t.w.e.n.t.y.

Yes, the "young one" has turned 20! Birthday celebrations started with the family the sunday before my birthday with dinner at a korean place and then going home to cut the cake- fresh strawberries and cream sponge cake... mmm.... I feel so full thinking about it right now... The actual night was spent at jz's place with a yummilcious meal cooked by his family including lobster! I love seafood.



Then on wednesday I went with MJ to Sushi Suma (after hearing countless times of how the food is cheap and had huge portions etc) and we had a nice lunch sitting down and talking girly stuff :) I have found a new person to talk to!

After that really full lunch, I went over to Jade's place and we had hotpot dinner to celebrate! So much stuff including deep fried soft shell crabs (kindly provided by jz's family), crabsticks, fish, giant prawns, sliced beef, veges, assorted hotpot stuff, and a yummy tiramisu cake that Gwenda walked around for a long time to buy....

On saturday a group of us headed to the Royal National Park to get back in touch with nature for a short period of time (as most of us arrived late). It was a good time of cooking, eating, walking to the beach/ocean and back, and just hanging out with each other. Rob and Hendy were annoying entertainment as always.

Above is one of the many "oh what a feeling! Toyota!" shots we took on the beach. A funnier one with MJ jumping funny is shown on facebook.

The water was just gorgeous, I definately want to go back there again. After leader's retreat where we had the beach right at the doorstep, and yesterday's trip to the national park, I'm beginning to realise how beautiful Australia's nature is, and how much I like being in nature by myself (or with one other person at the most) and just seeking solitude there. Maybe I've gotten over the crowds in sydney. Mix of both would be nice.

Things seemed at a crisis mode only a few hours ago, but all thanks to God it's all been sorted out. I've heard and read about spiritual warfare heaps of times, but this time it was real. It wasn't anything scary like someone being possessed or anything, but more an undercover type of work by the devil, slowly gnawing away at me and giving me a whole heap of pessimistic thoughts over the past few years. Finally I've realised what it was all about, and that I'm not as bad a person as I thought I was, which is a big relief. Now it's just remembering throughout the day that when a negative thought enters my mind, to tell it to get out, and focus on God instead. It's so easy to get sidetracked and let your mind wander and before you know it, you're utterly confused at the kind of person you've become and the situations around you. It's really explained all the things I've been going through since 2005 even, all the stuff I didn't like about myself like jealousy, selfishness, self centredness, being demanding, not compassionate, kind, generous etc. It made me one confused person cos on the surface I was trying so hard to act like a good Christian but then my other side (as in, a depressed side whenever I was down or something wasn't going right) would rear its ugly head.

Information overload! Ok it's not like I was pretending to be a good person, but... hard to explain somehow, my brain is tired from thinking today. I rather like thinking in my head, cos my mind is kinda like the only "person" who'll listen to me without judgement or thinking I'm silly. Wierd huh?