rwichew's Xanga

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:24:25 GMT

Denham, Western Australia

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:43:50 GMT

I am away from home for another month. Stuck in a beautiful beachside chalet in Shark Bay; the sun has not stopped shining and there is a perpetual holiday mood in the air. Oh poor me.

Again I have been so torn, so unstable, so unsure. So reluctant to leave my garden of red poppies and recently ressurected sage bush. So reluctant to leave friendships in midair.

Itinerant work fulfills the oxymoron of a working holiday. All of a sudden all the menial duties and housework come to a standstill, no more appointments, no more dinners or coffee dates, and I am left with a magnificent sunset and jog by the beach at 6.30pm, followed by whatever I feel like cooking for dinner, followed by a very quiet night.

I am being a reluctant pupil, being reschooled in the ways of the solitary life. There is ample time for thought, reading, writing. But already in my first week I feel full-up of this hermit way of life, for a book or a movie or a song cannot smile at you, cannot bounce ideas back at you or laugh at you.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:56:47 GMT

All Mail to be forwarded to

The Dentist
Leonora
Western Australia

It's the weekend before my drive of 832 km from Perth, inland.
My garden has had the first blooms of pre-spring. It's a bit hard to leave.

The worldly goods I have packed with me seem.. eccentric.
-
Calvin and Hobbes
and about a dozen other books
music scores
a teapot
and five different teas
handmade cards from mum and Abi
a set of dental Luxators and a suture kit
my grandma's fried shallots mmm
a koh-sized orange jumper

and how much canned food can a girl eat in one month?

Yoyo-ing from glad to sad to glad to sad about this mini adventure has been tiring to say the least, but Jesus' companionship provides the backbone that strengthens my many shortcomings.

I may or may not have regular mobile reception, and I may or may not have regular internet access. We'll see!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:01:42 GMT

after teh tarik and murtabak on a very cold night (by perth's standards, 7 *C?)

in the wee small hours of the morning
koh found a black, scared, female, fuzzy,

rabbit

along stirling hwy!
no kidding!

we've had a few pee-ing instances

once in the laundry,
once in dave's palm

but other than those little messes she has been a delight.
a little hot water bottle to snuggle in my lap and the crook of my elbow while i browse through recipes.

how much is a rabbit supposed to eat in a day?

we contacted all the local vets, and will be posting up fliers tomorrow.
if anyone has lost a rabbit in perth, let us know.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:23:49 GMT

Happy Happy Birthday Abi!

I love you.

Jie.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:03:18 GMT

wonderlust/wanderlust

i have an inexplicable desire to roam. even the street fixtures i pass have itchy feet. doesn't it look like it is contorting its entire being, ready to leap onto the road?

thank goodness perth has little pacifiers to keep me occupied.

all you perth people,

head to the art gallery,
where you will be confronted with what seems to be a gigantic cardboard box twice as long as you are tall and and one point five times high as you are short (relative measurements, of course). you will be tickled by the penny sized key holes in its walls, and as your inquisitive eye approaches you'll see a host of different worlds; terraced mountains, juicy fruit, busy families, odd creatures that you'd have met in different corners of your imagination.

'peep' 2001, by cecile williams

let me know which world you are transported to.

photo: in the neighbourhood, june 2008

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:05:00 GMT

lull

the finest part of any party is the sweetness of its aftermath; my cheeks aching from all the laughs, feet and arms suddenly sore from the hours spent in the kitchen whipping up a storm. my brothers and i, we raise our teacups in a toast, and gaze up at the cranes that transformed our ceiling into a vast sky with several suns.

to spend these kind of moments in these years with my brothers was something that i had never dared to ask God for, something that i thought was intangible, but of course He managed to arrange it anyway. dinners, packed lunches, housework, bills, groceries, laundry, mail- i am astounded at our efficiency as housemates. (save for the ironing). (and weeding). i sometimes wonder if mum and dad are proud of us for transforming from angsty, selfcentred teenagers to our current state, but then i remember that i'm crawling towards the 'mid-twenties' and it's about time we learnt to appreciate each other.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:52:48 GMT

take a walk through fields and marshes with a friend. we'll have burrs caught on our shorts and tickling at our calves, flappy hats flopping in the wind. we'll talk from one heart to another, with the chorus of cicadas and the choir of frogs as our soundtrack. nestled in the golden wattle against a blue blue sky, somewhere between the ripples of water as a duck dips its head in the marsh, i'll hear the whispering of God to my soul.

photo: a weekend escape to bunbury with LW

Monday, May 26, 2008

Mon, 26 May 2008 15:11:04 GMT

i was pouring water into bright cups for the kids around the table. they munched on their cookies, in sweet silence compared to the yelling 5 minutes pre-cookie time. chomp chomp chomp went their chompers around the light brown dough, eager to reach the chocolate chip bits. we always encourage the kids to say thank you and please and excuse me, particularly when their little fingers and chubby hand grab at the cookies. manners have always confused me. the ps and qs are etched in me (good job mum) so the niceties spuuurt from my lips with relative ease and little thought. on occasion i pause and think gosh, do i really mean this 'thank you' or 'sorry', am i really thankful? am i really remorseful? i believe that to have good manners is certainly better than having none at all, or having - heaven forbid- bad manners. but i also believe that they are a start, a habit, of cultivating gratitude. and sometimes they are a saving grace, prompting us to be thankful when we aren't. sometimes they are the beginning of healing, like the sorry that comes out because it needs to be said and should be said, not because we are really one hundred percent sorry, yet. perhaps it is that sorry that allows civil discussion and conversation to flow once more. but sometimes we should abandon all practiced manners to the wind and follow our hearts.

like the boy whom, upon receiving his little plastic cup of water, that i filled up half-way in anticipation that it would be spilt, looked up at me in the eye and said "I love you"

and bowled me over. completely.

i love you too, i said.

such sweetness and warmth filled my heart.

children, who have lived a mere fraction of our lifetime, have a knack of seeing and speaking from the heart. God help us do the same. to betray conventions and social norms when passion and honesty would result in greater joy and delight.

photo: on the way home from work, grumpily, in traffic, i spied these two monkeys racing across the bridge..

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Sun, 11 May 2008 15:34:11 GMT

it's been a very busy may with two brother's and the boyfriend and dad's birthdays smushed together, resulting in a lot of cake baking and eating. koh's mum's cupcakes, blackforest with a cherry on top, wins hands down!

i was talking to abi who turns an amazing TEN years old this year, with regards to parties.

a: 'are you having a party this year?'

r: 'well.. prolly get a bunch of friends and go out for dinner'

a: 'that's not a party! no games, no balloons..'

r: 'hmm you're right. maybe i should have a party'

a: ' your friends might not wanna do silly crazy stuff though....oh, hang on! joo will! '

what a compliment for joo!