the aussie battler

there's this scene in the movie "romeo must die" that reminds me of my dad. One point in his life that is. It's the scene where Jet Li attends his murdered brother's apartment and goes through his drawers and finds this old deflated basketball. He thinks back to when he was a young kid and his brother swimming across the sea towards the lights of Hong Kong. In this scene they're smuggling into Hong Kong while using this basketball to float on, and this is where it reminded me of my own father. My father was in the same situation migrating from his homeland to Hong Kong for a better life. Having to go through rough waters and passing mountains my father eventually had arived in Hong Kong and needed a place to stay. He had found a place..a place where he had to knock on people's homes for work (house duties etc). Pretty sad just hearing this from my mother. Luckily he had found a place that night..if not, you could only imagine ..

Later on he had become a sailor..visiting ports from Africa to South America and Europe i think. But on all the trips he had his eye on Australia. "Why?" i asked curiously. "It was the best.." And i just smiled in my heart..he was right.

Some time last year when we were badly under-staffed i had managed to do 60 to 72 hrs worth of work during an 8day period. It was tough..and even depressing. The way i spoke to ppl during this time (only on msn) was pretty wacky..when you work to these lengths you dont really think about what you say. I then later realised that my father did 60hr weeks on a weekly basis(God knows how long)!

As a kid i think often i didnt show the appreciation of others in what they did. But it's only recently since i've worked full time i've gotten to understand how much he has gone through. He's gone through heaps and he deserves more from all of us. Im happy for him that he's retired now as i would always see him spending his days just working and working and working... the amount of physical labour he has done will probably be 2x of what i'll ever do (maybe more!). This is what i call an aussie battler..

K+J's Bday

its here!

got my eternity tshirt this morning..mum just threw it on my bed and it was there..the quality of it i spose is what i kind of expected..its expected with custom T's that you can tell they're custom (in the sense you can see the printing they use on it)..and not the mass produced multi million company produced T's like brands such as adidas,zoo york, carhaart etc. But it'll do! Waiting for my "I ♥ Sydney" shirt.. me thinks i spend too much $ on t-shirts/clothes.. gotta cut down

it takes two to tango

relationships..love em, hate em..good, bad..all part of life. For the past 2 weeks it has been knocking on my mind for a bit. I'm thankful also that i've been able to bring up these discussions with loved ones as well..

i think back to the time at work where my colleague mentioned about a female work colleague who wouldn't be keen on chatting to him on the phone in between calls..u know..small talk/off topic chat.. He got the feeling that some girls would think we'd (as guys) always have the wrong intentions when it comes to mingling with the opposite sex..fair enuf..maybe its the way he carried himself over the phone..or life in general..and i thought. Not everyone is the same, not everyone feels the same. We gotta accept this. To form relationships takes time, love and patience (and im sure there are extra bits you could add as well).

but going back..i think back again 2 years ago during TABS..one of the leaders would occasionally ask me on prayer points that he could pray for me. It felt awkward i must admit. I think i wasn't 'feelin' it..to open up and really talk about some deeper things. It was always the same thing like 'be a better helper at home', 'read bible more' etc. But now i definately have more passion opening up..its because i have the drive and greater desire wanting to change.

We must acknowledge our struggles and keep focus to work on them..to overcome them. Life wasn't meant to be easy. And thinking back i think i was pretty hard on myself trying to push myself..thinking my half arsed effort wasn't good enough. But I've been saved, not by good works but to DO good works. We gotta accept that we're failures but of course we're not perfect.


In the end..live and learn..it all takes time.. the struggle continues..there's always going to be a better day. All we need is a little bit of faith..

dreamchild

i really enjoy reminiscing.. thinking back to all the carefree moments that at the time i never thought much about.. as i type this i think back to the days of primary school. Being in the classroom in the early morn hearing the birds chirp among the gum trees..

lookin back when i was 5 and first visiting hong kong with my family and seeing my relatives there..listening to music from the mid 90s and thinkin back hanging out wif sis and her friends..listening to the trance anthems of 04 and before that and remember hearing them for the first time in the club, reliving that moment in my head once again and seein myself dance the nite away.

I was going through the photo albums at grandpa's place and fell upon some that brought back some memories. One is of us kids i think in sydney's royal national park and the other at some beach, possibly bondi. The one at bondi makes me think of the mid 90s so much coz of my brother's hairstyle and my mothers sunnies :P It reminds me of the group CDB , well known for their redoing of 'let's groove'.

its great to be back!

arrived back to the land from down under around 8 this morn..

it felt slightly alien walking off the plane..it felt very 'australian'..somewhat 90s..i had felt this feeling b4 back when i went to brisbane dropping off coolongatta..

2day was a pretty nice day.. i loved the aussie sun blazing in the back yard..while i type this the feeling of 'home sweet home' is still sinking in..

i wonder if youngest auntie and grandpa are missing us already..

i love this city..!

while the music is playin in the background i feel like dancin..

now back to what really challenged me while i was in HK..

homesick?

i was reflecting 2nite at dinner..i think ive been pretty homesick *wat an emo!*

i asked youngest auntie what she really enjoyed or appreciated while in sydney the last time she was there..which was only a month or two ago..she really enjoyed the slow paced lifestyle..the calmness and not being so populated environment..

i looked back and thought about what i enjoyed about HK.. apart from the shopping it must be the convenience of being able to walk across the road and going to a food court for breaky..walkin another few blocks and having a decent lunch or dinner.. the transport system is great too..not having to wait more than 2mins per MTR train.. can be said the same for the mini buses too.. i thought abt wat i miss abt sydney as well..

• the weather..i really enjoy the sunsets after work. Flying in my car on homebush bay drive/centenury drive and looking into the sun having the windows down and music thumping


• all the cool ppl from CCC


• having the net at home on all the time (wat a geek :P), includes my bedroom. Esp my double sized bed where i can toss around in :P


• driving around in my car without having to use my legs to walk for more than 7+ mins getting around places

i look forward getting back to sydney..not work tho, i hope that gets sorted out as well. Gonna visit the big church at Wan Chai 2moro.. *double thumbs up*!

"i wish"

i woke up this morning and listened to last sundays sermon at CCC by Ying. I think its one of the best ive heard from him. I was really touched from it and really made me think and reflect how some things are so meaningless and sometimes putting us astray from the big picture.

I liked the fact that he pointed how in society we are often follow old ways to better ourselves..even tho these ways still leave us being the same.

• new clothes
• weight training
• eating the healthier foods

in the end our physical self on this earth will eventually perish. It brings me back to the time also at work with my workmate (who enjoys talking about philisophical/religious issues) who has brought up in the past about Existentialism. Apparently an idea that we all do on earth in the end results in meaningless. I can understand this from the previous notion esp when it comes to consumerism and 'improving' ourselves in similar departments.

I got myself thinking again on how much importance i should put on God. Through the sermon i thought back to a 90s song by Skee-Lo - I wish. The chorus goes as follows :

I wish I was little bit taller, I wish I was a baller, I wish I had a girl who looked good I would call her I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat and a six four Impala .. then i thought some of the words should be replaced with passion, fruitful growth, better relationships with family.

2day i treked to one of hong kong's islands on before on the way the topic of religion popped up among the table. 5th auntie, uncle, youngest auntie, mum and I was at the table coz i mentioned i wanted to visit the big church at Wan Chai. It was actually pretty tiring after all of that but i think it was great to speak up on what i believed in.

On other news my dad called through and said he couldnt start my car!! I was in complete shock but i think NRMA should do the goods in fixing it. Im so dependant on the car..

im baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

last saturday i left for shanghai for my getaway to visit more of mainland china following a tour bus ..it ended on wednesday but the tour consisted of going to a few towns near shanghai

• haungzhou
• WuXi (rockless, or minerall-less)
• SuZhou
• shanghai

there coulda been another place but the tour wasn't that much for me coz it was going places more for oldies. Checking out places that sold chinese pottery, tea, silk etc etc. On the plus side i got to really nice chinese food that was different to the food served in Guangdong (southern china). And also taking a lot of cool pics. I was expecting more from shanghai to be a bit like hong kong actually but i spose it has its differences. There were heaps of buildings of european architecture which really suprised me. The main strip of shanghai that ive seen on TV in the past wasn't as 'big' as id thought it be, but still cool to experience.

I think one of the better experiences was when we were in Haungzhou (spelling is wrong i know :P) to watch a chinese play/show on the city itself and how the city came about based on its success flourishing on its diverse culture, structure and aliveness.

Something that always gets me down when going to hongkong/china is noticing the struggle people go through making ends meat. Seeing the beggers in the street and after coming out of the play really got to me, seeing this young girl i think maybe 5 or so running around begging for money, having a plastic cup in hand. It was sad to see her get caught by this guy standing around that could've been security but i really dont know as he was dressed up what my brother jokingly said as 'elvis'. It gets back to me reminding how lucky i am to live in australia and having what i already have, being so blessed and also having God in my life. Some things i hope to improve on when i get back to aus:

• being more concious with my money in terms of offering
• living more Godly at home with family
• having better relationships with family members that don't know God

living in hong kong at times can be pretty hectic and stressful. Maybe its the pace that people flow in hong kong that has made us like this. At times i find it a bit 'arhhhh' dealing with mum and brother. Mum can seem pretty stubborn with her views and i find that she is a bit too simple minded and its something i have to deal with. She tends to see me as the child of 3 that is always challenging her..i just want to give her my opinion and not be a 'yes' man. Brother can come across like an irrate customer and growing up with him ive tended not very willing to socialise with a lot of the time.

Sometimes i come across as a very quiet person..maybe its coz of the slack attitude not wanting to put any input coz i just couldnt be bothered or at times i get mentally run down when encountering such situations when it comes to discussion. Mother has often seen me not willing to be "part" of the family..im often like this when they're gossiping or just having topics that are not to my liking where i label them as being "negative". As christians we've been taught to stay out of ungodly discussions among certain situations BUT also to be speak up in a Godly way to others to show what Christians should really be. Being a christian at home is one of the biggest struggles i think i have..i've even had my brother comment about me hinting to me how i havn't changed after i gave my testimony at CCC in '99. Being a christan has been the toughest thing ive come across in my life but i think its also the best thing i've come across in my life also.. ♥ †

waiting patientially for the trip to shanghai..

It's like that and that's just the way it is!

6 years on and i can still pull a basic freeze..!