Just a simple guy flying somewhere away Who will follow me?
weibin_85@hotmail.com
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
A look back
Finally got down to typing this long awaited post. A post that would allow me to look back and reflect publicly what happened during the holidays and things that ran through my mind dfuring the period.
Well, the initial plan for the holidays was that I wanted to use the time for some self reflection, taking advantage of a chance to be 'home alone' and so thought it would be a great opportunity for myself to 'settle down' into Syndey and think through some of the things, like how I want to approach future studies and how I want to live a life during this period. This has always been my reason why I had decline all invitations to do anything, including going for the one week Mid Year Conference (MYC) organised by Campus Bible Study.
And I congratulate myself when I was able to go to church the Sunday on the week after the exam. For after Friday (the exam), we had friends over for the Saturday night and we simply played mahjong and bridge until 6 in the morning, then everyone went back and I accompanied my roommate Tsang Yew to the airport. Basically no one slept during the night and because it was Sunday the next day, it was very tempting to go back home to sleep and skip church. And so after when I was determined enough to go to church, I was rather proud of myself and thought about the great 3 weeks ahead I had planned for reflections......
So much for reflections, the first week wasn't exactly productive or anything, mostly I spent time at home playing computer games and watching silly videos like Mr Bean. It was actually quite horrible. At that point in time for a reason I couldn't understand, it just felt weird, even frustrated with myself for 'relaxing'. It's in inverted commas because now that I think of it, I don't count that as relaxing anymore, I would refer to it more as a form of addiction. Yep, computer games and the internet have haunted me all the way from Singapore to Australia. Well lucky for this time, it happened during the first week of holidays after the exam. Which leads to another point - why exactlty was I feeling this waves of guilt when I supposedly should be enjoying and taking time off from the books? Why did I feel guilty of having fun? Strange...
Fast forward 3 weeks later and something which I learnt and give thanks for. I don't know why but I think God has chosen the time to teach me something, I think He gave me conscience extra during that period, which made me to think about how much time I've wasted on the computer doing useless things. It gave me a chance to look back and see the hours I've spent unproductively, yea.. even when I 'deserve' the break, I started to have this nagging that I should be doing something more useful and for building up instead of playing games. Henceforth, may I say that I've decided to uninstall the game, in particular Warcraft and return the CD to my landlord, and subsequently quit Neopets. Haha.. It's not something that I'm proud of, but I do hope and pray that I can continue to receive this inner conscience inside me that tugs me to stay away from these time wasting games and do things that are more meaningful. I would like to take this chance too to thank Simon, a dear friend whom I shared with during the period of intense game playing He taught me 'not to fight temptation but flee from it'. Yea.. It helped me a lot thinking about that, and as something I developed further, I added soemthing else - 'fight not temptation but run away, and run to God, for He will help you to fight instead'. Haha.. Actually until I type here I'm not sure if I have gotten any point across.
But anyway, as I mentioned before, the first week wasn't particular productive. So much for the reflections, I spent most of the time in front of the computer. Now as I look back, I see it as a time of self discovery rather than reflections. Because after that week when I felt more determined to escape from the 'game's grip', I had set out to write a journal post that I listed some stuff that I've learnt about my own character during the period. The significant changing event happened on Sunday that first week when I've skipped church (because I had stayed up to play games the previous night..you get a rough idea how the games disrupted my sleeping pattern); 2 of my friends from bible study group visited me at home and they were encouraging me to go for MYC. I still did not want to go, I was reluctant to go, but something, just the size of a small mustard seed, prompted me to say "ok, help me sign up then..." Anyway, yea.. The next few days was better, I was looking forward for my friends who were coming to visit me. In my mind I was still calling myself stupid for having agreed to sign up for the camp..
And now... the 2nd week.
Well, week 2 was the week where things began to change..slowly. The fist few days, I decided to meet up some friends and cook. Haha.. Yea.. we tried making fried ice cream and some beef stew.. well, the beef stew was still not too bad but the fried ice cream... Let's just say that it was fun and that's it. See the before and after pictures.. Hahahaha... before
after!!
But the highlight came Thursday, when Lip Hang was gonna come. See, I know Lip Hang back from army and we managed to strike off quite well then. He came to send me off when I was departing for Sydney and lo and behold! Told me a few months after on MSN that he would be coming to Sydney!! Hahaha... And so, from there we arrange the dates and accomodation (near my place) and for quite a while anticipating his arrival (for he was to help me bring some books and clothes over..hehe). Alongside with him was 2 other of his friends, Dennes and Ze Yan (who do not know each other). Anyway, Dennes and Lip Hang went to Goldcoast before they came to Sydney and Ze Yan was to come from Sigapore directly to Sydney and so I would to meet him on Thursday morning and meet Lip Hang and Dennes on Thursday night. Anyway, from then onwards, we spent Thursday to Sunday together travelling: Friday - Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Opera House, The Rocks, Fish Market Saturday - Blue Mountains, Starcity casino Sunday - Church, Bondi Junction, Bondi Beach Really enjoyed their company during the period. Even learnt from Lip Hang how to cook Hainanese Chicken rice and we also had steamboat on Sunday night! Hmm.. ok, I need to go now.. I will blog about the last week in another post. Till then, enjoy the pictures here first. God bless!
One of the first (of the many many) group shot at the Opera House. Haha.. Did I forget to mention that all of them are photo muggers? Go everywhere do everything - TAKE PICTURE FIRST!!!
The soup to accompany chicken rice!
Aiya the chicken look so small in this picture. But really we had huge portions! And... *drumrolls* the chicken rice was really like chicken rice!!! Oh man! Now I know how to cook chicken rice!!!! Thanks Lip Hang!!!! Who wants tme to cook for them? Haha..
At the blue mountains. It was amazing the place. I think I really like nature - I found it fun to walk under the rain in the drizzle, jumping over mud pools and feeling the mist and fog on my skin. I liek the sound of waterfall thumbling down and the melody of streams flowing from their origins.. Hahaha.. Really enjoyed myself that day.
This is the food from the casino! For first timers, just bring your passport there and they'll give you a card with $10 credit! Then just use that to play the slots machine, which is what we did. Right to this day, I still have no idea how they work and how you calculate your money or anything. Just glad that I walked away with $16 extra in my pocket.. haha.. Lip Hang won $34 man.. But Dennes and Ze Yan... eh.. let's just say they had fun.
So nice right.. the ice cream.. We bought strawberries to eat with the ice cream. It's really nice.
