P.I.N.K.

Spagetti with the Italian

2010-04-14T01:02:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I last blogged, but now I'm a little bit more freed up so here's a new blogpost!

So awhile ago, my Italian friend - Antonio made a nice lunch for my flatmate & I. We had some yummy, authentic spagetti and it was really good.

So this is Antonio de Nicolo, our "naked" chef for the afternoon..

Our chef posing by the stove..

My flatmate, Sneha from India, deciding to join in with the cooking & Antonio critiquing her culinary skills.. LOL

What's spagetti without the Asian touch?? That's where I come in and test my culinary skills too!!!

Italian + Indian + Asian = *voila* Perfecto!!

After cooking, I found a cockroach in our cupboard so I put on my murderous gaze

and defeated it!!! Rawr....!!!

For dessert, my friend Ashu made Banana bread!! How amazingly good

does it look?? Jealous already? Hahaha..

What's better than banana bread?? It's banana bread with ice-cream!!

So yummy!!

Sneha & I in the kitchen..

After lunch, Sneha, Ashu & I went to 'Kawa' for some coffee just to enjoy the weather..

Really nice & chill place with a lot of trees & sunlight.. It's a Must visit spot!!

My Soy Cappuccino... soo good...

Sneha & Ashu's chai with milk or something.. It was really good too,

but kinda weird that they would serve it in a Chinese tea pot...

Sneha & I...

So yeah, that ends my fun afternoon & evening with good food & great company.

Til next time!!!

Up and Coming!

2010-03-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all!!

Just wanted to let you all know how my week was and what's coming in the next few weeks.

1. Easter is coming so soon!! I'm super excited because Hillsong Church has a Video & Art Easter presentation which usually looks super professional. Definitely will blog about that!!

2. On the Monday after Easter I'm organizing a Photo Scavenger Hunt for the students @ College so I've just been super busy with that alone.

So just wanted to give you all a tasting plate of the good things to come. Be on the lookout!!

MUCH LOVE~!!!!

Thinking out Loud..

2010-03-21T04:46:00.000-07:00

Just thinking out loud here guys...

Okay, I think it's my time of the month and I'm freaking PMS-ing because for the past few days I've been feeling super depressed then after that HYPER happy, and later rollercoaster dive to sadness once again.. On top of that I get easily irritated!! I felt super guilty because I was rude to so many people!!

So weird to feel like this.. Was at Church today and all the more on Choir.. So with my depressed face I tried to look happy and presentable to be on stage. I have to say it was so hard to pull my face up into a smile!! Worship did help my mood a lot and things started getting better for the day.

Night comes and after Church I just got irritated about something small again and there goes my good mood! Dang these hormones.. Makes me feel so unstable..

Right now my thoughts are "I wanna go home now!!!" Just the usual homesickness x200!! Had some ice cream just now, but totally didn't help me out at all..

Omg, now I'm debating whether do I want to finish College in July and go home or continue on for a 3rd year.. I need comfort food so badly now!!! Give me some wanton mee from Cheras..

Anyways, now I need to shower and go to bed. Working from 11:30am - 11pm tomorrow.. Yeap, it's almost 12 hours.. Thanks for sticking around people!

MUCH LOVE!!!!!!

Chaotic Kitchen!!

2010-03-15T19:52:00.001-07:00

So the reason of why I'm posting this is because for the past 3 days, my kitchen has been looking like this... so I just needed to vent a little.. Haha!!

There's a picture for you..

Stuff just like scattered everywhere.. On the counter and in the sink...

Okay.. So that's how the kitchen has been for the past 3 days.. Nothing cleaned but just more stuff added! I don't really know why I'm sharing my dirty kitchen with you all, but try to enjoy the pictures ok? Hahaha!!

Garbage is just stacked in a corner.... Hmmm been there for maybe 3 days??!!

Juice spill on the table been discovered this morning...

Pile of dirty dishes dug up from the sink... Hahaha...

Clean dishes & utensils not being kept away...

Hahaha.. are we enjoying this post so far??? There's more....

The recycled items stacked sky-high.. It's partially my fault, I'm too lazy to take it out!!

Stove partially covered in food & pots still containing overnight food.. Yummy!!

*Disclaimer, those pots aren't mine..*

*BUT HERE COMES....... Julie!!!!!*

My beautiful roommate Julie from Canada!

She decided to clean everything up and save us from cockroaches that would come to visit our kitchen very soon!

*Cinderella cleaning, scrubbing, drying & sweeping away....*

(Some time passes....)

Taaddaaaa!!!! Clean kitchen & counters.. Amazing!! What would my life be without Julie...

Just for fun, maybe you want to compare how my kitchen looks in this picture to how it looked before..

Yay, for a clean stove!!! No more oil, grease or food stains!! *crazy laughter*

So.. that was a little glimpse into my not-so-glamorous life in Sydney. So the moral of the story is, do your dishes because worst case scenario, your kitchen will look like mine!! I'm sure you don't want that. Pity those Mom's that clean up after dinner everyday!! Maybe tonight just give her a hand with the dishes, because 2 people cleaning is way more fun than 1 person cleaning alone.. Hahaha!!

That's all I've got this time, thanks for reading. Much love!!

The Ideal Voice

2010-03-13T23:25:00.000-08:00

Okay so today I was just thinking... If I could choose who I want to sound like when I sing, who would I pick?

So I came up with a combination of artists that I would love to sound like..

Top on my list would definitely be BEYONCE!! She is such a powerhouse when she sings.. Ideal, ideal type of voice..

"All the Single Ladies~~!!"

But at the same time I want to sound sweet as well as powerful.. So I decided to put in some Leona Lewis as well.. Sounding almost perfect now..

"Footprints in the Sand..."

Okay to make things fun, I would want some Lady Gaga in there as well.. Why? Because she has such a nice speaking voice & sounds freaking good for upbeat songs!

"POKER FACE!!!!!"

To go above and beyond, I'll get some Alicia Keys in there as well... Just because her lower range is super SEXY!!!!!

"If I Ain't got you baby...."

And to top it all of, Christina Aguilera would just be perfect... Great falsetto and massive range!! Just put it in there just in case Beyonce isn't enough.. Haha!

"Lady Marmalade"

So to sum it all up, it all comes down to:

40% - Beyonce

20% - Leona L.

20% - Alicia K.

10% - Lady Gaga

10% - Christina A.

PERFECTION!! Just doing some wishful thinking...

Dinner at Sepia

2010-03-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

My uncle and I went out for dinner when he was in Sydney. He took me to this place called "Sepia". It was classy and all so we had to dress up and all. It was fun, but with the size of the dishes, sometimes it's a little hard to get full la.

Like sometimes for me, if I don't have any form of rice I don't feel satisfied. Haha! But this was a really nice dinner and I fully enjoyed it anyway!

Checking out the menu & ordering. Everything sounded so yum!

Unagi on some sushi rice. Haha I forgot the fancy name for this dish.

Some kind of essence. Very tasty!

Jewfish, squid, carviar & some sauce thingie. This was one of the nicest!

Mushroom essence meant to be poured into the next dish.

Lamb with the mushroom essence. Medium-done, just the way I love it!!

Hmm.... what was this called again.. Haha nevermind.. It looks good though!

For dessert, we had this sorbet with a flower petal on it. So cute....

Our last dessert was this melted marshmellow goodness with cheeries & chocolate flakes. So sinfully good.... haha making me hungry just thinking about it..

Hahaha so anyway thanks to my uncle, this dinner was free of charge for me.. So nice..

So this is my little adventure and break outside of college. I 100% enjoyed it!!

'Til next time...

Goodbyes & Introductions

2009-09-23T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

This blog post is just showing you guys photos of me moving out of my ex-flat into my new flat. Haha get ready because it's going to be messy!!

Stole a cart from the supermarket to help me move somethings.. Haha.. Super desperate!!

All my stuff in boxes again. It's like back to square 1..

There goes my bed frame.. Haha I'm going to be sleeping on the mattress tonight..

After I packed my bags and dismantled our bed frames, me and Sis had to spend the night on the couch.. It was a fun last night of bonding together..

~Transition between ex-flat to new flat~

My new room shared with roommate, Alison! Does that blue plastic shelf look familiar?

My sister's white table is now in the new flat as well..

Hehe cute right?! We placed our beds together so we will have more space in the room.. I love my new room!!

Yes, so that's my goodbye to my ex-flat and introductions to my new flat. Sorry again for the long-awaited blog post.

My Excuses for not Blogging..

2009-08-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

Apa khabar everybody?!

I know that I have been silent for the past 2 months, but I have some very valid excuses of why I haven't been blogging. I promise, you will totally forgive me for not blogging by the end of this post.

Okay here goes my explanation:

Excuse 1.)
Hillsong Conference was keeping me super busy! I was serving in the Kids ministry and I spent 15 hours with them for 4 days. Oh my goodness, *shivers*.. That's enough to K.O. a grown adult woman, which I also happen to be.

Excuse 2.)
Right after Hillsong Conference, I mean really the next day after Conference, I moved to a new flat which was just opposite from my old flat. Imagine my body all exhausted from the Kids and now I'm moving furniture! By God's grace I did it..

Excuse 3.) ~I hope you start feelings abit sorry for me by now~
2 days after the move, I started work at this Malaysian restaurant called "Mamak" (for more info about "Mamak" click here). I LOVE working as a waitress so much, it's like Diner Dash but in real life. So much fun~

Excuse 4.)
After working for 10 days straight, which made my wallet slighty fatter, I started College again. *sigh* Yes, it's true that I never full rested after the whole chaotic, busy month..

*End of sob story*

Okay, so those were my very pathetic attempts at gaining some sympathy from my readers. Haha but even though there's suddenly so many things that got crammed into my life, I'm still enjoying and loving every bit of it.

Everybody back home, just know that I'm missing you all and I would DEFINITELY be updating this blog soon. So just hold on to your fork~

With much love,
Sandra.

A Taste of Home..

2009-06-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

Wow, it's been a month since my last post. The month of May and June were pretty quiet, because of the ending of Colour Conference and the coming of Hillsong Conference.

Around the end of May, I was facing one of the most stressful times in my College life.. I did not plan my time well, so I had to cram my assessments into one week and finish them in that time before the due date.

I procrastinated, as usual, and that brought me so much stress that week. To top it off, I got sick in that week too.. So basically, I had to do 2 big assessments & write a song alone.. Sounds like a load of fun.. But it was during that time that I felt such a great sense of accomplishment & achievement that I usually lacked..

Anyway, going on to "A Taste of Home...", this post is just my Singapore uncle, U. Roger, generously buying us dinner again. God bless him!! That dinner we had was one of the most memorable meals I've had since I stepped foot into this foreign country. The reason why it was memorable was because we ordered CRABS !!!!

C'mon people! Just look at the photos and drool..... This is fried crabs with 'fun see' (Cantonese) or Glass Noodles (Aussie English).

I was the happiest Asian in the place.. I took the time to take apart the shell and eat everything nice & clean.. I even cracked open the legs to get the meat (I know it sounds barbaric, but it was really good!!)

What else made me so happy was the waiters there actually brought out the live seafood in plastic bags to show it to you after you placed your order.. They never do that in Malaysia!!

So the first photo was of my yummy, still-alive crabs and the second photo was our fish and crabs together. The guy was sweet enough to smile for the camera. Hehe.. He was actually going back to the kitchen, but I called him back to take this photo.. Haha I know, so 'hou yi si' right??

Lastly why I was so happy that night was because of the really good soup that reminded me of those Chinese Restaurants in Malaysia.. I became a little nostalgic, because usually Chinese families get this huge table that sits like 10 people and everyone will be eating peanuts and drinking tea.. But that night, it was only U. Roger, my sister & I, so I felt our table was a little too spacious and empty.. Aww sucks for me..

Anyway here's the soup~

Looks good huh?! It tasted really nice too, not like the fake Chinese food that Australian's like..

Please is there anyone who wants to send me some Nasi Lemak as a B-Day gift for me??

Hehe.. Sorry if this post was a bit too wordy.. Just had a lot that I wanted to tell you all!!

I MISS YOU ALL~~

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

For the first time in my life, I'm spending Mother's Day away from my Mommy. It also didn't help that in Church, they were putting up pictures of Moms, flowers for Moms, gifts for Moms and even the sermon was for Moms.

Haha! It's not like I am depressed or anything, but I just felt a bit nostalgic and home sick. I only shed some tears when this child gave flowers to his Mom at Church. I was thinking,

"No one has given me flowers before..."

Lol! Yeah other than that, I had a really good & fun time at Church. All the women in our church were given a little gift on this lovely Mother's Day. This is me with my present:

Aaaahhh~~
Such as relaxing present.. I had a good 3 hour sleep after I took this picture today. Hehe..

Well this is my short little post about Mother's Day. Sorry I haven't been updating for 1 month, because my life has just been Church, College, assessments and serving and nothing much interesting.. Haha!

Have a wonderful Mother's Day all the mothers out there.

A shout-out to my Mommy:

Mom, I have to thank you for always being there for me. In every situation, you would patiently listen to me as I tell you all my troubles.

Thanks for being my spiritual mentor as well. You would pray with me every time before I lead in worship and you encourage me whenever I feel so inadequate and insecure about my abilities.

There are so many things I have to thank you for Mom, but I have to thank you for making me into the person I am today. Even the reason I'm in Hillsong is because you have encouraged me to take this step and and take 2 years away from home.

Mommy, Happy Mother's Day! Both Shirley and myself want to say, "I love you, Mommy."

~End of sappy shout-out~

Colour 2009!

2009-04-14T02:32:00.000-07:00

Hello!!

I have been through the most busy 3 weeks of my life (Hehe my excuse for not blogging for some time)..

Lol, I had Colour Conference, Album Recording and our Easter weekend in the span of 3 weeks, along with 2 assignment deadlines slotted in there.. It was a very fulfilling time where I was stretched to my limits physically, mentally & emotionally.. So right now we have a short college break after Easter from Monday to Wednesday..

Colour Conference:

This year we split Colour into 2 conferences, so we had Colour 1 & 2. Each conference is 3 days and I thought I was going to be serving in Choir, but instead I was assigned to Kids: Cubby House (ages 0-2).

I thought I was going to pass out from serving in Cubby House for 6 days in a row, but thank God I'm still alive and going strong! The kids were so CUTE!! I had so much fun serving in Cubby House that the time just passed so fast.

Here's just some pictures I took during Colour. We weren't allowed to take photos of the children because of some Child Protection Policy, too bad..

The stage was set up to follow the theme of Colour: From a Whisper to a Shout. I don't know how they managed to get the picture of a dove on the platform.

This was Colour 1 and the place was super packed man.. Sometimes when I got to sit in for a service, I had to sit on the floor because there were no empty seats.. Unbelievable rite?!

This Esther Yap & me. 8 people have came up to me and told me I looked exactly like her. We look alike meh? I also feel like I lost my identity.. Hehe.. Maybe we do look a bit alike..

All the people serving in Kids have a certain "young" look wan, Hehe.. Cubby House leaders & volunteers:

Face-painting!! Let's do this in Vineyard as well~

All these lovely face-paints are all done by Giordana. Getting my face-painted is the one thing that kept me enthusiastic about serving at Cubby House everyday.

Thanks for reading!! Easter post coming up soon~~

Dinner @ The Wharf.

2009-03-20T02:47:00.000-07:00

Hello~~!! I know it's been awhile since I last blogged. So so sorry!!

Anyway, my Uncle Roger from Singapore came to Australia again, so he brought us out for dinner. This time we ate at "The Wharf", which has been rated 1 hat out of 3 hats.

The Wharf has a beautiful view facing the Harbour Bridge and it is especially beautiful at night because of the many lights. The glass panels that confine the restaurant gave us a great view of the water coming into the harbour and many brightly-lit ships sailing in the night. Here are some photos of the dinner @ The Wharf:

The restaurant has a simple decoration with a warm and homely atmosphere, created by the dim lighting.

The only photo we managed to get the waiter to take for us. We don't want to be troublesome now do we? Behind us are the glass panels that allow us to enjoy the view.

This is way the menu would look if you place a candle behind it. Haha, I didn't want to use the flash on the menu, so I just used natural candle light. Gives it such a romantic feel, right?

This is a part of the beautiful view we face from our table and that is the brightly-lit ship lighted with nice hues of pink and yellow.

We ordered À la carte and shared the dishes among the 3 of us, except the main courses.

The first appetizer we ordered is:

Jamon Iberico with shaved calamari, fennel, witlof & sherry vinegar. (Jamon, pronounced hah-moan, is just Spanish ham)

Next appetizer/main course:

Risotto with field mushrooms, bacon & peas.

I really liked this risotto. It was yummy and filling. Haha I must be biased because I love any type of rice.

Shirley & Uncle Roger's main course:

Herb crumbed market fish, garlic buttered chard and mustard dressing.

They both ordered this so I got a small piece from both of them. The fish is quite fresh and springy, but after eating awhile you might get bored of the taste. Wait til you see my main dish.

Mine was the yummi-est!

TADDAA~~!! This is what I ordered:

Braised duck leg with rice noodle rotollo and water spinach.

It was SUPER nice!!! Very Chinese kinda dish actually. They actually used fried-crispy "keow teow" together with the duck and spinach. So nice.. Kinda made me a little homesick though.. Haiz.. I can't wait til December!! I miss my car..

So because I felt homesick, we ordered 3 types of DESSERT!! Kidding, sad or not, we wanted to have dessert anyway.. Here goes~

This is so cute right?! I saw the table beside us ordering, so I followed and ordered as well. It's called "Strawberry and vanilla ice-cream slice".

The middle circles are made up of lemon, lime, orange & rapsberry sorbet. I really liked this one, because it looked so colorful~ Made me happy..

For the last 2 desserts, we had the "Peppermint and chocolate souffle" & the "Chocolate and walnut bavarois with cognac anglaise".

The souffle was interesting because of the peppermint, but the chocolate bavarois won because of the cognac in the middle. Alcohol fans agreeing with me, thank you!

Haha all in all, it was a fun night full of fellowship & good food. All is well in Sandra's world.

Until next time, SEE YA~~!!

Cooking Mama - Breakfast with Sandra.

2009-03-10T04:18:00.000-07:00

Hello!!!!!

Sorry I have not blogged for so long. These days there's just been college going on, so nothing interesting to share with you all. Not like some "people" get to go to concerts and stuff. Hehe I'm kidding la. No flames.

So this post originated from the breakfast I made on Sunday. The American Breakfast (Bacon, tomato & cheese omelet and mashed potatoes) I made looked really tasty and well presented, so I thought I could just post something up until more interesting events come up, like COLOR CONFERENCE that is in 2 weeks!! I'm going to be so tired then, but I will try my best to keep this blog updated.

Breakfast for me and my sister. She's so lucky to have me. Hehehe..

Just a brief description of how I made this:

The bacon was pan-fried to a crisp.

I mashed the boiled potato, added soy milk, butter, salt & pepper.

I put chopped tomatoes, cheddar & mozzarella cheese in the omelet.

~The End~

The Church Goes to Capitol Theatre.

2009-02-27T22:39:00.001-08:00

Okay first off, some information!

The Capitol Theatre is one of the most famous theatres in Sydney. It is located in the heart of the city and many plays have been held there, for example, The Lion King, Miss Saigon, etc etc. It is a beautiful theatre with the ceiling designed as the night sky (twinkling stars included) and many statues decorating the entire theatre.

But the coolest thing is the management of the Capitol Theatre gave Hillsong Church an opportunity to test out the theatre. So, last Sunday we had church at the Capitol Theatre!! It was super cool and the seats are so comfy that it was so hard not to fall asleep. Best of all, I was on Choir too so I got to be on stage. Okay okay, anyway the Choir got to use the dressing rooms to warm up and keep our bags, so these are some pictures of the dressing room.

These mirrors with the lights just remind me so much of those Hollywood stars! So GLAM!! These are my friends from Choir.

The singers from Hillsong were using the "Hollywood" mirrors to put on their make up & I wanted to use the mirrors too so I took out my lipgloss. Hahahaha!

My friends Summer, Sneha & Eun. By the way, this was taken at 7:30am so my eyes still cannot open yet.

I can imagine the costumes from "The Lion King" all hanging here. So cool la this dressing room!

Hahaha this is the bathroom. I was too excited to I took pictures everywhere.

The view of the stage from my seats. After doing Choir, we had to sit all the way up on the balcony.

The balcony is pretty huge & it can sit quite a number of people. I wanted to sit at the box seats, but I didn't know how to get there.

The seats look comfy right?! I told you.. It's so soft and your body kinda sinks into the seats.

The statues decorating the theatre. It's a very Roman kinda feel to it with statues without the arms and stuff. (Sorry for the dark background because the lighting in the theatre is very dim)

My most favourite piece of the theatre would have to be the ceiling. The lights are programmed to look like twinkling stars and it gives me such a magical feeling to worship under a ceiling like this.

Potato Skin Recipe.

2009-02-22T02:33:00.000-08:00

Today I shall reveal the secret recipe of my famous potato skin. Ohohohohohoho~~! It is very simple and anyone can cook this. The reason it's named Potato Skin is because normally restaurants make this dish with the potato and the skin as well. Mine is an improvised version, instead of using the potato skin, I use foil.

Before cooking, you can start by putting on your apron. It is important to protect your clothes.

Next, here are the ingredients you will need to make Potato Skin..

Ingredient number 1: Potatoes!

Ingredient number 2: Middle Bacon!

Ingredient number 3: Cheddar cheese & Mozzarella Cheese!

Only these 3 ingredients are needed.

Next you can start preparing your ingredients.

Step 1:

Chop the potatoes into small cubes and boil them until soft.

Step 2:

After the potatoes are soft, mash them and transfer all the potatoes into a bowl.

Step 3:

Use a scissors and cut the bacon into little pieces.

Step 4:

Open the plastic packaging of your mozzarella cheese & cheddar cheese.

Step 5:

Cut out squares of foil and fold them into the shape of a bowl.

Step 6:

After folding the foil into bowl shapes, put a thick layer of potato on the botton & sides of the foil.

Step 7:

Arrange pieces of cheddar cheese over the layer of potato.

Step 8:

Arrange pieces of bacon over the layer of cheddar cheese. In my opinion, the more bacon you put, the nicer it is.

Step 9:

Top everything with a layer of mozzarella cheese. *Note I bought the mozzarella cheese that is already shredded so it's easier to use*

Step 10:

Place the Potato Skin into the oven and set it on low heat to cook the inside nicely (Example around 160 degrees). If the heat is set too high, the mozzarella at the top would be burnt and the cheddar inside would still be cold.

Step 11:

Approximately about 45 minutes later, the potato skin is ready to be eaten! (You can check whether or not the inside the cooked by poking a fork inside and pulling it out to feel whether the fork is hot or cold.)

*End of Recipe*

Other pictures of the Potato Skin:

OHH! How good does that brown mozzarella look!? The mozzarella is the one that gives you that stretchy cheesey thing.

Potato Skin is a very convenient dish. We keep it in containers and put them in the freezer, so when we are hungry we just take one out and pop it in the oven. So simple!

Salad is recommended to be eaten with Potato Skin. Since it's cheese and oven-baked, Potato skin can be quite heaty so the salad is a healthy way to prevent sore throats.

I want to thank my lovely assistant too for making this dish a success!

~The End~

Elevate 2009!!

2009-02-19T23:51:00.000-08:00

Elevate 2009 was so good! Why was it good? Because we had a longer time of worship, compared to Sundays. Also, Joel Houston & Darlene Zschech shared the vision of the church to us and everyone got pumped up, which lead to more worship & singing. Lol!

We worshipped and had other stuff in-between like 'Elevate News' & the sharing, but I think worship alone took up almost 1 hour of the whole 2 hours we were there. We heard quite a number of new songs too because Album Recording is coming up in March so we're all learning the new songs. The new songs are really nice, so I'm really excited about the recording!

There were some setbacks about the night though....

Cause of Setback:

-Too many people going to Elevate from the City Campus.

-Not enough room on the buses.

-Sandra had to sit at the back of the bus.

-It was HOT because of the exhaust pipe under the seat.

-Baby cockroaches crawling around.
-Stuck in traffic jam with cockroaches & heat from exhaust.

Effect of Setback:

-Couldn't sleep on the bus.

-Was late for Elevate.

-Missed the first 15 minutes of worship.

-Almost fell asleep when Joel was sharing.

Photos!!

The back of the bus.. This is my good friend Alison.. *Note the traffic jam at the back*

Taneli (the blond) from Sweden & Corrie from the US. They were suffering from the heat at the back of the bus too.

Sean/toast (because of his skin) from Malaysia.

Felipe Palma from Chile. He's a huge football fan & also Sean's roommate.

Summer from Korea. She just came to Hillsong in January 2009. Really nice & sweet girl.

The guys were gentlemen and gave their seats to the girls, so they stood for half the journey & sat on the floor for the other half.

Our crowded & hot bus. See all the guys standing??

*Hillsong Church - Hills Campus* "We're here!!!!"

Elevate news brought to us by Ben Fielding & JD (Jonathan Douglas).. Hehe it was really funny with a lot of Aussie humor..

This is the Main Auditorium in the Hills Campus. This is only 3/4 of the room & there are more seats on the top. These are the people who are part of the Creative side of church, including musicians, production people, Choir, etc etc.. All the creative people from Hills & City are gathered here & of course the pastors are here too.

Of course the platform is bigger compared to the one in the City. Hehe and those people are Ben Fielding, Jad Gillies & Gabriel Kelly (from left to right).

Random picture of some HUGE drumsticks I saw outside, but I think it's hollow inside because it was pretty light..

That's All!! Cheers people!!

Job Hunting!!

2009-02-17T22:57:00.000-08:00

Everyone like my new Blog template? I think it's so cute, if not I won't use.

Hehe, so this semester I decided it was time that I found a job. I need to stop living off my Dad's money and earn my own money (A last minute New Year's Resolution)! Anyway, my good friend Alison asked me to come along to Fox Studios because she wanted to find a job and it would be fun to just hang out, so I went. But I just brought some of my Resumes in case I get lucky and get hired, you know. I also brought my camera along because on our 30 minute walk to Fox Studios, we walk through this park that has big and shady trees. So the pictures are taken on our way to Fox Studios.

Me & Alison. Her parents are from China but she was born in the USA. So basically she's A.B.C. (American Born Chinese).

The park that we walk through. Nice shady place for a picnic. Come visit me and we'll have a picnic here!!

Huge tree trunk right?

Alison doesn't like taking pictures but I got her to just pose for one. She's quite photogenic right?

This picture can be used as the cover for 'The Purpose Driven Life'. Hehe looks like it right? This park is a relaxing place to 'pak tor' (dating).

On the way there we met some of our friends, who just came back from looking for jobs at Fox Studios. So many competitors! Anyway this is me, Natalie & Aline (pronounced A-li-ni), they're from Brazil.

So at Fox Studios there are some boutiques, cafes, restaurant, a movie theatre, a bowling alley & some other shops. So I asked around and hopefully someone will get back to me soon.

Actually the real reason I want a job is because:

1. I can buy more Tokidoki/LeSportsac bags from the Duty Free Shop.

2. M.A.C. is releasing a new range of limited edition HELLO KITTY makeup, so I need money to afford it.

3. I want to eat out once in awhile. After eating my cooking for weeks, it gets boring. Not that it doesn't taste good, my cooking is delicious (to me anyway) but I need to eat other food sometimes.

Yeah so my real intentions are revealed. Please take 20 seconds to say a short prayer for me that GOD will help me find a good job. Thank you so much!!

All my friends back home in Malaysia, "I LOVE YOU GUYS, I MISS YOU TOO!!!" That's all. Lolz.

A Flat White with 1 Sugar, please.

2009-02-11T00:11:00.000-08:00

Coffee has been my good & faithful friend for the past week of college. "She" was there for me through many of my 4 hour lectures and early mornings. "She" was also with me last night when I wanted to sleep, but "she" kept me awake. "She" is too powerful sometimes. Beware...

*End of lame story*

The first 2 weeks of college are the Intensives, and you can bet they are intensive. For 4 days a week I have at least 2-4 hours of "Church Ministry" (usually 4 hours), but today's lecture was a record-breaking of 7 hours!! There were some breaks in-between but it was still 7 hours.. I think I saw one-quarter of the class leave after 5 hours, but a GOOD student like me stayed faithful until the end.. The very end..

Summer Retreat~~!

2009-02-06T05:34:00.000-08:00

First of all, I have to warn you guys that Hillsong does not organize camps the way we do it in Kuala Lumpur. So throw away your previous mindsets and expectations of camp and hear me out. These are some of the differences:

1. You have to get your own transportation to the camp, either by car pooling or by public transportation (bus/train).

2. You have to find your own accommodation. This is the most shocking to me! But I had the help of my Connect Group Leader, who graciously invited me to bunk-in with the other girls in my CG.

3. The place we have sessions is apart from the resort we lived at. Hence, we had to car pool to get to the venue/place for sessions everyday! This is so unheard of in KL, right?! Anyway, I was more fortunate than others who had to walk there, which took them around 20 minutes or so.. I'm estimating here..

4. Lastly, I had to share a room with 5 girls, including myself. Imagine how time consuming it was to wait on each other to use the bathroom every morning and night. In KL, rooms are more affordable so there was no need so pack so many people into 1 room, but sadly this is not the case here.

As a result of these differences, I was unable to fully enjoy myself at the start of camp, but slowly and surely I managed to cast away my nostalgia of home and have FUN. I took a lot of pictures because I wanted to share them with my friends from home, but I posted more pictures on my Facebook, so feel free to flip through them. Great! On with the pictures then.

Basically our room space is mostly taken up by the twin bed & single bed. I didn't get to sleep in any of them, because the other girls took up the beds. So me and one of my friends took turns to alternate sleeping on the couch and the extra bed for the 2 nights.

Here it comes! My make-shift bed for this first night. For my short stature, I thought that I would fit nicely in the couch, but I was so so wrong. I couldn't stretch my feet out so it resulted in a lack of sleep and a grumpy/blur attitude the next day.

Haha will you guys believe it that this was all I packed for a 3 days & 2 nights camp? Usually I bring a luggage bad with wheels and more, but thank GOD I managed to fit everything inside nicely and snug.

So these are the girls that I hung out with during the time at Summer Camp. From the right to left is Julia (with the blue spagetti strap top), Allison Kwan, Sandra Sally (Indonesian), Joanna, Meegan, myself, Anna Follesdal (CG Leader & the girl behind me), and lastly Natalia. It was nice to just relax and spend time with girls for once.

Another group photo together. Some guy took it for us, that's why it's blurry.

This is Joanna, holding a cool looking camera that allows you to take pictures from a 180 degree angle, I think.. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Everyone was waiting outside the venue to get inside on the first day of session. The venue is actually a church but they removed all the chairs so we had to sit on the floor. It was packed inside and people were bumping into me during worship, so that made me irritable sometimes.. Only sometimes..

*This is mostly what took place on the first day. The following pictures will be the 2nd Day.*

This is Terrigal Beach and look how blue the water is.. It was so nice to just soak my tired feet into the cold and relaxing water.. This was 1 thing I will miss about the beach..

What would a beach be without the steaming hot Fish & Chips?! It was great even though the chips were too much.

After the lunch of Fish & Chips, we headed down to the sand and saw all these people! Practically everyone from Summer Camp was here.

So apart from sitting and getting tan, I went in search of these things called 'Blue Bottles'/Portuguese Man of War. We don't have these in Malaysia and it piqued my curiosity, so I scouted the shore to find one. Finally I stumbled upon one that looked like it was half dead.

'Blue Bottles' are actually kind of like jellyfish, in the way that they sting people and cause you pain, except they are smaller. For more info, this is the website: http://www.australianfauna.com/bluebottlejellyfish.php.

This is the bigger one that curl around people's abdomens and sting them. Obviously this is found on the internet, because I would not go so near one to get a shot.

After all the water, sand and Blue Bottles, I was carrying my friend's surfboard to the car. I found it really funny and flattering that people think the surfboard is mine and I'm a surfer chick. Hehe makes me feel so cool.

The next post of the 3rd day of Camp will be posted in the next few days . Thanks for reading so far. Hope no one got freaked out because of the 'Blue Bottles'.

On Vacation!

2009-01-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Sorry I know I haven't been updating my blog. My excuse for not doing so is because I'm on holiday in Malaysia until the 25th of January. So until I'm back in Sydney, I won't be blogging because the connection in KL is seriously slow lo compared to Sydney. No offense or anything!

Just wanna wish everyone Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Shirley's 22nd Birthday!

2008-11-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

On November 15th, my sister Shirley turned 22!! A reminder to people who haven't wished her Happy Birthday yet, now is not too late.. Haha.. So on that faithful day, we made plans to have lunch, explore the city, and do SHOPPING! Firstly we took the bus to Elizabeth Street...

The reason we came here is because of a certain cafe... Chocolate lovers listen up! Have you guys heard of Lindt Chocolate? For those who love Lindt chocolate, remember to pay a visit to Elizabeth Street because there is a Lindt Cafe there. That was our destination!!

Taadaa!! Lindt Cafe really does exist okay.. I'm not lying.. This is my Sis outside the Lindt cafe..

This is the logo printed on the window.. If you really wanna come here then try to remember how this place looks like.. Or pay me to bring you there.. Works for me!! Lolz, I'm seriously kidding..

That is just the timeline of the history behind the Lindt Chocolates. Nice picture le??

Hehe taking some pictures while we were waiting in line. It was a Saturday so there were quite a few people waiting to get seated.. I think they needed more people to work there, because the same guy did the cashier, took orders, and served coffee.. Haha, I wanted to ask for a JOB there because they looked like they need help..

There was just so many chocolates around that I had to take so many photos. The chocolates are not cheap.. For example that huge chocolate ball thingy is 900g and AUD 100.. Haha no girl would buy so much chocolate. Suicidal..

There is a section that sells chocolates connected to the Cafe. They also sell cakes and tiny desserts.. Lindt Cafe is any sweet tooth's heaven..

See.. The place was quite filled up by the time we got there..

Let me tell you.. The menu has 4 sections rite? The first section is Drinks (a lot of chocolate stuff like Hot chocolate, Iced chocolate dark or milk with Lindt Ice cream).. So sinful!!

Then the second section is just Breakfast and Lunch la.. The third and the fourth is all DESSERTS!!!! I saw also like wanna die already.. So difficult to choose dessert because it all sounded so GOOD...

See my thinking face.. "Hmmmm..."

I decided on the Iced Dark Chocolate drink.. There were white & milk chocolate flakes on the top of the drink and the whole thing was DARK chocolate & milk.. The first sip was so heavenly.. Btw, my Sis ordered water.. I was sure nobody came in here and ordered WATER!!! I hear the Hot Chocolate here is the best!

WARNING: People who are Lactose Intolerant please don't order this.. I am a little Lactose intolerant and I didn't feel very well after this.. Hehe..

Later after 30 sips and eating all the chocolate flakes..

This is my 'I wanna puke' face.. Too jelak already.. All the chocolate.. I won't be eating chocolate for awhile after this..

These were the sandwiches we ordered.. Emm, honestly not that good.. This place is famous for the chocolate stuff so I don't recommend coming here for food.. Hehe I couldn't finish my sandwich and had to takeaway..

Lastly, we still had the courage to order Chocolate Lava Cake!!!! Siao man.. We thought so small should be able to finish.. OMG we were fooled.. The cake is 3 times more chocolatie than my drink.. But thank God we managed to finish it thanks to the Vanilla ice cream that covered the chocolate taste.

After the "healthy" lunch, we had to do some major walking to burn off the calories.. So we went to my Sis's favorite street. Haha all the brands are there like Tiffany's, Escada, Jimmy Choo, Cartier, Gucci, Prada, etc.. Don't worry we didn't buy anything.. Haha..

All the endorphines produced by the chocolate caused us to take pictures like this.. Haha! This stairs looked so grand so we just stopped and took some pictures..

I hope you had a good birthday Sis!!

Cute, japanese machine.

2008-11-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

Hey! There was once I went to the city and I saw this cool machine. It makes those tiny cakes that have the cute face of cartoons wan. OMG I want this kinda machine in my kitchen to entertain me... So so I couldn't resist so I took a video of it. Don't just read and not see the video! You'll miss out on this cute thingy!!!!

Okay okay.. Just remember to see k??

Hillsong 25th Anniversary.

2008-11-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

Alrighty.. The Hillsong 25th Anniversary just happened last Sunday on the 2nd of November. They decided to have the event in the middle of the city, so they had it at Darling Harbor (there will be photos of Darling Harbor below) Cool.. Anyway, they set up a stage with 3 wide screens all floating on the water in the Harbor. So unbelievable rite!? You only believe it when you see the evidence caught on camera. Haha...

So the 25th Anniversary started at 6pm sharp with Darlene singing a really nice intro, which I almost missed. Phew.. got dinner at McD and was running back to hear her sing. So so.. after the intro then they had worship la.. Darlene, Reuben Morgan & Joel Houston were leading worship for the event. When they were on the 2nd praise song, suddenly all the sound died and all you could hear were the drums... But thank God we had a supportive crowd that started singing the song and the worship leaders were still so cool, just acting like nothing happened.. Still rocking on the guitars like everyone can hear them.. Haha.. I'll be freaking out man, just like how the production team was freakin' out once the sound died. LOL.. But once the 2nd praise song ended, we had sound again.. Yay!!!

The whole event was pretty cool, we had worship and all but no preaching of the message. Instead they made a powerpoint of how Hillsong grew among the years and some of the leaders in the church came and gave some speech.. They also made a Time Capsule.. I can't really tell you much because I couldn't find a good place to see anything because of my height.. But I got to see the FIREWORKS that ended the night. I would have enjoyed the fireworks more if some ash didn't fall into my eye... *teary eyes* Ahem... Yeah on to the pictures!!

The floating stage.. The stage is the white thingy in the middle..

Yup.. See the instruments all on the stage? The choir and everyone was on the stage.. Too bad I wasn't on Choir..

Imagine this man! When I got there, these people were already there.. I couldn't see anything because of the crowd.. I really liked this event because we had church at Darling Harbor! Imagine that.. all believers coming together to worship God here..

There were even people on the bridge looking down at the event. I was up there looking down too because I couldn't find a good spot, but after McD... even the stupid bridge was packed with people.. I felt like Zaccheus..... except I'm a woman of course...

We were at McD before the thing started and see how pack it was.. Siao wan ah!!

Oh.. These are some my friends.. Let's introduce them from the right to the left... The first one is Sean/Toast (the Indian), Nick, Florian, & Luke!

This pastor was emcee-ing for the night.. The name very hard to pronounce wan so I won't even try..

Just more pictures of the stage.. Those white words were just floating nicely on the water...

So this was the worship time and Darlene was singing the worship songs (this is after the power died)..

Okay picture this.. You are enjoying worship, lifting up your hands and when you turn your face upwards you don't see a ceiling, but instead you see the heavens.. This is what I experienced that day.. So profound & beautiful..

Me eating my McD, worshipping God on a bench so I can look at the lyrics.. Hehe..

Haha this is a good one.. Okay this guy is Chrishan and in his hand is the priceless cassette called "The Songs of Brian".. LOL.. This is from the time where Ps. Brian had to lead worship in Hillsong and he recorded this cassette..

This is the video of the FIREWORKS!!

Finally... Maroubra Beach!!

2008-10-29T23:40:00.001-07:00

Hello hello!! Sorry so long never blog again.. This is my first time to the beach since I got to Sydney. It is very malu for me to admit that after being here for 4 months this is the first time to the beach. Unbelivable....!! Also to everyone's surprise, I had to fit in and buy a BIKINI because of this beach outing... Hehe.. There will be some pictures with glimpses of the bikini so don't freak out la, especially my parents and friends from Malaysia.

So so.. This beach is in Maroubra and I had to take a 30 minute bus ride. So cool you know, once I got off the bus you see the blue ocean stretching on for miles and miles.. And the sand is just so "sandy" and soft. Two words = Just breathtaking..

For this first outing, I went with one of my girl friends, which is Lea Brunner. There will be many pictures of us together.. Hehe not camwhoring k?? Okay no more rambling, on to the pictures!!

At the bus stop.. We were so into taking pictures that we missed our bus..

First picture we took when we first got to Maroubra. Look at the water man! So blue blue blue...

First step on the sand.. Hehe.. So lame la, I know..

I went on a Saturday so alot of Aussie were there sunbathing. See all the girls in bikini wan..

The other side of Maroubra. I think Eng will like to climb the rocks there.. Haha..

This is my beach buddy, Lea Brunner... She is pretty le.. Single but not available..

Sunbathing.. So nice to just lie down and sleep in the sun.. Then sometimes the wind blows so you won't feel so hot.. Can you feel it?

Sunbathe 'til quite bored so I took some pictures.. Haha these are Lea's Havaianas..

Even if the weather is hot right, the water is ice cold wan lo.. I soak my feet only and dare not go full body inside.. Sejuk-nya!!

Can you see the helicopter hanging a person outside?? I think saving somebody from the rocks..

So cute the little girls playing in the sand. When the Mom asked them to go home, the girl in the blue was screaming lo.. Hehe so funny..

We went for a drink at a cafe by the beach. This is Lea's Mocha..

This is my apple and passion fruit juice.. So refreshing lo.. *slurp slurp*

While we were relaxing, this was the view we had from inside the cafe.. So nice le.. Be jealous!!

Elevate,

2008-10-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

For those who didn't notice the new post I put up, please scroll down and take a peek. It's titled Elevate too. Enjoy!!

This one goes out to Onna/Lynn because she loves puppies.

Just something cute for all to see to put smiles on your faces and make your day brighter!

Tragedy..

2008-10-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

The saddest thing happened to me this week. I can already hear some people laughing after reading what happened to me...

One night, I was holding a dustbin above my opened up laptop. For some stupid reason, I dropped the pink dustbin on my laptop and after 10 minutes my screen went BLACK! Next thing I know, the screen wrote, "Hard-drive not detected...."

OMG.... I was freaking out man!!

Then I said to myself, "Nothing wan la. Won't spoil so easy wan.. Just restart it then can already lo.." Restarted 2,000 times also no difference, my hard drive was still not detected.

My heart just went like this:

Pop goes my heart....

The tragedy continues on and for the next 2 days, I had withdrawal symptoms. I sat there and just went, "Haiz.. sigh.. haiz.." and I felt like I had nothing to do and no Pet Society to play.

IT WAS PURE TORTURE!!!!!

Good news is now my laptop is up and running. The Dell people gave me a new hard drive and installed everything back for me, but all my documents, pictures, and songs in my old hard drive are all gone with the wind....

The End (understand the picture ah??)

Note: Please let me know if you have any other pictures of my farewell party or the other events, because I really have nothing left...

Elevate.

2008-10-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hey people! This is a miracle. I uploaded these pictures before my computer crashed so thank God I still have these. Encounter Fest was something like a 3 day conference thing that went on from morning to night. It was also on the last night of Encounter Fest that Hillsong recorded the new Hillsong United Album. I took some short videos of the recording, but it was gone when the hard drive crashed. Enjoy the pictures!!

Guys posing on the bus there. Haha.. so lame..

My friends Lea (on the left) and Sneha (on the right).

Me and Mathapelo! She is such a cool & genuine person. No doubt about it.

Michael Brinker. A passionate man of God. His hobby is praying. Seriously.. He's single for all the single girls out there~

These guys set up a stage at the entrance of the church to "kacau" people. So noisy le, keep playing those act cool and techno music.

Selling Kebab's outside in the parking area. So expensive like 6 Aussie for a kebab.

Ice-cream selling with the kebab..

Sam Knox leading in worship. This is the big auditorium in the Hills Campus.

I wish I had more photos to show, but all my pictures are gone.. Dang.. Sorry la..

Dinner at Est./Establishment.

2008-10-05T00:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

On the 3rd of October, Uncle Roger which is my Singapore uncle took me and my sister out for dinner at this fine dining restaurant called Est. (which stands for Establishment). It was the kinda restaurant where you need to dress up and look classy if not the person outside won't allow you in.

Moving on, we had a five course dinner where we had to choose different dishes such as, "four freshly shucked rock oysters from today's market, mignonette sauce (or 4 each)" or "chicken wing consomme, porcini pearls, herbs, leaves, spiced veal ravioli". It took me so long to choose one dish for each of the 5 courses! Have to look at all the different ingredients in all, but everything was worth it because it was so GOOD!!!!!! Super nice lo. Never in my life have I tasted something so heavenly. I know it sounds a little exaggerated, but I'm not kidding. All the ingredients blended together so perfectly.

All in all, I want to thank my Uncle for giving me and my Sis such a good, funny & happy dining experience. Look and drool over the yummy pictures below...

Oh and by the way, our waiter was a French guy, with a name you simply cannot pronounce. I don't know why I told you guys that but just thought I'll throw it in to make some people jealous.. Hohohoho..

This is my young-looking Uncle Roger. Haha.. If he looks familiar to Singaporeans it's probably because you've seen him on TV doing a chinese cooking show.

Uncle Roger posing with the Est. menu..

My beautiful sister in her black dress.. She's single.. /gg

Of course this is me la.. Check out the nice earrings ah.. Haha surprised that I had nothing PINK on though.. Hmm..

My 1st course:
Sashimi of south Australia kingfish, blood orange, red chilli, fennel and dill. This dish was really nice for a starter, light and sour.

Shirley's 1st course:
Chicken wing consomme, porcini pearls, herbs, leaves, spiced veal ravioli.
Lol geng le the names..

My 2nd course:
Grilled white scallops, asparagus, parsnip and chestnut mushrooms, shiitake vinaigrette.
I had to search the internet for the menu. Lol, no way I did this by memory.

Shirley's & U. Roger's 2nd course:
Parma prosciutto and duck foie gras rolled quail breast, artichoke, broad beans and parsley.
Q: What is "foie gras"?
A: Foie gras is the liver of a duck or goose.

Actually after the foie gras and before the lamb (below), it was our 3rd course but I forgot to take a picture of it because I was too hungry.

For our 3rd course, we had:
1. Crisp skin john dory fillet, broad beans, green peas, macadamias and trompettes de la mort. (Shirley's)

2. Pan roasted south Australian jewfish fillet, grilled white scallop, fennel, borlotti beans and manzanilla olives. (Mine)

3. Steamed baby snapper. (U. Roger's)

My 4th course:
Pan roasted lamb rib eye, artichoke hearts, rosemary potatoes and roast garlic, shallot jus.
Artichoke is a veggie okay, don't think I ate an animal's heart or something.. Eww..

Shirley's 4th course:
Grilled fillet of aged black angus beef, white asparagus, king mushrooms, grated horseradish and parsley.

U. Roger's 4th course:
Erm. He ordered some duck dish that is off the menu, so just see the picture.

Dessert time!! Everyone shared and ate the desserts. No way I could finish all that chocolate alone. Crazy ah!?

Valrhona chocolate and lemon fondant, lemonade confit, chocolate beignets, chocolate sorbet.

Vannila latte cotto, queensland strawberries, spice wafer.

Passion fruit souffle.
Among all the desserts, this one was the winner. Even though we had to wait 20 minutes for it, it was worth it. The top layer of the souffle was crisp and the inside was very light anf fluffly. Eat it with the cream and the passion fruit ice cream!!!

These came with the coffee U. Roger ordered. I forgot the classy name for it, so let's just call them "little cakes". Hehe so cute.

Nice le this pic. I took it with my Sony "pink" Cybershot.

6 small little cakes in a row. So cute..

This picture is for Aunty Katherine. Evidence that Uncle Roger kept his shirt and table cloth area clean and white. It's a miracle people!! Cheers/kampai!!!!

Me holding my uncle's infinite "black/黑" credit card. So cool to just hold it. Can you see the silver words "infinite" on the card? My goodness you can buy a car with this piece of plastic. Amazing..!!

Ideas....

2008-09-29T04:46:00.000-07:00

Hey all. The point of this post is to ask you all something.

I wanna change the name of my blog and I need some ideas!! Maybe a name that involves the word "pink" would be suitable. So far I've only come up with "Geek in the Pink" or something.. Haha.. Please drop some ideas in the chatbox!!

Thank you~

Sept 25th!

2008-09-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

Hey hey!

I wanna take this opportunity to thank all the people in Sydney and in Kuala Lumpur for remembering and wishing me Happy Birthday. Even last time when I was in KL, I didn't get as many people wishing me Happy Birthday as this year. Ohhh the power of Facebook!!

Okay, so my Sept 25th went like this:
6:45am - Woke up and got ready
7:15am - Pastoral care meeting at College
8:00am - Sisterhood/Serving at Cubby House (Sunday School)
12:00pm - Got home from Sisterhood
2:45pm - Had New Testament Intro Class (2 hours)
5:00pm - Got home from class
7:30pm - Birthday Party at Mo's Place
11:00pm - Came home
1:00am - Went to bed

Thus, this is how my Sept 25th went. Something really sweet happened on that day though. I didn't tell many people at college that it was birthday, but somehow or rather they found out. So at the 7:15am meeting they had a small little breakfast birthday party thing going on for me and Josiah (it was his birthday also..). It was really unexpected! Also, that night some of my closer friends in college celebrated with me. They just asked me to show up and they did practically everything. They made me pancakes and Hawaiian toast for dinner. Haha, so sweet rite?!

For my friends back home in Malaysia!! Of course I didn't forget you all la.. I was thinking about all of you when I was at the party and what presents you guys would have gotten for me. I heard Lynn/onna and Nicole got really good presents.. Haiz, I'm so left out.. T.T.. Nevermind, I'm gonna be home for Christmas then we will sure go out and eat eat or walk walk wan. See how la!! People that went for Onna's birthday party, gimme some feedback here on the chatbox. I wanna know what happened and how it went. I'm gonna post some of my birthday pictures so you guys can have a look see.. Haha so funny..

My friends purposely got me some pink straws for the drinks!!

Lars made us pancakes with cheese and bacon. Not bad ah.. Nice.. Took me so long to get this shot of the pancake in mid air!

Taadaa~!! Looks nice le the pancakes..

Haha.. This is Mo's failed attempt of baking cookies. My goodness, the smell of burnt cookies was everywhere in the apartment.

Lolz, this is Mo.. He got a new haircut for 15 Aussie at Coles..

This is Martapelo on the left and Sneaha on the right. Martapelo is from South Africa & Sneaha is from India.

Me and Sneaha.. Nice le my flower..

Me & Lars..

The food table with the Hawaii toast Mo made and the pancakes.. We ate it with maple syrup.. Good but fattening..

The Hawaii toasts looked like this before it went into the oven.

Ohh.. This is Taneli. He lives in the same apartment as Mo and Lars. I think Taneli is Swedish & Finnish mix.. He walks and eats super fast..

Martapelo playing Lar's white DS.

Lolz.. This pic has a super funny story behind it lo.. Haha, Lars wanted to break dance in the middle of the living room. He was doing a roll and his back hit the wall and broke the wall! Haha super funny lo.. The crack was so loud when the wall broke lo. Hahahaha..

This is the video of Lars singing Happy Birthday in Dutch & Mo singing in German. Sorry if I sound abit Aussie la k? Sometimes I get influenced because I hear it everyday.

This is Antonio singing it in Italiano..

"Yum Cha" in the City..

2008-09-19T05:08:00.001-07:00

Here we go.. Sorry I have not blogged for awhile because I've been busy.

Well, this event I'm blogging about did not happen recently, but actually about 1 month ago. We had this once in a blue moon outing to have some "dim sum" or "yum cha" at this restaurant (picture shown below) in the city. It was run by Hong Kong people and the waiters were abit rude la, you know how in Hong Kong they don't like it when you ask for too many things. It was kinda the same treatment here when I asked for the black, sweet sauce thingy. Movin' on..

The "dim sum" here is not bad, but compared to Malaysia of course "dim sum" at home is better. Don't get me started on how good the "dim sum" is at Renaissance Hotel, Malaysia. So I just took some pictures of the restaurant and how the food looked like.

Itadakimasu~~!!

The sign below the stairs leading up to the restaurant.

The porridge was not bad. I give 7/10 (7 out of 10). And the "yao za guai" is crunchy but unhealthy 8/10. "yao za guai" in Hong Kong is 10/10. MAGNIFICO~~

This is the "cheong funn". I found the skin was not thin and springy enough. It was not so good, 7/10.

Yam with pork inside, dunno how to spell it.. The yam around the pork was not smooth enough.. This one I give 7/10.

Pork ribs.. This "dim sum" I have never tried it in KL so I have nothing to compare with. But the overall taste was good so it's a 8/10.

Haha, "siew mai".. The meat inside was fresh and didn't have that weird pork taste. 8/10!

Chinese tea.. Always the best no matter where you go.. 9/10!

Ah ha! This desert looks good but looks can be deceiving. It tasted funny, funny in a bad way.. Erm.. sorry la only 4/10....

On our way out, just saw the staff eating together at the table.. It's good that they keep the Chinese tradition of eating together around a round table..

Cheers...

What is Worship to you?

2008-09-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hey people reading. Today's post is kinda a little more serious compared to my previous posts. Last week, I heard this message preached on "Worship" and I will post a short outline of the sermon. I'm doing this because I find that it is so applicable to our music team and anyone who feels or goes through this too. Just be open and expectant as you read it, because maybe God could speak to you through a blog post. Don't limit God, anything is possible..

What is worship?
Usually when people ask us, "How was worship or was worship good?" we automatically answer the question based on our experience. We think that worship is GOOD only when we feel good, when we sang til tears were in our eyes, or when we are so touched by God. Is this what a good worship is supposed to be based on??

This is what he says..
Worship is a response to God and not us waiting for a response from God. Worship is not good depending on what we get out of it, instead worship is an act of thankfulness and gratitude to God. Therefore, worship is us saying "thanks" to God!

This is me talking now..
I used to think that worship was good when I felt really good, but after this message my view of worship changed. That's why I wanted to post this as an encouragement to the music team and others.

Let us continually serve God with an attitude of thankfulness. Our gratitude to God can be expressed in being committed to the role each of us play in the music team. For example we can show our thankfulness to God by giving Him our best, like turning up early for practice, preparing ourselves spiritually, and practicing our songs at home so can we bring our best sacrifice of praise.

I really wish this post would encourage and build up some of you, because all these things came from my heart. I grew a little taller spiritually after this, so I want to bring you guys along with me as I grow. I write all this with a smile on my face and love in my heart.

With love,
Sandra.

Lars Birthday~~!!

2008-09-04T01:05:00.001-07:00

Lars~~

Here goes.. This is Lars and he's my one and only Dutch friend. Hehe.. It was his birthday so we went to Fox Studios to celebrate it with some college mates. We went to this place called "Strike" in Fox Studios.

Strike is a bowling alley/bar. If you wanna see more of it, click on the link http://www.strikebowlingbar.com.au/. The place is pretty nice with cool neon lighting. Haha, my first time at this kinda places and I ordered water because it was free. I even went back 3 times to get my water glass refilled. Hehe, kinda malu.. Obviously, all the students didn't order anything alcoholic. We all had a good time of nice, clean fun along with Coke, water, and pizzas!! The pizzas were yummy... 4 Aussie dollars for one pizza, which is quite cheap. Yup that's all, see more and learn more from the pics below.

The bowling lanes quite cool le.. Got blue lights and mirrors..

So comfy the leather couches.. While bowling can laze around and wait for my turn.. @.@

The bar where I ordered water.. Lolz..

When I saw this I faster take pic so you all can see.. So cute rite?! In my favorite color somemore.. Wei wei, my birthday coming soon ah.. Get the hint hint ah..

*ahhhhh...* lounging so confortably..

Hehe this guy quite strong to be able to carry Lars. Lars is quite tall.. His shirt got illuminated bcoz of my flash. Hehehe..

My bowling score so low.. Mine is "S".. Hehe, starting very good wan keep winning, then I got zero 6 times in a row.. Malu-nya..

This is my friend Taneli singing Happy Birthday in Swedish or Finnish I think..

This is Josh smacking Lars on the butt. Because in America, you get smacked 21 times if you turn 21 and if you turn 18 you get smacked 18 times. Yeah so this is the video. It's kinda dark and all.. oh well..

Welcome To Church Party!

2008-08-26T23:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Hillsong Church had an event called "Welcome to Church Party". Well, it was basically a party for newcomers to church and also College. So on a cold winters night, I walked to church at 7:15pm to attend this party. At the entrance we had to register and give our names and info, you know the basic stuff. Being a Malaysian, I arrived 30 minutes after the party has started, so by the time I got there the foyer was already packed.

Good thing there was still food. Hehe, I kinda went for the food because I haven't had dinner yet la. Anyway there were some college students helping out to carry trays around and serve people food. It was just some finger food like pies and spring rolls. They had some desserts also like some fruit tarts and chocolate tarts. So fattening...

After filling our stomachs, me and some friends went home around 9:30pm. It was a fun night that ended early. I'm a good girl, I go home and sleep early. Hehe, my parents read my blog so I must blog carefully. Lolz~

You can see how packed it was inside by the length of the coffee line. Yeap, it's long and the Aussies love their coffee.

They set the foyer up like a small party kinda thing, so we had our own Hillsong live band jazzing up the place. They used the resource centre as the stage. Haha.

This is the drummer again, Gabriel Kelly. If you've seen my previous post of "Elevate", you would have seen him in one of the pictures.

This is our Senior Pastor (I think la..) Joel A'Bell. He was standing on the juice bar and giving some announcements. He was introducing and thanking some of the Hillsong staff and all. After he was done, we watched some powerpoint about Hillsong church.

This was the powerpoint they put up. It just kinda summarized all the different areas of church like City Care, Sisterhood, Powerhouse, etc..

We were sitting on the cold tile floor watching the powerpoint.

Everyday as I walk home, I pass through this tiny water fountain. But tonight, the Brazilians wanted to take some pictures. So these are my small bunch of friends. The 2 girls beside me are the Brazilians Natalie and Karin. The 3 guys behind are Florian, Sung, and Moritz. Florian and Moritz are the Germans and Sung is Korean.

A New Passion..

2008-08-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

One sunday morning, I found myself lazing on my bed and flipping through a cook book. Haha, unbelievable man that I'm reading cook books when I'm free. I read through one recipe and thought to myself," Hmm, looks pretty easy, so should be okay wan la.." So I went to Coles and bought my ingredients and went home. Hehe...

First time cooking a new dish and following recipe from a cook book somemore. Really exciting la!! Quickly made my way home and started preparing the ingredients like those cooking shows. I chopped some onions, and green capsicum/green pepper and put all into separate bowls. Haha really like cooking show. I also opened a can of pineapples and cut some pork into bite-sizes. So far can anyone guess what dish am I making?

*20 minutes passed*

I can smell the aroma of fried pork (big hint for those guessing) in the air. I pour some "secret" sauce on the pork together with the pineapple, green capsicum, & onion. Haha so obvious what dish I'm making.. Anyway now is the time to reveal the secret dish!!

Taddaaaaaaaa...........................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Curtains draw back*

It is SWEET & SOUR PORK!!!!!!!!!!! ~ding ding ding~

Hehe.. Not bad for first time la okay?? Enjoy the pictures.. They're lookin' good...

Wanna see my cooking??

2008-08-19T07:54:00.001-07:00

Hihi!! I know you all sure very shocked that I can cook something edible la. Haha, I am surprised myself also. For the past one month I've been here, I had managed to cook dinner and still am alive and well. So I guess the food is fine. Haha. Here are some photos of the dinner we made for Uncle Stephen and Aunty Heidi when they came over to our place. When I come back to Malaysia in December, who wants to try my cooking??

Taddaa~!! Looks good rite?? Let me tell u what was on the menu. On both sides there are salads made of lettuce, corn, carrots, & tomatoes (so healthy you know.. I make wan!!) From the left, there is minced pork with toufu (yummy.. :p I make wan!!) the chicken in the middle is bought from Coles, the chicken on the top (made by my sis) is potatoes with chicken in soy sauce and lastly the beef & broccoli (I make wan!!)

Chefs posing with the nice, hot and steamy food. Jealous le!!

Closer view on the goodies.. The corn is super sweet because I added butter and salt.. Hehe so pro le..

Our guests are very happy~!! Both thumbs up!

Hillsong Elevate!!

2008-08-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, the Worship & Creative Arts (WACA) students were required to attend this night conference thingy. It's called "Elevate" and it was held at the Hills Campus. So, after a tiring day of classes, we had to go for Elevate and pay 5 Aussie dollars for the 45 minute bus ride to Hills. Honestly, Elevate was really fun!! Hoho, Joel Houston, Reuben Morgan, and JD were there, but Marty Sampson was not.

Anyway, the main purpose of Elevate was to briefly tell us the direction of where the church was heading to. "Us" includes the worship leaders, musicians, and WACA students. Elevate started of with this short gameshow thingy called "Hillsong Singing Bee!! Can you finish the line??" Haha, I know it sounds kinda lame but it was so fun.

The contestants sitting on 2 separate tables.

It's quite an easy game is you are familiar with a wide range of Hillsong songs. Back to the game, they will play you a short clip of a Hillsong song and you gotta continue singing it. You get 10 points if you get the lyrics and melody right. Pretty simple, yet entertaining. Maybe we could have a V2 Singing Bee or something.

After the fun games and all, we had a good time of worship. The worship went on and on for about 2 hours! Super geng and they had to kinda cancel the things they wanted to tell us because we were out of time. Joel Houston came on stage and told us that they'll try to simplify what they wanted to say in an email and send it us. But the Holy Spirit really took of control of that worship and 2 hours only felt like 1 hour. It was really fun, but on the way back home on the bus, most of the people were asleep and like going to sleep already. Hehe, so that kinda sums up my eventful day at Hillsong College. Any questions? Just drop it at the chatbox.

Here are some pictures of my friends, Hills Campus, and Elevate.

Students waiting for the bus outside college

Sneaha from India (left) and Antonio from Italy (right) Natalie from Brazil (Behind)

Me, Sneaha, Antonio, Natalie, and Hannah also from Brazil

Natalie, Desiree, and Me. This is outside the Hills Campus. It's so much bigger than the City campus and check out the huge "Jesus Hope for Humanity."

The Welcome desk. You see this desk when you come in through the doors.

The huge resource centre behind the welcome desk. So nice and shiny le..

Semangat people making popcorn for people like us.

Nice girl posing for me with the popcorn. The popcorn add salt wan le, not very tasty.. Miss GSC popcorn..

My friends (from left to right) Sean from Malaysia, Flo and Moritz (pronounced Mo hertz) from Germany.

JD!!

Gabriel Kelly, cool drummer. He led worship from the drums once.

Joel Houston.

Youth Camp 2008!!!

2008-08-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hello all!! I'm sorry that I haven't been updating my blog. Assessments are just around the corner.. Goodie..

Anyway, I'm really excited about the youth camp this year, even though I'm not going. Just want to encourage everyone to go to camp expecting extraordinary things from God. Maybe the Holy Spirit might even appear like He did in Acts on the Day of Pentecost! Won't that be great?! It could happen.. Haha..

But, the main reason of this post is just to ask all those people who are reading my blog for a favor.. Well, for those who know me since the time I was born, I have only missed a youth camp once and this is the second time!! The disappointment I am feeling is deep enough to scar me.. for life.. *Ahem* You guys know I'm just exaggerating.. So for those who are so fortunate to be going for camp, please take pictures for me so when I look at the photos, I feel as if I am there. I can imagine myself in Peace Haven with you guys worshipping God and just doing silly things, like posing and cam-whoring. Lolz.. But please don't leave a chair unoccupied for me, just like how my wonderful Cheras Cell did for me after I left. It just doesn't look so good you know, imaging me sitting there.

Lastly, if you guys have any request for me to blog about anything in Sydney (Australia) just leave a message in the chatbox and I will try to fulfill your requests. Have a nice time at camp, people!! Enjoy it while you can..

Sunday Night Live!

2008-08-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

Outside Hillsong

The Main Auditorium, Worship time

Sunday Night Live is the name of a service at Hillsong Church at 4:30pm and 6:30pm. I happened to attend the 4:30pm service and it was so awesome (sounds Aussie right?) that I have to blog about it. This service was purposely catered for the "Seekers" or Non-Christians that were attending that Sunday afternoon. The event started with worship that was lead by Brooke Fraser, who is quite well known here in Hillsong.

The picture I took of Brooke

The Wikipedia picture of her

After the worship, the platform was set up with some props to make it look like a study room with a brown leather couch, a table, and a table lamp. The youth pastor then took his seat on the leather couch and proceeded to start his sermon in narrative form. While the Pastor was reading from a book, the overhead screens flashed out the definition of the word "Echo", and that was the main theme of the sermon. Other than the pastor and props on stage, there was also a huge canvas on stage that was partially painted blue as the base color of the painting.

As the pastor continued preaching from the leather seat, a lady emerged from the backstage and started working on the painting. All the crowds attention were directing back and forth from the pastor to the painter as the sermon moved on and the canvas evolved into a painting. The sermon, revolving around "Echoes", was started off with the reading of Genesis and how creation came about. The whole point of the sermon was how creation, from humans to the tiny cells in our bodies, all echo the greatness and power of our Creator. To further elaborate "Echoes", a small snippet of the movie "August Rush" was played on the screens, showing this boy who could listen to all the different sounds that echoed from all the things around him (watch the movie "August Rush" it's great!). After the snippet was over, I realized that the painting was almost completed and it was a piece of abstract art (art that symbolizes something). Turning towards the painting, the Pastor rose from his seat to admire the beautiful painting, and started to praise the painting and idolize it. He explained that sometimes we are so caught up by the beauty and perfection of the painting that we forget the Painter, helping us understand that we often get caught up with some good-looking actor that we don't realize that the actor is just a creation of our mighty Creator, and we should give our Creator the praise and not the creation.

Lastly, they set up this studio microphone (the expensive ones that can pick up on aircon sounds) and rolled out this board between the Pastor and the mic. The pastor started to shout across the stage, but the mic didn't pick up on his voice because of the obstruction. But as he drew nearer to the mic and moved away the board, the mic picked up on his voice and echoed clearly across the room. In conclusion, as we move closer to God (the mic), we are able to echo him better and louder to the people around us.

The End!! I hope that wasn't too long and hard to understand.