St Mike's

St Michael's College.. the gloomy grey building on City Road.. yeah, the place I've been staying for all my time here in Sydney.. 4 years!

Why did I stay there and not move elsewhere? Because I was happy there ? duh.. Okay okay.. I'll be specific..

1. Cheap rent. Rent is 150 AUD per week, including meals (except for lunch) and bills.. which is freaking cheap for Sydney standards. I don't have to pay rent when I'm back home in summer, and even if I don't fly home for summer, the rent is just 50 AUD a week without food!! That's even cheaper than backpackers hey? I've saved plenty these 4 years man..

2. Friends. Yeap.. I would say it's all thanks to Dota.. haha.. but not entirely la.. we play mahjong, football and other stuff as well.. But there's not many of the gang left in the college now.. which is a bit sad for those who are still there.. oh well..

3. Very good location

4. A enclosed area to park for free

5. It doesn't have dodgy traditions or rules like the other colleges do..

These positive points far outweigh all the other negative factors (some of which are listed below)

1. Old and gloomy looking. Dark corridors (save money!)

2. No telephone lines and internet (solved with wireless, :p)

3. Dodgy food at times.. ("MSG Nancy", eating the same food for 4 years.. go figure)

I'll still be back for the weekends, unless I can find a better place to bunk in on weekends.. any offers? Yea, so it's not that sad..

Okay, time for pics.. My old room, the view from the doorMy old room, the view from the opposite end

This pic was taken not long ago during a formal dinner with the Cardinal. Not everyone in the picture is from St Mikes, it's just the asians and the latinos. Oh yea, St Mike's is a like an asian college. The Father prefers asians to aussies.. racism? No idea.. he probably likes our culture more..

Meet MSG Nancy!

The not-so-complete group of friends (for the Dota gang, exclude the chick in the middle, the battle cry dude on yer right, and the half naked dude behind him). It's not so complete because Louis, our chinaman is not in the picture. Do note that I was about to open my thumb and middle finger out, and not make the peace sign.. I am NOT one of those "peace-ing" people. You'll understand later.This is Louis the chinaman, who's very very excited about Dota. I guess life wouldn't be the same in St Mike's without him, thats why I'm putting his pic up and mentioning a few things bout him, prob cos he was left out in the previous picture... He's not the typical chinaman as you can see, and we came up with this theory that he has Manchu or Mongol blood in him..

Ok.. I have a day off today, which is quite rare.. Will attempt to take pics of my new place and put it up in my next entry! Till then my homies!

Missing..

Whoa, its been nearly a week without internet.. need lotsa time to catch up with everything in the www world.. I think I'm addicted to the net..
Been spending the last few days moving, and settling down at my new home in Camden..

Just got the net connection at the new place as well.. and I think its about time I go to sleep as well.. This is just a short note to say that I'm still alive and kicking..

Watson's Bay!

Hey hey!
Went to Watson's Bay today with some friends from youth choir. It wasn't exactly the best day with the occasional drizzles/showers. But we still manage to have a fun time!

I could still remember the first and only time I came here with Mei Yun like 3 years ago.. We didn't really explore the place properly as we just hung around the jetty area for a short while (we took a ferry there).

But whoa, there was so much more to the place than just the nice jetty area! There's this area called the Gap Park or something just like a few minutes walk away from the jetty area. It's like a coastal walk thingy with some very nice lookout points..
These are some of the pics that I took today

I could just spend hours looking at the waves crashing itself against the rocks..

The picture above is the beautiful city that I live in from far.. Notice the harbour bridge on the right as well.. And the dark clouds looming above.. These were the peeps that came with me in my car :Man, Watson's Bay is really really nice.. and it's so near the city as well! About 20 - 30-ish minutes drive I would say? And parking is free too!! I'll definitely come up here some time when it's warmer to spend quiet times alone with my Dad, or bring that special someone along as well next time! haha.. Yea, I think you could just spend the whole day here just admiring the view man.. if the weather permits that is.. It's extremely windy up there, and windy conditions in winter is umm yea, self explanatory..

Just got back from Tika's "surprise" birthday party as well.. Tika, if you ever read this, just wanna wish you a happy birthday again, and thanks for the Prison Break dvds!

I'm getting sleepy.. I think I should post my entries during the day or something so that I can take my time instead of ending them in such a sudden way..5 more days of holidays!! arghh..

Slamming Tim Tams..

Today I'll teach you guys how to enjoy a Tim Tam Slam. If you already know about it, good on ya.. If you don't, you definitely should try it!
Tim Tam's are australian chocolate covered biscuits in case you don't know what they are..
Now I shall show you the techniques..

All you need is some Tim Tams, and a cup of hot chocolate (or any other drink.. preferably hot though like coffee? milk? liquer? )

First, grab a piece of Tim Tam, and bite off the two ends of the Tim Tam like this :

Then use the current Tim Tam as a straw to suck the hot chocolate through it like this : The heat will melt the Tim Tam real fast, and you need to have good timing in eating the melting Tim Tam in yer mouth. Once you pop it in, it melts completely.. and man... it tastes good! A must try for all Tim Tam/chocolate lovers!

Yea, I asked Cyrus to take a pic of the mud inside my mouth.. but pity the pic was too dark to see anything.. but I still like the pic.. hah!

Holidays..

One more week of holidays left!
Can't remember what I did the previous week.. I guess mostly hanging out with friends and such.. Had like a mini gathering of '01 PFSians in Sydney with Shao, Adrian, Lin Kooi and Jee Jian.. the week went by too fast I'd say.. I'll try and savour this last week of hols as much as I can before it zips by..

Gotta start packing my room to move my stuff over to my new place in Camden. For those who don't know, I'll be having my 2nd sem at a farm campus at Camden, (can be considered rural area) about an hours drive away from Sydney.. which ain't bad at all! I could still drive back to Syd on the weekends and such..
Will blog more about that when the time comes!

I'm looking for road trip homies..

Zidane, we feel for you..

I am not happy.. I do not like the Italian football team..

Zizou is one of my favourite footballers of all time..

For those of you who don't know, Zizou headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi viciously in the chest in the 19th minute of extra-time.
"Something must have been said to Zidane. He is actually a reserved and inoffensive person," said Franz Beckenbauer(Chief World Cup Organiser). Must have been said/provoked? Well I say he was definitely provoked! Materazzi must have insulted him pretty pretty badly to provoke Zidane like that.. He's no Cantona.. Maybe a racial slur or an insult to Zizou's religion? Who knows..And adding to the heat of the moment with was pretty intense at the moment, Zizou blew his top..

*bam!!!*

Red carded

This is sad.. He could have been the one lifting up the cup

According to what I read, "Domenech claimed: "The referee saw nothing, the assistant referee saw nothing and then we have the fourth official seeing the video replay and telling the referee."
What the?? Why didn't they use video replay for all the other fouls and actings throughout the previous matches?

If they have done a video replay, they should have done an audio replay as well.. so we all know what instigated Zizou to do what he did. It's hard to believe that he just reacted to nothing.

Sigh, I could go on and on.. but I do agree that Zizou is in the wrong for his actions. Well, to err is human. He made a mistake, but it does not make him any less amazing as a footballer. Zizou, you will always be remembered for the hero that you are man, not for letting your reflexes take over on a dirty Italian player!

And I really, really do hope that you will not end your career just yet!

Life Changing..

That's what I would say if you would to ask me to describe Hillsong Conference 06.Indeed, the past week in conference has changed my life.. and I'm pretty sure that this would apply to all of the delegates who were there as well.. I've received so much input till it's like overflowing man..

Man, conference just gets better and better each year..
I shall now attempt to give a very, very short summary of the entire week.. I did not get many pics though, because I was in the choir. We sat behind the stage, so we don't really get to see the real deal, haha.. so yea, most of my pics are taken from behind the stage.

This year's opening was more focussed on a video presentation which was excellently done. First, there were clips of different people from different walks of life and parts of Australia singing "How Great Is Our God" by Chris Tomlin. Then the following scenes were filmed in other parts of the world (not exactly sure where they are) with crazy drum beats and rapping at the end. The two main singers were Martin Smith from Delirious? and our very own Darlene. Darlene's clip was beautiful as it was filmed somewhere high up with the opera house and the harbour bridge in the background.

These are pics of stadium before and after it was filled..

Before

After

The sessions from morning till afternoon were amazing, though I fell asleep for a tiny bit for some of them.. haha.. Night rallies were indescribable.. Amazing praise and worship (from Delirious?, Cindy Cruise Ratcliff, Israel Houghton and New Breed, and the Hillsong team) crazy preaching from the world's best (just to name a few of them; Jentezen Franklin, Bill Hybels, Reinhart Bonke, etc.) and a huge amount of decisions were made to follow Christ.

This is the huge LCD screen which we(choir) do not get to see at all during services.. I think it has like over 1500 LCD's in it.. not sure what the exact number is, don't know much about LCD screens, and I think Pastor Brian mentioned that it was 1500 LCDs.. hmm.. don't know.. They even showed the two last goals of the Italy vs Germany match on these screens while we were rehersing. Pity we were in rehersals and I didnt get to see it.. oh well, I have better things to do, haha.. Yup, we were at rehersals that early in the morning!

Okay, now moving on to the closing/worship and praise party on Friday night. Like Ashley said, it was the bestest party ever! There was a super good dance presentation with pyros (pics are below).There was also a video clip of the clips from the oldest Hillsong conference to the latest one. It was funny seeing our pastors and leaders when they were young, with their 80's hairstyles and clothes.. but really inspiring to see the journey of this conference..

We sang the medley of the top ten songs which came from Hillsong, which was so so good.. The team sang all the old songs (my Redeemer lives, Everyday, Eagle's wings, Lord I give you my heart, Shout to the Lord.. etc) with of course Shout of the Lord being the number one. Those songs brought back fond memories!

At the end, everyone went crazy with the fast praise songs. The team on stage were going crazy and I think Marty broke a string on his guitar or maybe the guitar itself and he just threw it into the crowd which went crazy over it. Raymond Badham and Jad Gillies took over the choir conductor and started conducting funny moves to the choir, the other drummers running all over the stage with those percussion thingys (it goes konk konk, dont know wut its called) I can't put into words to describe the atmosphere.. it was just filled with great celebration and joy!

The dance presentation

Some of the pyrotechnics

See the big white and yellow bubbles(balloons) falling down from above? They are filled with gold confetti. They look pretty when they burst..Hopefully you can see the golden specks in the resized pics above..

They pulled up Brian Houston, Phil Dooley, Joel Abell, Paul De Jong, and Matthew Barnett up to the stage at the end to sing "Take it All" which was hilarious. Everyone was so high after the party.. we blasted out praise music in my car and my whole car was bouncing because they were all trying to jump in my car.. haha

Phew, this is a long post.. congrats if you've read everything till here! Now the real holidays begin for me! I still need to catch up with my sleep.. so I better go now..it's getting late, and I'm writing this entry half asleep.. goodnight peeps!! zzZZzz

Conference!

Hillsong Conference is here~!!!! No hols for me yet.. The past few days have been really busy as well.. well yea, like I said.. I sleep less now, and am more busy compared to the exams period.. And the whole of next week will be crazy as well with conference! Waking up at 5.30 am, coming back at 11 pm for the 5 days.. hoho, bring it on!

I am excited..

Conference this year is extraordinary because it's our 20th anniversary celebration! not that all the others are not special, but this is extra special yea?

I am excited..

If you are around Sydney this week (3rd-7th July), do come over to the Acer Arena at Olympic park! People travel from all over the world just to get to this conference, I'm sure it'll be nothing for us to get there if it's just around the corner hey? And this is seriously gonna be a life changing and impacting event! It seriously is, but it's indescribable.. you gotta experience it yourself to know it.. haha..

Did I tell you that I'm excited? Yea.. I'm very excited.. Will be singing in the choir for Israel Houghton, New Breed, and Delirious! Will try and get pics of the nights and put em up after.. now I need to get all the rest I need to give my best throughout this week..

oh yea, I pull back my words about Argentina and Brazil.. haha..But Argentina really is strong , too bad I guess.. and France, ooo.. they're on fire! Now I'll change my "finals guess" to Germany vs France!
Later amigos!