The Andrew Space

Sorry to be so lazy in blogging, my parents have reminded me of the absence of my blogs almost on a weekly basis. Lots has happened since HK. Kids Camp went really well, despite some challenges associated with the change in teaching styles (we had no camp speaker). Highlight of camp was definitely the worship on the final night. Everyone in their PJs sitting/lying on the floor worshipping without restriction and fantastic prayer as a congregation and in small groups later. Great way to start the year as always and we definitely want more leaders for next year so if you're interested, let me know! Mum and Dad visited NZ for Dad's conference and a holiday for 10 days in Jan so me and Stu ran the house and borrowed an XBox360 to accompany our new sound system in the lviing room. Great times playing Halo 3 (brought the pwnage to Stu & Dave B!), Gears of War and Oblivion (massively huge game). Big Week Out Summer 08 featured at the end of January and it a fantastic week! I spent the week visiting all the bases about twice each in mornings and evenings, then planning and running the final closing celebration on the Saturday at Concordia Chapel. We saw so many young people's attitudes and faith deeply impacted by the Big Week Out and I'm looking forward to Winter 08 in the North East region. Jerry arrived on that Friday and stayed with my family in the back room until this Wednesday when he moved out to an apartment on Angas St, conveniently next to Affy's place and a stone's throw from Amanda Lim's next townhouse.

 

Around the time of my last blog I felt like God was giving me a new year motto of 'A New Year -  A New Faith' and now I'm adding to that 'A Year of the Spirit'. With the small group we're doing a series of messages with notes based on The Empowering Spirit from my Uncle's church in Perth. I've also started improving my daily devotions by going out with God almost everyday. I'm looking forward to seeing where the Spirit will lead me and my small group during this year. Also, I joined AACC in January and feel so welcome and comfortable there every week. With Aaron's 6 month trip to England they were in need of another drummer so I was able to step into the music team straight away which I'm loving. I get to play with Dave and Neil once a month in the morning and we're getting close to launching our evening youth service in partnership with a few other smaller youth groups so there's a lot of potential for that.

 

3 weeks ago I got a job at the Haematology Clinical Trials Office doing admin/office work but I haven't been able to start yet due to the hospital's HR department being so slow! Fortunately this will be a flexible job I'll be continuing through term-time and holidays during the year. I've also picked up a new drumming student who will be starting next week. Wednesday I'll be going into CMAX in the hospital for 2 nights, 1 day and they'll be trialing a new drug, Anti-Interleuken 6, on me and some other males then doing weekly check-ups until April. Fortunately I am being reimbursed handsomely for the inconvenience. Should be an interesting experience anyway. 2 weeks until O-week and my friends are slowly trickling back to Adelaide. Looking forward to starting 2nd year and seeing my family again

Well here I am on my last day in Hong Kong, flying out at 6:30pm. This morning has been some productive packing and then weighing my bags. I believe the limit is 22kg and I've managed to get to 21 by removing my new Anatomy Atlas (Rohen) which is a fat textbook! Some people have asked how I would summarise this trip to Hong Kong and the phrase I am using is "It's been a significant month" and truly it has. It's really time to return home now so I'll be glad to see my family and home tomorrow morning when I arrive however it is sad to be leaving Jasmine here, especially when she is facing many challenges.

 

Yesterday was a good day. I managed to meet Christina and we spent most of the day looking around central HK Island, from Wan Chai to Sheung Wan, before meeting up with some of her family and heading to TST for some clothes shopping. I ducked over to Jordan and bought Wheater's Functional Histology, Rohen's Atlas of Anatomy and a Neuroanatomy textbook which I then had to carry around for the rest of the night! I met Jasmine at Kowloon Tong for a really special final dinner together then I took her back to Uni and then I headed home. Today I'm hopefully meeting friends like Jerry, Dickson, Daphne and Jazz in Kowloon for a final lunch together then I'll be back home to finalise my packing and away to the Airport Express at HK Station.

It's interesting being away from home for Christmas. It's less than 4 days away but I've hardly even thought about it and although there are tons of decorations and lights around Hong Kong, it seems to be focused on the season rather than the day itself. I still don't have a plan for the day itself but that doesn't bother me much actually. Since my last bloggus I managed to meet up with Wilbe, Enoch & Daphne for an afternoon of shopping in Mongkok then Japanese dinner in Yuen Long with Nelson and a couple of Daphne's girl friends. It was a good day and I was very happy to finally meet Wilbe & co and share our experiences over these last weeks since Schoolies. They flew home the next day which was when I got to meet Jerry. Nice to meet and share with him too. We met up with Dickson, the fantastic guide, and walked around Yau Ma Tei visiting the Temple St markets and he'll take us to a cheap medical textbook shop later too.

 

Yesterday I had some quality time at home with my bible, Stef's Wii, the Internet and the movie channels. Then in the evening I met Dickson briefly who returned my phone, now fixed and working very well! Then Nelson came after finishing his work and we had dinner at the local big shopping centre before seeing I am Legend. It was a very good movie, I was on the edge and got surprised at many points. I especially recommend this film as one to see in the cinema rather than on DVD so you don't miss any of the effect. I'm hoping to see Warlords  and The Golden Compass  before I go back since they're so cheap and convenient here. I already checked the in flight movies for my return trip and am looking forward to watching Resident Evil: Extinction.

In some ways it feels like I could happily return home now, I've kind of done most of the Hong Kong stuff now and am looking forward to getting home again. But fortunately I still have Christina's arrival, next week, to look forward to as well as more time with the Chans, Jerry, Dickson & Nelson as well as Jasmine.

Mum and Dad enjoyed their trip but were happy to get home safely by Friday. They said the house was in good condition other than the overwhelming crab smell from Stuart's crabbing expedition earlier in the week. On Thursday we managed to pack in lunch with Stef, trip to Stanley, afternoon tea with Dickson, trip to The Peak and finally a quick dinner with Jasmine back at TST before they caught their bus to the airport! Since Stef's return we've been enjoying many family dinners which has been good. Yesterday we (Samuel, Grace, Stef & myself) went to Lamma island with Stef's bf Moris and Stef's grandma. We spent the afternoon walking from one side of the island to the other along a nice walking path then we reached the Rainbow Seafood Restaurant for dinner. The main highlights were the large shrimps and the cheesy lobster, unfortunately I'm not a big seafood fan as many of you know! Today I'm meetig Jazz for lunch then Dickson to visit the biggest Taoist Temple: Wong Tai Sin.

 

Jazz and I have been talking seriously about our relationship on this trip, it's definitely been a significant time in that respect. After much discussion we've decided to break up. This is mainly due to us facing a further 2 years minimum apart from each other and we feel we cannot develop the relationship effectively without being geographically closer to each other. There are some other things too but the main thing is it feels good that we've been able to discuss these important issues and then come to a resolution. This happened on Wednesday night and we still plan to see each other through the rest of my trip. Jasmine, thanks for these 17 months together, it's been a great blessing being with you and I'm sorry that circumstances have brought us apart. I wish you well in the future and look forward to seeing you again