Discovering Raya

A couple of us got invited along a to a Raya open house thing tonight with some malaysian friends. What happened is that Ramadan, the muslim month of fasting has come to an end, so now they spend time celebrating! People go around to lots of other people's houses, eat and catch up and drink tea and take photos of everyone..

So we came to this friend-of-a-friend's place, and ate delicious chicken sate skewers with real sate sauce, and amazing beef rendang and soup and tea and other good things.. Everyone knelt around on the floor to eat and talk. The women wore pretty dresses, some of them headscarves too; and the men pants and shirts with traditional skirts over the top! There was a lot of malay talk but some english chatter as well, thankfully!

Whenever more people came in everyone would ask where they had just been and how many people were there and what food they had, to gauge whether or not it was a good time to go and visit there also! One of our friends had been around to 6 different houses already that day, and so this was number 7!!

It's cool to picture these little circles of homes scattered through the suburbs, people trotting from one to the next, eating and laughing together (and maybe even watching Fast & Furious #5 in the background, as they were at ours).

Had another food win this morning in class. We were doing a group presentation which was a promotion event or activity on a mental health disorder. We did a community walk, to encourage social inclusion, awareness, and general health & wellbeing. We had personal stories, pictures, a mythbusters section, and even tai chi! Then we met back in the classroom for a great morning tea :)

The other groups were cool too. One gave little goody bags with info, a homemade stress-relief ball (mine's called Henry) and sweets. Nice job.

itsy-bitsy life..

"There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage.

I won't have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus."

- Annie Dillard.

Man, the stuff this lady writes makes me go crazy inside. I reckon I'd go running through the streets throwing my hat into the air if I wore one!

the end..?

Well, I believe I've come to The End. Of my 30-day blogging challenge - yay!

Actually, I'm almost disappointed. Almost. I won't miss the nights where I was about to go to sleep and then remembered I hadn't posted yet, and dragged myself bleary-eyed to the computer.

But it's been fun writing about stuff that happens, or that I think or read or find.... It's been a good way to reflect on the days and weeks. Imagine how much I'd just have forgotten if I hadn't written about it!

and I think now I'm in the habit, I'll probably keep spamming you all a bit more than I used to :)

I'm sitting here enjoying the exhausted ache of a well-fought (and WON!!) soccer game, and the fragrance of freshly baked cake wafting through the house, and the mug of lady grey tea by my side, fast growing cold.

But I have class at 9 tomorrow, so goodnight all, and thanks for coming on the journey with me!!

Of snot and other tasty things..

Superfun night with the girls tonight.

We made (and ate) tacos with gusto.

Read some colourful bits from Mark's gospel.

Talked about life friends family the universe and everything.

I smashed the top off a bottle of cider trying to open it. Still good!!

I've gotta say tho, the highlights would have to be a certain someone doing an almightly impression of a tail-wag, and another certain someone acting out "snot" in an unexpectedly graphic way. Both while playing Pictionary/charades. haha.

Then when I came home there was a red-headed dragon in my living room!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay for old friends and suprise visits.

And yummy brownies.

My not-quite-so-small friend

About a year ago (actually, make that two) I wrote a post about a small friend of mine.

Now he's a lot bigger. He can run and talk and hop and gallop and kick a soccer ball real good. He says any number of suprisingly insightful or just plain hilarious things every day.

He can even 'help'...

Tonight we were at his parents' place making pizza and he was tugging the high chair around between us and the bench, trying to get in on the action. At first I managed to keep him at bay by calling on him as primary pizza-making supervisor:

"How about you tell us what you'd like to have on the pizzas. Bacon? Excellent idea."

But soon that was not exciting enough. He passed us cheese and ate cheese - until the cheese snuck off to a safe distance. Then he began on the capsicum. One bit for me, one for the pizza...

Then he passed the bacon and ate the bacon and sprinkled the bacon on the middle of the pizza.

"Ok, doing well, let's just spread it out a bit" say I in my most patient voice.

I drew the line at him helping with the paste.

Anyway, the pizzas were made and devoured - much to everyone's satisfaction - and he was sitting on the couch with us a bit later when he exclaims:

"I just did four parts!"

"What, you had four pieces of pizza?"
"No, out of my bottom!"

"Ohh, farts....!"

Dinnertime with a 3 yrold? Priceless.

Madness

"Once upon a time, a powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which the inhabitants drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad.

The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, which the magician had not managed to poison. The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health. The policemen and the inspectors, however, had also drunk the poisoned water, and they thought the king’s decisions were absurd and resolved to take notice of them.

When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. The marched on the castle and called for his abdication.

In despair the king prepared to step down from the throne, but the queen stopped him, saying: ‘Let us go and drink from the communal well. Then we will be the same as them.’

And that was what they did: The king and queen drank the water of madness and immediately began talking nonsense. Their subjects repented at once; now that the king was displaying such ‘wisdom’, why not allow him to rule the country?

The country continued to live in peace, although its inhabitants behaved very differently from those of its neighbors. And the king was able to govern until the end of his days."

- a story from Veronika Decides to Die, by Paulo Coelho. The book is set in a mental institution, centering around a woman who decides to die because she finds nothing to live for. Reflects on the nature of self, madness, sanity.. I'm only part way through, but it's pretty interesting.

Another bit:

"Each human being is unique, each with their own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure, and desire for adventure. However, society always imposes on us a collective way of behaving, and people never stop to wonder why they should behave like that. They just accept it, the way typists accepted the fact that the QWERTY keyboard was the best possible one. Have you ever met anyone in your entire life who asked why the hands of a clock should go in one particular direction and not in the other?”
“No.”
“If someone were to ask, the response they’d get would probably be: ‘You’re crazy.’ If they persisted, people would try to come up with a reason, but they’d soon change the subject, because there isn’t a reason apart from the one I’ve just given you. So to go back to your question. What was it again?”
“Am I cured?”
“No. You’re someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that, in my view, is a serious illness.”
“Is wanting to be different a serious illness?”
“It is if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else. It causes neuroses, psychoses, and paranoia. It’s a distortion of nature, it goes against God’s laws, for in all the world’s woods and forests, he did not create a single leaf the same as another. But you think it’s insane to be different, and that’s why you chose to live in Villete, because everyone is different here, and so you appear to be the same as everyone else. Do you understand?”
Mari nodded.
“People go against nature because they lack the courage to be different, and then the organism starts to produce Vitriol, or bitterness, as this poison is more commonly known."

I do think there's still a difference between thinking or acting outside of the box, and someone really losing their mind.. but still,

who says what is mad?

why do we act the way we do?

who are we made to be?

is there something stopping us becoming our true selves?

what happens when we try to be something we are not?

.....

Bits & pieces

This is one of the last scraps of the cheesecake I made yesterday..

And this is my embroidery, as of a couple of hours ago:

I took the photo and was going to blog.. and then I talked to the parentals on the phone for like an hour & a half, and by then I'd done a bit more on it but I can't be bothered to take another photo so you'll have to wait till the next update!

Just so you know, it's still fun. I'm not bored yet, though I do usually give up after an hour because my neck gets sore.

Today we were meant to play soccer but it got cancelled due to excessive amounts of rain (pffft). Which was very sad because it was the last game of the season, and we had to win to get into the semis (which we were determined to do) but they probably can't reschedule it in time so it'll be listed as a nil-all draw :(.

Very sad. The season always finishes so quickly.. at least there might be summer soccer!! :D

Some of us went to Pizza Hut all-you-can-eat instead, to bury our sorrows.

Then we had community gathering and talked about if and how the gospel is relevant in our culture. That was interesting.

And then I bummed around and tried to do some work and played mangled bits of songs on the guitar with the whole 10 chords I know.. and was sad for my friend.. and made sushi for dinner.

The End.

Happy Cheesecake Times

It was my sister's birthday today. We had a pretty chilled day - hung out at The Lass for a while at an afternoon gig there, went to the beach - where I went on a skateboard for the third time in my life and went a teeny bit faster and DIDN'T DIE - whew.

Then later we had super yummy steak and vegies (thanks Skye for the steak!!).

And then friends over for present-opening and cake-eating! I made a lemon cheesecake decorated with strawberries and passionfruit - ahh so good :D.

It was fun hanging out with everyone. Elliott and I spent ages puzzling over the target word thing in the paper - we got so close to the 'excellent' score of 30 words! Only 3 words off.. Plus the 9-letter word. Let us know if you find out what word RETGUOCET makes.

Happy days..

whoopsie

So I forgot to post yesterday! And I'd been doing so well, with only 5 days left to go too.. No one's perfect I guess. ha.

But I do have a funny story for you.

So we were at this band comp, watching my awesome friend Davo and his band play (AND WIN), and in a break between artists housemate 1 leans across the table and says something ending in "booze". This seems like a strange word for her to use, (it's also strange because she's not so into booze as such) so I go "what?" and I hear her say

"let's go get some booze"

so I go "ok", thinking to myself "maybe she wants cider.." and off we go.

But then housemate 1 walks straight past the bar and keeps going. I grab her -

"wait, aren't we getting drinks?" I say.
"No, what?! We're getting mousse!" she replies.

"I thought you said booze!!"

"As if I'd even say that word!" she retorts with scorn.

Nevertheless, off we go and get chocolate mousse. We come back and housemate 2 is standing in the doorway with a beer.

"where did you guys go?! I thought you were going to get booze!! But then you disappeared, so I got one anyway."

So I wasn't the only one! But that's not all.

A little later we're sitting about with friends and housemate 1 is retelling the story.

But what does the friend hear?
"they thought I said, 'let's go get boobs'!!!"

..and the confusion continues...

Recalling Autumn

some humble shots...

The awkward moment when you've finally done all your washing, you go to put it away and there's not enough space

Does that mean I have too many clothes? Does it mean my drawers/cupboard are too small? I prefer the latter excuse, but I think what's really going on is that I suck at getting rid of stuff.

"But I still wear it sooommetimes, I swear.."

"It's a bit stretched/stained/doesn't really fit anymore but I might still want to wear it!"

And it's not just clothes. The underneath of my bed is piled full and trickling out with all of the lecture notes and books from all of the 3 years I've been at uni, because I might want to look at them someday. And the notes from the diploma I did before that.

Plus old journals, stuffed toys I can't be bothered to have on my bed but feel sentimental about, cd cases, random bits of paper about goodness-only-knows-what, old photo frames I don't have a place for, odd socks, spare folders and toenails (ok hopefully not the last one, that was just being creative).

There's a stack of books a foot high beside my bed (and more on my bedside table) which are there because I might happen to want to read all of them before I go to bed.

Crispy dried flowers, dusty cards, shiny rocks, blue glass, seashells, odd earrings..... I'm sure you've gotten my drift by now!

Why do I keep all this crap? I know some of it is useful, and some of it's a bit too special to let go of just yet, but a lot of it I will probably never look at or use again.

I think part of it is that I love the memories this kind of stuff can bring back. I love to tell the story of my life piece by tiny, obscure piece. I love to remember where we went, what we did, how it felt.

I like to be prepared, (in control?) so I keep things 'just in case'.

I'm attached to stuff?

I'm just plain lazy?

To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure of the whole answer. But I'd like to get just a leetle bit better at chucking out stuff. Cos I actually like things being clean and tidy and less crap-filled.

And being able to put all my washing away.

Maybe tomorrow.

Living Radically?

Look, new hoodie! It's so great. It arrived in the mail today and it's so soft and warm and cuddly and pinkish red. Yay!

I got it from the Canowindra Cornerstone campus where my sister is living and studying this year. They all got jumpers and as you can see I couldn't resist the urge to buy one myself!

See, hood:

I like it because, as I already mentioned, it's red. Also, because I grew up in the Canowindra area and have a lot of fond memories of the Cano campus; and finally cos I like that idea of "living radically" - whatever that means..

We were actually just discussing it right here in the loungeroom.

Google says radical means:

- of or going to the root or origin; fundamental.

- thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms

Obviously there are a lot of different ways you could take it ["living radically"]. I might say it means living in tune with the things that really matter, despite whatever else is going on.. I might take it as living life the way it's originally meant to be lived, right back at the root of things (?!?). It could mean being a fruitcake (no offence to fruitcakes, they're awesome, especially my mum's).

I like all that. I'd probably add a bit, and say that living radically for me is wrapped up in the story of the carpenter dude from Nazareth (aka Jesus) - working on living out his teachings and growing the sparks of love and goodness into fire...

I dunno. What do you reckon?

Cano shot for you ^

Something beginning with P

You guessed it: Placement!

This has been such a saga and it hasn't even started yet! (though I am really looking forward to when it does!)

So, getting ready for placement began last semester.

-I went to the police station and got a police check ($52)

-I went to the immunisation people and they told me what I needed to get proof of (3hours later :P).

-I harrassed my old doctor and Community Health for all the data they had on me.

-I emailed them off.

-I handed the police check into uni.

This semester:

-I put preferences in late (oops).

-I went to the immunisation people again (1.5hours)

-I had a tuberculosis skin test

-Went to the doctor, organised to get my measles-mumps shot done, cos I don't have proof of them both.

-Had a blood test

-Went back to get my skin test checked. They told me I have to come back in, TWO MORE TIMES in a couple of weeks, so they can be doubly sure (even though this test came back negative). Which means I'll have to wait till right before placement to get my health certificate. And I can't get my measles-mumps shot until they've finished the TB thing, cos it might interfere.

When they told me all that I nearly cried.

It's a good thing I don't have a job, otherwise I don't know how I'd fit all this in!!

Enough of the whining. I finally heard from my placement supervisor person (after trying to get on to her all week!) and she sounds lovely. She's very open to whichever parts of what they do I most want to get involved in, was very relaxed and encouraging and said not to bother dressing up! Sweet.

Three weeks till D-day! eek!

ps. and only 9 posts left of my little 30-day challenge!

Amazing Jane

We spontaneously went and watched the new Jane Eyre movie tonight. I'm so glad we did.

It is really beautifully done, and superbly acted, particularly by Mia Wasikowska. She did such a brilliant job of being collected and reserved but still expressing reams of emotion - all the torment she's going through underneath - which sounds impossible, but she did it.

And I just really admire the character, for the way she did what she believed to be right; held to it though every heartstring was pulling another way. So delicate but so strong.

I was also reflecting on how the ending at first glance could be considered trite, because *spoiler alert* they got together after all. But it's actually not trite, (I don't think) because you realise all that they have been through to be able to reach that point, and all that's been sacrificed. So in that sense it's far from being just a happy ending. It is happy, but bittersweet. Real, maybe.

The Germ

A mighty creature is the germ,

Though smaller than the pachyderm.

His customary dwelling place

Is deep inside the human race.

His childish pride he often pleases

By giving people strange diseases.

Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?

You probably contain a germ.

(by none other than the inimitable Ogden Nash.)

We had a poetry night tonight. It involved copious amounts of poetry along with wine, port (sipped from port pipes!), cheese, scones, and other good things, including a healthy bunch of good people (no germs here!!).

Lethal found us an awesome deaf poem which you should totally look up. It's called Dandelions.

We had original poems, beat poems, old sonnets, beautiful things, funny things, ancient Sappho fragments and a good dose of Leunig.

Dusk in the Country

The riddle silently sees its image. It spins evening

among the motionless reeds.

There is a frailty no one notices

there, in the web of grass.

Silent cattle stare with green eyes.

They mosey in evening calm down to the water.

And the lake holds its immense spoon

up to all the mouths.

- Harry Edmund Martinson, trans. Robert Bly

OH! and I went for an awesome bike ride this arvo with some friends. The Fernleigh track from Adamstown to Belmont. If you haven't been down it you totally should. Gorgeous bush-lined ride, and no hills!!

Spirited

I've been mucking around with the layout to this thing for ages, and it still sucks (except for the books background, that's awesome) but I'm going to leave it there for the night.

This also means today's content is somewhat restricted, but you can have some lyrics to sweeten the deal. ok?

Our bodies still as photographs
Beg the ground to swallow us
And press our lonesome silhouettes into the dirt
Light reflecting off your face
Casting colors on your cheeks
I saw you shining
Saw you shining
Brighter than before

Autumn bears a bitter song
Creeping out across the yard
And weaving through the alder branches overhead
Of all that is escaping us
I have never been so certain as today

When the seasons settle in our lungs
They'll harden us, they'll cover us in crows
But cannot wash the laughter from our tongues

Time is quick to carry on
Certain as the morning tends to
Hollow us and turn our words to smoke
In all that is escaped us
And all that we could hold in place
I saw you shining
Saw you shining
Brighter than before

- Laura Gibson, Spirited

A functioning stove is a beautiful thing

Soccer trivia night tonight - yay!! We didn't win anything (not even the wooden spoon, *sigh*) but I pretty much ate my weight in cheese and fruit _and_ had fun so the night was far from being a loss.

Our table's theme was Alice in Wonderland, so Jasmine and I went as Jazzledum and Jazzledee. Matching hats and all.

It's late -again- and bed is calling.

Goodnight!

ps I should give Lethal an honourary mention for making us AWESOME NACHOS for dinner. I told her they were better than the ones in Mexico. It's true. They were.

pps AND WE GOT A NEW OVEN!!!!!!!!!!!

nearly forgot to say, after all that. What a relief. Two of the hotplates in the old stove had stopped working and the others were on the way out.. and our landlord had been threatening to take out the oven and give us a new stovetop, because "students only use ovens for reheating pizza, and you can do that in the microwave". whatever.

Then he was going to get us a turbo oven thing, which is only slightly bigger than a slow-cooker I believe - but we beat that idea out of the water, thankfully. How would we feed the 12 ravening tribes of Israel with only one pot?! not happening.

Anyway, today, out of the blue, an oven turns up and is installed. And it actually works. win.

Sew eat

Cool things today included visiting my friend (& family) on her craft day, and starting this little cityscape embroidery:

You may be able to see the faint outline I traced on to guide the embroidering.

Later a bunch of us went to the Ramadan 'break fast' ceremony and meal at uni at sunset. It's once a week during the month of Ramadan, and is put on by some of the uni clubs/societies incl the Islamic society, Malaysian Society & others. It's open to anyone who wants to come and share the meal though - you don't have to be muslim!

You pay your $2 (or $4 if you're not already a member) and go and sit on some mats and eat the traditional three dates - which would mark the end of your daily fast if you were fasting. Then they have prayers (while we non-muslims stand to the side), and then we all join in feasting together!

We had lamb biryani, salad, pasta, and some sweets. The biryani looked sort of like this one:

It's pretty cool how hospitable they are, and interesting to be able to join in on a ceremony from another religion.. I love the place of food in so many religions! The whole making /sharing/eating thing is so earthy and necessary, but is somehow sacred too.

I'm feeling sad right now and can't think of anything entertaining/funny/informative to write, so maybe I'll just say that.

I'm sad because so many beautiful people I know and love are in pain.. some in so much pain. From health stuff, other stuff. People - and those close to them - struggling to get through the days, to keep hoping, keep going.

It just doesn't seem fair.

Book fair is my friend

Yesterday I went to our uni's massive biannual book fair (also including audiobooks, records, cds, random crap..but mostly books). Apparently they have over a million items!

It's quite an amazing sight. The Great Hall is more full than I bet you've ever seen it - packed out with long rows of trestle tables piled with books, boxes and boxes of books under the tables, people milling about carrying piles or boxes of books and bumping into each other. There's people pawing through the books, some systematic, some turning a page here, another there.. digging through boxes, flicking through rows.. there's a whole row of dear old volunteers adding up the purchases, a guy with a microphone up the front interjecting now and then regarding some exciting book or other on offer.

There are children's books, art books, languages, literature, fiction, crime, collectibles, religion, poetry, cooking, gardening, history, philosophy, psychology, health, and more. Even an "Interesting" section - for all the books they couldn't think where else to put. I found an assessment of London's loos there. Up to date as of the 1920s I think.

And what did I find, on my brief sojourn there?

I was hoping you'd ask!

GK Chesterton: The Everlasting Man

Manalive

The Club of Queer Trades

The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Hillaire Belloc: The Green Overcoat

George MacDonald: Fairytales and Stories for the Childlike (donated by J)

The Marquis' Secret

Prayers of St Francis

Diana Wynne Jones: The Magicians of Caprona

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Paulo Coelho: Veronika Decides to Die

Longfellow:Poetical Works

A book on Impressionism

Rudyard Kipling: Kim

T.S. Eliot: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (x2)

Four Quartets (love this!)

Arundhati Roy: The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire

Myth, Magic and Meaning in Tolkien's World (Randel Helms)

Jean Vanier: The Broken Body

Ralph Morton: The Iona Community Story

E.L. Allen: a Guide to the Thought of Karl Barth

a Guide to the Thought of Reinhold Niebuhr (I dunno, sounded interesting!)

the 10 laws of leadership

a couple of cute Joan Walsh Anglund books

a couple of the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency books

Anne Rice: Christ the Lord - the Road to Cana

Barclay's commentary on John

..and I didn't even get to all the tables!

All those for a total of $21.90. Bargain!!

It's on all week, so if you like books you should defo check it out :)

What's not to laugh..

Today I went to a laughter yoga class run by a friend of mine. It was pretty damn funny. Everyone's fake laughs were so ridiculous that we'd keep bursting into real laughter! Plus we did lots of random things like pretending to be starting lawnmowers and being dragged away by them, or mad scientists, or posh tea-drinking chucklers.. all of which were very amusing.

We had to tell a story at the start about what made us laugh. The first thing that came to mind was myself. I thought of a couple of instances from two days ago which were small but entertaining:

I and a bunch of social work girls were driving up and down a road trying to find a particular service that just didn't seem to exist. Finally, as we were on our 4th lap, we spotted the name of the place in smallish print on some sliding doors. We all (especially me) screamed and pointed with joy..only to realise we appeared to be screaming and pointing at the two young guys walking by our window!! d'oh.

Later in the day I was walking home. Trotting up the hill in my fairly low heels, I somehow managed a major stumble, only just saving myself from face-planting. On the way back to vertical I glance at the car parked beside me and what do you know? There's two guys sitting in it, staring.

oh the gracefulness of me! haha

prayer of the day

Lord,
Make me an instrument of your peace,
where there is hatred let me sow love,
where there is injury...pardon,
where there is discord...unity,where there is doubt...faith,
where there is error...truth,
where there is despair...hope,
where there is sadness...joy,
where there is darkness...light.

Divine Master,
grant that I might not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console,
to be understood, as to understand,to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

(attributed to St Francis of Assisi - the one that loved animals

and got caught preaching to the birds :))

Hungry.

I was thinking about how much I post about food. And how I really don't have any conception of what it would be like to actually not have enough to eat. Not just not enough for one meal, or missing one meal, but consistently just not having enough.

Yesterday I went without food until sunset. And I was sooo hungry, but I could still look forward to dinner that night, which would be delicious and nutritious. I knew when I'd next be able to eat, and that after that I could eat again when I got hungry. Imagine what life would be like if I couldn't. I can't.

So of course now I'm thinking of those starving kids in Africa, in countries torn apart by wars and crap governments for years, land cracked and dried to its very bones in drought. Especially Somalia. Imagine being a parent watching your kids cry themselves to sleep from hunger pangs. Imagine being a kid displaced by conflict, with no one.

UNICEF

http://www.unicef.org.au/Donate/One-off-Donation/east-africa-drought-emergency-appeal-famine.aspx

TEAR Australia

http://www.tear.org.au/emergencies/east-africa-food-crisis/

Doing what Malaysians do best...

Tonight Mandie, Koiter & I went to dinner with some lovely Malaysian friends. They call the meal 'buka puasa' (that may or may not be how it's spelled) which means 'break fast'. It's the Islamic month of Ramadan in which they fast every day between sunrise and sunset, so this meal is breaking that daily fast. It's a time to celebrate God, friends, family & share together - even with people of other faiths (like us!) or no faith.

Lana invited us around to her place, so we whipped up a bit of food and took it to share. There were yummy soups and noodles.. couscous.. idli.. raya cookies.. Devina even made beautiful masala chai.

Great night hanging out together!

I don't have any pics from it to share, sadly, but I have just been flicking back through shots of fun food times when I was in Malaysia earlier in the year - mmmmmmmmm...

murtabak!

blue rice

bbq pork, noodles, seafoody soups I think.. and coconut water!

durian feast - such a weird, rich fruit

look at those great mugs of teh tarik

*sigh*

Just a short post, as I'm on a borrowed computer cos mine decided to not turn on - plus it's bedtime!

Today I and my co-conspirators scored a free lunch from the Presbyterian church opposite the Con in town - so good. It's on every tuesday, for students (and whoever rocks up, really). There was lasagne and soup and pasta and sausages and pies and everything! You should go.

Then we went and had coffee at the Bank Corner cafe near Spotlight. Cool little place, I hadn't been there before.

There were other fun bits (like cute babies!) but the main thing I had in mind to say was that my preferences for placement ended up being put in yesterday by the kind lady in charge of the database - yay! We should hear back this week about where we're getting sent, hopefully.

winter babies

Look at that wacky radish!!

Other seedlings:

I need to do some weeding.. I'll save that for my next phone conversation (I like to call it phoneweeding. Tonight I practised phonecooking - vietnamese ricepaper rolls, yummo!)