When you get your digital photos printed at the photo centre, the person at the photo centre will usually check the photos with you to make sure you are collecting the right batch. I cannot think of a worse photo in my batch to be on top of the pile, but sure enough, when the photo centre lady took the photos out of their packaging for everyone to see, there I was in a child's Ariel dress staring back at all of us. Nope, definitely NOT mine...... :$
The trick to these is to put your hair through the head hole!
These are legit photo points at Healesville Sanctuary, a zoo for native Australian wildlife. K.
I saw koalas, dingoes, kangaroos, wombats, platypus, snakes and the like... and I patted a wallaby! My favourite thing is listening to the zookeepers talk about the animals. It always makes me wish I was in primary school again learning random facts about the world and the creatures in it. (Possum Magic, Edwina the Emu, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Belinda The Cow anyone?) I feel like I would be a much better person if I could recall all of those things.
I usually hate birds but I thought this emu was really cute! Probably because it doesn't fly.
I work for a local radio station and I often drive the company van home. It is a huge Hyundai van painted in bright blue, orange and yellow and it is usually parked outside my house, on a main thoroughfare.
But listeners have been commenting on Facebook about seeing the van parked on my street and their desire to knock on my door to see which station employee lives there. I am starting to fear for my safety! I have started parking the van a few houses further down away from my house, just in case...
It's totally lame that I'm still writing about Disney six months after I finished working there. But since most people who read this are probably friends for the Disney College Program, I'm hoping you don't mind. Hopefully, writing something will be therapeutic.
As one of my friends put it (loosely), "How do they expect us to go back to a normal life after working for Disney? It's not possible; it's not fair." Disney has ruined us in this way.
I can remember really hating only one day working at Disney World. That was the day I called in a personal day for work so that I could attend a Disney Housing culinary class with Cat Cora from "Iron Chef".
But when you call out of a shift at Disney, you relinquish all your rights to have ANY fun.
Thou shalt not use your Disney privileges to enter the parks or receive any discounts.
Basically, thou shalt not have any fun on this day. And if thou is caught breaking this commandment, thou shalt be terminated and sent home in 48 hours. This is one of the many ways you can get terminated from the College Program. So many Aussies got terminated that we compared the College Program to the Hunger Games, and often made cannon noises to represent people getting terminated. We lived out each day fearing we'd get "termed" for something and it was such a relief to finish out my last day of the program without being sent home.
Anyway, fair enough. If you're calling in sick, then you should have as much fun as a sick person ie. none. The rules were a bit more unclear for when you called in a personal day because you weren't actually claiming that you were sick. What constituted a legitimate excuse to call in for a personal day? Your family was in town? Your pet died? You hate your job? You signed up for a Disney Housing culinary class with a celebrity chef and couldn't give your shift away? I don't really know. Lots of rumours were going around about if and when you could use your Disney privileges on a personal day.
Even though, I had called Disney and explained the situation, saying I would totally work if I would get terminated for it, I chickened out in the end and didn't attend the culinary class because I was crippled by the fear of getting sent home to Australia.
So the worst day I had at Disney was the day I didn't go to work and I had to avoid everything Disney/fun. I spent all morning on the phone to the bank, then the rest of the day waiting for the bus to the post office. That was the one and only time I called in for a shift. It was the most boring day I think I've ever had and the only day I wanted to go home!
I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight.
I got sidetracked. I originally came across some photos and music from the fire works at Disney World and wanted to post them. We could hear the booms of the nightly fire works show every night from our apartment in Chatham Square at 8pm. Almost every night in Orlando was a beautiful night for fire works and I remember each time I watched them and each person I was with. Sharing those moments with the people I loved was the best part of fire works. It was tradition for all CPs to watch the Wishes Spectacular at Magic Kingdom on their last night. The pictures and soundtrack bring back so many memories. Relive them with me below!
Wishes: The Soundtrack Press PLAY! But BEWARE... It WILL make you nostalgic.
I experienced a pretty awkward moment this week when I realised that I had been accidentally using my sister's toothbrush for at least three weeks. I am not okay with sharing my drinks, let alone a toothbrush twice a day for three weeks. You can imagine my horror. That explains why I have been sick with a sore throat recently. Eew, I'm getting squeamish just thinking about it.
I have been embracing a bit more rough and tumble these days: walking barefoot through paddocks, eating marshmallows from the end of dirty sticks I picked up from the ground and camping in the rain up in country Victoria ie. mountains, farm animals (a human-killing goat), lots of mud and grass. I feel like I hardly know my (germaphobic) self any more.
This weekend, I got to hang out again with the other missionaries from my September trip to India. We ate A LOT of (non-Indian) food together and compiled a collection of the ugliest/creepiest/worst photos of everybody from the trip. A photo of me made it into the Top 6..... Thanks guys!
All of this has given me an opportunity to reflect on the lessons I learned from ministering in India. It taught me the importance of prayer. No one was more surprised than I was when my own prayers were answered, and when deaf people began to hear and lame people started to walk.
I had prayed for days and weeks before for a miracle. I needed one because although I believed wholeheartedly that God could heal people, I was starting to doubt that He really wanted to. God answering each of these prayers showed me how powerful prayer really is.
Prayer is not a last resort, the Bible says that prayer can change nations and heal lands. Prayer is a weapon that we can use to wage wars that look impossible in the natural.
I used to do all that I could and then pray about the rest, but ministry in India has taught me a better way. I am confident in the reality of God and of His incredible power, which he does (according to His will and by his grace) use and display in our lives... when we pray.
Last weekend, I heard a young lady speak about her childhood after being given away by her mother at 10 years old. She bounced between foster families and government-run residential units. She started to use drugs and became violent, and was in big trouble with the police. She assaulted people and she robbed people. Her story and her experiences are all too familiar to me in my work in the Childrens' Court. I see kids who have done terrible things, like attacking people when they are walking home late at night and stealing from them. Beneath their offending, I often see boys and girls damaged from neglect and abuse at the hands of their broken families who aren't able to care for them the way they deserve to be cared for.
So it gave me hope when I heard that this young lady, who was addicted to drugs, being abused by her boyfriend, committing robberies and dying of anorexia, gave her life to Jesus Christ at age 16. I meet the 26-year-old version of her now and can't imagine that she could ever have been any of the things she describes from her past. I see a happy young woman, grateful to be alive and made whole by knowing Christ.God has completely transformed her and it wasn't through a specific person who Bible-bashed her... but through a series of God-authored events in her life that drew her to search for Him and find Him.
Her story gives me so much hope for the people I encounter. There is no person too far gone for Jesus to save and there is no person that Jesus did not die to save. I choose to become a lawyer because Jesus spent most of his time on Earth with the broken people and the outcasts, and I see His work most clearly in the people I encounter through my work and in their desperate situations. I feel helpless when I can't personally fix people and make their lives happy and good again (which is most of the time, because I just can't).
But God works in my prayer and God can change anyone's life. Sometimes we are not called to be the rescuer, we are called to be the friend that will love and walk alongside people and support them. And we have this incredible weapon called prayer.
I want to pray more and pray passionately, especially for the people that I meet who are in trouble.
Because India showed me that God listens to my prayers and that He answers them.
With my own eyes, I saw God heal many deaf people and crippled people in answer to a simple prayer.
I believe God can do anything.
The team having some fun in India (I'm so uncoordinated!)
this bed's an island made of feather down and i'm stUck here alone with little else but memories of you on memory foam. visions of a brighter love, i'd kill for one more day to pool my Thoughts and find the words to say... if these sheets were the stAtes and you were miles away, i'd fold them end over end to bring you closer to me because i don't sleep at all wHen you're so far away from me. i settle for long distance calls. i'm lost in empty pillow talk again.
this room's become a mausoleum filled with relics of regret, paying dues to every moment wasted on words left unsaid. collisions of a finer love, i'd kill for one more way to tell you how you make me better every day... if these sheets were the states and you were miles away, i'd fold them end over end to bring you closer to me because i don't sleep at all without you pressed up against me. i settle for long distance calls. i'm lost in empty pillow talk again.
This weekend, we celebrate the annual Spring Racing Carnival for horse racing. The Flemington Carnival is one of the most celebrated sporting events in Melbourne. The media and 100,000+ celebrities, punters and everyday Melbournians flock to the race course for festivities each year.
Spring Racing Carnival fashion is famous. Even men suit up in the latest trends. It is traditional for women to wear hats or fascinators (decorated headpieces) to Race Day events.
This year, I attended the first day of the Spring Racing Carnival. "Derby Day" carries a black and white dress code. The day began with an incredible champagne breakfast prepared by my friend at her new home by the race course featuring a banquet of fruit, chicken skewers and warm buttery crossaints.
It was a beautiful warm day, and one of the first sunny days we have had in a while. We laid out our picnic mats and watched the races from the lawns. We enjoy any excuse to dress up, get out of the house and spend the day with friends. It was the perfect day out.
