Australian Adventure - Week 4

It's been a month now since I joined my dearest hubby here in The Land Down Under. The Lord has been sooooooo gracious and my heart is tremendously overwhelmed and grateful! ^_^

My prayer is that we'd always have this expectant heart towards God's blessings as well as an ever appreciative spirit for every blessing that comes our way.

I flew in...

...with great anticipation and excitement of the "what could be's" and the "would be's"

...weighing about 40.3kg (and I'm now at 43.2kg!)

...with no kin (and now have been blessed by wonderful friends who have welcomed me with their beautiful smiles and warm embraces and hospitality that feel like family!)

...with one luggage and a backpack (and my sweet husband and our generous friends have added a few more to my wardrobe and stuff since then..thank you!)

...without much of tangible possessions but full of faith, peace, love, joy and hope ^_^

Psalm 118:28-29 (NIV)

 28 You are my God, and I will praise you;

   you are my God, and I will exalt you.

 29 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

   his love endures forever.

Australian Adventure - Week 3

Tue, 6 December 2011

My 3rd week at beautiful Brisbane caught me at a time of the beginning of December. Oh how I miss the warmth of the Christmas spirit of the Philippine madlang people at this time of the year!

I haven't weighed myself in this week yet...will post an update on my next entry.

If you're curious about my past weeks, kindly check my Australian Adventure Notes:

Week 1 (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150409511038369)

Week 2 (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150417695698369)

I may be putting in some more observations, experiences, lots of surprises together with some bits of rants..hahaha! So here it goes:

• I've never seen so much of the skies before, and here, there's just the vastness of it! and the clouds just look so much like heaps of scoops of vanilla ice cream!
• the hint of Christmas lights and decors on houses excite me! makes me feel that THAT household is excited and looking forward to Christmastime just like I do!
• if I were an animal, I might have been a dog: sticking my tongue out while the wind blows against my face on a hot summer road cruise, or rolling over the green green grass of home, or barking wildly at cool sprinkler water, or splashing onto the nearby pool
• the Chard leaves in my salad bowl taste like 'alugbati' leaves from the Philippines (minus the slimey slime..that's what I don't like about alugbati leaves...arggh)
• Baskin-Robbins' Prailines N' Cream (vanilla ice cream with praline-coated pecan pieces and a caramel ribbon) taste sooooooo good! had to look it up to know what the nuts were..and so they're pecans! yummy!
• 'tis the season of mullet dresses...fa la la la la la la la la
• the brownish pears taste like Philippine 'singkamas'...so aside from the yellow-skinned pears I know, there are the brown- & green-skinned varieties I've seen
• kalachuchi flowers also come in different varieties: white, pink, peach, yellow (didn't know that there were quite a variety of colors)
• I'm surprised to know that the dandelion plant is a beneficial weed! Wikipedia says, "it has a wide range of uses, and is even a good companion plant for gardening. Its taproot will bring up nutrients for shallower-rooting plants, and add minerals and nitrogen to soil. It is also known to attract pollinating insects and release ethylene gas which helps fruit to ripen."
• there are child safety restraint laws in Australia which states that children must be secured in an approved booster seat with a H-harness or a booster seat with a secured adult lap/sash seatbelt that is properly fastened and adjusted. The child must be secured in this manner up until they reach 22kilos in weight, otherwise, the driver will risk being fined A$300 and three demerit points for each unrestrained or incorrectly restrained child in the vehicle (the memories of hometown children sandwiched in vehicles up till the trike roof (or men overflowing from buses and jeepneys) flash before me! anong safety-safety rules?! basta humawak ng mahigpit, kumapit ng maigi at wag malikot, safe na un, diba, manong driver?!)
• you say 'McErs' instead of 'McDonalds' and 'toilet' instead of 'comfort room'
• while shopping for shorts with my hubby and Cheska yesterday, we discovered that the Abercrombie & Fitch drawstring shorts I bought were made in the Philippines!
• my feet hurt and my head spins around under prolonged shop-hopping..I don't like being in the mall for so long! waaaaa! why can't they just have lots of my sized clothing so we can get the shopping over with!
• I now have another beauuuuuutiful red dress! my mama & I bought my very first one for my highschool prom and this second one was personally handpicked by my hubby ^_^
• kitchen electronics and appliances make me look soooo bad...have had a lot of awkward moments with machines such as the microwave, a bread-popping toaster, the oven, and even a rice dispenser! arrrrggghhh!

....to be continued...