One Year

When you first think about it, one year is a pretty short time. To me, it felt like ages. Time went by so slowly.. maybe because it's actually been 1 yr + 3 months, not sure? Anyways today finally came. A year ago, Jeffy was stressing his head off because he was about to go ask my parents if he could date me. They didn't say "yes", just "are you going to put it on facebook?" I guess that essentially meant yes. I would say a lot has changed in one year's time. J and I progressed pretty quickly, so we basically took intensive course on each other. One of our church friends said to Jeff: "it seems like you guys have been dating for ages. 2-3 years?" It sure feels like that long! Anyways, Jeff scared me when he said he had already bought a present for me.. I had completely forgotten I had to get him something!!! I quickly whipped up a card and present in no time:

Jeffy couldn't wait to give me his present, so he just gave it to me a couple of days ahead of schedule. It's a bluetooth/wireless speaker! I've always complained about not having one when I'm around the house e.g. when I'm baking I just want some music to listen to!! I always thought of just buying a cheap one, but Jeffy got me the good stuff! He even chose green as well (my favourite colour) ^_^ <3 I love it, and I use it everyday! He did something pretty special with the present as well. He cut a hole in the box and wrapped paper up to make a little stick so that when you press down on it, it turns the thing on. When I hadn't unwrapped the present yet, he asked me to press down on the protrusion and A bitter day by HyunA started playing! I was like confused whaaaaa :O then unwrapped the present :D yay! Turns out you can control the speaker with your phone, so that's what Jeffy did to make it start playing.

We planned to go to George's Paragon in the city, but we couldn't find parking/parking too exy, so we just went to our fav thai restaurant which also has free parking! It was an enjoyable day indeed. 

Mum's Birthday | Valentines

There's always something special about having your birthday on a widely celebrated date. Whether it's the hype of celebrating two events, or the moment of realisation when people make the connection after you tell them when your bday is. Judging by the title of this post, you probably know already that my mum is born on Valentines day a good half a decade ago. Due to that, J and I had a bit of trouble trying to juggle between mum's bday + vday. It worked out well in the end, and we had a great day.

In the morning, I made my mum a surprise breakfast of pancakes and tea. She was out when I woke up, so by the time she came back they were cold :( But she was very thankful and happy about that.

Wahoooo!!! This is the first valentines day J and I celebrated together. We were unofficially dating last year, so we decided not to do anything exclusive. Instead, we had yumcha with a bunch of friends from church instead! This was worth the wait :D Throughout this year, our commitment to each other has grown as our relationship has deepened = vday more meaningful to celebrate! J isn't a very secretive guy, he won't lie to conceal facts for the sake of making things a surprise. I like that. I guessed straight away what he would get me and where he got them. I even got an approximate price. The only thing I didn't know was how many roses there were. At least that was a surprise! The roses were BEAUTIFUL - dark red and luscious. They were arranged simply, but that created a very sophisticated and classy look - nothing too over the top (I've seen people put fake diamonds in their roses...). He also wrote me a lovely card :) 

J has a soft spot for anything 8 bit, cartoonish or iconic. I tried to incorporate that into my gifts (as you can tell by the photo). The cup is of a little Jeffy talking on the phone. The phone cord loops to form a big Jeffy and continues around the cup. I have a matching one (that I haven't made yet). 

We decided to have lunch in the southside - we are chill people. For some reason, the topic of hotpot came up and we were like "let's just eat hotpot!" And so we did. We went to this new place called Top Hotpot for a $20 lunch buffet/all you can eat! It's like yumcha - they give you a piece of paper with all the foods listed, to which the fattie proceeds to tick the items of their choice. Everything was quite delicious, although the cleanliness of the place wasn't top notch. 

After lunch we went to ikea to find a cheap vase to put the roses in. I quite like this one. It's tall, sleek and transparent :D Throughout the day, we (namely I) went a bit polaroid happy.

We had a lovely dinner (curry, fish, deep fried pork chop, asian veges, rice) and present-opening time after that. There's no candle because my mum bought the cake to be a valentines day present for my brother and I. My mum was so happy to receive a cake stand from me (I know she's been wanting one for a long time now) and a phone case from my brother (my dad got her a new phone). All in all, a good day. 

But wait... there's more! I organised a birthday party for my mum. We set it for the day after vday because we figured her friends would want to be with their hubbies on the day. There was no theme to the party, but since my mum likes pink, there were pink invitations, pink decorations and a pink cake. The ladies had hk style bbq in our backyard and from what I heard from inside (loud laughing/giggling), I think it's safe to say they had a great time. My mum was so excited and happy, which is what I aimed to achieve :) Here are some snaps: 

 

I made a pink ombre cake for mum. Jeff was a great assistant - he smoothed out the cake when I couldn't do it :) We make a good team.

Decorations and presents - our mad setup

 

The cake didn't turn out the way I had planned, but nothing major went wrong and people liked it, so eh :) Everybody was so tired by the end of the day, but well worth it. I had so much fun planning and enjoying the party.

It is finished!

A year ago, on the 1st of February 2013, Jeff and I commenced this "read-the-bible-in-a-year plan". It involved reading 3-4 chapters of the Old Testament and 2-3 chapters of the New Testament each day for one year. This challenge was prompted by my wise and godly sunday school teacher. She said, "how can you call yourself a Christian if you haven't even read the whole bible at least once?" I couldn't agree more. It got me thinking of how to achieve this. I talked to J and he suggested choosing a random website on google. This was the one (highly recommended). It lets you choose which day to start reading, what version of the bible you want to read and how to split up the passages (e.g. OT --> NT or OT/NT each day). N

Now, I had tried to stick to reading the bible previously, but I had never really succeeded. I was always "too tired" or "couldn't be bothered". It was a leap of faith as I asked God to help me persevere with this. At first, J and I kept ourselves going by assigning a 'punishment' to the one who forgot/skipped a day of reading (shouting the other person green tea ice-cream). However, as we did our bible reading day-by-day, it got easier, and eventually we fell into a routine of doing so. I admit that I skipped about six days of reading, and Jeffy only skipped out on one or two. Rain or shine, travel or home, energetic or sleepy, joyful or angry, the bible had been read!

Here are some screenshots of the last few passages of the bible: 

Malachi 4

Revelation 22

I remember during a sermon from a while ago, someone said words along the lines of this: "Isn't it amazing that the Old Testament ends with God bringing about a curse on men. Compare that to how the New Testament ends in Revelation - it ends with a blessing of Jesus' grace upon the saints (those who accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour). The gospel (what God has done for man in Jesus Christ) has turned a curse into a blessing. We have been pardoned from the penalty of our sin (death), and given something we do not deserve (eternal life with our Creator God) - all due to the infinite love of God." 

So what now? Personally, I plan to study the bible in more depth. Reading the bible through this plan has given me an overview of the bible, but now is the time for detail. I will use my application bible to study shorter passages and meditate on God's word. Ignite strand group #2 definitely sparked a curiosity for the area of biblical theology and the Old Testament in me. I'm now reading the Goldsworthy Trilogy by Greame Goldsworthy, a theological professor in these two areas! I'm nearly finished the first book Gospel in Kingdom, and it has helped me develop a greater understanding of how the different epochs (periods of time/era) in the bible all point to the gospel. Biblical Theology is the process of interpreting what the bible says, and that's what I aim to do this year (at least). It's a pretty ambitions goal, but then again, reading the bible in one year was too! 

For those struggling to read the bible, especially the dryer sections, the more you read, meditate, understand and apply, the more you will thirst for the Word of God. It is our spiritual food, which gives us strength to live out our lives in a joy, faith and hope that only comes from our Father in heaven.

Forever a Dominoid.

What is a Dominoid you ask? Well, I'm not 100% sure if it can be used in this context, but whatever. So I consider myself a Dominoid as an employee of Domino's Pizza Enterprises (actually, as of now - EX-employee). Today is the 25th of January 2014, the day after I officially quit my job (I'll let you know why later on). I began my life as a Dominoid sometime in September in 2010 and since then I've had incalculable number of encounters and experiences.

I first acquired this job through my friend Sidney Wong who was already there for about 1.5 years. There began my glory days at doms (lol not really). Anyways I've seen numerous people come and go in these few years. The most significant few first began with Liane and Jacinta Milligan - my store manager and assistant store manager. Yes they're related, mother-daughter duo actually. Liane (Millies) was really nice to me and made sure I settled into the store all right. Jacinta (Cinta) and I had a lot of time to get to know because we worked a fair share of close shifts later in the days. These two taught me so much over these years. Cinta taught me most of my skills as an instore, how to cut pizzas, prepare sides, do dishes then eventually making pizzas. Millies, during 2012 trained me up to become a shift runner. She taught me how to count stock, prepare driver floats, organise and deposit money, input data into the system, pay staff correctly, order stock and actually closing up the store. These two played a huge part in my time at Domino's Springwood. However in late 2013, a sudden decision from corporate meant for an end of an era. Millies, who's been at Springwood for ~11 years was transferred to Upper Mt Gravatt. Cinta, who's been at Springwood for ~7 years was transferred to Calamvale.

Then comes Sam who left for a fulltime job at Telstra sometime early 2012 I think. Sam actually taught me how to answer phones, it begins with picking up and saying: "Thank you for choosing Domino's Springwood. My name is Jeff. Would you like pick up or delivery today/tonight?". Of course I eventually turned this into a more concise version and just said: "Thank you for calling Domino's Springwood, was that pick up or delivery? "In doing so, I've also eliminated taking responsibility for whatever happens by taking out my name from the introduction. Sam the cutter became Sam the saucer then eventually Sam the traitor hahaha. At least he left us with his legacy aka LUCY Macgregor, his sister.

I'll talk about Lucy for a bit. So she's pretty fun to work with. I can never be nice to her, I always have to insult her or just be mean to her cos it's fun.. I'm terrible to her but she seems to be friendly still. Once she actually threw several dots of cheese at me and one rolled into my ear and I shivered really hard. She is still at Doms and I don't think she knows I quit yet, but she's said on numerous occasions that by the time I leave, she will also leave cos everyone she knows is gone.

Next is Shann. I actually went to highschool with her, all the way back from grade 6. We were never really close, but working together we had a good run. I took over her Monday closes (the easiest night to close). She eventually left for a full time nursing job at a children's hospital after she graduated at the end of 2012.

Clare and I had a good run too, we were the only close shift runners in the store for a while from late 2012 to early 2013. We had to basically run the nights when the Milligans were away on their cruise. It was a stressful time and we felt pretty worn out by the end of it. Then there was a period when Clare and I closed together (tuesday nights when we still had 3-man-closes). It was either Cinta, Clare and I. Millies, Clare and I or Dylan, Clare and I. We would absolutely destroy the night and have everything ready for close at 9:30pm when the store closed at 11pm. That's the perks of having 2 shift runners on I guess, we shared paperwork and cleaning for maximum efficiency. Clare had some rough times at Domino's, from misunderstandings and miscommunication to inconsiderate treatment and unproductive resolution. Eventually Clare left to work at Dan Murphy's sometime mid-2013.

Which brings me onto Dylan, who's actually still with the store. This guy is unique. He got his red Ps I don't even know when... so he became a driver and then I think within the year he crashed at least twice and lost his license like four times... Despite all that, he's actually a really nice guy, I've had some good times with him.

Last but not least Sidney Wong ofc. This guy came from Malaysia and joined my school in grade 10 and became one of my closest friends. We had a solid run at Domino's actually. We did Tuesday closes for about a year I think. We would slack off so badly haha. We'd get most of our cleaning done then just talk about cars or go on our phones and end up losing our head start. This guy was always ahead of me, took me ages to get onto make bench to make with him, but it was fun when we got to make together. We would often get yelled at (jokingly) by Cinta cos we're too busy talking about what we'd do to a wrx or an evo, or talk about the mechanics behind torque steer or something awesome. He eventually left in 2013 while working at a design place. I guess he just had enough of Domino's, which is fair enough as it HAS been like 5 years for him...

I think that's enough people-talk. So couple of things that meant it was time for me to go:
- I actually made a joke a while ago about Millies and Cinta leaving, I thought it was so improbable that I said I would just leave if they were gone.
- Justin (who is now a Regional Manager in-training) became our acting store manager and Lachan became our Assistant Store Manager. Lachlan made an effort to promise me I could continue what I was doing until I found a full-time job, as we both understood that it was nearing the end of my time with Domino's. I was really thankful for that.
- Lachlan was transferred and promoted to acting store manager of Nerang and Bree came in as our new store manager.
- AJ and Dion also came along as assistant store managers so we had three full-time workers at our store requiring 40 hours each (per week).
- I was unable to work any close shifts and my pay rate is just too high and from a business perspective it was undesirable and wise to pay me for something a 16 year old could do (and pay them half). In saying that, I do it like 3x better.. and I know what it's like to have to close so even as an instore working during peak, I'll try my best to clean as I go and just get things done before I leave - whereas someone without any closing experience would do the minimum and go home. The couple of weeks before I quit I was essentially working one peak shift a week (2 hours on Monday). With these little and uncertain hours it was hard for me to commit to this job, whilst retaining my practical skills, head knowledge and keeping up with online training.

So I guess with all of the above, I knew it was a good time to go. I'm actually pretty sentimental and I really treasure memories. I thank God for providing me with such an awesome work experience and the ability to generate an income for myself during my uni days. I'm now left with one job at PBJ Certification which pays much much less ($16 an hour as compared to $24 at Doms). However, I'm grateful for having work to do and being able to earn some money in doing so. Even before I left Doms, I was challenged with various issues and I know God was helping to prepare me for the real world. I hang onto a passage from Job 1: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, praise the name of Yahweh." Although I sometimes worry about my financial circumstances until I find a full-time job in town planning, I am able to remain hopeful in the unchanging God and know that these things happen for a reason and according to His will. I will continue to do the work He provides me with, to the best of my abilities, with a joyful heart.

To finish up, at least I know I can make a Supreme pizza from the beginning to the end in 23 seconds: Tomato sauce on a classic crust -> flour the edges -> put a make ring over it -> 90g of cheese -> 8 pieces of peperoni -> 30g of capsicum -> 30g of mushroom -> 30g of pineapple -> 30g of beef -> 30g of sausage -> 30g of bacon -> sprinkle of oregano -> take make ring off.

Reliving the moment

We are a strange bunch!!

Today is a special day for us, because exactly one year ago Jeffy called me to ask if he could talk to me that night. He picked me up from worship rehearsal and told me he liked me. I found out afterwards that he was so nervous he didn't sleep well the previous night and didn't eat that whole day!! :( But it ended up okay in the end ^_^ He got a meldy as a result. We went to UQ afterwards last year, so we decided to do it again this year. 

Happy (unofficial) one year Jeffy :) You always bring a smile to my face.

As one door closes, another opens

On the 6th of December, 2013, Jeffy graduated from University with a Bachelor of Regional and Town Planning. I'm so proud of him! <3 Here are some photos: