G’day friends!

You can take the Aussie out of Singapore, but you can take the friendships out of the Aussie. The only thing to do is to invite you all to my place for coffee and ANZAC cookies. So consider yourself invited.

The ten most enjoyable things I’ve been doing (they are not in rank of priority):

Breathing ‘haze’ free air all day
Walking in familiar parks close to my family home
Cuddles from my mum, sisters and brother
Eating Sausage rolls, pies and vanilla slices
Listening to the various sounds of familiar birds early in the morning
- kookaburra;
- magpie;
- dove; crow
- and various cockatoos
Long chats with Sarah and time to help her with P4 maths
Long devotions in the morning
Driving on quiet roads
living on the ground floor with a back yard
visiting the homes of my siblings & drinking coffee

Five things I haven’t enjoyed:
1. The ‘slow’ service at Perth airport
2. ‘Chili-less’ food
3. Watching TV with course language & lots of sexual scenes
4. Listening to an ‘old Aussie’ man talk about his ‘farm girl’ wife
in Thailand Nursing a ‘slip disc’ in my back after I shifted too many big boxes in Singapore

Four things I hope to do soon:

1. Go fishing and eat the catch
2. Go surfing and catch a wave
3. Eat Chicken Treat
4. See my family and ‘some’ friends from Singapore


80th Anniversary of my Primary School

This Saturday promises to be a blast from the past!! It just so happens that my primary school is having their 80th anniversary. So cool!!! I’ll get to see all those beautiful and ‘not so beautiful’ teachers- at least the ones that haven’t kicked the bucket.

There was Mr Baynes!! He trusted me with leading the cricket team the morning his wife gave birth….and then there was Mr Mar, he was my English teacher. I don’t blame him for my bad spelling. He had a piano in the class room and would begin to play it when we’re climbing up the walls. He was rather ‘early in the ‘music therapy’ scene. Strange, but he’d relax with two or three cigs at the back of the class room. He’d send the class prefect out to buy his smokes too!!!

Then there was Miss Delica my grade 1 teacher. She destroyed any ‘interest’ I my had for maths. I never any ‘natural talent’ and she let me know with screams and humiliation techniques. She told me I was ‘useless’ and poked me on the head with her chalk. I often thought of sticking the chalk up her rather large nostrils. Unfortunately, that goal turned into just more ‘daydreaming’ and my grades slide further south.

This Saturday I may get to see my first five best friends!!!

Ian Drummond-Hay- (India) who taught me how to eat mangoes, chili and ‘appreciate’ Deep Purple in my teen years
Marie Fijac-(Mauritian) she taught me how to eat curry and speak some ‘Creole’ (Mauritius is off the coast of Africa and they speak a form of French)
Toi (Japanese) she was just the sweetest and prettiest girl in class

Chang Hing Wing (Malaysian Chinese) He taught me how to each ‘chicken wings’ and we played ‘Combat’ around his home. His mum was a potter…I can still remember the very different sights, sounds and smells I encountered as I played in his home.
Greg Galvin (Aussie). Greg was my fishing ‘Kaki’. We loved to eat vanilla slices and pies. He was 6 foot by the time we hit secondary school. He’d always win the high jump. I’d always come second.

So I’m quite excited…I’ll be going with Sarah and my bro and sisters and all their kids. Pray that Mrs Delica is there so I can get rid of all that ‘zidanity’ in me. If not I think I’ll just have to pray and trust that when I see her ‘in heaven’ I’ll give her a big hug and not a big head butt!

With love from Ian and Sarah ‘The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I will have a delightful inheritance’. Ps.16:6