs to be done to maintain a building… that’s a given. The argument last night was that a church building should looking inviting and attractive in order to draw people in to hear the gospel. Â
Balance: A clean church in working-order VS a super-pretty sparkley church that attracts the moths.
Essentially, this isn’t a bad argument. But why do I feel so uncomfortable about it? Why does it seem off the mark? Should the attractiveness of a church be what draws people in in the first place? Isn’t that what we accuse certain other churches of doing?
In thinking about it more: I guess the ideal attraction would have to be people in the congregation who reflect Jesus in the way they live.
 A few additional comments were made about the tidiness of the church – especially the ‘worship area’ i.e. the stage. This just confused me. Perhaps I’m not a tidy-freak (actually – I know I’m not a tidy-freak) but unless it was unimaginably untidy, it definately wouldn’t affect my worship time. Why should it? Â
Perhaps I’m just sad because we’re human and these things seem to matter in this world.
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26.03.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:31 pm by Sarah
Somehow I’ve managed to emerge from the weekend more tired than ever.
 Friday night I wrote my Youth Church study as I waited for Haoran to get home late from work. It was really interesting to do a topical study as opposed to a passage-based one. We’re doing a series of studies at the moment which I’ve been really excited about… basically about the personal life of a Christian.
When I was growing up I always felt that gap. That although we were encouraged to do our ‘quiet times’, I had to work out what that meant for myself.
The kids we’re working with are at that age where they are figuring this stuff out. Lucy did a study on prayer the other week, and it really got through to them I think. Hopefully it’s a step forward from superficial prayers to prayers that are meaningful… This week we did ‘why we should read our Bible regularly’, and next week is ‘How to read it’ – or more of a ‘what do I do when I don’t understand it?’. It was good to have good honest chats about reading the Bible with the kids. It was so encouraging to see that they really understood that reading their Bible was beneficial. I can’t wait for next week 
.
 Saturday was ‘day off’. It was nice, almost like an isolated holiday. The only downside was having bad rice milk on my cereal and being sick as a result. But… on the upside, we got to watch a movie together (something we hardly ever do…. The Matrix, no less). And later on once I was feeling better we went and ran around with a frisbee for a while.
 Parks are majorly underrated. I actually love being out in a park… it’s just a matter of getting the motivation (and the time) to actually go outside and ‘play’. Plus there are heaps of really nice parks in QH. Haoran provides the perfect motivation to go out. His knee needs to be excercised, plus he wants to get fit again so he can play in a frisbee team.
 My only problem is that I have major self-confidence issues when it comes to anything physical. So if I throw badly once… it just goes downhill from there. I misinterpret Haoran’s encouraging smile as a laugh at my uncoordinated stupidity and get really down on myself. I’m sure there’s some sort of childhood trauma associated with it but I won’t get into that..
But yeah, after I got over that it was heaps of fun. I hope we have time to do it more often.
 I always like to look through our cook books for inspiriation before we go shopping. I got to buy interesting things like rice flour and tamerin puree this week. Unfortunately, no matter how much I kneaded and rose the brioche dough, yesterday afternoon… it still ended up being flat (My very lovely husband took one to work today despite this ). Hopefully my tofu cheesecake will be a little more successful.
Annual Vestry Meeting this week…. I feel all political, being a nominee’s wife…  Â
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23.03.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:59 pm by Sarah
The funniest conversations happen in the middle of the night when you wake up and are so groggy you can hardly talk:
 Haoran: (jerks violently in his sleep and almost hits me in the face) What?
Sarah: What?
Haoran: I bit the guy’s hand.
Sarah: What?
Haoran: He was punching me so I bit the guy’s hand.
Sarah: Hey.. that’s like me!
Haoran: What?
Sarah: The other night I bit the guy’s hand.
Haoran: What? Why?
Sarah: In my dream… I don’t know – he did something nasty and I bit his hand…. I did!
Haoran: (silence)
Sarah: Copycat.
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21.03.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:35 am by Sarah
I’m discovering some frustrations working as a temp long term. For example.. being 10 mins late in the morning means ringing up the agency – even when you’ve already let your workplace know. And when I went home sick last week they kept calling me while I was asleep asking me if I would be ok for work the next day!Â
My actual workplace has been pleasant. It’s interesting working for a huge company. There are constant meetings and things needing approval. Plus the building has it’s own cafe and gym! The environment is just right for me. I can sit at my desk for an entire day working on a project without being disturbed. They look after you – making sure you’re not overworked or underworked. And what I do is appreciated by my superiors (who happen to be girls my age ).  Â
The weekend was kinda crazy. Friday we arrived late to dinner with the lovely Mr and Mrs Atwood, had curry, played Trains and watched our wedding DVD (which was fantastic by the way).
 The next day we made a trip in a hired ute to pick up some lounges my Aunty is kindly loaning us. We came back and went straight to a 21st where we unashamedly fished for help to unload and install our furniture. Our lounge room is now a little more crowded and alot more homey. I don’t think sitting next to each other in a single seater lounge and a bean bag counts as ‘watching a DVD together).
 Sunday was Youth church, straight to 5CCC Team Lunch and straight to music practise and church. It was slightly exhausting… I don’t know how overcommitted people do it.
 Today we get bedroom furniture! Our house is almost complete, who knows what we might do next… (insert evil laugh here). Anyway considering the store we bought it from burnt down while we were on our honeymoon I’m surprised we’re still getting it! Tonight shall be ‘Bed-Building Night’.
 And so I am too tired to have much deeper thoughts than these…
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12.03.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:42 pm by Sarah
Here it all is – muchly summarised and written from a distance…
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The Countdown
The week before the wedding was hard, but for different reasons than I expected.I spent a bit of time by myself early on in the week which was good… but it couldn’t be for too long because my head would start to overload. I didn’t sleep much that week. Later on I felt a bit stretched as family started arriving all at once (from Parkes and Malaysia) and wanted to see me. It was hard to keep everyone happy.
I guess I had expectations of certain people and knew what I needed but wasn’t quite sure how to communicate that. I needed to be asked ‘How are you? How are you feeling?’ and to be prayed for. This sort of came to a head on the night before the wedding and I had a good cry. It is, apparently, traditional for brides to cry the night before their wedding… and so of course I was happy to comply.
I am so thankful, however, that during the course of the night I did get the hugs and the encouragement and the prayers I so desperately needed. Not from people I expected mind you, but it was very nice just the same.
One of the highlights of the day was getting a hug from Grandad. One of the old bearhug-lift-you-up-off-the-ground type hugs. Very special.
H was firmly reprimanded for leaving without saying goodbye that night… I forgave him the next day.
The Day of Reckoning
To my relief, I woke to the sounds of my bridesmaids showering. A note to anyone who might be considering putting their hair in rollers the day before their wedding… DON’T. Seriously, I have no idea why I thought it would be ok to sleep on them. I could not get comfortable – it felt like sleeping on sharp rocks. I loved having the people I loved around that morning. Lorien came to film, Jess was doing my makeup and I saw Lucy briefly before I went to the hairdressers. Plus, of course, Jo, My sisters and my Mum. It was just nice to having people around to calm me, and to excite me, and to tell me to shush when I got grumpy about wardrobe issues.
Once I was strapped into the dress it made movement slightly difficult. I generally spent the day standing on one spot and rotating.
The moment before walking down the aisle is always a big one. Caroline and Broni stood there poised ready to adjust my train at the right moment. My hands started sweating and I started to worry that the bouquet was going to slip out of my hand. Someone gave me a couple of tissues which I clutched in my hand during the service and turned out to be a lifesaver at some points.
Walking down the aisle was the most nerve-racking thing. I was worried that Dad would go too fast. It was really really hard to smile despite my well-meaning aunt making huge ‘smile!’ hand gestures. And I had a moment right at the end where I thought I’d walked down on the wrong side! I don’t think I caught Haoran’s eye until half-way down and I forgot to kiss Dad. I was just very nervous.
Once I was there and I didn’t have to look at people… I felt a whole lot better. I loved saying the vows, it was incredible to affirm what I’d been wanting to say and completely commit myself to someone. It felt right – what I’d been made to do.
The other highlight was my sister’s item which they’d spent hours and hours practising. It was very well done and made me feel very loved.
Afterwards was a little surreal. Seeing people from all aspects of my life in one spot is always slightly weird. Plus I met some of Haoran’s family and family friends for the first time. It was lovely to see my girls from Youth Church there in force and overly excited… for some of them it was their ‘first wedding’.. it was so cute!.
I was disappointed that I couldn’t go nuts over the yummy cakes Mum Un had arranged… but I managed a few bites before we left.
Photos were hot and slightly frustrating (especially moving around for me) with time getting away from us rapidly. It would have been nice to have more of it. Having three photographers, it was interesting to observe their different styles and it’ll be nice to see what the result is. The highlight, of course, was my bridesmaids deciding that the gazebo was the perfect spot to dance around the benches singing ‘I am 16, Going on 17’ at the top of their lungs. I’m yet to find out whether the idea was Jo’s or Emma’s.
The reception took ages but it was over quickly at the same time. The tea ceremony was up first which was nerve racking. I wasn’t told what to say as I was expecting and had to rely on Haoran’s furtive whispers. It took me a while to get it, after that I relaxed a little more.
‘Mingling’ was our objective between everything else. I found the conversations generally went: ‘you look lovely’..’thankyou’.. ‘It was a beautiful wedding’.. thank you… etc. Whereas I just wanted to chat!! I guess convo’s with friends were a lot easier.
The leaving line was nice. It was nice to be out of my dress and to be able to hug everyone properly. I got H’s uncles excited by calling his Grandmother ‘Ah Mah’. And my sister unashamedly cried all over me – very sweet, but unexpected.
I’ll never forget how pretty it was as we drove off and rose petals fluttered off the car in clouds of pink. And I realised it was all over. And our marriage was begun…
Holidays
We took the plane for the sole reason that we had heard a particularly horrendous story of a honeymooning couple who took the boat. It involved seasickness and other disgusting consequences. Ironically we started playing Travel Scrabble as we got close to Hobart and I got quite ill as a result. And so my first impression of Hobart was a feeling of nausea and being quite confused about how small the airport was.
The closest description we’ve come up with for Hobart is ‘a spread out Parramatta’. It’s a city… but it’s far from the high rise buildings and business of Sydney. The pace is entirely different.
We spent a lot of time at the harbour. It was about ten minutes walk away so seafood was generally on the agenda. I also discovered ‘Elderflower Juice’ which has an unusual flavour and is almost definitely made by fairies or elves.
The food was very much worth it. I’m sure it’s somewhat psychological – but things just tasted better.
After a few days reading and watching episodes of ‘The Muppet Show’ we ventured beyond the realms of Hobart and went wine tasting. The vineyard was chosen basically because it was on our route to the Cadbury factory. And so we sipped and pretended we knew what the heck the guy was on about and discovered ‘Pinot Gris’.
While ‘tasting’ we bumped into another couple who were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. They told us how they were married by a friend unceremoniously and it cost them the grand sum of $11.
The Cadbury Factory was next and I was particularly amused when the tour guide thought it necessary to cover H’s ‘stubble’ with a ‘beard-cap’. The factory was not nearly as exciting as Willie Wonka’s – but the smell was amazing. We walked away with no less than 10kg of chocolate (at least), and congratulated ourselves that we made sure we ate beforehand… otherwise I’m sure we would have gone a little more crazy.
The next day we went strawberry picking and that night we had fondue.
The following week was at home – much less exciting and a lot more domestic. Opening the presents was much fun… finding places to put them was slightly more difficult… and getting rid of the boxes was a nightmare. I’ve never seen so many boxes in my life.
I’m Old and Married
My overly-conscientious agency managed to convince me to attend a job interview during my honeymoon. As a result I have been working at Hyundai in Homebush Bay for a week now. It’s a 6 month temporary role at the moment, which suits me. It involves a little of sales, a bit of marketing and also some event management… So, stuff I’ve done before in a much better working environment.
And so we’ve made it through our first week in real life. It’s all good.
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