Jen Lee's week 31 (15 - 21 sep 2010)

Hey everyone,
by the time i finish writing this update it will be the 22nd of sept, which is the date of the mid-autumn festival...

so...happy mooncake eating and moon-gazing everyone :)

over here in brisbane it's been pretty cloudy so i only had a glimpse of the moon just now as I walked home...but I've attached a photo of a pretty full moon that i took two months ago...



I also attached a photo of the teochew-style mooncake (they are made of swirly pastry and not from molds) that i learnt to make together with the UQ Chinese Society last Saturday :) it was quite fun to make and it doesn't look too bad, eh?



it tasted ok, but of course nothing can beat the taste of my mum's mooncakes so i'm very much looking forward to chomping on some when I go home this saturday :) thank you to those of you who emailed me to arrange meetings, i look forward to them :)

for this week's update, i decided to take a trip down memory lane, and found in my email archive an email that i wrote on 25 Sept 1999 - almost 11 years ago!! i was in california then, doing my undergraduate studies. it was sent at midnight - i just realised that...i am sure i did not plan it to be so, it just happened...anyway, have a quick read :) the subject was:

*
we howled and sang to the moon till it came out!‏

From: Jen Lee Teh (tehjenlee@hotmail.com)
Sent: 25 September 1999 00: 00AM



hey everyone,
just want to share some poems i wrote after the wonderful time i had up in
the Rose Garden, celebrating the biggest, brightest, and bestest moon i've
ever seen :)


The moon is like my heart,
So full it's going to burst,
For loved ones far apart.
For memories of times past.

---


Gazing at the sky,
Moon beams on my face,
I wish I could fly.
And my mum's mooncakes taste.

---


2 haikus:

In the pale moonlight
I look up into the sky
And send my love home.


Moon shining so bright
Just makes me want to take flight
Carefree as a kite.


thank you for sharing this with me.


Jen Lee

----

You ever look back at something that you did in the past and you are rather amazed as you think: "that was me? i did that?"

I know my email did not contain spectacular poetry, but i must say that the jenlee of the past does seem to come up with poems more easily than the me of today...

maybe all my creative juices went into corny jokes, haha.

no no, i'm not wallowing in nostalgia just for the sake of it...I guess I just want to celebrate a bit of the past :)

and some of it has persisted until today... e.g.the first haiku alludes to the moon as being a "satellite" for beaming love to and from my family when we are in different countries...this idea started when I was in the US and now that I'm in australia, it has continued :)

I've decided to write very little in this update and instead ask for responses...making it "interactive" as it were :)

what is one thing that has happened in the past that brings a smile to your face when you think about it? if it still has effect until today, please do share that too!

Would love to hear back from you :)

take care and God bless,
jen lee

p.s. thanksgiving - my managers have agreed to pay me exclusively in cheques so i can continue working at the massage place :) yay!
prayer requests - two main things:
1. that I will finish my essay for my social movements class, it's worth 45%. it's due 5 Oct but i don't want to have to do it during my break in singapore/malaysia so i hope to complete most of it by this sat afternoon! thank you!
2. for safety and journey mercy when travelling during my break.

thank you for praying!

Jen Lee's week 30 (8 - 14 sep 2010)

Dear family and friends,

Only 11 more days and I'll be back in singapore for a short short visit (25 sep to 4oct, but from 1-3oct i'l b in m'sia )!

i can't wait :) already salivating at the thought of homecooked food, yum!! and i am going to hug and carry my two nieces Joy and Jill as much as possible :)

why am i going back for such a short trip?
well, My cousin's getting married and it coincides with my mid-semester week-long break so i decided to use the return portion of the SQ flight that brought me to brisbane in feb (it would hv been valid up to next feb only and since i don't intend to return during the summer hols, this short holiday is the only time i can come back)

So...if you'd like to hang out for a meal or sthg, do let me know...would be great to do some catching up...

Speaking of catching up, i am going to catch up on some sleep over the next few days because I've pulled two all-nighters (one on sat night and another on mon night) to do my assignments.

sleep is a many-splendoured thing :) It is so nice to take a nap in the afternoon :) and tonite i'm going to sleep early too.

I have decided this is my approach...i will do my best to start early on my assignments to avoid all-nighters as much as i can. compared to last semester, i am actually doing less last-min stuff...but for this 2nd round of assignments, they took a really long time to make sense and that's not much i can do about that.

I won't rule out all-nighters completely cuz i find that when i am in the groove and flow of a paper, it is better that I press on until I finish. it just doesn't work for me to sleep first and wake up to continue. I'm simply not as effective in the mornings. With this strategy, i've managed to finish my assignments at around 7 or 9am in the morning and then i make sure i try to sleep more to make up for it.

Anyways, thanks to your prayers, i finished both papers in good time and got positive feedback on them (including from my lecturer about some points i made to counter a well-known sociologist's writing that scoffed at the idea of God and His plan for men to be the head of families. I am particularly glad about this as i wanted to know how to defend my faith through an academic paper :)

Other thanksgiving/prayer points:

1. Tax issues: i came to realise from some of my colleagues that my salary payments are not completely above board because my company wants to minimise taxes so they pay us in cash and cheque (only cheques are recorded for tax purposes). I was convicted to speak to my manager about this - i had previously thought that i just needed to provide a tax file number and everything would be taken cared of properly but i found out that many massage places have incomplete records. I was prepared to quit my job because I want to have a clear conscience.

Thank God for a good exchange with the co-manager, who told me that most of the time I earned less than a certain weekly threshold so i won't be taxed anyway. But i know there were some weeks i earned more than that. Although the tax amount is minimal, I feel it's the principle that matters so i've asked to be paid purely in cheques and told the co-manager that it's ok that i'm paid less. She will discuss with her husband about this, so please pray for their agreement and for this to leave an impression on them somehow for God's purpose (they know i'm christian as I'v talked about church at other times).

Because i really like my job. And i've gotten my first regular customer :) her name is sara. she enjoyed her first massage with me so she decided to make a booking for three weeks' later. That was yesterday, i was nervous that i would not be as good as her first time, but she said she actually wanted to come back after just 2 weeks! yay!
i've attached a pic that we took :)




2. Unexpected sharing by classmate: I helped to compile a list of email addresses for my class and in the process got in touch with this girl Christina whom i didn't really get to speak to during the 3-week course. She was v friendly over email and we decided to meet up to discuss an assignment. It was a good meeting and afterwards, she shared with me about some relationship issue she's going through and asked for some advice. It was really nice that she opened up to me despite it being our first meeting, she said she has not been able to speak to her friends cuz she's busy with work and school. Later on i sent her a Christian e-card with my prayer for her and she said it made her cry! She said she believes in the power of prayer, so pls pray that we get to share about faith matters in future :)


3. Being part of church building project: I have joined a ministry that helps out with communications for the Hope Brisbane church building project. On Saturday, we got to visit the plot of land where the church-cum-community centre, called Unidus (it means birthing place :), will be. On Sunday our senior pastor described the journey that God has brought them through in the past 10 years. Although there is still a journey ahead to continue raising funds etc, God's faithfulness has truly been shown in turning a mere dream into reality.
I'm really excited and thankful to be part of the project, even in a little way (i'l help manage the website), because the sunday when I was very affected by the brutal invasion of East Timor by Indonesia back in the 70s (this was in one of my updates) was the sunday that a call was issued to rally behind Unidus.
I remember thinking that this building, small though it may be, but it will do its part to shine God's light and love in this dark world. Please pray that I will be able to do the website well as it's my first time :)

okie doke,
that's all from me for now. I'll see some of you real soon :)
take care and God bless,
jen lee

Jen Lee's week 29 (1 - 7 sep 2010)

hey folks,

this week's update is going to feature just ONE event - the Brisbane Riverfire that I went for last Sat 4 sept.

it was great :) i am pretty happy with the way my photos and videos turned out so i'v spent quite a while uploading them....

so much so that I've decided to just let the pictures do the talking :)

if u have facebook, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220039&id=544591952&fbid=443739481952&ref=mf for photos

for video showing how colourful the fireworks were, go to: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=443728351952&ref=mf


for video showing a molten waterfall of fire, go to: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=443749026952&ref=mf


if u don't hv FB or prefer to see the pics in better resolution, go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejenlee/sets/72157624777181777/

i have a video on flickr that was taken in the finale of the 20-min fireworks show ...

enjoy!

:) jen lee

p.s. prayer request: as what i wrote last week, i'm still praying for enlightenment in my public health assignment that's due Mon. also pls pray for my social movements assignment which is a book review worth 30%. I'v almost finished the 428-pg book, but i don't really "get it". I am meeting a couple classmates to discuss it on thu, pls pray that I will get it soon as it's due next wed! thank you!!