Goodbye July, Welcome to AUGUST!

Today is the 31st of July, so much has happened in the previous months and I know that this year still has SO much more to bring.

I'm still adjusting to class life, I definitely 'prefer' the other class, but the rest of the year doesn't look as bad as it did when the changeover actually happened.

I don't know if you know but my mum is overseas with my sister (who I just visited). My sister, Nicole, is pregnant with a baby with Skeletal Dysplasia, (a genetic deformity) she also has a blog (my initial inspiration to start my own) called Holding on to Hope.

Her and her husbands journey is a story of trials and tribulations that they have endured to hold out for the prize. I truly believe that their story and this little girl will bless SO many people. I too will Hold on to the Hope of your story.

Anyway, yeah, my mum is over there for the birth (which has NOT occurred yet) of this little girl. My dad and I are at home, by ourselves. 'Trying' to juggle everything that mum does. I have NO idea how on earth she does it. Mum you are my wonder woman!

But anyways, there's still about a week left until mum comes home and me and dad are already anxiously waiting for the day when she arrives!

At youth last night one of the guys gave a talk and again and just this one statement that he made struck me.

"Our walks with God are like a road, when you turn a corner you don't know what's coming, you don't know if there's a car there, or a pothole. It's always the unexpected. But we need to be like little children, because if a young child is afraid they with cling to their mum or dad. We need to cling to God".

Lately my life has been a turn in the road. For some people this would have been as easy as anything but for me? Well that's another story. All I know is that this stretch of road doesn't last forever and if I cling to my father and seek his face he will NEVER let me go.

It is getting better, and hey? The best is yet to come! Hello August 2010!

Home Safe and Sound

Sorry this post is few days late, but life has been hitting me hard. The flight was smooth and safe, and now I think I have almost fully recovered from the lack of sleep on the plane.

Basically as my mum and I were in the car on the way home she hit me with news that wasn't about to make my day. I was changing classes. From the normal-your-at-the-right-level-with-your-learning class to the 'smart' class.

To most people this would be an honor, something new, something to look forward to. To me well it's almost like changing schools. Maybe I just gawk at the idea of 'new'...'change'.

There is a whole new way of school life. The idea to me which would have been kind of freaky either way but it crushed my world at that moment. I broke down. I was tired and emotional after an overnight nine hour plane trip.

I spent the rest of the car trip home in tears trying to comprehend the idea of changing classes. To me it just seemed insanely scary in a sense. I didn't want to have to leave my friends in classes, I wanted to be WITH them.

We talked about it for a little while and I shared this with my parents. I think it helped that they knew how I felt about the entire thing but in the end the decision was made. I was going to change classes.

This wasn't what I wanted, this wasn't what I had planned. Even still I think it will take a little bit of getting used to. But seriously if you look at the first sentence in this paragraph. It just doesn't seem right.

In a way I think that this situation will help me grow in my walk with God, but I also think that this situation lines up with our daily Christian walks. Sometimes things are going to pop up that we don't like and we're going to say

"This isn't what I want, this isn't what I have planned!"

And God is going to be like,

"Ashleigh (or whatever your name is) this is good for you"

My parents didn't make this decision to hurt me, they did it because this is what they think is best for me! And that's what God does. He does what is best for you personally.

Even though I don't like this class at the moment, I know in my heart that it IS what is best for me and I will try my hardest to accept whatever happens in this situation.

Please pray for me in these classes, as I have ALOT of catching up to do. I hope I have encouraged you and given you some sort of new perspective in whatever situation you are in.

But above all, God loves you with ALL his heart and whatever you a going through is for the perfection of your soul.

H.K. - Day 12 & 13

DAY 12
My 2nd last day, last night as you know we went to go see Toy Story 3 and Lana didn't end up going to bed until about 12pm at night. She slept in this morning and we all knew that she would nap for a long time.

We were supposed to go to church this morning but Nicole and Bernard decided that it probably would be best for all of us if we stayed at home. Mainly because we were going out to dinner and we knew that it would be another late night for all of us, particularly Lana.

The morning and most afternoon was spent at home in comfort and relation. Truly, I kinda felt bad for not going to church but in other ways it felt good to know that people won't hold anything against us or have their own 'personal' opinions about the things you do that somehow EVERYONE knows.

I think sometimes you can get so caught up in everyone else's life that you forget to look at you own. But anyway that's not what I did today is it?

So the afternoon we didn't do anything although I did go to Park 'n' shop which is pretty much a regular grocery shop except this one was an international one so I went there to grab some snacks for the plane trip. Necessities such as a Kit Kat, Picnic, Extra gum and a packet of chips.

I came home after that and sat around some more until it was time to get ready to go out to dinner at the Disneyland Resort. It was beautiful. It looked exactly like a plantation house...minus the slave quarters at the back.

We walked around for a while admiring the gardens...which were BEAUTIFUL at this time of year. We explored through the maze and chatted with our friends. As I walked around taking pictures of the flowers I made an interesting discovery!

These 'beautiful' white flowers looked exactly like one of Australia's biggest plant pests. I felt the leaves and confirmed that this bush was...LANTANA! It took a bit of convincing to get Nic to believe me but in the end, I was right.

This started a new conversation about pests, I left the conversation when it started to get boring saying to myself,

"At least I got a good picture of it"

Around this time another of Lana's friends arrived and we headed inside to the restaurant still waiting on two of Lana's friends. In the end they didn't arrive until half and hour later and by that time we had already started on our buffet dinner.

The was TONNES of food, and even more laughter and conversation. The night was lots of fun and when we took the kids to the playroom I'm sure all our stomachs were sagging on the ground.

We played with the children for about two hours then headed off to the Disney shop where Lana bought a Tigger, Pooh Bear, Eeyore and some clips. I got a matching Eeyore. With that we happily trotted out to our cab.

The trip home was slow and we were all eager for our beds, when we found them we all fell fast asleep.

Day 13
I leave today...WOW. It has all gone so quickly. Today we don't really have a plan other than unpack, re-pack kinda thing. Although I do plan to go to the markets today.

My flight doesn't leave till late so I have the whole day to do stuff. The morning was spent as usual except today we all slept in till about 9am. When we woke up Lana had missed Banana's in Pajamas we woke up so late. But that's ok because she was still able to watch Playschool.

When Lana went down for her nap, I headed out to the markets. There was a vast array of items, clothes, fabrics, toys etc. I walked up and down the streets admiring all the items on display. I didn't stay for long but the time I did I enjoyed thoroughly hoping that one day I'll be able to do the same sort of thing with my friends.

When I came home Lana was asleep and Nicole was able to go out. We decided we wouldn't go shopping or anything like that but we would go out for lunch. Jaspers was the lucky restaurant that got to have us for lunch.

Our meals we large and satisfying and the service was not bad either. When we had finished our lunch we headed out to brace the hot summer humidity. While we hailed a cab Nic noticed someone she knew they chatted for a while, when the cab arrived we said our good-bye and headed home.

The rest of the day went by quickly and before I knew it we were getting ready to walk out the door. Many thanks to Nicole, Bernard, Lana and bub-to-be who have been so hospitable during my stay.

I have to go now so farewell Hong Kong, I'm once more heading to the sky's.

H.K - Day 11

Saturday, our day of rest. Thank-goodness it's finally here! In way it's bad as I'm leaving in 2 days! Time here has FLOWN, and now with 2 days to spare I feel as if all that's happened had been in a blink of an eye.

Today was our lazy day. While Lana was napping we watched Toy Story 2, in concession with what we watched last night. Again in preparation for what the future will hold.

We stayed in our P.J's till about quarter past 4 in afternoon, and when Lana got up from her nap. We pretty much decided that we had been in our P.J's for long enough.
So we all had showers and got ourselves dressed and ready. By this time we were ready to head out for dinner.

We decided to go to T.K.S and have Ruby Tuesdays, which is an American restaurant. We all ordered burgers. And Lana? Well, she got a hot dog. While we ate away enjoying our REALLY yummy food Lana ran out of cut up sausage. Her hands flew to her face, and she pleadingly asked...

"MORE SAUSAGE"?????

It was just SO cute and innocent, it was HILARIOUS! By the way we did get her more sausage in the end.

After our very filling meal, we left T.K.S and came home to put Lana to bed. Turns out she wasn't tired. We had somewhere to go so in desperation we put her down and left without a sound leaving her in the safe hands of Julie.

With that we left the house and went off to the movies...to see...TOY STORY 3! In 3D! The movie itself was GREAT, TOTALLY recommend it, but the 3D, the people who make the movie really need to make it with 3D in mind. Still I guess the 3D gave it a bit more depth. Truly it was a cool experience.

When we got home it was already around 12pm ant night. All of us were ready to crash and we sure got a surprise when we walked through the door to see Lana still awake and happily playing on the floor with Julie.

Apparently she kept on knocking on her door and playing with her toys so Julie just didn't see the point in making her stay in bed. Anyway, we put her in bed and she went to sleep, soundly, just like the rest of us.

H.K. - Day 11

Morning per usual, relaxation continued, sleep halted by a small little girl. All this and more is what happens everyday...

When it came time for Lana's nap, today we planned to go to the Japanese 10 dollar shop, (which is really is a regular 2 dollar shop except a whole lot better than in Australia) called Jusco. I bought some stuff and so did Nic.

By the time we left it was rush hour and the heat and humidity were at peak. We walked as fast as we could and by the time we got to the mall beneath our building we were ready for a cold drink.

So we stopped at Pacific Coffee, and got a 'version' of an iced chocolate, Hong Kong doesn't seem to be able to get them right, they tend to do chocolate milk with ice cubes. If you know what I mean. It's just not the same.

Anyway we sipped our ice chocolates (lucky for us Pacific Coffee crushed the ice) and watched the world go by. As we sat staring out the window we were startled when we got a call from the repairman, telling us that he would be at our house to fix the gas in 10 minutes. To which we sculled our drinks and rushed home, just in time to hear the doorbell ring.

We lazed around for the most part of the afternoon but when the clock struck 5:30pm we headed out. We were meeting Bernard's dad again for dinner today at 6:45pm, but we left early as Nicole wanted to Lana to the park in T.K.S (which is where we were going for dinner).

We played in the park for a while but I was starting to feel the first raindrops. Just to let you know, Hong Kong is in Typhoon season and the rating is T1 which is far from bad but if it rains it pours, because of this we played for only a little while longer than headed off.

As we were walking away, the rain became distinguished and increased. We didn't have time to make it to the elevators so we went up the stairs as fast as we could without it becoming dangerous. Within seconds, and this is literal, of being under the cover it began to pour and pour.

We still had a about 45 minutes or something to spare before we had to meet up for dinner. So we stopped for and iced chocolate, our second of the day. Chatted for a while then headed off to go check out a bookshop.

In the book shop we bought 2 books, but by the time we had finished looking, it was time to meet Bernard and his dad for dinner.

It was raining slightly as we walked across the road to the restaurant so we were sprinkled with the beginnings of typhoon season. Dinner was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! But before I close my blog there is one thing I want to share...maybe two.

1. While we eating/finishing off dinner the cutest thing happened. The gentlemen at the table next to ours offered Lana a lemon, which she took, gratefully and immediately stated licking. The scrunched up look on her face was priceless, but undeterred she continued licking. It was only when she began to eat the skin did she stop...priceless

2. And secondly well not really just in closing, we came home and chilled for a little while then decided that we should watch Toy story 1 in preparation for the future...