Danie & Kev. Garden wedding up near Mt Dandenong.

Reception. This one's from Fel / Janice

Cupweddingcake!

  

Juleeeeen, La, Camie, Jen, Du, Lil, Chowsta

 
This was very traumatising for me - taking the 400D into the water.


...

--
chinko NY



yee sang

Whitehorse Road


The 2G stall






dinner with fam @ Greek House.
Trust. The one time we don't eat Chinese is on CNY.

More photos to come, but xanga's snail pace meant that this took..wayy too long. Had to resize a lot of the photos hence the pixelatedness. How angrritating.

a simple kind of verse

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,

Before the days of trouble come and the years approach

When you will say, "I find no pleasure in them"

Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark,

And the clouds return after the rain

When the keepers of the house tremble,

And the strong men stoop,

When the grinders cease because they are few,

And those looking through the windows grow dim;

When the doors to the street are closed

And the sound of grinding fades;

When men rise up at the sound of birds,

But all their songs grow faint;

When men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets;

When the almond tree blossoms

And the grasshopper drags himself along

And desire no longer is stirred.

Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets.

Remember Him...

... before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the teacher.

"Everything is meaningless!"

(Author uncertain)

---

I guess the struggle for me is simply that - to just ReMemBer.. what I'm doing all of this for.

Or who I'm struggling for.

Objectively, it's all 'meaningless'.. there's nothing new to the way we do life, everything is just a rehash of the same age-old reel.

You're born, you live, you work, you hate, you sweat, you laugh, you mourn, you give, you screw up, you learn, you love, you die.

Everything I do, has been done before.

And still I find joy... for this is a gift from God.

Thank You, Lord God.

edit: 'tis the season for union.: 2 close friends have (VERY) recently paired off (separately, i mean); a much-anticipated wedding is happening this sat (MC-ing at the reception. eek!); another friend is betrothed, and i met a girl from NJ at uni today who's engaged as well. wow. gee.

unreasonable indignance

  Last week: St John's cathedral for some photo.taking *cousin's school project* An Anglican base for the first missionaries in Hong Kong, a place of worship and serenity in the middle of the city. It's also a welfare centre, and has a HIV care & prevention centre amongst many other services to the community.

Celebrated a friend's bday in our usual bigbunchness at a really nice intimate Eastern European restaurant. Our happyexcited chatter broke the candlelit mood, as usual =oP

  Reggo.Snugglepot.Dabbs even dropped by to hang. 4 of us sat in Maccas ROFLing about random, random things. Ehem, that's an Akha BELT on her head. o_O

Lived it up for a few days

in one of my aunts' house. It was ohmygoodnessly l.u.x.u.r.i.o.u.s. *oops someone called while cuz was taking this*

Can't believe how comfortable life can be in two extremes... wooden village house in rural China, one outhouse/bathroom... versus uber.expensive apartment where gentlemanly doormen greet with open doors, ensuite doublebed room, even the curtains are remote-controlled... guess I'm learning what it is to be content whatever the circumstances... learning the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry (ha! that one's still coming), whether living in plenty or in need.

plus.. my aunt & uncle had just adopted a dog.. she'd been abandoned twice already, and was taken in by the S.P.C.A. She'd just had surgery. Kinda uglylookin' but so damn likeable. Never fusses and even tried to befriend the rabbit.

Went from Tung Chung to Lantau and back on the 360... WoooOoooWOW beautiful views like I just wanna sing my heart out in praise for the One who created them.

And of course I've (tried to) make good use

of the 21st-gift-camera.. thanks SO much to ev! *curtsies in gratefulness*

On a less happyjoyjoy ramble... *this font is hurting my eyes*

Really quite arrogant, i am. i always get indignant with hongkis and their coldly aloof, don't-MaFan-me indifference. when, really, it's me that holds back.

was trying on jeans in an upstairs shop in Prince Edward when, suddenly...BANG! thud.

the shop assistant started saying that an old lady had fallen down the stairs.

i came out, and OldLady was lying motionless on the ground. a stiff body with almost-deformedly-out-turned feet, long yellow toenails and must-be-painful hunched back. she looked.. pathological..  i was too scared to touch her, but ShopAssistant helped her up & was scolding her for always falling down those stairs. then i pointed out the blood trickling from under OldLady's white pants.

Red starts patching the white.

Red grows bigger.

Red runs to ground, a delicate scarlet string.

ShopAssistant lifts up the pants leg.

Deep, red wound on thin, frail skin.

Tried to bring a stool out from the shop so OldLady can sit, somehow thought I should ask the ShopAsst's permission, and she ACTUALLY.SAYS.NO. (what? is she afraid the old lady will fall off the chair and somehow find the means to sue the shop??)

OldLady sits on steps, dazed and wild-eyed.

The snake of red continues down papery, old skin.

My aunt: Call 999. Call from the shop's phone.

ShopAsst: No, don't. That's the company's phone.

WHAT?? There's, like, BLOOD. And she won't let me call the emergency services from the shop's phone??

An old-ish man appears out of nowhere, a neighbour of OldLady, must be.

While I'm talking to the 999 operator on my mobile, ShopAsst & OldMan are yabbering away in panic.

Wayyy too much noise. I started to get pretty angrritated cos I couldn't hear the operator.

Operator says they'll send an amb. But a long time goes past. Students walk up the stairs with barely a glance at the bleeding OldLady.

Makeshift gloves from plastic bags to help prop up OldLady's leg to stop the bleeding. The others say I shouldn't; her leg might be broken. Ok, the bleeding's not so bad, surprisingly, considering the deep and widening cut.

OldMan gets impatient, disappears downstairs. He's really concerned for OldLady. He actually goes and does something for her.

Me to OldLady: PoPo, where is your family?

OldLady: They've gone off, they're all married.

What's your name?

 Loh Miu Ling

 Popo, how old are you?

 About 60.

Does your leg hurt?

Of course it hurts! Look at it! (Yes, yourstruly tends to ask stupid questions when nervous. Should've talked to her about something more useful, like... God.) 

OldMan reappears, with police chasing after him and yelling at him to stop and explain why he's here. PoliceOfficer briskly asks OldLady about what happened, what family she should call. Takes down ShopAsst's details: she saw it all happen. I realized that PoliceOfficers were only interested in knowing whether OldLady fell on her own, or if foulplay was involved.

Paramedics come, ask questions, and in a few moments have whisked away OldLady.

Q u i e t n e s s . 

More customers come into the shop, unaware.

Only a smatter of blood on the concrete, and a nervous shaken-ness remains. And an odd camaraderie, too. We - my aunt, ShopAsst, me - we went thru something together. Saw something the others didn't have to see.

ShopAsst even gave me a discount.