Jen Lee’s weekly update #22 (14 – 20 jul 2010)

Hey folks,

Howdy from Sydney again...after spending a few days in Melbourne, I am back and I just had an AMAZING day at Bondi Beach where I encountered a celestial "stalker" - the most beautiful and ephemeral of them all, the rainbow :) now once, or twice but three times, this rainbow reappeared and its colours were so brilliant that I wished I had a better camera to capture it...the picture I've attached is probably one of my best ones :)

God knows how much I love rainbows and it was just so special to see them, and multiple times too :)

It was a lovely sunny day at Bondi Beach, blue sky, white clouds, fantastic patterns in the rock cliffs due to erosion...i was going to just spend the morning there and head to the australia museum but the great outdoors seemed a much better place to spend time in. I will leave indoor stuff for when the rain comes.
In fact, the rain did come right after sunset...and oh what a marvellous sunset it was...I am so glad I was at this bus/train interchange at the right time and I had been there before so I knew where they had big windows with a great sky view :) hope you like the sunset pic too...no modification except that it was taken using the sunset mode on my canon s90 :)

It got me thinking about beauty in its many forms in God's creation...you know how last week i talked about the Jenolan Caves where astounding underground structures have formed over thousands of years due to the meeting of water and stone...that beauty takes a very long time... whereas the beauty of rainbows and sunsets exists for only a few minutes...yet in both, there is the unmistakable handiwork of God...only He can be so patient...only He can be so creative that no rainbow or sunset has been exactly the same since the world was established...what a mystery that such a infinitely great God would love us, mere finite mortals...

anyway...i am thankful for the chance to reflect on my own...that is the benefit of travelling alone in the last part of my journey to sydney/melbourne... and I do thank you for reading so that I have people to share my thoughts with :)

Here are other things that have happened in the past week:

1. Thank God for clear weather last wed when Priscilla and I went horseriding. Altho the horses went very slowly throughout due to rain the day before, I guess it was a good thing because we are not very experienced riders. we couldn't take photos because we had to hold onto our reins the whole time, but it was nice to just take in the sights of the eucalyptus forest and cliffs as the horses ambled along. We were also greatly blessed that one of the other riders, Robin, who was riding with her young daughter Fynn, agreed to give us a ride, not only to the nearest town, but right back to Katoomba where we were headed. That saved us over $30. She was really kind, and we learned that she is a tap dance instructor and part time actress. She used to be in musicals too - including Cats! that is one hard musical to be in because there is pretty much continuous movement throughout.

2. On Thursday, Priscilla and I head back down to Sydney and she went on to fly back to Singapore while I was to go to melbourne on a 3pm flight. but at noon i got an sms that said the Jetstar flight had been cancelled! They said it was a technical issue and that they could either refund me/put me on a flight the next day. But I had no accommodation arranged and neither Jetstar nor my student travel insurance covers that. Thank God that my friend's sister, Emalia, with whom I was going to stay with AFTER my melbourne trip on the 19th, was fine with me turning up on the 15th. She and her husband kindly let me sleep on the couch as the room i was to stay in had not been cleared. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I could leave some of my stuff which i didn't need in melb at their place so my luggage wasn't too heavy.

3. I had asked to be put on the earliest Fri flight available and there was one at 7.10am so I was at the airport before 6am (there's a direct bus from Emalia's place). But the irony is that I almost missed the flight! what happened was that I didn't know that Jetstar was in another terminal and I had asked a qantas personnel about my flight. she asked me to wait, along with a whole bunch of people who were there as my name was not in the system yet. I waited until 645 and then discovered that I was in the wrong counter - another jetstar flight had been cancelled that morning and the people waiting had been put on a qantas flight so the qantas lady thought i was in the same group but actually my replacement flight was still jetstar. I was really afraid they would close the gate while I rushed over so i asked another qantas staff to call jetstar and thank God, she got through immediately without having to be put on hold or anything. They kept the gate open for me, my bags were put in with oversized baggage as regular baggage check-in had closed. So i got to my flight, but just barely...phew! anyway, in future, I will be very careful if i ever book jetstar flights again...

Although my time in melbourne was shortened by a day, i still had a good and meaningful time. I stayed with a former church friend, Ruth, for one night and for the other two nights I was at the home of my mum's friend, aunty nancy. Ruth orientated me to the city centre on my first day where I had an enjoyable time taking pictures as the light was good and I also took the free tourist shuttle bus - hurray for all things free :) For dinner I met up with a JC friend Huey Huey, and we had so much fun talking about the past, laughing at the ridiculous things we remember etc. it was special :)

4. The next morning I went to the Tim Burton Exhibition at the Australian Centre for Moving Images - i hv always found his work fascinating and i enjoyed the exhibition. in the afternoon i went on a tour to phillip island which has the Little Penguin Parade - wild penguins coming to shore after sunset to go to their burrows in the last remaining nesting site of the island. I have seen these penguins before, even handled them as a volunteer worker in Jurong BirdPark. i had to transport them to their swim "tub" when they moulted and could not b part of the main exhibit which has a pool - they are small but not docile by any means.

But seeing these wild ones is a completely different experience. When they emerge from the crashing surf, they really seem so tiny compared to the ocean's vastness. And yet, just as the Bible says God feeds the sparrows on land, I believe He also feeds these littlest species of penguins in the water. And they have learned to band together as they come into shore so as to have greater protection against predators like dingoes and feral cats. So it's not just the Emperor penguins (as shown in the great documentary March of the Penguins) who find strength in unity :) We humans have much to learn from them eh?

5. On Sunday I attended church with Aunty Nancy and met up with Aunty Pam, who has known me since i was a baby because she was one of my mum's close friends. We were in the same seremban church until i left for singapore to study...and her family migrated to australia after that. So I have not seen her for years, but it's so nice to hear her comfortable gentle voice again. They took me to yumcha - it was yummy indeed! A new believer, Aunty G also joined us and we had a deep time of fellowship, lending a listening ear to Aunty G as she recently lost her brother who died suddenly and she is also going through a very rough time with her husband. we ended by praying for each other. It was really a privilege to be able to build up one another...that is what believers are called to do :) As we talked I gave all three of them hand massages - haha, i have to keep up otherwise the muscles I develop from working those first few weeks will disappear and I'l have a hard time getting back to work.
For dinner, Aunty Nancy took me to eat pho, vietnamese noodles, and the restaurant we went to just happened to be the same one that her daughter and husband and 2 young daughters were eating in! Her daughter Michelle invited me to her home and it is probably the most luxurious home i've ever been to.... wallpaper from europe, mini cinema in the basement which has those chairs with a drink holder compartment and a screen that has a remote-controlled curtain!, a professional coffee maker in the kitchen - the type they use in starbucks, chandeliers everywhere...and the children's toys, wow - they could film Toy Story - The Infinite Series with them i think...and much more. I was snapping away with my camera, it's like walking into a house that's straight from a interior designer magazine. quite a unique experience, not something I can go on a tour for :) But i did have a thought...that if anything were to happen to the family's wealth, i do hope that the kids will be able to adjust to leading a simpler life...

6. Monday I came back to Sydney and spent an enjoyable afternoon snuggling on Emalia's couch and reading as it was cold and rainish outside.

7. Today was glorious tuesday at Bondi beach :) actually i was supposed to go whale-watching this morning but it was postponed til tomorrow because the sea condition was too rough. I am so thankful for this because I would have missed seeing the rainbows and the sunset :) I also got to take lots of pics of flowers and marine animals like anemones and sea stars in the tidepools, and I also have many pictures of the waves crashing and splashing (and wetting my shoes and socks - but it was a good excuse to buy a pair of rainbow socks in remembrance of what I have seen today :)

I do hope to see whales tomorrow - do pray with me that there will be many of them and that they will breach, jump out of the water, sing, and inspire us all as only God's creations can :)

Will definitely write about the experience in my next weekly update...til then, take care, God bless and please take time to look at the world around you - it is full of magical beauty...as one of my favourite writer Roald Dahl wrote: “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”


In-Christ,
jen lee