pictures speak...

The boys are watching the Broncos and Bulldogs game tonight. Happy 2nd-day Birthday Bokyo! The team love you!

Man... what a week. It's Friday night and I'm sure I'm not the only tired soul out there. Just did my tax return (can't wait for that money to turn up in my bank account... oh wow I'm excited). But the brain-straining mission of doing my tax-return isn't the main cause of my exhaustion. It's been a loooong week with lots of funny, exhausting events. Life-changing events (and that's no exaggeration!) Far out... It's been an interesting 8 days. :p

The first was the first round of job interviews - talk about nerve-racking. I sat in Hungry Jacks eating lunch by myself, scaring myself with the worst-case interview scenarios (like saying the stupidest answers, farting in the middle of an awkward silence and other such stupid things).

Eventually I decided to pray and came across this lovely little piece of paper from Bec - a loving reminder of simple principles in life that ended up being a source of comfort. It said:

POINT 1: YOU ARE IN THE CENTRE OF GOD'S PLAN FOR YOU

POINT 2: ... REMEMBER THERE IS A GOD (EVEN IF IT'S NOT YOU OR ME, HE IS STILL THERE)

POINT 3: SOME PEOPLE RATE WINTER AS A FAVE SEASON SO THERE MUST BE SOME GOOD IN IT

POINT 4: YOU ARE UNIQUE I.E. YOU'RE DIFFERENT I.E. YOU FEEL DIFFERENT STUFF AT DIFFERENT TIMES IN DIFFERENT WAYS ETC BUT ALSO REMEMBER

POINT 5: EACH PART OF A BODY IS NEEDED

Isn't she great? Gotta love her man...

That Friday I led my last team retreat with some yr 8 girls. It was such a fun, girly retreat on FRIENDSHIP. Hehehe... got them singing "Lean On Me" while Vanessa played guitar and I played Tristan's Cuban Box Drum... Yay!

I have a vague memory of Saturday - getting dressed up in a pretty skirt and soaking up the sunshine at Malabar. I was meant to watch The Lakehouse with Tristan that night but ended staying in because we had the City To Surf the next day...

Ah.. .yes... the funnest day out to Bondi (God must like races... because he ALWAYS blesses that day with good weather!)

So it started off with an early wake-up at about 6-something AM. Yeeshk. Eventually I wondered down the hall and made sure Suarez and Eddoes were awake. We had breakfast with the team in the dining room with sunshine streaming through. Made our way to Hyde Park where crowds were already forming... scored free RED City to Surf hats and went searching for our bibs...

See how happy we look at the beginning of the race? Hahaha... we started off on a slow crawl towards Park Rd, and by the time we were 500m into it, Edwin came up with the bright idea of running. So he and I split from the rest of the team and started jogging. By the time we reached the 14km mark we looked like we'd had a stroke somewhere between that second Gatorade stop and the end of Heartbreak Hill. It didn't help that he decided to throw the rest of his (free) cup of water at me while we were running.

I'll admit it was a thoroughly entertaining run (or jog/walk/stroll depending on how fit you're feeling.) Eddoes and I gave up running at about the 5km mark... (I think he pulled something) so we had plenty of time to appreciate our surroundings: people having BBQs, ambulances with blistered feet lining up for band-aids, bands on rooftops...

Eventually we finished the race... in about 158 minutes... hahaha... yeah yeah I'll actually run it next year. We collapsed at Bondi once we finished the race. (Note to self: ALWAYS STRETCH. Edwin learned that lesson the hard way.)

So... there we were... late Sunday afternoon. Eventually pigged out at the Junction with the rest of the team... I'd re-live that experience any day... even though I woke up for the next 2 days with jelly in my legs.

Then there was Monday - awesome chic day in the city with Ivy. What a mad beach day! No wonder that girl is in my Top-10 fave list. Hahaha.. no joke. A slow and conversation-filled train ride to Central, a bus to my place, a tour around the team house, a walk down to the beach, Oportos for lunch, a bus to Hyde Park, a prayer at St Mary's Cathedral... and a grande finale of a Jelly-Belly purchase from the Sugar Fix shop in Pitt St Mall. Who wouldn't be cheering after a day off spent with such a fun, inspiring, faithful and totally gorgeous friend??


Then Tuesday came... Hahaha... what a funny turn of weather. Who would've thought ay? The pictures speak for themselves (can you believe this was in Sydney?!)

(This is Joe as we drove through Leichardt. Blue skies gone...)

(The road near Broadway...)

I came across some homeless guy freezing is butt off in the snow (actually his name is Bokyo...)

(...Eventually he started building an ice-man with Beth)

That night I ended up jigging class and driving down to Max Brenner for a perfect finale for Tuesday's cold, wet weather.

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YUM... by far the yummiest hug EVER!

Talk about indulgence. I think I'm about two micro steps away from committing the mortal sin of gluttony... But then again, there is cause to celebrate (or so I tell myself, because I did order a iced-mocha at Clodeli cafe today, with extra ice cream...)

For those who don't know yet - I got a new job!! AHHGGHHHH!!! How crazy ay? This poor 2-year-old BLOGSPOT may be the new space for major stress-venting, because the role is somewhat demanding. So that dreaded interview last week turned out pretty well.. and God seems to have uh... mammoth plans up his sleeve. Hmmm .... I'd like to think I'm not nervous, but I'm actually terrified. Because of the terror, and the nervousness of starting on Monday, I've decided to prescribe myself with a weekend off. No thinking... just... FUN.

I'm not sure how successful that will be (I'm not looking forward to explaining the technicalities of this Church-related job to my loving and concerned Mother, who is back from Canberra - God love her!), but I do know I get to hang out with mates back West... so if you read this... uh... please pray for me. Monday morning starts a new chapter in a strangely roller-coaster-like 21 year old life.

More reports later.