Done with a week of assignments, a crazy presentation and sailing into a weekend for once after a long while without the thought of what's next on my reading list and without anything due in the next two weeks. The coming week is also quite promising being my last week on my casual job with Monash Meeting Point. What a luxury of time I will have for myself! Even as I'm blogging right now, I forgotten how much I treasure free time and just having a clear and focused mind for other things which matter in life.

Last weekend OCF Clayton held a leaders training camp and retreat at Snake Valley, about 20 minutes after Ballarat. These training camps are mainly for us to getaway from the distractions of home and to have fellowship with one another. Overnight stays like this do have a profound effect in helping each other to bond. A change in environment is also preferred rather than going back to the same old places. 

As for me, I'm just glad I'm somewhere far away with friends.

I was half hoping for a roadtrip. Initially, I was told the retreat was somewhere near Geelong.. which means an opportunity to go fishing. But as I found out - the sea was about 2 hours away. As for a roadtrip, we did stop over in Ballarat town for lunch at the Beechworth Bakery which featured a range of sweetening delicacies. This bakery was probably the 10th "Best Bakery" I've visited. I'm starting to wonder which one is true.

 

Some of us in the Ballarat's shopping district (Bottom)
Kaitlin about to dig into a whole load of sugar (top left). The words read -" Treat your body like a temple, have another cake" (top right)

In terms of knowledge, it has certainly been a good reminder of why and how we do things in OCF. This year we were privileged to have Aunty Merrilyn speaking for us during LTC. She's been with OCF during the crucial years laying many foundations towards how OCF Australia operates today. Aunty Merilyn is also OCF Australia's Board of Advisor, which commits in giving OCFers spiritual, administrative and miscellaneous guidance. I was inspired by her sharing of her life story, becoming a missionary at a very young age (I think 21) into the jungles of Papua New Guinea and staying there for years. Even now, she regularly goes for missions in Tibet and China. Her heart for young people and international students is also equally inspiring.

This is my third time meeting her, but it's the first time I had good discussions with her. Among our topics, we talked about the history of OCF Victoria, particularly on Geelong and some of the other older centers. It's obvious she has a heart for those centers to revive themselves someday, something I'm working on. She also gave some pointers on the State Rep issue, not liking the tone of a "committee". I'd be getting more insights from her in the days to come as she will be with us in Victoria for a whole month.

I'm very excited for OCF Clayton next year. We have a bigger pool of leaders to work with, especially after this year where a big bunch of returnees graduated and left a huge gap to fill. But I'm glad for leaders like Ivie, Clayton's chairperson, who did whatever she could to keep the center going. Also really glad for advisors like Chee Kai who is constantly looking after us despite having a family, his own training center and whose time is usually of premium. Naturally, the grassroot members make the center a great place to be - every single person, be it for great leadership, ones with funny or weird ethics, everyone plays a part in the making of a great center. Of course, I thank God for His faithfulness.

Chee Kai leading the second day's session on the needs of the present generation

OCF Clayton LTC 2009

On the second day of camp, I woke up at 7.30am thanks to my alarm clock while the others slept in till 9. It was freezing cold and I just couldn't get back to sleep, so I took a nice hot shower and decided to spend some time doing devotion at the lake. Finally, I'm waking up early for the sunrise - something I've always wanted to do in my 2 and a half years here in Australia.

Something changed me in this camp. Somehow, the events in the past few weeks are causing me to realign myself towards something more worthy of what God wants. I haven't been as close to Him as I was a year ago due to the busyness of life. Now I just want to get things straight again and make this last remaining weeks count. To leave another footprint here in Australia.

Proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Not my favor, but the favor of His Kingdom.

I've been doing some thinking of myself late - why am I the way I am, while contemplating my attitude towards studying. Dwelling into some thoughts, I find that most of the male ancestors exhibit similar traits.

My uncle skips class to go fishing.
My dad, while studying in one of the top schools in KL sleeps in class.
My grandfather loves getting his hands dirty with craft and recreational activities.
My cousin brother lives as though he's never had a near death experience (he almost died when a car rammed into him, really really hard, while cycling).

Looks like I'm a mix of everything above. I skip class, I am mentally asleep in class (sadly, gone were the days I actually dare to sleep in class), I love doing anything but studying and I defy death (not worried about handing up work late).

After exhibiting all these traits, I really thank God for bringing me where I am now.. with the undeserving grades I get.

Perhaps it is a very Voon thing - to be in God's favour =)

*ps: This entry is not meant to bang all the male members of my family. Instead - treat it as a compliment!

Hippie Ephies. That's the cell group I'm in this semester.  Ephies after the Book of Ephesians. Hippie after our hippie-ish CG leader, who on part got the idea from me, which I ironically objected to.

It's a custom to go on road trips as a cell to foster relations and bonding. We picked the Grampians as our get away spot for the weekend due to its proximity, as well as the fact that most of our cell members haven't been there before. It is my third trip to that region. Somehow, it never gets dull. Last year, I hoped God will bring me back to the Grampians after one of the best camps I ever had. I never imagined He will grant that wish. Twice.

In a sense, it was a different trip due to different company. Quite relaxing and enjoyable due to the different routes, more daring excursions and cam-whoring moments. Wildlife and scenery is still one of the best Victoria has to offer. My only regret is not having the coffee and pie at Stawell.

.
Left: Heh. I step step step you! Right: Surprisingly enjoyed playing with the parrots in this trip.

I remember this time last year, the cell bonded so well.. we dreaded separating and moving apart. Come the beginning of the year, the become "sien" needing to repeat the whole bonding process again. I think it's important to know that eventually, we WILL bond and form long lasting relationships. People may come and go, but we need to remember God always places people into our lives. This all plays a part in His great plan.

I'm still quite excited for what's in store for this bunch of Hippies. Can't wait for the next thing!

 
Hippie Ephies of OCF Clayton 2009
Lynette Goh (leader), Faith Luo, Bernard Tee, Melissa Khong, Elisa Mak (my former CG lead btw), Sabrina Tan (my housemate =.="), Tan Ming Han, Tan Eilene, Wai Shan, Richard Chow, Matthew Khaw and few others

Yet another road trip! Just when I should be getting sick and tired of them. This semester has been rough in terms of academia. Very often I found myself taking time off from reading journals or typing out of essays to plan this trip to Sydney. For some reason, I enjoy planning road trips and its a pleasure whenever my friends and passengers are happy (if they are happy) with the itenary they experience.

We started of with a full car from Clayton made out of Yasmeen, Kang Wei, Chien Aun, Sheen Li and myself on the early morning of July 10th, 2009. Our final destination was Sydney the next evening.

Our first stop was at the Monash Gippsland campus. It was a pleasant surprise, I honestly loved the place! It was clean, very new looking, fairly big and most importantly - pretty. Too bad Berwick lacks the size while Caulfield lacks the charm. 

We went onward to Lakes Entrance, our scheduled stop for lunch. At that point we were 2-3 hours into our trip with an estimated 3 hours to go before reaching our stop at Merimbula, New South Wales. We spent a fair deal at Lakes to eat and to walk around. Unfortunately most things close 5, including the boat rentals which we intended to go for. After buying dinner at Safeways (Suimin cup noddles) we continuedon our journey. The first day was nothing much. The only pleasant surprise were the stars at night. We pulled over at the VIC-NSW's border to for a group shot and to star gaze. Away from any towns in middle of no where, the stars seem to more radient. We could even see gas clouds!

The beautiful stars along the dark Princes Highway road to Sydney

We stayed the night at Merimbula Beach Holiday Park, located rought 45 minutes after the NSW-VIC border, arriving after 10pm. Upon arrival, we were surprised by the amount of wild rabbits running around. Too bad we weren't able to catch any. The accomadation itself was cheap for what we got - only $25 per person. The town was only visible the next morning, but first, we headed to the beach for a nice stroll. Merimbula town is a humble fishing village, with some emphasis to tourism. There was an airfield near by for those unlike us who are rich and wish not to endure hours in a car. After a big breakfast meal, we continued northwards to Sydney.

Our next stop was a town called Tathra. It was an unscheduled stop. My idea was just to visit any tourist attractions a town would have. In Tathra was this historical wharf. Good thing for me, I brought my fishing rods! The bad the was we were using the wrong bait (typical). Pipi's were too soft and fragile for what we were after.. fish with small mouths, and our rods were setup too loose. He had a few convincing nimbles though. But how embarassing it was for us to end up with nothing while other anglers around us had something like 4-5 fishes each.

We moved on after an hour and a half following the tourist drive instead of the Princes Highway. The difference between the two was very little, perhaps a narrower highway, but both had speed limites of 100-110kmph anyway. The views along tourist routes were definitely more interesting to drive on. One of those interesting moments was Wallaga Lake (first two picturs below) where we stopped to stretch our legs.

    

The next 3-4 hours saw us sticking to on to our journey with just another stop at Wollongong. It was straight on to the Sydney. Initially, I had planned to arrive around 11pm. However, we arrived at about 8.30pm. My motive - I wanted to avoid the narrow, congested and extremely confusing roads of Sydney, not to mention The insane parking cost (cheapest place I found was $29 a day, while the meters charge $5.50 an hour!). I managed to find a way to dodge the meters - park further out. There are free parking lots at least two stations away from Central Station. So that's what I did, though I did worry for my car's security and the possibility of summons.

We started our full day in Sydney on a high - breakfast at Sydney Fish Market. Man! I will miss the sashimi, cheese baked oysters, scallops and the fresh fried fish! As for the rest of the day, I do not really remember everything I did, but basically we went back to the same places as well as trying other's I've not been to before.

One of those on the checklist was the Lowenrau restaurant, a place I've heard time and again of it's fantastic German sausages. And wow - I was super satisfied with what I had. We ordered pork knuckles as well as a sausage platter. Other destinations covered included Manly Beach, McElhone Place, a tropical fish shop (the best I've seen in Australia) and a few paper shops which Yasmeen wanted to visit.

  

There were really only two full days in Sydney. In a short time we found ourselves packing our bags and moving on the last last phase of our road trip back to Melbourne. We headed onward to Canberra, making passing through a few towns which beared little interest. We left Sydney with two cars, and though both cars travelled out of the city together, we somehow got seperated (or more like I zoomed away, Ruo's car was way too slow). Apparently the other car stumbled upon a reputable bakery at Bowrai and talked about it throughout the trip to a point it qualified as annoying. We on the other hand we took the routeto Berrima, which gave a feel similiar to Mount Dandenong with all it's cafes and antique shops. However, we decided to by pass the town and straight into another town called Goulburn. We visited a war memorial tower overlook the entire town as well as having our own award winning pies at a well known bakery. After a brief hour, we moved on towards Canberra.

It was a fantastic scenic drive, with open plains which reminded me of the Plains of Palenor in Lord of the Rings, windmills and mountain terrains which ran for miles. After about an hour, we reached Canberra with only and hour and a half to spare. We visited all we could - Bunker Hill, the War Memorial.. in time to catch them playing the Last Post. We it last minutes of daylight we ascended Mount Ainslie for a scenic lookout which was utterly breathtaking. On the way down we almost ran over a kangaroo. From there it was a straight drive to Wagga Wagga where we stayed the night.

   

The next day proved to be an "interesting" drive towards Wangaratta, passing through major towns such as The Rowck, Culcairn and Albury, where we meet up with the OCFers from Melbourne University. After that, we experience countless U-turns for hours while trying to look for a bar which we did not even dine in. We ended daylight again at a scenic lookout point in Wadonga, where the pictures below were taken. The place was also close to 1 degrees celcius, taking it a bloody cold place to be.

Time passed by relatively quick and we found ourselves at Wangaratta for dinner and for the night. The next day we were off trying out wineries in the famour Milawa region. One particular winery of interest was the Brown Brothers winery which had a fantastic selection of wine. I bought a bottle of dolcetto and syrah for myself. Annother noted stop is the Milawa Cheese factory and a mustard factory - which I'd say was pretty interesting having a range of mustards to taste from mild to spicy. I even bought some mustard from them.

After a couple more stops in Milawa we headed straight to Mansfield, near Mount Buller for lunch. From there both cars seperated as the other car wanted to head up to Buller while mine just wanted to go home. Our final stop was yet another lookout point in Eildon National Park where I found a new destination to camp.

After dinner at Rich Mahal, 7 days into the trip, we finally reached Clayton at 9pm, in time to collect our results. I would like to thank my carmates as well as other OCFers from the trip for making it a memorable ride. Also, a big thanks to my car which has remarkably out done itself, bringing me interstate for the THIRD time.

  

Quite a blessed trip. Can't wait for the next!

Never before have I experience a phase like this. Even my years in HELP when I flunked an entire year did not demotivate me from completing my studies and my determination to graduate in something. I'm frustrated and bored with studying.

So far, I've only handed up 2 out of 10 assignments on time and it's a miracle I've been getting the scores I have. I take three days to read one journal when it is ideally three journals in one day. I'm overdue for my own personal deadlines, which then spills over to other things.

The pure truth is I'M SICK OF STUDYING. I was never an academic and I believe my strengths lay somewhere else, something I was looking forward to explore free-from the books I've only skimmed and never read..I'm amazed I've made it as far as I have with the lack of enthusiasm I have. The thought of dropping out or differing has lingered in my mind too often this semester and I could hardly blame myself. After years of telling myself "I'll put up with this till I get that cert", it becomes extremely depressing to tell myself that a second time.

Ironically, it's the Australian culture which has contributed to this decay. Unlike before, I don't look at circumstances such as this as a barrier. I used to live with the mentality where "you gotta do what you gotta do", "it's a privilege so few have", "it's not about me, it's about something bigger" and a the general attitude of gratitude and appreciation that life is good for whatever form it is. Now I'm just hoping things are easy, things are supposed to go my way and suffering is meant to be wrong.  Damn, I'm messed up. This is why I wanna get out of here before I become "fat" and die.

Back to basics. I need to remember what God wants. Not only will my attitude for this will change, at the same time I'll be aware that life isn't about me (in the self centered way anyway). Self motivation is the exact thing that demotivates you, which means you gotta allow Someone who knows you best to do the motivating. The importance of a plan from the One above is always good because it is something which is real (usually not so fun and not so deceiving) and purposeful. I remember how I changed when I allowed God full control - everything matters, regardless of how good or bad they were. I want that ignorant , not so rational faith again.

I'm not really a fan of the circus, at least till I'm dragged there. I always get the impression that entertainment such as these were meant for a time before Internet and television was invented. Anyway, I headed down for the very renown French circus Cirque du Soleil. They come by Melbourne every year and apparent annually to Singapore as well. This was one of the three troops which perform around the world. Their theme this year was entitled "Dralion". That's dragon and lion by the way.

Live music, as good as it can be. Lord of the Ring like singing. The stunts were quite wowing as well. However, apart from the music, singing, costumes and acrobatics.. it was not as much as I expected. The storyline, if there was one, was difficult to decipher. I can't really recall much from the last circus I followed, which was the Royal London Circus back when I was in primary school apart from the animals and wire walks. Cirque du Soleil was tidier and had a classier feel to it.

Unfortunately, no photos for video recordings were permitted. We almost got thrown out for the three shots we snapped.

It was still a fun time. ^ ^

I usually don't do reviews, but the latest Star Trek movie totally blew me away. I'm quite a trekkie, mostly focusing on series from The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space Nine. The 11th installment of the Star Trek movie is based on the characters from a series before those I am familiar with. Initially, I was quite grossed that they wanted to remake the original series, with a perception that the original cast - who are primary shareholders of the Star Trek franchise simply wanted a movie to reflect their long lost glory. Their shot with the latest series - Enterprise, which didn't last very long was proof of it. Anyway, the reviews on the web from CNN and Rotten Tomatoes changed my mind and boy, it was well worth it.

This movie is not just for the fans, although being one is a great bonus. Anyone can watch it. Even if you have no clue of what Star Trek is. For fans, I'd recommend you dig up the books and revise the facts, it would be more fun to watch (e.g. Who is Kirk's dad? How did Kirk become captain? etc). For non-fans, especially those with Star Trek stigma - I brought two of my housemates, one has no clue what Star Trek is and the other hates sci-fi altogether - they both enjoyed it.

The 11th movie is set before (or rather the day of birth of) James T. Kirk, the hero and icon of original franchise. Romulans from the future, distorts the timeline and seek to destroy the Federation (typical for everyone to destroy the most peaceful race. Why not destroy the Klingon Empire or Borg or something). The movie gives a fresh look at Star Trek, putting in more detail, relevance (in terms of technology) and pure humour. The cast selection was great! I mean, hello Sylar and Mr How to Make Friends and Alienate people!

Warning! Spoiler
The only regret I have from the movie was the fact that the Planet Vulcan was destroyed. Vulcan plays a huge HUGE HUGEEEE part in the Star Trek universe. I felt Spock's pain when it got sucked into the artificial black hole. Man.

 
 

I'll give this one a full 10/10.

They managed to give a fresh concept without distorting the essence and canon of Star Trek, realistic and quality special effects, good humour, good plot, off the scale action, good acting and fantastic selection of actors. This is a big one guys. Go watch it!

Gust Avrakotos: There's a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse... and everybody in the village says, "how wonderful. the boy got a horse" and the Zen master says, "we'll see." Two years later The boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, "how terrible." And the Zen master says, "We'll see." Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight... except the boy can't cause his legs all messed up. And everybody in the village says, "How wonderful."

Charlie Wilson: Now the Zen master says, "We'll see."