Once a week, we try to go down to town for tea as a family. Just to chill and hang out.

Sophie's very happy with her fluffy/baby chino and her cookie at Robert Harris, a coffee joint in town.

After completing the 5km walk on Friday, our butts were a bit itchy and we wanted to get going again. We figured that I don't have long to go before I can't drive long distances. So on Saturday, we decided to spend the day as a family before DiDi (little brother) arrives to go shopping, walk around and just stop wherever we wanted.

We drove 30 mins to Cambridge to check out the farmer's market. Nothing much there but we always enjoy walking around Cambridge coz it's so pretty and the weather was great.

After that, we drove another 20 mins to Hamilton city for lunch and shopping. We managed to get quite a lot done! Got some stuff for Sophie (Pumpkin patch was having sale!), ourselves and baby. We even drove out of the city to Te Rapa Road where there is a huge shopping area with factory outlets and all. Reminded us of Harbourtown in Brissy. HUGE shops.

Finally, last stop at New Save Asian Supermarket to stock up our pantry and the base's pantry. That's where we found out that all the Asians come out at night! Normally when we are there in the day, there are not much people at the asian supermarket but the carpark was almost full that evening.

We finally got home about 7pm. It gets dark at 6pm here so I actually drove home from Hamilton in the dark for the first time. A bit daunting at first but it was alright. I was pretty exhausted by the time I got back and James was wonderful, he cooked dinner and cleaned up. All in all, we had a really great time.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was momentous! I drove to town and back on my own! It was all great except at one point, I bumped into an elderly man's car bumper a little trying to reverse out of a parking lot but thank God no damage, phew!

I drove all three of us to town to have brunch at the All Day Breakfast place in town to celebrate Father's Day (erm, NZ doesn't celebrate Father's Day today) and then to New World (supermarket) and Warehouse (like Kmart) for some shopping before we headed back home. I was a bit tensed the whole time coz it's the first time I'm on my own for almost 10 years since I got my license. And it was raining quite heavily at some point. In fact, I'm not sure if I've ever driven on my own before without a seasoned driver!

Anyhow, it's great! Looking forward to more! FREEDOM!!!!!

As the first born in the family, Dad and I share a very special relationship. I can't really explain what exactly it is but it's just special. Maybe coz I had a good 5 years alone with Mum and Dad before Kelvin came along.

I grew up knowing that we were not rich and couldn't afford most things that Sophie would now take for granted. I knew that Mum and Dad had to work just to make ends meet. When I was growing up, they had to work long hours and I hardly got to see them. Yet during the weekends, we would spend lots of time together going to the beach or the gardens.

I also remember the times that Dad will attempt to teach me Math in primary school using Algebra (which I only figured out when I was in Sec sch! So that was what all that A+B=C was all about!). He's REALLY good with Maths being an estimator and involved in budgeting for million dollar projects like building huge oil rigs and all. I guess I kinda took after that. Although I'm a bit rusty now and need the calculator to figure 8×7.

He's an organizer – since he became a Christian (the year I turned 11), he's always woken up at 4/5am to spent time with the Lord. He's always on time and loves to put things together. Guess I took after him in that aspect too. Ok, not that 5am quiet time BUT I'm definitely more an early bird and I love to organize.

Dad loves to read the papers and watch TV, just like every other Dad. He doesn't talk very much but when he does, he always makes a lot of sense. Even though he doesn't talk very much, it helps that he smiles a lot and always give us quiet assurances that he loves us by asking us if we got enough pocket money or asking Mum to make sure we have this and that.

As I grow older and older, I'm more and more thankful for my Dad. He's 61 this year and he's still working. He and Mum just made a career move to Brazil to help to work on the shipping projects there. I think he's super brave. His tenacity for hard work always amazes me.

Dad, you are amazing and I'm so thankful to God for you. May the Lord bless you on this special Father's Day and even though you are far, pls know that we love you and miss you VERY much.

In a world where many are growing up without fathers or absent fathers, Sophie is most blessed to have James as her Daddy!!!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day dear one! You are so precious to the both of us and we're SO glad you've come home just in time so we can celebrate you!

We live in NZ. My dad works in Brazil. My sis goes to Uni in Brissy. My bro just moved his family back to Singapore from Brissy last year. So, to get everyone in the same country at the same time is almost a miracle in itself!

We almost made it this time. Only person missing is Rachel, my sis.

To make full use of the occasion, my mom booked all of us in for 3 days in Bintan Lagoon Resort. Bintan, Indonesia is only an hour's ferry ride from Singapore. Very doable for short holidays for those with young children.

We had fun, even though it rained everyday! Sophie had fun at the pool and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and little Janice. Sophie hasn't seen Grandpa for a year and a half so she was really thrilled to hang out with him.

We even bumped into our distant relatives. They too were having a big family gathering – 2 grandparents, 2 kids and their other halves plus 6 grandchildren! They invited us to their villa for BBQ. I haven't seen them in ages although we are about the same age and grew up together. It was really good to catch up.

I love family holidays!

From Left: Mothers and their Babes (Mum, Me, Sophie, James, James’ mum, Sis in Law JY, Niece Janice and Bro Kelvin)

We came back in time to celebrate Mothers’ Day with all our mums! It’s so so good to be with family again. Dad’s coming back from Brazil in a couple of weeks and James’ dad was taking the picture.

We had seafood dinner at Owen Seafood Restaurant at Turf City, one of our fav seafood haunts.We had bamboo clams, chilli crabs, drunken prawns, steamed ta pin (my goodness it was SO good! I haven’t had steamed fish for so long!), baby abalone, and stir fry veggies. Let me say it again, it’s so so good to be home.

James created a outdoor house for Sophie over the weekend.

He sealed up part of the balcony using bits he found around the base and made windows for the light to come in using transparencies (remember those things before computers?). He even found some whiteboard for writing on and a frame for a pretend door.

Very very cool.

I’ve always imagined for us to have a place for Sophie to play outdoors, yet within the confines of home. We’ve been doing lotsa craft, painting and drawing outdoors. We even started a small garden starting with planting herbs.

I had a craving for chicken heart with salted veggies and who made my dream come true?

It was SOOOOOOOO goood…….

We had quite a crazy day today.

In the morning, James caught an eel using a self-made eel trap and he made unagi! Check out the process on our flickr site. I’ve uploaded the pictures of the trap and stuff!

Later at night, he found a calf stranded by the river (later we found out that the calf was two days old and it had slipped down the slope towards the river when the mother cow gave birth to it. poor thing!). After dinner (we had a massive Chinese food feast at our home and invited some friends over), he went back with our friend Stuart to rescue the calf and brought it back! We got the farm next door to come over to collect the poor calf. The kids were kinda sad that they couldn’t keep it as a pet. Hiak!

What a day, what a day!

One of the things that God’s been working on us throughout this year has been our unity as a couple.

James and I have been raised pretty individualistic – he being the only child and me the dictator oldest child. What that really means is – almost always, we get our way! The past 5 years of marriage has been such a pruning process. Somehow I never realised how selfish and headstrong I was until I got married and the realization just got more apparent when I had Sophie!

But but… thanks to the grace of God, we’ve had pretty major breakthroughs this year.

One of the breakthroughs is that we produced our first newsletter together. We’ll be leading a team to Vanuatu on outreach in Oct and we really need our friends to pray for us.

If you’ll like a copy of the newsletter to know how you can keep us in prayer, pls let us know ya?

We’ve been quite busy since the new DTS has began. It’s really a lot more work than we expected! James also fell sick and subsequently Sophie and now I’m not well too. But still we’re keeping well and it’s probably because of the change of weather. It’s really cold!

This DTS comprises of 8 families – 3 American, one Swedish, one Singaporean, one Austrian, one Swiss, one British.

James and I are in charge of Worship and Meditation sections of the school. Plus other creative things like the noticeboard and decorating the cross.

The students have been really open and God is already doing intense ministry in some of the lives of the students. We’re looking forward to what the Lord is doing amongst us.

To help the students get to know each other, we organised a cafe nite last Friday (see photo).

Over the weekend, we went for a break and did some sightseeing. See flickr for pictures.