Keeping me out of trouble!

Well, the last time I blogged was in October and it's nearly a month later.

November 15th was the night of Hillsong United live in Hong Kong at ICA - two shows at 6pm and 8pm. On the previous night we had met at 7pm for Derek to run through all that we were to do on the following night. That was cool and fun and we prayed in our small teams for the following evening.

The thing with me is that when I get too excited about something - I can't sleep. I was so restless that night that I was service managing in my sleep and thinking about it every time I woke up. Then I went through a day at school - which was cool and every time I saw a student who was going, I'd be talking to them about it and getting them excited too....did they learn anything that day....I hope so!!!!!! I went straight from school to ICA to arrive there at 4pm. Then there were a few changes that had been made and we had to get going with sorting stuff out.

It was fun managing inside the auditorium that seats about 700 people. However, so many people came that we filled the balcony upstairs and ended up with standing room only downstairs. (Yan and I had little walkie talkies, but because it was so loud it was hard to hear what anyone was saying.) Well, I think most people stood all the way through anyway - during the awesome time of worship and the message. It was amazing tostand at the back and just seeing these hundreds of people all raising their arms in worship to God. Then we had to usher people out for round two to take place. I was really pleased to see some of my students (past and present) there and even a girl on my hockey team (who later made a committment.).

I love helping out at events like this, welcoming people - getting things ready for people to come into the presence of God.

Moganshan

I have survived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually I had a fnatastic week where I managed to astound my colleague by being absolutely hyper and earned the name of 'Happy Camper'!

On Monday, I was picked up by the taxi driver at 5am and then went to pick up MeShi. We chatted to the airport where we met our students and parents were there to wish us well and kiss their children goodbye for the week. Group check-ins are quite arduous and it took us ages to all check in - 52 students and 4 adults. Thankfully, Elyse kindly went to buy me a coffee while we waited to get our luggage on. We were soon checked in and on our way to Moganshan.

We arrived at Hangzhou airport, to be welcomed by Christa and the rest of the APA team - they had even drawn up a banner for us - bless! We then loaded the buses up and set off for Baiyun Villas at Moganshan. There was a lady on the bus, and I guess she must have been a tour guide. However, her English was bad and she wanted to talk to talk to our group in Putonghua. Thankfully, Adam put a stop to this, at which point she decided to sing us a song...in Putonghua of course. Melvin sat next to me and whispered that when the APA leaders arrived, she'd sung to them too. It was weird.

We arrived at Baiyun villas and dumped out stuff in our rooms. The girls were very sweet and exclaimed that I should have the room with the balcony or the biggest room. However, I decided to let them have the bigger rooms and had a centrally located room. We went to have lunch at a nearby restaurant - the food ROCKED - and there was so much of it - not just that day but the WHOLE week!!!!!!!!! We then had a breifing from Christa and went into our groups to do some team building activities before eating yet again! We played 'spoons' except we had chopsticks on the landingwhich was fun - until two chopsticks broke as we were fighting ovr them (sorry Mini Boo- who got a chopstick in the face!)

On Tuesday, we went to do visit a tea plantation and took some cool photos of the area. Our group (the Pink Foot Potatoes) helped to weed and tidy up an area of trail. At this point I nearly stuck my head into a bunch of caterpillars - lovely! We then went back to a place called The Lodge where we ate food that another group had cooked. Then it was our turn to prepare food for dinner. I think the students had fun tearing and chopping the food into pieces. I did have to bring a cabbage food fight to a halt before it got out of hand. The girls came to my room to hang out and chat - that was cool - oh and Rav was there too.

Wednesaday brought beautiful weather and a day of activities. In the morning, we had morning exercise , which was fun and we played 'evolution' - I got to evolve into an HKIS student. We had breakfast and then headed down to the tyrolean cross and the abseil site. I was about the fourth person to do the tyrolean - which I was a little nervous about. However, they needed me to help on the other side. So, after repeating that I was scared about a fajillion times (I always verbalise my fear...and then laugh...very odd behaviour - I know), Mike told me that he was giving me a count of three. So, I gained the fear of being pushed off by Mike, so voluntarily stepped off the platform, screamed and laughed - it was good fun...and over far too quickly. It was more like a zip line with only a little bit of effort to get right to the other side. I was then shown how to detach students from the tyrolean safely. I think I scared Melvin and Chico on the first attempt, where I initially wanted to detach the dafety line - not a good move, but I got a hang of it. They were then freed to start students on the abseil down the waterfall. This I unfortunately didn't get to do due to time constraints, but it was cool that some of the students who found it difficult, overcame their fears and completed it. As we were sitting around a lot too, I got to talk to Ariane and Stef about how I became a Christian, how I came to be in HK and how I got my jobs - it was so good to tell of God's goodness in my life.

In the afternoon - after a spaghetti bolognese lunch at the lodge, we went raft building. This was quite amusing, as some of the locals were there and watched the whole process. A couple even joined in - helping to tie a couple of knots! We had a race, and then tidied up and went back to the Lodge for another meal - potatoes and stew - SO GOOD!!!!!

Thursday was a damp and misty day - and we were embarking on our adventure race. I decided - even though we didn't have to join a student group - to stay with half of the Potatoes and see what they had to do. I was afraid that they would all run off and I'd be left panting behind them. Thankfully this was not the case as my group started by being led by a enthusiastic Rav who seemed to want to venture down every dirt track possible. We got quite lost trying to get to our first station, but we found the other half of the Potatoes and we found it together. We gradually made our way to a few other posts, which built up the team's confidence. I must say that the last hour or so was the best fun as we managed to get a couple of stations. Then as we were walking back to the final meeting place (If we didn't get there on time, we'd lose points.) when I pointed out a roundabout to the students and they looked at me and carried on. Piak, who was with us also pointed out to me that the station there was very close by, which caused me to laugh as my students continued to ignore these subtle hints. As we continued, Rav realised he'd left his backpack a couple of stations down the line. So, he and Piak ran back for it, while I led the rest of the group to the station we'd passed to see if we could get some more points. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the information as it had been removed...and yes, I did proclaim very loudly that it SUCKED! We ran back to the point where we'd split into two groups, Piak rang me and I thought he said he was nearly back at the market - which was close to the end point. he repeated and he was actually saying he was nearly back at Mark's (The Lodge) which was the end point. I screamed and slung my backpack on and managed to get my group running once more to make it back to theLodge. It was so chaotic and exciting - loved it!!!!!!

On Friday we woke early, ate breakfast, boarded the buses (where my lost camera was reunited with me :) ) and we headed back down the mountain to Hangzhou. We spent about an hour there shopping (actually I think most students stopped off at Dairy Queen) before we went to lunch at LoWaiLo restaurant on Westlake (very good food yet again!). We had a group photo, got back on the buses and .....the bus pulled over after a while. I thought the driver was lost again...but it turned out that the guide and the driver were speaking in the local dialect so that our students couldn't translate for us and there was some disagreement about payment. Thankfully, Christa sorted it out and we were on our way to the airport. It took us ages to check in and we arrived safely back in HK.

I just want to say that the following people ROCK:
Mark, Joanna and Isabelle - The Lodge - a sanctuary of good cofee, hot chocolate, brownies, food and music!
Christa, Adam, Hodge (and Joyce), Ebben, Melvin, Piak, Chico and Mike - Asia Pacific Adventure- brilliant professionals and excellent at what they do - you can trust these people with your lives!
Melita, Terry and Peter - my colleagues - so chilled out, cool and hilariful (hilarious and wonderful)!
Our students - so nice, so fun and so much energy - love it!!!!!!!

Nausea

I've felt kind of nauseous today. I haven't been sleeping well this week - often waking in the middle of the night and having to eat chocolate before I get back to sleep. Last night before I went to bed I discovered I didn't know where my passport or Hui Heung Jing were. Then I woke at 2:30am thinking - it should be by my big backpack. Therefore I had to get up - and lo and behold- there it was. At least my mind was at rest about where it was.

I've started packing - but feel kind of unsettled as I also know I need to go away this weekend. I think the fact that I've been marking kids work all day hasn't helped. Plus the fact that I just finished marking one big assignment to then have 100 lab reports and 100 end of unit tests to mark, and knowing I won't be able to do much at the weekend is disturbing. I know - it's not urgent and we shall all carry on living - I guess I just know that it won't be nice to come back to the marking pile when I get back from China. I guess that's partly why I went down to Happy Valley - to watch the U16 team play - to support the girls I know from KCC and Rachel and Jen from school. I could escape and prevent myself from marking work at home and not just sit in front of the telly.

Matthew 6v27
Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.

Matthew 6 v 32-34
Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.
So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today.

China - here we come!

It's Tuesday and I just got back from hockey training - one of the only ones I'll be able to make as I normally have either Ministry leaders PLUS or Flight852 leaders meeting on Tuesdays. It was good to have a run around, and get some skills. Unfortunately I won't be able to put them to practice this coming Saturday as I have a Flight leaders retreat. Well, at least I played last Saturday which ended in a 3-3 draw against Val D. Hopefully, my team will have enough players and win against Val E.

Following the retreat I will be heading off to Moganshan, China on Monday on an 8am flight....ugh! I think I have a love-hate relationship with these trips with the kids. I haven't had to do most of the organising, but the chasing up of the little things is still a hassle, plus getting myself ready! I know that once I get there I'll enjoy it. I have a great group of kids to go with- really fun, nice and well-mannered and we're going with an excellent organisation. plus I've been to Hangzhou before, so it is still a little familiar. I'll still have to rely on teh kids for translation as I am limited by my phrases of "How are you?", "Thank you!", "No good!", "I love you!" and "Jesus loves you!". However, these could be enough for the most simple evangelism EVER!

Ideas for teaching

Ugh...I have just finished marking 100 sets of focus questions. This has a high boredom factor attached to it and I'm sure this is bad for my eyes. I have told some students before that I love being in the class with them - getting them to learn stuff, and although I know it is important, marking is one of the worst chores I have to do as a teacher...so laborious, time consuming and essential. I still have about 94 element boxes to mark and will be giving an end of unit test soon. I can't wait until they have that machine like the one from the Matrix, shove it in the back of students heads to probe and measure how much they have learnt and then it's done. Seriously, there must be someone in a hidden lab somewhere working on it.

While they're at it, they can make me some new eyes and an automatic internal caffeine release system.

Holiday:Kota Kinabalu

Yesterday I just flew back in from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. We had a school holiday from Thursday to Tuesday and I went for a relaxing holiday with my friend, Praise. We stayed at the Shangri La Rasa Ria resort - which was luxurious to say the least!

We flew in and had a quick tour of the city before heading to the hotel. There we settled into the room and then headed down to the outside restaurant for the buffet. We spent well over three hours eating crab, prawns with HUGE heads etc - but we had to pace ourselves and make it worthwhile. There was also a local dance group which was cool and we were entertained.

We went off to some island (I know I'm really good with names of places!) where we ventured into the water to trip over rocks and get scratched by the violent corals. There was a little boy who came over to us and we watched him through the day finding new people to try and make friends with but actually just ended up pestering. We gave up on the idea of being immersed in water and sun bathed to ensure we obtained the obligatory tan. After our lunch of prawns, noodles and crab we continued our lazy afternoon in the sun which ended with the spotting of a monitor lizard on the beach, at which point we made a mad dash for our cameras to record the sighting.


We stopped off in town on our way home and popped in to the other Shangri-la hotel, which I was definitely less impressed with and then we ended up having a curry at Naan back at the Rasa Ria.

Sunday started with rain which we were sad about as it was what we had planned to be our 'animal' day - we had planned to ride horses and visit animals in the jungle next door. We managed to have a one hour horse ride along the beach - past the buffaloes who go there every morning. Now for someone who had never been on a horse before it was cool but I felt very uncoordinated as my guide tried to get the horse to trot with me not really knowing what to do. I finally figured out what to do in the last 15 minutes of the ride by which time I had already acquired the sore bottom. Just after our dismount the rain poured down as we ran back to the hotel.

We later went to the pool at which point we were supposed to be seeing animals in the jungle as we thought it was happening 2 hours later. Oh well. We weren't too disappointed as we then got ready for our 2.5hour spa treatment which included a body wrap where we were covered with powdered rice, egg and lemon. I ended up feeling like a huge piece of sushi. After that was all rinsed off we had a very nice massage and mini facial.

The next day, we went off to Kinabalu Park to walk some of the trails and of course see Mount Kinabalu. That weekend had been the Climbathon where people had raced up and down Kinabalu in just over a couple of hours - good grief - where do they get the energy from, and can I have some? We walked at a leisurely pace looking at the flora of the park including a pitcher plant, orchids, bamboo, naked trees etc. We had lunch and then continued with a walk around the garden where we saw loads of orchids, but most were about half the size of the nail on my pinkie. It made me wonder why are they so small? Well, God can make it that small, so he does..totally amazing and beautiful!



We ended the day back at the hotel and ate at Coast which is a restaurant by the beach with chandeliers shaped like Jellyfish - very cool. Oh...and that was another 3 hour meal!

New Season

Today I woke at about 7am...but finally went to sleep again after checking my e-mail and eating a couple of bits of choccie. Then I had weird dreams about having braces again - except they were horrendous and made my teeth bend forwards and a tooth even dropped out...hate those teeth dreams - makes you panic so much when you wake up, but then a huge surge of relief is felt as you realise your teeth are normal.

It was our first match of the season today. So, I made sure I had some breakfast, and enough time to digest it. Don't know why, but every time before a match I start doing my coughing (like I'm going to hurl) thing, and it doesn't stop until I start playing...bad case of nerves or what?! Anyway, KCC C played HKFC G and at first I thought I was playing alright, until Babs told me that I was telling the right half to mark the person I should have been marking. Well, I had wondered where the forward I was supposed to be marking had gone. To be honest it was becasue ALL of the opposition had gone back to defend, We were up 2-0 at half time and we ended up winning 3-1 (but Jimmy had to tell me that because I thought we only won 2-1....good job I don't teach maths). The one scored against us was right near the end when everyone was shattered due to running around in the heat of the sun (2-3:30pm) and I was already marking the girl on the right post and there was a free player who managed to score. I didn't have a great game - some okay bits, but it is the first game after all...and miracle of miracles - we won! Plus we had a lovely photo of the team in our nice new kit (I hear we're getting new skorts, so we won't have to feel like we've got a constant wedgie!)

Just finished watching 2 episodes of 'LOST' thanks to my student who has lent me series 2 while baking about 50 cupcakes for Primetime. Gosh...aren't my Saturday nights exciting!!

My life as I know it

I haven't really written that much about what's going on at the moment. Start of the academic year is always crazy, so it's no huge surprise that I'm only just getting to write about it now.

School started and so did the hunt for our grade 8 student life leader...and nobody really wanted to do it...mostly due to other responsibilities. I grew pretty tired of people telling me I'd be really good at it (sounds like I'm blowing my own trumpet...well...I do have one after all!) and I just really felt it was quite false even though they probably meant it, but I just knew that admin and our team needed someone to lead. Finally my friend and I decided to share the position....quite grudgingly. Thankfully it's been okay so far.......but I've had quite a few days where I have a really bad attitude to it and totally did not like feeling I had to do it just because no one else will.

Something else that is also new - but the HUGE difference is that I want to do this, is that I have joined Flight852 as a volunteer. It was cool, as I remember Matt had asked me several times before the summer, and I'd not replied. It was quite funny as one of the reasons of why I gave up being captain of my hockey team was so that if I decided to help with Flight, then I would have more time. (Ringing through the week trying to get the hockey team together was taking up a lot of time.) It was pretty cool as only about a week before I came back to Hong Kong, I was at Northgate Church in Chester, when I heard this speaker from the States. I can't remember much of what he said now, but I remember him talking about not being afraid, and you know when you just get totally convicted? Yep...it was one of those moments. Having experienced burn out through having worked with Youth before, and knowing that it had literally taken years to recover....I had been very cautious about agreeing to volunteer. I remember saying to Tom that it is something I want to do (and hopefully get some of my students plugged into too) and the most important thing is that I'm in a leadership team and somewhere where I'll feel safe and supported.

School has been good - my students are FANTASTIC again. Seriously - they are so fun, and I always feel like they energise me. I love laughing with them, eating yummy homeroom snacks, going on and on about LOST, teaching and learning sciency stuff - especially fun videos from the internet, some of them come to my room for extra help with Science and to top it off they think I'm younger than I really am!!!!!!!!! I'll be going off to Moganshan with a group of 13 students and we're the 'Pink Foot Potatoes' (Instead of the Black Eyed Peas) and I think the group is designing a T-shirt....and they're soooooo excited!!

We had the launch of the CD 'Who May Ascend' at teh Vine Centre - the place was packed and everything went smoothly (always important to me as the service manager!) but it was so fun watching people worship, and some of my colleagues came too. The CD is soooooooooo good. I've given wuite a few away already.

Hockey season is starting again - I went to two training sessions and then got drenched in the 'red rain' at the third. I have my new and much nicer kit and will get to wear it at my first game of the season on Saturday. Nice!

Sleepless nights

Ugh..cannot sleep - I got up from bed and did my usual - head for the fridge to rustle round for some chocolate. Managed to take two mini eggs and a mimi Reese's peanut butter cup. I ate them while reading a bit more of Ted Dekker's "THR3E" and then checked out a few friend's blogs before writing this. Seriously it's 1:30am....I keep waking up in the middle of the night and it's either too hot or too cold or no chocolate in my stomach. Really don't know why that seems to help but it does - probably all psychological - I don't care - it works and they're not sleeping pills. I don't think my body actually believes me when I try telling it that I am actually tired and do need to wake up in approximately four and a half hours and then spend the day trying to meet the needs of 75 teenagers who will able to come up with at least ten questions each about their research project like "What is a use of Rubidium?"...well at least I get to play with sodium tomorrow morning.

Identity dream

I had a dream recently. To be honest most of my dreams fall into two main categories: absolutely mundane (like peeling carrots while my friends chat with me in the kitchen) or totally freaky (like being in a stadium and running away from people who think I've committed a heinous crime) . This one however I thought was quite poignant.

I can't really remember how it started off, but there seemed to be a reunion of some sort as I saw some ex-students gathered together. Later on I went out of the building and I was in charge of a market stall in quite a nice quadrangle. Displayed for all to see were miscellaneous objects on a trestle table. I was stood at one corner on one side and on the same side I could see my wallet at the other corner. People came to browse at the objects on the table. I started to become quite concerned whenever a person would be standing by the table blocking my view of the wallet. After a short period of time, I looked again and the wallet was gone. I started searching and asking people if they knew where my wallet was or if they had seen who had taken it, to no avail. I went back to the table and started thinking to myself. I thought," I know that my ID card is in my little red wallet that I have in my hand." I realized that the objects of any value were right there in my hand whereas the other wallet really had nothing of value (like old receipts and namecards) in it and I really wouldn't miss what it contained.

I talked about this with my friend, Nancy as she had had an interesting dream too. Well, we reckoned that maybe I should think and pray about my identity in Christ and realize that all that other stuff I really am not going to miss.

Holiday :Madrid

This has been really annoying. I've tried twice to create a new post and attach photos, only for Safari to shut down. Yes, I also insist that I don't add any other blogs until I've posted something about Madrid.

I went to Madrid in the summer for about 4 days with my mum, dad and aunty. Communicating with the taxi driver was quite funny as I'd forgotten any Spanish that I had learnt over 10 years ago, and I don't think my mum's 'Learn Spanish in a week' CDs quite did the trick! Well, we managed to keep fed and watered in the heat. Thankfully our hotel was in the centre of the city, so we just walked everywhere and it was easy to return and have a kip in teh afternoon.

The very glamorous post office with loads of counters inside for a multitude of purposes.


















The cathedral


















The royal palace

Holiday:Wales

One day, mum and dad decided we'd take my aunt to Wales. Actually, we only have to drive a mile down the road and we're there. We hadn't been to the Horseshoe Pass or Llangollen for a while, so off we went.We went to the Horshoe Pass first. My last memory from when I was a kid of it was being surrounded and trampled on by goats as I had some bread in my hand. Thankfully my brother and his friend managed to scare them away.

We didn't see any goats this time but there were a few sheep around and plenty of bikers who stopped at the cafe for a bite to eat. We stopped there too for a coffee and a scone with jam and cream and chatted to the nice lady on the till who had been to Hong Kong.
Beautiful hills in Wales at the Horshoe Pass











What's Wales without sheep?











Surely Dad didn't forget where he parked the car?!











Llangollen station

Holiday:Edinburgh

I thought I'd try to put a few quick notes about my summer holidays. Dad did all the driving and we managed to get to our travelodge with me navigating. We went to see my parent's friend's daughter who I had known when I was younger. We went to the Chinese restaurant that she and her husband run to have dinner with her and her three kids. She drove us around to have a quick tour of Edinburgh sites, while her cute but inquisitive son asked me all manner of questions! We walked around Edinburgh, took photos and went to the art museum - with a collection of Rembrandt sketches.

Diversion

I took a flight from Manchester to London after bidding farewell to my father at the airport. My aunt and I caught the 1830 flight from heathrow. On the plane we heard from the captain that we would be following a new route that would actually get us to HK about 30 minutes faster. Great. The flight continued as smoothly as can be expected with not much sleep achieved and a couple of movies watched. V for Vendetta pretty poor British movie, but when you start watching some films you just want to see how it ends as predictable as it may be. There was some rom com film – Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Bates but because Matthew McConaghey is so ‘watchable’, I watched it.

We began our descent into Hong Kong after turning a mighty big loop over the South China Sea and were experiencing turbulence. I prayed for the pilot and that he would land us safely on the ground. He did … in Taipei. The winds were too strong in Hong Kong to land safely considering it is August and typhoon season. Hence I am currently sitting here typing this out when I should really be asleep in bed in Happy Valley. I’m also typing into word and will transfer this later as yet again I would have to pay for the internet. Why am I not doing that? Simply by the time I sort out payment and get the internet up and running on my computer, my battery will inevitably run out considering I didn’t have it fully charged.

I really hope this does not become an annual event. In the summer of last year after visiting Vancouver for a week in order to go to a friend’s wedding I was similarly delayed. The plane was taxing to the runway when the wing tip of our left wing knocked the tail of another plane parked at the side. This meant taxiing back, passengers were trooped off and the waiting began. It took a couple of hours to osrt out the wing rip, only to then test the equipment and find that a computer wasn’t working. Comp[lications. We also ran into the problem that we would be able to fly to Calgary but then the cabin crew and pilot would not have had the sufficient rest required between flights so we wouldn’t be able to fly back to Manchester. There was also mention of a hotel on arrival at Calgary. Unfortunatley by the time we got there, the people in charge announced that the hotel airport was full and the other hotel which was booked was too far away to make it worthwhile. So they prepared a room with drinks and snacks and people tried to get what little sleep they could. Oh…that is after having a large group of people have a major rant at the poor man making the announcements on behalf of the company.

We arrived at HK airport and waited at the carousel for our luggage. We were so happy that the luggage appeared - except that it wasn't ours at all. We were then told the luggage would arrive at 2:30pm - another hour to wait. The hour passed and our luggage didn't arrive. We were then told that the plane with our luggage would arrive at 4:10pm. After two nights where we had little sleep this was all we needed to hear. My aunt and I finally went out for something to eat, were escorted back in to wait at the carousel and were finally reunited with our luggage at about 6pm at which point I got on the train and fell asleep.

Grey day in the UK

Here I am - finally - in England and having access to the internet. Unfortunately my parents are still in the dark ages and have no internet access at home. Well, at least they have a computer and iPods - even though they still couldn't load music onto them until I came home to do it for them! Bless!

So I'm in Starbucks and had to pay for internet - there's possibly a place a bit up the road where I might have access for free. Hmm...will have to check it out.

Since I landed at Manchester airport and came down to Chester I haven't done that much. Well, the first day I was here I pretty much crashed after a few hours - which was nice as I hadn't slept much on the plane. I've managed to go jogging about 5 times - pretty good since I''ve only been back just over a week. I've watched quite a bit of footie - England just making it through after being plagued with injuries. In HK the commentary was pretty poor - so it's been nice to have some decent commentary and listening to Gary Linekar pre-match, at half-time and post-match (especially during the Eng-Ecu match where he made a slip at half time and said the score was 1-0 when it was 0-0 but the full time score was 1-0! Gift of prophecy?). It was also quite interesting when the camera was in the tunnel for the England Ecuador match- where you could hear a few f words being spouted out of the players mouths - tut tut - hope those little boys who they hold hands with to go on the pitch weren't present!

I've managed to speak to a few friends on the phone. I rang an old school friend who lives down south and she told me she'd just had a baby - i didn't even know she was pregnant - a lot can happen in a year!

I went over to catch up withg the senior pastor over here - he only lives around the corner from me - and I was glad to see his son Garetrh who'd had a stroke the year before - he was looking in good health. We had a good conversation about worship as he's normally down in Chorleywood, London and focussing on worship with folks down there. I've known him since he was about 13 and it's great to see how he's getting on and maturing, but still with that cheeky boy side of him intact. It was good to worship with the people at Northgate church - I only know about 10 people there now, but it still has that family feeling, and I like to catch up with the few that I know.

There was a couple from the States preaching and they were talking about what you focus on becomes your future. I find that I tend to get pulled into different directions with church, school, hockey and socially - especially in terms of having resposibility. It's difficult as there are obviously things that I have/need to do but then what about the rest. I always find that difficult. i feel that right now I could go any way, but it's all a fog - I need clarity in what God wants me to do so that I can get that focus right. I think once I have that focus then I can concentrate on it and I can leave the other stuff. I don't want people to be pulling me towards one thing or another - I just want to know for myself. It's between God and me - I don't care what everyone else thinks I'll be 'good' at- that kind of pressure doesn't help. so, I'm very thankful I can get a break from life in HK hopefully collect my thoughts and pray.

I'm off to Edinburgh tomorrow - must charge up my camera battery! I've not been there before...heard it's very beautiful - hope the weather brightens up. It'll be busy with all the festivals going on.


Okay - I've been sat here long enough - I will go and see what Chester has to offer.

Freedom...nearly!

Yesterday was the last day of school - WOOHOO!!!!!! Students were busily writing in each other's yearbooks as I was trying to figure out what was going on that morning, and struggling to drink my coffee as the requests for yearbook signing came in. We went for our final grade 8 gathering where a couple of homerooms performed Dr Suess' "Sneetches'. We bid farewell to those students who are leaving our school - tears. Then we practiced the entry of all (just under 200) students in the 'Remember the Titans' style - very amusing. Then we rehearsed the dance to Black Eyed Peas 'Pump it' - with only a few reminders for some of the boys to keep it clean.

Before the actual final assembly, Michael told the grade 6s and 7s that we had decided to go to Disneyland instead of the gathering as we had been to Ocean Park the day before. Then the grade 8s entered and it was the best that they had performed that dance.

After the assembly we all went downstairs and many tears came forth and students hugged as we tried to usher them towards the buses for the 'Big Wave'. They finally got on and the buses departed as we waved them off to have a good summer - and no moonies this year.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening eating and then trying to pack up my room for summer school. I now need to go back, finish the job, sign my new contract and sned my goal sheet to admin. Fun.

Marking break

I'm feeling rather sad right now - as in my life is currently in a state of sadness due to infernal marking!!! Last week I was mega busy but managed to mark some websites. I still have about 50 websites to mark, 94 worksheets, 94 homework packets, 94 labs and end of year reports to write. My first plan of action is to get the websites finished - thankfully the kids have an algebra exam tomorrow during which I will do some marking. It's quite annoying as I have a cold too- ugh - kept sneezing today.

I'm still not sleeping properly either - keep waking at about 3:45am. I blame the muggy weather.

Good news today - my and my aunty's flights back to England are confirmed. I can't stand the waitlisting thing...thankfully I didn't have to endure that for long.

So here's the countdown:
8.5 days to the end of term
6.5 days of teaching left
12 days to my friends' wedding
13 days until I fly back to sunny Manchester

Okay - back to marking with the help of Jacqueline du Pre.

Day off

Well, I'm managing to write more posts than I did on my previous site - I do believe this is my 8th. Only 2 weeks of school left - I can taste summer! It probably has to do with the end of year meals I keep having - MS hockey team dinner which was yesterday, MS hockey parents dinner tomorrow, HKIS end of year teacher's celebration and grade 8 celebration dinner dance. This means that in about 2 weeks time the seams on my clothes will be splitting. I must go to the gym...maybe it can help save my wardrobe!

I managed to watch "The Notebook' today - quite a weepy towards the end. Very much a chick flick - good to do the ironing to. Those kinds of films really aren't worth going to the cinema to watch. I think my cinema viewing is reserved mostly for action/ special effect movies e.g. X-men, spiderman etc...unless of course it's a $25 showing where I think I'd allow myself to watch any movie - usually cheap summer before 11am films...always good!

Mutant Powers

Saw X-men 3 on Thursday night. I was excited about it as soon as I got the e-mail asking if I was interested to go. So, my random question to my students on Thursday was 'What would your mutant ability be?' Most went for flying and teleporting, there were a few mind readers and one x-ray vision (but not all the time - I recommended eyewear like Cyclops'). However, the best was definitely Jack from my homeroom. He said that he would want Storm's powers. Now a 14 year old boy wanting Storm's (who is a woman) powers, seemed interesting. So I asked him why - and he had a good reason. He said,'So that I could control the weather and make tornados and storms. Then I could make a typhoon come and we could have a day off school.' Brilliant logic.

I had my hair cut and dyed red today. Wonder how many people will ask me if I want to be like Dark Phoenix/jean Grey. Truth of the matter is, I normally get my hair done like this but it takes hours - actually today it took 5 hours. So, as I usually play hockey on Saturdays I get my hair cut about twice a year! Anyway, I'd want to be Lady Deathstrike (the alive version!).

31

Okay...so I'm 31 now...all those younger than me...you can be quiet now.

Well, I got to feel special at school - three of my students (Rach, Brooke and Tash) posted photoshopped pictures of me around school wishing me a happy birthday. They also baked a cake and got the hockey girls including Deayton to come and celebrate with me at break - nice.

Tanja Kerbs - she's a champ- organised a whole spread of goodies to make ice-cream sundaes at 9:30am in the morning. The grade 8 teachers were singing me happy birthday and I couldn't take my eyes off the colourful spread - m&ms, fresh fruit, canned fruit, nots, shredded coconut, ice cream, hundred and thousands, choc curls, MAGIC SHELL, maple syrup, brownies...it was crazy......get the teachers on a sugar high or what?? I laughed when Maureen from grade 7 said that you could smell the sweet stuff as soon as you walked into the room...but she was absolutely right.

My poor students had a Science test on my birthday....but now I have to mark it...D'oh!!!

Vine Album recording weekend

It's now 10th May, and the recording took place last weekend - 5th to 7th May. Friday 5th and Saturday 6th may were the two days of live recording at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre.

On Friday I arrived at about 1230 to start my service managing duties. Well, to be honest there wasn't much for me to do. I ticked that the people who were supposed to be there were - easy. However, on the way to the venue, Anna Gardener had called me about a cold pack as Carmen had hurt her foot in a rehearsal that morning. So by the time I arrived, her foot was elevated and iced. The dancers were busy having their hair and makeup done in the dressing room.

To be honest, there really wasn't much for me to do. I went around trying to find little jobs for myself to keep me busy. I didn't really want to read my book as I just felt it would get me out of the mood of it being an exciting day of recording. So, I did little things like fill the water boiler for the singers (so they could have warm honey water), display the food and water, get more ice for Carmen etc. Part way through the afternoon I felt like it was really useless me being there - I was quite frustrated as I felt like my role was unnecessary. I was backstage thinking this and I felt God just prompt me and say' Is this about you? It isn't about you. What are you here to do?' The answer? To serve of course. After that, I felt like God used me to pray for Carmen who was rather upset about her injury and not being able to dance. I also had an opportunity to encourage and pray for another dancer - Elein. Things didn't go according to the rundown sheet, as the soundchecks (all 3 of them!) took longer than the scheduled time - but it was important considering the worship was being recorded after all. The dancers finally got to rehearse their dance on stage a couple of times. The different teams prayed separately that night due to time constraints.

At 7pm the doors opened and people entered. At about 7:30 Derek introduced the evening, got the crowd pumped up and shouting. The show opened with the cool dance with 12 dancers , then we had the first set of songs, John sorted out the offering and introduced Ned Davies, Ned spoke about our wonderful creator God, made an altar call (where several people became Christians) and then there was the second set. At the end of the evening we went to in and Out for some grub and a drink.

The following day (Saturday) I got up, had breakfast and got ready for the day. I rang Victor to see if he needed an 'errand person' as he'd expressed that the previous day they had needed someone to do a few things. So, I went there earlier than originally planned and saw Michelle repetitively thumping on the bass drum and Victor sorting out sound things (yes...I have absolutely no clue whatsoever!). I talked to Michelle and we got the lunch orders from people...I managed to get orders for Chinese food and Starbucks, and needed to get drinks from Park n Shop. Thankfully I had a mini brainwave and rang Anna (bless) and she got the Starbucks on her way. I managed to find a Dai Pai Dong to get the Chinese food and got the drinks from PnS.

Later on I had to go and get water for the worship team and dancers - we reckoned on 3 boxes. Adam went with me and had quite a hilarious time trying to carry these boxes back to the theatre a)without dropping them and b)in the fastest time possible. Well, we had a good laugh and you should see how toned our arms are!!

Due to having experienced one day of recording, the soundcheck and set up went well and we prayed together that evening. Ned was great talking to us and encouraging us that this was a new night, and it was not to be a repeat performance. We were also encouraged that this was a team effort to glorify God in whatever role we were playing and it wasn't just about the worship leader or worship team.

The evening started with Derek giving the intro. The Carmen, Nate and Adam performed their dance which was great - it had cheers in the right places! Then the second dance started. In the middle of the dance water started falling from above the stage, towards the front. At first I thought ' Wow that looks cool!' then it was 'That wasn't in the rundown...AAAAAARGHHHHH!!!!' I quickly ran backstage and saw the backstage lady communicating with someone else, so I reckoned they would be onto the problem. I ran back out to the corridor and thought, "What do I do??? Mops and buckets!!!" I ran through the theatre while the dancers continued and asked the people for mops (thankfully it is in my Cantonese vocabulary). The cleaning lady appeared and I repeated that we needed mops, she opened a backstage cupboard and got a few mops out and some buckets. The dancers had come off stage and the lady said to me,"We can't mop this - there's too much water!" at which point I grabbed a mop, gave it to Vinny, took the buckets and started mopping. All I knew was that we had to get the water off the stage. Soon, more help arrived - the Africans from Togo were great. Mops were placed to catch the water that was still falling. More people from the Vine helped clean up using mops, cloth and toilet paper. I remember turning to Aaron Rogers and saying,"If this doesn't show teamwork, I don't know what does!' While we were cleaning up the last bits, trying to work out how long it would take the electrics to be checked and the possibilities of recording the following day, Ned spoke to the audience and led them in worship.

We later found out that the guy came down, checked the electrics and decided it would be fine to continue once power was back on. Some of the worship team, started some acoustic worship and the rest of the team joined them on stage. After a little while, the power came back on midsong. A few things were checked and the announcement was made that we'd run through all ten songs which we then proceeded to do. It was sooooo cool - everyone was so up for it and worshipping their hearts out. Seriously - Satan tried to stop this, but God had bigger and better plans for the evening.

Album recording 5th May - Day 1

Here I am at home and out of bed at 9:27am on the first day of the Vine Christian fellowship's live album recording. I've just printed a map to show me how to get to the venue - Sheung Wan Civic Centre and I'll need to print my service manager's sheet. Last night I went for dinner with Anna, Mandy and Yan and then went down to the Vine for the prayer meeting and just chilled out there. I managed to find out more about times of arrival for various people for today, so hopefully my checklist is fine, so I can help make sure everything runs smoothly.

It's actually the day of the recording - it's quite surreal and exciting all at the same time. Well, I have my Vine shirt clean and ready and my clipboard ready...better go and get myself ready!

Dumaguete Easter Mission Trip

Thursday – fly from HK, arrive at hotel, pray on roof top and rest
Friday – Open Air Clinic – pray for patients, pastors, church outreach and pray for pastors and outreach team
Saturday – house building, swim in sea
Sunday – ICM church kids from children's home – Anna preached, went to lake
Monday – devotion at care ministries, minister to pastors of Dumaguete, outreach in field 800
Tuesday – ministered to care workers, special cases video, visit special cases -= pray for Antonio, Arnold’s AOG place- worship and minister, pray for healing for Dwight’s mum
Wednesday – team meeting shopping and leave



The Dumaguete, Philippines Mission Trip seemed like one huge exercise in trusting in God. From start to finish our team was constantly reminded to lean on God. Our first reminder was arriving in Manila and transferring ourselves to the old domestic airport. Half the team were taken to the new one, when we were finally reunited, Nicky’s bag went missing. We realized we had to pray and it was like God asking us if we intended to do things in our own strength or in his. Thankfully, in the last minutes of checking on our luggage, the bag was retrieved having been stuck in the X-ray machine.. Interestingly enough, the Vine’s verse is:

I am the vine you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15 v5


For me, this was not just another mission trip. I didn’t know particularly what to expect as we hadn’t been given an agenda and we were partnering with International Care Ministries. I felt that this was a huge exercise in trusting in God. There were some outreach events, but this trip had more ministry time than I had experienced on other trips. We prayed for patients in a Care Ministries clinic, for care ministry workers, pastors of Dumaguete at a pastors meeting, people at a worship meeting and some special cases for healing.

I think that when I’m on a mission trip I know and am reminded by our leaders that we are there to serve in whatever capacity God leads us to. I also wondered what my part in the team would be as I believe God created us as individuals and we each have our specific part to play. Our team prayed for some specific cases of healing and were truly believing in faith for the healing of a man with a dislocated hip and also for the healing of one of the Care Worker’s Dwight’s mum. Many people were reduced to tears due to anger against the sickness and the fact that we were believing but did not see the healing directly. I realized that as a recipient of healing I could easily relate to the person being prayed for – having faith for healing yet being frustrated with not seeing it happen instantaneously. However, as a recipient I could also encourage the team in the fact that we had intentionally come to pray for people – to minister God’s love – this reminded me of the time people had repeatedly done this for me – and how this had overwhelmed me with love – that it encouraged me to persist in prayer, to cling to God and to step out in faith by continuing to ask for healing. I know that on the journey to healing God taught me many lessons – but the main one was to trust in him, for the timing of my healing and for everything in my life.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3 v5 and 6

Amen!

Home sweet home

After having been to the ASCD (don't ask me what it stands for - I always forget!) teacher's conference in Chicago, Singapore - with the Middle School hockey team and Dumaguete, Philippines mission trip, it's nice to be back in Hong Kong and get back into the routine of everyday life.

I was in Chicago (my first trip to the US!!) with Melita - my grade 8 Science buddy. We were there for the pre-conference on Differentiated Instruction - or as we know it 'DI'. Carol Ann Tomlinson was great and we learnt a lot....now all we have to do is apply it!

My first impression of the US was passing through immigration with a huge guy shouting out 'Go to A!!!' Thankfully, he wasn't addressing us as we visitors needed to go to B. On approaching the officer, he explained that the shouting guy, if he was telling you a story would tell you it in the exactly the same tone and volume. He then explained that that guy was a New Yorker - definitely not from Chicago.

As we went around Chicago - to our hotel - Hotel 71, shopping(Old Navy, American Girl Place, Bath and Body Works) and the conference people were as friendly as could be ....very impressive. They would just make conversation- just really nice. Apparently the mid-west is like that...cool.

Melita and I managed to get to the Chicago Institute of art - loved it - really loved being able to see the Seurat Park painting with all the little dashes - love it!!! We also managed with Jennifer Sparrow to go to 'Howling at the moon' - a bar where there were dueling pianists, and another night we went to a small jazz bar. Oh...I remember - that was the day I was wearing my England shirt as it was HK's rugby sevens weekend...and England won again! Bless!




Singapore was a good trip - Gail and I took 15 girls down for a hockey tour. thankfully, Jude Felix was on the ball and had our girl's playing the girls he coaches as their school on Friday. Then on Saturday morning was an early 8-9am match against some of those girls and he gave the girls training on the Sunday. We also managed to see Ice Age 2, go to the night safari and take a boat ride to the Merlion. Oh...and we had lunch at Raffles - VERY nice! Gail also went in the bungy cage thing and got catapulted into the air - crazy lady. I point blank refused to do that...I really couldn't imagine telling my parents that I had done that - plus I was scared stiff!


Ah...Dumaguete - that will need a post of it's own. However, that will wait as I have a really bruised finger on my right hand after having played a hockey match today - it's quite swollen and painful....maybe I should post a picture!!!

A new bloggining

Well, I once signed up for one of these sites and never put it to use. However, I think it would be nice to let people know what I'm up to without having to send lots of e-mails. Yes...technology is helping in the advancement of my laziness!!! Hurrah!

Let's see if I manage to actually partake in 'blogging' on a regualr basis!